Saturday, November 29, 2008

Way of the Witch

OK, guys, look.......a witch, in reality, is really nothing more than the ancient, amateur, yet very capable template of what we now call the physician. He goes to Medical school for a decade's worth of rote mental torture and hopefully, once the beast is through with him, he still is intent on "helping people". The Witch, the Shaman, the Medicine Man, they all consigned themselves to an eternity of learning obscure facts about things you and I really don't have time to absorb in order to gather a certain kind of knowledge that is unique and powerful and is hard to quantify but is held in high esteem nonetheless by those who know to accept it's benefits. Magic, healing, whatever you wish to call it, is truly an art, while medicine has devolved into a science that still falls short as often as it accomplishes anything. Both of these practices have their limitations, but both of them also depend heavily on the recipients having some faith in them in regards to effectiveness. A recent study in fact proved that more expensive medicines were more effective than lesser ones, but only if the recipients knew that fact, but the reverse was often true if that fact was obscured. A healer will approach your problem with what he knows historically is most effective, but he also counts on your faith in his ability to prescribe the proper treatment if that treatment is to have any real effect. Smoking cessation hypnosis had no effect on me due to the effect that I am to damn skeptical as a person to be hypnotized to begin with. Yet, a new drug which was reported to me to be highly effective, and two factors contributed heavily towards the effectiveness of this drug.....one, that it was covered by insurance, and two, that it worked for the person who recommended it to me. The human animal is complex, and simplicity is not always the best approach when it comes to overcoming the many ills that befall us, our brains having such a huge influence over what works for us and what doesn't.

The wife decided to withdraw herself entirely from her pain meds in order to concentrate on alternative healing methods, but just as I expected, she had some evil withdrawal symptoms last night for not having taken her pain meds. I told her to cut back on how often she was taken her pain meds, but not to try and cut them off entirely so suddenly, or she would suffer for it. She took her pill and was soon fast asleep. Hopefully she will have some success with the spikenard tea and whatever remote healing this Reiki Master is performing on her. She is brewing the tea and will soon be taking it. Wish her luck.

Today was rather busy. We started by heading to the Earth Store, where we shop for all our magical needs, stopping off at Starbucks for a couple of brews having ran out of coffee at home. There she found her Spikenard root and various other things of importance to Witches. I also purchased ourselves a couple of silver chains to replace the base metal disasters we've been wearing. I had my eye on a nice, simple little sword to use in the circle, but we had already racked up a big enough bill, so I deferred that luxury to some other date.

Heading back we stopped off at Sears to pick up an electric chain saw that was on sale to replace the noisy, ill-tempered and polluting gas job I've been using around the property. The chain tensioner has not been keeping the chain tight on the bar, coming off on me in the middle of a cut, so it was time to retire it.

Lastly we stopped off at Walmart and Publix to stock up on groceries, then it was home to put everything away and finish up some floor cleaning, dishes, laundry, and preparing some home-made vegetable soup. We threw just about everything we had into that pot, and boy was the end product GOOD!

THE Wife has now steeped the spikenard tea and will start taking it in the morning. At least it SMELLS good, but the quick taste she took of it wasn't encouraging. Oh well, medicine is not SUPPOSED to taste good, now does it?

We also watched the Sci-Fi action movie HANCOCK, which was an interesting twist on your average super-hero movie. Imagine a guy with super-powers who can't perform the simplest rescues without causing more damage than if he'd just stayed out of it............it was intriguing and hilarious. Once again, Will Smith takes on a role and becomes the standard forever after. I highly recommend it.










We have a tradition here at Pendragon Hold, called CBS Sunday Morning. It is by far one of my favorite weekly programs in that they host some of the most inspiring stories you can find on the tube. However, my favorite thing of all on the program is the vast array of SUN paintings, drawings, whatever, as long as it is SOLAR, that they display during the program. It turns out that they will accept submissions of individual works of solar art and I have been considering sending in THE Wife's rendition of the Sun, which I think is quite good, in a primitive folk-art sort of way, and can stand even with any I have seen on the program. take a gander and tell me what you think.......


Well, I think I've gabbed enough for a Saturday, so I will leave you to your Sunday, with hopes that it is as restful and/or enjoyable a day off as it is for us. I want to thank all of you who have chosen to "follow" us here at the Hold, and please know that any and all of you are more than welcome here at our hearth, humble that it is, and ever happy to be known far and wide as Pendragon Hold, where even dragons can find peace and acceptance, should they seek it.

Friday, November 28, 2008

It's Thanksgiving day here at Pendragon Hold, and despite the fact that we have become "godless heathens", we remain as thankful for our good fortune as ever we did when, back in the day, we gave all the credit to some invisible dude who had terrorized us all our lives with promises of an boring eternity playing harps on fluffy white clouds or burning in hell forever. Now our thanks are given not out of fear but out of gratitude, to whatever deity or life force or lego super-hero might be responsible........one need not be picky.

I worked the two days before the holiday and thus was very happy to be off for the grand day, which I had to spend in the company of THE Wife's family, since I have no family to speak of locally. I am not complaining, as they do prepare one awesome spread that never fails to satisfy the belly. Unfortunately, the Resident Twin had to go to work today, spending the entire shift essentially not doing anything productive whatsoever, while being payed premium holiday pay for the experience. She would have foregone the money for the fresh food and familiar company. We DID bring her home some nice left-overs.

Having payed off the car last month it seems we now had some extra money, so I made THE Wife's day by grabbing one of the rarely-in-stock Nintendo Wii's at Walmart, something that SHE, of all genders, has been lusting after for the fact that in order to play it, you have to get off your fat ass and actually MOVE. It's funny how now that the economy has tanked, these things are suddenly actually available for once and you don't have to know the right people to buy one. Well, now we finally have one and THE Wife and I are learning how to use it and it's been hilarious. Who knows, maybe we'll be able to burn some calories using this thing, and have fun doing it.

Meantime........we have been put in touch via a close friend of THE Wife's with a Reiki Master (healer) who is supposed to be able to perform remote therapy. He has already claimed to be able to see that she has an infection around one of her disks which is causing the inflamation and has directed her to begin using an herbal tea/remedy called spikenard root. We will be headed to our nearest natural health food establishments to find this concoction and begin treatment. Also, he seems to already be working his mojo on her as last night she went walking by me headed towards the bedroom mumbling something about someone telling her she had to go to bed now..........and can't remember doing so the next day. (insert strange organ music here.....) Hey, if SHE believes she's being helped and her pain eases, I'm all for it.

Remember the vermin problem I spoke of in past posts? Well, it seems that we were successful in our counter-attack on the rodent invader, only it wasn't the rat trap that nailed it........sigh......there is evidence of something having feasted on the poison bait I put under the house and now the evidence of his demise is wafting throughout our bedroom and/or bathroom. The wife detected something foul several nights ago but it wasn't until today that my insensitive nose finally admitted to the foul aroma of something dead, perhaps having crawled up into our flooring to die. I'm not sure how I am to deal with this, but tomorrow I will crawl under to see if I can locate the carcass. Other than that, I suppose we will just have to wait till the damn thing simply finishes rotting. We reap what we sow, indeed we do.

Thank you for visiting us here at Pendragon Hold. May YOUR Thanksgivings truly be times of safety and security, and may all the ills of this world pass you by.

(Yes, I know, this is not Thanksgiving day..........the triptophane got to me before I could publish.....)

Thursday, November 20, 2008

First, the Good News......

OK, so we go to the neurosurgeon expecting this guy to describe all the reconstruction he was going to have to do to fix THE Wife's pain, only he says that after looking at the mylogram, he has come to the conclusion that none of the nerves have been impinged upon, thus there is nothing surgically he can do to relieve her pain. So, the wife escapes a major surgery, with all it's attendant risks and effect on our financial stability.

Now the bad news.

She still has the pain.

Sigh, this just seems to go on and on with no end in sight. She turns to me and plaintively insists, "But I'm NOT crazy, this pain is REAL..." and I have never found a reason to doubt her. You KNOW when your loved one is hurting. So, as much as I am relieved that they won't be slicing into my wife's neck, I still am frustrated that no one seems able to pinpoint the exact CAUSE of her pain. I'm beginning to suspect that it's not in the medical establishments best interest to EVER fix her, not with all the office visits and pain pills they can sell her.

So far there have been no noises at my hospital about cutbacks or layoffs. I suppose as the economy continues to tank, the stress is manifesting itself by increasing admissions to the ER, and our upper decks are always full these days. We even admitted one of our own aids to the unit, which shows that even we are not immune to the stress of living in this tough reality. What really pisses me off is all the noise the Republicans are making about not wanting to bail out the big three American Automakers, seemingly blasé' about what that means to the jobs of millions of middle class Americans. Yes, I know that we need to smack some big-wigs upside the head for the kinds of autos they have been manufacturing when we've long needed to compete against the foreign car makers in the area of new hybrid technology and cheaper, well made cars, but that's no reason to punish the line worker who had no say in these decisions. And, ENOUGH about "it's all the Union's fault", when you know damn well that these "evil" unions are responsible for what little rights our workers have left in this country, and I for one and not going to begrudge them making a damn good wage when our average CEO is dragging down MILLIONS in salary for.........what? Fucking up our entire industry?

Now is the PERFECT time to give these executives pink slips, without the golden parachutes, and FORCE the companies to retool their lines to start building high mileage cars. AND, if we could just bring about universal health care and remove this burden from business, maybe THEN we could compete on a more level playing field with our overseas competition. AND, perhaps now is the time to examine exactly what the American dream really is. I would say that having a half-way decent roof of my own over my head, a good set of wheels without all the bling and cup holders, and adequate food is a real good start. And having this without destroying the world around me would really be nice. Perhaps we could define a successful company as one that employs the most workers while producing a good product without sending a few lucky individuals to luxury resorts at our expense, instead of the one that works the fewest people the hardest while lining the pockets of rich bosses who do nothing but suck the life out of everything around them.

Another words, can we for once stop bending over?

Blessed be, and may this post find you safe and employed.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Race to Nowhere

I knew there were going to be a few, backward, devolved individuals of the Caucasian persuasion (who, unwittingly, probably have mixed heritage and don't even know, or would admit, it) that would be upset that the lily-white party has finally been crashed and we (by "we", I mean thinking, rational, compassionate, humane human beings) have elected our first president of "color". Not to change the subject, but why aren't us "white" people considered "colored"? Am I NOT somewhat beige, or darker, depending on how much sun I get? The only people I can think of who can rightly call themselves "white" are albinos. Anyway, getting back on track, it stands to reason that many of these "people" (I use the term "people" really loosely here) would get all bent out of shape and risk being exposed as the throwbacks to another time and plantation by acting out their disappointment.

But then you read the news.

Many of, if not all, of my readers are pretty much white. I would like to imagine that aside from that, they are good people. I would like to think that they are evolved enough to not take personally what I am about to say here. Matter of fact, I am pretty sure that the regular readers of MY blog are such wonderful people that they are going to know I am not addressing them, and will even stand and cheer when the read the next paragraph.

You assholes who are so fucking white that God himself can't even look at you without sunglasses, you need to fucking get over yourselves. You need to fucking grow up and get over it. You are an embarrassment to any race. I would rather dye myself jet black than be associated with you. You give retarded piss ants a bad name. The human race would have had a chance if your mothers had only drowned you at birth. You are a pox on the land. You did NOT build this nation, you were to fucking lazy and complaining that someone was taking something away from you to do anything. You enslaved every OTHER race you could to do all your work FOR you. Oh, but you weren't to white to have sex with them, now were you? Oh no, you have mixed race relatives all over the place and you'd piss your pants if you were forced to meet them knowing you're related. Yes, my pathetic inbred imbecile brothers, you just can't except the fact that a "black" man is going to prove once and for all that he can easily outperform a redneck idiot from Texas whose daddy bought him an oval office. And THAT is just too much for your imagined superiority to take.

This is another humble observation from the desk of THE Michael, just another stranger in a strange land. May you sleep tonight without visions of crosses burning in your head.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

The Slit Wrist of Intellect

To be self-aware; this is supposed to be a hallmark of intelligence; to be able to look into a mirror and see ONE's SELF, to understand that the creature in that reflective surface is not some other THING, but YOU. Turns out, man is not the only creature capable of this realization. Not only apes are capable of this; it turns out that even an elephant can see itself, knowing full well that it is a separate, thinking entity, with thoughts of it's own. So, before we even delve further into these issues, can you accept the idea that the definition of "PERSON" need not necessarily apply ONLY to the human race?

There is a terrible disease loose upon the Earth, a contagion that did not spring up suddenly and inflict itself upon the planet overnight; it evolved over time and made itself known by the effect that became evident in the vicinity of wherever you found a new kind of ape, a species of THINKING creatures that for the first time in the history of a blue marble spinning away in the cosmos, could actually ALTER their surroundings to suit THEIR purposes, rather than having to adapt to wherever they found themselves.

No, warfare and selfishness did not manifest itself with humans. You can see the same issues being demonstrated in tribes of Baboons, with highland Guerillas, with many social structures within the "animal" kingdom. But humans perfected these traits, and built upon them, and used them to create a delicate madness that began to have profound effects upon our Mother Earth.

Outside of our core tribal affiliations, we as a species funnel our abilities into competing with other groups, other races, other economic classes, and not in benign ways, but in ways that can be violent and deadly, for in the end, we will go to whatever extreme we feel is required to come out on top, rather than expend that energy in cooperative methods that benefit ALL of us equally.

I seem to have a genetic disposition towards fearing difference. If something is "different" from me, it must be a threat, and I must treat it with suspicion. What a sad paranoia to have to live with, when all I have to do is apply my intellectual prowess to the situation and realize that I have NOTHING to fear from difference, that what I actually have to fear is not embracing this difference and allowing it to ENHANCE my experience as a thinking being. This need to spread my Walmarts everywhere so that I have something familiar everywhere I go, THAT is a "need" that in the end destroys all diversity and turns my landscape into something bland and boring and bankrupt of all spirit. Now my life has become something I endure, rather than celebrate, because fear and suspicion and rigid righteousness crowds out all real joy and I become more deadly than any boogy man I can conjure up.

We are so proud of our sons and daughters who respond to the call to serve their country by putting on their uniforms, taking their weapons, and going OVERSEAS to "defend" their country. Yes, think about it, we have rarely (Pearl Harbor is as close as it ever came) had to meet an enemy on the beach to defend our homeland, instead electing to take our righteousness over the oceans to other lands and shove it down the throats of every unfortunate people who found themselves in the vicinity of those who thought to do us harm. We have now come to think of "war" as this out-of-sight, out-of-mind "thing" that we support without condition, something we sacrifice our sons and daughters to in the name of God and country. Have we ever made any real attempt to ask what all this really means, even after our progeny has returned to us in pieces, damaged in mind and body, with nothing accomplished except to earn us the undying hatred of tribe upon tribe who never asked us to deliver to them any sort of benefit associated with America?

I was born into an amazing thing called the "United States of America". I grew up never thinking to question exactly what this meant as a concept or what it took, historically, to get us where we are today. I took it as an article of faith that we were the chosen ones, the new Israel, that shinning city on the hill that everyone in the world wanted to be a part of. By being a good little human who did not think it necessary to harness my brainpower, I was a good little patriot who could be counted upon to become fodder for all those who in reality were using me and my fellow tribesmen to further their agendas, which upon close examination did not include my well being. My ancestors displaced the native Americans, and in doing so, replaced them to become the new fodder for an insatiable cannon, just another cog in the war machine which keeps royalty, no matter how you label it, in power.

Have you ever seriously asked yourself how the likes of George W. Bush could EVER have been elected to be the Commander-in-Chief of the most powerful nation on the face of this Earth? I do not mean to ask you your own reasons for not voting for him if that is the case, but I do mean to ask you how a people could identify themselves with this sort of human. It's as though half of this nation had this insane need to be abused, used, laughed at and ridiculed by the very people who appealed to them to be patriotic and God fearing, who themselves were anything but. This is the disease I speak of; the HUMAN CONDITION, the very essence of a species of ape that cannot rise above it's most base needs, and in doing so, brings down all those around them, making the lowest common denominator the way of the world.

If we do not return ourselves to our place within the niche of the ecosystem and work with it, I promise all of you, my human breathren, that we will be separated out just like any cancerous cell, and we will be consigned to the pages of history as just one more failed experiment. There is no God to protect us from this judgement, there is no special ability we possess which will save us from the mass extinction we are already visiting upon many of our fellow life forms. This need to worship possessions will, in due time, kill us all, if not the planetary ecosystem which gave birth to us as a species.

Ask any Native American to be honest with you, and he will tell you; you are not a human being. Any creature who attacks the land is not a part of it. The Creator gave us all a gift, with the understanding that if we soil our own nest then we only have ourselves to blame for the consequences. It is such a pity that those who still honor the old ways must pay equally for our sins.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Rats!

Today THE Wife had her myelogram, a test we both were looking forward to with no shortage of trepidation. When they go messing with your spine and the fluid within it, visions of all kinds of complications go dancing in your head, mine as well as hers. However, it did not take nearly as long and was no where near as horrible an experience as we thought it might be. The possible "severe headache" that might have occurred didn't, and she claims she hardly even felt the needles they tapped her with. So, at least as far as the test goes, it was a swimming day. Now we have to wait another ten days for her return appointment with the neurosurgeon. I'm seriously considering casting a spell that, while in the presence of my wife at least, makes THIS particular doctor the best neurosurgeon that ever walked the face of the Earth. That's not to much to ask, is it?

On the home front, it seems that VERMIN have invaded the hallowed halls of Pendragon Hold. In several places on several nights we have heard the unmistakable sounds of GNAWING beneath our floor, and this is after I had peered out our backdoor one night awhile back to witness a RAT scurrying along our picket fence towards the house. Today I crawled under the castle and believe I have found some entry points that this rodent has made, and have placed a trap as well as some poison bait in the area. Do I have some axe to grind with rats? No, unless they take it upon themselves to go chewing holes in my home, THEN we have a problem. Rats, you now have my undivided attention. I will END you.

How often has it occurred to us that our candid home photos, the kinds we used to store in shoeboxes and in photo albums, were snapshots of happy moments in our lives, yet how many pictures of not-so-happy times or tragedies do we have? None, I would venture to say. When someone you love has been hurt, or an argument of epic proportions has broken out, or people are yelling and screaming and crying, no one is apt to run for the camera or video thing to record the precious moment. Yet, all these things occur, and we remember them even without the assistance of the pictures. Just an observation that came to me as once again I proved to people around me just how painfully human I can be, even when deep in my soul I insist to myself that I am above it all. All I can say is, I think we all should remember that ALL moments in our lives, those many precious minutes and hours and days, weeks, and months spent together are what shaped our relationships and made them so precious. I have gained, and lost, and hope to regain respect of those who mean so much to me, and in the meantime, pay my penance. In the interest of TMI, I will not be more specific as to what I pay penance for, but suffice it to say, I ask, if someone reading this should know exactly what I speak of, that you consider that I might possibly be a better person than I might otherwise seem to be. At least I strive to be.

Life goes on here at Pendragon Hold. The gardens have done their best and have been put to rest, the four legged friends have seen the last of their graze for some months and now retire to feed and hay, and the Earth rests till warmth returns in Spring. I ask so little of my Gods, but I most fervently call upon them to protect what is mine, and to allow me to die here one day on what I consider sacred ground. And when I go forth to my final rest, I only ask of my love to let me go grudgingly, with affection, and forgiveness for any minute not spent with me most joyously.

Blessed be you all.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Do NOT Bail out GM.......Here's Why......

You'd think that now that George Bush and his Neo-Con-asswipes are going to be sent packing in disgrace, that I'd have nothing more to complain about. You'd be committing an error. While surfing the web for information on the latest hybrid vehicles, I came across this nugget: Cadillac Escalade Hybrid.

This STUPID SUV is a prime example of our ongoing waste of vision and engineering expertise in this country. A technology that is supposed to enable us to drastically cut back on our carbon emissions is slapped into a monster conveyance that NO sane person has any need of, so that the person who has THAT kind of money to waste on an automobile can....what? Feel GOOD about themselves? Are you FUCKING KIDDING ME?

Aside from he fact that this big bag of shit will only go a smidgen further down the road than the "regular" version, this behemoth costs as much money as I paid for ALL OF PENDRAGON HOLD, for crying out loud! Am I the only one who thinks that somebody's sense of "value" is terribly twisted? This is not a luxury yacht, or even a lear jet, but a stupid status symbol on four fucking wheels, which will not in most cases rarely transport more than one person who will drive this huge piece of crap as though they are immune from the rules of the road and will expect everybody else to just GET THE FUCK OUT OF THEIR WAY!

There's nothing wrong with this vehicle or the person driving it that a nice RPG wouldn't cure.

So are they going to FINALLY start building those AFFORDABLE hybrids that us working stiffs can afford to buy and escape the ransom imposed on us by the oil companies who know we have to get to work SOMEHOW? Not anytime soon enough, that much I know. This is still the greed capital of the world. Only we are all broke.

No, Obama is NOT going to turn this into a socialist country and enforce any meaningful measure of economic justice, but It would truly warm the cockles of my heart if people would pull these assholes out of their opulent palaces on wheels when they catch them at stop lights and toss a molotov cocktail into the bastard. Why should these people FUCKING KILL US ALL in comfort and luxury?

Again, emotions run high here at Pendragon Hold, thus I cannot be blamed for losing control and posting another rant despite my anti-rant policy. No, again, the devil didn't make me do this.............

Tina Fey did it.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Even up till the end, I had my doubts. After eight years of America demonstrating to the world just how low it could be brought down, I began to question my fellow citizens capacity to make sane, rational choices. Yet, in retrospect, I have to give a certain twisted credit to the worst president this country has ever had. Without you, George "DUBYA" Bush, we might not have been brought to a point in our history where we where finally and fully capable of electing a black man to the highest office of our land. Without you, the Amercan people might not have been pushed and prodded and challenged to recognize who, between an old, tired, and devisive White Man, and a fresh, honest, and inspirational man of color who represented the true nature of what America truly stood for, who our choice HAD to be. Without you, George, we might not have been able to look within ourselves and know for once that a major change of attitude HAD to occur.

And thanks to YOU, Mr. Obama, I finally feel that YES, I have my country back. THANK YOU!