A lot, including Pluto

Sheesh. Today started with Chiron sextiling Mercury exactly while I graciously declined an unwanted invitation to dinner this weekend and moved on to Mercury trine the Midheaven at midday while I bashed out emails like IMs to several people at once and emptied out a lot of my mailbox. Late afternoon, as it got cooler, with Mercury trining the ascendant, I went outside to transplant a couple of cabbage plants into the wooden box on the back patio and heard a funny buzzing noise. Standing up and turning around, I did a bit of a double-take as I found myself almost nose to snout with this guy curled up under

the artemisia on the ground behind the rock wall slightly above my waist level. My first thought was camera, and with my super zoom lens I was able to get the above from about two feet away. Next thought was what kind is it, and I emailed the image to a friend here with the subject line Do You Know What This Is? I'd just hit the Send button when a friend from New York called, and when I sent the image to him he immediately said he thought it was a rattler because of the diamond shaped head and the, er, black thing that's his tail where the rattle is.

I do sometimes wonder if my medication level needs adjusting as my next move was to grab the camera again and rush out to take more pictures, waiting patiently with my arms propped on the rock wall until he stuck his tongue out for me.

At this point the person I'd originally emailed called to tell me to kill it, and if I couldn't do it myself (!) to call a neighbor. How would he kill it, I said. With a gun, he answered. Oh yeah right, I thought, that's just what I need, bloody smattered rattlesnake all over the windows of the computer room, and I then remembered the local wildlife rescue man who has a slightly more compassionate approach to unwanted critters. I've called him several times before with city person wildlife questions, and he's unfailingly civil in the face of my embarrassing ignorance and calm, patient and never condescending in his responses. Please email with any questions you may have about rattlesnakes' diet, preferred location and venom production.

His suggestion was for me to put a large trash can on its side and to gently poke the black-tail (as I now knew it was called) until it slithered into the trash can, at which point I was to up-end the can, secure the lid, load it into my car,  take it a long way away up into the forest and then let it out, presumably hoping it had no internal GPS system, map or compass. He'd come and help me, he said, but he was out of town, so if I didn't think I could do it myself I should call a friend for help.

Thinking that any friend I called for help with rattlesnake removal would happily relinquish that status in a heart beat, I remembered that the husband of the sister of the woman who rented the house last year was a Search and Rescue volunteer, admittedly of lost or injured humans, not rattlers (as us that know them call them), but any port in a storm and all that, and in ten minutes Marc arrived with his vacationing brother, Marc armed with a long wooden stick and his brother with a broom. After a long and reasoned discussion of options, (one of which, offered by a retired botanist Marc called for advice, was to secure the snake's head with a forked stick, pick it up by the neck right behind the immobilized head and throw it into the trash can, which we decided we would do the next time I have a rattler on the back patio) I went up to the adobe and retrieved an old three-panelled fireplace screen while Marc got the trash can and put it on the ground, open end facing the rattler, who had obligingly remained coiled up exactly where I first saw him throughout all this.

I positioned myself behind the rattler holding the screen, Marc stood at the closed end of the trash can holding a long pole, and his brother stood between us, broom at the ready. One poke with the stick and the rattler made a smart left turn, headed for Marc's brother, who leapt back about two feet, and disappeared completely under the artemisia, only to reappear almost immediately slithering past my left foot and attempting to burrow into the rock wall. My reputation for sang-froid cemented (Mars in Scorpio trining natal Mars, perhaps?) and the rattler clearly visible, it was relatively easy for Marc to poke him into the trash can, and once the lid was on and hinged in place, the next step was what to do with him, or rather, where to do it.

The other side of Bear Mountain seemed to be the answer, and while I'd have been perfectly happy to take him myself, it was decided I should have a passenger so, should rattler escape, there would be two of us in the car flailing around in panic instead of one, sang-froid going only so far. I could go on with this and describe how Marc's brother and I took a wrong turn and lost Marc, who was leading the way, and how it was getting dark in the middle of the forest with no cell phone reception, and how when I did get service I called Marc's house to get his phone number and got his brother's wife on the phone to her daughter in Vermont who asked me for my phone number so she could call back, and how I didn't know my phone number because I never use my cell, but there's not much point, really. I'm already home safe and sound with the Sun not due to sextile Pluto for another ninety minutes, by which point I shall probably have been asleep for an hour. I'll need to get a good night's rest as Saturn sextiles Pluto exactly at 9:00 am Saturday morning, so I'll need to be alert and on the look-out for the next deadly critter. It's different out here.

Sun conjunct Neptune square Saturn

Mr. Log helper came this morning and started to assemble the logs scattered around while I got out the hacksaw and went into the oak grove where I've been cutting lengths of rebar and cut some more so he could get going with the log retaining wall. When I'd done three I took them over to him and then went up the stone side steps to get to the house to change to short sleeves.

The flower beds I made by the side of the steps have been there about four years now, but this is the first year my *gardening* attempts are paying off, and I was stopped in my tracks (sorry) by - all of a sudden - how beautiful they looked. The dusty miller and vinca have been there all along, doing well because they're in some shade and don't have the relentless Land of Enchantment sun beating down on them all day, but today I saw cornflowers, larkspur, marigolds, daisies and a few unidentified wildflowers - blue, dark purple, yellow-orange, white, pink - all mixed up together in between the grey-green foliage and looking as though they had grown there naturally with no help from any human hand - just what I've been working towards for the past eight years.

The only word I can come up with is "transfixed", which is why I'm better at writing dialogue than prose, but I was; a few seconds of wonder and awe at nature's beauty and all that, and then I went and changed my shirt, cut some more rebar and took off in the car to the neighboring house where I can have all the lava rock I can pick up, returning with a big tub full to Mr. Log, who started to tell me could build me a beautiful small stone wall for not much money. Umm, lovely, not this year though, I said, can only do so much each time I'm out here. But maybe we can run a tab, he said, I'll do the work and you can pay me bit by bit. Umm, I said, let me think about it, and off he went, log wall built, while I immediately started weeding what will one day be a wildflower meadow but at the moment is so unlike one it's too daunting to even describe what it is.

Two phone calls interrupted me, both of them degenerating quickly into mutually held highly pessimistic views of the future. I'd intended to put down more weed-cloth and spread lava rock over it, but it got cold earlier than usual and I ended up knocking off at six and picking the last of the green tomatoes so I can pull the plants up tomorrow. How's that for a totally uninspired saturnine ending?

Just the Biggies

Four whole days - Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and today - when none of them rolling planets in the sky made exact aspects to anything in my natal chart, unless of course you count the Moon, and even I am not (yet) that anal.

What are the biggies doing? Well, Neptune and Chiron have just opposed Chiron and are sextiling Mercury, Jupiter and Uranus are approaching a conjunction with my part of fortune and shortly after will each in turn become the midpoint of my midheaven and ascendant, i.e., sextiling both, Pluto is on his way back but still two degrees away from opposing Saturn and squaring Neptune, and Saturn, God bless him and love him, is going to be sextiling Pluto at just about the same time the Sun does at the end of next week.

The plot thickens when you add in progressions. The most significant thing there, I sincerely hope, is that the Moon in Cancer is just one week away from conjuncting the IC, and my sincere hope that this is significant stems from my total inability at the moment to do anything at all about what could be called my career, or making any kind of effort to look for work that would bring in some money.

If my focus is supposed to be building a foundation at home that will support me when (and if) I ever begin to think about those two things again, I'm on the right track, although whether or not attempting to weed the half an acre of the Gila Wilderness that is my back yard and then laying down old shower curtains covered with lava rock can be considered building a solid foundation is something else again.

The other progressions include P Ascendant opposing the Midheaven, P Midheaven coming to oppose Chiron, P Ascendant and Moon coming to square Mercury and Mercury beginning to square Jupiter. Maybe THAT'S why I told the Actors Studio I needed an English director and actors for my new play, when I submitted my application for the Playwrights/Directors Workshop this year. I didn't want to be in it anyway this year. I've got a lot of landscaping to do before it gets too cold.

Mercury opposed to Mars...

...Sun conjunct Chiron and Mars trine Saturn - 11:00 am this morning to 10:00 pm tonight, almost as I'm writing this.

Mercury opposed to Mars was bad news for the businessman holding the Dish network franchise in Silver. I'd called him last week to say I'd lost satellite service on one of the TVs (ah, America!), and could he send a technician out as I'd exhausted all the trouble-shooting options offered. I got a long story about Dish charging $95 for a service visit and my records having been falsified by a previous franchise owner to give my address as 41, Village Road (instead of 14, Village road) because there had been a previous Dish client at this address and that was the only way they could continue to give me service, or something, all complete fabrication. (John had put service in his name only when we co-owned the house, and when I wanted to switch to my name after buying him out, the only way to do it was by closing his account and opening a completely new account in my name, which we did, using the correct address, 14 Village Road.)

Dish franchise man's solution to this totally made-up problem was to have me switch providers to DirectTV, the service John and I had had before we switched to Dish, presumably because he (franchise man) would then collect a commission for the switch. It would be much cheaper, he said, $30 a month less than what I'm paying for the similar service from Dish, and when could he come out to install the new equipment, of course all completely free of charge?

I had a house guest at the time, as well as being totally turned off by the lies Dish franchise man was telling me, and told him to call me back at a more convenient time. Blah blah blah, and this morning, with Mercury opposed to Mars, at the urging of a true friend, called Dish Network directly - or rather, had an online chat with someone representing Dish Network - and have a technician coming out tomorrow at the cost of $15 to check out why I can't get reception on TV #2.
Mr. Dish Franchise, after calling twice a day for the past few days, has become suddenly silent.

Sun conjunct Chiron: Somehow I was able to sit here and make corrections to an editing job I've been working on for literally months and send them back to the client and then - Mars trine Saturn - with a clear conscience I got myself into the *garden* and continued the let's-make-at-least-one-half-acre-of-this-property-look-cared-for project. In true Mars (iron) fashion, I went back to cutting rebar with the hacksaw lent me by a friend, and thanks to last night's rain was able to whack the rebar into the wet earth hard enough to hold back the logs I'm trying to do erosion control with. I was also able to hold in place the corrugated iron I dragged up from the barn yesterday, which I hope will give me yet another terrace on the triangle I'm trying to landscape. As for the weeding, there's only one way to do it - do it, duh - and once again last night's downpour helped. It's all a long way from the Upper East Side.

Venus Square Pluto

It's official - if Venus square Pluto by transit gives a taste of what progressed Venus square Pluto will bring, I'll be spending the next two years as the progressed aspect perfects cutting rebar by hand, dragging sheets of corrugated iron up from the barn and lugging tree trunks and great big logs into place in my ongoing effort to landscape one of the six acres surrounding this house.

When Anonymous tracked me down on this blog in May after 45 years I dared to think progressed Venus square Pluto might manifest as a love affair with a married man - the way you would think it might if you were *normal* - but I haven't heard from him for weeks now ever since I was more truthful than perhaps necessary in an email. (I do wonder if he'll reappear when Venus stations on his Jupiter in early October, not that I'm obsessing over his chart or anything, but that will be then and this is now.)

More will doubtless be revealed, as John always says, but in the meantime I'm calling the man on Little Walnut tomorrow who has a big sign in his front yard saying "Logs for Sale" to ask exactly how much and if he'll cut them.

Mars opposed to Mercury

With optimism bordering on idiocy, I took one half-read New Yorker, one un-read same, an almost finished copy of Three Men in a Boat, an unopened copy of The Daughter of Time and two letters (you know, those sheets of paper covered in ink marks that come in oblong-shaped paper sleeve things with more ink marks and a little square picture in the top right-hand corner) I have been *supposed* to answer since Christmas up to Santa Fe with me for a less than 48-hour stay. By the time I left, I'd read nothing but half a page of the already started New Yorker, but did manage to write and mail a four-page response to one of the letters, marveling all the time at the wonders of astrology.

I was a little alarmed at the thought of starting the drive back to Silver with Mars coming to oppose Mercury at the end of the five-hour trip, but the first part of the journey went so well - L in the lead in the nondescript rental with Mabel, the pug puppy, me following in the Volvo with Finn the standard poodle, keeping L in my sights all the way and following her off the 25 onto the exit for Socorro, meeting in the plaza for coffee and dog runs - my vague thought about paying more attention to what kind of car the rental was went out of my head completely as our little convoy set off towards the highway again, with plans to go over the Black Range to get home.

L was in the lead as I'd told her the Volvo started doing 90 on the highway with no conscious help (or hindrance) from me, and she wasn't sure the rental was up to that. As it turned out it obviously was, and she sped off into the distance with me and Finn in hot pursuit, pardon these truly terrible cliches as here comes another one - imagine my surprise when the exit for Hillsboro and the Black Range appeared and L kept on speeding right past it.

OK, I thought, something's come up and we're going the longer and more boring Hatch to Deming way, and savoring the irony of me being the only one with the cell phone I fell in behind her again. Imagine my even greater surprise when she sped past the Hatch exit as well, heading straight for Las Cruces, which set off a bit more of an alarm bell for me. She must be sick, I thought, or Mabel has been taken ill and we are off to the hospital or vet in Cruces, although I thought it more than passing strange that she didn't pull over, as we'd arranged in case of an emergency, to tell me exactly what happened.

Instead, I pulled over and put on my hazard lights, which the car I was following ignored completely a) because as I found out when I read the manual and pulled out again, what I had actually switched on was my rear-window defroster, and b), because the car I thought contained L did not contain her at all, as every astute reader has by now figured out, but which dawned on me only as I followed it onto the "Hospital" exit - honest - and then to a Bank of America ATM at which point two elderly Hispanic women got out.

At that point there was nothing to do but dredge up every memory I have of Cruces, find my way to the 10 and give the Volvo its head to get me to the kennel in Silver in time to board Finn, who had been asleep in the back throughout all this, lifting his head briefly when I pulled over and defrosted the rear window. I pulled into their driveway at 5:55 pm, just as they were about to close. Time of perfection of Mars opposed to Mercury: 5:56 pm. Two more cliches: All's Well that ends Well and You Had to have Been There.

Second Waxing Saturn Square Saturn

So now I have a full understanding of how my natal Saturn square Neptune works - floating around in a dream world half the time, work work working away the other half. After yesterday's purposeless piddlings, reality set in and I realized having a house guest meant getting the addition ready for human habitation and going up to Santa Fe meant packing clothes to wear whilst there.

Thus began a great emptying of drawers and sorting of clothes, discovering long-searched-for and considered lost items of clothing, rummaging up in the adobe for a travel bag, making space in a closet in what was to be "my" side of the house once I got back from the north with the friend I'd be staying with up there, remembering the drawers under the day bed in the dining room, remembering that if I took the wooden mattress support off the day bed there was even more storage space to be had, carrying this pile here and this pile there, ironing ironing ironing as while I'm happy here in Silver to be a runner-up Person of Walmart in Wrinkled Clothing I have standards to uphold in Santa Fe as an emissary from the south - in short about eight hours of nonstop domestic labor before deciding I'd do the rest in the morning before I left ha ha and falling into bed.

Second Saturn conjunct Neptune

Complete and utter opposite of social butterfly act of yesterday. Stayed in house and on *property* all day, mainly because too exhausted to move much.

Put on t-shirt, neck felt tight, put a hand on each side and tugged and broke the chain of the protective angel 9/11 symbol have been wearing daily since being given same in October 2001. Picked up pieces for repair; aware of symbolism of chain.

Poked around in garden, decided to take nap, read New Yorker but couldn't sleep, got up, poked around a bit more, went to bed, couldn't sleep, kept trying to remember the way I felt wasn't the way I feel normally (?), woke up at three, got up at four, went through paperwork ignored for months, wrote this. Going back to bed.

Venus opposed to Mercury

In the car to play tennis at eight, back in the car for coffee with tennis partner, walk to thrift shop, buy two hand puppets for great-nieces and aqua linen and rayon tunic sweater thing for self, total $5, walk around greenmarket, have animated conversation with wine maker from the Mimbres, back in the car to go to another thrift shop, buy slotted serving spoon for $1, back in the car to go to Habitat's Restore, buy small aluminum bucket thing for $1, home and unload.

Eat lunch, collect plastic plant buckets and go with friend to deliver to person selling plants for good cause, decide on spur of moment to go the Gem Show at the old Walmart. Admission free, much oohing and ahhing, many beautiful things if you like that kind of stuff, tempted by five inch green sphere with black rings that reminded self of Saturn but upon discovery of price of $35 found it easy to resist, back home.

Water plants, take shower, wear (washed) aqua tunic top and skirt and go in car to barbecue, eat, drink, talk, drive home, fall in heap, wonder if I am starting to live here.

Sun Opposed to Mars

This perfected at 8:23 am but hung around till noon, by which time I'd been to the dump with many, many bags o'trash, taken library books back that were a month overdue but as this is Silver there's no fine, gone to Walmart and done shopping for the weekend and stopped by the house where I can take all the lava rock I can pick up for nothing but the cost of carting it away and carted away yet another big bucketful.

Things ground to a halt after that, but with Mercury square Uranus later in the day, I went to AmericanMeadows and ordered yet another couple of pounds of wildflower seeds for what might with any luck and a great deal of blood, sweat and tears be a wildflower meadow one day, especially now I know deer-resistant wildflowers are one woman's deer-resistant wildflowers, one woman's weeds.

Mercury opposed to Mars

So the last time I managed to post on here was when Mercury stationed retrograde on natal Jupiter, and here it is only two weeks later and with Mercury R opposed to Mars in six hours time here I am again, to put down what happened yesterday when Venus squared the Midheaven.
First thing in the morning I got an email from a woman I know casually but would like to know better asking if I wanted to play tennis, and 30 minutes later I met her on the university courts. After beating me 6-0 - no surprise at all - she asked if I would be interested in meeting the woman who helps her clean her house and perhaps hiring her for a few hours a month in the future. As I've just been paid for feeding a friend's cats while she was away, and as Lindy works for $10 an hour, exploitation anywhere but here, I think, I agreed, and tennis friend brought Lindy up to the house to introduce us later in the afternoon. We agreed she'll come and help me clean and get the house ready for potential tenants in two weeks time - four hours for $40 - and with my cat money I can repeat the performance if I am lazy enough.
Then there was a brief phone talk with a female client I'm editing a document for and never using prepositions to end a sentence with, and finally at night a friend from New York who now lives in Portland called to say she was going to be in New York at the end of October and hoped I would be too. If the potential tenants materialize, I shall be.