Damn the Weather

I like to take photographs of my jewelry outside on a cloudy day, or in the shade on a sunny day. Natural light makes the best photo filter. Today in Missouri the weather isn't fit for man nor beast though. It's cloudy enough, but the wind is blowing at around 30 mph and it is cold. I'm not a fan. I question the intelligence of people that go places where it's cold on purpose. As far as I can tell skiers and snowboarders and all of those winter Olympics type people are soft in the head. I'll take bluebird skies and sun dappled water and a gentle, floating breeze. Blustery days actually add to my anxiety and I've always hated them. I wish I could say why, but I can't.

In my younger days, I rode horses quite a bit. Every chance I could actually and there was no place I was happier than on the back of a horse but horses too dislike the wind. It may be because they are like deer, and the wind interferes with their ability to hear well, or it may be because the wind blows up things that startle them. On a particularly gusty day several years ago I came off a horse when an errant plastic WalMart bag that was previously attached to a tree limb became airborne and floated like a phantom across his path. I hate plastic bags as much as the next person but my horse, Lasher, was convinced that it was the most terrifying alien creature he'd ever seen. He went one way in an effort to dodge the crinkly, grey phantom and I went another. After the incident he had the audacity to stop about three feet from me where he lowered his head, snorted and looked at me as if to say, "You're so dramatic. It wasn't that scary." As I sat on the dirt trying to decide if I was injured or not a sign that I'd seen at a stable I visited once came to mind. It read, "If you're not going to the ER you're getting back on."  I got up and grabbed the reins. I know some people who would give the horse a smack after pulling such a stunt, but this is the horse that licked my husband, Doug, back to consciousness after he fell from a ladder. To be fair, my husband was on the ladder because he had been building a run in shed for the horses, but it was still very kind and thoughtful of Lasher to lick his face to make sure he was still living. It could also have been an act of pure selfishness because he also knew that there would be no grain in his bucket with the stable boy passed out on the ground. I guess it is pretty presumptuous of me to think I know the mind of a horse. 

Today, being a very nasty, damn the weather type day, no outside photographs were possible. Well, not possible by me. Someone made of heartier stuff might have been able to withstand it. There's actually a cocktail called "Damn the Weather". I don't know how you make it, but I remember reading the recipe in one of my parents' cocktail books when I was far too young to drink and thought, "That's a really cool name for a cocktail."  Maybe I was just easily impressed. It probably has whiskey in it and I hate whiskey. So, without any cocktails at all I finished a necklace today and desperately wanted to take pictures of it, but couldn't. There is something inside me, left over from school probably, that gives me a sense of urgency when I finish something. It's almost like I have a self imposed deadline or a "due date" and I'm going to get a bad grade if I don't photograph it and list it immediately. I did manage to take the picture of the piece on my dress model. (Her name is Pearl. She's quiet. I like her.)

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Tomorrow perhaps it will be less windy and I will be able to go back outside and take photographs of the necklace lying flat so you can see it more clearly. If it's still windy like this, you might find that I've given myself over to the whiskey because I've about reached my limit for tolerating "damn the weather" days.