Friday, January 28, 2011

Back in the saddle again

Our little cowgirl with Starlit, her newest horse, who was fabricated at school from one of Daddy's old Smartwool socks and a yardstick.
An astute reader may have noticed that this blog has fallen fallow for the past couple of weeks. Rest assured, there has been plenty of Big Dummy Daddying going on at the old bike ranch. However, time, an essential ingredient of blog posts, has been in short supply. Today a modest block of time became available, so here is a post to end the drought.
The before school photo. Matching boots, belt and hat set the stage for a western shirt with embedded silver thread. Bob Wills would have approved.
Today was cowgirl day at school. That's not its official designation, but for our purposes it will suffice. She is an enthusiastic cowgirl, owed in part to her parental roots in Wyoming, but more substantially to her enduring fondness of the song Rhinestone Cowboy and wearing cowgirl clothes, especially boots.

In snack mode on the Big Dummy. Daddy happened to be wearing an appropriate western shirt too.
We had a great ride home, taking a bit longer route than usual for enjoyment. When it's 65F and sunny on a day in late January, a person would have to try hard not to have fun being outside. We've had a very mild winter here with only a couple of snowstorms and minimal snowfall, but the heat of the sun on bare skin is still a welcomed luxury at this time of year.

After arriving home, we continued to capitalize on the weather with a long session on the swings. The evening light now lasts noticeably longer than a month ago, which helps tremendously in reducing the midwinter blues, and it certainly doesn't hurt that today is Friday. In all a good day living life the cowgirl (or cowboy) way.
Working up a full head of steam.
She always sings ragtime music to the cattle as she swings. With apologies to the author of Ragtime Cowboy Joe, who probably had some other type of swinging in mind.
I am aware of no brand of jeans other than Hello Kitty that features pink stitching. Little details like this truly pull the ensemble together. It is obvious to anyone who knows me that I can't claim to be the source of her sophisticated sense of style.

3 comments:

  1. I love the song "Rhinestone Cowboy!" I was in elementary school in that song's heyday (and living in Montana, no less), and we much enjoyed changing the lyrics to "rhinestone cowpie." Got out on the LHT today myself, sans the western shirt and cowboy boots. Either way, it was a gorgeous day. Just an aside, Stella has her daddy's eyes, but you probably already know that...

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  2. It was a great day to be outside on a bike. I took my four year old daughter to the liberry and to the Arvada Army navy Surplus Store (her favorite) today.

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  3. FG: Rhinestone Cowboy was omnipresent for me too in Northern Wyo at about the same time. Seems like I heard it daily mixed in with Charlie Pride, Buck Owens, and Tony Orlando and Dawn on my rural kid bus ride. I agree that it's ripe for lyric modification. On a whim I played it for Stella on a road trip and it was an instant hit. On her insistence it played repeatedly from Sundance to Sheridan, and as often as I could tolerate thereafter.

    I always thought she has Julie's eyes, as they both have the exact same blue and mine are green, but I'll take the complement.

    Your LHT would be a perfect bike to cowboy-ify. I can envision fringed bags and you with spurs on your Keens.

    Chris: Book wrangling is a common after school objective for us, and perfect by bike. I've never been to the Arvada surplus store, mostly just the one on South Broadway. I'll have to give it a try. Just curious, what's your rig? Are you on a longtail too?

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