Many things have transpired since I last posted here with any regularity; I'll hit the highlights.

From June, 2011 to September, 2012 I was consulting about ¾ of the time in Charlotte, NC: risk management on a construction project for a nuclear power plant. That project's been put on hold, so I'm back in Southern California more-or-less for good.

Last Spring I got to go teach for a week in Zürich and a week in Frankfurt, plus a weekend each in Vancouver, Washington, DC and Paris. Tomorrow I fly to Switzerland to teach a long weekend in Zürich and another in Geneva. With luck, I'll get to visit CERN whilst I'm there.

On September 8 and 9 I was in Mafra, Portugal as part of the team representing the US in the TREC World Championship; TREC is an equestrian competition that comprises orienteering (map and compass) on horseback, control of paces, and negotiating an obstacle course.

I had never done a TREC competition (at any level) before being chosen to be on the US team, and had to work like mad to get ready. The orienteering was no problem, but the obstacle course was because I had had no formal training in jumping, and we were going to have to jump over obstacles that were at least one meter tall. (As it turned out, the final jump in Mafra was about four feet tall.) I spent three months in intensive training learning to jump. On the penultimate day, as I was riding back to the barn with my trainer, she said that she finally believed that I wasn't going to kill myself in Portugal. (Apparently after my first lesson she told her husband that I was going to kill myself, but he told her to have patience: maybe I could learn.) I have been told independently that it takes a minimum of six months to learn to jump, and a year or more is not uncommon.

Alas, Portugal didn't go nearly as I had planned (or hoped). On September 2 (six days before the competition), I was trying to get on my horse when I slipped on some loose gravel and tore my right ACL. (I had my left ACL replaced 19 years ago, and my right one 17 years ago, so I knew immediately what I'd done.) Interestingly, it didn't affect my riding at all - I could still walk, trot, canter, post, two-point, and jump without any problem - I simply couldn't mount from the ground.

The orienteering was 45km (25 miles), and I rode almost non-stop for just over nine hours without any problems, hit all the checkpoints, and finished before dark. So far, so good.

That was the last of the good news. The next morning my horse didn't pass the vet check, so I didn't get to ride the obstacle course. I was (and still am) incredibly disappointed. I'd worked so hard for this, and wanted to world to see what a great job my trainer had done in only three months; that opportunity is lost forever.

Anyway, when I return from Switzerland I'll have surgery to replace my ACL (again), then hit the rehab as hard as I can. I want to be ready for the European Championship in 2014, and the World Championship in 2016.

Wish me luck!

 

Welcome back, Bill. Fight on!

 

Hey, Raptor!

I'm so annoyed that my travel schedule has prevented me from making any USC home games last year and this year, and that the stupid Pac 12 network means that I missed seeing a couple of games on TV.

So . . . if USC wins out - beating Notre Dame and Oregon (maybe twice) - do you think that they can make the BCS Championship Game? They'll probably need Kansas State and Florida to lose a game each.

How's the missus? And the poochies?

 

I feel a strange compulsion to write something grammatically incorrect here.

 

Howdy, Unkie!

Resist the urge.

 

The Pac 12 Network sucks! Fortunately for us, both games were home games, so we didn't miss anything. It's going to be tough sledding for the last five games. We're definitely going to need some help.

Anne Marie, Molly, and FloJo are fine. How are Marlana and the horses?

 

I'am with stupid.

 

Marlana's well. She's decided that she wants to learn TREC (a big surprise: she'd told me earlier that she never wanted to be on a horse jumping) and help put together a US team for the European Championship in 2014 and the World Championship in 2016.

Valentine is a very vigorous 30 (and thinks that she's a 6-year-old), and Khaleel's doing great (though a bit chubby) at 23. I don't know if I've mentioned here what happened with Boris: in June, 2011 he died, apparently quite suddenly. (There was no sign of any struggling; it looks as though it was something quick - heart attack, stroke, brain aneurism - and that he just died and fell over.) He was only 15. I miss him.

 

Marlana's well. She's decided that she wants to learn TREC (a big surprise: she'd told me earlier that she never wanted to be on a horse jumping) and help put together a US team for the European Championship in 2014 and the World Championship in 2016.

Valentine is a very vigorous 30 (and thinks that she's a 6-year-old), and Khaleel's doing great (though a bit chubby) at 23. I don't know if I've mentioned here what happened with Boris: in June, 2011 he died, apparently quite suddenly. (There was no sign of any struggling; it looks as though it was something quick - heart attack, stroke, brain aneurism - and that he just died and fell over.) He was only 15. I miss him.
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You did mention Boris. My condolences then and now.

 

Nice to see you again!