Apricity At Its Finest!

Learned a new word from my dear friend Renee Clarke the other day. Apricity.

Apricity means “the warmth of the sun in winter.”

Yesterday was an Apricity day.

It began as a mani-pedi day at Casa Claire. My friend and farrier, Jason Bastemeyer, bought his son Justin along. Justin is doing his mandatory driving hours for Driver’s Ed, so Jason has him chauffeuring him around to his clients. It is also additional Father-Son bonding time. Tough to get with a teenager.

I offered Justin my one driving rule: ATA. “Anticipate The Asshole.” You must assume that everyone out there is a poor driver and will pull out in front, or stop short, or not stop at all, at the worst possible moment. I also mentioned that you should scan the cars around you for notable dents that reflect a proclivity to pull out suddenly on that particular side of a car to obtain those dents.

I didn’t mention to Justin how/where I learned to drive when I was just a little younger than his sophomore in high school status.

Never left a dent in one and always returned them clean and as close as possible to their original parking spots.

Anyway, it was nice to chat with Justin while Jason performed his back breaking services.

And Justin seemed like a very nice young man.

Luckily, it was a warmish winter sunny day. Apricity was in high supply.

Alexa informed me that we were looking at an upcoming week of cracking the 50s in daily temperature, so, I decided to take the mules’ coats off while I had them tied to the rails for the mani-pedis. I also gave them both a long brushing to get those natural coats popping and all aired out.

Then, after their spa treatment, Claire and Honey enjoyed the sunshine while I went about shoveling shit, humping hay and dumping, cleaning and refilling troughs. You really need take advantage of the warm days to reattach and use the hose, or you have to hump the water from the house in buckets. That is a back breaker.

Don’t their hooves look awesome?! Jason and I decided to shorten their schedule to every five weeks, given we are entering winter and a long hoof catches snow and creates ice balls which makes it painful for the mules, particularly Honey, who has taller and thinner hooves, think FMPs, to walk comfortably.

Then Honey took a nap while Claire stood watch.

By the end of the day I too was knackered. But Lisa wanted to go into Berthoud to check out Habitat for Humanity, so off we went.

Ever since I heard rumors that my own books have been spotted in their book section, I always make it a point to check it out, but have never found one.

What I did find was this completely unique and awesome book about the history of my adopted home town, compiled at the end of the last century by Helen McCarty Fickel, an elder member of the Fickel family – for whom the town Square/Park was named – and Frances Bunyan Neilson – whom I’m going to guess is related to a famous giant lumberjack and/or TV viewer numbers maven.

Knowing that this book was certainly a limited edition, and that I would probably not come across another copy, I snapped it up and took it home.

A quick look through it has earned its purchase price as it has already answered a question I have pondered since my arrival – how the town got its’ unusual name.

Thank you Captain Berthoud. It seems that beards have been de rigueur in Berthoud for quite some time. Glad I finally got with the program.

But I shall treasure this trove of Berthoud historical gobbets and will try to work them into some future literary endeavor should the opportunity arise.

Well, since I switched the script and got my outdoor chores done yesterday, along with another one on the unending honey-do list of my darling wife – I sincerely fear I shall not survive her retirement – I have to get the week of veggie/fruit prep done this morning – along with a quick repair of the mailbox door and my front fence flag.

But first, some kitties to cuddle and rounds to make.

I do hope that none of you fine, five readers are living with a retired spouse that will cause you to jeopardize your eternal soul and forsake the Lord’s instruction to make today a day of rest.

But no matter what you fine, five readers each do today, let us all make it a great one.