I'm Melting

 There hasn't been much happening on the horse front over the last couple of weeks. This heat wave is kicking my butt.

I was actually off this week for another staycation (no plans to go anywhere this summer). I got my second Covid vaccination on Monday afternoon, rode Cisco on Monday evening, felt pretty body sore by the time I let the barn, and woke up at 5am the next morning with a wicked headache that I had to keep taking Tylenol and Advil for all day to keep it manageable. 

I felt pretty good on Wednesday, which was farrier day. When someone had asked on the barn Facebook page if she could go first with her horse there was a comment from the barn owner that there were a bunch of people who wanted to go early so you would just have to show up and see if your horse could be done. Thus, I guess no one showed up early.

I wasn't in a rush so I did some errands in the morning and then arrived around noon. By that time it was already feeling like 30 degrees, so by the time the pedicures were done at 3:30 I had no desire to ride.

9 pm feedings with the sun going down.

Ever since that day, it's felt like 30 by about 10:30 in the morning and been over 30 for the afternoons.

I'm slowly wilting in my house. I don't do heat very well. The ponies are enjoying some extra time off. There's not much relief in sight for these warm temperatures over the next couple of weeks. And we desperately need rain. I'm honestly surprised that the forest fire situation in my province isn't much worse(like the neighboring province is).

I've found something to keep me a bit active though. Earlier this week I downloaded Coin Hunt World, a geo-location game much like Pokemon Go, but for adults as it pays cryptocurrency. Now, I'm always skeptical about anything that gives out free money, but this appears to be legit. It's pretty new and is technically still in beta mode. It is available in the US and Canada (planned release for Europe is August) for Android users in the Google Play Store. iOS users have to wait - they just hit their limit on beta users so new users will have to wait until it is approved by Apple (hopefully August).

The premise is pretty simple - with the app open you look for keys that you put into vaults, at which time you will have to answer a multiple-choice trivia question correctly to be awarded some Satoshi's (units of Bitcoin), Gwei (units of Ethereum), or building materials to use in the game. Different coloured vaults have different payouts (ie. the yellow vaults pay out $10 of crypto) but also have harder questions to answer. 

I saw a pelican on my walk this morning. They always amuse me!

There's no cost to the game other than the energy you want to put into it. There are some people competing for leaderboard points that are cycling 50+ km per day hitting up keys and vaults, and thus reaping rewards of $30-50 per day. I'm at about $7 after 5 days of a 40 minute walk in my neighbourhood and checking out any shopping areas when I do errands - this will increase when I can add vaults in my own neighbourhood that I can hit daily.

If you have a dog that you walk regularly, bike a bunch, or work in a downtown core, you might want to have a look. It's a good way to start learning about cryptocurrency. Also - who wouldn't like to get paid to exercise? (Does that make you a pro athlete?)

If you are interested, here is the link to the wiki page, and here is a map you can check to see if there are keys and vaults already in your area (it's user-submitted so there are lots of spots that aren't mapped yet though). And if you decide to try it out, here is a referral link you can use which will give you some extra building material (click on the referral link after downloading the game but before setting up your HQ).