(no subject)

[which_chick]

Stove install went pretty well. I am not Bill, but the stove fits back into the hole except for the last half inch because I couldn't figure out how to get that last little bit of cabinet surface (back against the wall) cut off. The circular saw doesn't go back that far because the guard gets in the way. The reciprocating saw reciprocates too much and wants to bounce off of the formica. I decided that it was OK if the stove had a half-inch gap at the back of it between it and the kitchen wall. Executive decision, and all.

We got the most-base model stove available (for the spanish-speaking Not Mexicans) because it is my suspicion that they are going to burn it out like they did the ancient one that I just replaced. No point spending good money on a stove that is going to be abused because it is being used by people who have not ever used an electric stove before. (No, I cannot give them instructions. They don't speak any English. Also, they're contract labor and a new set of four guys gets swapped in every couple of months. Once I got one set trained, they'd be gone and I'd have new ones, again not speaking English. Easier to buy them a dirt-cheap stove, wait for it to die, and charge the contract labor company (our tenant) for the wear and tear on the stove.)

The wiring was easy peasy. I recycled the wire and flexi-conduit stuff from the old stove because I R SMRT like that. I've done stove wiring before (the kind with the heavy thick wire and wrench-tighten bugs) so I knew how that worked and I got to indulge my tape fetish, to boot. (There is a lot of taping to cover up the bugs. If you don't tape enough, there are frightening pops and sparks when the thing grounds out because the sharp wire bits ate through the tape. Use lots of tape. It's cheap.)



I had a crappy night at pony lady -- I don't know quite what was off, but I just could not get it together with Cole, ye old thoroughbred of "Use More Leg". Sit back. Use more leg. You're trying to steer with your hands. Use more leg. Sit back, you're tipping forward! (I don't know why she doesn't just tape record the stock phrases and play the tape for me -- it'd save her voice.)

Some days at pony lady go better than others and this was just not a good day. I couldn't get it together at all. Also, the whole time, Cole-the-lethargic just felt entirely non-forward and I couldn't get him to fucking step out. It's very frustrating for me to ride something that I *cannot get to go forward*. It's not a problem that I have/tolerate at home.

Everything I ride at home goes forward. Hell, fucking Absolut, ridden most of her life by small stupid children whom she happily ignores? Lute, she listens to my legs. I have invis-O-cue legs on Lutely. Lute can tell the difference between "this is my leg, here, march on in a working walk" and "jog like western pleasure" and "pick up a medium trot" and "give me the big trot, really pick-em-up and put-em-down for me like some kind of Currier & Ives roadster driving pony". After a week of being beat on by me, Lute has a very nice working walk and three distinct flavors of trot and she can get the right one in fairly short order when I cue for it. "Forward" is not something I have to work at with the things I ride at home. They *do* forward so that I can work on the other stuff. Cole, he does not do the forward or he's not hearing me cue for it or *something*. We fail at forward.

V. frustrating.

Comments

[cousin-sue.livejournal.com]

Where are they from, if not Mexico?

[which-chick.livejournal.com]

They are from assorted further-south Latin American and South American countries. They get VERY SHITTY if you call them "Mexicans". Example countries that they may hail from (it varies): Guatemala, Panama, Nicaragua, Peru, Chile, etc. NOT MEXICO. And not Brazil, because then they'd be speaking Portuguese.

[en-ki.livejournal.com]

So while you're failing at forward, does the horse:

* just stand there?
* go sideways?
* go backwards?
* rotate in place?
* engage in Brownian motion?

The world needs to know.

[which-chick.livejournal.com]

He sort of goes forward. It's just not the right forward. It *feels* like the sort of forward progress that you can have when you're dragging a recalcitrant four year old by one arm and walking resolutely forward in spite of the fact that the boy has just gone wet-noodle limp and is allowing himself to be dragged through the parking lot like a passive resister.

What *should* be happening is that the horse goes cheerfully and lightly forward, in an active and forward marching gait, until otherwise directed. I *should* not have to nudge the horse with my calves for each fucking stride that is resentfully and miserly doled out to me in a demonstration of absolute minimum compliance.

It's frustrating. Yes, we are going forward, for a strict definition of forward. However, it's not really the way things should be. And if I fuck up, even a little, on the nudging-for-each-stride thing, the horse coasts to a stop and stands there until I manage to rouse him from his halted stupor by using enough leg to make my own pony put me the fuck off. Srsly, if I hit Lute or Nicknick or Meatly with that much leg, they'd leap off the ground in offended startlement. They'd be all "WTF?!? Dude! What are you DOING? All you had to do as *ask* and I'd be right there. That amount of leg is TOTALLY OUT OF LINE!" But Cole, he ambles off lethargically.

[en-ki.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I think Brownian motion would be cooler.