These Thoughts Escape Me

The Reincarnation of a Blog.........

2009-07-20T18:50:00.000-07:00

I came back to this blog, one of the earliest incarnations of "The Chronicles..." via a link from a favorite pagan blog, and noticed that the link wasn't going directly to the new blog, but this one. So, read on here if you wish, but for a more up-to-date taste of "The Chronicles of Pendragon Hold", please go HERE. See you there!

An Experiment in Expression

2008-12-30T12:44:00.000-08:00

I went looking for a fresh look for this blog and found page after page of very cool templates to choose from. I would appreciate it if my readers would stroll on over to this link and take a gander, then tell me what you think.

The Twilight Zone

2008-12-28T15:29:00.000-08:00

These days, especially since I gave up Christianity for Lent, the worst thing I hate the most about the Christmas season is waiting for it to finally end. It's bad enough that they seem to be kicking off the X-mas shopping frenzy right after the Fourth of July Fireworks have hit the ground, but you have to wait till after New Years for the music (oh that fucking music!) to finally go away. The lights, the tree, it all stays up till then, nobody willing to give up on that warm, fuzzy, now-we-declare-bankruptcy feeling. But, it has to end sooner or later, and I prefer later, thank you. OUR holiday of Yule happens ONE day, the 21st, and then it's over, till the next Sabbat comes around, and no shopping is required. I know I was BORN Pagan, I just wish somebody had told me.

And yes, we did exchange gifts, although only a very few. As far as gifts are concerned, we tend to more or less get what we want when we want it, or rather when we can afford it, and sometimes just because we think the recipient deserves it, for being so damn special, no special date required. This arbitrary waiting till some special day with magical permission to receive a gift is, well, arbitrary. I think that you yourself might have noticed that you have gotten yourselves all kinds of goodies without any special day excuse to get it, on TOP of all the stuff you buy yourselves on Christmas, so you are just as "guilty" as we are.

Just remember, though, that it's the AFFORDABILITY factor that's most important. If you are putting any of this stuff on credit, then maybe you have a problem. Buying things like washing machines and cars and homes and such require we use credit, because they just cost to damn much to just dish out that kind of money out of one paycheck, at least that's the reality for most of us. But going into debt just for STUFF, well, that's just stupid. If you can't afford it, don't get it, and I promise you, you will survive. Really, you will. Save up for it. You'll REALLY love it then!

So, we are waiting for the non-resident loved ones to make their way back home so that we can lavish our love on them (they couldn't be here for Yule) and THEN the holiday will be over as far as "the holidays" are concerned. We'll be looking forward to seeing how many more inches the grandkid has grown, and man has this kid been collecting the inches! Another words, he's really getting tall.

While many of you have been wading through some incredible amounts of snow, we here at Pendragon Hold have been experiencing almost tropical weather, with days getting up into the 80's, so you can imagine how out-of-synch it seems to be down here. All over the nation Mother Nature has been having a field day, with ice storms and blizzards, snarling ground and air traffic, and cutting off power to millions of homes, while down here.........damn it's nice! You hate us, don't you?

The Palestinians just HAD to goad the Israelis into attacking the Gaza Strip again, and I am beginning to lose all empathy for these people. You want peace ,you want the "Occupiers" to leave your land and grant you a homeland, and what do you do? Shoot rockets at them? Are you genetically predisposed to acting STUPID? Then fine, if you insist, if I were an Israeli, I would shoot back too. So just fucking shut up about it while your towns and infrastructure are being reduced to ruble, all because you JUST CAN'T STOP PROVOKING them. And all those "innocent civilians" that are being caught in this stupid crossfire? YOU killed them.

Oh, remember that nagging problem I've been having with the Focus, the idling problem that I can't seem to fix on my own? Well, I broke down and took our beloved conveyance to the Ford repair place and after paying almost a car payment for the diagnostic and repair, had the problem resolved, problem amounting to simply an L-shaped connection to the PVC valve having a hole in it. I COULD have done the job myself for practically nothing, only I couldn't figure out where the problem was or what part was involved, thus the experts stay in business. I truly look forward to the day when we have electric vehicles without these engines with 2548 parts, all designed not to keep you running except to the repair shop.

Thus you have enjoyed yet another episode of the Chronicles of Pendragon Hold, where now the days grow longer, the love grows stronger, and life goes on much as it has for thousands of years, only in new and interesting ways.

Blessed Be!

And So This is Christmas

2008-12-25T06:20:00.000-08:00

"And so this is Christmas....
and what have you done?
for the near and the dear one's,
and new ones just begun......"

Today is Christmas, the supposed birth date of "The Prince of Peace", Jesus Christ, AKA the "Son of God". It's a date I have struggled with every year of my life. Of all the days we celebrate something, this one is certainly the paradox of them all. Whole armies, if somewhat of the same religious persuasion, have halted their killing on this date, while in modern times, it has become a day of rest after a month-long orgy of spending, usually putting families into debt at the same time, while business has come to rely on this one day to put their balance sheets into the plus zone. One day out of 365. On this day the depressed will often be pushed to suicide, and homeless people will be ushered into gymnasiums for their biannual guilt feast, the other one being Thanksgiving. If anything, the "Prince of Peace" has taught us that how we usually treat each other is not right, by any moral standard, and thus we try, at least, on this one day of the year, to act as though any of us really care what he tried to tell us all those thousands of years ago.

"So Merry Merry Christmas,'
and a happy New Year....
let's hope it's a good one,
without any fear.....?

Winter Solstice/Yule 2008

2008-12-22T13:11:00.000-08:00

Well, there goes another pleasant, stress-free Yule. Once again we concentrated on saying goodbye to the long night and welcoming back our Father Sun. Once again I was spared possible death/paraplegia putting up Christmas lights on the roof, another one of those energy wasting practices we could do without. And once again our budget was not strained to the breaking point going on a shopping orgy. We traded a few simple gifts between those closest to us, and many of those were hand made and thus very special. Now we can sit back and watch nervous Christmas Shoppers try and pull us out of our economic version of the Titanic, and fail miserably. Anything that puts us into a 'sustainable consumption" mode is all right by me.

THE Resident Twin got an iPod Shuffle, which forced her to download Apple's iTunes music program to her PC. When it commenced to do everything easily without blowing up her computer, she couldn't keep the smile off her face, no matter how hard she tried. Her sister is a much tougher nut to crack, however, since her employment usually depends on Windows PC's, either fixing them (LOTTSA work THERE! hehe) or working with them.

I received another Beatles poster print to add to my "Shrine" wall dedicated to the Fab Four. And, THE Wife got herself an electric throw, so that she can NUC her side of the bed while keeping mine tolerable. As you might imagine, she gets cold easy.

So after engorging ourselves on our Yule turkey and ham, we held a celebratory circle for Winter Solstice, and asked that our families be protected from the lax economy. Ours are but small voices in this wilderness, I know, but the tiniest candle can be seen in the darkest of nights.

So what was the BEST gift I was given this Yule? Look over < at my sidebar showing all the bloggers on my blog roll. Having had the opportunity to get to know, in various degrees, each and every one of them. THAT has been the best gift of all. And better yet, it's a gift that keeps on giving!

May longer days bring more and more light to any darkness you may have to deal with...........Blessed Be!

You've come a long way, Baby...........

2008-12-19T06:00:00.000-08:00

There were once frontiers, new vistas to explore, new lands to settle, always some new place for pioneers to stake a claim to. Well, those days have long passed, and the world has shrunk to a size that has almost become claustrophobic. As our population keeps increasing at exponential rates, more and more virgin landscapes are being ravaged and paved over to accommodate more and more human habitations of all sorts, as well as strip malls and all those support structures we need such as schools and sports stadiums and airports and on and on. The marginal land suitable for these purposes has all been occupied now, and what remains are ecologically delicate areas we need to keep intact unless we wish to sacrifice entire ecosystems altogether. We are even removing farms, those areas necessary to feed this growing population, and replacing those with huge gated communities from which will venture more carbon-spewing automobiles on their way to work in the cities, places which are no longer affordable to live in unless you are comfortable with gang-infested slums. We continue to build as though there is an infinite supply of new land while at the same time we allow old properties to fall into disuse and languish, empty and unused, wasted land adding to urban blight.

And in the middle of all this we celebrate the 18th (Yes, that's EIGHTEEN) child born to the Duggars, a God fearing Christian family who live according to some supposed directive from the Almighty that one family can't have enough children. The more the merrier. So many mouths for one couple to feed, the entire family has become a corporate entity with one mission; to support itself and prosper in a world where millions of children go hungry simply by virtue of having been born in the wrong place to the wrong people. They, like the Duggars, would probably love to breed like rabbits in order to foster their own workforce to work their meager farms, only starvation and ever-degrading resources have put a brake on that idea.

I suppose the Duggens have never seriously considered how much impact they make on the resources necessary to keep them housed, fed, and clothed. To think that they take NOTHING from others in order to remain well-fed is a selfish illusion that makes this kind of mindset just one of the many nails we as a species continue to drive into our coffins. Folks, there is only so much shit to go around, and just like the herds of deer who overpopulate their territories and have to be culled by hunters, we already are experiencing our own culling overseas, and that very blind sort of natural justice WILL visit itself upon those of us in the Western world eventually, and then the Duggens will be facing hostile families with two children who think perhaps the bread is being broken into much smaller pieces than were necessary.

Yuletides and Economic Tsunamis

2008-12-17T18:37:00.000-08:00

Yea, I know; where the hell have I been? Right here. With not a lot to blog about. Sometimes I get 'bloggers block" and rather than whipping out yet another brilliant post, I'm staring at an empty text edit box with nothing whatsoever to put in it. That's where I've been.

It's not as if there's not really ANYthing to blog about; the economy alone is the frankenstein monster sitting in the corner smoking a joint. In my particular situation, health care, it would seem as if I am pretty much immune, but I can't expect that we could possibly be immune to all this. I keep asking my manager if there have been any noises concerning cutbacks, and she insists she's heard nothing, but the truth of the matter is that where layoffs are concerned, you don't get subtle warnings, you get blindsided, just like on Survivor. So, being the at the bottom of the hospital food chain, if I'm gonna get axed, it will be swift and merciless. I try not to think about it.

So, all one can do is slow down the spending, try very hard to put some green aside, and hope for the best. Trouble is, EVERYBODY is doing just that, slowing down the spending, which is only adding to the problem. However, what really pisses me off is the fact that the banks, those "special" institutions who have had bags of money thrown at them to keep them afloat, have been hoarding all that money (except for the good portion of it that they have been awarding themselves in compensation for being such wonderful people) and not lending it to people who six months ago would have been loaned the money no questions asked for any reason whatsoever. Now, people with perfectly acceptable credit are being denied loans to buy cars, cars are sitting on lots unsold, and it all goes merrily down the drain, and why in the FUCK is the government allowing this to happen? Is THIS what FREE enterprise is all about? Then FUCK free enterprise is all I have to say!

Tomorrow night is THE Wife's work's X-mas party, which will be held at a swank local establishment. I'm amazed that there will even be one this year, but these girls do deserve it. Last year the party was held at one of the partner's homes, a nice mansion on the river. The optical field has been very, very good to some.

I had to cut down one of the small oaks in the Goat's pen, but from the tree came this year's Yule Log, which will be used to celebrate the Winter Solstice, OUR holiday for this season which has nothing to do with supernatural virgin births or fat guys flying airborne sleighs out of the North Pole. Most of us can't seem to get entirely out of the gift-giving habit, though, so that has been kept as part of the holiday, and hey, as long as it's kept within reason, I might as well not complain. So, in the spirit of the shortest day of the year, after which the hope of new life springs forth from the coldest days, I wish all of you, my fellow bloggers, the happiest and safest holiday, in whatever form you celebrate it, and may you reap all the good things you have sown.

Blessed Be!

An Ill Wind

2008-12-11T19:56:00.000-08:00

Tonight, evil will paint the landscape of an increasingly lawless Mexico, as the drug gangs kill each other and the innocents caught in the crossfire. Another journalist who hasn't already gotten the message will be assassinated, the public reminded that what goes on in the Kremlin, stays in the Kremlin. A ragtag navy of amateur pirates will ply the rich trade routes of the Arabian gulf and blatantly take another ship and it's crew hostage. And a Jacksonville Police officer will once again be forced to return fire on a desperate young black man who has lost all respect for life, including his own. This is the ill wind that blows thru the land of men.

Tonight, the leaves still hanging desperately to the limbs of oaks growing from the sand of Pendragon Hold will be not-so-gently encouraged to relinquish their hold and return to the good earth from which they will be reborn. A meteorological phenomenon brought about by differing pressures within the atmosphere of this planet will have it's effect upon the Earth and all that reside upon it, with no ill will or evil intent, which may or may not instill some tragedy upon those caught within it's fickle embrace. The wind, my friends, does not know fairness, or good, or bad, but is indifferent, as all of nature must be, for it is within this indifference that goodness and light must learn to thrive, or perish, no helping hand lent, no cosmic cheerleaders on the sidelines to root for the "good guys".

As this cold front passes through the trees of Pendragon hold this night, I want to wish the very best upon all those who via this blog have shared our hearth, our hearts, and our joys. An ill wind is visited upon us, created by us, and can only be undone by us. But remember, the leaves upon that ground had their season, they knew the brightest green of spring, the grandest green of summer, and the valiant yellows and reds and browns of fall; now it is time to come home, for spring will come, as will the rain, the sun, and some purpose under heaven.

Blessed Be!

A Final Solution to Final Solutions

2008-12-10T06:40:00.000-08:00

I came across this news report concerning how rough and loud rock music is being used to break prisoners in Gitmo and other American military prisons, often driving these men mad. I love the Beatles, but even I know one could only take so much of "Helter Skelter".

Musicians protest use of songs by US jailers

Continually I come across one new outrage after another concerning the methods we employ against captured insurgents in this new "war on terror" that Dubya introduced to us when we should have simply marched into Afghanistan and solved the problem on day one. Instead, thousands of American and foreign lives and more money than any of us could hope to count has been flushed down the toilet of sickness that too many so-called civilized and "patriotic" people call national security. We have made so many enemies in the last six years it's amazing that the rest of the world hasn't outlawed US, much less the Taliban and Al-Quida. And to think that on that fateful day when the twin towers fell, an entire planet of people were not disillusioned with us, but stood with us.

Don't get me wrong. I am all for national defense. I am all for ANY sovereign people's right to defend themselves against aggression. World War Two was the perfect example of a free people finally saying "enough is enough" and turning its full force and fury against a true axis of evil. Even then we did things we should not be proud of having done, but in the heat of war, no nation has been noted for having adhered to the high road, and those white hats WE wore bear the stains.

But then came this sense of "anything we do is necessary, no matter how egregious" mindset we thought we had earned by defeating he Nazi's. Even now, there are reports of atrocities having been committed either by Americans or under the watchful eyes of Americans in the Korean conflict, stories so horrible I would dare say had they been brought to light during the war, might have brought a president down. By the time we got sucked into the quagmire of Vietnam, we were convinced that WE were the God-appointed guardians of freedom and liberty throughout the world, and we didn't always want to know exactly how it was being done. Out of sight, out of mind. Isn't THAT special?

So, since we can't seem to perform such an uncivilized job in a more humane fashion, I say we just pull the gloves off altogether, get real honest about warfare altogether, and just say up front that once it starts, anything goes. That's right, folks, if we insist on getting into wars with other people for whatever reason, I say we just do it right, and kill each and every man, woman and child within whatever border it was that pissed us off so much we want to kill people for it. No sneaky toxic time-bombs like agent orange, no "surgical strikes" at key targets that usually just kill scores of innocent bystanders anyway, no occupation and humiliation of a populace......nope......enough of the dishonest bullshit, just DO it, get it over with, end of story. Carpet bombing, nuclear weapons, hell, who cares, just use the most efficient methods of large-scale production style murder our military/industrial complex can come up with.

The Last Ghost of War

Imagine the advantages to this approach. First off, the planet REALLY comes out ahead by having such a large volume of parasites removed from it's infected skin. Then there's all that pressure off our farmers to feed all these people. Less workers to steal OUR jobs. The benefits of total war and all-out genocide are more than I could think of in a blog post. AND, not only do we enjoy the immediate benefits of TOTALLY removing our enemy, but there's the wonderful aftermath of all this horror in that there IS no aftermath. No rebuilding, no costly occupation, no refugee camps, no trials of war criminals (theirs OR ours) and no birth defects or environmental disasters to have to deal with decades after the fact. NONE, NADA, truly the END of the argument. AND, we get to write the history, about how noble we were, how evil THEY were, and how we were chosen by God himself to bring all those sinners to Jesus. That's right, folks, if we could kill a commie for Christ, we can kill ANY class of people for ANY deity, we need not be picky. I mean, after all, when was the last time God objected to anything anybody did in HIS name?

The Taliban and Al-Quida already embrace this concept, and the only thing preventing them from engineering the idea to its full potential is the fact that, well, they are all idiots. Religious fanaticism tends to lower the IQ fairly drastically, thank God.......(THAT is the best pun I have accidently come up with YET!!!) However, WE depend on our rocket scientists, who happen to be mostly secular in their mindset, to develop OUR weapons of mass destruction, so the "Baptist effect" our own military suffers from right now is not to much of a problem; they could still get the job done if we wanted them to, especially if we convinced them that God was on OUR side, which we've been doing successfully for a couple of centuries now. Yes, thanks to GOD, we have this inner peace about our killing that puts every other divinely driven army to shame. And, true to form, some ass-wipe decides that it's a brilliant idea to kill a large number of Americans in one fell swoop, like Pearl Harbor or the Twin Towers, thus learning once again, the hard way, that when you've pissed off AMERICANs, you've pissed off GOD!

And the Israeli's think THEIR God is a bad-ass.............

A Perfect Film for the Holidays!

2008-12-08T13:43:00.000-08:00

"If the Earth dies, you die. If you die, the Earth lives."

This is the chilling pronouncement made by an alien emissary to the Earth in the remake of the Sci-Fi classic "The Day The Earth Stood Still".

Which is why I very much look forward to seeing this movie. I have always envisioned what it would be like to have a superior intelligence visit us, take one look around, and come to the very obvious conclusion that some serious pest control needs to be done around here. It would stand to reason, to me at least, that any species surviving their own evolution long enough to discover space travel would take a very dim view of the possibility of the human race stumbling across it's own way off this planet and spreading it's brand of sentience across the cosmos. Of course, I really do believe that if there really IS a way to cut across interstellar space lickety-split fast enough to make it practical, we are going to kill ourselves off before we get anywhere near discovering it, unless it turns out that it happens to be so simple even a human could figure it out. Or, maybe the universe will just get lucky and that big rock will find us before that happens.

You probably think I have no loyalty to my own species whatsoever. Well, as downright treasonous as it seems, I have met the enemy, and he was in the mirror. If sentience has done anything for me it's given me the ability to observe and reason based on those observations, and I have not observed much concerning my own species that I find comforting. I mean, think about it, when the best strategy you can employ against a tribe of humans is to simply let them alone long enough and they will take care of themselves for you, then you know something just isn't right. So how could evolution have made such a big mistake when it came to choosing us as the top predator? Well, trial and error sometimes screws up, and apparently that's what happened with us, just like it happened many times in the past when certain creatures reached an evolutionary dead end.

Yes, I know, many of you reading this think of yourselves as perhaps different, as a kinder/gentler version of this nasty creature that does genocide so well. And, relatively, you are probably right to some degree. But you know and I know that each and every one of us is fully capable of doing some VERY nasty things, and all the intelligence and love and empathy we can muster simply cannot make up for those moments of madness we might find ourselves involved in should the right button be pushed. Do you honestly think that all those shoppers amassed in front of Walmart that morning thought they were capable of KILLING somebody simply because they got in the way of low, low prices? Do you think that any of these drunk drivers started off the night plotting exactly how they were going to get wasted enough to take out a mini-van full of children and not even suffer a scratch for their efforts? No, I didn't think so. Our monsters lurk deep within, and we are shocked how easily we can let them loose, not out of malice but out of intellectual laziness.

So go watch the movie, and may I suggest you think long and hard before you start rooting for the "good guys". Do you really think they are US?

At least we got to see Paris. We'll always have Paris.

Another Day of Another Week

2008-12-07T18:22:00.000-08:00

There's another "reality" show coming up that appeals to our prurient interests, further proof that these rocket scientists out in Hollywood are flat out of ideas when it comes to decent television. It has something to do with beauty queens being judged by the show's experts (?) on their "inner beauty"................somebody please vacate the airspace over my head while the concept zips right through it.

Today was not a typical Sunday in the Unit. It was just an inch short of crazy, death paid visits several times, and I went home with aching legs. But, I was in good company, and together we all made a difference, even if perhaps that fact was not apparent to some family members. I don't personally want to die in this place, but there are no finer people I would rather die in the company of then these nurses.

The wife may have given up the ways of Christian Christmas, but she never really abandoned the joy that the idea imprints upon the Westerner who has grown up with this tradition. She is busy trimming the "Yule Tree" (which in many ways is the actual Pagan forerunner of the Christmas Tree) and I have to admit that it does look rather beautiful in it's monochromatic way. The family is still intent on sharing gifts, in the "Yuletide" tradition, which is fine with me as long as I don't have to risk paraplegic injury putting up Christmas lights on the roof anymore. However, I WILL have to say something if the gifts start piling up beneath this tree, ala' "consumption-mass". Frankly, I've had my fill of it, and I think that American Capitalism needs to embrace something other than this month long spending frenzy to support the retail markets profits for the entire year. Maybe this recession/depression will put a serious damper on this stupidly shallow custom of ours.

While I was slaving away serving mankind at the hospital, THE Wife and the Resident Daughter decided to spend the day in St Augustine enjoying the shops, combing them for anything with pagan flavor. They were quite dismayed to see that the bad economy has already taken a heavy toll on many of the shops in the nation's oldest city, many of them boarded up, victims of previously high gas prices and now a deficit of tourists with anything to spend. Exxon/Mobile started this mess, greedy mortgage brokers pumped it up, and I would be very pleased to see each and every one of those greedy bastards put in stocks and mocked by the populace in the streets of Jamestown and St. Augustine, just like they were in the olden days when your honor was something that meant something to you.

Just another Sunday here at Pendragon Hold, weathering the economic storm just like all of you, and hoping to still be here when the winds die down and the waters recede. Blessed Be you all.

Choking on Consumption

2008-12-04T06:35:00.000-08:00

I think one of the major problems facing this economy, one which may prove to make a full recovery impossible, is our burgeoning population. Our economy has depended upon the full-tilt spending of the largest group of consumers the world has ever known, which includes all those Indians and Chinese, and when all those people suddenly can't spend like banshees anymore, a chain reaction begins which just any one fix, including throwing "money" at the problem, can't overcome. It's very much like the environment, in which removing one species from the web of life has a detrimental effect all throughout the system. Case in point; the wood products/paper industry in the Pacific NorthWest is in dire straights, not simply because there is less need for wood to build houses, but because there is less demand for cardboard to wrap up all these goodies with, such as electronics (oh, and that includes the plastic packaging that you need scissors to break into) and all that stuff that Amazon.Com ships. The housing collapse effected all of the construction trades, such as carpenters, electricians, plumbers, plus all those people who deal with real estate and it's associated paperwork, then you head down the line to those who manufacture sinks, ovens, refrigerators, pvc pipe, concrete, etc, etc, etc.............

OK, now all THOSE people are out of work, not only not spending their paychecks, but now drawing on unemployment, food stamps, or whatever program they can to try and survive. Those of us still working pay for all of that, as did those who once held tax-paying jobs. It keeps getting worse......now all that money that used to be spent on groceries, clothing, rent, car payments, health insurance premiums, etc, etc, etc, is now gone, so those whose jobs depend on on that now lose THEIR jobs. No, don't worry, unless the whole company goes under, the CEO's of those companies will never suffer....hell, only in America, they will probably get a raise for laying all those people off. We might have defeated the British in 1776, but we never defeated royalty.

Now, you say, fine, you got laid off, too bad, quit whining and go out and find another job. Oh, really? WHAT job? And, even if you DID meet the requirements for another job, so do a whole new crop of people who are in the same boat as you, and only one person gets each job that MIGHT be available. Besides, an economy that is going down the tubes is not creating new jobs, except perhaps in foreclosure departments..

So, one wonders how all this gets turned around and everybody gets to go back to work and try and pick up the pieces. Well, IF and when a recovery occurs, all the new jobs that people find to replace the old ones will pay less, offer fewer if any benefits, and all that experience and seniority you once had is just flat gone; you are starting from scratch just like everybody else. If you're lucky, you will get to return to the very place you got laid off from, working for the same board of bastards that shit-canned you and then gave themselves all raises. Isn't that SPECIAL? Oh, and hopefully, the rent you are paying for your new apartment won't be much higher than the mortgage you were paying for the home you lost to foreclosure.

Oh, and at the first whiff of an economic upturn, gas will head rapidly back up to about $5 a gallon, so let's hope you are not still stuck with that SUV you were tooling around town in before the Depression hit. Not that you'll be able to afford a Toyota, Nissan, or Honda hybrid which have cornered the market with the bankruptcy and disappearance of all of our own auto manufacturers. Boing and Northrop Grumman will go on the block next. Who will be buy our tanks and destroyers from then?

Our entire economic, political, and social system, both here in the West and those of other "persuasions", is self-destructive due to it's reliance on consumerism, and the way that most all of us have to support ourselves. If ever a species needed to learn how to live WITH it's surroundings rather than becoming expert at using it all up, we do. It's quite simple, actually; when deer (prey animals) are not held in check by wolves or hunters (predators), they overpopulate, strip the territory of food, and starve to death. Despite all our wars, natural disasters, and other threats, we continue to increase our numbers with no checks or balances, with the same consequences. We here in the West have never had to face those consequences the way they do in the third world, thus we have ignored the ever-increasing peril we put ourselves in when the system that is straining to sustain us starts to collapse under it's own weight. This intricate weave of goods and services is becoming so complex that none of us entirely understand how it really works, and there comes a time when all the PHD's and bailouts will not put Humpty back together again.

There are so many ways to actually simplify this system we rely on it's not even funny. Smaller farms serving local markets rather than supporting an endless army of middlemen is one example. Locally produced organic and much safer and healthier produce, will raise the income of the people who actually grow the stuff while lowing the cost and carbon footprint. Elimination of pretty manicure lawns in favor of zeroscaped properties would cut down on all the pesticides, herbicides, and over-fertilization that is killing our rivers and ground water. Providing sane alternatives to baby making such as safe and effective contraception, parenting classes, universal health care for those who take responsibility for themselves and their own heath with healthy diet and exercise, genetic screening and counseling, and other measures can drastically reduce the cost of health care and support of children without good families to raise them. But, I think the best thing we can really do is ask all of ourselves a serious question; does owning more and more things really make me happy? Just because one COULD buy something (providing a demand for it) does not necessarily mean one SHOULD buy something, as if simply the very ACT of purchasing some piece of crap is another form of "getting high". The fashion industry is one of our worst offenders, with an endless stream of clothing and assesories such as women's shoes and purses having to be replaced and sent to the landfill just because you owned them for three months. Heaven forbid you get caught wearing a pump that is "soooo yesterday"!

No, really, if you don't understand just how selfish and self-centered that behavior is, as well as the unseen consequences on the whole environment, then you are personally responsible and equally guilty of committing slow murder of everything around you. Remember how previously I described how intricate and interwoven this economy based on consumption is? That bag you payed far to much for that is suddenly out of style.....well......people made that bag and now that it isn't "IN", they lost business and might lose their jobs, just because you, YES YOU, were so fickle about your purse preferences. And to think those people might have been well employed making good, sturdy clothing items that lasted and were affordable.

Another misguided aspect is our failure to promote cooperation between industries to provide the best products for the least cost while employing the most people with the best kinds of jobs. Instead, it's out and out competition, companies pandering to the lowest common denominator in order to "defeat" the competition and steal more market share. As I once said, the REAL reason any business or industry exists is because that's how people support themselves.....NOT because rich people want to plant a money seed and grow a money tree so that they can buy a whole fleet of lear jets. So, instead of falsely claiming to be concerned about how well investors are served (when the truth of the matter is how well the CEO and his board buddies make out), management of ANY company should be comprised of those whose blood, sweat and tears MAKE that company work, and whose choices have a direct impact upon their own fortunes. A worker in a car factory is going to want to make the best damn car he can, because THAT will satisfy the customer and insure the worker a better standard of living. If the WORKER doesn't work hard enough and takes an excess amount of compensation for his labors, then HE will suffer the consequences and only has HIMSELF to blame, not that blood sucking CEO or his supposed concern for "investors". The stock market is a sham that is actually more responsible for economic downturns than any other instrument in the whole process. So, until we eliminate the whole concept of corporations and their boards of entitled royalty, there will never be economic justice and the endless cycle of economic downturns will continue.

But, that's just me..........what do I know?

Way of the Witch

2008-11-29T17:59:00.000-08:00

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.

2008-11-28T06:32:00.000-08:00

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.....)

First, the Good News......

2008-11-20T11:59:00.000-08:00

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.

Race to Nowhere

2008-11-15T18:13:00.000-08:00

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.

The Slit Wrist of Intellect

2008-11-12T09:12:00.000-08:00

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.

Rats!

2008-11-10T15:02:00.000-08:00

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.

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

2008-11-06T17:44:00.000-08:00

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.

2008-11-05T06:27:00.000-08:00

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!

I Don't Do Memes

2008-10-29T15:59:00.000-07:00

I'm sure, far back somewhere in the annals of TTEM, I mentioned the fact that I don't do "memes". Hell, to this day I still don't know exactly what "meme" means. Whatever, it seems that each one demands so much exacting rigamarole, it's just to much work for me. So no, I'm not going to waste valuable post font making up a list of things people should know about me, because, frankly, there's not actually anything anybody SHOULD know about me, like, for instance, that I am not a cat person, yet every feline within a mile of me seeks me out, totally ignoring those around me who claim to be cat lovers. Or, that I have this perpetual frown engraved on my face that totally misleads people as to my actual inner demeanor. So, look, get to know me and get over it, because I can't afford to have a plastic surgeon install a nice shiny smile on my keister. And YES, when I exert myself, I have been told I have the "sweetest" smile........And no, you have no need whatsoever to know that I was the first (and I think perhaps only) Personnelman (a navy job description) to report for duty onboard two separate nuclear fast attack submarines, filling in for the Yeomen who normally man the ship's office, due to an extreme shortage in Yeomen volunteering for submarine service. So, in a weird and totally "who really gives a fuck" sort of way, I made history. Just so you know. Not that you needed to.
Oh, and I once sat a world's altitude record in model rocketry for rockets using "B" grade rocket engines. So what if the record was broken by some other numb-nut within two weeks? I was KING for at least that long! Just saying........

Anyway, I don't do memes, and I sure as hell don't do six of them. No less than three of my favorite bloggers tagged me for this exercise in rubbing the letters off my keys, and I am suppose to link to them and do all sorts of chain letter sorts of things but no, let me make this perfectly clear, I DON'T DO this stuff.

Not that I don't appreciate being thought of amongst all the millions of bloggers out there as worthy of being tagged by mad memmers. I suppose I should think of it as making the big leagues. Only, I don't do sports, so no thanks, I'll pass. There are plenty of other more worthy contenders who are at this very moment researching their personality traits and history so that they can do their memes proud.

Moving on, the day approaches that THE Wife sees the neurosurgeon to see just how bad her neck is and what he's recommending be done about it. She's in pain, and quite frankly, I'm stressed, because not only is the woman I love in pain and facing a potentially dangerous surgery that may or may not actually improve her condition, but this is going to put a strain on us financially, due to her being out of work and not having much sick leave or disability insurance to cover the shortfall. We, my friends, are the REAL "Joe the Plumbers"", real, hard working Americans faced with real problems that Republicans don't seem to understand, because apparently, unless you make enough money to make people want to tax you, you must not be a "REAL" American, or at least a conservative's idea of what a real American is. I suppose our lack of desire to be ultra-rich makes us out to be socialists. Whatever, I was born here, my wife was born here, and I don't care whether you like our politics or not.......we have as much right to be here as any suck-ass conservative, rabidly right wing-religious closet nazi.

********************************************************************************************************************************

The above was typed days ago and today we went to the Neurosurgeon, and he suggested that if we want to take a surgical stab at fixing THE Wife's neck, he would prefer that she get a more advanced imaging test which involves a cat scan and a lumbar puncture, so that he can get a better picture of what he is dealing with and what he can do to try and make it better. I told him, fine, he could have his test, as long as he uses Maine Coon cats, and not those damned Siamese. I will NOT have those arrogant cats scanning my wife! Anyway, it will be almost another month before we get around to getting the test, and who knows how long after that to have the actual surgery, if THE Wife decides to go thru with it. Yes, there IS an alternative to surgery: pain killers and SUFFERING!

Helping to distract her from the pain, THE Wife is putting sooooo much energy into our upcoming Samhain celebration, which will include many of her co-workers. The night have gotten somewhat nippy of late, but hopefully, Friday night will not be as cold, and the fire will be warm enough for everybody. THE Resident Twin has burned a beautiful design into a small table-top which will made it's debue this Friday, and here's photographic evidence of her talent for your consideration. The "veil between the worlds" will be thin this night, and sometimes I like to imagine that if only I were a truer believer, I would be able to at least glimpse some essence of my Mom, that gypsy soul who loved me, lost me, and found me again, then left me early to go paint in Summerland. I will not brainwash myself into seeing something that just isn't there, and I am willing to accept the possibility that I lost my Mom forever the day she died, then delude myself with wanting so badly that I psych myself into seeing her ghost. That's how cults find their victims. I intend never to be a victim. But, Michele, if you ARE there, between the worlds, I have no doubt that you know that I love you and miss you.

The Attack of the "Anti-Americans"

2008-10-23T10:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I chambered my round, walked into the voting booth, and fired MY shot
for liberation of my Homeland. Yes, although I reside in "almost" or "fake" or "not-quite" America, and must be "anti-American" due to my strangely "unpatriotic" ability to think for myself, I went to my polling place and DARED to cast MY "terrorist" vote for...........gasp, shudder, OMG!!!!.......a BLACK MAN!

That's right, folks, I and my atheist devil worshipping gay loving pornographer terrorist/leftist/commie/ comrades just might turn this anti-christ loose on the white women of America and force them all to become Muslim sex slaves, raise taxes on 6 year olds, and open up liberal media training camps on our college campuses! Yes! And on top of that, we are going to FORCE every American (well, most of them, anyway) to have health insurance, and maybe get off unemployment and into a real job! SOCIALISM!!!! And despite the fact that Jesus is going to come back right after this election and clean it all up and just shovel all this shit right into the burning lakes of hell, we are gonna FORCE you to breathe clean air, TAKE your toxins and pollution away from you, and maybe even save the planet from global warming! Now wouldn't that be a pisser to all you rapture puppets?

Of course, that means now everybody has to get onto welfare and drive Cadillacs with shag carpet on the dash and Gangsta Bling hanging from the rear view. Yep, and then we will force God out of the class room and back into the churches where his bad ass belongs! Isn't it amazing that mere liberal gay loving baby killers can do that? And here I was thinking God couldn't be fucked with like that! Praise New Orleans and pass the hurricanes!

So, if THIS is the kinda shit you dumb ass retards REALLY believe, then be Afraid, very VERY Afraid, and get your ass down to the voting booth and vote as often as you can. While you are at it, you might want to jump some liberal looking faggot in the parking lot and (with the help of five of your drunk friends, of course) beat him up, just in case he was heading in to vote for that arab. That'll teach those un-American commies not to come around HERE voting!

Why would I encourage you to do that? Because we have ALWAYS had people like you littering the landscape, and you reproduce like rabbits, but guess what, this year we OUTNUMBER your narrow minded asses and your reign of DUH is OVER!

This was an unpaid political advertisement for the election of Barrack Obama, and you're damn straight I approved this message!!!

P.S. There is a perfectly rational explanation for the appearance of this post which appears to be a rant, something I swore I would never publish again. In a moment of weakness, I was possessed by a demon, and since I was temporarily not Wiccan, I also decided not to take personal responsibility for my own actions, preferring instead on insisting that "The DEVIL made me do it"! Thank you and have a nice day.

Weekend Edition: Observations, Pontifications, and News from the Homefront

2008-10-18T16:46:00.000-07:00

I knew I went into the wrong profession........I had no idea that plumbers would be raking in so much dough they needed special tax breaks just like the ultra rich do. I know I'm going to really miss being trickled on when Obama takes away their big tax cuts.

What really galls me to no end is this constant drumbeat by conservatives that "government" is such a big, horrible, evil creature that is out to destroy all of us. Now wait a second.....I am one of those fortunate ones who actually had a civics class in school (yes, Virginia, they once required us to learn about our own government and how it works) and the way it was explained to ME was that this is a government OF the people, BY the people, and FOR the people. No, we do not toil beneath the heels of some royalty; we elect our own representatives to run the government for us and make our lives better. So, where does this crap come from that government is something, in THIS country of all places, that is out to HARM us? Are you kidding me? Ohhhhhhhhh, I get it.......you thought that government is supposed to be some etherial entity that makes it possible for everybody to get rich if they worship the right God, know the right people, and never expects anybody to pay taxes to support that government, you know, that "thing" that paves the roads and builds schools and things like that.

Yep, somehow we think that there is a money factory somewhere that magically buys our troops bullets and tanks and bombers, keeps the electricity on at all times, and gives joe six-pack insurance to rebuild his house on the beach every year because those damn liberal hurricanes caused by gay people keep blowing through like clockwork. And we think that all those people up there in Washington came from some other planet or maybe even overseas because they are all "special interests", unless of course they are catering to NASCAR, Mountain removal, and deer hunting with AK-47's. Funny how these good old boys demand the right to own a weapon manufactured by "commies". I hope one day they finally win the war against those terrifying deer that your ordinary high-powered rifle doesn't seem to be able to stop.

Right up the road from Pendragon Hold is a State Park. If you go walking (I can't bring myself to consider walking along a perfectly flat trail amongst pine trees "hiking") through this place, you can many times luck out and come across a deer. When I see these creatures, I try to imagine a time when I thought that killing one was "sporting" and was supposed to be enjoyable, despite the fact I never needed to do it to eat. Yes, being at the top of the food chain, I would kill an animal if it meant putting protein in my belly or starving. Things have to get alot worse than they are now before I can see that happening. Chicken breast fillets, be afraid....be VERY afraid!

The price of gas is coming down, and I know why. A bunch of not- quite- as- rich- as -they- used- to- be-movers and shakers told the boys over at Exxon, "Stop taking all the goddamn MONEY!! " So, with their coffers bulging and being flat worn out tying to come up with new ways to spend it all, the Oil barons decided sure, we can back off for awhile. There's always tomorrow......

In Michigan there has been a 34% increase in student homelessness. That's a very large segment of our future having no place to go home to after school. The trend started by the Reagan (Morning in America) administration continues with a vengeance as families, lured into homes they could not afford, lose those homes to insanely stupid kinds of mortgages that no responsible lender should have talked them into. I have had a mortgage with a terribly high interest rate for eight years now, but it was a fixed rate and I'm sure it contributed to the bankruptcy we endured last year. Yet, somehow, we manage to pay our mortgage each month, because by now, rent in a decent apartment, at half the size, is not an alternative. This is Morning in America. I sometimes cry.

On the work front, it seems that I and a new aid recently transferred in are the only two aids left out of a rash of injuries and illnesses. Looks like I might be able to get in some overtime. THE Wife, on the other hand, has become a force to be reckoned with at HER job, as she was responsible for heading off an employee rebellion when personalities clashed, tempers flared, and people threatened to walk. The woman this employer was reluctant to hire initially due to her age, inexperience in this narrow field, and asking wage has become an invaluable part of his business, just as I knew she would given the chance. I am so proud of her.

We are working on getting the shade garden tidied up for Samhain, our most important Sabbat. THE High Priestess of Pendragon Hold has been working hard on the ceremony, and I and the Resident Twin are working on an ornate table we will be installing just outside the entrance arbor to the garden. She's tracing out an intricate woven pentagram and moon which I will burn into the wooden round, which after staining and sealing will be installed on a post to be used for tools used outside the circle, such as my smudging pot. I'll have pictures when we finish it.

I just made the second-to-last payment on the Focus, and hopefully, saving the payments that would have gone to Ford Credit, we will have a decent down payment in a few months to put towards a small truck. All I can do is hope that having established our ability to make car payments despite the economy and a bankruptcy, we can get a another car loan. I know that if the auto manufacturers don't want to ALL go down the drain, they are either going to have to finance their own cars or persuade the banks to loosen the purse strings for the good of the nation. But, American-style capitalism is all about putting the hurt on the competition, not cooperating to raise everybody up equally. Like I said before, in this country commerce is a weapon, and it is being welded like a broad axe.

Tonight Sarah Palin will be playing herself on Saturday Night Live. Maybe she'll explain to us the "New" family values that she brings to the "conservative" movement. Like allowing the hockey playing baby-daddy of your underage (didn't just say NO) daughter to drop out of high school to get a job on the North Slope. Like praising her for having the baby while condemning others for even getting pregnant in the first place, and not mentioning the hypocrisy of it all. For declaring "spiritual warfare" on "witches" while simultaneously utilizing you own unique brand of spell craft to bring harm to others. Yes, Sarah, I want you to play yourself with at least as much accuracy as Tina Fey has. Just in time for Halloween, so that we can truly be afraid.....VERY afraid.........

I hope you have enjoyed this weekend edition of The Chronicles of Pendragon Hold, where family values are savored, not sold to the highest bidder.

2008-10-14T16:52:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to The Chronicles of Pendragon Hold. I am your host, Lord Alex Pendragon, Master Harper and Grand Administrator of this humble little acre of sand tucked away in the far corners of metropolitan North East Florida. May your visit be worth the bandwidth you burned through to get here.

This is day two of my usual three-day struggle to occupy my time between twin twelve hour shifts I am forced to work in order to fund my existence. To think that once I could have spent all that time working my maize crops or hunting wooly mammoths. Now I open cans of niblets and marinate chicken breasts, and somehow, it just doesn't seem to be as satisfying.

Today is one of our paydays, so I get to pay bills online and shop for groceries (hunt and gather) and try and figure out how far behind we have fallen this week. I hear that the entire world is on the brink of economic catastrophe, but what I would like to know is this: when HASN'T the whole fucking world been on the brink of financial catastrophe? World hunger and homelessness were alive and well last I heard. I can see it from here, no more than two paychecks away.

Somebody outright robbed my good friend (or so I claim) Donn of one of his posts, which reminds me of the citizen who did the same thing to every post my other good friend (again, I make claims), The Buffalo ever made, claiming them to be his own. People amaze me. It seems to me it takes alot more energy to steal someone's intellectual property than it does to just make something up yourself. I just create this shit on the fly myself, and people seem to be happy enough with it. Yes, I know, you gotta remember shit as it happens and describe it in so many words, but, c'mon, if you people can yack all day on cellphones while driving Ford Expeditions while putting on eyeliner and lipstick, you can write something for your own blog without stealing it from somebody else. You can't? Well, fine then, go kill yourself. Before someone else does.

Another friend of mine (I know, I seem to have alot of friends, don't I?) on the other side of the world made the mistake of climbing on a motor bike with an attitude not compatible with respect for fine machinery. She was taught a lesson in humility, which I attempted to warn her would happen. My lesson came a little late, as it seems my ability to send psychic messages straight to someone, bypassing their comment section altogether, is on the fritz. I apologize for that. However, I am proud to report that I did not stoop to telling her I told her so, as some other miscreant would have done. Nope, folks, I am above gleefully lording it over some one when my humble and wise counsel is not heeded. Nope, not me.............

I have this strange feeling overcoming me that someone very much wants to bitch-slap me about right now......now....who would want to do such a thing?

OUCH!

I'm listening to Pandora and wondering WTF this thing is playing me Christmas music..........I HATE Christmas music!!!!!!!!

OK, I just shut that travesty off and cranked up iTunes shuffle.....which is playing me "Night Flight" by Led Zeppelin. Sanity has been restored to my universe......

I took THE Wife to our biweekly lunch at Panera's, where we shared a two-fer, her getting the harvest salad, me the corn chowder soup. Damn good stuff for less than ten bucks. I remember when ten bucks got you a whole bag of groceries. I know, that was back in the Paleolithic...........

Thus ends another exciting episode of The Chronicles of Pendragon Hold, that little acre of sand located somewhere between Tim, Buc, and Two. May your own personal bail out checks arrive in time, and may your return visit to our humble blog always be as exciting as it was this time. Where else would you see a man being subjected to Christmas music this early in the year?

Late Bloomers and Songs in my Head

2008-10-10T09:27:00.000-07:00

It's a quiet, wet day here at Pendragon Hold. Both of the girls are working, and I am slothing off here on my third day off, preparing to return for a bout of weekend weirdness at the hospital. The three green pepper plants in the terrace garden are, long after all the other plants have given up the ghost and gone to seed, putting out peppers like crazy with winter fast approaching, as though laughing in the face of the reaper. I admire them so much I dread the idea of ripping them out come time put the entire garden bed to rest for the coming season of darkness and misery.

Just Because

Do you ever wonder whose face makes the moonlight?
 Do you ever look up and find your face there?

 Is it any wonder we find ourselves laughing
 With your tongue at my lips and your hands in my hair?

 I don't need a reason to savor the Mystery.
 All we need to is open up one eye...

 I don't need a savior to keep me from tumbling
 I'll only kneel for my lover's delight

 I don't need a church man to show me what's holy
 When I see you in the doorway surrounded in light

 I don't need a guidebook to paint out my story
 I don't need a road map to find my way back home...

 So why? Tell me why! How long? How long?  What if "why" is just because?

 I don't need a doctorate to speak with authority
 40,000 years we've been painting in caves

 I don't need an answer to each of my questions
 When the nape of your neck just won't let me "behave"

 I don't need a bible to swear on my conscience
 I don't need a stranger to know I'm not alone

 So why? Tell me why! How long? How long?  What if "why" is just because?

 I don't need a downbeat to dance in this moonlight 
With the drum in my bones I'm naked here too

 I don't need a lighthouse to find my way over
 Filled to my brim with the wanting of you

 I don't need a maestro to count out my measure
 I don't need a songbook to howl up at the moon

 So why? Tell me why! How long? How long? What if "why" is just because?
 I don't need a reason....

 Copyright 1/6/97 Christopher Bingham

That ^ was one of my favorite songs, performed by Gaia Consort, one of my all time favorite pagan bands. I thought you might enjoy the lyrics as much as I do.

2008-10-09T12:23:00.000-07:00

Welcome to a darker episode of The Chronicles of Pendragon Hold, where life takes it's twists and turns and we hold on for dear life.

After a short dry spell that was stressing out our three pepper plants, the rain has returned to Pendragon Hold, in more ways then one. THE Wife has seen her Neurologist, who after viewing the results of her MRI and nerve conduction tests, has handed her off to the local NeuroSURGEON. Yes, it's THAT bad; the scan showed that discs C-5, 6, and 7 have deteriorated to the point that now the spinal sheath has a tear in it and who knows what other damage has been done. We only have one Neurosurgeon in this area, and once he reviews the data, can decide whether or not he can do anything surgically. Apparently, there is, as his office just called with an appointment, more than three weeks from now. That was the first available.

We have at least a few Pagan friends out there in blog land, and of you, I am asking that during your next circle or whatever vehicle you utilize to invoke, that you ask of the Goddess and the God to show kindness to this woman, who has shown kindness to all who have had the good fortune to know her. Those of you who adhere to belief in Jehovah, or Yahweh, or whatever you want to call your God, I value your prayers just as much, for I know them to be just as powerful a form of magik as any we have practiced. And all you atheists out there......well.......if nothing else, I simply ask that you don't conclude that she's toast and that nothing you could visualize could help her. Just think good thoughts and whether you believe it or not, it will add to the power. Trust me on this.

There is plenty enough out there in the world right now to fear. There is plenty enough darkness gathering for me to pontificate on that I could go on a rant that could last a good five pages easily if I was inclined to do so. However, the observations I have made in the past regarding this gathering storm have been so spot on I could claim prophet status and establish my own religion, thus there's nothing more to be said about it. The chickens I so well warned us all of have come home to roost and the best that can be expected is that these geniuses running the country somehow discourage the Chinese from taking us out while we are down. I know if I were Chinese I sure as hell would.

The human condition is such that we soil most everything we touch. Commerce, instead of a method of exchanging goods and services, is used as a weapon, a tool of predation upon each other. Men who attain positions of power waste it upon themselves with opulent rewards for bad behaviors which contribute to the collapse of an entire financial system, costing jobs and homes and even lives as those who have lost everything take their own. We hold no one responsible for these bald-face assaults on our society, and thus no one trusts anyone and it's every man for themselves. I am sad to have been borne into this time in history, after all that our forefathers endured to give us better.

Well, it seems I ranted anyway. I apologize. It's a hard habit to break.

Weekend Edition

2008-10-04T10:42:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the early Saturday edition of The Chronicles of Pendragon Hold, that acre of sand somewhere in the bible belt where men are attempting to wrap their empty heads around the concept of having their Commander-in-Chief barefoot and pregnant, if not in the kitchen.

Today is fairly busy as Saturdays go. The wife is soldiering on through some serious pain brought on by what might be a pinched nerve or bulging disk or both. She won't know for sure till Monday when she sees her Neuro-Shaman. I'm putting the finishing touches on cleaning the laminate floor, getting all the dishes washed, the clothes washed and dried, and whatever we need to do to get ready for our guests tonight. You see, we do all this because humans for some strange reason can't allow other humans to see what slobs they REALLY are when guests aren't around to see it. Well, actually, we keep the place pretty clean and halfway tidy, but THE Wife gets medieval on the dirt when company's coming.

I love the party shuffle jukebox feature on my iTunes. I hear stuff I forgot I had, it's been so long since it got played. The last songs played have been:

Peace Now - Gaia Consort
Paradise By The Dashboard Light - Meatloaf
Shambala - Three Dog Night
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida - Iron Butterfly
Just a Girl - No Doubt
One Week - Barenaked Ladies
Closing Time - Semisonic
(Don't Fear) The Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult
It's the End of The World As We Know It - REM

and so on and so forth........

Cool, huh?

We'll be having a few of THE Wife's co-workers over tonight simply to sit out in the shade garden by a nice fire. The weather has been relatively nice, and this is the time of year you can go outside and not lose five pounds of water sweating.

Right now I am waiting for the mop-and-glow to dry so I can get the furniture back to it's proper places. I'll post again tonight if something sufficiently Earth-shattering occurs. Not that I expect the killer asteroid to arrive......

Just in Case.......

2008-10-03T10:55:00.001-07:00

In the interests of being "fair and balanced", I want to correct a picture posting I made to my blog last post. I found a photo of Sarah (let's kill wolves) Palin in a bikini holding a gun (which is actually, on close inspection, an air gun) by a pool. Now, when I googled this picture, it never actually occurred to me it might be photoshopped, if only because it seems such a natural pose for Palin to be captured in. We ALL have pics like these we might soon as well have never had taken, but seem fun for the moment.

I really need to pay more attention when it comes to pics, because I really should have known damn well that this was a photoshopped pic. One of my readers asked, and so I double checked, and sure enough, someone claimed credit for the deception and even provided the original shot, which I pose here.

I'm not apologizing to Sarah Palin, as I think the photo is honest in how it depicts her mindset. But I AM apologizing to YOU, my readers, for being so lax in posting the pic without double checking it's authenticity and at least informing you of the parody. Thank you, Anne, for keeping me honest.

So, dear readers, I promise to try and at least notify you that a photo is fake if it really could be construed as being real. It fooled me at first glance but shouldn't have.

And I still think Sarah Palin is a bloodthirsty, bigoted redneck with an understandable vocabulary who is just dying to usher in the Rapture, because, after all, she loves all of us. Especially us witches.

Lug Nuts and Numb Nuts

2008-10-02T16:17:00.000-07:00

Today was a day. I had a project scheduled; replacing the brake pads on THE Resident Daughters' auto-mo-go. So, of course, it wasn't that easy.

I have changed the brake pads on my own auto's for quite a long time now, and expected this one to be a piece of cake. And, it would have been, except that when I got to the right-side wheel, one of the lug nuts decided it didn't want to come off. Apparently, the numb-nuts who put on this last set of tires was pretty careless with the air-ratchet, cross-threading the nut as it went on. So, all that could be done short of a complete bolt replacement (a costly proposition) was to break it off altogether. Poor girl had that done and I finished the job, but it seems that the money I saved her doing the brake job will probably be made up by having to replace that wheel bolt. Life sucks that way.

Aside from that I had to seek out things to keep me occupied. I raked up some leaves into piles to be shredded at some future date IF I can get the old shredder to start up again. It IS getting rather long in the tooth. However, I DO have this electric leaf vacuum/shredder that isn't exactly heavy-duty, but can do the job with a little patience. I also rounded up the dust-bunnies grazing on the laminate floor and did dishes and laundry. Help me, I think I'm a house-husband.

Tonight I am preparing a gourmet meal consisting of thawed out chili. Nope, I did NOT slave all day over a hot stove........today we have microwaves and I use them to pretty damn good effect. And tonight is the debate between Sarah (Blood Thirsty Born-Again Soccer Mom) Palin, and Joe (Long Winded but Well-Meaning) Biden. If Joe doesn't wipe the floor with this ditz, he needs to go home, put a gun in his mouth, and end his miserable existence. It's time to get serious, Joe, a whole planet is at stake!

It is going to be a perfect night for a fire, but unfortunately the fire that needs to be watched tonight is the one between the two vice-presidential candidates. It starts at nine, and lasts for two hours, so there goes the night. It's times like these I wish I had a TiVo, but I don't. Hey, I have a TV, so self, shut TFU!

So, all told, things are good here at Pendragon Hold. They could be better, but they could be far worse. Life is like that. I like Life.

Rested

2008-10-01T18:40:00.000-07:00

Damn, almost forgot to post! So, what happened today.......hmmmmm.........I know, I know!!!!!

I finished off the lower ramp. Now there's a shiny new lower section that does not in any way resemble the rest of the 8 year old deck which has turned old and grey. However, give it a few years of weathering and it will blend right in, I'm sure. The piece of plywood that stood in for these boards has been retired after providing stellar service and will be turned out to pasture with our thanks and gratitude.

Other than that, all I did was wash some clothes, load the dishwasher and turn the knob, dry some clothes, and fold some clothes, as well as steam some shrimp for THE Wife and Resident Twin when they got home from a hard days' work.

Oh, and I tied out the goats.

OH! And guess what? I SLEPT LIKE A BABY! And I plan on doing it again tonight!

Life is sweet, cause I can steal catchphrases from Buffalos and get hugs from from very kind people.........cause I'm "speshull"!

If Thine Eye Offends Thee.............

2008-09-30T18:06:00.000-07:00

I am going on my second full day without sleep. I thought I would be all macho, pop a couple of valerian root capsules and tough it out last night with my eye. Yea, right. If I got ANY sleep at all I don't remember it. So this morning I called for an appointment. The voodoo shaman who cut my eye was not available, but one of the other docs was, and was able to see me forthwith. Forthwith being right before lunch, so he had an incentive to see me somewhere in the vicinity of my appointment time, eleven ten, so that the office could get out to lunch.

He peeled back the eyelid and decided that the wound WAS healing as it should, but was doing it slightly unevenly, so that the normally super-slick inner surface of my eyelid was not so super-slick, at least for now. So he offered me some super-lube gel to put in the eye before bedtime, and if that doesn't do the trick, will put in a "bandage" contact lens to shield my eye from the healing surgical site till it heals completely. So, tonight, I lube my eye, pop an Ambien, and hope that drugs and sheer exhaustion overcome the stick-in-the-eye sensation and I can get some much needed shut-eye (pun very much intended).

I am not alone in my misery. The wife's new symptoms weigh heavily upon her as she awaits HER appointment with the brain shaman. This woman has had her share of pain throughout the years, and it makes me feel so helpless to not be able to simply take it away. Yet, she always tells me that "If it wasn't for ME........"

I managed to grab a couple of six foot boards to slice up and lay for the lower ramp, but I need about three more to get enough boards to finish off the ramp. Tomorrow I will get them, chop them up, and screw them down to the frame. Yea, it sure took me long enough to finish, didn't it?

The nights are beginning to cool down now, and soon we will be able to enjoy our tradition of sitting outside by the fire, enjoying the ambience of the sacred space, a tad bit closer to nature. I have always been fascinated by the plasma one can immerse themselves in by staring into the coals of a hard-burnt fire and experiencing the primordial state of pure energy that lives there. Nothing can give or take away life so completely as fire can. The sun giveth us, and a forest fire can taketh it all away. LIfe. What a concept!

Another Day in Paradise........

2008-09-29T16:13:00.000-07:00

Determined to one way or another make up for my lost sleep yesterday, I took an Ambien on top of being tired enough to join the dead, and passed out easily. Today was the first day of a week off I took simply because I wanted to. All I did was tie out the goats (one MUST tie out the goats when one is home not working, no ifs-ands-or-butts), and did one load of dishes, but other than that, didn't do much of anything accept chat with Paul and listen to NPR. I was SUPPOSED to have made an appointment with the eye doctor but I am giving the eye one more chance to not bother me enough to get to sleep tonight without drugs or an entire fifth of rum. If my trust is violated, then tomorrow I make the appointment.

However, I DO have to work on the front porch, which has served us very well for almost 8 years now. It seems the bottom of the ramp I built for wheelchair access to the Hold was never fully completed, and a piece of plywood which had been used in lieu of proper planks has rotted and now I MUST install those planks. That I will gladly do since I have run totally out of projects and am happy to have something to distract me. I might also get around to starting the task of replacing my perimeter fence, which was strung with cheaper welded wire which is now falling apart under the assault of goats and nasty neighbors. This time I shall use more four-by posts set closer together and WOVEN wire, which is more expensive but much more sturdy. Not that we suddenly have money, but I should be able to at least put in about a quarter or a third of the overall length of the fence for "phase one". Unless, of course, the mess on Wall street trickles down to us and our finances are affected.

The girls went out "looking" yesterday and landed themselves some really cute, and cheap, costumes along the medieval vein, at K-mart, of all places. I wanted to show you, but I can't talk them into putting them back on till Halloween.....sigh....you'll just have to use your imagination. I WILL provide pictures when Samhain rolls around.

Well, I gotta finish this post off. I'm cooking dinner for the girls who both worked, and since I didn't, I'm IT. The cook, that is. Picture me in my "heroic" pose. Got it? Good......now stop laughing.

That's the news from Pendragon Hold. May your assets not have vanished, may your jobs be intact, and may your lives amount to much more than the well-being of all those financial wizards who can't seem to find their own asses in the dark.

Blessed be!

A Day at the Snail Races

2008-09-26T16:26:00.000-07:00

I'm watching World News Tonight with Charlie Gibson as they describe the continuing drama on Capital Hill between Democrats, Republicans, and that dude who's been living in the White House.......

I'm watching Americans actually getting bent out of shape, upset enough to actually picket in the streets, concerning the idea that Wall Street, or more narrowly the fat-cat CEO's and good-old-boys, will be getting a bail-out that your average joe blow has never gotten. This isn't exactly what the government (the Democrats, at least) is trying to do, but that's what your average react- viscerally- and- ask- questions -later- American dumb-ass citizen believes is going on.

The Dems really are trying to instill requirements that CEO's do NOT get their golden parachutes for fucking it all up, and that Americans holding designed-to-fail mortgages can get some sort of renegotiation into mortgages that make sense. Yes, many of these people overloaded their asses with ARM's they should have known were going to come back and bite them, but you and I both know that most of these people are unsophisticated, hard working, down-on-their-luck people who just wanted to own their own homes and were talked into mortgages that were designed to do one thing and one thing only...make money for greedy bankers.

Our mortgage you could describe as sub-prime. Thanks to our income and credit rating, we "earned" a thirty year fixed mortgage at 11%, which is almost twice what the best rates would provide. Yet, we pay it, because that was what we could get, and we were rapidly headed towards paying that monthly amount for the privilege of living in apartments, which we were getting real tired of, moving each year to stay ahead of hefty rent increases. I could easily have fallen victim to one of these scams which would have cost us our home, but I stayed out of it, never seeing an offer that didn't seem too good to be true.

We still have our home and we intend to keep it, save loss of our jobs or some other disaster, which thanks to this Wall Street debacle could very well be right around the corner.

How did America get in this pickle? How do you think? They say hindsight is twenty-twenty, but I say that thieves know they are stealing when they are stealing it. Republicans call this "free market", and I call it Predatory lending practices. Even in this day and age, people trust, or blind themselves to hard truths, and thus you have what we now have. Those in power saw ALL of this happening AS it was happening and did nothing to control it. So, remember, you deserve the government you elect. I suggest you all wake up and pay attention to that fact for once when you go to the polls in November.

Maybe four years from now, when I am sufficiently old and addled, I will run for president, providing you with the most honest campaign you have ever witnessed,which will, of course, result in my getting nowhere. Yep, I'll tell it like it is, and offer common sense approaches to governance, which will only earn me enemies amongst special interests and special attention by the National Enquirer if I happen to get lucky and score a 13% share, but hey, when you get to be my age, what have you got to lose? All the dirt on me will come out, and liberals and conservatives alike will attack me for being a "Godless" pagan who will sacrifice babies in the Oval Office, but not one of the candidates running against me will stand on an issue. I'll chew them up and spit them out in that regard. But, it won't matter, because we have proven that Americans thrive on flash, and can't abide substance, because substance means less opulence, and Americans hate to be told they can't have more than they deserve. Nope, sadly, I could never be president because I would DARE slap an American's hand and say NO!

So, instead, I will live out my meager and unnoticed life here at the Hold, this mythical wonderland where there be dragons, fairies, and the occasional fire-beetle on a balmy late summer night. My destiny is not to be the next Napoleon, the short man who dares to stand tall. I am not connected, I am not the member of the church in favor, and I do not belong to the redneck, born again clique which now holds power and will kill us all if we do not put them down for good. Nope, I will remain, as always, that voice in the wilderness, or what's left of it.

Which isn't such a bad fate, all told. I'm married to a Witch. What more could a small, rational, spiritually challenged yet hopelessly romantic man ask for?

2008-09-25T20:07:00.000-07:00

Shipmates,

It is with heavy heart I report on the passing of Chester M. (Whitey) Mack, Captain, USN (Ret.). Knowing in advance the end was so near makes this announcement no less sad for me. No other person in my life impressed on me the worth of trust and the advantages gained by surrounding oneself with superior talents. In my mind I can think of no greater position of responsibility than that of ship captain. It is not that Whitey may have been the greatest captain of all time, or even of his time. But, Whitey took us into harms way and brought us back home. That was his task and he did it well.

Whitey passed at 1819 EDT, Sept. 25, at a hospice near Englewood, Florida.

Say a prayer tonight for the soul of Whitey Mack and for God's blessing on Joan and their children. "Oh hear us when we call to thee, for those in peril on the sea"

Rest your oars Whitey Mack.

Chuck Petterson

I recieved this e-mail from a former shipmate who served on board USS LAPON (SSN-661), a nuclear fast attack submarine made legendary in the "silent service", thanks to this man, Captain Whitey Mack, who commanded this fine boat a few years before I had the honor to serve aboard her. I never had the privelege to meet Capt. Mack, and I would not venture to suggest that the Captains I served under were made of the same steel as this man. Regardless, I feel the same loss as every crewmember of this submarine does, and I want to thank Capt. Mack for his service to our country. I can only hope that generations of warriors and politicians that follow do not shame this man's memory, as they threaten to do now.

"They go down to the sea in ships...."

Rest your oars, Captain, My Captain........

THE Nerve!

2008-09-25T14:54:00.000-07:00

THE Wife went in for her nerve-conduction test today, and BINGO, the fancy-smancy high tech electronic thingy says that no, her symptoms are not all in her head. It seems that, according to the test, something actually IS impinging upon a nerve somewhere in her neck/shoulder/pencil-neck chakra, which hopefully her neurologist will be able to pinpoint with the MRI he sent her earlier this week to have. You know what an MRI is, doncha? It's a Money Removal Instrument..........

At any rate, it seems that this latest bout of bad body language probably has nothing to do with her Botox injections wearing off or anything; just more shit falling apart as her beautiful body ages. With any luck, it will be something somebody somewhere can do something about. We have the most advanced, sophisticated health care system in the world, so I am confident that they will ultimately charge us a whole lot of money to tell us they can't do anything about it. I love modern medicine!

Then again, I could be wrong. Goddess, make me eat my words...PLEASE!

Damn, I came perilously close to ranting there......gotta watch myself........

The weather here at Pendragon Hold was.....how can I say this in such a way as to impart the full impact of the experience........hmmmm......OK, here goes nothing.....

IT WAS BEAUTIFUL!

Low 80's, low humidity, no rain, no wind.......just flat out NICE! I could get USED to this!

As for me, I just put iTunes on "party shuffle" and puttered around the house, doing whatever HAD to be done, while Mavis Staples, Bob Marley, Metallica, The Beatles, U2, John Mayer, Elton John, Barenaked Ladies, Fritz Jung, and a whole host of other artists kept me entertained. The goats got tied out, the laundry got done, dinner is ready to pop into the microwave, and the dishes are washed. And lest you think NOTHING of any consequence happened here at the Hold, I did chat with my good friend Paul who slaves away over at some college in Arizona. Anybody else who cares to chat with little old me are more than welcome to log onto Yahoo and yell at me whenever you get so utterly bored that even THAT would be preferable to what you'd be faced with otherwise. Just ask me for the address and I'll hook you up.

Thus ends another post about another boring day here at Pendragon Hold, where gargoyles run amok, goats eat out often, and dark clothes are never washed in hot water. Yes, we men are capable of doing laundry right, we just would rather not do it at all...........

Sensory Overload and other Outrageous Lies........

2008-09-24T17:38:00.000-07:00

The two-shift stretch for this week is done and my three day MY time is here. Didn't have to baby- sit insane people this time, just what I normally do, which is baby- sit SANE people......hehe.

A cool front passed through the area and dropped the mercury around ten degrees, a welcome preview of the upcoming fall which may or may not take forever to get here. It's getting hard to predict WHAT Mother Nature has up her sleeve these days, but I'll be happy as long as it doesn't involve forest fires, mudslides, hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, or earthquake. The earthquake is not something I lose sleep worrying about.

We FINALLY found the gargoyles we were looking for amongst the tons of Halloween paraphernalia at the local target. They now sit perched on our arbor guarding the entrance to our shade garden/Sacred Circle. My next project is to put up guard rails to keep THE Wife/High Priestess of Pendragon Hold from tripping over things during our not-so-well-lit ceremonies. Thank the Gods we don't use ceremonial scissors..........

I have been getting much better sleep lately as my eyelid heals and the irritation that used to keep me awake has all but disappeared. Having gotten into the habit of taking Ambien just to get to sleep, I was having difficulty getting to sleep without taking it, but someone recommended Valerian root, a sort of herbal muscle relaxer, and it seems to work pretty good, once you get past the smell, which resembles something akin to dirty socks. Last night, sheer exhaustion sufficed to send me on my way to La-La land.

However, the irritation seems to be creeping back under my eyelid, and I can only hope it is simply part of the healing process and not my gland already plugging up on me again. OK, fine, then if I have to, I will sacrifice the 13 virgin hedgehogs painted Kelly green to Mergatroyd, the God of Irritations, on the 13th of every month for 13 months. Anybody HAVE any virgin hedgehogs I can "borrow"?

Just kidding.....

Now that I have given up my epic rants, you know, those pontifications designed to illuminate the general public as to what ails us and how to cure said ailment, my postings have become thin shadows of their former selves, and for that I apologize. I would very much like to be able to regale you with tales of my civil rights march on Washington, my solo accent of Mt Bugolulu, my Carnival cruise to seven ports around the Caribbean, or how I took down a terrorist suspect singlehandedly, but nothing like that happens around here, thus I must deny you the illusion that it does. Yes, folks, our life is BORING!

How-some-ever.......

It's real. I report at least 90% of it, with no fillers or artificial ingredients. And, sometimes, I even risk the ire of those I love by bravely reporting the facts, the whole facts, and nothing BUT the facts. Unless, of course, they are facts that simply have no place in the public domain. THOSE you would have to come here personally to dig up, and believe me, it ain't worth it.

So, blame it all on television. Yep, television has brainwashed us all into thinking that our lives are neat little thirty-minute episodes in which all kinds of strange, funny, and/or interesting things happen and problems are resolved almost instantly. Only we all know that's simply not the case. Life, in REAL life, is long stretches of relative boredom punctuated by mere moments of utter terror. Or sometimes it's a string of minor pleasures interrupted by hiccups of aggravation. That is how WE, the real people live, which makes for blogs which can be lean on drama yet rich on REAL.

This is real. Handle it with care.

Mabon and Lunacy

2008-09-21T08:02:00.000-07:00

This is actually tomorrow, as it's 12:10 as I start this post. You must be thinking that this night HAD to be pretty interesting for me to stay up this late posting to a blog. Your thoughts are not leading you astray.

First off, I want to thank everybody for your positive response to the new header. I rather enjoyed making it.

Yesterday was interesting to say the least. Actually, you could say the last two days, (not counting this one, which is already over and a new one begun) were something to write home about. Thursday, the census is low in the CCU, and it being MY turn to be sacrificed to the Gods of Floating, get to go babysit 6 (count them; SIX) Baker-Acted (a legal term for crazy people or suicide attempters ending up in our care) patients in various stages of not quite being all there. You do NOT want to spend 12 straight hours sitting on your butt hoping you won't have to tackle some nutcase attempting to exit the premises to prevent them from exiting the premises because the law says they are not allowed to exit this particular premise until a shrink says otherwise one way or another. Yes, there are much bigger and more muscular security type people SOMEWHERE around these premises who will eventually respond to your cries of "I NEED HELP HERE!", but till then all sorts of mayhem might erupt that could involve your getting hurt because some of these crazy people are BIG crazy people.

I somehow survived that and came home and did not axe murder the family. Then I went back the next day,

And it was a pretty normal, run of the mill day, too, only there were barely enough patients to justify my presence towards the end of the shift and thus the charge nurse was JUST about to let me go home early and.....sigh.....back to the ER to watch ANOTHER patient of the NOWHEREFUCKINGNEARSANE persuasion. I sat there with him in that small room trying to appear disinterested in his rambling lunatic manifesto while being actually VERY interested in screaming for help if this person leapt off his stretcher and attacked me. However, another aid came to relieve me after about an hour and I left in one piece, and again, did not go home to axe murder the family.

The above being said I want to assure everybody that there really IS a measure of empathy involved here. One cannot spend any amount of time in the company of irrationality and not imagine the horror of their own minds bugging out on them. There is rarely any element of choice in these circumstances, and as unpleasant as these people can be, it is not done for your or anyone else's entertainment. Sometimes bad choices are made when it comes to taking or not taking medications, but life is what it is, and there but for the grace of the Gods, go any one of us. What I would dearly love to see is the community take responsibility in the aftermath of the government closing down dysfunctional mental institutions and not replacing them with any alternative, instead being content to let them wonder the streets until they dare bother us by getting in our way. Sooner or later almost all of us will experience this tragedy in our own families and it best we be proactive about providing mental health care rather than this piss-poor system of reactive incarceration. I'm going to shut up now in case this begins to resemble a rant........

So, the weekend began with preparations for our Mabon celebration, which the wife claimed would be attended by no less than seven friends and coworkers. Wow, almost an instant coven! But of course, all but two of them "couldn't" attend, so we soldiered on with five total. One girl brought her husband, which had me thinking for ONCE I'd get some masculine reinforcement, usually being the token male around here, but nooooooo, he had only given her a ride and had to get back home to babysit.

Now, one of the hallmarks of life here at Pendragon Hold is the comedy factor, provided so ably by my loving partner and High Priestess, THE Wife. She is at all times surrounded by what I charitably refer to as the "Electromagnetic Klutz Field", and in the company of our guests, this field was running at full strength, as our intrepid Priestess led off the ceremony by unceremoniously plowing right into a potted plant, almost tripping over that and falling flat on her face, because, she claims later, she couldn't see where she was going with the hood of her new cape down over her face! I turn to our guests and assure them that this is normal and to please not panic..............

Once everybody has picked themselves off the ground laughing, we get on with the ceremony, and the rest of the night proceeds without major incident, and Mother Gaia was kind enough to keep the rainstorms at bay for the rest of that night, although the leaden skies kept Momma Moon out of sight.

After the ceremony, as the girls retired indoors and I was grabbing the last of the stuff that had to be retrieved from the circle for the night, a flying squirrel decided to glide into the brightly lit circle and land on one of the trees next to me. Either that, or in the spirit of communication between this world and the next, Rocky, the late mate of Natasha, came to visit. Within a few seconds the apparition had shimmied up the tree and out of sight.

One of our guests had partaken of the wine to slight excess and needed to be driven home by the other, and I think that both of them will report back to the missing crowd that nobody died or was injured in the performance of this circle. That is, unless the demons who possessed them act up and scare everybody....hehe.....just kidding.......

It is now Sunday morning and all is quiet here at Pendragon Hold. While the Christians dress to impress and attend their bastions of family values, we will relax and enjoy our godless heathen atmosphere, one of love and sharing and appreciation for all we have been blessed with. Then, it's back to work.

Till next time, this has been another episode of the Chronicles of Pendragon Hold, and we are hoping you and yours can laugh despite the darkness we all face thanks to greed and "conservative" stewardship of our financial markets. Blessed be!

Stasis

2008-09-16T17:34:00.000-07:00

Nothing happened today. Utterly NOTHING. The universe was stopped dead in it's tracks, waiting with bated breath to see what might happen worth writing about. When nothing worth writing about happened, the universe said "fuck it" and continued on it's merry way. I hate it when it does that.........

How's THAT for a chronicle, hey?

Attack of The Killer Butterflies

2008-09-15T11:42:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to the Chronicles of Pendragon Hold, that place in the Florida Sun that somehow manages to dodge killer hurricanes without moving even so much as an inch! Now that I said that, the biggest storm ever conceived by man has just been kicked off by some butterfly in Africa.........sigh.......

Now wait a second! It just occurred to me......if hurricanes are born of the flutter of a mere BUTTERFLY in Africa, then why not do what we are SO DAMN GOOD at doing, and wipe out all the butterflies, and butterfly-like insects in that continent? I mean, c'mon people, these little bastards are OBVIOUSLY a national security threat, which justifies us using our military to dust that entire region with powerful insecticides and thus putting an end to that threat altogether!

Thank the Gods those geniuses in Washington never actually read what I write.....

THE Wife's shoulder pain has returned to her in a bad way, although she seems to think that it might not actually be originating in the same nerve plexus that she's been getting botox injections in to try and control her misery. But then again, her last treatment might HAVE already worn off which means she might could be already building up a resistance to the toxin. If any of you readers out there happen to be pagan and practice magic, I would sure appreciate any work you can do to help her. She seems to think that the old axiom "physician, heal thyself" doesn't apply to witches, and I'm not up to snuff in the confidence OR faith department to trust my own untested abilities in that area.

I finally, FINALLY received the flea treatment drugs I ordered more than a week ago for phase TWO of our battle against the fleas. I noticed on the package the words AUSTRALIA, which go a long way explaining why it took so long to get. I don't remember the website mentioning where this business was located. Well, NOW, I have treated the inside cat and have just dusted all the throw rugs and other carpet like items with a flea-killing carpet freshener. Maybe we will finally get ahead of these little bastards and save Shiloh more itchy misery.

Last night, I think I finally slept WELL for once, waking sometime around 7 AM vs the 4 AM in the morning that has been my horrible reality of late. I am trying to cut back on the rum, only having one or two no later than dinner time, and I will try to cut out the half an Ambein during my days off when I can actually afford to possibly lose some sleep for not having taken the damn pill. Wish me luck, or at the very least, visit me in the loony bin if my efforts don't work.

Well, other than that, nothing much is happening today. The car is still running, although I still have that check-engine light mystery I have to solve. I'll get the code read again tomorrow when I take THE Wife to lunch at Panara's, which is our biweekly tradition. We like to split their TWO-FER special, her getting the salad, me half a sandwich or a bowl of soup. It's a Great deal and Panara is sooooo GOOD!

The Night Report, with Alex Pendragon

2008-09-12T17:03:00.000-07:00

We're getting on towards night here at Pendragon Hold. We prepare to watch a movie as there is nothing of value to us on the boob tube. The new season is not fully upon us yet, thus we enjoy our freedom from slavery to new episodes of fiction, which is often more entertaining than fact. At least it's no where near as depressing.

The new downstream oxygen sensor was installed, the computer reset, and during the drive to retrieve the wife, the light came back on, but the engine continued to run smoothly, all the way home. I suspect when I get around to interrogating the computer once again, it will accuse yet one more component of having failed in it's duty, but for now the engine runs well regardless, and I can only pray to the Gods of Internal Combustion that it continues to do so.

The Resident Twin has garnered an eager market for her wood-burned boxes, commanding much more in compensation for her efforts than I would have thought possible. I think the emotion, the wonder that permeates her work comes through loud and clear, thus demanding a desire for her work that is making me jealous that my Green Man box might take forever to get created, as it is a gift to me and not a bought item. I sometimes entertain the idea that this girl, this woman, actually, could actually find herself in the enviable position of being able to support herself with the labors of love that are also a talent in demand by those appreciative of this special sort of art.

I only received two responses to my fall from grace so far; my escape into the madness of emotion that a stupid movie launched me into, but both were actually supportive, as well as positive. It remains to be seen if the remainder of my small readership survived my outburst, but I cannot worry of it, for as I have stated for the record, I cannot stand and act as though I can tolerate the state of this nation as it now stands, for the oath I took did not save my country from it's enemies, and in it's failure, in MY failure, truth trumps pablum, and it is what it is. I rest uneasy within the borders of this place, helpless to do anything but survive in it's clutches, as though I was Cherokee or first generation Japanese during THE great conflict, but if anybody asks, I will gladly share stories of when hope was not a laughable condition, but an admirable one, and we all marched arm in arm to tell the truth to power. We don't do that kinda thing anymore..........

The Morning Report, with Alex Pendragon

2008-09-12T07:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was pre-empted by a major, knee-jerk, reactive rant, and I apologize, but to make it up to you, I hereby provide my steadfastly loyal and remaining readership with the latest, up-to-date news from around the Hold. Enjoy!

That miraculous repair I performed on the Focus? Well, it seems that the fix was not totally in. On her way home from work day before yesterday, THE Wife experienced a hiccup, after which the car ran less than smoothly, sort of surging while at idle. Not quite the stumbling, gonna blow a gasket kind of hesitation that we had previously been experiencing, mind you, but not normal, and the check engine light came back on to herald that "Houston, we STILL have a problem"!

So, Yesterday I took her to work in the morning so that I could take the car to the parts place again and get the new problem code read. Only nothing happened. Car ran smoothly all the way home. Hmmmmmmm So, it seems the problem might be heat related, since it is cooler in the morning. I talked with a friend on the net who suggested that I could clear the old code out of the computer by resetting it, which required that I disconnect the electrical system from the battery, then reconnect, which would "reboot" the computer. Okaaaaaaaaa............

That cleared the check engine light and that afternoon I returned to retrieve the wife. She wanted to stop by a store, so it lengthened our return trip, which, sure enough, heated up the system enough to set off the check engine light again and the surging at idle returned. OK, then, fine, I would try again tomorrow.......

Today is tomorrow, I took the wife to work, I go see the Eye Doc who tells me that all kinds of evil yucky stuff had oozed out of my eyelid when he lanced it in the operating room, and that it should take another week yet for the incision to totally heal up. He gave me some steroid eye drops to help with the minor irritation I still feel.

THEN, I take my baby straight to the parts store, and get the kind black lady to come out and read the brain again. Same code; almost. This time it SEEMS to indicate that A: the DOWNSTREAM sensor now needs to be replaced, or B: the catalytic convertor is shot and it's going to run me more than $300 for the part, not counting labor, which of course I will be supplying myself (it's not rocket science, it's advanced high tech automotive engineering.....piece of cake!)

So, the car is cooling down, so that I can drive her up on my ramps and crawl under there to search out this second sensor. You see, the stupid (and I do mean STUPID for the way it just forgot all about showing where and how the second sensor was located) manual showed exactly where the upstream sensor is, but then completely skipped the second. So, before actually buying the part, I decided it best I eyeball where the sensor is and determine if I can get at it to replace it. The alternative is, you guessed it, garage mechanic and big bags of money, which I don't have. Wish me luck.

I now return you to your life so you can await with breathless anticipation how all this turns out on the nightly report with Alex Pendragon (AKA THE Michael).

Sicko

2008-09-11T12:50:00.000-07:00

If you know me, you know I'm a cynic, I question everything, and I always see the glass as half empty, never half full. I know, it's tiring, I need to lighten up, smile more often, chill out. There is good in the world, if I would only shut up long enough to at least try and find it. That's how I am sure everybody sees me and there's not much evidence to the contrary. Matter of fact, I got so constantly worked up about everything that I actually DID get tired of it, and decided to say the hell with it and never complain about any of this shit again; to just chill out and worry about MY part of the spectrum and maybe I would become a much happier human being. I know I would sure as hell make many of my readers happier; reading ME can really ruin a person's day when I'm going at another rant.

Well, guess what.....keep reading and you get to enjoy one more, and might I suggest, really "out-there" rant of epic proportions. Only this is a highly concentrated "rant of epic proportions" which will not last very long......it's not at all long winded and will be over very quickly.

I had this movie, Michael Moore's "Sicko", laying around the house for a couple of weeks now, not getting around to watching it (I rented it from Netflix) because I knew the other two occupants of this household are not big fans of political documentaries, so I was holding out for a nice, "got-nothing-better-to-do" day when I'd be alone, to watch it before putting it back in the mailbox and returning it.

Now, I am not one who falls victim easily to simplistic journalism, knowing there is always more to the story than some of these more "liberal" hollywood types include in their works. I know when something is probably happening only because of the propaganda value it can impart, not because of genuine emotion or intent. I know when people are being used. So let me state upfront that I know damn well that this movie includes all those elements, whether or not Michael Moore would want to admit it or not. That being said........

Halfway through this movie I broke down and started crying. If you are thinking what you might be thinking, than fuck you. This movie tells the truth. It tells a HORRIBLE truth about who we are as a nation and a people. Forget everything I ever said about my pride in being a citizen of this country. FUCK THIS COUNTRY! There, I just exercised my freedom of speech to the maximum extent I can think of. If you don't like it, fine, it is your freedom to do so, and hopefully, like myself and many others, you earned that right by serving this country in some capacity. Not necessarily in the military, but in many ways. Like the people in this movie.

I am sorry if any of my readers are offended by this post. If you consider yourselves Americans, and what that really means, then before you suggest to me that I have done something wrong, I want you to FIRST watch this movie, from front to back, and really THINK about what it says about many of us and the government we have chosen to "protect" us. If you choose to remain convinced that I am some sort of picko-commie-liberal-traitor, then fine, you can keep on thinking that, and may whatever deity you think is going to look after you keeps doing it when you lose YOUR health care, IF you have any. I know for a fact, especially working in the field, that I am one or two hospital visits away from homelessness, even WITH insurance. If you think you are special, then keep thinking that; I cannot nor do I want to waste any more of MY time robbing you of our disillusion.

OK, then, fine, I lied; this rant lasted longer than I intended, and is probably nastier than any I ever wrote before. It IS, I promise, my last one. If and when you return you will be hearing about my petty little triumphs and tragedies, but I truly have no more desire to waste my time pointing out problems with "the greatest country in the world". And no, at least until I can afford to, I will NOT be "leaving it because I don't love it". I was born here. I didn't "choose" to hate my country the way my country seems to hate it's citizens...........

End of rant. Goodnight.

Realignment

2008-09-10T15:04:00.000-07:00

OK, I survived my two twelves, and today was my first day of recovery, when I take a breath and make my record. It's 5:30 in the evening, I'm putting together this post and listening to the latest release by Dar Williams. To most, I imagine Dar Williams is pretty much unknown. To those who are fortunate to have discovered her, she makes life nicer just listening to her.

I seem to be coming off this stick-in-the-eye/struggle to sleep period much less easier than I would have hoped. Although I have very little irritation left beneath the affected eyelid, I still seem to have difficulty getting to sleep, even when I am exhausted, which I can only attribute to having relied upon Ambien to get what little sleep I have had these past weeks. I try to tough it out and fall asleep on my own, thinking that simply being so sleepy I am the walking dead should suffice to knock me out. Doesn't happen. I ended up getting up last night almost at 2 AM and taking a pill, cursing myself for having surrendered. Tonight, I will take a half pill, taking the advice I got from someone I trust that maybe it is best I wean myself from the sleep aids rather than trying to go cold-turkey. Crap, and to think I remember quitting cigarettes (with the help of Chantrix) as not half as hard as getting a decent night's sleep....sheesh!

The car is still running smoothly, reinforcing my belief that I really DID fix our conveyance. But in the meantime, my thinking it was awful hot and humid this month was REALLY validated by our electric bill. You don't want to know, believe me.......

The minor sabat of Mabon is approaching, otherwise known as the autumn equinox, that point in the season when daylight and dark are equal. From that day forward we will lose daylight to the dark and winter will advance upon us, although with global warming it remains to be seen if it can truly be considered a "winter". I do so miss those days, and the places I've lived, when the seasons were true and you could expect the thermometer to act a certain way depending on the time of the year. Now....sigh......I miss those days when seasons were seasons.

I also miss clear, dark nights when the stars leapt forth in all their celestrial glory, and the milky way painted itself from horizon to horizon. I miss when fireflies would flit thru the night, bringing the stars to earth in their twinkling lights. If it seems you no longer see many, if any fireflies where you live, it is not your senses fooling you; they are disappearing everywhere. One more canary in the coal mine........

Thank Pan, he of the cloven feet and mischievous character, our friend Billy has returned to his old, obnoxious self, getting over whatever ailment had laid him so low a few days ago. You never expect yourself to pine for bad behavior, but Billy is just being a goat, and I would truly miss having him drag me across the yard attempting to sample something he knows is forbidden, for only goats seem to know that THESE are the best things to eat in all creation!

My Embrace of HOPE

2008-09-09T20:33:00.000-07:00

I know I told all of you that I gave up the rant; that complaining and pontificating upon the state of the world is not improving it to any real degree, so when the machine makes all that noise and accomplishes nothing, you turn off the power and put it out to pasture. What I am writing tonight is NOT a rant, it is simply a manifesto; a declaration of what I believe and why I believe it. So, enjoy, take it or leave it, for it is not intended to indoctrinate or illuminate or start a revolution in human sociology. It, as my friend Buffalo would say, is what it is.

When I was eighteen, full of coming of age and able to give vent to my own identity, I of course knew everything, was an expert in everything, and could not be persuaded otherwise that I was not the master of everything. I wish I was that young again, for I have lost most of that wisdom that comes only from never having experienced most of that which one is so expert in.

Now that I have witnessed wonders, and discovered that tomorrow I might very well learn something new, whether or not I choose to accept that new fact, I have also discovered a new kind of wisdom, one anchored in that wonderfully grey landscape that lies between utter conviction and fully recognized ignorance. Once, I thought of math, the more esoteric and advanced the better, as a pox on the common man, for only those full of themselves and seeking power over others could have come up with something so complicated and hard to grasp. What I now know is that yes, it remains complicated and hard to grasp, yet is the key to wondrous things, which alas, I will always be bereft of, due to MY inability to grasp it, rather than it's irrelevance.

I grew up with religion. I was indoctrinated in the most theatric and profound of religions, the Catholic Church. This was the first boys club that was established based on the teachings of Christ that gained a foothold in the pathos of the human condition, which is that man, no different than that other social pack animal, the wolf, then in time the dog, requires a place in the pecking order to function in, be it the rip-out-your-throat-if-you-cross-me Alpha Male, or the I-bow-down-before-you-please-be-kind-to-me bottom of the food chain. Using the power of GOD, the priesthood practiced that unique form of "algebra" that the common, or perhaps even mentally lazy, man cannot handle and thus depends on the priest to interpret for him. The Bible was even written and passed down in the scholarly language of Latin in order to keep it's secret and thus sacred knowledge close to the vest, insuring the power of the Bishops, and by proxy, Kings.

But, just like Martin Luther King (not Jr, but the original real deal) challenged the power structure to put up or shut up, I broke free of the dogma, and dared ask questions that never were answered to any logical satisfaction. This proved to be a genuinely brave endeavor, as I was informed in no uncertain terms that to question the wisdom of the Church in all matters related to the Divine was nothing more than the tool of the devil, and to allow such blasphemy to rule my live would damn my soul to eternal torment in a place made for me by my "loving" God. So of COURSE I had a rather schizophrenic weaning period from this terror, until much later in my life when I simply grew tired of being afraid and learned to laugh at the absurdity of it all.

I know an invisible goblin named Ralph. Ralph just happens to be somewhat almighty, in that he knows EVERYTHING and can turn a pumpkin into a battleship with the snap of a finger, but I can't get Ralph to demonstrate this really cool omnipotence because, simply, Ralph being all-powerful and everything, told me to tell you people all this and will punish you with bee-hive hairdos if you dare challenge me on this. Do you NOT believe what I have just told you? Why not? Many of you have believed many things equally as ludicrous concerning a dead dude named Jesus who died a horrible death in order to save us all from......well, it's complicated, but dogma is like that.......delightfully complicated, thus independent of independent and rational examination. The things I now believe results from that very independent thought which is so discouraged by ANY mainstream religion, and thus must mean that I have embraced the ultimate evil, which these priests and purveyors of truth have labeled as SATANIC. (You may all shudder for effect if you wish....)

Only I do not entertain evil thoughts, at least not as is defined in the dictionary, and I don't even believe a guy named SATAN ever existed, but is nothing but a scapegoat for a totally illogical belief system which cannot stand up to honest scrutiny. So, you ask, what new truth has so totally supplanted what I was taught that I dare risk the fires of eternal damnation?

Nothing, really. Yes, I honor and practice the teachings of Wicca, an Earth honoring nature religion, but I do not embrace these teachings in such a way as to abandon all my responsibilities as a rational, critically thinking human being. I have a brain and NO religion or dogma is going to rob me of the joy of having one. Yes, I honor and "converse" with such characters as Hecate, Diana, and the Green Man, but I do so simply as tools of metaphor that assist my frail human intelligence in attempting to connect with the universal mind of all that is and all that has been and can be. This can be everything I wish it to be or nothing that I could conceive of, but it is not my job to decide what is or what isn't beyond those concrete realities that I can sense with this biological vessel I now inhabit. I even entertain the possibility that all that I think I am will not survive beyond those chemical processes in this brain which allow me to think that perhaps I might have a soul. If I DO have a soul, well, how grand! If I do not, then all that was I shall cease, and there will be no arguments to the contrary afterwards, at least from that which WAS me.

Mine is the "religion" of HOPE. I HOPE that striving to be a good person that seeks to harm none will benefit not only those in my sphere of influence, but selfishly, myself, either here or some other plain of existence. I do not expend my energy in this effort to be "good" simply for the brownie points, but simply because it is the "right" thing to do. Why do I think it is the "right" thing to do? Easy! Because I know how I personally benefit from the kindnesses shown to ME, and I have witnessed the effect these kindnesses have on others. I also can contrast this against the effect that the alternative has on my world and that of others, and for me at least, the choice is clear..........I cannot embrace evil or harm to others, not even the harm that those "chosen by God" so easily inflict on those who challenge them or stand in the way of their path to "glory". Perhaps those of us who choose this path are misinformed or delusional, especially as your average atheist would decree, but I choose to leave that to whatever end we entertain, all of us. I would think my most glorious joy would derive itself from the utter disappointment of both Christians and atheists alike.

I cannot find solace or joy in the act of bowing down to some "supreme being" who has it all planned out from the get-go and takes great pleasure in my suffering for making the "wrong" choice. I was given the same sort of choices by bullies in my school years and I find no difference in the inherent evil demonstrated by both, although I actually suffered for one and have yet to suffer anything from the other. I cannot find honor in the detached limbs and limited lives of brave young men who had faith in a leader who so eagerly fed them to the beast we now know as fear, disguised as patriotism, and will cost us all dearly in the coming decades, as any Vietnam veteran can attest to. I cannot find solace in the fact that Iraqi deaths now "only" average in the hundreds per month rather than the thousands, surely demonstrating how effective our surge was in dampening down the terror all Iraqis' live with everyday. And I cannot find any happiness in knowing that fueling the avarice of the filthy rich the world over will kill us all AND the planet that nurtured us for all these thousands of years.

So, what DO I believe in? Nothing. I embrace the concept of HOPE, of yearning for something beyond the coldly rational and sterile facts that shape the universe as we actually KNOW it. I HOPE that fairy dance amongst us, just beyond our perception but having influence, however mischievous that might be, upon our own narrow dimension. It is HOPING that when we die, those ideas that our souls know as JOY can find flight, however briefly, until such time that we have to, perhaps of our own choosing or as dictated by laws we cannot now understand, we must return to this plain and learn more lessons on how to TRULY live, while living. I find HOPE that there is a karmic balance which makes justice possible and balances the books when horrible things happen by choice, which I equate with evil, and when wonderful things happen, which I think illuminates our universe. And I HOPE that I was given this ability to think, not to be squandered, but to be exercised to it's fullest so that one day, I might be CAPABLE of uniting with the cosmic ONE, knowing all things knowable, and rejoicing in the truths which agree with and are celebrated by science, and not beaten down by it.

Thus sayeth THE Michael, as is written by his own hand this night of Tuesday, September Ninth, in the year 2008, that many years since one man from his death forward was never allowed to rest in peace......

Back in Black

2008-09-07T17:47:00.000-07:00

This morning I awoke to the sensation of having a small nail driven into my skull right above my right eye socket. It seems it was bored with the "exploding head" trick and wanted to try something different. So, I got up and attacked it with a couple of generic ibuprophen/decongestant tablets. That tamped it down some for the rest of the morning while I got under the hood of the Focus and finished changing out the spark plugs and installed the rest of the new wires. Once that was done, I rounded up all my tools, actually accounting for all of them, and started her up, my fingers crossed. WOW! She responded like an old man on viagra AND steroids! Smooth and powerful and not one hint of hesitation! Am I good or WHAT? I guess a new set of plugs WAS overdue after all.

Then I went out back to release the goats from goat prison, only to find that Billy wasn't all that interested in escaping. This is the goat that paces back and forth waiting for the gate to open, that drags me across the yard while I pretend I am actually steering him in the direction I want him to go. Poor Billy just wasn't feeling all that frisky. So I interrogated THE Wife, who had fed the goats yesterday while I was under the weather myself, and she mentioned that the neighbors HAD fed them some bread, something they like to do now and then. The twins didn't appear to be any worse the wear for it, but they DID seem to me to be awful inflated for it being the next day and plenty time to chew their cuds overnight. I can only hope that the poor guy is simply suffering some intestinal discomfort and will get over it soon. I really am in no mood to lose another animal, especially after that animal had been fed by strangers. One might start imagining all sorts of things.

Later, as noon approached, it was apparent that the sinus headache was going to give me a run for my money, so I said the hell with it and hit it with another Maxalt. That did the trick and my head finally cleared. The pain hasn't returned and I feel MUCH better. Damn good thing, too, cause I have to get back to work tomorrow. The eye is also healing nicely, with far less irritation that is usual. Guess I won't turn into a one-eyed Jack after all.....at least not yet!

After lunch, I HAD to take the two witches to the local pagan paraphernalia store, so they could stock up on more herbs and stones and other things Wiccans can't seem to function without. I decided to go ahead and get myself this pewter Green Man pendent I'd been lusting after for awhile. Some people collect porcelain elephants, or teacup poodles; I collect anything Green Man. Or dragons. One can never have to many dragons, especially in a HOLD.

So, after a few very trying days here at THE Hold, things appear to be getting back to......I dunno.....what's considered "normal", especially around HERE?

So blessed be you all, till we are all merry met again..........

The Next Day.......

2008-09-06T19:07:00.000-07:00

There were consequences to yesterday. This morning about 4 AM, I awoke sweating, feeling very strange. Having no idea what was happening, all kinds of possibilities went dancing thru my head, none of them good ones. The feeling of weirdness and discomfort, a sort of pressure in my skull, increased to the point I had to get up, and it became apparent that being upright relieved the symptoms to some small degree, and I decided to go into the living room until this episode passed. It didn't pass.

All of the wee hours of the morning I sat upright on the couch, my head not hurting exactly, as in a migraine or bad headache, just this sense of my skull being pressurized. Any attempt to lay my head down increased my discomfort to the point of feeling nauseous, and visions of stroke or brain aneurysm began to dance in my head. As sleepy as I was, I could not go back to sleep. Never was one to be able to fall asleep upright like some people can.

Long after dawn and headed towards noon I was one unhappy puppy, wondering what was happening to me but not at all willing to head to the emergency room and the all-day ordeal that would invite. I chanced some ibuprofen, then some Toridal, then finally a maxalt, the final say in taking down a migraine. The maxalt finally did the trick, even though my head was only now beginning to hurt like a headache. I gradually began to feel human again, and none of the signs or symptoms of stroke ever became apparent, other than the positional head pressure and nausea. The strange sweating did not return.

Later in the day that had been almost entirely wasted, we settled on a reasonable explanation for my malady. The previous day, as I have reported, was a long and trying one, and when I am engaged in a day-long affair of possible grave consequence, I tend to neglect such basics as drinking enough fluids to remain hydrated, and as hot and humid as it was, it's no wonder I lost something like five pounds, probably all water. On top of that, I think perhaps I had one rum and coke to many that night celebrating my relief for having pulled the automotive rabbit out of the hat, which only added to my dehydration. Plus, I am not the youthful ironclad hell raiser I once was. Demon rum bit me in the ass, but good.

But you know, aside from this one medical nightmare, I can report some progress in another area.........my eye, the one that has cost me about a weeks worth of sleep? The irritation has decreased remarkably today, which is timely, as I really have to return to work Monday.

And that's how I survived one scary day here at Pendragon Hold. I don't think I'll need any sleeping pills tonight.

This Just In..........

2008-09-05T18:41:00.000-07:00

In case an edit does not trigger your feeders, please go back to the last post.....there's an update. No, go, read it, I promise it won't hurt.........

The "Down Home" Report

2008-09-05T06:16:00.000-07:00

It's been three days post-eyelid surgery and I have traded one irritant for another; the "rocks" that the doc cut out of the gland is now replaced by the healing process, which is equally as irritating to my eyeball if not more so. The strange effect on my symptoms is that now, keeping my eyelid shut during sleep seems to be the lessor of the two evils than the previous malady inflicted on me. Now, I blink all day, each blink a stab in the eyes, yet I can't stop blinking. It's a catch-22 of the worst kind.

There's a long train runnin' this hurricane season. Fay had her way, Gustav was WAY off, and Hanna's headed for........no, not Montana, but she's skirting right by us. Then there's Ike, and that one is promising to prove nasty for the folks of Miami, after which we are not sure who he will pester. If he does head our way after landfall, then it will be just like the storms of a couple of years ago that came on land like a lion, and arrived here like a lamb, worn down by geography. If I had my druthers, none of these storms would hurt people the way they do, but that's what happens when humanity crowds into paradise.

I love these simple little eureka moments I get now and then. One problem I've had with the twins (not the daughters) is that they have taken advantage of our worn out and bowed in wire fence to slip under and escape into my neighbor's yard. Then it occurred to me that I could let them run loose in the back forty and not have to worry about their jail-breaking habits simply by tying their lease to our yard wagon. Together they easily haul this thing around the yard as they browse, but that wagon is NOT following them under that fence. I know, because true to form they slipped beneath the wire, but only got as far as the cable tie, and I was able to "reel" them back to our side of the fence. Why did I not think of this before?

I STILL need to replace this fence, though.

If there is ONE thing that scares the the lower-middle-class married couple who both work, it's the dreaded "check engine" light on their only car. We almost have this thing paid off, and now this damn light comes on. Soooooo, I stop off at one of our many auto-parts stores, having heard that they have one of those gizmos that read the dysfunction codes from your car's computor, and sure enough, the nice black lady behind the counter was more than happy, free of charge no less, to bring her little electronic box out to my car, plug it into the recepticle beneath my dash, and ask my cars computor what the fucking promblem is. It turns out that according to gizmo (ALL HAIL THE GIZMO! LONG LIVE THE GIZMO!) the engine is running lean, and the culprit in this "lean-ness" is none other than the oxygen sensor, which apparently is not sensing O2 the way in which it was meant to be sensed. So, being the minister of the holy gizmo and all, she pronounced that she could sell me the said oxygen sensor and even borrowed one of those "fix it your own damn self" books off the shelf and showed me where it was on my car and how easy it would be to replace it. She even "rented" me the special tool needed to remove and reinstall this wondrous device, promising to fully refund my money when I brought the tool back to the store, sorta like a lending library of automotive toolery. Now, contrast this with what would have happened had I brought this vehicle to the good folks at Ford, manufacturers and repairers of these fine automobiles...........I probably would have paid about $80 just for them to plug THEIR gizmo into the same recepticle and read the same code and charge me another $800 to replace the Oxygen sensor, all the sparkplugs, the computor, the catalytic convertor, AND the entire electrical system, and have me sitting in their waiting room all day just like we all do when we go to the doctor to check OUR oxygen sensors.

After I replace this doo-dad myself, I'll check the spark plugs just in case they appear to be fouled and need replacing as well. Now, I suspect this MAY have someting to do with the fact that all our gas stations are now blending in 10% ethenol into our gasoline. Chevy has been marketing their cars as adaptable to either straight gas or 85% ethenol, which makes me wonder if our ordinary engines get bent out of shape having to burn this new blend of gas and moonshine, making our "check engine" lights come on. I hope this is not a trend. I don't LIKE these kinda trends........

The Resident Twin has been very busy here during her off hours fulfilling commissions she has earned burning decorative wooden boxes. The girl has a real talent with this "art form" and her work is in demand. And, she was given a guitar as a birthday gift and is practicing, so that perhaps she can lend some actual home-brewed music to our circle celebrations. I still handle the percussion department, and have two half-way decent drums for that purpose.

I have already made one major assault on the flea problem that has been plaguing Shiloh and the rest of this household. I bought some K-9 Advantix, which worked well enough, but since Lola the cat and Cricket are also infested with these little demons, the relief was short-lived. Well, I ordered some frontline flea killer for the cats, and have also deployed some flea-killing powder for the rugs and other hiding places. This is WAR, baby! You going DOWN!

We had ALOT of deadwood courtesy of Fay to pick up around the property last week. Now, some homeowners would consider a gaggle of sticks and branches to be a mess to clean up, but we think of it as a resource given us by the Green man. Thanks to the cast-offs of our trees, we have plenty of dried out twigs and sticks to use for our ceremonial fires, which means we don't have to go spending money for fire-starter stuff at the store.

We have been looking forward to the stocking of Halloween paraphernalia at such places as Walmart and Target, as we are in great need of a pair of right-sized gargoyles to perch on the posts of our new garden arbor. You'd be AMAZED how hard it is to find just the right size gargoyle to suit one's needs. They have to be just the right size to perch on the top of a 4X4 post, and have the proper demeanor as well. Anne, if you know of any unemployed gargoyles in your neck of the woods, send them for an interview..........they might get lucky!

Speaking of Anne, she is now in the clutches of the American Health care system, in a CATHOLIC hospital, no less. Anybody familiar with Anne of "The Gods are Bored" fame knows she is a druid, and we all know what "Christ's own chosen people" think of Druids and pagans and other such damned peoples. Let's all send positive energy her way, because if you know Anne like I know Anne, then you know that if there WAS a God, he'd love her to death, cause this lady can even make the Gods laugh! At least she has the Fairy folk to guard her........

About this time you expect to hear some rant concerning the sorry state of the world and those folks most responsible for it. If you missed my last post, go back and read it. The world turns. I'm letting it.

UPDATE!!!!!

Ok, so I go home, I spend something like 20 minutes removing this damned heat shield covering the oxygen sensor, remove the said sensor with a combination of sheer strength and a damn good lever made up of the "special tool", the socket wrench, and a large crescent wrench gripping the end of the socket wrench. I take out the sensor, then take out the replacement, and immediately it is quite apparent these two do NOT remotely look alike. Aside from the design of the business end, the wire harness plug is barely long enough to engage its female counterpart. Oh well, aftermarket parts sometimes take liberties, sometimes in the spirit of being an improvement, so I screw in the replacement, trusting in the Gods of Internal Combustion to protect me from my ignorance and the advice of others.

While I was at it, I decided to check a spark plug to see if perhaps they hadn't fared any better with age then the O2 sensor had, if indeed that was the root of my problem. Again, with amazing show of muscularity (or rather my lack OF it), I removed spark plug number one and examined it. Indeed, it looked rather "worn" and the gap seemed rather large than I remembered gaps usually being, but other than that, it seemed at least functional. So, until I could invest in a new set, I replaced the plug in its hole and connected the wire back onto the terminal.

Or at least I thought I had. More on that later.

So, everything back the way I remembered them to be, I started the car up. With great dismay it immediately became apparent that not only had I NOT solved he problem, I had made it WORSE! Now the engine ran rougher than ever! Sigh.......damn, my fears of this new sensor NOT being the proper part seemed more correct than not based on these new symptoms, so, I figured the best strategy for now was to put the old sensor back, hoping it was actually working fine to begin with, yet hoping it wouldn't help because then I'd have a truly undiagnosed problem on my hand. I did that, put everything away, and decided it best I head on out back to the parts store in hopes of getting them to refund my money for a part that HAD to be the wrong one or maybe even defective. Also, I would have to be picking up THE Wife from work within two hours anyway, so it was time to leave now to allow some time to get to the parts store and return the part.

On the way, the car was insisting that death was at its doorstep, smelling to high heaven of unburned fuel, running on the verge of NOT running, and all around acting very much like Billy when I was trying to lead him where I wanted him to go. Halfway to my destination the "check engine" light started flashing off and on frantically, as if to say "Warning, Warning, Danger, Will Robinson, DANGER!" I drove gingerly, managing the gas petal as to keep the RPM's just in the "Let's go forward, shall we?" range, anxious that at any moment the engine would explode and take me with it.........OK, just afraid that it would overheat and throw a piston or just die till it cooled down again. Allow me my histrionics, OK?

Now I was tying to decide whether to try and make it to the parts store or simply surrender to the Evil Empire and get to the Ford Care place I usually go to have my Fords admitted to automotive CCU. Knowing we would be out of a way to get around as well as emptying out our bank account for the privilege, and against all common sense, I soldiered on to the parts store, hoping against hope that I simply had gotten a bad sensor and that maybe the right one would bring goodness and light to my beleaguered world. Thanks to Persistence, the God of Hopeless Causes, I made it to the store and made my way in to commiserate with the Black Lady, my Lady of the Holy Code Reader.

We discussed the situation. I showed her 8 by 10 color glossy photos of the two sensors side by side to show the obvious disparities in design, hoping the weight of this evidence would silence any arguments that might arise concerning a refund, but we also perused the computer to see if there was a PROPER part that might be more suited to my engine. Indeed, there seemed to be another part (with a different part number but of the same species) that had a longer harness, at least as long as the one hanging off the original. With nothing left to lose, I paid the extra four dollars for the new sensor, but at the same time getting the Saint of Code Readers to come back out and read my malfunction again, perhaps revealing another numerical explanation for my sorrows. This time Deep Thought came back with the original code "engine running lean - bank one", plus a new one, "spark plug misfire detected on cylinder one"! Cue exasperated heavy breathing.........

THEN it occurred to me.........you know, putting that spark plug wire back on didn't give me that satisfying CLICK one wold expect when putting one of these things back on; maybe THAT was the cause of this new roughness! So, after much more discussions and expert advice on how much more money I should be spending, I purchased the new sensor AND new spark plug wires AND new spark plugs AND.........no, that was it.........just felt like a whole new engine........

With Hurricane Hanna passing offshore and bringing the occasional rain squall, I ventured that I could get that specialized tool beneath that heat shield without having to remove it, and by GODS, I DID! In less than a fifth of the time it had taken me to remove that first sensor, and with a lot less effort, I replaced the old one with the second new one, then I took out the spark plug in cylinder one, replaced it with one of the new ones, replaced the old spark plug wire with the new, and made SURE that the boot was as far down on that puppy as it was going to go. THEN (all this is happening in the parking lot), I got in and turned the key..........

SMOOTH does not even begin to describe how much better the engine ran now. With my superior knowledge, skill, and calm demeanor under fire, I had single handedly taken on a four cylinder, single overhead cam, fuel injected engine with an ELECTRONIC ignition system and REPAIRED IT! Yes, folks, I, THE Michael, laughed in the face of transportive tragedy and PREVAILED!

Would you believe,with the help of one sweet lady, one knowledgeable parts man, and whichever entity is most responsible for incredibly good luck, I skirted disaster by the skin of my teeth? Yea, thought so...........

Then I drove smoothly to THE Wife's job site and picked her up. After she described her day, I describe MINE. For once, mine was a tad more interesting............

Dance Band on the Titanic

2008-09-04T14:02:00.000-07:00

I give up. I surrender. The fire within my soul has died, for the decks of this Titanic are now tilting, and the band plays on. I will be joining the orchestra, taking my place next to the percussion section, enjoying those minutes afforded me by the fates which have allowed the human race to engineer it's own extinction. I cannot save the world, my strident voice will have no impact whatsoever on the events which will unfold and take us all beneath the metaphoric waves of this cold, unforgiving sea. I know this sounds defeatist, but allowing that, I also claim it reeks of reality, and the truth that occupies the depth of my soul is frightenly similar to that which must have haunted the Jews in the Polish ghetto as they awaited the trains that would haul them by the boxcar to their ends. What could THEY have done about it when the entire world was taking it's own sweet time even acknowledging that what was happening to the Jews could even happen in a modern, "civilized" world. Since that horror unfolded, repeated genocides have occurred, the bulk of mankind has been slow to respond, and, yes, the band plays on.

The consumer society, modern warfare, and climate change now have proven once and for all that science really can't plug all the holes in the dike. The dikes are failing, the flood waters are rising, and no one is even considering building an ark. Even the great myth of the murderous flood unleashed upon a sinful mankind by an even more sinful Supreme being had some sort of disaster planning at it's core. Where is our Noah now?

And I tire of it. I tire of shouting at a very, VERY small audience that happens by my blog and pretty much has already agreed with me concerning these things, but is equally impotent in the face of a humanity damned determined to prove superior to lemmings in the ability to commit suicide. I know you all care; I know you all, at least in your hearts, fear what looms ahead of us and probably have banged your own heads on unyielding walls of inaction. So, you understand why I have decided to no further weigh this chronicle down with further rantings about the state of the world, for even had this blog been chock full of solutions to our quandary, who would have read them, believed them, then deployed them, having come from one as common as I? I cannot make the difference that matters, thus I will no longer suffer the impotence I bring to this fight, and let mankind lay in the bed it insists on making.

So, when and if you choose to revisit this dimension in the cyber-universe, you will read of one square acre of untainted sand, called Pendragon Hold by it's residents, and will be kept abreast of the reality that occurs here, however mundane and unadventurous it will seem to be. You will know what happens to one man, two women, a dog, two cats, three goats, a flying squirrel, a leopard gecko, and a snake, but mostly you'll be kept informed about the three humans. You may also hear of those who come and go and are related in some form or fashion to us, but respecting their privacy, that information will be somewhat limited. You may catch an occasional snide remark from me concerning the state of the nation, but no longer will you find me repainting a portrait that all of you can see well enough without my own personal illumination.

I'm sorry; you'll just have to turn to Bill Moyer or Bill Maher for the truth from now on.........they do it much better than I do anyway. Like it matters.

Family Values (On Sale Now)

2008-09-01T11:58:00.000-07:00

While the media keeps up it's hysterical drama concerning Gustav (c'mon, folks, this is your average, run-of-the-mill hurricane that just HAPPENS to be coming ashore near New Orleans, not another 'MONSTER/KILLER STORM PROMISING DEATH AND DESTRUCTION LIKE NEVER BEFORE SEEN!!!!"), news has quietly leaked out that governor what's-her-name has a seventeen year old daughter who is already knocked up. They assure us the lucky couple will be married. Now, folks, I don't know about you, but I am so relieved to see that the G.O.P. will be bringing us even more examples of "family values" to try and emulate. Let's hope that the young man who got him some from the wrong little girl takes the veiled threats seriously about his responsibilities and doesn't take off with hopes for asylum in Canada. That would be somewhat embarrassing, now wouldn't it?

Also, I think we all need to smile knowing that our future Commander-in-Chieftess knows her way around a firearm. It's important that a president and leader of the most powerful military on Earth (unless the Russians decide to throw caution to the wind and test that assumption) knows how to carry a football. Not THAT kind of football, silly; the briefcase she's gonna have to carry around with the big red button in it......you know, the one that for all practical purposes ends the world faster than it already will be. Why do I talk as though she's already President? How much longer do you think McCain is going to last, especially if a Democratic congress pisses him off and his blood pressure goes sky high?

Now, we could forgo ALL this speculation from the get-go by doing the sane thing to begin with and elect a sane person to office, and get to work repairing the damage done this nation during eight years of rape and pillage by the neocons. I say "could" because the American People have already proven just how illogical they can be when it comes to choosing leadership. The Russian people HAVE an excuse; their history is nothing but disfunction; they honestly don't know how else to act. We are better than that........or used to be.

Oh, and yes, allow me to admit up front that yes, what's-her-name has more "executive" experience than all three of the other candidates combined, that is, she was the head of a state militia (what we call the "national guard", most of which are to busy over in Iraq to guard us here back home) that, thankfully, can pretty much run itself, and that she hasn't been suspected of any corruption. Then again, George Bush was a governor too. That is so reassuring. isn't it?

Now Barack is faced with the same dilemma that most young people are faced with as they go into the labor market and try and get credit. They are told they can't get any because they don't already HAVE any. That's right folks, it makes as much sense now as it did when we were young and trying to make our way in the world......Barack can't be President because he hasn't already BEEN president! So, that leaves us with Jimmy Carter, the slightly smarter George Bush Sr, Bill Clinton, and DUBYA, except that he used up his two terms already. So, sorry John, but you have to step aside; you don't already HAVE presidential experience. Sorry, Barack, looks like Hillary gets back to the White House AFTER all! That is, if Bill can take down Jimmy.........

Aside from all these observations, I personally am losing much reason to care one way or another who wins what office, because no one has given me any reason lately to believe that mankind can clean up it's act before everything goes to hell in a hand basket, ecologically, politically, socially, etc. The planet is DYING, folks, or haven't you noticed? Have you seen any reports of any ecological disaster being REVERSED lately? The coastal dead zones are increasing, not decreasing. The arctic ice is melting faster than even the worst estimates approximated. Species extinction rates are up. Mankind is reproducing and destroying natural habitat at a record pace. Sorry, I like fluffy bunnies and hope and good news and feel-good stories and all that crap as much as the next person, but my foot is stuck in this railroad tie, a big bad-assed diesel train is bearing down on me, and the best anyone can tell me is that Jesus loves me. That makes me so fucking happy I could just puke.

HOLD on there...........

2008-08-29T16:02:00.000-07:00

Something is attacking the trees in our goat pen. There is one casualty already and most of the other trees in this enclosure are suffering from some strange, mysterious malady that appears to be manifesting itself as a reddish bark coloration. I hadn't even noticed anything out of the ordinary till today when I was returning the goats to their pen and noticed that the leaves of one small oak had all turned brown, like in DEAD! I went in to examine the tree closer and noticed a ring ofa onblur bark missing with tiny little fungus-like threads springing out of the naked surface. I can't tell if the missing bark was caused by Billy (the only one big enough to reach that far up) or from the disease. This is really odd and distressing. If anyone is at all familiar with what might be affecting my oaks in this one area, I would be appreciative of any info. I would like to mention that the Hold has experienced more rain on a daily basis this summer than in any previous period since this plot was settled, if that might have anything to do with it.

Today I braved the sun and humidity and ventured up on the roof, blowing off the limbs, twigs and leaves and cleaning out the gutters. While up there, I decided to get a pictorial of what the Hold looks like from above. It's an interesting perspective.

The Resident Offspring left to go visit her beau in Macon, so THE Wife and I have the Hold to ourselves for the weekend at least. When the cats' away..........hehe

Me, I have to work the weekend, then on the Second of the month I take another stab getting my eye fixed, only this time with the help of some chemical distraction. Frankly, I would rather they just knock my ass out cold, like was done for my colonoscopy, but these people always want to use the least conciousness-altering method possible. Hey, I'm from the sixties, give me a break! GO FOR IT!

So McCain picked a woman for V.P. Big deal. That's supposed to make HIM more attractive? I don't think so. Hillary had the credentials; this chick is........let's just say I don't want to hear any more B.S. about who has enough experience to lead this nation. C'mon, McCain could drop dead as soon as he takes the oath; we want someone, regardless of gender, that no one ever HEARD of to take on Vladamir Putin? At least we've had years now to get to know Barack Obama. McCain's pick of this woman is the worst kind of pandering I ever saw. I guess he cynically wants to give all those women who were so pissed off that Hillary didn't get the nomination a bone to chew on. Any woman who would bite THAT hook is just flat clueless to begin with and would vote for Hannibal Lector just for spite.

I've waited long enough. I want an affordable electric or hybrid car. I don't want to spend any more of MY money on imported oil. I want one of those new jobs that green tech can create if we just got off our asses and started building the new alternative energy infrastructure with the help of our government. I'm tired of tax breaks going to oil companies just so they can suck my wallet dry with high gas and energy prices. I'm tired of paying my hard earned taxes just to see them shoveled into the greedy pockets of corporate interests. I'm tired of my country's good name and reputation being dragged through the mud by a clique of wealthy neocons who've hoodwinked everybody, even their own conservative base. And I want MY damn social security to be there when I get to old to keep my present job and have to greet customers at Walmart, not have it all pissed away by wall street and the stock market. Don't give me that "historic performance over time" B.S., that doesn't help me one bit if the market goes to hell with my money the day I have to retire. And I've waited long enough for this country to finally have the balls to elect someone other than a fat, wealthy, old as shit white guy. Like our founding fathers said, " ALL men were created equal"!

By the way, have any of you ever wondered exactly what I mean when I refer to my habitat as Pendragon "HOLD"? If so, then wonder on over to the sidebar>>>>>and there you will find a Wiki definition of what I mean by HOLD. Not that I even have ROOM for any large winged lizards, but I have an affinity for what the concept embraces. I hope you enjoy the new feature. My thanks to Anne McCaffrey and her vision of a wonderful, challenging world.

It was Good.............

2008-08-28T20:34:00.000-07:00

I made a point tonight to watch Barack Obama's acceptance speech for the Democratic Nomination for President of the United States. I wanted to be there, as I have for the last five-odd decades, for history. Oh, well, history is what it is, I suppose.

He is a great orator, this young man who just happens to be of mixed race. And, as best I can judge, he truly will make a great president. I know he would make a much better president that that old white guy whose greatest claim to fame is having been shot down in Vietnam and having to spend the rest of it in the Hanoi Hilton. I have as much respect as is due Mr McCain for his patriotism and ability to make promises as a politician. And I swear I will quit this country once and for all if another "majority" of it's citizens think that John McCain represents what this country is really about.

However, as far as history goes, I have heard many a historic and awe-inspiring speech, such as those given by Robert Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton. I have seen the strides made and the damage done by a parade of politicians who made promises they either exceeded or failed utterly to honor. I have gone from rabidly proud American, to a seemingly ex-patriot who wondered where his country went. But in all these years living in this nation, I have always been honest enough to know that we had shortcomings, some of them severe, that needed attending to, and all I asked of any man seeking my vote is that they be equally honest, and not feed me a line of BS I knew wasn't going to address those problems that threatened my livelihood or my freedom, or made my country a target of shame and ridicule elsewhere in this world.

John McCain, despite all his flip-flop observations that bear no resemblance to reality or his tepid solutions that solve nothing but the protection of the status of the status quo, wants to drag this country through four more years of the same insanity that threatens to make this a two-class society, one of haves, and those that serve them. The man used to have a mind of his own, but in the perfect mirror of Faustian sell-out, he sold his soul lock, stock and barrel to the far right wing mindset just to get the nomination of a party that has a proven pedigree of ownership by right wing christianity and corporate interests.

Barack's speech was good, it gave me some flavor of what to expect from him, but it did not rock me to the core as I hoped it would. I guess I was expecting too much from the man, who has had to wade through all the classic discriminations this country could throw at him without carrying the cynical baggage that you would expect him too. And regardless of employing a style that could not quite inspire as powerfully as Bill Clinton did, he still won my trust and most likely my vote come November. The worst that could happen should he falter in his campaign would be that I switch my vote, as hopeless as such a gesture would be, to Ralph Nader, but I will NEVER tell a conservative that their backward vision of democracy makes any sense by lending such a bankrupt philosophy my vote.

And for those of you who in your huffy hurt pissed off demeanor want to get revenge by switching your vote from Hillary Clinton to John McCain, I just have one question........why in the HELL did you vote for Hillary to begin with? Are you fucking INSANE? If you can't get over your petty self and vote for the democratic nominee, or some other independent, at least do us all a favor and get out of politics altogether, for you have proven you totally lack critical thinking skills, and that flash is all you understand. Really...........grow UP!

That's my insignificant opinion on this day in history, such that it is.

A Failure of Vision; Parts One and Two

2008-08-27T17:46:00.000-07:00

Part One......

(Please imagine the sound of gnashing of teeth......hear it? Good........please proceed with today's exciting episode of TTEM)

Sigh, I went to the eye doc today, waited about 45 minutes for my long-awaited procedure to have these FRIGGIN BOULDERS removed from the inside of my eyelid, and after reassurances from the nurse I wouldn't feel a thing, some VERY painful injections to numb my eyelid, a SECOND round of injections to reinforce the first set that didn't exactly do the job, it was decided that we would have to do this in the operating room, where they could send me on my way to LA LA land so that I wouldn't have to be there to experience the overwhelming "discomfort" that seems to accompany this procedure. I tried to tough it out, really I did, but I just couldn't handle the feeling that someone was JABBING MY DAMN EYEBALL WITH A BLUNT STICK. Reminds me of all those times the Dentist said "You're gonna feel a little pressure" right before he inflicted the worst imaginable pain. So now I get to attempt to get some sort of sleep for another five or six days, which I haven't been very successful at without taking sleeping pills.

Other than that, everything is just hunky-dory!

It COULD be worse, I suppose. He COULD be doing this to me in a CATHOLIC surgery center...........

Oh great, I can imagine my dreams tonight.........a nun standing over me in the operating room with a wooden ruler, shouting, "If thine eye offends thee, PLUCK IT OUT!!!!.........hahahahahahaha)

I don't think I'm getting any sleep tonight.

Part Two......

Tonight, in the aftermath of a botched attempt at relieving the mote in my eye, I attempt to enjoy myself watching a Ken Burns examination, I venture an accurate one, of the life of Samuel Clemens, known to those of us who payed attention in school as Mark Twain. I have always been a great admirer of this gentleman, despite the fact that I have never been in a habit of holding any mortal man upon a pedestal, or to grant hardly anyone a heroes' status. He earned my undying respect of his own accord, based upon his own words and the descriptions of historians, past and present. Fortunate would be the man today that could earn such standing, regardless of what he would be accused of.

Aside from the undeniable fact that Mr Clemens was a man far ahead of his time, his dry wit and refusal to take any man or any institution seriously, and his bravery in taking them all on with equal ferocity, is what makes me regard him with special favor and affection. Even as his lifestyle contradicted his lampoons of the privileged class, he refused to abandon his pointed efforts to illuminate the sad truths that mankind so recklessly wallows in. Perhaps enough citizens, listening to this man's mostly entertaining lectures, actually listened, and even more so learned, what he was trying to really get across and thus joined a collective mindset that today would be considered progressive, even by today's standards. I do know that even now, many of my fellow men could read something this forward looking individual passed on to us, and be enlightened, even as he laughed, which probably gives good reason to fascists, fundamentalists, and those sour of demeanor to burn his works lest they get loose amongst the public and improve them to an uncomfortable degree.

If there is any credence to be given to reincarnation, I would gladly entertain the idea of having been the soul living in Mark Twain's skin, even as now he would be so sorely disappointed in how I, as him recycled, have fared as a human being. He inspires me to be better, if not as your average man, husband, and citizen, then as a writer and a man laying claim to wit. I would like to think that how I see things are things seen as clearly and logically as Mr. Clemens himself saw them, then put to paper for all of our benefit. Alas, in all my days past and those afforded me henceforth, I do not think I shall ever lend MY readers such inspiration, wisdom, OR style of delivery, but by God, even if he DID exist, I would certainly endeavor to do so before the reaper comes to claim his due. You, my readers, are more than welcome to point out, although I would hope not cruelly, my shortcomings in that regard, but if I somehow defeat you of such an effort, I will continue to write most happily, and hopefully, not at any one's expense.

Druids, Quakers and Wiccans, Oh MY!

2008-08-26T18:02:00.000-07:00

Is Mercury in retrograde or something? Seems everybody I know, here in the Hold and out there in blogland, is suffering from something or another. My eye was bothering me so badly last night I got no ( I mean zero, nada, absolutely zilch) sleep at all and had to call out. I gave up and dosed myself with a sleeping pill in the morning just to catch a few short hours of shut eye before I went bonkers. Tomorrow I finally see the eye doctor who is hopefully going to rid me once and for all of this damned irritant beneath my eyelid! Either that or I'm going to be publishing this blog with crayon from a softly padded, undisclosed location........

Then, tonight, THE Wife comes home from work with yet ANOTHER headache, for which I have to give her an injection of Imetrix. It seems to be working but I wonder what she's supposed to do once it wears off? She swears this latest series of headaches has nothing to do with her shoulder, for which she's gotten botox treatments, but then, if not, what is?

Reading my favorite blogs, I find we are not alone by any means. Anne, my favorite Druid of "The Gods Are Bored" fame, has a bad hip which is going to be operated on at (I shudder to think of it) a CATHOLIC hospital! Please rush right over there and leave her your very best wishes, along with any shielding magik you can weave in her favor. She'd do the same for you! Wouldn't you, Anne? Anne? ANNNNNNEEEEE.................

My favorite pagan Quaker (or Quaker pagan, not sure how that works exactly) Citizen of The World, has had her own share of migraines and has been suffering miserably for a while now. Still, she soldiers on and does what needs be done. Go visit her heroic site, now laden with awards, and lend her some encouragement as well. Tell her a sleep-deprived Wiccan sent you.

The Buffalo and Homo Escapeans seem to be doing OK, which I attribute to being on the Northern side of the border. That should tell ya something right there......

Everybody on my blog list over there >>>>>> are wonders in their own rights, or they wouldn't be there. I'm picky that way. I have an eye for talent, and if I give them the nod, you can be assured that you are visiting a quality site that is low in calories, high in nutrients, and downright satisfying to the soul.

Ok, I took another Ambien, am crossing my fingers, and hope I can get some sleep tonight. Wish me luck, guys, wish ALL of us luck, everyone!

A Waterlogged Weekend

2008-08-24T14:35:00.001-07:00

It's been my experience that nobody posts on the weekends, probably because they have better things to do....like weekend things. I used to do things on weekends, way back when work was a five day thing, possibly some overtime on Saturdays, rarely on Sundays. Now, I work every other weekend, and have an average of three days off during the front or rear part of the week, due to the 12 hour shifts I work, which gets those hours out of the way real quick. You guys, well, I assume that you are still in that nine-to-five trench, getting your forty hours from Monday till Friday and celebrating those two weekend days off by going out and doing something away from the house. If you are young, that might mean PARTAY from 9 PM till the early morning hours after which you somehow make it home alive and spend the rest of Sunday recovering from the overdose of spirits and all the pain and agony that might entail. If you are older, it might mean going somewhere during the daylight hours like a picnic or a hike or a visit to a museum or a few days a local nudist colony........hey, no judgement here! Whatever, we here at the Hold make do with attempting to coordinate our entirely differing schedules to do whatever that might allow, taking vacation time to actually go somewhere of any distance and expense.

So, weekends to me usually mean I don't get to enjoy many new posts from my favorite blogs, because most of you simply are not at home to post to them, leaving me here in the lurch. So, just to get revenge, I am going to post! THERE, that ought to serve all of you right!

Yesterday was spent sort of in a haze, having taken a muscle relaxer to try and deal with a slight back pain I was having, which I am sure I got from pulling large people up in bed at work. Today, I had to put the tarp back up over the alter out in the shade garden/sacred space, pick up some downed wood, return some potted trees to their designated spots in the garden, return the wind chimes to their limbs, and tie the goats out to some areas that needed trimming, before this new batch of thunderstorms moved in and moistened us some more, as if a friggin tropical storm wasn't wet enough!

Right now I'm listening to internet radio, thunder, rain on the roof, and the panting of my brave canine companion Shiloh, who at this very moment is sure he is going to die, despite the many years of thunderstorms he has survived without so much as a scratch. THE Wife is in her Witch Room creating some of the coolest bottles for herbs and potions and what-not, using some cool rub-on labels she and the Resident Twin scored at the local crafts emporium. I am rather intrigued with the talents both THE Wife and THE Resident Twin have displayed with their crafts. Me, all I do is write.

Sly and the Family Stone! I love this station!

This is my Sunday Post. I will be working the next two days. If I don't get in posts during that time, consider that MY weekend.

Aftermath

2008-08-23T07:17:00.000-07:00

I want to thank all my readers for the protective bubble of good will that you sent us here at Pendragon Hold. I was able to make it home in the middle of the worst of it, thanks to my dirt road not flooding to the extent that I couldn't make it past the new formed lakes all along it's length, and the wind gusts not being strong enough to shove my little Focus off the blacktop. Quite frankly, and no disrespect to Frank, we've seen worst wind gusts and rains from the summer thunderstorms we've had here at the Hold, including a couple of hailstorms you might remember me mentioning awhile back. However, there WAS a moment of mild terror as the large tornado appeared near Green Cove and headed North, skirting the St. Johns River. Later it was reported that no homes were heavily damaged or destroyed, but this thing WAS big enough to have done some real damage before it dissipated.

What's really amazing is that we didn't even lose our power! Oh sure, there were about four or five surges, but only just enough to shut down the air conditioners and computers, no harm done. Many thousands of others were not so fortunate, as they are sitting there with some minor flooding and no power. Maybe they should have have chanting blogging buddies like we did. Thanks, guys!

So what do I get to do this weekend? Pick up a whole bunch of branches and return all the yard stuff to their former places of honor.

Life could be worse.

A whole LOT worse............

Soggy Bottom Blues

2008-08-21T18:24:00.000-07:00

This is a SECOND attempt to write a post after having lost the first one to a power surge. Please stand by........

O.K., guys, I knew I asked all of you out there in THE Michael's Big Fat Fan Club to chant "Fay, Fay, go away!" and you all came thru for me. I do thank you. That's the good news. The bad news is that my first real attempt (mine, not THE Wife's) at weather magik seems to have backfired. Instead of heading off harmlessly into the gulf to go harass some oil rigs or into the atlantic to go die a dignified death, Fay decided instead to meander up the East coast, stop right next to the Jacksonville area, then veer hard left right across the state, right over the top of Pendragon Hold!

Well, maybe not exactly on TOP of us, but with the eye of this thing just South of us now, we are getting the Northern bands, the "dirty, wet" area of this beast. It has been sitting right off the coast most of the day, as if deciding what to do with itself, and has now slowly edged across Duval and Northern Clay Counties, dumping copious amounts of rain, flooding many communities, and threatening to flood our dirt road that has no real drainage to speak of. I worked my shift at the hospital today, getting off maybe 20 minutes early, hoping I could make it past the lake that would surely be forming near the black top, the same lake that several years ago during another near miss, my old station wagon suffered the affront of a flooded transmission driving through that VERY deep mud puddle. Thank Poseidon, the water had so far only made it halfway across the road, leaving me to circumnavigate a muddy, rutted mess but nevertheless making it home safe and sound.

However........this thing is limping along slowly through the night, and we will be catching the worst of this meteorological abortion as the Northern most and Eastern portion of the storm passes through the area, dumping even more rain, possibly flooding our property and our poor, maligned dirt access to civilization. However, I want to thank our lucky stars for the true nature of this beast, for we have seen stronger wind gusts during the many thunderstorms which have pounded us this summer, and so far our electricity has not been shut off entirely (fingers crossed). If someone has to experience the wonders of tropical meteorology, this is about as benign as it gets.

With any luck, our power will remain on, and the end of the road will be so totally submerged that we will (gasp) be FORCED, (alas) to call out of work until such time that the water recedes and we can make it out onto the blacktop. Knowing MY luck.......what do YOU think? Oh well.............

So, there you have it, the truth of the matter from the front lines here at Pendragon Hold, where yours truly is enduring the indignities of a blow job from a Lady named Fay. May YOUR disasters be as equally open to the joys of sick and twisted metaphor, no harm being done.

Diggin In

2008-08-20T06:31:00.000-07:00

Well, folks, it seems I was a bit cavalier in my assessment of the threat posed to us here at Pendragon Hold by this insane tropical storm/wannabe hurricane known to us as Fay. If we had only named it Fred, the thing would have done what it was going to do and been done with it. Now here we are sitting here wondering if she's gonna catch some Atlantic, power up or not, and come under, over, or on top of us. It seems that at a bare minimum we are going to have a lot of water dumped on us, which at the very least will flood our dirt road, and the wind gusts might very well take out our power this time. Ever lose your power in this kind of heat and humidity for an extended period of time? You don't want to know. Even though I have tried to put away everything I think the expected winds might want to play with, I have no idea how well what remains will perform in steady high winds and/or pretty bad gusts, Several years ago we had at least one very close near miss which buffeted us with gusts of no more than perhaps 60 mph, but sustained winds of 75 or over might prove to be a deal breaker, and there's always those rouge tornadoes that like to tag along in these storms. One of THOSE hits, and it's game over.

In the mean time, I just wanted to make sure that you guys didn't misunderstand the chant we want you to mutter under your breath for the next two days. It wasn't "Fay, Fay, come today...", it was "Fay, Fay, go AWAY....."...........AWAY, get it? THANKS! Just making sure.........

In the meantime, this is THE Michael, reporting from the front lines, wishing you all a dry and.........wait.......what's that on the horizon....?.......no......I need to rub my eyes........what is tha.....no.....NO.......IT CAN'T BE.......it's......IT'S GODZI.......................................................... ............ ...... .... . .

A Stick in the Eye, HAL Goes Bersek, and Fay Bears Down

2008-08-18T11:28:00.000-07:00

Yea, yea, it's been awhile since the last post, but believe me, I've had issues, which provides plenty of post fodder, so I guess it's six of one, half-dozen of another.....

The worst I have to report as of now is that our stewardship of our adopted Ms Sadie Mae, the black cat, was tragically short lived. I am sure that I am entirely to blame for what happened, and it weighs heavy on my heart. I had taken the cat out of the arms of THE Wife in bed before retiring, placing her next to the food bowl in the kitchen. What I didn't realized (thank my ever-increasing forgetfulness as I age) was that I had left the back door open for Shiloh to come back in from his last pee-break of the night. Naturally, being brand new to the household, Sadie Mae took the opportunity to escape into the night, as any cat would, and has not been seen since. I scoured the neighborhood the next day, even printing up flyers and distributing them in hopes that someone had seen her, to no avail. Two days later, we came across a road-kill casualty about a mile away on the main road, but I was not able to judge with certainty that the dead cat was our Sadie Mae. At the very least, I think my personal Karma has gone from perhaps in the green zone to severely overdrawn, even if her escape was due to an innocent oversight on my part. Needless to say THE Wife was heart-broken, as am I. I am so sorry, Sadie Mae.....please forgive me.

I finally was able to see the eye doctor, and the consensus is that I am NOT suffering from a chronic state of dry-eye, instead, have an issue with an oil gland beneath my eyelid that has gotten clogged up, resulting in tiny "stones" being formed with the gland, which has reduced the vital oils required by my tears, and causing the sensation of having a stick in my eye, which has robbed me of hours of sleep over the past several weeks. He has shown me how to use very hot compresses to attempt to "melt" the stones and move them down the glands and out of the passages, and barring that, has me scheduled for minor surgery to have the stones removed. He has assured me that it is a very simple procedure which will not be painful and should solve my problem altogether. You could not possibly understand the relief this has promised me, as I am suffering a severe deficit in sleep! Ever try to sleep through the night when closing your eyes induces a sensation of having a stick poking you in the eye? You don't want to know, believe me........Without the miracle of lots of artificial tears and Ambien, I would be wearing a straight-jacket by now.

The off-site Twin, her Hubby, and our Grandson paid us a visit for our combination Twin birthdays/our Wedding Anniversary extravaganza. THE Wife and I have been married just long enough to have trouble keeping track of exactly how long we have been married, but we think it's been 16 years now. Not that it matters all that much, since it seems we've been together forever. THE grandson is doing very well and is now a towering 5'10" in height.

THEN, it seems that the annual hurricane season has not forgotten us here in the North East corner of Florida after a couple of unusually calm years. Hurricane Fay is winding her merry way thru the Florida Straights, having messed with Cuba, and promising to pay us a visit after kicking around Tampa and Orlando a bit. At least the storm track seems to indicate as such. All we can do here at Pendragon Hold is batten down the hatches, put away all the wind bait scattered about the property, and hope that the storm has pretty much been worn down by the time it reaches us, as has been the experience in past near-misses. If Fay decides to skirt the landmass and approach us from over the energy-rich warm waters of the Gulf, things could get REAL dicey around here. We have our fingers crossed. Send us your best wishes and we promise to use them for all their worth!

On top of all this excitement, the iMac, my gateway to the internet and all you fine folks out there in blog land, decided to start acting weird, then refusing to boot up altogether. I attempted to boot up from the software disk, even running my hardware test utility that came with the computer, all to no avail. The hard drive refused to mount, and the test disk assured me that everything was hunky-dory with the hardware. Well, the Catholic church assured me once that Priests could be trusted, and we all know what THAT amounted to, so I decided to tear out the hard drive and install the original unit that came with the computer to see if that was what the problem was. The resulting performance was confusing, as it seemed to work but didn't really, right before the computer warned me to back everything up immediately as impending hard drive failure was right around the corner.........huh?

Well, having nothing left to lose short of having to haul the entire computer across the St Johns River, a good forty miles to the "local" Apple Store for a costly diagnostic and possible major repair, I purchased another 500 gig internal hard drive and installed it. Then, using Apple's "Time Machine" backup utility, I formated the disk and crossed my fingers. It took awhile, but it worked beautifully, restoring all my data to it's former glory, not losing one bit of information in the process! It seems that the entire malfunction was based on the hard drive going South on me. It could have been worse, based on the age of this hardy and hard working machine. Hopefully, I will have the funds saved up in a year to replace this machine with the newest model before she finally decides to give up the ghost for good. Here's a hint if you guys ever decide to go for the gold and get your own iMac or other Apple computer, now the fastest growing computer brand in the world. Get a refurbished model from the Apple store online. It will save you 2 to 3 hundred bucks and you will get a machine that's already had any problems fixed. Both of my iMacs were refurbs, and they served me very well for a very long time.

On the international scene, well, we all know that the Russian Bear is getting restless again, not having learned it's lesson the first go around that no, you cannot dominate the world. I told you from day one that Putin is following the time-honored Russian tradition of using external threats, mostly manufactured (sound familiar?) to attain dictatorial powers, and now wants to bring back the "glory" of the Soviet "Union" and all that entails. That would be very much like America invading Canada and Mexico occasionally on the pretext that we have citizens there in peril. Of course, we now know that thanks to our esteemed Commander- in- Cheek, George DUBYA Bush, there's not much we can accuse the Russians of doing that we haven't been doing a lot of lately, namely sticking our noses in places it doesn't belong. Now I'm pissed, having to take back the assertion that I and my comrades in arms actually "won" the war we were involved in, namely the "Cold War". It feels pretty chilly to me right now.

I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Perils of Pendragon Hold, and will return to us soon to find out if Fay, the big bad hurricane, simply clears out the deadwood in the trees our clears us out, period. Me, I'm hoping for option one.

Brake Jobs, Black Cats, and Another Day at Pendragon Hold

2008-08-10T14:11:00.000-07:00

Have you ever had one of those blogging sessions that you knew no matter how long it ended up, you'd probably only scratch the surface of all that you had that day to blog about? This is one of those days..........

It was a warm, humid Southern style morning that promised to become a much hotter, wetter day. It was about 7:30 and THE Wife was taking the opportunity to not to do anything, including getting out of bed. Me, it was a miracle that my dry eye was even letting me sleep as late as it did, so I got on up and decided to work my way into my old coveralls in preparation for the brake job I had to get done before the Gods of Deceleration gave up on me altogether. They can only protect us from procrastination for so long........

A cup of coffee and a gathering of the necessary tools later, I detoured to the goat pen in order to tie the complaining creatures out in the yard in order to shut them up. Goats, hungry or not, think they are starving, and must be attended to post-hast if one is to get any sonic peace. Country music almost sounds sweet in comparison to bleating goats, and I hate country music. THEN, I was able to make my way back to the car to get the job going.

As is always the case, and I have done this job numerous times on this same car already, it took me a few minutes to remember exactly how to get the brake assembly off the wheel disk and the old brake pads off. After staring and swearing and piddling and peering, I finally found the two hex bolts on the other side of the assembly that takes that special hex wrench that I ALWAYS have to go hunt down in the OTHER socket set that I can NEVER remember where I stored. Once those things were accomplished and the right side was done, I breezed right through the Left side in a quarter of the time it took me to do the first. I have no doubt that in thirty-odd thousand miles I will repeat this same, time-honored practice in exactly the same fashion, forgetting exactly the same steps I forgot this time. I think it's a guy thing.........

Once this dirty, filthy job was accomplished, I crawled back out of the coveralls (why is it so damn hard to get in and out of these things these days?) and took a shower. I HAD told THE Wife that I would take her to St. Augustine today, but taking into account the heat, other things to be done, and the expense (of which gas is a BIG contributor), we agreed we would stick closer to home and go to a discount crafts super-store in the area to look for stuff she needed for spell craft and other nefarious practices. While she was in that store, I drifted over the the super-store next door catering to pet needs to find something for my dog's itchy skin. While there, having scored some super duper flea, tick, and everything else killer which I had thought I needed a Vet prescription for, I was inexorably drawn to the side of the store that was hosting a cat adoption event. No, I was not in any mood to adopt another entitled alien parasite to house and feed. But there she was, a BLACK cat with an interesting history. Her name was, get this, Sadie Mae, and her previous owner was an elderly lady living in Waycross, Georgia, who had suffered a stroke, was forced into an "assisted living facility", and could not take her beloved Sadie with her. Fortunately, this lady had dear friends who saved the animal from a short stay at the local animal "shelter" where she would have been put to sleep (murdered) within days, who asked their friends associated with Pet Angels down here in the Jacksonville area if they could find this cat a new home. It seems that even some animals have guardian spirits if they are lucky, either that, or the love this dear old lady had for her beloved Sadie transcended all the bad things fate could offer and intervened in what could be another anonymous tragedy.

So, I walked back over to the crafts store and mentioned casually to my partner of the Witch persuasion that there was a black cat next door that she might want to go over and meet.
$55 of our hard-earned money and a lot of paper work later, we adopted Sadie and she is now here in her new home, Pendragon Hold, where cats, dogs, lizards, goats, and a widowed flying squirrel find safe haven. Funny thing, but Cricket and Shiloh, two animals who have always found indifference in each other's company, have suddenly bonded in the face of this new intrusion into their well-ordered world. Pretty damn pathetic, if you ask me. Get OVER it, you two!

Now, it's heading towards evening, I'm sitting at my trusty iMac, listening to Pagan Poet radio, and pecking out this post; the wife is working her magic in her new purple room, which the resident twin jokingly refers to as "Barney's Playhouse", and I'm hoping this night lasts a very, very long time. I like the vibes I've been soaking up this very pleasant day.

This is Alex Pendragon, AKA THE Michael, this is our story, and I'm sticking to it. Till next time, may your weekends be as pleasant as mine can sometimes be.

Ladies and Gentlemen.......

2008-08-07T19:46:00.000-07:00

.......and other such persons who have frequented this blog; have I told you.....each and every one of you (yes, Buf, even YOU), how much I appreciate you for who, what, and where you are in my world for having visited here more than once?

I didn't?

Darn!

Maybe one day I will........

Wait!

I think I just did!

Thanks.

I mean it.

(Hello, my name is THE Michael, and I approved this message.)

In Defense of Self-Defense (and all that entails)

2008-08-06T09:25:00.000-07:00

By voicing my opinion that deadly force is justified in the defense of life or even removal of threats from society, I received counter-opinions that killing can never be justified no matter what. I understand where these mind-sets come from, and I admire them, and the code of conduct that I have chosen to abide by also states that violence is a no-no, just like the ten commandments and various other religious laws are SUPPOSED to prohibit.

But this is the real world we live in, and the practice of non-violence under ALL circumstances goes against nature.

Yes, I can see the shock and disbelief in your eyes, but it is really quite straightforward and rational when you think about it. Since the first multi-cellular life forms first appeared in the oceans of this Earth, it's been blob-eat-blob, graduating with evolution later to the now famous dog-eat-dog. Life sustains itself for the most part by feeding upon living things different, or even similar, to itself. Thus, we have predators, we have prey, and everything in between. That is simply a fact of life and no amount of fluffy bunny denial is going to change it.

However, as mammals evolved into greater apes that could think outside the box, we actually were given the gift of actually being able to CHOOSE how we sustained ourselves, how we protected our own against predation, and even how to protect ourselves from each other. A man could choose to live in harmony with his peers or he could flout civilized dictates and prey on his fellow man, and as such could also be faced with the circumstances of doing so. Thus, we have criminals of all stripes, up to and including murderers. And, we seem to always be faced with armies of peoples wishing to do us harm or at least conquer us, killing many of us in the process as we attempt to thwart their desires. Death amongst this so-called superior species is as common as it is further down the food chain.

As we evolve into superior forms of society and government, we turn more and more of the responsibility for our protection over to police and military, but even then we are faced with those within our ranks who still wish to do us harm. The law and the police who are charged to enforce it, however, is reactive rather than proactive, that is, they can only hold those who harm us accountable AFTER the fact, which for us individually comes a little late. Thus, we still are tasked with our own safety, and we can choose to either leave ourselves open to predation, or we can choose to be ready to fight off those who would attack us.

Some would suggest that ethics or spiritual law direct us to never cause harm to another no matter what the circumstance. Jesus is most famous for this by declaring that if one strikes you, you turn the other cheek and offer them more target. Gandhi spent his whole life promoting non-violent protest, as did Martin Luther King. These were good people, with good intentions, no doubt, but I dare say that the best these fine folks could offer us are best-case scenarios of how we should strive to live. If none of us defended ourselves, there would be precious few of us left to strive for anything of value, spiritual or otherwise.

So, as a follower of a Nature-based religion, I strive to live in this world making as little negative impact upon it as I possibly can. I would never dream of assaulting another human being during the daily course of my life, even in anger, for mere anger is no justification for harming another. However, I am a pragmatist, if anything, and I dare suggest that there are selected circumstances in which harming another is fully justified, and I dare say necessary, in order for us to be able to live in a world in which we CAN practice our ethical and spiritual best-case living standard.

The first is in self-defense. Rationally, one must NEVER submit to attack if one is at all able to defend themselves, for not only are you handing over your safety or even life for no good reason, but you encourage those who prey on others to continue to do so to others, so in that regard you CONTRIBUTE to the harm of others if you do not attempt to stop this harm being perpetrated on YOU. The second is for purpose of societal safety, which includes using deadly force to stop a crazy person from attacking innocent people or using whatever force is necessary to bring a criminal to justice. Now, this does NOT mean that I support the death penalty in total, since it seems we can't count on our criminal justice system to accurately judge the guilt or innocence of the accused in our society, at least for those crimes which have not been committed out in the open in front of the whole world as witness. Until such time that we stop allowing prosecutors to railroad people onto death row on flimsy evidence and tainted juries, I cannot support a death penalty in that context. I CAN, however, support the execution of murderers whose guilt cannot be challenged by any rational standard, like the man on the bus who knifed the kid in Canada. What good is supposed to come from paying a good fifty years worth of room and board and control for this kind of creature, when we already have trouble paying for social programs for those deserving help and kindness? When is the last time we put rabid dogs or bad bears into prison to live out their last days? Are they really no less worthy? Why does your spiritual mandate not extend to them?

Non-violence is a powerful tool when used to protest injustice within a framework where such tactics will shine shame upon those who promote the injustice, and the appropriate pressures can be applied to these people by institutions within or without of said society. The British felt the brunt of this condemnation by the world as a whole, thus in time were forced by even their own good conscience to end their colonial rule of India. Martin Luther King did not receive any pity from your average white Southerner, as they suffered from a deep societal sickness that made their own sin so opaque to them, but the rest of the country was effected to such an extent that even the institutional bigotry of the deep South was tempered by the shame of it all. Thus, non-violent protest finds it's place, and can be effective, if not immediately, but ultimately.

There IS no place for sacrifice to predation. If you wish to feed evil, then you do well to encourage such behavior by providing no consequence for it. Even now, America provides no consequence to the Chinese for human rights violations, not as long as our favored children such as Walmart can find great profit in this kind of capitalistic dictatorship. There will ALWAYS be bad people doing bad things throughout the world as long as their own societies do not have the will or resources to make such behaviors unprofitable.

Here at Pendragon Hold, and anywhere within my own personal sphere of influence, I will not submit to attacks upon my person, or upon those I love. To do so would only visit such evil upon others, for it would not stop with me if I allowed this unrealistic and naive philosophy to rule my thinking. I will NOT pass it on. It stops HERE, the Gods willing.

INAGODDADAVIDDABABY..............

2008-08-05T19:46:00.000-07:00

I watched PBS's retrospective of sixties music tonight, with a whole slew of original bands from that era. It was disturbing.

First off, it's getting a bit aggravating to have to refer to those times as an era, much like "the bronze age" or "the industrial revolution". It hints that perhaps the times being referred to were very, very long ago.

It just doesn't SEEM to me to have been that long ago, but apparently it was.....just ask your grandkids if they were in the room watching this show with you (that is, if you forced them to be).

It was bad enough that when the audience was panned with the camera, it could easily have been mistaken for a retirement home rec room; a BIG rec room, mind you, but something along those lines. Then, we saw who was playing the songs we grew up with. OLD PEOPLE.

Gasp. These were people who were not much older than us when we were groovin' to their contributions to our counter-culture revolution. But now, as though our remembrance was supposed to isolate them from the ravages of time that had befallen all of us, they appear before us as real people should.....having lived their lives pretty much like all of us did since those days, and showing it.

Iron Butterfly had to have been the worst shock to the system. The drummer was a skinny bald guy who had earned real kudos from me for even being able to pick up the sticks, much less pound those puppies like he was a twenty year old. One of the guitar players looked very much like someone's GREAT grandfather, not a rock icon by any means. But what really got me was the organ player/lead singer who had the stereotypical hippy mane very much brunette but whose face and body did NOT match the hair. It HAD to be grecian formula. What was this guy thinking..."I'm STILL a chick magnet!" ?

The years pass us by and we think they ignored us, leaving us to enjoy perpetual youth and miniskirts and tie-dye T-shirts. Well, it didn't happen. I admit, some of these hippy chicks wore well; I'd do them even now. But I know that I cannot and should not and do not want to pass for twenty something again, not after all the aches and pains I earned to be where I am today. I also like the mellow I get to enjoy, free of the frantic need to experience anything and everything 24/7 in excess. Once was enough, and I still have some stuff to try out if I can somehow manage it.

Still, I am very much looking forward to the next efforts of AC/DC, soon to be released by Walmart as has The Eagles and Journey. Now, these guys aren't QUITE as well-worn as their sixties predecessors, but I can guarantee you that kids and grandkids will still be going...."Ughhhhh......GROSS!"

Yea, we did some damn good "gross" kiddos........damn good! ROCK ON!

The Continuing Saga of NIP*

2008-08-04T11:48:00.000-07:00

When in the course of events, a blog rests in the nether without a post for days on end, one must wonder if the author of said blog has abandoned his audience, or has had something terrible befallen him. I assure you that neither circumstance is the truth of it. I just haven't found anything to grouse about or report upon in the time I've had available since the last installment. Thank you for your patience.

Having finished converting the spare bedroom/sewing room/whatever-it-has-to-be room into a very purple Magik space, THE Wife has been flushing out all the stuff we've had stored in there that needs to be evicted from the Hold, as well as generally clearing up and putting the rest of the house back in order. I have to admit, this woman has a certain talent when it comes to "folk art" and setting a theme. I hope the included photos here can give you some sort of gist as how well she does this. I know that those of keener breeding would find all this somewhat gouache, but it comforts us, and WE are the ones here needing the comfort.

While out perusing the stores and the Salvation Army store, THE Wife and Resident Offspring discovered a perfect gift for me, the one who has a particular affection for anything "Green Man". And, as usual, the Offspring has this uncanny ability to find clothing there that does NOT look like budget store cast-offs. I never could handle frequenting the Good Will or such places, especially flea markets, as I have a Lexis sensibility on a Hyundai budget, which can be crippling for someone finding themselves in the lower middle class. I even decided to start a modest savings account to save for the next iMac computer I'm going to have to replace this model with come time that this one either burns out on me or I can no longer use effectively due to obsolescence. My last computer was the original iMac, a "Bondi-Blue Model" that was state-or-the-art when I bought it, but after a long run that ran well into technical obsolescence, it finally gave up the ghost and I was gleefully "forced" to get this sweet baby, my iMac G-5 flat panel wonder that even now, as powerful and capable as she is, has already been superseded by the new intel models that trump it in power and capability. Next year....next year.......but, I digress........I hate flea markets because for all the "bargains" they claim to promote, I have never seen a more concentrated collection of junk and crap that never should have been manufactured to begin with, considering the precious resources that have been wasted in the process. I dream of a day when our "consume everything" culture can be curbed and we can put this phenomenon to rest once and for all. And yes, my Green Man wind chime probably fits that bill as well.

I am still very disturbed by the incident on the bus in Canada, and as much as I hate using this as an example, it IS a perfect example of a situation that could have been cut short if someone on that bus had been legally armed with a concealed handgun. And why the Canadian police didn't put this animal down as he continued to desecrate the body of his victim is beyond me......I'm sure that in any jurisdiction down here, that would have been more than enough excuse to exercise deadly force, or at least a few million volts of taser.

My problem with my left eye continues. Nothing we've tried so far, including Restasis, has had any effect and I am losing a lot of sleep with my eye drying out and now a new symptom in the form of a lump or bump under my upper eyelid seems to be developing. I have had to take some of my wife's sleeping pills just to get past the sensation. So, I have decided to get serious and have made an appointment with an Ophthalmologist. No disrespect to the "Optometric Physician" I have seen so far, but I think I really need some heavy-weight help here before I either go nuts for lack of sleep or even lose my eyesight. Well wishes are more than welcome.

The goats have had their fill of yard growth (no, we have no real "lawn" here at Pendragon Hold, for lawns are really nothing more than artificial constructs requiring artificial fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and lots of work) and are now back in their pen resting out the rest of the hot and humid day. Lola, the outside cat with identity problems, just plops herself down wherever it strikes her and sleeps thru the heat, while the other animals enjoy the cooler weather here inside. Our daily thunderstorm hasn't happened yet today but the day is not yet over. When I finish here I need to go out and harvest some of these late-season lima beans to serve with whatever I can dig out of the freezer tonight for dinner. Gods, help me, I think I'm a house-husband.........

That's the latest from Pendragon Hold, where the women are strong, the men enduring, and the offspring a bit better than average. Thanks for stopping by.

Oh, almost forgot.......(* Nothing In Particular)

Believin'

2008-07-31T19:31:00.000-07:00

The rain's been fallin' for five days a week
Saturdays and Sundays too
just enough
just enough time between the rain drops for it all to dry

and I have to keep believin'

The grass is growing faster now
just ahead of the goats predation
just enough
just fast enough to hold the sand together in the sun

and I think I like believin'

I know that some would think I'm foolin'
foolin' myself and all I try to talk into fantasy
but believin's only halfway gone to being there
where I think maybe we all need to be

I know that some would think I'm foolish
foolish for thinkin' in terms of fairy tales and tree huggin'
but foolishness is halfway there to innocence
that land beyond knowing a tad to much to be happy

The rain's been kind for all this long long summer
workdays, vacation days too
just enough
just enough to keep me in clean till the dirty comes callin'

and I WILL keep believin'

believing in you.......

Post-Purple-Pontifications

2008-07-27T16:23:00.000-07:00

I am rarely in a good mood after watching the evening news, and today is no exception. Before I get to the why and wherefores, perhaps you wonder why I expose myself to daily doses of media if it gets my blood pressure in the upper ranges. Well, quite simply, it's the concept of "forewarned is forearmed". I want to know that killer asteroid is on it's way so I can be hugging my loved ones when it hits. I want to know that the price of something is going to skyrocket so that I can consider alternatives or cutting back. I want to know that the fascist wing of the Republican Party is starting to behave alot like Serbians so I can have my cure for that ready. So what if it all pisses me off? I'd rather be pissed off than pissed ON.

So today a fine gentleman strolled into a Unitarian Universalist Church (full of children, no less) and began to educate the congregation on the operation of a 12 gauge shotgun. A whole bunch of people got hurt badly, one died. The police suspect this might have been a "hate crime". You THINK? I would hate to think someone with Jesus in his heart and love for his fellow man thought killing people in cold blood was a right good thing to do. This church just so happens to welcome your average marginalized amongst us, such as gays. Damn, they must have heard Jesus saying something about loving everybody! How DARE they!? Why, a good BAPTIST congregation would NEVER think of allowing those SINNERS to worship in "the house of the Lord". God would be sooooo pissed, now wouldn't he? So, I imagine, since he couldn't get a crack at a homosexual in a "regular" church, this person, who I have no doubt heard voices in his head telling him to do so, had to go looking for them in a place where (GASP!) they would be welcome to praise God. Can't have people like THAT praising God, now could he........

You might notice that GOD never seems to get around to SMITING people like this. He SMIT those terrible sinners in New Orleans, but a cold blooded murderer? Naw, I suppose GOD allows such nut cases to do their thing according to his "mysterious ways" policy. He didn't interfere with Hitler, Stalin, or that Killer clown, either. Mysterious indeed........

Also, thanks to our new found lust for cooking oils that don't kill us, the indonesian government is allowing the wholesale slaughter of Orangoutangs, pushing them ever closer to the final extinction. There natural habitat is being slashed and burnt and cleared out for cropland for palm, and of course when the happy-go-lucky apes stroll out of their ever-constricting forest to sample a few plants, the farmers freak and chop them up with their machetes. I am starting to associate the machete with the very concept of evil, since it seems that every genocide, ethnic cleansing, wildlife slaughter seems to star this cheap and easy cutting tool. I wonder if all of these people had clauses in THEIR constitutions protecting their right to bear machetes? I would dearly love to pry a few thousand of those long knives out of some cold, dead fingers. I may be Wiccan, but I am not a roll over and die kind of Wiccan, not THIS one. Justice has to figure into the cosmic scheme of things SOMEwhere. Sitting back and being assured that yea, they will get THEIRS, is cold comfort to an extinct race of anything, so please, don't try and comfort me with Karma. It won't comfort the few remaining great apes.

We should have an annual "Kiss a Species Goodbye" day, chronicling the passing of whatever unfortunate animal we drove to extinction that year. We should make a real big deal about it, praising all the actors who made such a distinction possible. Give them plagues and awards and pictures of their smiling faces on a huge billboard and televise it all over the world like they do Earth day. Well, c'mon, if we are gonna act so damn human, might as well celebrate it, right?

Back here at Pendragon Hold, it has been raining every frickin day for the last month at least, and now I am beginning to suspect where all of California's water has gone. It's here. You guys are welcome to come take it back home. We have plenty now.

The PURPLE room is now finished, except for the trim, which THE Wife is doing in......you guessed it.....BLACK. Hey, she's a Witch, what do you expect?

I just made Frozen Pina Colada's in the blender and we'll be watching a movie as soon as America's Funniest Home Videos is over. Knowing my luck, Pina Coladas are indirectly responsible for the demise of some obscure snail somewhere. Sigh, oh well.........Salute!

You have just experienced another episode of "These Thoughts Escape Me". Be assured our security personnel are on the job, rounding those stray thoughts up and putting them back where they belong. Thank you for visiting.

The Color Purple

2008-07-25T13:26:00.000-07:00

The saga continues.........today I got an extra day off due to low census at the job, which delighted THE Wife to no end, not for having more time with me, since she had to work anyway, but for the work I get to do HERE, and she don't pay overtime. We had decided to prime the other three walls after the slightly unsatisfactory results we got on the first wall without primer, so that had already been done, and today I laid down the first coat of purple over the primer. You would THINK there would be an OBVIOUS improvement visible right off the bat, but you'd be wrong. I still have to have this first coat dry before I can make any judgements, but something tells me there's gonna have to be two coats despite the primer. I thought that rollers always lay down a nice, complete, even coat of paint, but instead these things seem to pull away half as much paint on the return stroke as went on with the first. It's aggravating. I have decided I do not like textured wall board.

We received a letter from the IRS. Panic ensued in my heart. With not-so-steady hands I ripped open the envelope and............they simply wanted a signature on a form to go along with the online filing we did this year.

I was VERY happy to comply.

FINALLY, something I wished would be done for years, has been done, not by a President, but by a candidate, but at least Barak Obama had the guts and honesty to do it. Yep, folks, he admitted to a humongous crowd of Germans that we, the United States of America, sometimes made (GASP, how DARE he suggest?!) mistakes, and that we could be better than we had been. Well, folks, I know some of you think that it is sacrilegious to suggest to someone other than our own that we as a nation are not perfect, and that we can actually be sorry for some of the choices some of our leaders have made in our name, but the alternative, which is holier-than-thou arrogance, has done more damage to our image as an example to follow than any terrorist could inflict on us. Yes, Kansas, we will soon (thou not soon enough) be rid of a stain on our presidency, and we, with the Gods' good graces, will soon see him replaced by a man who can lead us back on the path to a bright future that we are long overdue to enjoy. Providing of course he can force past the special interests and a lack-luster congress the work necessary to save our butts from the worst effects of global warming. Thank you, Mr. Obama, for showing our human face without embarrassing us before the world stage. Who else could have done it more eloquently?

There you have it, my usual mix of fact and fantasy, chronicle and crankiness, with a little eye candy thrown in to save the day. Have a blessed day and come back and see us soon.

Home alone with me and my sick thoughts........

2008-07-21T14:13:00.000-07:00

As so often is the case with married life, a man's day off rests upon the whims of wives, and thus I spent this one within a house in disarray, furniture and stuff scattered about as we make room to paint her work room that witchy shade of purple she wanted. Looks more like grape cool-aid to me, but then, I'm no Picasso, am I? I also had dishes, laundry, cats, a dog, and goats to tend to. Listening to internet radio or NPR, the day passes easily, as I have no deadline to meet for any of these tasks.

I also get to share some chat time with Eddy in Iraq and Paul in Arizona. It amazes me when I stop to think about it, how nowadays you can communicate instantly with anyone on the planet with the right equipment and connections, when only 30 years ago such capabilities would have been solely the purview of some agency with access to super-secret high technology like the NSA. Hell, I have no doubt that I could target a hellfire missile onto some hapless sheep herder in the middle of Afghanistan with this computer if I only knew the right URL and had the proper flight control program installed. Not that I would WANT that kind of god-like power.

Then again, maybe I would....hehe.

And now to the news. It seems that hundreds of young, DEAD penguins are NOT washing up on the shores of South America, as the continuing weird consequences of Global Warming ARE NOT being visited upon the landmass of Antarctica. The Southern-most area of our globe is now NOT experiencing something that has never occurred before in recorded history, such as actual blizzards with real snow and freezing rains which drench then kill baby penguins in their nesting areas. I'm so glad that global warming is nothing but a liberal conspiracy to rob hard working oil barons of their hard-earned oil wealth, otherwise I would actually be alarmed and might want to do something about it, like back up some dump-trucks full of plastic, oil coated flotsam onto the property of their McMansions and give THEM a dose of what it's like to have this crap dumped on THEM. Yes, it would be terrible, being an entitled American and all, if I had to pull my fat head out of the sand and notice anything strange going on in the world that might have anything to do with my opulent demands for a larger-than-life lifestyle that nobody can afford to sustain and still hope to save this planet from the results. I wish I could afford an SUV so that I could drive down to the marina and offer to dust the interior of one of these fine capitalist yachts just to show my appreciation for their contributions to our superior culture.

When Rome burned, did it smell like toast? I like toast. Especially garlic toast. TEXAS garlic toast. You DO know that anything with TEXAS next to it is bigger than anything else, right?

Oh, hell, what am I thinking? I want some ALASKAN toast!

No slice of toast too big for THIS 'merkin, nosiree!

I have to go puke now............

The Circle Closes, Once Again

2008-07-16T19:11:00.000-07:00

It is with aggravating regularity, it seems, that I come to you to to report of a passing here at Pendragon Hold. We are an ark of miniscule proportions, with our animals of various persuasions, such as dog, cat, lizard, and goat, and as such, sometimes a member of our extended family passes beyond our veil prematurely, and thus we are left to ponder the whys and wherefores of life, awaiting our own time when we too will take our turn and leave our loved ones to carry on with the toil of living.

This morning I attended the task of visiting the goat pen to feed our ever-hungry charges, and was shocked and grief-stricken to discover our juvenile buck Pepper dead upon the ground, no cause of death evident, nothing to explain this tragedy. I could only imagine that Pepper had braved the horns and strength of our big goat Billy once too often, brave little fuck that he was, and perhaps suffered some internal injury as a result. Pepper never backed down from anyone or anything, and would throw himself bodily into the feed trough to ensure his own portion of a day's feed, and Billy, being the big bad goat he imagined himself to be, would butt this little guy something fierce in his efforts to dislodge him from his path to the grains. Pepper always seemed quite capable of taking whatever Billy would dish out, absorbing the punishment happily, it seemed, for he never complained and never fled from those horns. This may have been his undoing.

So, as has happened on many a night beneath Momma Moon, we set flame to the pyre, and bid Pepper a sad farewell as we assisted him on his way to the green, verdant pastures of Summerland, where ALL life forms find there rest before the God/Goddess/Powers that be decide where next one is to task him/her/itself in the continuing saga of life. I accept some measure of blame in this incident, feeling that perhaps I should have kept the little guy apart from the bigger goat, and hopefully the lesson I have learned this day will help me to ensure that such a mistake does not rob some future creature in MY charge an early end to their adventure on this plane. Pepper, please forgive me.

I guess there are other occurrences I could enlighten my audience upon this night, but somehow I am not up to it, and I beg your forbearance in this matter. I am a steward, and a poor one, and some measure of reflection is in order.

Until the morrow when happier reports will grace this page........Blessed Be.

She Speaks to Me, Even Now

2008-07-13T11:38:00.001-07:00

The castle is in a sort of disaray as the Queen Witch tears apart her workshop so that we can paint it a Witchy sort of purple color that agrees with her creative process. I am not impressed with the paintability of this slick wall board that they wall these manufactured domiciles with, so it seems it will take at least two coats in order to conceal the sins beneath. On top of this color purple she intends to sprinkle silver stars. I think I could murder Martha Stewart simply by inviting her blindfolded to this abode and removing the blindfold without warning as to the eclectic nightmare she is about to be faced with. Our eyes, though, are easily bored, and all this colorful business pleases us much more than the sterile "high" art that some, most often those with sufficient funds to toss to the winds, would find palatable. It IS a clean machine, my friends.

THE resident offspring continues to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune in regards to the tender mercies of her heart. I would delve into all this drama further save that sometimes these people related to me in one manner or another take offense at how I deal out details of some of this life, so I defer this time and leave it to suffice that, quite bluntly, shit happens.

While searching for an available box of suitable proportions that we might use to send a certain someone some material creature comforts, I once again had an opportunity to peruse some of my late Mother's sketch books, chock full of the beauty of a mind once so musical with artistic creativity it could hardly be contained within her beautiful five foot frame. The things that we do, in so many ways, if properly respected and protected by those who loved us during our lives, can reach beyond us long after our souls depart for distant shores, perhaps the sunny beaches of someone's personal Summerland, where one can watch the waves and never fear a burn. Thus I have these records of my Mother's artistic expressions, and there are several items of note that I wish to share with you this post.

It never struck me in all my experience with this woman, or even with my wife while she knew her, that Michele knew of pagan ways, paths, or Gods, but amazingly I continue to come across evidence that even then the Goddess was having some influence upon her. Mom was raised a good little Catholic girl, and fell away from that path as easily as I did, perhaps due to the oppression she suffered at the hands of masculine society and the judgement of her gypsy/artist lifestyle by an unforgiving institute of Christ. I now enjoy a certain certainty that my mother is now painting quite a few portraits in Summerland in the company of the likes of Picasso, Michaelangelo, and Renoir. Only now she does it strictly for pleasure, and not for rent.

Tonight we shall enjoy more bounty from our garden, some baby Lima beans and green beans still producing strong on these vines. Then, after dinner, we will prepare our care package with loving care, and hope that the sum of everything we place in this box adds up to much more than all the individual goodies we can cram in. I would like to think this box is full of love, and gratitude.

Returns Upon an Odd Investment

2008-07-11T19:58:00.000-07:00

Cricket is feeling much better, back on her feed as fine as a feline can be. I know this for she seeks out the company of those who imagine to be more evolved than herself, namely, me. This is a phenomenon I do not understand, for I am a man sworn to loyalty to my dog and his like, not to any worthless cougar wannabe, which have never proven to equal the food we so eagerly supply them, with not one dead mouse in return (not that we are afflicted with rodents to begin with). As has been expressed in times past, I truly feel I am one of few who realizes that man has been conquered by a supposed lesser being, all without his clueless knowledge.

She cuddles upon my lap, and as if by instinct I stroke her back, then scratch with some vigor a special spot near her spine which comically puts this creature into some state of nirvana, which I suspect is just shy of sexual, thankful that I do not want or know how to proceed further in which I might very well suffer the consequences I sometimes have witnessed audibly in the night, those times when I was awoken to such caterwauling, such angry ecstasy that I wonder why one party to this knock-down-drag-out sort of raw sex doesn't always result in at least one fatality. I chuckle at her expression, which I so wish I could share, and then return to whatever other form of entertainment competes for my attention, usually the television, and she returns to being content in my lap.

Tis a strange union, this thing between man and beast, and I wonder sometimes how it came to pass that I am not identified as the beast, for I am the one most likely to cause some drastic harm to another for no reason having to do with the natural order of things, the rule of how all is conducted according to the circle of life. They would call my Cricket an animal, but tell me, what animal conducts the atrocities of the like which now plague those remaining in the region we call Darfor? What animal could orchestrate something so evil as to earn the name Holocaust? What ANIMAL would seek, being capable of self and pain and misery and love and caring and knowing of Shakespeare, the death of others in some way only "different" than them? What animal, in the norm at least, will hunt down it's own when it's own survival dictates that it's own be protected against a harsh world if it hopes to remain in it? Yes, I would consider removing those amongst myself I consider a threat to it's entirety, but who amongst us fits that bill as an entire people? I challenge you to find any such company, and whatever claim you would make to that end, I would stand against it. No, I would gladly be a traitor to my entire species for what it has done against all else that shares this quiet world with us, but I will not single out ONE color, or rational creed, or race, for some special attention for my evil, so proven so effective in it's abilities to know utter darkness.

So I will stroke this cat, and lend it some small and temporary measure of pleasure, knowing that, to my understanding, it knows no gratuity for my charity,yet I know that in some way, the Goddess knows what I have done, and in Summerland, all measures of kindness are returned three fold.

And I will take three fold return of what rests in my heart over any Christian charity.

There are ALWAYS Exceptions.........

2008-07-10T19:35:00.000-07:00

It's a work night for me and I have nothing to be posting about.........except........

THE Wife thinks she lost track of a handful of foreign coins which she already has a handful of right where I always knew they were but she insists there were alot more of them and is tearing the house apart looking for them. Funny how these extra coins are utterly missing from MY memory concerning foreign coins, but hey, what do I know?

I received a rather odd and remarkable birthday present from my boss today. I don't recall if I ever shared with you guys how we deal with the dearly departed on my unit, but it's always been a point of contention with me over all these years. I imagine you automatically associate dead bodies with neat plastic zippered bags, but here at my place of employment, we have been forced to prepare our deceased patients by.........sigh........wrapping them in cheap, thin, almost transparent sheets of plastic, bound with strips of cloth, something so disrespectful and crude it has made something I never really enjoyed something I downright dreaded. The thought that MY mother was treated this way still sticks in my craw. This has gone on since before I started working here more than ten years ago and I have constantly complained about it, arguing that our patients deserved to treated better than this, and I don't care if a nice zippered bag MIGHT cost this corporation 5 cents more per unit, this has always been an outrage as far as I was concerned. Every new nurse I have had the unfortunate pleasure to introduce to "the way we do things here" has expressed shock at this idea of wrapping bodies in a sheet of plastic, and I could do little but agree with them.

This is where the pictures I don't think need be supplied would otherwise go. Thank you for your understanding.

Like I said, I received a birthday present from my wonderful new boss today. I had spoken to her about this sore subject a week ago, and today she presented me with a nice package containing a quality zippered body bag, which thanks to her intervention we will now be stocking. No longer will I have to DREAD the idea of a family member innocently returning to the room after their loved one has been prepared the old way. Now, our deceased patients will be sent out in a much more respectful way. I know, why would a dead person care what happens with their body once they have left? It's not for them, really. It's for us. And ordinary, basic, respect. Today I won a long fought battle. Thank you, boss.

Later this night, THE resident daughter discovered a rather robust spider busy building a humongous web right over our front porch, perhaps preparing a trap for flying creatures of the night. I have no doubt that THIS sucker could take on a bat or even a small bird should such a creature fly into it's beautifully crafted web. I wonder if this guy comes out EVERY night, laying his trap, then wrapping things up before the sun comes up. Maybe........

Before I got off of work, I suddenly acquired this strange craving for a fish sandwich; you know, along the lines of the BK Whaler, or the McDonalds Fillet-oh-Fish. Only bigger. So, we stopped off on the way home and bought the closest thing we could find to square breaded fish fillets, of which there were none. Still, with buns, tarter sauce, lettuce, tomato, and tater tots, the EXPERIENCE was created and enjoyed, and a craving dealt with once and for all.

The cat Cricket seems to be recovering from her bout with the flu. ATTA GIRL!

So, like I said, this is a work night, during which I rarely post.

SURPRISE!

This is Tonight's Post.....

2008-07-09T17:14:00.000-07:00

Need I say more?

Cat Colds and Kiddy Cholesterol

2008-07-07T16:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I became a tad more fifty-ish and feeling the years but today I was very heartened to hear of the 41 year old woman who not only won her swimming event but set a new WORLD record doing it. In this day and age of 16 year olds being considered over the hill in competitive sports, it is amazing that someone is able to prove that going down hill means you can go faster.

Now they want eight year olds to take cholesterol lowing medicines. This is just more proof that the gene pool is getting pretty damn shallow. More and more people are coming up with more and more health problems that have alot to do with poor genetics and VERY bad diets, as well as piss-poor exercise. Maybe if we withdrew our fat little kids from BK and PS3 and shipped them off to Grandma's farm for some healthy living we might could improve their health immensely. They need to get dirty to jump start their immune systems. They need to outrun some bulls to lose that baby fat that stays with them these days. And they need to eat some fruits and veggies instead of this junk food chock full of nitrates, preservatives, and who knows what else. Besides, there's plenty to keep them occupied instead of standing on the street corner shooting at people.

So far, it's a no-brainer as to who I am voting for. I am not voting for Ralph Nader, not because I don't think he might be our last chance to give the government back to the people, but because the people insist on flash instead of real substance, thus I have to choose the best of the only real choices given us. McCain, well, anybody voting for him just can't seem to get enough anal sex. If you really can't GET IT by now, folks, maybe a country like Zimbabwe would be more to your liking. They can REALLY put it to you over there. As for Obama, I think it's great that we are even having this "first black president" conversation, finally, after all these years, but we really need more than precedent setting right now. We really DO need change, and I'm not talking about that old change from one politician to another. We need someone who truly understands the real threats to this nation, it's constitution, and the world in total. The way Obama keeps hemming and hawing about his platforms lately really makes me nervous, but short of his complete metamorphosis into Jesse Helms, he still has my vote.

Oh, and Jesse? Aren't you glad there really isn't any hell, you lucky and oh-so-dead SOB? Enjoy Summerland while you can; I suspect you will be coming back as a woman in a Taliban village. Karma, the gift that keeps on giving...hehehe

The high price of gasoline just might bring about a social change that is long overdue; a reduction of the workweek, giving people more time to spend with their families and getting more involved in home and community projects. Yes, in some cases this could slightly reduce take home pay, but with the proper adjustments and reduction of energy costs, this may be just what the Doctor ordered for Americans and their hectic consumer lifestyles. Perhaps corporations could take a cue and reduce the output of their factories to supply demand rather than making tons of stuff and trying to sell it to us after the fact. Maybe the auto makers could just put demonstration models of what they have to offer on the lots instead of taking up acres with unsold gas hogs they have to practically give away to move. I for one would prefer to order exactly what I want and get it in a week rather than having to barter and bullshit a car salesman to end up with a lemon I didn't really need.

Our cat Cricket has been down in the dumps lately; we think she has kitty flu, due to the nasty green snot she slings when she sneezes. She is really out of sorts and we really feel for her, but there's not much we can do for her. Hopefully she'll get over this like we humans do in good time and get back to her lazy bum but happy self.

Well, that's about all I can think to litter the literary landscape with right now, so I will let you get back to your reruns, other blogs, or whatever it is that occupies you. My next post will be the Dead Wood version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream", so stay tuned.

Wink.

A Fabulous Fun Fourth and Birthday to Boot

2008-07-05T05:15:00.000-07:00

It is the day after the 4th of July, our Independence Day, and I am well pleased with myself, for on this grand holiday (which I spent working), I was granted a fine gift, a membership in a band of brothers who share my disdain for fair weather patriotism and who endeavor much as I have done to shine the spotlight of truth upon a terrible fiction that has been perpetrated upon the American people, that being that we are surrounded by enemies that we must rush out to kill, all for Mom, apple pie, and Haliburton. I have been invited to write for a political blog known as "The American Patriot Institute", a somewhat tongue-in-cheek yet dead serious endeavor to share the opinions of a group of veterans of the armed forces who truly have earned the dispensation of their viewpoints. My good friend The Buffalo, a veteran himself, introduced me to this fine crowd of ex-warriors, and to that end I am most grateful. If you wish, you may go over there > to the sidebar, click on the API logo, and visit this blog, which now hosts my introduction as well as my first say in the matter. Even without my loud mouth, I venture it is a fine publication, one I think you would enjoy.

THE Wife and Kid also surprised me with an early birthday card and a practical gift, a compact contraption with a wind-up crank which can light the way, tell the time and temperature, point you in the right direction, and tune you into AM, FM, and the Weather bands on it's radio, should a nuclear strike or hurricane take out the power in the house. I think a hurricane would be sufficient practice, providing it leaves us a house to practice in.

With this holiday weekend we will be spending some precious gasoline to haul down to St Augustine, where THE Wife hopes to find a pair of elusive gargoyles of the proper temperament and size to perch on our arbor/entrance to the sacred circle. You'd be surprised how hard it can be to find one of these creatures of just the right proportions AND price. It will be a close and affordable getaway that we don't get to enjoy that often these days.

Thanks to the technological marvel of the webcam, I was able to have a video chat with Eddy, or young warrior friend now in Iraq. He looks good considering. I want everybody to know that Eddy is over there putting most of his energies into SAVING lives rather than taking them, as he serves as a medic with a field hospital in Tikrit. He has had to assist in the treatment of friend and foe alike, and with the Gods' good graces might not ever have to take a life himself, although their are plenty enough souls running around over there in need of sending along to the great beyond. Please keep him in your thoughts and DON'T LET OBAMA BACK DOWN FROM HIS PROMISES!

And Congress, I swear to all the Gods of ALL pantheons, that if you allow this maniac redneck piss-ant who calls himself president to instigate even MORE shit in the Middle East, I will make it my sworn duty for all my remaining days to see to it that each and every one of you become normal citizens, hopefully with a taste of the American Penal system under your belt for your malfeasance. We didn't elect you to outright ignore how we want our government to function. We want an end to this madness, and we want it NOW!

So, till such time as DUBYA attempts to start WWIII, I shall enjoy my week off and enjoy all those freedoms that my fellow veterans and I swore to protect, and give a hearty salute to those young men who carry on in our stead. THANKS EDDY!

Life and Death in the Day of a Life........

2008-07-01T19:33:00.000-07:00

I ventured into this day quite prepared for what I had already been forewarned, that I would take on this day and it's attendant tasks by my lonesome. Whatever had conspired to bring about this dread of a day, it truly mattered not, as I had been introduced most numerous times to this same sort of abandonment with it's harvest of harsh labors. I had, and would, conquer this beast yet again.

And I did. On this day, two souls departed within minutes of each other, while yet a few souls, much more the better for having known our company, made it out of our care and into the bosom of those caregivers on the more common floors above us. Both of them left me with some sort of gratitude, uninvited, yet held to as firmly as the highest accolades, for small victories such as these are our feasts amongst this famine of good health.

And it did leap upon me that I would organize a collection of a common assortment of those small pleasures that a young man might find refreshing should he find himself in a far-flung and hostile place, a warrior I also considered a man of peace and equally my friend. I will ask of some kind considerations for roughly a week, then gather up these offerings and with postal assist deliver them to him, with our and my thanks for his service. It would gladden me greatly to have received the same in his circumstance.

In my efforts I have scored accolades, and I enjoy them appropriately, for I know what I am capable of, and deliver what value it may impart to those that deserve it. I am a man who waited long and pined for such kind words, and in this instance, I am grateful, and I will continue to prove I am worthy. Karma demands no less.

Having won this day with no injury that I am aware of, I arrive home in the company of a wife to the bleating of hungry goats and decide that I am not so tired nor is it so late that I cannot relieve them of this hunger, which is brought upon them because of my obligations to employment and the hours they cost me. They did eat fully and sleep tonight with bellies well attended. On the morrow I intend to release them upon the weeds, and will delight in their voraciousness, as goats demonstrate so well. The fire ant mound, however, that I stumble upon in my yard, one of such great proportions even I am awed, does not entertain any such charity on my part and has suffered a sprinkling of a powder that will deliver their doom. All of us indeed are Mother Gaia's creatures, but some less than others, I must confess.

I pray that this delivery of a day's happenings have not aggravated, but have entertained, your eyes that feed upon this page in such charitable regularity. Having enjoyed the music of dialogue which an episode of "Dead Wood" has so entertained me, I could not help but to venture that such a painting of same said words upon THIS page might provide an equal helping of mirth you might find pleasing. If not, you may stand and deliver your condemnations as you wish, but I will not regret for having tried this once to flavor this page with something different.

Thus, a blessed greeting is given all who come here, for your visitations slake this thirst most heartedly, and I wish for you all nothing but the best that can come your way.

Red Clay Rewards

2008-06-28T18:29:00.000-07:00

OK, it's time for another post. And, despite the odds, I actually have a few things to post about. Allow me to illustrate.........

The naturally humble have it easy. They usually are these people who perform remarkably sacrificial wonders, making life for those around them much better than it would be otherwise. In time, these people are recognized for their selfless contributions to their community. They blush and accept the praises and keep on keeping on. I like these people, but I'm not really one of them. Most of us aren't.

Then there are those of us who mean well. Yes, we too add to the quality of life around us, but we are not as immune to the need to be recognized for exactly how we contribute to our surroundings and the people living in it. And yes, we are handicapped by a need to profit by our efforts. We want to be paid according to our worth, we want that "attaboy" when we go above and beyond, only we don't usually go that far beyond because sometimes we are made to feel as though we are lucky to have a job, much less expecting something special for doing that job well. That's why you have drones occupying sales counters appearing to do nothing of actual value except take your money and pass it on to their masters, because they have never and do not expect to gain any appreciation for their efforts. Yes, I do applaud the selfless volunteer who comforts us, helps us, or provides something we want or need in return for nothing more than having something worthwhile to do. But I also applaud those hearty souls who DEMAND to be recognized as people, as workers, as cogs in the machine who deliver value and have every right to demand something in return, such as a decent standard of living, safe working conditions, and perhaps a pension to reward them in their retirement when punching that clock is simply too much to ask after decades of hard work. We all need SOME sort of quality rest before we kick the bucket.

In this regard I have always been torn. I really, really try these days to perform my job in the best way possible, but I am also loath to get into that "above and beyond" bullshit when it seems that it's simply taken for granted. One thing I do hold sacrosanct is that MY patients, the poor sick souls whom I come in contact with during my twelve hour shifts of servitude in return for my meager pay, do not suffer for having been in my presence, but rather have a much better experience for having done so. I take great pride in how I perform tests on my patients in the least painful way possible, since being allergic to pain as I am, I have a certain empathy in that regard. And, believe it or not, I am actually REMEMBERED for my efforts. I also believe that ANY task I am responsible for, however trivial or straight-forward that task might be considered, can be done better if one only tries. Thus, there are many processes here in this unit that I am directly responsible for having improved, especially in how it impacts the comfort of our patients, and that I take great pride in. So, should I be given credit where credit is due, or should I just "be humble" about it and consider myself lucky just to have a job? Whenever I feel justified in blowing my own horn, I do so with a certain trepidation, firstly for having to feel that I have to do it, secondly living with a certain guilt for having done it period. I struggle with all this daily.

Thus I FINALLY get to the point I meant to get to several paragraphs back. (Yes, I know who damn long-winded I can get; you DON'T have to tell me) We finally had our annual performance reviews this past week, which have been somewhat overdue for a variety of circumstances, including a change in Leadership of the Hospital. I usually dread these things, because it usually goes that I am given a long laundry list of all those improvements I need to focus on, and why I am begrudgingly getting a pathetic excuse for a raise, again, being reminded in a round-about way that I should consider my luck in even being employed. This usually flies horrifically in what I know to be the truth of the matter, but this being a right-to-work state, you open your mouth and dare protest to much at your own peril. I HAVE been on occasion asked to consider some other occupation, after some rather ridiculous drama that I had precious little to do with or was blown totally out of proportion. So, you can imagine my reluctance to sit with the boss and get raked over the coals for another round of imagined insults.

Only THIS time it didn't happen that way.

It was as if the record I had recorded in my head all these thirteen long years had been lovingly removed from it's jacket and played to an appreciate audience for the very first time. All those reasons I have lived with for wanting to be APPRECIATED for what I have done for this unit all these years were suddenly taken out of the cabinet, dusted off, and validated. My boss informed me that I was held in the highest esteem by my peers for my work ethic, my professionalism, my abilities, and on top of that I was given a pretty damn good raise, at least compared to what passes for a raise here in this place. You can imagine the effect this had on my overall mood. I was expecting the worst, and was happily disappointed.

AND, before THAT, THE Wife was given a real big "Attagirl" for HER work ethic by HER boss and given an even BIGGER raise! And she deserved every damn penny of it! Now, you tell me, was this not a good week?

Continuing on with the news, I installed the new air-conditioner in the bedroom, and it hasn't solved my problem at all. I think my problem is particular to ME, since the wife is having none of the problems with noise and clamminess that I am, but then again, I'm not taking sleeping pills either. Maybe I need the pills to. Old age can screw up your sleep patterns anyway. So now we have an air conditioner, the one that USED to be in the master bedroom, installed in the extra-bedroom/Wife's-workshop window.

For some strange reason, the county, which is apparently NEVER going to pave our road, has decided to be nice to us on this Lane and has been spreading red clay over the top of our sand road, which turns into washboard no sooner than they grade it. So far it seems like this clay is actually working to reduce the washboard effect that usually afflicts us on this road. I have had to drive like a bat out of hell over these bumps to keep them from pounding my suspension into putty. (You see, my theory is that if you drive fast enough, you actually spend most of your tire-contact time on the tops of the bumps, instead of allowing the tires to descend into each rut and produce the associated stress. Now that the road is much smoother, I can actually slow down and reduce my risk of an accident.

Most of our lower-cost gas stations (such as HESS) appear to be desperately trying to hold at that psychological $3.99 a gallon of gas, but many of them are already refusing to allow credit cards or are charging extra to use them, due to the fact that the credit card companies have been charging these businesses a percentage on each purchase which now exceeds the profit margin of each gallon of fuel because of how expensive a fill-up is getting. Visa and Mastercard are going to have to re-negotiate their fee structure or they are going to lose gas customer business altogether. So, what will win out; greed or pragmatism? This is capitalist-to-the-extreme America, what do YOU think?

OK, that's it, no more news from dry-lake Woebegone. This is what you find at Pendragon Hold, an acre of sand somewhere in N.E. Florida. May Mother Gaia treat you well, as she has us. You can see what pissing her off did for the fine folks in the midwest.........

The Myriad Flavors of Break-Downs

2008-06-25T09:20:00.000-07:00

As you might remember, last summer the central air went out, for good, after many freon refills, and not being able to afford to replace it, we bought a number of window units. I have been impressed with their overall ability to keep the house bearably cool and dry without raising my electric bill in the process. Matter of fact, I think they have actually SAVED me some dough, thanks to their energy efficiency. Well, unfortunately, the el-cheapo unit I acquired for the bedroom hasn't seemed to be up to the task in several ways, including noise level and ability to control the humidity level. Both of these shortcomings have conspired to rob me of sleep, so we decided it was time to go shopping for an alternative.

After a bit of research and roaming the stores all over town, I have hit on, believe it or not, a small Sears Kenmore unit, which according to online reviews was rated very highly, AND, it was on sale! Me, I like sales. Anyway, I haul this puppy home and wrestle it into place in the window and............sigh........it was alot quieter in the store than it is here. However, I DO think that with the fan on low, it IS just a tad bit quieter than the cheaper (quality-wise) unit it replaced, AND, it has a pretty damn high efficiency rating of 10.8, so I think I will have to see how it handles the humidity before I start complaining. Now I can put the old machine in the guest bedroom, which didn't have one at all.

While on the subject of machinery, THE Wife and I had decided that one of our trees had to be felled and I dragged out the old chain saw to do the deed. However, after the chain came off the bar, I discovered to my massive aggravation that the bolts holding the bar onto the motor housing were now rotating when I was tightening the nuts that keeps the chain tensioned, the result being that I can't get the damn chain back on the bar! ARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!

So the hell with it; I have decided to go electric, and not have to worry about gas or noise or pulling on a starter cord or all that nasty exhaust pollution. I have my eyes set on, yep, you guessed it, a very powerful and cost-competitive model at SEARS. I am somewhat amazed at the deals I am finding at this once-vaulted king of the retail scene, which I suppose has had to try hard to compete against the likes of Walmart, Home Depot, and Lowes. I can't afford the hundred bucks for the saw this paycheck, having had to dish out for this air-conditioner, but the tree stump can wait......the old gas hog cut up most of the tree before the quality of it's construction finally doomed it. Maybe I can use that motor, which is still working just fine, on a bicycle or something.............

After having taken the better half to work, while waiting for the Sears store to open, I had me a coffee at the Books-A-Million and thumbed through a few books, the last one being a photographic retrospective of the Vietnam conflict. Sigh, it was a gut-wrenching experience, sitting there paging thru vivid black and white scenes of pain, mayhem, blood and anguish, chronicles of the dismemberment of a country at the hands of both it's own citizens and those who presumed to know what was best for them. As I gazed upon photographs of young men, now my age and older, experiencing what could only be described as a whole different kind of hell on Earth, I was at the same time picturing equally disturbing scenes of young men now experiencing their own unique brand of hell on Earth, in a much drier but equally hot place where once again we presume to know what is best for the citizens of another country not our own. I have to tell you I sat there wanting to allow the tears to come and drown me and relieve me of the overflowing sadness that welled up in my heart and tore at my soul. These were, and now are, my brothers, who but for the grace of joining a different branch of service fighting a different kind of war went I. The men and women of MY generation marched and protested and raised all holy hell and STILL we lost more than 50,000 promising souls to utter stupidity, regardless of good intentions, before the madness ended. I now think of Eddy, my young friend with a wife and kids and a good heart, and I ask you, my fellow Americans, how many are we going to sacrifice to THIS folly before we once again come to our senses? And when are we going to hold accountable the bastards that started this FUBAR to begin with?

To the kind lady who thought I was condemning an entire gender by my last tirade, I am not sure which gender exactly you thought I was placing on trial. Whichever one you thought it was, I can assure you that we are BOTH equally guilty of the sins that BOTH sexes commit against each other regardless of our love for one other. I am, and perhaps will always be, lacking in many respects, and on occasion I will point out trials and tribulations I blame upon my sexual counterparts, but in the end, I assure you that there are no winners here in the halls of behaviors. Each gender commits it's own special sin against the other, but we love each other regardless, and sometimes we survive each other till death do us part. I'm working on that.....really I am.

There are a million things I want to get done this day which won't, but I have to try, so allow me to leave you fine people with these musings, and allow me to invite you back to Pendragon Hold, where emotions run high, because, well, shit has and will continue to happen. That's what makes it such a fun read, I suppose..........

Stay safe, Eddy. We love you, man.........

Good-bye George

2008-06-23T12:44:00.000-07:00

It was with great and honest horror that I learned today of the death of George Carlin, who passed away at the age of 71 by heart attack. Yea, fine, so he lived a long and interesting life, and was really loved by millions. He will be MISSED!

My all time favorite comic (and hilariously logical) observation that George Carlin ever made was concerning religion. Now, I am, I suppose, what you would call a "spiritual" person, but you call me "religious", and them's fightin' words. LIsten to what George had to say about it.........(Oh, and if this really, truly, deeply, ridiculously offends you, then I suggest you go lock yourself into a closet at the nearest church and never, ever come out here where you might encounter a sinner.

What I really admired about George was that he had the guts to speak the obvious, only he could do it in such a way that you couldn't escape it, you were laughing so hard. And, the man made a LIVING doing this shit! Gods, I hated him! I always wanted to be a comedian, but I've always been afraid people would laugh at me.

Now you see why I can't quit my day job.

George, of every one of the billions of people who have lived and died on this special place we call Earth, I have to say that YOU rank up there with all those who paid BIG TIME for the oxygen you consumed. Thank you for the smiles.

Back here on the home front, I'm in the process of clearing away a tree which was competing for space with another one and lost the contest. However, it will provide us with some quality fire wood here at the hold, and the goats are loving all those leaves they are pigging out on there in the yard.

My good friend Eddy, of whom I have spoke a number of times on this blog, surprised us with a phone call from over there where all that sand is. They also have alot of mean, nasty, highly excitable, RELIGIOUS people over there that like to shoot at good guys like our friend Eddy. It won't happen because Eddy is under our direct protection, i.e. our intent (which is a force to be reckoned with) that Eddy remains safe until we can elect a sane person to our White House and get his sweet ass back home. He's doing OK, although there's not much he can say about what he, or they, or Obama is doing. Security and all that. But, just as it would anybody, all those gunshots going off at all hours of the night kinda fuck up his sleep. And he's not even living in the hood.

We didn't get to perform any Summer Solstice ceremonies due to circumstances with work and time off and other considerations this year, but all over the world it seems that the longest day of the year is being celebrated more than ever. I suppose more and more people, Christian, Pagan, or whatever, are becoming more sensitive to the complexities of the seasons of our home planet and are striving to find meaning in whatever stands out as being so special. I really think we need to enjoy this one holiday as much as we can for as long as we can because there WILL come a day when our actions as a species might very well make the longest day of the year a living hell for life on Earth, due to increased temperatures and the effects of a climate gone mad. Then, we will be celebrating the Winter Solstice as one of the few days a person can go outside without their air-conditioned suit and not suffer heat stroke.

Now wouldn't THAT be a bummer?

Oh, and Jules, I am so sorry that I haven't gone into great detail what we do with this Summer Solstice thing from a Wiccan Standpoint, but rest assured there are PLENTY of references you can google about Litha, and I PROMISE to address OUR approach to it either here or over at PPP when I get the time. Thanks for asking!

I leave you all with one observation/plea. You wives, those wonderful persons that you are that decided to stick with us men as partners, for better or for worse, and get so aggravated at the "worst" part of the deal, which we, the men, seem to deliver on a regular basis. Yes, sometimes we do and say things that with cursory glances seem to indicate we are quite capable of being very bad and insensitive bastards. I can only ask that when these situations raise their ugly little heads, that you glance PAST the occurrence and ask yourself, before you launch your thousand ships of hurt, "did he really MEAN what he said or did in the way I am taking it, KNOWING him for all these years as I do? Is this MAN of mine REALLY capable of being such a bastard? Could it be POSSIBLE that he had no idea what he was doing when he "innocently" proceeded to do what he is now soooooo in trouble for doing?"

Or, would you rather just let him know that even after all these years of commitment and love and devotion and sticking around that no matter how sticky the situation of your lives got, you STILL don't seem to GET him, and maybe he should just say "fuck it, why do I even try anymore" and just walk away? You don't think about these things from THAT angle while you're having your little judgement day tantrum, do you? Of course not, and I'm sure you'd like to either blame the hormones or just stick with the fact that men are pigs.

Whatever floats your boat.

Just stand informed, ladies, that we are on this Earth for SOME purpose, and yes, maybe we have a hard time figuring out just what that purpose is, but it's not helping us live up to whatever that potential is when you stick knives into that frail and easily breakable thing we call our self-respect, self-esteem, or whatever it is the shrinks seem to think we need to stay sane and not just go wallow in the gutter with the rest of the gutter-snipes. So, complain when you need to, we understand, and will join you when our "macho" allows us to, but remember.......

We hurt to. And sometimes YOU aren't so damned pretty, either.

End of rant.

These are the days of our lives, this is what I do, and we wish you all good days within the confines of your own special places. Blessed be!

Watch this Space..........

2008-06-22T18:16:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a few days since my last post, but hang in there, fans. I just did my usual 2 day stint and am a bit bushed, but will be back into the swing of things tomorrow, same bat-time, same bat-channel. AFTER, I finish chopping up the tree I cut down several days ago, that is.

Lazy Days and Thursdays

2008-06-19T10:05:00.002-07:00

It's a lazy summer afternoon, I have the day off, THE Wife doesn't, and I am taking the time to attack my ever-present chores with the speed of a snail on downers. I threw the goats some hay to shut them up (goats are ALWAYS hungry, and ALWAYS vocal, so who cares what shuts them up as long as it does), checked the mail for all those INCREDIBLE offers BECAUSE I DESERVE TONS OF FREE CREDIT and MUST RUSH IN NOW TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF HUGE, HUGE, SAVINGS and other rubbish like that which will end up in the burn barrel. The big tomato which turned reddish yesterday is redder today but not quite ready to pick. The recycle bins are full to the brim with pop bottles and wine bottles and rum bottles and all that plastic jazz which makes our world go around, so they will have to go to the curb for pick-up in the wee hours of tomorrow morning. I positioned the ladder and brushed on another coat of thin paint over the top runners of the arbor (which, thanks to the humorous word-play of Dandy Donn I might name ANN) (get it? Ann Arbor?) I unloaded the dishwasher and loaded it again and for the umpteenth time wondered how three people can generate THIS many dirty dishes in the course of a single day. I will continue to take half-hearted stabs at accomplishment throughout the day but refuse to fall victim to the "gotta-get-it-all-done-simply-so-I-can-start-all-over-gettin'-it-done again" mindset which would thoroughly ruin my easy day off.

One of my co-workers, an atheistic young dude of the nursing persuasion, bought himself a brand-new iMac and we have been trying to coordinate our times -off so that I could demonstrate to him the wonders of iChat AV, the Apple audio and video messaging program which is truly the video phone that science and industry has promised us but never delivered. We got connected today and he was indeed impressed. He has relatives in England he wants to have telepresence with who also own Macs, so I hope I am helping him make that happen.

In a strange way, my friend, being a hard core atheist, holds me in the much the same regard as his Christian associates, in that I am dumb enough to consider the existence of something like supreme intelligence as really being possible. Well, ya know, I consider HIM fortunate to be able to hold me in such regard when most Christians would love to burn BOTH of us at the stake, all in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, of course. Myself, all for the grace of the Flying Spheghetti Monster, goes him, if truth be told, so all told we get along well enough. I know I would prefer his ilk to guard my back when all the chips are down. At least I don't have to worry about him wanting to save my soul by killing me.

Summer Solstice draws near, happening this friday. This is the longest day of the year, thus the perfect time to pay homage to the Lord Sun, the ultimate expression of masculinity, the height of nature and life in general having it's way on this Earth. This day gives me the most of my personal power, that half of the equation that represents the male gender, with all of our good nature and bad. As essential to the whole that I hold my kind to be, I also realize that my gender is most responsible for the violence that plagues mankind and this planet in general. Yet, I also know that my half of the equation is responsible for strength, protection, responsibility, and SPICE. A man held RESPONSIBLE is the best thing that could happen to a woman, and vice versa. Ladies, bash us all you want, but you can't live without us, and you know it, and preen and primp accordingly, as your evolutionary biology dictates. All I ask in how you approach us is that you refuse to allow the worst of us to get away with shit and thus diminish ourselves in the glorious scheme of things. We males really do count for alot in this wonderful dance of life, we just have to take responsibility for our power and allow ourselves to enjoy the wonderful fruits of life that only our women can provide to us. So, bash us when need be, but love us equally when you can. We WILL repay the kindness.

It's a Hot, lazy day here at Pendragon Hold, and I need to slowly pay attention to some need around here..........at my own pace, of course.

Clean Pipes and Opinions Revisited

2008-06-17T14:07:00.000-07:00

Today THE Wife is resting, recovering from HER turn at that rite of old fart passage, the diagnostic colonoscopy. After suffering the indignities of the "cleansing ritual", we showed up bright and early (UNGODLY O'CLOCK in the friggin' morning, EST) and got the test over and done with. She was lucky in that she is in no way sensitive to the Propophal like I was and was immediately sent to LA LA Land while they did the deed.

The verdict? A CLEAN BILL OF HEALTH, see me in five years!

And now, a recap of the past few days...........The arbor is finished with the exception of maybe some paint touch-up, completed this time with paint brush and roller as not to tempt fate and screw my back up again like I did with the power painter. Not bad, huh?

Once again I had to patch the goat pen to thwart the efforts of our two escape artists, the twins (goats, not the offspring). How those little twerps can squeeze those beer-barrel bodies through those narrow spaces is an amazement in itself.

The Evil Twin, who will forever from this day forward be known as " the offspring in residence " (no, not "Resident Evil") comes home every work day to regal us with tales of total stupidity as she fields calls from clueless customers seeking to get their PC's to connect with the internet. As long as they continue to sell the Microsoft operating system known as WINDOWS (windows to WHAT, exactly? To HELL?) and run it on these boxes laughingly referred to as "Personal Computers", my daughter will always have a job, so I suppose I should be happy that Apple still has a limited market share overall, although it is the FASTEST GROWING segment of any computer company, thanks mainly to market dominance by the iPod and now the wildly popular iPhone. Now, to all you out there who insist you have NEVER had problems with your PC's or Windows, I salute your astute common sense and ahead-of-the-curve problem solving ability. Consider yourselves in a special class of people. My experience however has proven to me that you are the exceptions, not the rule.

On the spiritual front, THE Wife, High Priestess and Matriarch of Pendragon Hold, is now a legally ordained minister, able to perform weddings (or in our culture, Handfastings) and other duties associated with ministers. So, if any of you pagan's-at-heart want to "jump the broom" or need counseling in the ways of Wicca, drop her a line and she'll see what she can do. Just don't ask her to wear a pointy hat. (Oh, you thought I meant a "witches" hat, didn't you? Shame on you! The POPE wears a pointy hat to, ya know! hehe)

Me, I'm happy to remain financial officer. Just send me money if you are so inclined. If it makes you happy, who am I to stand in your way?

The garden? Well, the green-bean bushes are resilient as hell and are producing more than we can keep up with. ONE tomato bush has remained with fruit promising to deliver salad fixings in time. There are what appear to be lima bean pods still maturing, and we harvested our first cucumber. However, the damage wrought by the hailstorms is VERY evident, and the bugs have attacked the damaged plants with gusto, so those are still struggling to fulfill their destiny. The herbs are all doing well, and overall, I think the garden has been at least a partial success. Next year we will try to incorporate lessons learned in how we plant it out.

Which brings me to today's rant, concerning our place in this world we share with tomatoes, bugs, and other living things that we are busy either dominating or killing off. If most of us look around, the world we view has already been altered immensely by our presence, either by development or by the effects of our impact, such as roadkill, pollution, etc. We think that what we are looking at is "the norm", when in fact, if you could hit rewind, the world you would suddenly find yourself in would be so alien to what you are used to it would shock you. The world before us evolved to function according to an immense diversity, life forms interacting with each other to support each other in a very complex web of interdependency, which we as humans damage and alter inexorably when we "tame' the wilderness to suit our need for order and cleanliness. Even now we require waste disposal plants and clean water "technology" in order to support ourselves in a world that used to do that same job merely by existing and doing what it evolved to do. We grow crops to feed ourselves when all other species fed upon food plants that grow naturally and even depend upon that predation to further their life cycles. Myriad organisms live to break down waste materials that in OUR world we have to go to great and sometimes expensive lengths to deal with artificially. And in order to provide ourselves with all these material "riches" which are supposed to make us happy, we manufacture poisons that never existed in nature, with which nature has no way to deal and thus is threatened by. Why, thanks to our "intelligence", have we discovered methods of soiling our own nests that nature could never have developed? Why, being at the very top of the "food chain", and ethically the stewards of this incredible biological treasure chest, are we proving that what we are best at is utter destruction and even slow suicide? Knowing what we now know, unless we deliberately choose to ignore the horrible truth for some sort of questionable gain, WHY do we continue down this path that leads ultimately to the very end of all things?

What are some of the "states of mind" we as individuals can adopt to reduce our impact on our world? Well, there's an amazing number of things we can do without, if we think about it.

Are you a slave to fashion? Imagine how much of your income you are contributing to the manufacture of textiles when you have to go out and buy a new pair of pants, a new shirt or blouse, a new skirt, a new HOT outfit, etc, etc, when maybe you could possible SURVIVE on two dresser drawers full of T-shirts and jeans? Hey, I know you need maybe a suit and a few nice dress-up items, but once you are past the dating scene and are secure enough in your self-esteem, you could make a few clothing items last awhile and not fucking worry about looking so damn cool all the time. I could care less how hot you look, or that you are sporting the LATEST fashion. REALLY, I DON'T CARE! An neither should YOU! If you happen to have one of these corporate office jobs that demand the old neck-tie and suit, get two of them, and wear them out before even thinking about getting new ones, and for Flying Spheghetti Monster's sake, does it HAVE to be Italian? All I'm saying is a little cloth goes a long way and NO, you don't HAVE to get your threads at the Salvation army, but if you can get away with it, by all means do so.

The car you drive. Oh-boy, here we go......... Do you REALLY buy a car to make a STATEMENT? Do you drive a sports car because you deep down inside need to be Luke Skywalker flying his X-wing fighter while you are driving to the supermarket? Do you HAVE to be faster than the dude in the lane next to you? WHY? Are you driving that humongous leviathan four-wheel-drive SUV because you own a working cattle ranch fifty miles from the nearest town and there's no pavement in sight, or do you drive that big piece of shit ONLY because you think you DESERVE to? DO YOU DESERVE TO? WHY? Look, we all have to get from point A to point B, and in this day and age, doing that is one of the BIG contributors to Global warming. So, aside from the cold hard fact that gas is getting pretty damn expensive, getting back and forth in the most efficienct way possible should be your major priority instead of stroking your ego. Most Europeans and Asians already use rail and bikes because they always had to due to the fact that their fuel has alway been priced much higher than ours. Now that elephant is visiting OUR rooms and it's time to grow up and acknowledge it. Driving a high milliage vehicle no longer means you're a geek; it means you're not STUPID and CALLOUS.

The house you live in. Are you paying 30 times the amount of money (over the life of the loan) for a poorly constructed brick and stucco McMansion built on a quarter acre of land in a development where everything is groomed to pristine regularity and if you even THINK of painting your roof white a team of lawyers will appear at your door with a writ of habius-we-want-you-out-of-here-for-disturbing-our-nirvana? Are your "membership dues" (for having the privilege of living where you are living) almost half of what you paying for your mortgage? Does the amount of pesticides and herbicides and pool cleaning chemicals and pest control measures equal the toxic load of a small country?

Does all this really add to the quality of your life? At what cost? Do you even have a CLUE as to the cost?

Take stock of every THING you could haul out to the curb and get rid of in a garage sale. Why did you EVER, to begin with, acquire any of that junk, and after having acquired that stuff to begin with, probably at great overall cost, why do you NOT need it now? What do you estimate it cost the environment because you bought it , thus encouraging enterprising entrepreneurs to produce that stuff to begin with? Where will all that now worthless STUFF end up, especially when it doesn't sell and you end up putting it out with the garbage? Do you think perhaps you would be much RICHER and better off if you had never paid good money for those material goods, devoting that money instead to sustainable living practices which could have enriched YOUR life AND the environment, perhaps by paying for a solar power system for your house and a hybrid electric car and other more less harmful ways of spending your money?

WHO is the superior intellect? Man, or Dolphin, or Great Ape, or even African Grey Parrot?

This is what's coming out of Pendragon Hold, this is what I do, and I'll see you next post, Gods willing.

A Whole New Journey

2008-06-15T13:34:00.000-07:00

Ho-boy...where do I start? Right now we're listening to the second coming of Journey, that 80's epic rock band ONCE fronted by Steve Perry, only now reincarnated with an amazing new/old voice performing vocals by the name of Arnel Pineda. This HAS to be the ultimate rock and roll cinderella story if there ever was one. I remember way back in the day when I was stationed at various Naval bases and one of the places you spent your meager paycheck was at the Enlisted Men's Club, where there were few women, lots of booze, but sometimes some pretty damn good bands. One of the mainstays of the entertainment venue at EM clubs was the Philippino touring group. I said then, and it's been proven over and over again, and especially now with THIS example, that Philipinos are the ULTIMATE musical mimics. I have no idea why, but these guys can sound like any rock group who ever recorded with eerie accuracy. And now, thanks to You-Tube, the legendary rock group Journey has found a new front man to replace their intransigent and broken legendary lead vocalist Steve Perry with a young man who sounds as though he's channeling one of the best rock vocalist ever to moisten a microphone.

I won't even try to delve into the politics of what happened with Steve, who it is said suffered a fractured hip (yes, Kansas, we rockers are getting on in years) and never seemed to be able to recover to the point that he was willing to tour or record again with the group, but that aside, what happened since is somewhat amazing. It seems that the rest of the group was quite willing and able to continue touring, and needed to find a new front man, but where in the HELL do you find ANYONE, regardless of talent, who can front the band against such a legend as Steve?

Enter You-tube. They find this amazing young Philippino singer who sounds JUST LIKE Perry singing with his own group called ZOO, doing cover songs, including Journey. So this young man, Arnel Pineda, who has certainly paid his dues, gets a call from people in the States claiming to be the legendary Rock group JOURNEY, asking him to audition for them. Yes, of course, he HAD to think somebody was pulling a prank on him. But it was REAL, and right now I am watching a DVD concert video of this young man in concert with THE GENUINE ARTICLE, sounding just like the missing yet who-in-the-hell-could-ever-copy Steve Perry. I can't imagine what Steve must think about all this, but the band HAS stated that they had repeatedly asked Steve to come back with them to tour and never got a reply, so if that is true, then he'll have to suffer from the flatterery this young man pays him.

Just like the Eagles, another LEGENDARY rock group has done, Journey has struck a deal with Walmart (shudder) to distribute exclusively their CD's, and it's very reasonably priced at around eleven bucks for a THREE disc set (concert DVD included), and it's worth every penny and MORE. I HATE that you have to give your business to Walmart to enjoy this band, but I suppose it's a perfect business solution for the band considering that the record companies of late have such a piss-poor record of promoting our classic rock bands while allowing them to actually have any of the money earned for their efforts. Personally, I would have preferred that iTunes had distributed the music, but that's a new era in music promotion, best suited to the clueless generation. I guess I DO appreciate the fact that I have the actually DISKS in my possession for my money, even though I immediately loaded them into my iTunes for listening.

I DO appreciate modern music. BUT, there's something about this EPIC arena rock that we old fucks grew up with that just doesn't seem to be duplicated by this younger, albeit more talented, generation. I think perhaps it's the content of the music, the lyrics, and the story it wrote about a generation that was trying to survive a whole new way of thinking about and doing things that totally overwrote the story of the previous one. We had to had to shout out to the universe with ENERGY what was going on with us, none of this polite, reserved, and in many ways boring stuff that our parents were forced to accept by the system. So, I welcome back Journey, and it's fresh new blood, a perfect blend of the best of the young and old, a force that will ALWAYS have to be reckoned with. At least until we kill ourselves with our excess.