Horses

Mallard Cove Park

Posted on September 30, 2015 by Debora

I was out running errands yesterday and pulled over to snap a pic of the Mallard Cove Park sign for my “collection.” This is the park I posted pics of near the end of this spring’s rains, when its two ponds were flooded and a third pond had appeared. I haven’t been there since those pics were taken, so I don’t know if the new pond is still there.

The official address is on Shadow Grass Ave, but it’s easier to access the park from Randol Mill Rd via Trinity Ct. To get to it from Shadow Grass Ave you have to drive into a little housing tract and then park in front of someone’s house. If you take Trinity Ct, there’s a little parking area and a gazebo near the park’s alternate entrance.

It’s not the prettiest park in the Metroplex, but it’s a great place to jog, walk your dog, teach your kid to ride a bike or just get out in the fresh air and frolic. I like to ride Mahogany down there sometimes.

A big flat-topped rock sits near one of the ponds, with smaller flat-topped rocks placed around it to create a table-and-chairs effect that I like a lot.

I introduced my friend Mendy and her daughter Lawren to the park last winter. Here they are standing on the table-rock.

In summary: Mallard Cove Park is unexceptional as far as looks and facilities go, but it’s got two (maybe three) ponds, plenty of wide-open spaces to wander around in, a nice gazebo near the parking area and a pretty stone “table” down under the trees. It would be a great place for a serious game of frisbee.

Categories: A Plethora of Parks, environment, Friends, Horses, Life, trail rides, trees | Tags: Mallard Cove Park | Leave a comment

Summertime Fun

Posted on August 12, 2015 by Debora

The rain eventually stopped, and the Texas summer arrived in all its sweltering glory. Luke flew off to California for his four-week visit with his dad. We had all learned our lesson last year about not moping around during these apart times, so Elizabeth and I kept ourselves entertained in his absence.

We discovered Founders’ Plaza, which is a really pleasant little park with a good view of DFW Airport and the adjacent UPS Hub. It’s a nice place to relax, watch planes land and listen to the piped-in live dialog from the airport’s radio control tower. We bring lunch or ice cream and make it a picnic.

Then Luke came back, and Elizabeth went to California. Other than going to see Inside Out, I don’t remember Luke and I doing a whole lot while she was gone. We did get our first sight of Texas fireflies, while we were walking in a park at dusk near a lake. I didn’t have my camera with me though, just my iPad, and that doesn’t take great pics in low light. I did manage to get one halfway decent shot – can you see the firefly?

I have been promising Luke for ages that I would take him to see the Dallas Heritage Village, so we finally made plans to go about a week after Elizabeth got back from California. Unfortunately, when we got there we found a locked gate and a sign saying that the Village was closed for maintenence and would reopen in September. Guess I should have taken a closer look at that website.

Anyway, there we were in Dallas, so we decided to check out the Botanical Gardens instead. That turned out to be a solid choice. The place is gorgeous, and during the month of August the ticket price is only a dollar per person, probably because it’s not the flashiest time of year and it’s like 150º outside. Some of the plants did seem to be struggling in the heat. But there is plently of shade, and lots of water.

There is a LOT of water. Streams and fountains and waterfalls everywhere.

This was my favorite:

There’s lots of statuary too, and most of it seems to involve nudity or sensual themes.

There’s just something about a garden that makes you want to run around naked, I guess.

After we left the Botanical Gardens, we investigated a little spot called Dragon Park that I’d seen mentioned on a website. It really is a tiny little place, but pretty and interesting.

And Monday we took Luke to see Founders’ Plaza for the first time.

And that’s about it for the summer fun. School starts back up in a couple of weeks. As for my job-related adventures…that’s probably a subject for its own post. Which I will write soon. Probably.

Categories: Animals, Artwork, Dragons, environment, Family, Horses, kids, Life, Love, trees, Weather | Tags: Dallas Botanical Garden, Dallas Heritage Village, Dragon Park, Founders' Plaza | Leave a comment

So. Much. Rain.

Posted on June 2, 2015 by Debora

May 2015 was the wettest month in recorded history for Texas, by a wide margin. DFW got an absurd amount of rain, 16.96 inches in May alone and 25.05 inches from March through May. It just rained and rained and rained.

So you can imagine my excitement when I got clear skies and sunshine for my day off work yesterday. The school year just ended on Friday, so the kids and I headed out to get stuff done and enjoy the glorious weather.

I had to pay up Mahogany’s board for June, so that was one of our stops.

The pasture looks great, and the wildflowers are still in bloom.

We decided to hike back to the Trinity River and see how full it was. Just getting to it turned out to be an adventure. A back pasture had become a lake, and we had to wade through one edge of it since it extended past the fence on both sides.

Then we crossed a nice stretch of high ground, and then we came to the woods and those were flooded too.

We slogged through that, and finally came to the bank of the Trinity.

Okay, just for context, here is an old pic of how the Trinity usually looks…

…and a pic I took yesterday from the same spot:

Here’s another old shot, same bank but facing the other way…

…and here’s one from that angle that I took yesterday:

The river was unrecognizable. As soon as we saw it, we immediately made plans to go tubing on it this summer.

On the way back, Elizabeth dropped her phone in the flooded woods and then spent like ten panicky minutes dredging around for it in the murky water.

I was waiting for her on dry ground, but when she couldn’t find her phone and refused to leave without it, I waded back in to help her look. Eventually we found it, long after I had given up any hope of it surviving the mishap. Miraculously, it took no apparent damage at all. She turned it back on the instant she found it, still dripping wet, and it started right up.

Luke’s phone got a little damp last week from being in his pocket while he walked home from school in the rain, and it flatlined and had to be replaced. Elizabeth’s phone spent somewhere between ten and fifteen minutes submerged in two feet of muddy floodwater and just shrugged it off. Technology is weird.

The sunshine felt really good, so our next stop was a nearby park. I wanted to see what the ponds looked like after all the rain.

This pond is brand new; it wasn’t there before:

The regular ponds had overflowed their banks.

This stand of trees usually marks the border between the two ponds, where there’s a sort of concrete bridge that I like to cross on Mahogany. Yesterday I couldn’t even see the bridge.

As of this writing, there’s no more rain in the forecast. I am ridiculously happy about that. I mean, we definitely needed the rain that we got, but enough is enough. Hooray for sunshine.

Categories: Animals, environment, Family, Horses, kids, Life, trees, Weather | Tags: Texas rainfall 2015 | Leave a comment

A Few Words About Depression

Posted on March 7, 2015 by Debora

Sometime in January I started to experience the symptoms of clinical depression. It was very gradual, but over the next few weeks I lost interest in most of the things that used to make me happy, like writing and drawing and reading and hiking. I felt like all the life was draining out of me. I wasn’t sleeping well, but it was hard to find the motivation to even get out of bed unless there was someplace I had to be. Riding Mahogany still offered a temporary relief from the dull numbness, but between my job and the weather I’ve been going weeks at a time without seeing her at all.

I know that depression is a complex and sensitive topic, but in this particular case I knew what was wrong. The friends I used to hang out with and laugh with and cry with and share my most intimate thoughts with are now physically unavailable to me. We live in different states. Facebook is a lifesaver for sure, but it can’t provide the sort of personal interaction and platonic physical affection that I apparently require to thrive. I haven’t had any luck yet making those kinds of friends in Texas. Although, as Giles once said to Buffy, “I almost made a new one, which I believe is statistically impossible for a person of my age.”

Anyway, the holidays had also taken their toll. This was the first Christmas and New Year in my entire life that I have ever spent completely alone. The kids were in California with their dad, and I was here in Texas discovering that working in retail during the holidays is its own kind of special. I made a few efforts to share some of my favorite parts of Christmas with my coworkers, but it obviously wasn’t the same.

After the holidays, some new issues cropped up. These were not problems that I could fix or change; my options were to endure them or walk away from them. And if I had had my close friends around me, I think it might have all been endurable. In my depressed state, walking away was definitely the right choice. The whole situation was starting to affect my health, which is where I draw a pretty hard line.

As soon as I made the decision to change what I could and leave behind what I couldn’t, the fog started to lift. As I implemented the changes, the numbness went away completely. I still have some bad days now and then, because it’s painful to walk away from things that you would prefer to have in your life, even when you know they’re not good for you. But that kind of grief has a keener edge than depression, so at least it lets you know you’re still alive.

And that’s enough exposition. The reason I came here to write this post is because I haven’t had much firsthand experience with depression, unless you count the last year of my marriage, and now that I have I would like to offer a personal observation.

When I finally admitted to my loved ones what I was dealing with, they were there for me. All we had was Facebook and my cellphone, but their love and support and well-wishes shone warmly through the fog I was drifting in. It made such a difference. Friends are so fucking important.

But there’s something else I need to say, as lovingly and respectfully as I can. There was one person…and I know that this person meant well. I know for an absolute fact that this person loves me and wants me to be happy and healthy and have a successful life. But when I began speaking openly about my depression, this person began treating me like A Depressed Person. Like that was my new identity, my defining characteristic. They would talk about all the changes I was going to have to make in my diet and lifestyle and whatnot, as if I weren’t already doing the best I could with what I had to work with. And I was like, “This isn’t my normal state of being,” and they were like, “That was then, this is now.”

Life tip: When someone is muddling along in a numb fog of depression, they don’t want to hear, “This is your life now.” They want to hear, “It’s going to be okay. I love you, I’m here for you, you’re important to me. We’ve shared some great times together, and we’ll share more in the days to come. The best is yet to be.”

I feel like people need to understand that, but I’m not trying to hurt anyone here, so that’s all I’m going to say about it.

In related news, I have traded my retail job for one that I think is a better fit for me. I am infinitely grateful for everything that I’ve learned during the past year, but I never really felt like I belonged in retail. I’m back in the food industry now, where all of my earliest jobs were as a teen and young adult. Retail felt like a soulless alien world to me. Going back to working in a restaurant felt like walking into a crowded party where all the people seem vaguely familiar. Plus it’s closer to where I live, and I’ll probably end up making more money there. I was afraid it might not be strenuous enough and that I would gain back the weight I’d lost in the retail job, but it turns out I’m going to have to develop more upper body strength before I’ll be able to keep up with all the heavy lifting. So that should keep me nice and fit. And as an interesting bonus, most of the people I work with there have absolutely no concept of personal space. It’s a busy, crowded, interactive environment and there is more friendly oversharing and casual physical contact going on than I know what to do with. Which is great for someone like me who thrives on that sort of thing.

Maybe I’ll even make some new friends there. I never cared much for statistics anyway.

Categories: Family, Friends, Health, Horses, Life, Love, Weather, Winter, Work Life | Tags: Depression | Leave a comment

The Difference a Year Makes

Posted on August 14, 2014 by Debora

Yesterday was our one-year Texas anniversary: one year ago yesterday the kids and I rolled into Bedford to start a new life. We knew, or hoped, that it had to be better than what we were leaving behind, but we had very little idea of what to expect here. It was a leap of faith, for sure. So yesterday, after we registered Luke for his new school year, we went out for celebratory burgers and ice cream sundaes and spent our meal talking about everything we love about Texas and how awesome life has become over the past year. I felt like throwing confetti.

Mahogany, on the other hand, is DONE with this Texas summer heat. I have never seen her looking so thin, sun-bleached, bug-chewed and totally lacking in enthusiasm.

I wormed her to be on the safe side, but most of her pasture-mates look about the same, especially the darker-colored ones. This heat is hard on horses. But today I noticed that her summer coat is starting to shed out, which reminded me that the days must be getting shorter. Funny, that used to be such a big deal back in Anza. Now I live my life almost entirely by electric light and have only a vague grasp of what time the sun sets and rises on any given day.

I did have one little rush of nostalgia a few days ago. I was on the closing crew at work, and when my shift ended I stepped out into the muggy late-night heat and suddenly realized that if I were in Anza I would be up on my roof with the kids, enjoying a cool mountain breeze and watching the Perseid meteor shower that comes around every mid-August. In Anza you can see ALL the stars, and the Perseid shower is always worth staying up for. In DFW, stars and meteor showers might as well not exist at all.

Elizabeth’s registration day was Tuesday. She cannot wait for the new school year to start. I really like her campus.

But I’m writing this all out of order. When I wrote my last entry, Luke was still in California and Elizabeth hadn’t left yet. Luke returned on June 28 and Elizabeth flew out on July 2. With her gone, neither Luke nor I felt much like celebrating on the Fourth, but we were pleasantly surprised by a nice view of fireworks from our north-facing windows.

We fell into a pattern during the eight weeks that one or the other kid was in California. None of us at home wanted to do anything fun that the absent person would miss out on, so we kept putting off all significant outings and family activities until we were all together again. By the end of the two months, this had a seriously negative effect on my overall happiness. Stuff that I usually shrug off at work was stressing me out, I was losing patience with poor Luke at home, and I started having trouble concentrating on even simple tasks. I didn’t feel like myself again until Elizabeth came home and we fell back into our comfortable family routines.

Luke and I did have one nice little hike while Elizabeth was away. We had been wanting to explore a particular trail ever since we moved into our apartment, and a sudden stretch of cool weather made it too tempting to put off.