I certainly never planned on spending two weeks in Texas before I began posting on my stay, but I brought a different computer than the one I had been using and it took me this long to get back online.

[caption id="attachment_358" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Back in the saddle again"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Picture-008.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-358" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Picture-008-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" /></a>[/caption]

I really wish I had been able to post before this; a lot of interesting things have been happening.

I have shoveled several hundred pounds of manure, I have spent nearly two hours on horseback and I have gotten about a third of the way to my goal of losing 50 pounds in the two months I'm here.

I awaken every morning at 6, get dressed and head over to the horse barn to start shoveling manure in the dark. It's not<em> that</em> dark, but by the time I'm done each day I have a good understanding of why some folks are referred to as "shitkickers." The shoes I wear for that job aren't being worn for anything else, and when I'm finished here, I'll throw them away.

I spend most of my time either exercising or reading. I've made it through most of Michael Connolly's Harry Bosch novels and I have been listening to a lot of country music around the ranch.

I have been missing my wife a lot, and I'm not sure that the separation isn't exacerbating some of the differences between us. Whether it has been my first marriage or my current one, I've been very aware that absence does not make the heart grow fonder when it comes to the women who have loved me.

I'm apparently more the "out of sight, out of mind" type.