The best laid plans often go awry as we discovered yesterday. When Katie took Charlie out of the barn to ride her, low and behold, she was lame! After being sick with mono and unable to ride for over a month, this was her first attempt. Oh well, that isn’t the worst of it. As anyone with horses knows, waiting for the vet can be an all day activity, and it was! So much for going to Andes to ride my horse or Oneonta to run errands. It was a waiting game instead. But, the bright side is that while waiting I was able to read more of “Teaching Global Hisory.” Alan Singer makes an interesting comment regarding standardized tests and teaching in a non-traditional manner, “Students who read and write on grade-level perform well on these tests whatever the particular content focus of a teacher.” Essentially, he says that we as teachers have very little effect on the outcome of standardized tests. Students that perform well on tests will continue to perform well and poor test takers do poorly no matter how we teach the content. It is all about how well they can read and write!

Back to the vet, Charlie was diagnosed with an abscess. Now we have to soak and pack it twice a day. This is such a relief because I thought it looked like something much more serious.

Gary and I did finally make it to Oneonta to run some quick errands. It was in the evening, after a stop to schmooze at Fair on the Square in Delhi.