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

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

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

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

"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

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...........

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

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!