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It's amazing the feeling of let down that hits after such an intense 3 weeks of volunteering & meeting people & being around all those beautiful horses & fantastic riders.....let alone the creative aspects of planting the flowers & pots at most of the different venues. If you have seen any of the WEG on TV, our crew (me too) put all the flowers out for the endurance, the cross country, the vaulting, the para dressage, the driving marathon, & the driving cones in the driving arena.....16 intense days.
Not just our crew, but everyone I talked to today (closing ceremonies) were so very exhausted & glad to be going home, but also feeling a terrible let down now that all the excitement is over. Interesting to point out, that even people without mental illnesses feel a let down depression after such intense experiences like this. The competitors experience a little of it, but are so focused on their training, but those of us who were reps, volunteers & other paid personnel are really feeling the exhaustion because we pushed so hard during that time. I was lucky as I had Thursday & Friday last week off & it was a good thing because I was so ehausted, I couldn't get out of bed, but also, in analyzing my feelings, a lot of my not good feelings were because I realized I only had 2 more days of WEG & it would be all over.....maybe for a lifetime assuming that it might never come back to Kentucky again. It's like horsey olympics & they have them at different locations every 4 years.
I met some very interesting people & everyone was so friendly from the foreign countries & even from our own.....when sports are involved.....there is just a different attitude in the people.
Everyone was so helpful....the horse park is huge & the venues were spread out miles apart. There was some transportation, especially for handicapped when I took my 92 year old friend to see the grand prix dressage event & to just experience the horse park with the WEG environment (as she had been going to the horse park since it opened 30+ years ago). Otherwise, it was easy to hitch a ride. Coming in one morning, the guys from the Qatar endurance team took me to my volunteer location. A man from the 15th place French driving team gave me a ride today. The trams were running much of the time to just jump on & off as needed. Another person came by after dinner & stopped to give me a lift out toward my car. I think that going from being around so many people back to more of the isolation feeling at my farm even though I have our womens riding group each week, Bible study, the womens group at church & church.....it's just not like spending 8-10 hours a day surrounded by people & being busy.
I did realize that I know why I am on disability.....there is no way I could go at that pace for much more time then these 3 weeks......besides, I found that all the work hauling heavy flowers & using the pitch fork to dig up flowers that had been planted, made the hip I fractures years & years ago very sore. Many hot showers after a long day was all that kept my sore body going also......ugh, it stinks growing old.
The one exciting thing however is that the crew I volunteered with is the core group that also does the decorations for the 3 day Rolex eventing every spring here at the horse park. This was my initiation for coming back & doing that each year with them. I think what made this such a wonderful experience is that the leaders of the group are so kind & caring. Never get upset at anything & give thanks to all the volunteers in the group. I have never seen a group of leaders that showed so much appreciation & treat each member as if they are a special part of the group.....making it a true team. What great team work there was in our group including those of us who were new to the group.
Frustration hit the last weekend when I realized that my refrigerator had broken.....I thought something was wrong when the frozen grapes & was eating weren't as frozen as they had been, then when I went to get a bowl of ice cream & it was soup.....dead give away that my refrig was broken on top of the fact that it quit making ice as everything started to thaw. Only things that stayed frozen were the frozen foods I had packed together. Upset at the timing until I looked at Lowes & they were having a sale & free delivery & 12 months same as cash until this coming Monday. As soon as I noticed that, I headed for Lowes....ordered the refrig & it was to be delivered Sunday morning.....according to the sales person. Only problem....I didn't get a chance to answer the phone when they called to confirm the date & it was an anonymous number, so I couldn't call it back. My volunteer working started at 1pm Sunday & also are doing final clean-up with the flowers on Monday after everything is over (maybe pick up a few flowers for around my house to make it look prettier). So if they didn't come Sunday morning, I couldn't have it delivered again until Tuesday & the poor old refrig was on it's last legs trying to keep a little cold going. When the delivery guy called Sunday morning, he informed me that it might not be until 2pm they would arrive.....I explained that wouldn't work, & that if they didn't get it delivered before 11, I would be gone at 12noon......I realized that I was quite a bit upset by the situation that put me in, so when the store opened, I gave a call & talked to a manager & explained the situation. By that time it was 9:30am.....got a call telling me they would be at my house at 10am, exactly the time they arrived (ah, thanks to the manager). Good thing as it took a long time to get everything cleaned up. That old refrig had never been moved since it was installed. They put the pergo flooring in right around the refrig leaving it sitting on the linoleum & the dirt under the refrig was disgusting. It took me almost 30 minutes to clear out my old refrig & another 30 minutes to clean the floor. They got it all installed, then I had to put all the food back in the new refrig.....ugh, what a job. By the time I got all that done, it was almost 3pm & I got to WEG in time for the closing ceremonies at 4pm. The closing ceremonies was a thank you to all the volunteers, a passing of the games to Normandy France in 2014 & a concert by Lyle Lovett. Somehow, the closing ceremonies are also a let down after the spectacular opening ceremonies. It was interesting however....everyone was wanting to trade things at the end. All of us volunteers got 2 very wonderful Ariat shirts (great for riding horses in on hot days). Luckily, I was wearing a turtle neck under my shirt as a girl from England wanted my volunteer shrit in trade for her English para dressage grooms shirt.......Great trade......they provide top quality shirts for events like this. I ended up with several souvenirs that were free actually. One was a horse shoe that I found by the cross country jump 2 & the other is one of the beautiful map signs of the horse park especially for the Alltech FEI WEG.....we were taking the signs down after we finished our shift tonight & I actually found this sign that had been taken down by the parking people & stuck behind the barn in the parking area. I am still out to get one of the "horses have Right of Way" to put up on my farm & maybe send one to my horse trainer in California.
The excitement is over, I got some good photos (more I will try to share in the post I have been doing about WEG).....I have just been too exhausted & too busy to post as much there as I had hoped. The memories will last a life time......definitely an experience I never dreamed of & an excitement that is difficult to explain unless you experience it.
Now I just have to deal with this let down feeling & try NOT to let it turn into a depression. I have so much work to do around my farm before winter hits in November & it's too cold to work outside......hopefully all the momentum my volunteering started won't quit for another month as I was pretty useless before I started to volunteer....just couldn't get motivated. Know that some of this is my mental issues that keep haunting me. Fall is such a bad time of year for me anyway.....just have to fight that now that all this excitement is over & let down hits so I will be able to get the things done I have to do before winter......Will try to get one thing done each day until I get rested......then get this momentum back that I have had these 2 weeks for at least a couple of days each week.
Hopefully the focus will keep me in a better place than it feels like the mind wants to take me me with the let down from all the excitement.
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Leo's favorite place was in the passenger seat of my truck. We went everywhere together like this.
Leo my soulmate will live in my heart FOREVER Nov 1, 2002 - Dec 16, 2018
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