I'm reading the latest Eckhardt Tolle book, "A New Earth," and I'm reading it with a group of women. It's quite the study and tends to make one fairly introspective and likely to question one's emotions and raison d'etre (hee hee). BUT all joking aside, it's very cool and I can see why Oprah Winfrey has endorsed it.

So, I have another little miracle to document from when I went to see Caroline Myss, a matter-of-fact mystic who is quite popular in these-and many other-parts. This took place on January 23rd; the ticket to see her was given to me, and I was psyched. C. Myss happens to be a person whose taped series, "Anatomy of the Spirit," helped me about ten years ago, when I was having a lot of difficulty liking myself and my life. Her method links the Hindu chakras with Jewish sefirot and Catholic sacraments and each chakra/sefirah/sacrament gets linked to different behaviors. So when there is a dysfunction in one of these areas, she gives you ideas on how to work on it emotionally and spiritually as well as on the physical level. Very interesting.

Anyway, CM was every bit as enthralling as I'd hoped, talking about miracles (what a coincidence) and other wonders of the world, but in a most unpretentious way--the Chicagoan in her is a tough-love bird.

At the end of her talk, she gave a 2-3 minute long healing meditation, during which I happened to think of my abscessed (but not terribly so) tooth and idly wondered if something might be done for it. Then I left with the bazillion others who were in attendance.

The next morning, the abscess, which I'd had for well over a week, was gone and it hasn't come back. Knock wood.

Thanks, Ms. Myss. Here's another miracle for your long list!

And now for something completely different: Omar left today for a week-long journey south to spend time with Patrick. They'll be going snowboarding, as well as having a general good old time. I plan to cross-country ski again soon, and I want to clean our house thoroughly, which is easier to do when nobody's around, as is finishing up clients' work and even--maybe--playing music or going for a rollerblade.

So a miracle has occurred on 7th Avenue South.

It occurred awhile ago and I'm just getting around to telling about it.

It has to do with my cell phone, a Samsung Upstage M620--the Jekyl & Hyde phone so suited to my Gemini nature. It was December 11, 2008. I had just put several dozen of my favorite pieces of music on the phone's media chip and was pretty happy with the world. Omar & I were going to get something at the Whole Foods for dinner, it was starting to snow, so I put on my warm coat, grabbed my cell phone as an afterthought, and ran out to the car in a hurry. We ate, it snowed, we went to Lowe's for some supplies and then headed home.

I noticed that my phone was gone that night, bemoaned the fact after looking a little while, and went to bed thinking I'd find it the next day.

After looking for it pretty thoroughly, I remembered that I probably had brought it with me, so called WF and Lowe's to see if it had been found, which it had not.

Over the next two weeks, I kept looking in places it could have been--under the bed, couch, kitchen drawers and in the dark, airless spaces under the drawers; I looked and looked. It didn't show up, but I kept having this feeling that it would, so I didn't call Sprint to get a replacement (after all, I'd just put my music on it!).

It got to be later in January, and I started looking at replacement phones. I could get a red one...

January 26th or 27th, Omar casually said, "I found your phone."

"NO WAY!" He had found it outside in the tiny strip of grass between the stop sign and the curb where the car is usually parked. During the 11th of December and the finding of the phone 6 weeks later, the weather had been showing off. We had the most snow, rain and general COLD weather than we'd had since 1996. So I wasn't very optimistic about the phone being operable or, if operable, readable. Omar thought it'd work, though.

I put the toaster oven on warm, put it on top of it and let it sit for about an hour. I looked at it and it looked pretty good. When I tried to turn it on, nothing happened, but after all, it'd been six weeks, so I plugged it into the charger and it started to charge!!!!! Much to my surprise, it charged fully within the hour and turned on, showing an undamaged screen on the computer side and a slightly water-damaged screen on the phone side. I took the media chip out and plugged it into my laptop--it was undamaged. I put it back into the phone and it PLAYED!

Now, about a week later, the phone screen water damage is totally gone and the phone (with all previously loaded media, phone list, etc. unaltered) is better than new.

So how about that Samsung, anyway? I am Impressed.

Miracles do happen.

So I was listening to NPR and heard this show on frugality:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99654933

It frustrates me to hear this female person who has enough money to support agriculture that is local and organic say that she is now buying $1.00 bags of broccoli at the Chinese market. The segment continues to say that being frugal is the new chic. This is really depressing for me, because I'd much rather spend my money on food that has been grown locally and organically, not just because I want to support my local economy and not eat poison, but because of the effect huge farms are having on the global environment. The self-important girl who gives the report sounds like she's implying that when people make more money, they'll go back to buying brand names so they can show off their wealth.

I don't buy organic from our local coop because I want to show off. In fact, I have no pretensions to wealth. I shop there because it's a way to encourage hard working organic farmers (local as often as possible). They, in turn, help keep our soil richer and our air and water cleaner and less poisonous. That commentator/interviewer was either unable to come up with a better story, a Republican reactionary, or just plain stupid. I want to give her such a hit!

I want to make a huge sign:
DOING OUR BEST TO CONTRIBUTE TO CLIMATE CHANGE
and sneak out to all the construction sites (two complete blocks razed on State Street) and put it up!

The worst site is the Green Funeral Home site, where there was a nice, grassy hill covered with mature trees and a huge white house that was probably built in the early 1900's or possibly late 1800's. They moved the house to a corner of the site, diminishing it disproportionately, tore out most of the trees, and razed the rest of the site. They're putting up 24 new homes there. Somebody had a LOT of money to get it to this point. I wonder where the money for the construction's coming from...

There is a stucco California-style house with a palm tree in the front yard one block over from our apartment that was a farmhouse with big trees about 18 years ago. The razing of the farmhouse was the harbinger of the destruction of all but a few of the older homes here in our neighborhood of Kirkland. The four Big Big poplars are still across the street from the CA house. I cringe whenever I hear the chainsaws and chipper, thinking that the poplars have been sacrificed to the gods of development. I'm sure it's just a matter of time, like our funky older (from the 60's) building. After our complex and the one behind us were sold, a whole row of fragrant acacia trees that were probably over 50 years old were ripped out. I asked the city; apparently they had been categorized as "danger" trees ("the better to smite you with, my dear"). I wonder who got the city to make that decision? Maybe the new property owners? They weren't in a place where they would do much damage--quite far from the building and bordering a large field in back of the elementary school. In all the time I've lived here, during the many windstorms, I hadn't seen any large branches torn off. I wonder who made that decision? Maybe the new property owners?

When we move from here and the building's torn down, the pine and maple trees that have been my friends for 15 years will go. It's been a great place to live, and the trees have been a great place for birds, squirrels, etc. to live. Change is inevitable.

I really hope Obama makes climate change a priority!

Happy New Year to us all.

"In 2004 University of Pittsburgh linguist-dude Scott Kiesling published a paper in the journal American Speech on the word “dude” and its many uses. Kiesling traces the current popularity of “dude” to the 1982 movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High, featuring Sean Penn. According to Kiesling, men are more likely to use “dude” than women are. They’re also more likely to use it with men than with women, and when they do use it with women, the woman is usually just a friend. (Women with whom dudes are intimate are rarely, if ever, referred to as “dude.”)"

That's the word from my Uncle John's calendar.

Our trip to see Patrick for Thanksgiving was great, overall, but I did have a bit of dread about going to Patrick's grandma's for the actual celebration. Omar tends to have a difficult time (although very quietly and seemingly calmly), and it was simply a relief when we left with a disgruntled Patrick, who had wanted to stay the weekend and play video games with his uncle Pat. I felt badly at first, but then explained to him that since Omar & I don't get to see him often, we like to see him when he is not playing video games (it keeps one from communicating with him about anything but the game); also, I explained that he had a lot of other neat things going for him and that I liked to see that side of him. He is playing the sax, has been for a few months, and is doing well. His yoyo tricks are entertaining, too, and we took lots of walks down to the little town of Weaverville. The last day, we overwalked, probably, by taking a walk downtown and then walking on the hiking trail (trailhead across the street from their house) for a couple of hours. But it was lovely. It is a great location, beautiful trees, houses that are more than ten years old, etc. I'll put a photo or two here:





It was an enjoyable journey and Omar & I will try to find the "right" place on which to build our affordable solar house in Weaverville. We hope to have more than one home base...but we definitely need to be closer to Patrick.

Time to go!

Thanksgiving. My favorite holiday! Eating, being around friends, feeling grateful--what's not to like? I'm getting ready to make salmon/potatoes/veggies-mushroom, onion, green beans & raw salad, too/garlic bread with yukon gold potato bread yum yum yum, which will be the hands-down favorite of everybody. Then we're going to watch "Quantum of Solace," a copy of which has been procured by somebody close. hee hee

Omar, Verity, Brendy, Mike & I are going to be the consumers tonight. I haven't decided on a dessert yet, but I will surely think of something. We have fixings.

On the "real" Thanksgiving (not the one we live every day), we'll be in Los Molinos, CA, which is close to Red Bluff, which is close to Redding. Omar's ex-wife's mother lives there, and O's son Patrick wants to be there for Thanksgiving so he can play video games with his uncle Pat. It will without doubt be entertaining. We are going to stay at Patrick's house in Weaverville, which is in the hills about 1-1/2 hours' drive from Los Molinos, from Tuesday until Friday when Patrick's mom & her hubby (Rachael & Mike) get home.

Omar & I intend to look for real estate there, because we'd like to be closer to Patrick than we are. I'm hoping to maintain a place here, too, if we find something down there. Just gets smoky in the summer with the forest fires in Northern CA; besides, I love it here. It nourishes my soul, to put it in a new-agey way.

I have to go cook now.

AIN'T LIFE GRAND???

Sleep is near, but here I have to say HOORAY!
Now, we must pay attention to all those little details George & Dick will try to pull off before relinquishing office, see here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/04/opinion/04tue1.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
Alas, we need a 24-hour watch/action squad.

So, I looked for a download of the "F-Word" song and here are the words,

F-Word (A Chat With Your Mother)
(Lou & Peter Berryman)

There are pirates in their fetid galleons
Daggers in their skivvies
With infected tattooed fingers
On a blunderbuss or two
Signs of scurvy in their eyes
And only mermaids on their minds
It's from them I would expect to hear
The F-word, not from you

We sit down to have a chat
It's F-word this and F-word that
I can't control how you young people
Talk to one another
But I don't wanna hear you use
That F-word with your mother

And the lumberjacks from Kodiak
Vacationing in Anchorage
Enchanted with their pine tar soup
And Caribou shampoo
With seven weeks of back pay
In their aromatic woolens
It's from them I would expect to hear
The F-word, not from you

There's the militant survivalists
With Gucci bandileros
Taking tacky khaki walkie talkies
To the rendezvous
Trading all the latest armor
Piercing ammo information
It's from them I would expect to hear
The F-word, not from you

There are jocks who think that God himself
Is drooling in the bleachers
In a cold November downpour
With a bellyful of brew
Whose entire grasp of heaven
Has a lot to do with football
It's from them I would expect to hear
The F-word, not from you

There's unsavory musicians
With their filthy pinko lyrics
Who destroy the social fabric
And enjoy it when they do
With their groupies and addictions
And poor broken-hearted parents
It's from them I would expect to hear
The F-word, not from you

Copyright Lou and Peter Berryman

And the sheet music can be found at this place here:
http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiFWORD;ttFWORD.html

Just in case any of my brothers might be interested...

I will now sleep.

I rode my bike to The Mall to meet V at work Friday with the idea of not spending money (except for a Godiva hot chocolate--and I got an organic Popeye Power Punch at Nature's Pantry, a locally-owned green grocery store where it's always just PC to shop). Okay, so first, another digression. I heard on NPR's National Native News that the House (of reps, natch) has passed a bill to make the "Friday after Thanksgiving," which I hope is the day after, National Native American Appreciation Day or something like that. Well, MORE POWER TO THEM! I hope it passes the Senate. It's high time they got their own day. So Right On! Finally.

Ummm, now. The Mall. This is the most insane place to be the day after TGiving, but I did hit two locally owned stores and bought stuff. I got "Rob Roy" at the BS (Bellevue Square) thrift shop and a set of guitar strings and a really totally unnecessary guitar pickup at Kennelly Keys, another locally owned store. As I was walking by the Sprint store, a guy ran out and literally snagged me, pulling me in, wanting to know what phone I had. I have a Sprint flip phone, and they were having a very good sale on that model and another model. I told them I was fine with my own schizophrenic phone but that Verity might be interested in the other model after she was off work. I allowed myself to be sold to partly because the guy who didn't drag me in was a salesman who had waited on me on my birthday when I bought my bluetooth headset and who was also celebrating his birthday the same day. Anyway, Verity ended up liking the other phone (it also will take photos, record movies and has a very good music player on it), so I bought it for $100 with a $50 rebate coming someday. Basically, that was my main contribution to big business on Friday.

The rest of the weekend was fun, too, even though I've since found out that I probably won't have the stomach to watch "Rob Roy." It was only $.75 anyway.

What a gorgeous day yesterday! Even though I have been pretty unwell with a fluish ailment, I walked up the hill to the enchanted forest, a/k/a Bridle Trails, and had a splendid time talking with Bill, Kip, Sarah, Kathryn and Dad, and leaving messages for others, on the way. Verity was home (she's working noon to 8:00--retail at the most popular mall around so she'll want to relaxxx when she gets home today), so after my long, luxurious shower, I started the chicken a'roastin (I'm listening to Bob Dylan singing "It's a Hard Rain's a Gonna Fall"), the potatoes a'peelin (well, not), the delicata squash a'bakin and the veggies a'washin and lo, within about 1-1/2 hours, we had a meal to be a'eatin--er, or something like that. My friend Brenda showed up and we enjoyed our food and friendship muchly. Verity even practiced the keyboard, which I haven't heard her do for, like, ever! After Brenda left, Johndudebert showed up and we watched "The Trouble with Angels" and ate pumpkin pie. Cozy, fer sure.

I just talked to O & P; they're heading to the coast to take that route south. Omar & Patrick are hanging out together until O takes him back to Lewiston, CA on Sunday. It's nice that Patrick's living a bit closer than Red Bluff, and Lewiston is called by some people the "fly fishing capital of the world." So Omar will enjoy his visits with Patrick even more, as they'll have access to that resource, plus he won't have quite such a long drive home. But I hope he waits until LATE to come back Sunday night, or even waits until Monday, because traffic on I5 will probably be backed up all the way from Portland to Seattle on Sunday due to holiday visits.

I wish all a happy holiday season! Thanksgiving's still my favorite, hands down.

I forgot; my main 2007 New Year's resolution -- besides the money -- was, er, is to find a music partner. I've even gone so far as to mention it to a few people, but geez, nobody volunteered! What to do... Anyway, that's the big thing. If there's nobody to play with, I still play alone, but it's different. Performing is different. Harder. Much harder.

The above was written in September and it's later now. I've been to see Martha & family with Kathryn, Brian & Caitlin thrown in as a bonus. It was an emotional trip, but rewarding. I got to spend quality time with each person, play music with my sisters & progeny, ride Martha's bike into Ft. C., see Al's News Stand (?), walk 'way up the hill from Martha's, do Reiki and overall be grateful that Verity & I were able to go when we did. I spent more time in cars than I have cumulatively for a year (not including the trips up & down the coast, that is). The whole trip gave me insight into lifestyles; it's always good for me to get out of my own comfort zone and experience those of others.

We saw "Death at a Funeral" and "Once" at the Crest (our $3 theater with Personality) last week. "Death" was pretty hilarious and included a wild inadvertent LSD user and a blackmailing midget. and I was pleased to see Jane Asher (yes, Paul McCartney's first girlfriend that I knew about) playing the bereaved widow. "Once" was a very well done music-al set in Dublin--a true love story.

Spoke with Dad for about 3/4 hour tonight. He sounds splendid--looking forward to his trip to TX in the early Spring, practicing MacDowell's (sp) "Witch's Dance" (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqtfKJJr1qI ) for a performance next Saturday, going to the "Y" a couple/few times a week, signing up for gmail (robertwmsiii@gmail.com) (and I haven't tested it yet) and exercise biking at home. He said Mom was doing better and better (from an all time low when she first moved out); awhile ago, he was with her at dinner time at her place and he wanted to know where they should sit, so he asked one of the employees. She leaned down to Mom and asked, "Where do you want to sit, Lukie?" and Mom said, "Oh, anywhere's just fine." Dad said it came out very naturally, and he was happy about it.

I just listened to the link above for "Witch's Dance." My DAD can play that? Wow! Omar wants to put Dad up on YouTube and I don't see why not. We just have to get together with him.

Well, I'm needing to go transcribe a tape for my chiropractor, who walks on water. I do, too, but I always get wet.

Here's a "studio" photo of Omar, V & me at the NW Recruiting Pros picnic on Whidby Island in September. Verity's in her Carnaby Street outfit--I'm quite fond of it!

But I had to put this one up. If anyone has suggestions as to how to put in links in a stylish and fascinating way (hint hint Kip), let me know. Actually, does anyone know how to make this accessible for non-LJ users? Do I have to make my accessibility public?

Anyway:
This is just neat and you've already got it from me, but for posterity:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8000409016826512649

It's raining! Yay! I can feel the relief.

I saw this at my brother's journal and want to put it on mine, so here goes.


The website it comes from is AMAZING.

http://www.thecoolhunter.net/

One can spend lots of time there.