Sun in the Eighth

It's my experience that any manifestation of the Sun changing houses is strongest on the day it enters the new house. Right now this bricks and mortar house looks as though it's been burglarized. Drawers are pulled out, cupboard doors are open, the floor is strewn with little piles of books and assorted stuff and boxes are piled upon boxes all over the place.

Early this morning I opened the bottom drawer of a file cabinet I need to empty to make it available to my tenants-to-be and found two desk lamps I bought at Target probably four years ago. They have halogen bulbs, which burned out within months, and ever since I've been trying - admittedly very feebly - to get new bulbs. (I do need to say in my defense that the Target in question is two hours away by car in Las Cruces, and for anyone who's wondering, yes, I do have a telephone but have an aversion to pressing one and listening to advertising or canned music before I can press two.)

Probably two years ago I was in Cruces, as us locals call it, and remembered to go to the customer service window in Target to ask about new bulbs. I was given a phone number which I promptly wrote down in one of my numerous address books and have not been able to find since. I've been to Walmart and the two hardware stores here in Silver but couldn't find the bulb I was looking for. Once I found it on eBay and did a Buy It Now but the seller told me it was out of stock and she'd notify me when it came in. That was the last I heard from her.

So - the two very stylish desk lamps have been in the bottom drawer of an unused file cabinet for about four years. Actually, as they have flexible necks and had been shoved in there haphazardly, they've been stuck there for four years as I could never get the drawer open. Today, with no choice but to empty the thing out, I opened the top drawer, shoved my arm in as far as it would go, reached down to the bottom drawer and pushed, and lo and behold the drawer then opened and there were the lamps. (Mars square Jupiter perfects tomorrow.)

And there was my computer and there was Google and there was Light Bulbs etc.com and there was my credit card and there was me spending $4.99 each for four bulbs and $8.90 (!!!!!) for shipping on the day the Sun went into my eighth house, all so my tenants can have matching lamps for their bed-side tables and an empty file cabinet.


Of course, spending my own money was more second house than eighth, but once again those balls of rock and ice and gas came through. In the mail was a notice from Social Security telling me my early retirement benefit next year will be 5.8% more than it was this year and asking me to please check the other side of the letter to see exactly how it affects me. Exactly how it affects me is by raising my benefit from $957 to $1,012 (recession? What recession?) and giving me another - to me, at least - head-shakingly uncanny posting for this blog.