If I weren't so lazy I'd look up what happened when this occurred direct earlier in the year, but my date book/diary is ten feet away on the couch, I'm snuggled up in bed between flannel sheets with this MacBook Air (MBA) and Ginger like a hot water bottle on my feet and I am, so it will have to wait.
All I know is with the subject aspect perfecting yesterday and mixing itself up with Venus trine the Sun perfecting this morning (see opening para), the Neptunian spell I've been under for the past year (!) was broken a little and I managed to do something other than watch back-to-back episodes of the original Upstairs/Downstairs, which can be found on YouTube thanks to someone called LATENITEYORKIE, who I'd link to for you but you have to subscribe to his channel to be able to see anything so unless you've done that there'd be no point.
Simply know that he also has The Duchess of Duke Street among his offerings, which will take care of me for another month or so when I'm done with Hudson and Mrs. Bridges, and as far as I'm concerned he deserves a mention in the New Year Honors.
So - yesterday: with a bit of impetus from transiting Jupiter in Gemini sextiling natal Pluto in Four, these little fingers finally went to work on playing with their house plants, most significantly taking the four tomato plants received as a gift a month ago out of the quart yoghurt container they were living in and repotting them into individual terra cotta containers as advised. Three are doing well and one promptly wilted and died (Pluto?).
Moving on to non-sentient beings, if that's what a TV stand can be called and I don't see why not, I managed to assemble it myself - the stand for my new 32" Samsung that I got myself for Christmas so I can expand my horizons, get out of bed and watch Upstairs/Downstairs via it and my beloved MBA, that is.
That way I was all ready for when the DISH guy came, and now have a 17" APEX non-working TV sitting on a kitchen chair, where it will probably remain until Spring (or when Jupiter comes back to sextile Pluto again and I reform my environment once more ha ha).
Then it was off to the pile of sodden wood that was once the front steps that's been sitting in the driveway, along with a few take-away coffee cups, food containers and scraps of cement bag paper, since the new front steps were built five weeks ago. There were several pieces of new wood, bought for the rebuilt steps and never used, that I've been meaning (read, thinking about) to retrieve, which I finally did yesterday, taking them up to the front porch and lining them up to dry out, adding to the general Habitat for Humanity Restore ambience which now surrounds the house.
I could go on, but once again I'm posting so infrequently there is so much to say I can't be bothered to say it when I attempt to catch up. What did I say about being lazy?
30 December, 2012
18 December, 2012
Sun Trine Mercury
So I hadn't finished my first cup of coffee when the phone rang and it was the man from BofA I spoke to originally when I started the refinance, saying two documents had been requested and not received. Lying through my teeth, I told him I'd be sending them off that afternoon - benefit letter from Social Security and front and back copies of my green card - drove to the mailbox and said a silent prayer when the benefit letter was there.
Back home and started wading through the pile of documents in my BofA Your Home Loan folder (which arrived five days earlier) when the woman who seems to have been assigned to my case called to see if I still wanted the loan. Assuring her I did, I told her I was about to send everything off, then had to call her back to ask if the Request for Tax Documents was to be sent back to BofA or sent by me to the IRS.
Anyway, this was yesterday, and as today I have Mercury square Mars and have already been asked if I can put myself out enough to give a friend a ride (only joking, Tom), I can't be bothered to go on with the very boring Sun trine Mercury manifestation -
Leaping ahead, I took the whole packet down to the local BofA branch, asked a teller if they could fax it, was told to sit down and it would just be a minute, sat for what seemed like 15 minutes and went back to the teller, was told they had only one customer service agent and she would be with me momentarily, went and sat down again, was eventually approached by customer service agent, asked if she could fax all the documents for me, was told she had to go to a different facility to do so and as I had already waited a long time, I was welcome to go back first thing in the morning (today) to pick up the what would then be faxed documents.
Onward and upward to Mars square Mercury, and I now need to make a list beginning "Pick up stuff from BofA."
Back home and started wading through the pile of documents in my BofA Your Home Loan folder (which arrived five days earlier) when the woman who seems to have been assigned to my case called to see if I still wanted the loan. Assuring her I did, I told her I was about to send everything off, then had to call her back to ask if the Request for Tax Documents was to be sent back to BofA or sent by me to the IRS.
Anyway, this was yesterday, and as today I have Mercury square Mars and have already been asked if I can put myself out enough to give a friend a ride (only joking, Tom), I can't be bothered to go on with the very boring Sun trine Mercury manifestation -
Leaping ahead, I took the whole packet down to the local BofA branch, asked a teller if they could fax it, was told to sit down and it would just be a minute, sat for what seemed like 15 minutes and went back to the teller, was told they had only one customer service agent and she would be with me momentarily, went and sat down again, was eventually approached by customer service agent, asked if she could fax all the documents for me, was told she had to go to a different facility to do so and as I had already waited a long time, I was welcome to go back first thing in the morning (today) to pick up the what would then be faxed documents.
Onward and upward to Mars square Mercury, and I now need to make a list beginning "Pick up stuff from BofA."
17 December, 2012
Saturn Square Pluto
Of course this was in effect while Jupiter was conjuncting Uranus, *causing*, I think, all those reverse windfalls when I was handing out fistfuls of dollars to all and sundry, but I came to my senses on the day it perfected and decided to cancel the probably useless skeletal carport I'd ordered, saving myself about a thousand dollars and making myself feel I could breathe again - kind of getting along with less before I'd even spent it. Or something.
The house looks as though it's in the middle of a junk yard. The rotting wooden steps that got replaced are piled in the driveway and the useable bits of railing that the builder was going to incorporate into the new structure are strewn around the garden in front of the addition.
The empty cardboard boxes that I cleaned out of the adobe and broke down to take to the dump are on the back patio, soggy now from the recent rain and snow.
The wooden double-shelf thing I made myself as a kind of outside storage unit (!) is there as well, along with whatever bits of old rubbish I threw out of the adobe and the old broken oblong trash container on wheels, all waiting like pitiful rejected Cinderellas for their magic non-existent pick-up to come along and get them to the landfill.
The little wooden cabinet that got repainted is still sitting on the cloth I put down to protect the patio floor, surrounded by all the bits of flaking paint that got scraped off it.
There are about six empty paint cans sitting on the stone wall, along with tins of paint thinner, roller trays, brushes rolled up in Saran wrap, empty plastic bags from Ace Hardware, assorted rags that were once t-shirts - I could go on but that kind of gives you the general idea, and before I depress myself completely I think I'll give it up for the day.
The house looks as though it's in the middle of a junk yard. The rotting wooden steps that got replaced are piled in the driveway and the useable bits of railing that the builder was going to incorporate into the new structure are strewn around the garden in front of the addition.
The empty cardboard boxes that I cleaned out of the adobe and broke down to take to the dump are on the back patio, soggy now from the recent rain and snow.
The wooden double-shelf thing I made myself as a kind of outside storage unit (!) is there as well, along with whatever bits of old rubbish I threw out of the adobe and the old broken oblong trash container on wheels, all waiting like pitiful rejected Cinderellas for their magic non-existent pick-up to come along and get them to the landfill.
The little wooden cabinet that got repainted is still sitting on the cloth I put down to protect the patio floor, surrounded by all the bits of flaking paint that got scraped off it.
There are about six empty paint cans sitting on the stone wall, along with tins of paint thinner, roller trays, brushes rolled up in Saran wrap, empty plastic bags from Ace Hardware, assorted rags that were once t-shirts - I could go on but that kind of gives you the general idea, and before I depress myself completely I think I'll give it up for the day.
14 December, 2012
Venus Opposed to the Ascendant...
... and trine the MC, and in the hardware store on Tuesday morning, picking up yet another gallon of white oil-based paint, I see the bags of soft black licorice at what I believe is called the Point of Sale and eat the whole packet before I get home - so what if Pluto square Saturn is looming. If I want to squander $2.99 on myself while shelling out hundreds for home improvement I'm just going to go ahead and do it. I'm an Aries.
(I now segue clumsily, an oxymoron I know, into a seeming digression: one of my favorite things to eat is linguine with white clam sauce, but I hate boiling all the water for the pasta and then draining it with all the clouds of steam and having all those pots to clean up, so could never be bothered to go near making it at home.
One fateful day several years ago, I fell across a New York Times recipe for cooking spaghetti by breaking the strands into small pieces - thirds is good - putting it in a deepish heavy-bottomed pan, stirring and sauteing it briefly in olive oil, then slowly adding a bit of water, stirring, simmering, repeating, until the pasta is as al dente as you prefer it - no billowing steam to burn your hands on, no dirtying a colander to strain it through, using only one pot - the lazy person's spaghetti cooking dream.
With that and a little help from Progresso, linguine with white clam sauce became - not a staple - no need to get carried away with this cooking thing - but a once-every-three-months-or-so dinner when I absolutely had to have some carbohydrates. I even experimented a little; using clam juice instead of water, adding a can of clams, squeezing in a clove of fresh garlic, sometimes doing all three variations at once if the moon happened to be in Cancer ha ha. End seeming digression and back to Tuesday morning.)
After the hardware store came Walmart, and with Venus hovering over my shoulder, I was going up and down each aisle I frequent regularly as I had forgotten my list and thought if I did that I would remember what I needed if I saw it. A can of Progresso White Clam Sauce caught my eye. I remembered I already had a bottle of clam juice, a can of minced clams and some angel hair pasta in what passes for my pantry and knew immediately what was going to follow my bag of licorice.
I managed to hold off until about six, by which time Mars getting ready to trine Jupiter the next morning was making itself felt. I'd broken down the dozen or so cardboard boxes I'd taken from the storage shed to make them ready for the dump. I dragged the old broken trash can on wheels where I'd stored my winter clothes in plastic bags out of the storage shed (AKA the adobe) and lugged the better quality non-broken one that lived on the back patio up to the abode in its place. I put the pair of Timberland boots I wore once in 2002 that belonged to Paul, who died in 2001, with the flattened boxes to go to the dump. I asked the current handyman-in-residence if he had any interest in the four boxes of weirdly shaped saltillo tiles left over from redoing the living room floor in 2002. I put gloves on, closed my eyes, and swept into the cobwebs in each corner of the adobe - in short (too late) made a really good first pass at cleaning it out, something I've wanted to do for about five years.
I'd definitely earned my bowl o'carbs, and broke up the angel hair into thirds, forgot that it could be sauteed in olive oil, and put some water in the pot with it to start it boiling. Slowly added more water and clam juice, had it simmering away nicely. Remembered I had bought frozen spinach that morning and decided to cook some to go with the pasta. Did not want to dirty another pot. With Jupiter (optimism) telling me throwing (Mars - action) the bag of frozen spinach into the pot of boiling water and pasta would work out, I did just that, put the lid back on, turned the heat down a bit and left it alone for five minutes or so. Took the lid off, stirred it all up, added a can of Progresso White Clam Sauce and voila! my first astrologically influenced recipe. It was good.
(I now segue clumsily, an oxymoron I know, into a seeming digression: one of my favorite things to eat is linguine with white clam sauce, but I hate boiling all the water for the pasta and then draining it with all the clouds of steam and having all those pots to clean up, so could never be bothered to go near making it at home.
One fateful day several years ago, I fell across a New York Times recipe for cooking spaghetti by breaking the strands into small pieces - thirds is good - putting it in a deepish heavy-bottomed pan, stirring and sauteing it briefly in olive oil, then slowly adding a bit of water, stirring, simmering, repeating, until the pasta is as al dente as you prefer it - no billowing steam to burn your hands on, no dirtying a colander to strain it through, using only one pot - the lazy person's spaghetti cooking dream.
With that and a little help from Progresso, linguine with white clam sauce became - not a staple - no need to get carried away with this cooking thing - but a once-every-three-months-or-so dinner when I absolutely had to have some carbohydrates. I even experimented a little; using clam juice instead of water, adding a can of clams, squeezing in a clove of fresh garlic, sometimes doing all three variations at once if the moon happened to be in Cancer ha ha. End seeming digression and back to Tuesday morning.)
After the hardware store came Walmart, and with Venus hovering over my shoulder, I was going up and down each aisle I frequent regularly as I had forgotten my list and thought if I did that I would remember what I needed if I saw it. A can of Progresso White Clam Sauce caught my eye. I remembered I already had a bottle of clam juice, a can of minced clams and some angel hair pasta in what passes for my pantry and knew immediately what was going to follow my bag of licorice.
I managed to hold off until about six, by which time Mars getting ready to trine Jupiter the next morning was making itself felt. I'd broken down the dozen or so cardboard boxes I'd taken from the storage shed to make them ready for the dump. I dragged the old broken trash can on wheels where I'd stored my winter clothes in plastic bags out of the storage shed (AKA the adobe) and lugged the better quality non-broken one that lived on the back patio up to the abode in its place. I put the pair of Timberland boots I wore once in 2002 that belonged to Paul, who died in 2001, with the flattened boxes to go to the dump. I asked the current handyman-in-residence if he had any interest in the four boxes of weirdly shaped saltillo tiles left over from redoing the living room floor in 2002. I put gloves on, closed my eyes, and swept into the cobwebs in each corner of the adobe - in short (too late) made a really good first pass at cleaning it out, something I've wanted to do for about five years.
I'd definitely earned my bowl o'carbs, and broke up the angel hair into thirds, forgot that it could be sauteed in olive oil, and put some water in the pot with it to start it boiling. Slowly added more water and clam juice, had it simmering away nicely. Remembered I had bought frozen spinach that morning and decided to cook some to go with the pasta. Did not want to dirty another pot. With Jupiter (optimism) telling me throwing (Mars - action) the bag of frozen spinach into the pot of boiling water and pasta would work out, I did just that, put the lid back on, turned the heat down a bit and left it alone for five minutes or so. Took the lid off, stirred it all up, added a can of Progresso White Clam Sauce and voila! my first astrologically influenced recipe. It was good.
10 December, 2012
Jupiter Conjunct Uranus, continued
Exact today in a couple of hours, preceded by Jupiter squaring Mars, combined with Mars square the Sun at 10:00 am, Sun square Jupiter just after T Jupiter hits Uranus, and Saturn square Pluto in a couple of days.
Mix all of that up and what do you get - me deciding to have maintenance done on the house, attempting to balance my checkbook - (I know - how quaint is that?), wondering just how long it's going to take the man painting the front steps that were rebuilt last week for only $850 to finish, trying to work out what I'll owe him for the day, hoping he can start and finish painting the well house tomorrow so if the car port people call they can come on Wednesday to put it up, logging in to Emigrant Direct yet again to transfer money for the third day in a row and trying to be very grateful that I have the funds to be able to do what I'm doing.
I could of course paint the front steps and the well house myself, and fully intended to do so, except I've known the well house needed painting since June and I haven't touched it; when I did repaint it myself several years ago all I did was scrape the paint off the lower third of the walls where it was flaking and paint over that bit, not touching the upper two-thirds of the walls (and completely ignoring the east side of it that you can't see from the house).
Knowing that, I knew what kind of job I'd do on the front steps, and when a friend handed me a piece of paper with the name of a reasonably priced handyman looking for work on it, it seemed only reasonable to give him a call and have him start the next day, yesterday, Sunday. God forbid I should give up my Jupiterian (?) freedom to read the Daily Mail and tie myself down to the drudgery of a paint job.
All those man-hours add up though, and rather than benefitting from sudden windfalls I seem to be - cue Saturn squaring Pluto in four, thank you very much - doing the exact opposite and handing out fistfuls of dollars as fast as I can get them transferred from savings to checking.
Looking on the bright side, I have managed to refinance - a boring form of windfall but a windfall just the same as it will save me a chunk of change every month. I haven't done it with pencil and paper yet but a quick in my head calculation tells me the next three years' worth of savings have gone already, and the car port guys haven't even called yet.
Mix all of that up and what do you get - me deciding to have maintenance done on the house, attempting to balance my checkbook - (I know - how quaint is that?), wondering just how long it's going to take the man painting the front steps that were rebuilt last week for only $850 to finish, trying to work out what I'll owe him for the day, hoping he can start and finish painting the well house tomorrow so if the car port people call they can come on Wednesday to put it up, logging in to Emigrant Direct yet again to transfer money for the third day in a row and trying to be very grateful that I have the funds to be able to do what I'm doing.
I could of course paint the front steps and the well house myself, and fully intended to do so, except I've known the well house needed painting since June and I haven't touched it; when I did repaint it myself several years ago all I did was scrape the paint off the lower third of the walls where it was flaking and paint over that bit, not touching the upper two-thirds of the walls (and completely ignoring the east side of it that you can't see from the house).
Knowing that, I knew what kind of job I'd do on the front steps, and when a friend handed me a piece of paper with the name of a reasonably priced handyman looking for work on it, it seemed only reasonable to give him a call and have him start the next day, yesterday, Sunday. God forbid I should give up my Jupiterian (?) freedom to read the Daily Mail and tie myself down to the drudgery of a paint job.
All those man-hours add up though, and rather than benefitting from sudden windfalls I seem to be - cue Saturn squaring Pluto in four, thank you very much - doing the exact opposite and handing out fistfuls of dollars as fast as I can get them transferred from savings to checking.
Looking on the bright side, I have managed to refinance - a boring form of windfall but a windfall just the same as it will save me a chunk of change every month. I haven't done it with pencil and paper yet but a quick in my head calculation tells me the next three years' worth of savings have gone already, and the car port guys haven't even called yet.
08 December, 2012
Jupiter Conjunct Uranus
Well, I'm posting here two days in a row - THAT'S a surprise ha ha. This aspect happened earlier in the year at the end of July, when I was silly enough to go to Vegas and expect to win money.
I went to Vegas all right, and thanks to my traveling companion's former life-style got to stay at the Venetian for three days for nothing (yeah, right), and then as soon as I returned, coming back from the dealer with a new spare tire, smashed up my poor old Volvo as Jupiter squared Mars and I made a wide turn onto the dirt road where I live, straight into the pick-up that was making a left turn out.
So - with two days to go until Jupiter conjuncts Uranus - the only sudden windfall in sight is the refinancing of #14, which, if I can find my Social Security Benefit Letter and it actually happens, will save me $250 a month in mortgage payments - in effect giving me a *free* car loan and *free* storage costs on the contents of my New York apartment which is making itself (are making themselves?) very comfortable in a five by ten (or is it ten by fifteen) space in Public Storage in Randolph, Mass. (Don't ask.)
Was it Jupiter square Mars that gave me the impetus to call Bank of America to see if they would indeed help me Make my Home Affordable? I have no idea, and no time to ponder the question, as I have to take a couple of bags of never-wear-it clothing to PAWS thrift shop and get another sudden windfall in disguise in the form of a donation receipt.
I went to Vegas all right, and thanks to my traveling companion's former life-style got to stay at the Venetian for three days for nothing (yeah, right), and then as soon as I returned, coming back from the dealer with a new spare tire, smashed up my poor old Volvo as Jupiter squared Mars and I made a wide turn onto the dirt road where I live, straight into the pick-up that was making a left turn out.
So - with two days to go until Jupiter conjuncts Uranus - the only sudden windfall in sight is the refinancing of #14, which, if I can find my Social Security Benefit Letter and it actually happens, will save me $250 a month in mortgage payments - in effect giving me a *free* car loan and *free* storage costs on the contents of my New York apartment which is making itself (are making themselves?) very comfortable in a five by ten (or is it ten by fifteen) space in Public Storage in Randolph, Mass. (Don't ask.)
Was it Jupiter square Mars that gave me the impetus to call Bank of America to see if they would indeed help me Make my Home Affordable? I have no idea, and no time to ponder the question, as I have to take a couple of bags of never-wear-it clothing to PAWS thrift shop and get another sudden windfall in disguise in the form of a donation receipt.
07 December, 2012
Jupiter Square Mars
So forget about Sun opposed to Uranus on Saturday when I asked a perfect stranger to join in the game of UpWords I was playing with B (we were in a coffee shop - even I didn't go out on the street and drag him in) and we had a horrible stilted serious game instead of the easy back and forth one we usually have - forget that and let's focus on Jupiter square Mars that I didn't even realize was happening because I'm so focused on Jupiter about to conjunct Uranus I forgot I have a natal Mars/Uranus square.
Now, of course, three days after writing and not posting the above, I've completely lost interest in the whole thing, and can just about summon up the energy to write that on the day J square M perfected, I decided I would bite the bullet and treat myself to a flat screen TV, only to have my credit card rejected by CitiBank, ever vigilant in their quest to prevent me from fraud since my card was hacked twice in a year by, as well as preventing the TV transaction from going through, refusing to let me pump gas in Arizona when I dared to leave New Mexico without alerting them.
Now, of course, three days after writing and not posting the above, I've completely lost interest in the whole thing, and can just about summon up the energy to write that on the day J square M perfected, I decided I would bite the bullet and treat myself to a flat screen TV, only to have my credit card rejected by CitiBank, ever vigilant in their quest to prevent me from fraud since my card was hacked twice in a year by, as well as preventing the TV transaction from going through, refusing to let me pump gas in Arizona when I dared to leave New Mexico without alerting them.
01 December, 2012
Venus Trine Mars...
... and once again all I seem to have done is run around a tennis court flailing wildly at anything that comes within striking distance, losing all three sets we played but having a great time doing it.
As for Mercury sextile Jupiter, perfecting at the same time as the above, mid-afternoon yesterday, I wouldn't say my attention turned to any larger issues in my life, unless you count thinking yet again that I really do have to make a will, and, as usual, doing absolutely nothing about it except starting yet another to-do list with "Will" at the top.
As for Mercury sextile Jupiter, perfecting at the same time as the above, mid-afternoon yesterday, I wouldn't say my attention turned to any larger issues in my life, unless you count thinking yet again that I really do have to make a will, and, as usual, doing absolutely nothing about it except starting yet another to-do list with "Will" at the top.
30 November, 2012
Mercury Square Moon
No arguments with women for me yesterday - just a lot of leaping around the tennis court with D after ten days off in the land of no WiFi, otherwise known as Morongo Valley in the Mohave Desert.
Sure, there was a lot of "Oh you creep" when she sent a ball off to the other side of the court as I stood rooted to the spot and turned my head to look at it, but that's what always happens when we play - I say it ten times in a game and she says it once when I manage a shot that reminds me that I used to be quite good fifty years ago.
Other than that I was happily back at #14 unpacking my thrift shop treasures and rearranging the furniture to accommodate my two new hassocks - aha! Mercury (thinking) square Moon (house), or is that pushing it?
Sure, there was a lot of "Oh you creep" when she sent a ball off to the other side of the court as I stood rooted to the spot and turned my head to look at it, but that's what always happens when we play - I say it ten times in a game and she says it once when I manage a shot that reminds me that I used to be quite good fifty years ago.
Other than that I was happily back at #14 unpacking my thrift shop treasures and rearranging the furniture to accommodate my two new hassocks - aha! Mercury (thinking) square Moon (house), or is that pushing it?
25 November, 2012
Uranus Opposed to Neptune
I am definitely being exposed to different levels of existence as I am staying in the only house in North America with no WiFi, meaning my beautiful MacBook Air is useless as it has no ethernet port and I am forced to use a truly ancient PowerBook that once belonged to Ahma that was passed along to me before I passed it along to my host.
The poor thing goes into a deep sleep as soon as it's not being used, so whenever I pick it up to use it again I have to wait for a full five seconds for it to become conscious, a totally unfamiliar dimension of being, and as I don't have Apple's Mail program on it I am having to use the truly abysmal email client my Silver City ISP provides, logging in each time, which explains (special message to Tom and Brenda) my lack of communication over the past several days while I have been staying in Morongo Valley, California.
As I am being summoned by my host to hurry up so we can get to the casino before the free Sherpa blankets being given away this morning run out, this will have to suffice for now; more to come.
The poor thing goes into a deep sleep as soon as it's not being used, so whenever I pick it up to use it again I have to wait for a full five seconds for it to become conscious, a totally unfamiliar dimension of being, and as I don't have Apple's Mail program on it I am having to use the truly abysmal email client my Silver City ISP provides, logging in each time, which explains (special message to Tom and Brenda) my lack of communication over the past several days while I have been staying in Morongo Valley, California.
As I am being summoned by my host to hurry up so we can get to the casino before the free Sherpa blankets being given away this morning run out, this will have to suffice for now; more to come.
16 November, 2012
Mars Trine Venus
Well, if running around a tennis court with three people a hundred times better at the game than you is a "totally inappropriate relationship," I'm guilty. I can't say my erotic fantasies were very much to the fore as I was far too busy trying to not make a total fool of myself, but it was certainly a physical hour and a half.
And on the I hope accurate assumption that two sentences are better than none, here endeth the Mars Trine Venus post.
And on the I hope accurate assumption that two sentences are better than none, here endeth the Mars Trine Venus post.
15 November, 2012
Picking Up The Pieces....
...if it can be called that, she said darkly, looking at the clock and wondering how long it was going to take her to get out of bed - only joking, she chirped, snuggling more deeply into the duvet and squinting at her laptop, wondering if she could blame it all on Ginger.
How's THAT for a post after a month and a half? I mean, just where DO you start when you've spent six weeks in bed watching fifty-year old English TV dramas on YouTube, admittedly getting up to play tennis for two hours a day five days a week with intermittent trips to Walmart and the post office but diving back into bed with Ginger the minute you get back to the house?
Without using capital letters for emphasis is the answer to that, says the ever-present voice in her head of Miss Chalk, English teacher at Grimsby Wintringham Grammar School for Girls somewhere back in the middle of the last century, but then she also said blue and green should never be seen, and that's my very favorite color combination of all, so what did she know?
Anywhere you like, is MY answer to the question, ha ha, which if you've forgotten was where on earth do you start posting to a blog called everydayastrology when your last post was forty-five days or so ago - back in the era of my beloved Sweet Pea who went out to do his business one Sunday morning when I left the house to play tennis and never returned - him, not me, because I was back at noon and knew immediately when he didn't show for his normal late breakfast that I was never going to see him again and that he'd - after four and a half blissful years of roaming the high desert of New Mexico, or at least the six acres of it around this house - succumbed to the fate of most domestic critters that roam the high desert of New Mexico and fallen victim to something higher up the food chain - karmic revenge, one might say if one were so inclined, for the baby rabbit tartare that was his breakfast three days in a row earlier in the summer.
And looking back to my last post on October third, I see it WASN'T in the era of my beloved Sweet Pea but that he had already met his maker - it was AFTER he'd been et and I wrote that the description of his end would be posted under Saturn Opposed to Venus or Pluto Back in Eight - WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG. As one of my most favorite New Yorker cartoon characters says to the vicar outside the church, "I know He moves in a mysterious way, but if I moved that mysteriously I'd be fired."
How's THAT for a post after a month and a half? I mean, just where DO you start when you've spent six weeks in bed watching fifty-year old English TV dramas on YouTube, admittedly getting up to play tennis for two hours a day five days a week with intermittent trips to Walmart and the post office but diving back into bed with Ginger the minute you get back to the house?
Without using capital letters for emphasis is the answer to that, says the ever-present voice in her head of Miss Chalk, English teacher at Grimsby Wintringham Grammar School for Girls somewhere back in the middle of the last century, but then she also said blue and green should never be seen, and that's my very favorite color combination of all, so what did she know?
Anywhere you like, is MY answer to the question, ha ha, which if you've forgotten was where on earth do you start posting to a blog called everydayastrology when your last post was forty-five days or so ago - back in the era of my beloved Sweet Pea who went out to do his business one Sunday morning when I left the house to play tennis and never returned - him, not me, because I was back at noon and knew immediately when he didn't show for his normal late breakfast that I was never going to see him again and that he'd - after four and a half blissful years of roaming the high desert of New Mexico, or at least the six acres of it around this house - succumbed to the fate of most domestic critters that roam the high desert of New Mexico and fallen victim to something higher up the food chain - karmic revenge, one might say if one were so inclined, for the baby rabbit tartare that was his breakfast three days in a row earlier in the summer.
And looking back to my last post on October third, I see it WASN'T in the era of my beloved Sweet Pea but that he had already met his maker - it was AFTER he'd been et and I wrote that the description of his end would be posted under Saturn Opposed to Venus or Pluto Back in Eight - WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG. As one of my most favorite New Yorker cartoon characters says to the vicar outside the church, "I know He moves in a mysterious way, but if I moved that mysteriously I'd be fired."
03 October, 2012
Mercury square Midheaven
If you're going to start posting again after a lapse of - well, let's just say a rather extended lapse - a good day to start would be the day the subject aspect is in effect, no? At least that's what I thought at the time, Monday, October first, but that's already almost four days ago and it didn't happen.
What did happen was that I finally got myself to MVD, New Mexico's answer to New York's DMV, and had the name of the loan company put on the title of the Hyundai, which I may or may not have mentioned on here as being my new car since I smashed up the Volvo at the beginning of August. (I said it was a rather extended lapse.)
I then mailed off the loan papers, mailed a letter to the insurance company telling them the name of the loan company and deposited the loan check at the ATM - all things that could have been done at any time in the past week but weren't as I took to my bed after the loss of Sweet Pea and stayed there for six days.
The loss of Sweet Pea, you ask? Ah, Dear Reader, that will have to be a story for another day, to be filed under either Saturn Opposed to Venus or Pluto Back in Eight. Or both.
What did happen was that I finally got myself to MVD, New Mexico's answer to New York's DMV, and had the name of the loan company put on the title of the Hyundai, which I may or may not have mentioned on here as being my new car since I smashed up the Volvo at the beginning of August. (I said it was a rather extended lapse.)
I then mailed off the loan papers, mailed a letter to the insurance company telling them the name of the loan company and deposited the loan check at the ATM - all things that could have been done at any time in the past week but weren't as I took to my bed after the loss of Sweet Pea and stayed there for six days.
The loss of Sweet Pea, you ask? Ah, Dear Reader, that will have to be a story for another day, to be filed under either Saturn Opposed to Venus or Pluto Back in Eight. Or both.
29 August, 2012
Saturn Opposed to Mercury
A Snapshot Of My Desk:
Next to the printer: a Notice of Arraignment from the Grant County Magistrate Court in Silver City for making an "improper turn to the right to [SIC] wide striking another vehicle."
On top of that, a renewal of auto registration card from the New Mexico Department of Motor Vehicles for my old Volvo. MUST BE RETURNED BY: 8/19/2012, it reads.
To the right of the mousepad: A packet of information I received yesterday from the credit union I joined last week to get a loan for partial payment on my *new* car.
On top of that, the renewed registration sticker for the coming year for my old Volvo, which I discovered had been picked up by a salvage company two days before I renewed registration online.
Sitting on top of my datebook: A scrap of paper scribbled with my username, password, special security question answer and phone number of the credit union I just joined, along with my application number, length of term of loan, and monthly payment.
Moving clockwise around, we have a copy of the signed application I sent back to the credit union yesterday, and a list of things to do, some done, some not, none crossed off:
Renew rental
Credit for new tires?
Email address of the claims department of the insurance company, where I have twice sent copies of the invoices for the new tires and spare I bought ten days before the accident.
Get financing
Get email proof of insurance for new car
And on the last pile of papers, the specs for the 2009 Hyundai Accent I would appear to be buying, with a receipt of my deposit underneath it. Then there's a handwritten sheet with the phone number for the claims department of the Hartford, phone number for the car rental place and the cost of my new insurance policy, a mere $350 more than it used to be.
Under that is my old insurance policy and a letter giving me the breakdown of the amount of money the Hartford are paying for the Volvo, giving the value of the tires as zero.
The only non-car-related piece of paper in sight, but having to do with Mercury and communication just the same, is a notice from the Post Office that my mail forwarding order will expire on September 30, and that I should notify my correspondents of my new mailing address. This would be all very well, except it's from last year, and this year's change of address form goes to November 30. Somewhere here, I feel is the explanation of my receiving exactly six pieces of mail in the last two months.
So there's Saturn opposed to Mercury in MY life, and there's a week to go before it perfects. Did I mention that's the same day as my scheduled court appearance?
Next to the printer: a Notice of Arraignment from the Grant County Magistrate Court in Silver City for making an "improper turn to the right to [SIC] wide striking another vehicle."
On top of that, a renewal of auto registration card from the New Mexico Department of Motor Vehicles for my old Volvo. MUST BE RETURNED BY: 8/19/2012, it reads.
To the right of the mousepad: A packet of information I received yesterday from the credit union I joined last week to get a loan for partial payment on my *new* car.
On top of that, the renewed registration sticker for the coming year for my old Volvo, which I discovered had been picked up by a salvage company two days before I renewed registration online.
Sitting on top of my datebook: A scrap of paper scribbled with my username, password, special security question answer and phone number of the credit union I just joined, along with my application number, length of term of loan, and monthly payment.
Moving clockwise around, we have a copy of the signed application I sent back to the credit union yesterday, and a list of things to do, some done, some not, none crossed off:
Renew rental
Credit for new tires?
Email address of the claims department of the insurance company, where I have twice sent copies of the invoices for the new tires and spare I bought ten days before the accident.
Get financing
Get email proof of insurance for new car
And on the last pile of papers, the specs for the 2009 Hyundai Accent I would appear to be buying, with a receipt of my deposit underneath it. Then there's a handwritten sheet with the phone number for the claims department of the Hartford, phone number for the car rental place and the cost of my new insurance policy, a mere $350 more than it used to be.
Under that is my old insurance policy and a letter giving me the breakdown of the amount of money the Hartford are paying for the Volvo, giving the value of the tires as zero.
The only non-car-related piece of paper in sight, but having to do with Mercury and communication just the same, is a notice from the Post Office that my mail forwarding order will expire on September 30, and that I should notify my correspondents of my new mailing address. This would be all very well, except it's from last year, and this year's change of address form goes to November 30. Somewhere here, I feel is the explanation of my receiving exactly six pieces of mail in the last two months.
So there's Saturn opposed to Mercury in MY life, and there's a week to go before it perfects. Did I mention that's the same day as my scheduled court appearance?
24 August, 2012
Mars and Saturn Conjunct Above
A bit late with this one, as it happened more than a week ago, but as the two malefics squared my midheaven, it was particularly nasty for me and I've been in recovery ever since.
The accident - me turning into the dirt road on which I live and banging into a neighbor making a left hand turn on his way out - that demolished my poor old Volvo was on August 6th, and sent me into a complete tizzy. What seemed to be good news, however, was that no citation was issued and my clean driving record would remain clean.
That was without Saturn crawling his way towards a square with my midheaven, which perfected on Friday the 17th as a police car drew up in the driveway and I was handed a notice of arraignment ordering me to appear in traffic (I hope) court on September fifth, which just happens to be the date Saturn opposes my Mercury exactly.
And the date the notice was written? August 15, when Mars squared my midheaven directly and with Mercury sextiling Neptune, I was searching every Craiglist in New Mexico for a decent used car, congratulating myself that at least my insurance wouldn't be going up much.
The accident - me turning into the dirt road on which I live and banging into a neighbor making a left hand turn on his way out - that demolished my poor old Volvo was on August 6th, and sent me into a complete tizzy. What seemed to be good news, however, was that no citation was issued and my clean driving record would remain clean.
That was without Saturn crawling his way towards a square with my midheaven, which perfected on Friday the 17th as a police car drew up in the driveway and I was handed a notice of arraignment ordering me to appear in traffic (I hope) court on September fifth, which just happens to be the date Saturn opposes my Mercury exactly.
And the date the notice was written? August 15, when Mars squared my midheaven directly and with Mercury sextiling Neptune, I was searching every Craiglist in New Mexico for a decent used car, congratulating myself that at least my insurance wouldn't be going up much.
21 August, 2012
Saturn Opposed to Mercury
This one doesn't perfect till September 5th, but for once I can make a totally accurate prediction: unless the Grant County courthouse is struck by lightning or swept away by flood (oh FAT chance!) before that date, I shall be appearing there at 8:15 am to answer charges of making an illegal wide right turn onto the dirt road where I live, thus colliding with a pick-up truck driven by a neighbor about to make a left-hand turn onto the "main" road.
And, of course, I have two weeks left to get more and more depressed about it while I attempt to buy a *new* used car, and when I'm not obsessing over those two things, I can move on to wondering exactly what treats Saturn opposed to Venus will be bringing me at the end of September.
And, of course, I have two weeks left to get more and more depressed about it while I attempt to buy a *new* used car, and when I'm not obsessing over those two things, I can move on to wondering exactly what treats Saturn opposed to Venus will be bringing me at the end of September.
20 August, 2012
Mercury Sextile Uranus
Well here we go again with Whenever-I-Feel-Like-It astrology, but hey, we all do the best we can do, right? <choke>
All I need to do to give me a panic attack at the moment is to see Mercury showing up anywhere in a transit search, and when I saw this for this morning all I could think about was getting home safely after playing tennis.
Since my accident of two weeks ago today, I've been obsessed with the - for me - horrific task of buying a "new" car, veering from a Honda CRV with 149,000 miles on it to a reasonably new Nissan Versa and then switching gears (ha!) when I get feedback from other people.
Living in Silver City means the closest (!) big cities with auto dealers are Las Cruces (two hours away), El Paso (three hours away) and Tucson, a mere three and a half hours away.
Living in Silver City also means that when you go to rent a car (from the only rental agency in town) you request a compact and get a Town & Country minivan, as that's the only thing they have available. This puts paid to any notions of driving to any of those big cities to see what might be available.
So - and this is the VERY abridged version of the last two weeks - I decided last night I would call the body shop where my poor old Volvo was towed and ask if there had been any structural damage to the car, thinking I would pay for the repairs myself and at least be driving the devil I know rather than one I don't.
And what was the manifestation of Mercury sextile Uranus, you might ask? Being told by the body shop that the car was towed away for salvage on Friday, meaning there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that I have to bite the bullet and buy some kind of new used car ASAP, even if it does mean driving a Greyhound Bus to look at the *choices*.
All I need to do to give me a panic attack at the moment is to see Mercury showing up anywhere in a transit search, and when I saw this for this morning all I could think about was getting home safely after playing tennis.
Since my accident of two weeks ago today, I've been obsessed with the - for me - horrific task of buying a "new" car, veering from a Honda CRV with 149,000 miles on it to a reasonably new Nissan Versa and then switching gears (ha!) when I get feedback from other people.
Living in Silver City means the closest (!) big cities with auto dealers are Las Cruces (two hours away), El Paso (three hours away) and Tucson, a mere three and a half hours away.
Living in Silver City also means that when you go to rent a car (from the only rental agency in town) you request a compact and get a Town & Country minivan, as that's the only thing they have available. This puts paid to any notions of driving to any of those big cities to see what might be available.
So - and this is the VERY abridged version of the last two weeks - I decided last night I would call the body shop where my poor old Volvo was towed and ask if there had been any structural damage to the car, thinking I would pay for the repairs myself and at least be driving the devil I know rather than one I don't.
And what was the manifestation of Mercury sextile Uranus, you might ask? Being told by the body shop that the car was towed away for salvage on Friday, meaning there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that I have to bite the bullet and buy some kind of new used car ASAP, even if it does mean driving a Greyhound Bus to look at the *choices*.
16 August, 2012
Saturn Square Midheaven
Ah yes, the good old evaluation of goals, and what better date to begin posting again than the day before this aspect becomes exact? Do I take the $2,887 the Hartford is offering me and attempt to buy a *new* (read different) car, or do I take the $2,580 they're offering me and pay the additional $1,3000 required to fix my beloved old Volvo myself, and hope and pray I never have another accident and nothing ever goes wrong with it again?
The aspect perfects at 3:00 am tomorrow, giving me all day and most of the night, the way things are going, to obsess over the decision and scour Craigslist cars-for-sale postings within 350 miles of Silver. Yesterday I called the Hartford and left a message saying I'd take the larger sum. Last night I started thinking I'd rather take the lesser and have a car again soon.
I suppose I'll just wait and see what comes out of my mouth when (and if) I get the call back. Wrong attitude?
The aspect perfects at 3:00 am tomorrow, giving me all day and most of the night, the way things are going, to obsess over the decision and scour Craigslist cars-for-sale postings within 350 miles of Silver. Yesterday I called the Hartford and left a message saying I'd take the larger sum. Last night I started thinking I'd rather take the lesser and have a car again soon.
I suppose I'll just wait and see what comes out of my mouth when (and if) I get the call back. Wrong attitude?
28 July, 2012
Sun sextile Neptune
This might have been a wonderful day to withdraw from my normal routine and meditate upon the concerns that are important to me, but it also happened to be the day I needed to get a rewrite of a play off to a theater in England from a small town in New Mexico by next Tuesday - 7/31. I had of course known about the deadline for eleven months - since I missed it by a month last year - but while I piddled around a little bit with it over the winter for some strange reason I was unable to concentrate on it, and only began to focus in round about last Sunday.
Four days sitting behind a computer and finally on Thursday morning (with Jupiter coming ever closer to conjunct Uranus) I was ready to print a clean copy and take myself off to the post office.
Twenty or so pages into it, I get a message my color cartridge has run out and the printer won't work without it, so off I go to Walmart, only five miles away, and buy both a black and color cartridge to be safe.
Back home and try and take a 400-word synopsis down to 200, search out a bio, try to understand the submission requirements (use a pseudonym, staple this to that, put this in a sealed envelope along with an International Reply Coupon (IRC) if you're not mailing from the UK, address the envelope to your pseudonym (!) etc. etc. etc. Round about two o'clock, off I go to the post office, only four miles away.
After being next in line for ten minutes while the man behind the counter has an extended chat with his current customer about his difficulties in losing weight, it's my turn, and up to the counter I go to ask for my IRC, whereupon I'm told a) I'm the first person ever to have asked for one and b) they are no longer sold. I make one attempt at suggesting he contact the nearest big town two hours away and ask if they have any there, but no, he's adamant, *they* don't make them any more and there's no point in his asking.
I ask for a piece of paper, scribble a note to the effect that I will send postage under separate cover at a later date, stick it in the big envelope and get back in line. When it's my turn again, I ask which service I need to get the envelope to England in five days time and am told the first delivery date I can be guaranteed is next Friday, August third.
This being of not much help, I say thank you and take myself off to the UPS depot, but as it's not yet 3:00 pm, their opening time, that doesn't do me any good either. I've promised myself some Albertson's fried chicken as my reward for getting the play off in time (hey - life is what you make it) , so decide to go there first, get the chicken and THEN go back to UPS to send the script off.
There's a UPS store in the strip mall with the Albertson's, so for the hell of it I go in there and ask if they can get the document to England by Tuesday. They can, and it will only cost me $81, but they won't accept the package without a phone number for the theater. I tell them I don't have a phone number and have no way of getting one, so go and buy my fried chicken and go back to the real UPS to see if they'll take the envelope without the phone number.
I punch in all the info at the UPS computer, tell it when I want the package delivered by noon on Monday, and discover if I don't have the recipient phone number I can use mine (?), so I do. The UPS man is already a bit baffled at the mention of a foreign country, but gamely takes my printout, does whatever he does with it, and tells me his computer says he can't do that. I tell him the UPS store says they can, so he tells me to do another printout changing the time I want it delivered, so I make it end-of-day Monday. Again he tells me there's no way his computer is telling him the package will arrive by then, so I have another go and put in end-of-day Tuesday.
I put my finger on the "print" button and push, and - and I swear I am not making this up - the air conditioner stops, the lights go out, the computer screen goes blank and the whole depot loses power. This is what is known as living in the country.
I'm now approaching the time both places have told me I need to have the envelope in by - the real UPS driver goes and picks up at the UPS Store and takes everything to the one flight a day out of the local airport - so off I go again, my fried chicken getting soggier and soggier in its waxed bag, back to the UPS Store where the manager says he never told me they wouldn't take the envelope with a recipient phone number, he just said it would probably delay things as customs calls ahead to notify the recipient they have a *foreign* document on the way.
Fortunately, I am on medication, so simply say "Oh," and seeing an "Ask For Your Triple A Discount" sign on the desk, ask for my Triple A discount, which I how I finally handed over my script to perhaps be delivered by the deadline for the cost of only $78.
When I can summon up the courage, I'm going to track the package, but it's only been in transit for 23 hours so far and I think I'll give it the full two days before I look. I'm not on that much medication.
Four days sitting behind a computer and finally on Thursday morning (with Jupiter coming ever closer to conjunct Uranus) I was ready to print a clean copy and take myself off to the post office.
Twenty or so pages into it, I get a message my color cartridge has run out and the printer won't work without it, so off I go to Walmart, only five miles away, and buy both a black and color cartridge to be safe.
Back home and try and take a 400-word synopsis down to 200, search out a bio, try to understand the submission requirements (use a pseudonym, staple this to that, put this in a sealed envelope along with an International Reply Coupon (IRC) if you're not mailing from the UK, address the envelope to your pseudonym (!) etc. etc. etc. Round about two o'clock, off I go to the post office, only four miles away.
After being next in line for ten minutes while the man behind the counter has an extended chat with his current customer about his difficulties in losing weight, it's my turn, and up to the counter I go to ask for my IRC, whereupon I'm told a) I'm the first person ever to have asked for one and b) they are no longer sold. I make one attempt at suggesting he contact the nearest big town two hours away and ask if they have any there, but no, he's adamant, *they* don't make them any more and there's no point in his asking.
I ask for a piece of paper, scribble a note to the effect that I will send postage under separate cover at a later date, stick it in the big envelope and get back in line. When it's my turn again, I ask which service I need to get the envelope to England in five days time and am told the first delivery date I can be guaranteed is next Friday, August third.
This being of not much help, I say thank you and take myself off to the UPS depot, but as it's not yet 3:00 pm, their opening time, that doesn't do me any good either. I've promised myself some Albertson's fried chicken as my reward for getting the play off in time (hey - life is what you make it) , so decide to go there first, get the chicken and THEN go back to UPS to send the script off.
There's a UPS store in the strip mall with the Albertson's, so for the hell of it I go in there and ask if they can get the document to England by Tuesday. They can, and it will only cost me $81, but they won't accept the package without a phone number for the theater. I tell them I don't have a phone number and have no way of getting one, so go and buy my fried chicken and go back to the real UPS to see if they'll take the envelope without the phone number.
I punch in all the info at the UPS computer, tell it when I want the package delivered by noon on Monday, and discover if I don't have the recipient phone number I can use mine (?), so I do. The UPS man is already a bit baffled at the mention of a foreign country, but gamely takes my printout, does whatever he does with it, and tells me his computer says he can't do that. I tell him the UPS store says they can, so he tells me to do another printout changing the time I want it delivered, so I make it end-of-day Monday. Again he tells me there's no way his computer is telling him the package will arrive by then, so I have another go and put in end-of-day Tuesday.
I put my finger on the "print" button and push, and - and I swear I am not making this up - the air conditioner stops, the lights go out, the computer screen goes blank and the whole depot loses power. This is what is known as living in the country.
I'm now approaching the time both places have told me I need to have the envelope in by - the real UPS driver goes and picks up at the UPS Store and takes everything to the one flight a day out of the local airport - so off I go again, my fried chicken getting soggier and soggier in its waxed bag, back to the UPS Store where the manager says he never told me they wouldn't take the envelope with a recipient phone number, he just said it would probably delay things as customs calls ahead to notify the recipient they have a *foreign* document on the way.
Fortunately, I am on medication, so simply say "Oh," and seeing an "Ask For Your Triple A Discount" sign on the desk, ask for my Triple A discount, which I how I finally handed over my script to perhaps be delivered by the deadline for the cost of only $78.
When I can summon up the courage, I'm going to track the package, but it's only been in transit for 23 hours so far and I think I'll give it the full two days before I look. I'm not on that much medication.
21 July, 2012
Jupiter Conjunct Uranus
Yes hello it's me, the one what writes the everydayastrology blog and posts every month or two when the mood strikes. I could look and check when I last posted but would then probably jump into bed and pull the covers over my head, so let's just say something happened today that reminded me not only just how uncannily accurate astrological transits can be when watched closely but how they can indeed *compel/propel* someone into some kind of corresponding action - posting to a blog for the first time in a month or so.
So, based only on memories of being in Las Vegas when the subject aspect perfected last time - twelve years ago - and remembering that I was extraordinarily fortunate when *playing* slot machines at the time - I in my brilliance decided weeks ago that the only thing to do when this aspect perfected next - July 31, 2012 - was to go to Vegas again and give it another go.
My trusty traveling companion was more than willing to indulge and accompany me - we were regular visitors to The Strip until we both became home owners ha ha - and did his usual exhaustive online research to find us a *deal*; three nights at Harrah's , two of them comped, $45 for the third night. Nothing much to complain about there.
Today, Jupiter exactly two degrees away from conjuncting natal Uranus and thus beginning the possible manifestations of the transit, he called to tell me he'd had an offer in the mail from The Venetian for all three nights comped, hotel taxes comped, resort fee comped, had gone ahead and made a reservation and wondered if I still wanted to go to Harrah's ha ha.
I'd just had an out-of-the-blue invitation to dinner when he called, and once I recovered from the excitement of looking at the Venetian's website and wondering if the Pope made a daily appearance in the mini-sized St. Mark's Square, tore myself off the phone and went off to my dinner destination. There was a surprise guest - someone I met when I first came to Silver and was not anxious to meet again - but I survived that, got myself home in the rain, let a very annoyed Sweet Pea in and managed to make this post, wondering what exactly what else might happen before 9:24 am on July 31st when this aspect perfects.
So, based only on memories of being in Las Vegas when the subject aspect perfected last time - twelve years ago - and remembering that I was extraordinarily fortunate when *playing* slot machines at the time - I in my brilliance decided weeks ago that the only thing to do when this aspect perfected next - July 31, 2012 - was to go to Vegas again and give it another go.
My trusty traveling companion was more than willing to indulge and accompany me - we were regular visitors to The Strip until we both became home owners ha ha - and did his usual exhaustive online research to find us a *deal*; three nights at Harrah's , two of them comped, $45 for the third night. Nothing much to complain about there.
Today, Jupiter exactly two degrees away from conjuncting natal Uranus and thus beginning the possible manifestations of the transit, he called to tell me he'd had an offer in the mail from The Venetian for all three nights comped, hotel taxes comped, resort fee comped, had gone ahead and made a reservation and wondered if I still wanted to go to Harrah's ha ha.
I'd just had an out-of-the-blue invitation to dinner when he called, and once I recovered from the excitement of looking at the Venetian's website and wondering if the Pope made a daily appearance in the mini-sized St. Mark's Square, tore myself off the phone and went off to my dinner destination. There was a surprise guest - someone I met when I first came to Silver and was not anxious to meet again - but I survived that, got myself home in the rain, let a very annoyed Sweet Pea in and managed to make this post, wondering what exactly what else might happen before 9:24 am on July 31st when this aspect perfects.
05 July, 2012
Sun in Cancer Conjunct North Node
If the nodes symbolize people, then you'd (more correct version - one would) expect the subject transit to bring you (one) into contact with the sort of earthlings that further your (one's) growth in this lifetime and are good for you (one) to be around, no? Presumably not, if (giving up on more correct version) you have a natal Twelfth House Sun and are at the current state of your soul's evolution that I seem to be at (back to correct grammar - at which I seem to be).
Enough of that nonsense; yesterday, The Glorious Fourth, hip-hip-hooray, God bless America, hamburgers and hot dogs etc., I spent the day completely alone (well, not counting Sweet Pea) and continued putting the house back together after being away for ten months.
I've been doing it slowly for the past two and a half weeks, but things heated up a bit and in the morning I assembled the stand for the keyboard I bought myself for Christmas and have barely touched that's been in bits (the stand, not the keyboard - that's been on the floor) also on the floor since I took it out of its box probably two weeks ago. I opened all the boxes of toiletries (read assorted tiny complimentary hotel bottles of shampoo, body lotion and conditioner) and threw most of them away. I wiped down the shelves in the back room. I took the printer out of the plastic bag it had been stored in and congratulated myself on having taken the cartridges out and keeping them in separate plastic bags. I spent ten minutes looking for the manual so I could replace the cartridges. I did a test page and it worked. I unpacked the hand luggage I'd used on the plane from Cambridge. I -
I, I, I - well, a variation of the above went on all day - all incredibly boring (north node) things that have needed doing since I got here, and a good thing too, as today with the aspect past and *only* the moon aspecting anything in my chart, I can barely get myself to do anything.
Enough of that nonsense; yesterday, The Glorious Fourth, hip-hip-hooray, God bless America, hamburgers and hot dogs etc., I spent the day completely alone (well, not counting Sweet Pea) and continued putting the house back together after being away for ten months.
I've been doing it slowly for the past two and a half weeks, but things heated up a bit and in the morning I assembled the stand for the keyboard I bought myself for Christmas and have barely touched that's been in bits (the stand, not the keyboard - that's been on the floor) also on the floor since I took it out of its box probably two weeks ago. I opened all the boxes of toiletries (read assorted tiny complimentary hotel bottles of shampoo, body lotion and conditioner) and threw most of them away. I wiped down the shelves in the back room. I took the printer out of the plastic bag it had been stored in and congratulated myself on having taken the cartridges out and keeping them in separate plastic bags. I spent ten minutes looking for the manual so I could replace the cartridges. I did a test page and it worked. I unpacked the hand luggage I'd used on the plane from Cambridge. I -
I, I, I - well, a variation of the above went on all day - all incredibly boring (north node) things that have needed doing since I got here, and a good thing too, as today with the aspect past and *only* the moon aspecting anything in my chart, I can barely get myself to do anything.
03 July, 2012
Sun Trine Mars
I didn't get very far last year with the expansion of the <tongue-in-cheek> north patio, what with Saturn squaring Uranus and my credit card being hacked and ravens pecking at the utilities pole and knocking out all power to the house and all, but it's quite peaceful around here at the moment and Sunday morning, with the subject aspect 18 hours from perfection, seemed like a good time to pick up from where I left off and get going on it again.
It's got a life of its own, really. I was going to say it's organic until I just looked the word up and realized it isn't, except I just wrote it has a life of its own - anyway, it's not like I had a plan in mind when I started it and every time I work on it I think of something else to do with it.
On Sunday I decided I would make it much bigger than I once thought it would be; that way there wouldn't be so much to water, especially since when the irrigation system was put in it went only as far as - surprise! - there were plantings, leaving quite a big area of bare earth. It was that bare area I realized I could cover with paving stones, and as there were half a dozen piled up, left over from not finishing last summer, that's what I started to do till it got too hot to be outside.
Then it was take down the heavy winter curtains in the living room, give them a sniff to see if they smelled of smoke (they didn't), fold them up and put them in the drawers under the bed and hang the floaty white gauze summer ones, something I've been saying I was going to do every day since I got here.
This made the old sheet that passes as the curtain for the front door, and that never got replaced with its winter counterpart that matches the curtains I'd just taken down, look even worse than it used to, and that reminded me that last year I'd bought a length of cheap pretend Broderie Anglaise, which I found and laid (lied?) on the floor on top of the old sheet to measure.
There was a small cut in exactly the right place, so I'd obviously attempted the replacement when I first bought the fabric. This time I completed the cut and put up the new door curtain, and decided to wash the old sheet one before it went to the thrift shop. I have to walk through the dining room to get to the washing machine, and this made me realize how brown the supposed-to-be floaty gauzy white curtains looked in there.....
I could go on, but if you've read this far you've probably gotten the idea. Reading it through, it doesn't sound like much, but considering I feel as though I've been lying around here in 95 degree heat like a beached whale for two weeks, it was a nice little gift of sustained energy, especially as once it got cooler again in the evening I went out and lugged a few more rocks around to try to make some barriers against soil erosion.
It's got a life of its own, really. I was going to say it's organic until I just looked the word up and realized it isn't, except I just wrote it has a life of its own - anyway, it's not like I had a plan in mind when I started it and every time I work on it I think of something else to do with it.
On Sunday I decided I would make it much bigger than I once thought it would be; that way there wouldn't be so much to water, especially since when the irrigation system was put in it went only as far as - surprise! - there were plantings, leaving quite a big area of bare earth. It was that bare area I realized I could cover with paving stones, and as there were half a dozen piled up, left over from not finishing last summer, that's what I started to do till it got too hot to be outside.
Then it was take down the heavy winter curtains in the living room, give them a sniff to see if they smelled of smoke (they didn't), fold them up and put them in the drawers under the bed and hang the floaty white gauze summer ones, something I've been saying I was going to do every day since I got here.
This made the old sheet that passes as the curtain for the front door, and that never got replaced with its winter counterpart that matches the curtains I'd just taken down, look even worse than it used to, and that reminded me that last year I'd bought a length of cheap pretend Broderie Anglaise, which I found and laid (lied?) on the floor on top of the old sheet to measure.
There was a small cut in exactly the right place, so I'd obviously attempted the replacement when I first bought the fabric. This time I completed the cut and put up the new door curtain, and decided to wash the old sheet one before it went to the thrift shop. I have to walk through the dining room to get to the washing machine, and this made me realize how brown the supposed-to-be floaty gauzy white curtains looked in there.....
I could go on, but if you've read this far you've probably gotten the idea. Reading it through, it doesn't sound like much, but considering I feel as though I've been lying around here in 95 degree heat like a beached whale for two weeks, it was a nice little gift of sustained energy, especially as once it got cooler again in the evening I went out and lugged a few more rocks around to try to make some barriers against soil erosion.
01 July, 2012
Mars Conjunct Chiron
So with this exact I find myself sitting in bed on Sunday morning googling the interpretation of being naked in a dream, except it wasn't just me that was naked, it was my sister and her husband who live in Spain. We were in a car and had tickets, which I think I'd bought, to see a play in the West End, but had to park the car. I had to park the car, to be exact, as I was the driver, and I kept telling the others to take their tickets and go ahead to the theater, while I would follow as soon as I'd found somewhere to park.
This they wouldn't do, and the three of us wandered around - details are very dim here - in what I remember of the layout of the streets in the West End, ending up in a five star hotel where we appeared to be staying where I was able to park the car in the dining room. (Hey, I said it was a dream.)
Then we started asking staff for the way to an elevator so we could go up to our room and dress, and as I write this I remember the room turned out to be an apartment I had just moved in to in New York, a non-existent in reality apartment I dreamt about for years when I DID live in an apartment in New York - oh boy!
And here was I thinking Mars to Chiron manifested yesterday as asking my elderly neighbor, who I could barely tolerate last year when Uranus was squaring Saturn and whose offers for help I turned down many times, to drive me to the house where some of my house plants had been farmed out and help me get back the table they sit on that had also been farmed out. (He's a Virgo, and that's where Chiron sits for me.)
So now, with Sun trining Mars tomorrow morning, I can either sit here in bed and try to figure out the *meaning* of the dream - naked, inadequacies, parking, plays, no thank you - or, no contest, get up, throw on one of my fetching gardening outfits, and continue taking away more of the landscaping I've done in the past ten years which I realize now is totally impractical and ridiculously time-consuming to keep planted in this climate.
With another 95 degree day forecast, it's do it now or tomorrow, and as I'm still holding on to the belief that the monsoons will start at some point this summer, those rocks that used to make a flower bed at the foot of the front steps need picking up, carrying to the back of the house and being turned into a barrier against the water that I think will soon be rushing down the hill. Or not.
This they wouldn't do, and the three of us wandered around - details are very dim here - in what I remember of the layout of the streets in the West End, ending up in a five star hotel where we appeared to be staying where I was able to park the car in the dining room. (Hey, I said it was a dream.)
Then we started asking staff for the way to an elevator so we could go up to our room and dress, and as I write this I remember the room turned out to be an apartment I had just moved in to in New York, a non-existent in reality apartment I dreamt about for years when I DID live in an apartment in New York - oh boy!
And here was I thinking Mars to Chiron manifested yesterday as asking my elderly neighbor, who I could barely tolerate last year when Uranus was squaring Saturn and whose offers for help I turned down many times, to drive me to the house where some of my house plants had been farmed out and help me get back the table they sit on that had also been farmed out. (He's a Virgo, and that's where Chiron sits for me.)
So now, with Sun trining Mars tomorrow morning, I can either sit here in bed and try to figure out the *meaning* of the dream - naked, inadequacies, parking, plays, no thank you - or, no contest, get up, throw on one of my fetching gardening outfits, and continue taking away more of the landscaping I've done in the past ten years which I realize now is totally impractical and ridiculously time-consuming to keep planted in this climate.
With another 95 degree day forecast, it's do it now or tomorrow, and as I'm still holding on to the belief that the monsoons will start at some point this summer, those rocks that used to make a flower bed at the foot of the front steps need picking up, carrying to the back of the house and being turned into a barrier against the water that I think will soon be rushing down the hill. Or not.
25 June, 2012
Venus Conjunct Uranus
Contrary to what one might expect from the nature of this blog, I am not one of *those* astrologers that check the ephemeris before making plans; after traveling from Boston, Massachusetts, to Silver City, New Mexico, on the day this aspect perfected, I am tempted to consider changing my MO in the future and taking a look at what the Moon is doing before I clean my teeth.
As I was nowhere near ready to leave, the first out-of-the-blue happening - a phoned alert from American that my flight out of Boston was delayed by two hours - was welcome, and meant I could sit down, have another cup of coffee and take photos of Star Child, who I was leaving for I didn't and don't know for how long.
Once I got to Logan and my connecting flight had been changed to a later time, Sweet Pea and I were subjected to a full body scan complete with a two-hands fingerprint swipe for me, me hanging on to him for dear life while he tried frantically to escape back to the safety of his carrier, going though security being the only event that makes him want to get into his box.
We then got to Dallas Forth Worth in time for me to catch my originally scheduled flight, except that my luggage was on the later flight and I would still have had to wait for it once I got to El Paso.
When I did get to El Paso, it was already dark and about the time I'd hoped to be pulling in to the driveway at #14. First Enterprise told me I didn't have a reservation, then they told me I could rent a car and drive to Silver but would have to return the car to El Paso, and then they told me oh, I did have a reservation and could drop the car off in Silver after all.
Once we had that sorted out, I got lost in El Paso for an hour or so looking for the 10, which turned out to be fortunate as after a couple of miles I heard a loud flapping sound and when I pulled over on a side street to see what it was, discovered a big piece of rubber sticking out from the undercarriage (?) of the car. Taking a deep breath, I pulled it out completely and stowed it on the back seat before finally finding the 10 and, three hours later, at 1:15 am on Saturday, pulling in to the driveway at #14 and letting Sweet Pea out.
The last time Venus conjuncted Uranus was when I attempted to place a bet in the Grand National. Next time is two weeks from now, July 9. One can only wonder.
As I was nowhere near ready to leave, the first out-of-the-blue happening - a phoned alert from American that my flight out of Boston was delayed by two hours - was welcome, and meant I could sit down, have another cup of coffee and take photos of Star Child, who I was leaving for I didn't and don't know for how long.
Once I got to Logan and my connecting flight had been changed to a later time, Sweet Pea and I were subjected to a full body scan complete with a two-hands fingerprint swipe for me, me hanging on to him for dear life while he tried frantically to escape back to the safety of his carrier, going though security being the only event that makes him want to get into his box.
We then got to Dallas Forth Worth in time for me to catch my originally scheduled flight, except that my luggage was on the later flight and I would still have had to wait for it once I got to El Paso.
When I did get to El Paso, it was already dark and about the time I'd hoped to be pulling in to the driveway at #14. First Enterprise told me I didn't have a reservation, then they told me I could rent a car and drive to Silver but would have to return the car to El Paso, and then they told me oh, I did have a reservation and could drop the car off in Silver after all.
Once we had that sorted out, I got lost in El Paso for an hour or so looking for the 10, which turned out to be fortunate as after a couple of miles I heard a loud flapping sound and when I pulled over on a side street to see what it was, discovered a big piece of rubber sticking out from the undercarriage (?) of the car. Taking a deep breath, I pulled it out completely and stowed it on the back seat before finally finding the 10 and, three hours later, at 1:15 am on Saturday, pulling in to the driveway at #14 and letting Sweet Pea out.
The last time Venus conjuncted Uranus was when I attempted to place a bet in the Grand National. Next time is two weeks from now, July 9. One can only wonder.
13 June, 2012
Mars Conjunct Jupiter, continued
Combine this with the Sun square natal Jupiter in Virgo and you get me sitting in front of the old iMac, which at that point I planned to post on the Cambridge Craigslist Free Cycle list, with the MacBook Air on my lap, doing a quick check to see if there are any files on the iMac I don't have on the Air and then deleting all personal files and photos from the desktop.
Very proud of myself, I remember to delete all contacts from the address book and all the bookmarks from Safari, go into Mail and remove the server address for the Silver account and even open Stickies and close the notes one by one without saving. The preevz iDisk icon sitting on the desktop reminds me I have Mobile Me, and I go into the disk and remove the few files I had there before trashing that as well.
Everything else goes onto the 8 GB flash drive, which I disconnect and carefully place in an envelope (very high tech) and put inside one of the outside pockets on my computer bag, to be looked through later (read "never") when I'm back in Silver and have a real live desk again.
I even write "Flash Drive" on the envelope, proud of myself again as the drive is smaller than the nail on my little finger and it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that I will one day find the envelope, think it's empty and throw it away.
iMac still plugged in but otherwise ready for the street, I look at the piles of stuff on the floor still needing to be sorted and packed and promptly fall in a heap on the bed and, on the Air, check the Daily Mail to see what might have happened since I last checked an hour ago.
Up pops good old Mobile Me, asking me if I want to sync now, and with Jupiter in Virgo of course I do because I want to be up-to-date and organized and with all my ducks in a row; I do wonder vaguely why all my bookmarks and address book contacts will be changed because it's not as though my interests or social circle have expanded lately, but hey, I'm busy, Kate Middleton might have changed her clothes twice since I last looked, so I tell Mobile Me to go ahead and sync everything.
Much too late - O Jupiter-in-Virgo-Ruled-By-The-Trickster - I realize I'm syncing with the now immaculate waiting-for-its-new- owner iMac, and do a pretty good imitation of The Scream as four years' worth of bookmarks and contacts get wiped off the Air's flash drive and all my carefully labelled bookmark folders disappear from Safari's Bookmarks Bar, lo in front of my very eyes.
I look at the piles of stuff on the floor. I think of the apartment I walked away from just seven days before. I think of the child I'll be leaving in a week. I think of Perth, the rune I pulled out of the bag when I was asking the universe a couple of days before about the resolution of the past year and a half - "For some, Perth means experiencing a psychic death. If need be, let go of everything, no exceptions, no exclusions. Nothing less than renewal of the spirit is at stake."
I think it will be a wonderful thing when I have time to use hyperlinks and post images to this blog, and I think it's a very good thing I have a sense of humor.
Very proud of myself, I remember to delete all contacts from the address book and all the bookmarks from Safari, go into Mail and remove the server address for the Silver account and even open Stickies and close the notes one by one without saving. The preevz iDisk icon sitting on the desktop reminds me I have Mobile Me, and I go into the disk and remove the few files I had there before trashing that as well.
Everything else goes onto the 8 GB flash drive, which I disconnect and carefully place in an envelope (very high tech) and put inside one of the outside pockets on my computer bag, to be looked through later (read "never") when I'm back in Silver and have a real live desk again.
I even write "Flash Drive" on the envelope, proud of myself again as the drive is smaller than the nail on my little finger and it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that I will one day find the envelope, think it's empty and throw it away.
iMac still plugged in but otherwise ready for the street, I look at the piles of stuff on the floor still needing to be sorted and packed and promptly fall in a heap on the bed and, on the Air, check the Daily Mail to see what might have happened since I last checked an hour ago.
Up pops good old Mobile Me, asking me if I want to sync now, and with Jupiter in Virgo of course I do because I want to be up-to-date and organized and with all my ducks in a row; I do wonder vaguely why all my bookmarks and address book contacts will be changed because it's not as though my interests or social circle have expanded lately, but hey, I'm busy, Kate Middleton might have changed her clothes twice since I last looked, so I tell Mobile Me to go ahead and sync everything.
Much too late - O Jupiter-in-Virgo-Ruled-By-The-Trickster - I realize I'm syncing with the now immaculate waiting-for-its-new- owner iMac, and do a pretty good imitation of The Scream as four years' worth of bookmarks and contacts get wiped off the Air's flash drive and all my carefully labelled bookmark folders disappear from Safari's Bookmarks Bar, lo in front of my very eyes.
I look at the piles of stuff on the floor. I think of the apartment I walked away from just seven days before. I think of the child I'll be leaving in a week. I think of Perth, the rune I pulled out of the bag when I was asking the universe a couple of days before about the resolution of the past year and a half - "For some, Perth means experiencing a psychic death. If need be, let go of everything, no exceptions, no exclusions. Nothing less than renewal of the spirit is at stake."
I think it will be a wonderful thing when I have time to use hyperlinks and post images to this blog, and I think it's a very good thing I have a sense of humor.
10 June, 2012
Mars Conjunct Jupiter
This doesn't perfect till late tomorrow, Monday, but already I'm running around like a mad thing supposedly packing (again) but attempting to watch the men's final at the French Open while I'm doing it.
I spent the night on Concord to keep Sweet Pea company, woke up at five, did another load of laundry and realized if the women's final was yesterday there was a good chance the opposite sex would be playing today - bingo! NBC at 9 am.
This gave me plenty of time to empty out all the bags and boxes that came back from New York last weekend, take everything from the drawers under the bed, pile the lot in a great big jumble on the sheets, feel totally overwhelmed and go back upstairs to read The Daily Mail.
Then it was back downstairs to stare at the pile on the bed again and try to decide what I can live without that could go in the trash, what could come out to Silver with me, either via USPS or in my wheelie bag, and what could go down to storage in Randolph when Dave Myers comes on Tuesday night to pick stuff up.
Therein lies the rub, as he's coming to Fayerweather, my residence since January, two blocks away around the corner, so do I take everything to go to Randolph back to Fayerweather and pack it up from there, or do I have him make two stops, one on a busy main road with a dicing with death driveway, or do I leave it all piled on the bed in a heap and go back to watch Nadal and Djokovic start their game?
No prizes for guessing correctly, but with Djokovic losing and the game rained out I took myself off to Fayerweather to start to do something there. An attempt to turn on the TV to see what was happening in Paris was unsuccessful - which remote? What button? Turn on All or just press TV? Once I had a screen full of snow with the message "Little Or No Signal," I got the electronic keyboard I bought myself for Christmas into its box but couldn't find the allen wrench to dismantle the stand, so got on the old desktop to see what was happening in Paris.
Play had started and Djokovic was rallying, so then began the frantic search for the non-existent free live streaming. Ten minutes of that and I realized I could come back to Concord and continue to watch here, and got back just in time to see Nadal having a temper tantrum and rain stopping play for the second time.
More later.
I spent the night on Concord to keep Sweet Pea company, woke up at five, did another load of laundry and realized if the women's final was yesterday there was a good chance the opposite sex would be playing today - bingo! NBC at 9 am.
This gave me plenty of time to empty out all the bags and boxes that came back from New York last weekend, take everything from the drawers under the bed, pile the lot in a great big jumble on the sheets, feel totally overwhelmed and go back upstairs to read The Daily Mail.
Then it was back downstairs to stare at the pile on the bed again and try to decide what I can live without that could go in the trash, what could come out to Silver with me, either via USPS or in my wheelie bag, and what could go down to storage in Randolph when Dave Myers comes on Tuesday night to pick stuff up.
Therein lies the rub, as he's coming to Fayerweather, my residence since January, two blocks away around the corner, so do I take everything to go to Randolph back to Fayerweather and pack it up from there, or do I have him make two stops, one on a busy main road with a dicing with death driveway, or do I leave it all piled on the bed in a heap and go back to watch Nadal and Djokovic start their game?
No prizes for guessing correctly, but with Djokovic losing and the game rained out I took myself off to Fayerweather to start to do something there. An attempt to turn on the TV to see what was happening in Paris was unsuccessful - which remote? What button? Turn on All or just press TV? Once I had a screen full of snow with the message "Little Or No Signal," I got the electronic keyboard I bought myself for Christmas into its box but couldn't find the allen wrench to dismantle the stand, so got on the old desktop to see what was happening in Paris.
Play had started and Djokovic was rallying, so then began the frantic search for the non-existent free live streaming. Ten minutes of that and I realized I could come back to Concord and continue to watch here, and got back just in time to see Nadal having a temper tantrum and rain stopping play for the second time.
More later.
06 June, 2012
Jupiter Trine Chiron
If you're going to move away from New York City and out of a rent-stabilized apartment on the upper east side that you've had for thirty-eight years, I suppose it would be hard to choose better aspects to do it under than those that I've just had.
To start with, I began in earnest to pack stuff up two weekends ago with Jupiter trine the Midheaven and on a solar eclipse, had transiting Uranus trine Pluto (natally in four) to help me every step of the way, and carried the last bag out twelve hours before that aspect perfected on a lunar eclipse, two days before Venus transited the Sun and three days before Jupiter trined Chiron, not a word of which will make sense to anyone but another astrologer but who cares?
Sweet Pea is curled up behind me purring on the back of the armchair, SC is asleep, the sun is shining and I don't have to spend six hours on a bus going down to New York this weekend because I don't live there any more; I've got big easy healing going on and it feels great.
To start with, I began in earnest to pack stuff up two weekends ago with Jupiter trine the Midheaven and on a solar eclipse, had transiting Uranus trine Pluto (natally in four) to help me every step of the way, and carried the last bag out twelve hours before that aspect perfected on a lunar eclipse, two days before Venus transited the Sun and three days before Jupiter trined Chiron, not a word of which will make sense to anyone but another astrologer but who cares?
Sweet Pea is curled up behind me purring on the back of the armchair, SC is asleep, the sun is shining and I don't have to spend six hours on a bus going down to New York this weekend because I don't live there any more; I've got big easy healing going on and it feels great.
02 June, 2012
Remember Me?
I'm the one who does the blog called everyday-astrology and hasn't posted for more than a week, what with the pace hotting up and all and going to plays and playing tennis in the three days I have up in Cambridge before coming back down to New York to obsess over yet another book I'm unwilling to part with and put it in the Keep pile before taking it out again and putting it in the Thrift Shop file and then taking it from there and putting it in a new pile vaguely described as Decide Later, except there isn't any later any more because the mover is coming tomorrow and my landlord expects me out by Monday morning.
After packing boxes and making trips to the thrift shop for two days straight there's still a load of stuff to do and I have made the terrible mistake of sitting down to see if anyone's answered my post for 43 Free Anthony Trollope Society Books To Be Picked Up Tonight Or Tomorrow Morning, which of course requires a bottle of beer to calm me down from the excitement of seeing the numerous responses from Upper East Siders anxious to further their cultural horizons.
Fortunately I requested a clause in the agreement with the landlord allowing me to leave behind any old crap I couldn't get down the stairs (worded somewhat differently by the attorney), although I was thinking more of an Ikea wardrobe and a six foot press-board or whatever it's called bookcase, but nothing was specified so maybe the landlord will be the lucky owner of the six feet of handsomely bound maroon volumes, as anything I leave behind becomes his property.
Enough of this lounging around; there are boxes still to pack, file cabinets to be looked into, treasures to be taken to the thrift shop, a fridge to be emptied and wishes to be sent into the ether that someone will see the post on Craigslist and decide they want nothing more than fifty pounds or so of 19th century literature.
After packing boxes and making trips to the thrift shop for two days straight there's still a load of stuff to do and I have made the terrible mistake of sitting down to see if anyone's answered my post for 43 Free Anthony Trollope Society Books To Be Picked Up Tonight Or Tomorrow Morning, which of course requires a bottle of beer to calm me down from the excitement of seeing the numerous responses from Upper East Siders anxious to further their cultural horizons.
Fortunately I requested a clause in the agreement with the landlord allowing me to leave behind any old crap I couldn't get down the stairs (worded somewhat differently by the attorney), although I was thinking more of an Ikea wardrobe and a six foot press-board or whatever it's called bookcase, but nothing was specified so maybe the landlord will be the lucky owner of the six feet of handsomely bound maroon volumes, as anything I leave behind becomes his property.
Enough of this lounging around; there are boxes still to pack, file cabinets to be looked into, treasures to be taken to the thrift shop, a fridge to be emptied and wishes to be sent into the ether that someone will see the post on Craigslist and decide they want nothing more than fifty pounds or so of 19th century literature.
24 May, 2012
Mercury Trine Chiron
Oh good, nothing I want more than the chance "to develop a deeper understanding of those psychological areas that are connected with the experience of pain, suffering and rejection" (Astrodienst again) - I haven't had quite enough of that this year yet.
I did get another dose, though, yesterday, after visiting the country house and garden where Those Who Cannot Be Named For Fear Of Violating Their Privacy spend their weekends and, presumably helped along by the transiting south node in Gemini in *my* first house, feeling anew that there's nowhere in the Bay State where I shall ever feel that I belong. Should I be optimistic and insert "so far" between "State" and "where"? (Not a bad idea, as I rented a 10' x 5' storage space for my New York belongings five minutes from said house yesterday ha ha.)
It was left to a four-year-old, however, to twist the knife after it had been thrust in. Riding back to Bean Town, she was asked to keep her voice down to spare my trauma victim hearing, usually referenced (and then by me) only when I'm in a room with a television and a commercial comes on. "Why?" she said. "It's not her car."
Talk about out of the mouths of babes and pre-kindergartners; my current life in a nutshell - it's not my anything. Sheesh. It's a very good thing I have some understanding of astrology and know that this too shall pass. (And speaking of astrology, isn't Gemini small children?)
23 May, 2012
Jupiter on the Ascendant
Well, I wouldn't call going to counseling and bawling your eyes out because you're leaving the place you lived in for 38 years feeling good and projecting warm positive energies out into the world, but you can't win 'em all and we get back to the slowest moving planet wins and Saturn squaring the Midheaven, forcing me to, er, examine my *goals* and wonder where I'm going in life.
And the answer to that is down to Randolph tonight to register for a 10 x 5 storage space so Small Local Moves can drive down to New York this weekend and pick up my stainless steel mixing bowl and my copy of the I Hate To Cook Book to languish under lock and key until and if I come back to the east coast after a summer in the southwest.
Ah yes, expanding my circle and meeting people I wouldn't ordinarily come across, especially people in power like the genius at the Apple store who told me it would take five to seven days to repair my MacBook Air and then asked if there was anything else he could help me with.
Oh well - time for me to go and pick up SC from school and become a woman of the world.
And the answer to that is down to Randolph tonight to register for a 10 x 5 storage space so Small Local Moves can drive down to New York this weekend and pick up my stainless steel mixing bowl and my copy of the I Hate To Cook Book to languish under lock and key until and if I come back to the east coast after a summer in the southwest.
Ah yes, expanding my circle and meeting people I wouldn't ordinarily come across, especially people in power like the genius at the Apple store who told me it would take five to seven days to repair my MacBook Air and then asked if there was anything else he could help me with.
Oh well - time for me to go and pick up SC from school and become a woman of the world.
21 May, 2012
Jupiter Trine Midheaven
Boundless enthusiasm? Not quite the way I'd describe the way I've been feeling for the past couple of days, although yesterday I did manage to pry myself off the couch, take a couple of bags of stuff to the thrift shop and carry six old gallon cans of paint down to the ground floor and leave them by the trash cans.
Those major feats accomplished, it was time to gather up the unopened Christmas cards I carry back and forth from Cambridge to New York every time I go, shove them back into the wheelie bag, pick out a few choice items from my 38-year tenancy that I've decided I want to carry on into my oh-so-eagerly-awaited *new life* (this time: my father's old Players Please tobacco tin that I keep safety pins in, a copy of Alan Bennett's The Laying On Of Hands, two of my father's ties (hmmmm....) and six stainless steel coat hangers) and make my way back to 31st and Eighth to wait for the bus.
Tomorrow: Jupiter on the Ascendant. Stay tuned.
Those major feats accomplished, it was time to gather up the unopened Christmas cards I carry back and forth from Cambridge to New York every time I go, shove them back into the wheelie bag, pick out a few choice items from my 38-year tenancy that I've decided I want to carry on into my oh-so-eagerly-awaited *new life* (this time: my father's old Players Please tobacco tin that I keep safety pins in, a copy of Alan Bennett's The Laying On Of Hands, two of my father's ties (hmmmm....) and six stainless steel coat hangers) and make my way back to 31st and Eighth to wait for the bus.
Tomorrow: Jupiter on the Ascendant. Stay tuned.
19 May, 2012
Venus Is Retrograde - Here Come The Old Friends
So Venus stations retrograde on Wednesday and Friday night I walk into what used to be called home and a card's been pushed under the door from someone I worked with at Oppenheimer in the days when I got a paycheck every two weeks and haven't seen for ten years and there's a message on the answering machine from someone else I haven't seen for twenty - not bad for the first two days.
The Haven't Seen for Twenty isn't too surprising as a week or so ago I managed to respond to the Christmas Card she sent six months ago and actually wrote a response back, which she has now presumably read, but the Haven't Seen for Ten is completely out of the blue, to coin a phrase.
Perhaps HSF Ten comes under the Mars Square Uranus that perfected at noon today, although I think a little more action is involved in that case than reading a card.
As it happened, I was attempting at that time to send a photo of the Cuisinart I'm selling on Craigslist to an interested party using my non-smart cellphone. As there's been no response from Interested Party, I was probably not successful, but it was the best I could do as I came down once again from Cambridge without the USB connection cord for my camera.
I believe there's a strong case to be made here for "The slowest moving planet wins," as with Saturn all but stationed a degree off squaring my Midheaven there's not much I can think about except what the f*!@ am I doing.
The Haven't Seen for Twenty isn't too surprising as a week or so ago I managed to respond to the Christmas Card she sent six months ago and actually wrote a response back, which she has now presumably read, but the Haven't Seen for Ten is completely out of the blue, to coin a phrase.
Perhaps HSF Ten comes under the Mars Square Uranus that perfected at noon today, although I think a little more action is involved in that case than reading a card.
As it happened, I was attempting at that time to send a photo of the Cuisinart I'm selling on Craigslist to an interested party using my non-smart cellphone. As there's been no response from Interested Party, I was probably not successful, but it was the best I could do as I came down once again from Cambridge without the USB connection cord for my camera.
I believe there's a strong case to be made here for "The slowest moving planet wins," as with Saturn all but stationed a degree off squaring my Midheaven there's not much I can think about except what the f*!@ am I doing.
18 May, 2012
Mars Opposed to Mars
Yet another amazing coincidence - Mars opposes Mars from the Fifth and I get to play tennis (if that's what you can call it) for the first time ever in Cambridge - me, two grown women, one grown man, one four-year-old and one dog, all leaping around on two tennis courts and having the time of our lives. I remember fun. AND I can still move the next morning.
There's a couple of other significators - Sun in the First, with Jupiter about to follow, and if I pay close attention (and were a really good astrologer) I could use this knowledge to rectify my birth time to the minute, rather than using my mother's "Oh, about a quarter to nine," although that seems uncannily accurate.
All I need to do is notice when I "get arrogant and give myself airs," thereby identifying the exact degree of Taurus on my Ascendant, although something tells me if I am swanning around giving myself airs the last thing I'll be thinking about is staying conscious. It gets complicated, this stuff.
Something's going on, though, as I've already fallen down the front steps trying to get SC down in the stroller when I usually bump it down empty, and yesterday, after a year and a half of using the kitchen, I pinched my finger in the hinge of the corner cabinet as I was closing it. With that same Mars that had me playing tennis coming to square Natal Uranus, I'm told "an accident can be the sign of frustrated ego energies transmuted into destructive powers," but that's only if I'm not aware of the need for constructive change in my life.
As I'll be on the bus again tonight going down to New York to pack up yet more boxes in readiness for leaving somewhere I've lived for forty-nine years, I think it's safe to say I'm aware of the change going on in my life. Whether or not I think it's constructive is another story, so I'd better stay out of the kitchen for a bit.
There's a couple of other significators - Sun in the First, with Jupiter about to follow, and if I pay close attention (and were a really good astrologer) I could use this knowledge to rectify my birth time to the minute, rather than using my mother's "Oh, about a quarter to nine," although that seems uncannily accurate.
All I need to do is notice when I "get arrogant and give myself airs," thereby identifying the exact degree of Taurus on my Ascendant, although something tells me if I am swanning around giving myself airs the last thing I'll be thinking about is staying conscious. It gets complicated, this stuff.
Something's going on, though, as I've already fallen down the front steps trying to get SC down in the stroller when I usually bump it down empty, and yesterday, after a year and a half of using the kitchen, I pinched my finger in the hinge of the corner cabinet as I was closing it. With that same Mars that had me playing tennis coming to square Natal Uranus, I'm told "an accident can be the sign of frustrated ego energies transmuted into destructive powers," but that's only if I'm not aware of the need for constructive change in my life.
As I'll be on the bus again tonight going down to New York to pack up yet more boxes in readiness for leaving somewhere I've lived for forty-nine years, I think it's safe to say I'm aware of the change going on in my life. Whether or not I think it's constructive is another story, so I'd better stay out of the kitchen for a bit.
17 May, 2012
Sun Trine Midheaven
Quite how you reconcile having a knowledge of and mastery over the necessary material resources for achieving your ends with setting out in a mild drizzle during an east coast spring when you've lived there for 40 years on a mile-long walk with a four-year old in a stroller while wearing light cotton pants and a sweatshirt with standing under a tree in the pouring rain soaked to the skin ten minutes later I'm not quite sure, but then mine's not to reason why, mine's just to take SC to TumblerTots at the gym every Monday.
And Sun on the Ascendant and feeling expansive - being invited out for lunch and choosing corned beef hash and eggs because you know the size of the serving of hash at the place where you're eating covers the whole of the plate.
And Sun on the Ascendant and feeling expansive - being invited out for lunch and choosing corned beef hash and eggs because you know the size of the serving of hash at the place where you're eating covers the whole of the plate.
14 May, 2012
Uranus Trine Pluto
*Funny* that this will perfect the first weekend in June when I leave my apartment in New York for good and supposedly enter an entirely "new phase of existence in which the habitual patterns and concerns of the old way of my world may vanish entirely or diminish in their importance " - no more having to decide whether I get a slice with pepperoni or sausage, I suppose, or wondering whether I get blackberries or blueberries from the fruit man.
As for the vanishing entirely, my beloved favorite coat of all time - the Wallis Shops full-length grey plaid bias-cut swagger I bought in London in 1989 - got shoved into a Fairway bag and went off to the thrift shop yesterday, leaving the coat closet empty except for the horrible green padded jacket thing I bought in Silver last year for the east coast winter that never happened.
If I wanted to be negative (wot - me?), I could take it as a sign of the end of *cosmopolitan* existence and the beginning of new life in Pumpkin Center, wherever that might turn out to be, but me being such a positive thinker and all that's such a blood-curdling thought I think the first thing I'll do next weekend is take the green thing off to the thrift shop as well and go coatless into the future.
Presumably this aspect is going to pick up the pace a little and get me moving a bit more than it did this weekend. Looking ahead, with Jupiter trining the Midheaven and conjuncting the Ascendant next weekend, all that boundless energy and enthusiasm should at least enable me to get the bundled up magazines on top of the fridge downstairs on Friday night for recycling.
As for the vanishing entirely, my beloved favorite coat of all time - the Wallis Shops full-length grey plaid bias-cut swagger I bought in London in 1989 - got shoved into a Fairway bag and went off to the thrift shop yesterday, leaving the coat closet empty except for the horrible green padded jacket thing I bought in Silver last year for the east coast winter that never happened.
If I wanted to be negative (wot - me?), I could take it as a sign of the end of *cosmopolitan* existence and the beginning of new life in Pumpkin Center, wherever that might turn out to be, but me being such a positive thinker and all that's such a blood-curdling thought I think the first thing I'll do next weekend is take the green thing off to the thrift shop as well and go coatless into the future.
Presumably this aspect is going to pick up the pace a little and get me moving a bit more than it did this weekend. Looking ahead, with Jupiter trining the Midheaven and conjuncting the Ascendant next weekend, all that boundless energy and enthusiasm should at least enable me to get the bundled up magazines on top of the fridge downstairs on Friday night for recycling.
13 May, 2012
Mercury Square Pluto
Add this one to Saturn squaring the Midheaven and you get someone supposedly emptying out an apartment wandering backwards and forwards all day through empty bookshelves and cardboard boxes wondering why she's arranging to have what's left after most of her possessions have been thrown out shipped up to New England to go into storage when she has nowhere to live up there instead of being sent directly to the Midwest where she has an already fully furnished house.
THAT'S what you call an obsessive thought that gets in the way of action.
THAT'S what you call an obsessive thought that gets in the way of action.
12 May, 2012
Venus Stationary Retrograde in the First
So Venus is grinding to a halt and we're all thinking about what we truly value and what's important to us and I'm sitting on the bus again coming down to New York and for the first time, me being a bit thick sometimes and all, it hits me that not only am I giving up the apartment I've lived in for 38 years but I'm moving away from the city I came to from London 49 years ago, with not too much chance of being able to move back unless I win the lottery, highly unlikely as I never buy a ticket.
What was it a creative writer instructor said to me once about writing as though I need to get everything I want to say into the very first sentence? What did she know - I didn't say a thing about arriving at what was then Idlewild in my green tweed coat with a real fur collar on a mid-October day with the temperature in the 80s and telling the couple who were sponsoring me that that would be headline news in England. Talk about that was then and this is now.
What was it a creative writer instructor said to me once about writing as though I need to get everything I want to say into the very first sentence? What did she know - I didn't say a thing about arriving at what was then Idlewild in my green tweed coat with a real fur collar on a mid-October day with the temperature in the 80s and telling the couple who were sponsoring me that that would be headline news in England. Talk about that was then and this is now.
10 May, 2012
Uranus Trine Pluto
So for the everyday bit, Mercury conjuncted Venus and when SC woke up from her nap she did NOT immediately say "Can I have a video?" but instead sat on my lap for an hour and we looked at the Peppa Pig book I got her for her birthday. The Sun trined Jupiter and with astonishing forethought and planning I brought SC to Deb's for lunch, rather than standing at the foot of the stairs on Concord waiting for the cleaning crew to mop their way down, and in yet another remarkable coincidence, the Subject Title transit begins just as I book my ticket to take the dreaded five-hour journey down to New York to continue throwing out thirty-eight years' worth of possessions.
"A time of positive evolution in my life," says Astrodienst - when I can "make constructive changes that will make my life worthwhile later on." Certainly not shelling out money month after month for a space I'm never in would be a welcome constructive change, but all I really wanted to do was sublet for two years and then move back in, she said plaintively.
It's all very well to say it's going to lead to a "new and greater understanding of my inner being and how I relate to other people" and make me "more involved with my life, its total meaning to me and how I fit into the universe as a whole," but I have more immediate concerns; how do I get two six foot bookcases and a console table weighing about a hundred pounds down two flights of stairs for trash night tomorrow, and am I really going to part with every book I own?
"A time of positive evolution in my life," says Astrodienst - when I can "make constructive changes that will make my life worthwhile later on." Certainly not shelling out money month after month for a space I'm never in would be a welcome constructive change, but all I really wanted to do was sublet for two years and then move back in, she said plaintively.
It's all very well to say it's going to lead to a "new and greater understanding of my inner being and how I relate to other people" and make me "more involved with my life, its total meaning to me and how I fit into the universe as a whole," but I have more immediate concerns; how do I get two six foot bookcases and a console table weighing about a hundred pounds down two flights of stairs for trash night tomorrow, and am I really going to part with every book I own?
06 May, 2012
Mercury Square Midheaven
"Clear Objectives"? What is this, a joke? About the only objective I had yesterday was to watch the Kentucky Derby, a goal I remembered round about nine p.m., two and a half hours after I'll Have Another (and I'd have put money on THAT) evidently surprised the racing world by coming in first.
And why, you may well ask, after the trials and tribulations I went through to not bet on Neptune Collanges in the Grand National, did I not have money on any of the Kentucky runners, now that I've decided my true calling in life is to follow in my father's footsteps and bet on the ponies to give meaning and bring satisfaction to this life in limbo I'm slogging through for another 40 days, not that I'm counting or anything?
For an answer to that, we need to go back to the last line of my Clever Dick post of a few days ago, gloating that I'd put one over on the geniuses at Apple. Ha ha I hadn't, because the next day they called to tell me there was a crack in the plastic of the screen, that damage wasn't covered by AppleCare and that if I wanted it repaired it would cost $446, at which point I had put the phone down.
(My current lack of anything resembling patience, I realize, can be directly attributed to my not taking my prescribed daily dose of a 20g Celexa tablet for coming up to two weeks now and confirms my long-time lurking suspicion that the correct name for the psycho-pharmaceuticals I've been taking since shortly after 9/11 is zombie pills.)
So, having no patience to go into the long involved story of the Apple store calling me back, asking me what I wanted to do, telling me they don't have the parts they need to repair the computer even if that's the way I want to go, me telling them to overnight it back to me so I can take it into an Apple store I can reach by public transport instead of having to ask someone with a car to drive me, them telling me they would do that no charge as a courtesy and then calling back to say the tracking number showed they'd sent it overnight next business day without specifying Saturday delivery and me composing a vitriolic letter in my head to Tim Cook, Kentucky Derby day found me using the old iMac the ceiling fell down on when I used to be a New Yorker with all the online betting site passwords and stuff sitting on the MacBook Air which was in turn sitting in the FedEx sorting facility fifteen miles away waiting to be delivered thirty-six hours later.
Add to the above my finally understanding the meaning of the term "sucker punch" and experiencing it to the max after learning my landlord has accepted my counter-counter-counter-counter offer of a buy-out and as of June 2 I will no longer have an apartment in New York, any readers still reading may perhaps dimly understand my need to distract myself from what passes for reality yesterday afternoon.
Whether anyone will understand why I chose to do so by losing myself completely in a frantic online search for single-wide mobile *homes* and houses made from shipping containers, thus completely forgetting the running of the Kentucky Derby, is another matter, but with Mercury coming to conjunct Mercury in seventeen hours time, I supposedly have a very good chance of getting through to people, so maybe someone will.
Clue: it has something to do with 1674 Redux.
And why, you may well ask, after the trials and tribulations I went through to not bet on Neptune Collanges in the Grand National, did I not have money on any of the Kentucky runners, now that I've decided my true calling in life is to follow in my father's footsteps and bet on the ponies to give meaning and bring satisfaction to this life in limbo I'm slogging through for another 40 days, not that I'm counting or anything?
For an answer to that, we need to go back to the last line of my Clever Dick post of a few days ago, gloating that I'd put one over on the geniuses at Apple. Ha ha I hadn't, because the next day they called to tell me there was a crack in the plastic of the screen, that damage wasn't covered by AppleCare and that if I wanted it repaired it would cost $446, at which point I had put the phone down.
(My current lack of anything resembling patience, I realize, can be directly attributed to my not taking my prescribed daily dose of a 20g Celexa tablet for coming up to two weeks now and confirms my long-time lurking suspicion that the correct name for the psycho-pharmaceuticals I've been taking since shortly after 9/11 is zombie pills.)
So, having no patience to go into the long involved story of the Apple store calling me back, asking me what I wanted to do, telling me they don't have the parts they need to repair the computer even if that's the way I want to go, me telling them to overnight it back to me so I can take it into an Apple store I can reach by public transport instead of having to ask someone with a car to drive me, them telling me they would do that no charge as a courtesy and then calling back to say the tracking number showed they'd sent it overnight next business day without specifying Saturday delivery and me composing a vitriolic letter in my head to Tim Cook, Kentucky Derby day found me using the old iMac the ceiling fell down on when I used to be a New Yorker with all the online betting site passwords and stuff sitting on the MacBook Air which was in turn sitting in the FedEx sorting facility fifteen miles away waiting to be delivered thirty-six hours later.
Add to the above my finally understanding the meaning of the term "sucker punch" and experiencing it to the max after learning my landlord has accepted my counter-counter-counter-counter offer of a buy-out and as of June 2 I will no longer have an apartment in New York, any readers still reading may perhaps dimly understand my need to distract myself from what passes for reality yesterday afternoon.
Whether anyone will understand why I chose to do so by losing myself completely in a frantic online search for single-wide mobile *homes* and houses made from shipping containers, thus completely forgetting the running of the Kentucky Derby, is another matter, but with Mercury coming to conjunct Mercury in seventeen hours time, I supposedly have a very good chance of getting through to people, so maybe someone will.
Clue: it has something to do with 1674 Redux.
02 May, 2012
Mercury Conjunct Sun...
... and also the day Saturn squared the Midheaven exactly; not that I obsess or anything, but as the Saturn aspect perfected I was emailing the tax assessor in Grant County telling him I was protesting the value that's been put on the acreage around the Silver house and he was replying telling me he excepted my protest even though I wasn't using the formal method.
I countered (yet another negotiation) by pointing out that as the official document online was a PDF I couldn't meet the two-hours-to-go protest deadline without printing it, filling it in, scanning it and faxing it back, which, without a scanner or fax, was a little difficult - nothing like carefully thought out planning and strategy when beginning to fight City Hall, I always say - and, pulling the ace from my virtual sleeve, which I think is the correct metaphor although as I always have trouble telling the difference between spades and clubs I may be wrong, I also pointed out that one of the helpful staff in his office had told me an email would do the trick just fine, to continue with what may well be an inappropriate figure of speech.
Whatever it was, it worked, and thanks to the urgings of a knowledgeable friend in Silver who knows only too well who he is and who is opening his own can of worms with the Assessor's office, my protest has been duly lodged and acknowledged - the battle of my choice as the Lord of Karma pits himself against what is laughingly known as my public life. And they say there's no free will.
In further developments, exactly an hour after Mercury conjuncted my Sun a somewhat-stunned Me handed over a MacBook Air to a genius at the Apple Store in Chestnut Hill and was told I would probably get it back by Saturday. The good news was no connection seemed to be made between the four-year-old sitting three feet away playing a Sponge Bob Square Pants game on an iPad at the kids' table and the ever-growing splodges of blue ink appearing on the screen of said MacBook Air. They may call them geniuses....
I countered (yet another negotiation) by pointing out that as the official document online was a PDF I couldn't meet the two-hours-to-go protest deadline without printing it, filling it in, scanning it and faxing it back, which, without a scanner or fax, was a little difficult - nothing like carefully thought out planning and strategy when beginning to fight City Hall, I always say - and, pulling the ace from my virtual sleeve, which I think is the correct metaphor although as I always have trouble telling the difference between spades and clubs I may be wrong, I also pointed out that one of the helpful staff in his office had told me an email would do the trick just fine, to continue with what may well be an inappropriate figure of speech.
Whatever it was, it worked, and thanks to the urgings of a knowledgeable friend in Silver who knows only too well who he is and who is opening his own can of worms with the Assessor's office, my protest has been duly lodged and acknowledged - the battle of my choice as the Lord of Karma pits himself against what is laughingly known as my public life. And they say there's no free will.
In further developments, exactly an hour after Mercury conjuncted my Sun a somewhat-stunned Me handed over a MacBook Air to a genius at the Apple Store in Chestnut Hill and was told I would probably get it back by Saturday. The good news was no connection seemed to be made between the four-year-old sitting three feet away playing a Sponge Bob Square Pants game on an iPad at the kids' table and the ever-growing splodges of blue ink appearing on the screen of said MacBook Air. They may call them geniuses....
01 May, 2012
Sun Sextile Mars
So I check messages on the land line yesterday and there's a call from Canada Medicine shop telling me there's a discrepancy on my order. Thinking they're going to tell me they don't have a current prescription when I mailed them one three months ago, I go through all the Press One Press Two and am ready to tell them as politely as possible just how incompetent I think they are when a human voice tells me my usual order is for one 20 mg. Celexa once a day but the new prescription is for 10 mg. tablets so I will have to take two.
I've been taking two 10 mg. tablets once a day as long as I've been taking Celexa but keep my trap shut and say thank you, I should be able to manage that, just get the fucking order shipped for chrissake, last eight words spoken to self in head.
Next call is to landlord's attorney giving him what I'm sure will be my final counter-offer, saying I'll be out by the first weekend in June and does he have a cardboard box I can borrow.
Then we move on to Citibank to tell them about the three unauthorized charges on my credit card, resulting in yet another new card which supposedly will be arriving for me today. (Note to self: list all automatic monthly payments using old card. Try to change all to new card number before next hacking.)
Now it's the Assessor's Office in Silver to query the valuation of the acreage Bank of America and I own together; eighteen thousand a pop for a load of old rocks, native cacti I can no longer remember the names of because I've been away so long and assorted animal carcasses and skeletons seems a bit steep.
"It's based on the value of the land when you bought the property," I'm told, and I have until five p.m. today to file a dispute, if I so desire. As they seem to think the house itself is worth $54,000 and I'm taxed accordingly, I'm inclined to let that one alone and be thankful for another 500 air miles.
Last on the list of phone calls is Apple, the Irving Thalberg of the NASDAQ. Without mentioning that it all started when Star Child scraped her fingernail over Tinky Winky and Dipsy when they were making Tubby Tustard, I tell them the screen on my MacBook Air looks as though it's leaking blue ink (technical explanation). Mr. Apple Care tells me I'll have to make an appointment to take the patient in for diagnosis, and I tell him as soon as I know where I live I'll do that.
The post above comes to you courtesy of Mercury conjunct the Sun later this afternoon.
I've been taking two 10 mg. tablets once a day as long as I've been taking Celexa but keep my trap shut and say thank you, I should be able to manage that, just get the fucking order shipped for chrissake, last eight words spoken to self in head.
Next call is to landlord's attorney giving him what I'm sure will be my final counter-offer, saying I'll be out by the first weekend in June and does he have a cardboard box I can borrow.
Then we move on to Citibank to tell them about the three unauthorized charges on my credit card, resulting in yet another new card which supposedly will be arriving for me today. (Note to self: list all automatic monthly payments using old card. Try to change all to new card number before next hacking.)
Now it's the Assessor's Office in Silver to query the valuation of the acreage Bank of America and I own together; eighteen thousand a pop for a load of old rocks, native cacti I can no longer remember the names of because I've been away so long and assorted animal carcasses and skeletons seems a bit steep.
"It's based on the value of the land when you bought the property," I'm told, and I have until five p.m. today to file a dispute, if I so desire. As they seem to think the house itself is worth $54,000 and I'm taxed accordingly, I'm inclined to let that one alone and be thankful for another 500 air miles.
Last on the list of phone calls is Apple, the Irving Thalberg of the NASDAQ. Without mentioning that it all started when Star Child scraped her fingernail over Tinky Winky and Dipsy when they were making Tubby Tustard, I tell them the screen on my MacBook Air looks as though it's leaking blue ink (technical explanation). Mr. Apple Care tells me I'll have to make an appointment to take the patient in for diagnosis, and I tell him as soon as I know where I live I'll do that.
The post above comes to you courtesy of Mercury conjunct the Sun later this afternoon.
30 April, 2012
Transiting Venus in Two and Other Musings
Okay, good, so Citibank have resolved my ninety-five cent dispute on last month's credit card statement and reversed the charge, just in time for me to look at this month's and find three other charges that were never initiated by me, totaling almost $100. All three are phone calls I never made, one from the U.K., one from Panama and one from Luxembourg.
(Note to The Dwarf Planet; having to squander $60 on a Universal World Adaptor Plug in Marbella so I could use my computer at my sister's in March was a mildly amusing manifestation of your beginning transit through my Ninth. This is getting ridiculous.)
In further Venusian news and involving a slightly more significant amount of moolah, negotiations with my landlord's attorney are drawing to a close and will probably be completed soon, leaving me homeless with a huge IRS payment due next April, but let's look on the bright side; I won't have to wash the kitchen floor and who needs a cheap apartment on the Upper East Side anyway?
(Note to The Dwarf Planet; having to squander $60 on a Universal World Adaptor Plug in Marbella so I could use my computer at my sister's in March was a mildly amusing manifestation of your beginning transit through my Ninth. This is getting ridiculous.)
In further Venusian news and involving a slightly more significant amount of moolah, negotiations with my landlord's attorney are drawing to a close and will probably be completed soon, leaving me homeless with a huge IRS payment due next April, but let's look on the bright side; I won't have to wash the kitchen floor and who needs a cheap apartment on the Upper East Side anyway?
29 April, 2012
Venus Trine the Moon
This might be "a good time to look about for ways to beautify and decorate your home," but I don't have one at the moment - not one I'm living in, anyway - so I did the next best thing - helped someone else.
With natal Jupiter in Virgo, I'm a bit of a dab hand at organizing, and in an hour or so me and Helpee had two Whole Foods bags filled with SC's outgrown clothes to be passed on as hand-me-downs, should we be able to find any child in 02138 in need of such, and Helpee had a closet where you could catch a glimpse of the back wall, if you looked carefully.
In one of those amazing coincidences so often brought about by astrology, Helpee, with a Venus/Mars sextile in effect, was having a good day for working to beautify her immediate surroundings. Quite what to attribute her buying us all a very special barbecued ribs lunch to I'm not sure. Probably some happy combination of all the Venusian/Lunar sunbeams in the ether dancing around and bumping into Mars in Virgo ha ha.
With natal Jupiter in Virgo, I'm a bit of a dab hand at organizing, and in an hour or so me and Helpee had two Whole Foods bags filled with SC's outgrown clothes to be passed on as hand-me-downs, should we be able to find any child in 02138 in need of such, and Helpee had a closet where you could catch a glimpse of the back wall, if you looked carefully.
In one of those amazing coincidences so often brought about by astrology, Helpee, with a Venus/Mars sextile in effect, was having a good day for working to beautify her immediate surroundings. Quite what to attribute her buying us all a very special barbecued ribs lunch to I'm not sure. Probably some happy combination of all the Venusian/Lunar sunbeams in the ether dancing around and bumping into Mars in Virgo ha ha.
Jupiter Square Moon
I always thought it was Mercury that was the trickster, but Jupiter put up a big (!) fight for the title when it squared the Moon for me on Wednesday. Supposedly a week-long favorable transit making me generous and forgiving, that effect got lost somewhere in the build-up to it due to the current influence Saturn is treating me to, although now I'm in the process of writing about it and putting a bit more thought into it, I have to acknowledge relationships on the home front have been improving lately.
Anyway, the day Jupiter squared the Moon exactly had me sitting on the floor in a pre-kindergarten classroom watching a four-year-old on her Birthday Walk (holding a miniature globe in her hands and circling a lit candle symbolizing the Sun once for every year of life) and bawling my eyes out at the thought of not seeing very much of her in the not-too-distant future
In touch with my emotions? Yes ma'am, and thank God for my thirty-year-old Jackie O sunglasses.
Anyway, the day Jupiter squared the Moon exactly had me sitting on the floor in a pre-kindergarten classroom watching a four-year-old on her Birthday Walk (holding a miniature globe in her hands and circling a lit candle symbolizing the Sun once for every year of life) and bawling my eyes out at the thought of not seeing very much of her in the not-too-distant future
In touch with my emotions? Yes ma'am, and thank God for my thirty-year-old Jackie O sunglasses.
26 April, 2012
Saturn Square Midheaven
This little gift from the universe last appeared near the end of November last year, as it became more than apparent, had I been willing to face facts squarely (ha ha), my days in the hallway were numbered.
Now it's returned and the scales have dropped from my eyes, pardon my cliche, it's very obvious my days in my rented room are numbered - 50, to be exact, assuming I stick around for two weeks more than the original arrangement - as are those in the apartment that's been home for the past 38 years. I can scarcely wait for the middle of August, when presumably wherever I've managed to set up tent by then will be swept away by the tides of this new life Uranus is bringing to us all, especially, so I am led to believe, to those born under the Sign of the Ram (pardon yet another cliche), a group to which I can claim membership. Pessimistic or realistic, take your pick.
(Looking ahead to August, and, as is now usual for me in this life-in-limbo I'm existing in, wasting time instead of dealing with the here-and-now, I see the day this aspect returns is also the day of a New Moon in Leo in the Fifth for me, presumably (again) giving me the creative power to gather up the tent poles and turn them into a tepee for me and Sweet Pea. Now THAT'S pessimistic.)
An evaluation of goals, eh? A feeling of loneliness? No longer having the strength to go on in the direction I've "chosen"? What a load of old bollocks astrology is. Anyone would think I'd be in a situation where I had to try and decide what to do about my public life hysterical laughter and my work and career. Force myself to go on with my half-hearted rewrite of Just For You so I can meet the deadline for an international playwriting competition in the U.K., where it would actually stand a chance of being considered? Take whatever but-out my landlord is going to offer me or go to housing court, fight, and risk the judge having a bad day? Pack up all my stuff and send it 2,000 miles away to Silver, where I could accomplish one goal at least - living in my own space with Sweet Pea where he's able to go outside and I can as well? Pack up all my stuff, put it in storage and throw away the key? Save a lot of money and throw it all out instead? Forget about babysitting and start to learn Bridge? Do a babysitting resume (!!!!!!!) and go to the Nanny Conference this weekend?
Thank goodness astrology IS a load of old rubbish. Otherwise I'd be experiencing a heavy-duty Saturn transit right now, and that's something we wouldn't wish on anyone.
Now it's returned and the scales have dropped from my eyes, pardon my cliche, it's very obvious my days in my rented room are numbered - 50, to be exact, assuming I stick around for two weeks more than the original arrangement - as are those in the apartment that's been home for the past 38 years. I can scarcely wait for the middle of August, when presumably wherever I've managed to set up tent by then will be swept away by the tides of this new life Uranus is bringing to us all, especially, so I am led to believe, to those born under the Sign of the Ram (pardon yet another cliche), a group to which I can claim membership. Pessimistic or realistic, take your pick.
(Looking ahead to August, and, as is now usual for me in this life-in-limbo I'm existing in, wasting time instead of dealing with the here-and-now, I see the day this aspect returns is also the day of a New Moon in Leo in the Fifth for me, presumably (again) giving me the creative power to gather up the tent poles and turn them into a tepee for me and Sweet Pea. Now THAT'S pessimistic.)
An evaluation of goals, eh? A feeling of loneliness? No longer having the strength to go on in the direction I've "chosen"? What a load of old bollocks astrology is. Anyone would think I'd be in a situation where I had to try and decide what to do about my public life hysterical laughter and my work and career. Force myself to go on with my half-hearted rewrite of Just For You so I can meet the deadline for an international playwriting competition in the U.K., where it would actually stand a chance of being considered? Take whatever but-out my landlord is going to offer me or go to housing court, fight, and risk the judge having a bad day? Pack up all my stuff and send it 2,000 miles away to Silver, where I could accomplish one goal at least - living in my own space with Sweet Pea where he's able to go outside and I can as well? Pack up all my stuff, put it in storage and throw away the key? Save a lot of money and throw it all out instead? Forget about babysitting and start to learn Bridge? Do a babysitting resume (!!!!!!!) and go to the Nanny Conference this weekend?
Thank goodness astrology IS a load of old rubbish. Otherwise I'd be experiencing a heavy-duty Saturn transit right now, and that's something we wouldn't wish on anyone.
24 April, 2012
Venus Conjunct Sun
Well, with Venus symbolizing friends, it was only fitting that this became the day SC and I went out to play with just about my only one here - Penny. It was the third day of school holidays last week, and SC and I got an early start. I plonked her in the stroller, took a deep breath, got on the bus with it (and her), took the T to Charles Street where we met Penny and Baby L and then hoofed it through what I think is called Beacon Hill to the Public Gardens, SC on the lookout for Mrs. Mallard.
There was no line at the Swan Boats and we barely waited at the barrier before getting onto the front seat, which we had all to ourselves (Last year, without the cooperation of Venus, we waited on line for half an hour and all got squashed onto the very back seat.) The sun was out, the sky was blue, the trees were green and there were plenty of Mrs. Mallards out to make SC happy. A brief sit on a bench for a Sherbet Dip all round and it was off to the carousel near the aquarium where Penny again (she insisted on treating us to the Swan Boats for SC's birthday) shelled out for us both.
After that I started to think about SC's quiet time and nap (MY quiet time and nap, actually, but it's fun to pretend) but Penny is indefatigable and next thing I knew I was buying a ticket on the ferry to Charlestown and asking if there was a discount for seniors. (There was - $1.70 instead of $3.40.) We didn't get off - just made the trip to Charlestown and back to the harbor - and then hoofed it up Atlantic Avenue (I think) to South Station, where SC and I shared a grilled cheese.
After that it was the Red Line and home for all, with SC lasting until we were ten minutes away before the singing from the stroller stopped and she gave in to sleep.. I had to wait a bit longer before I got to a chance to close my eyes, but when it came I didn't put up much of a fight. It's exhausting, enjoying yourself.
There was no line at the Swan Boats and we barely waited at the barrier before getting onto the front seat, which we had all to ourselves (Last year, without the cooperation of Venus, we waited on line for half an hour and all got squashed onto the very back seat.) The sun was out, the sky was blue, the trees were green and there were plenty of Mrs. Mallards out to make SC happy. A brief sit on a bench for a Sherbet Dip all round and it was off to the carousel near the aquarium where Penny again (she insisted on treating us to the Swan Boats for SC's birthday) shelled out for us both.
After that I started to think about SC's quiet time and nap (MY quiet time and nap, actually, but it's fun to pretend) but Penny is indefatigable and next thing I knew I was buying a ticket on the ferry to Charlestown and asking if there was a discount for seniors. (There was - $1.70 instead of $3.40.) We didn't get off - just made the trip to Charlestown and back to the harbor - and then hoofed it up Atlantic Avenue (I think) to South Station, where SC and I shared a grilled cheese.
After that it was the Red Line and home for all, with SC lasting until we were ten minutes away before the singing from the stroller stopped and she gave in to sleep.. I had to wait a bit longer before I got to a chance to close my eyes, but when it came I didn't put up much of a fight. It's exhausting, enjoying yourself.
14 April, 2012
Venus Conjunct Uranus
Last year, at the time the Grand National was run, I was at the house of my nephew and his wife who were holding a race viewing party for the family before we all went on to the, er, U.K. premiere of my play, Soldiering On. I'd bet on State of Play, after going to a sobering rehearsal a couple of nights before, and won about thirty pounds. The play was well received and I held the winning raffle ticket at the theatre fund-raiser, but that was then, when Jupiter was on my Sun, and this is now, with Saturn slowly moving away from an opposition to Mercury before turning round and coming back to do it again in September.
With transiting Venus in Gemini conjunct Natal Uranus in the first on Grand National day this year, the mission was two-fold: to watch the race one way or another - TV or online - and to put money on State of Play, who was running again. (I'd been looking at horses and runners and odds for at least a week beforehand.) Several of the U.K. online bookies offered punters the ability to watch the race online if a bet was placed, which got me very excited until I found out U.K. betting shops can't accept money from the U.S. Online bookies in the U.S. are happy to take your money but don't broadcast the race, and also require you to state whether you're betting to win or to show BEFORE you wager your moolah, I discovered AFTER, by mistake, betting more than I want to mention for State of Play to win. (He didn't.)
All of the above *research* was done the day before the race, which took place at 11:15 am EST on Saturday. I'd given up by then on watching, as the National is broadcast only by the BBC and is carefully guarded, but had found its radio sports channel, and was listening to the build up to the start. At about 10:55 I did one final Google search for "Watch Grand National Live Online" and up popped a "Watch TV on your Computer $49 One Time Only Unlimited Access Fee." With my usual careful consideration and forethought, I reached for my wallet while clicking download, and a minute later started to download a program that would take eight minutes to get into my computer, ignoring the screen that told me to use Chrome.
Eight minutes later, when the TV watching application wouldn't start, I downloaded Chrome and suffered through another eight minutes or so, watching the clock get closer to 11:15 by the second ha ha. This time the program, Satellite Direct, launched but told me I needed updates of two supporting programs, and while I was looking for those I was eyeing the clock and congratulating myself that I'd at least found good old radio coverage on BBC Five. Just as I started on the second update, an announcer's voice informed me that the race segment (!) of the Grand National wouldn't be broadcast due to copyright infringement, and the radio went dead.
The next ten minutes were given over to a frantic scramble from newspaper site to newspaper site, looking for live blogging of the race. Saturday was also the day that Mercury opposed Chiron for me, and I got a full taste of what THAT one feels like when I finally discovered which horse had won the National - a rank outsider called, yes, that's right, you can't make this stuff up - Neptune Collonges.
With transiting Venus in Gemini conjunct Natal Uranus in the first on Grand National day this year, the mission was two-fold: to watch the race one way or another - TV or online - and to put money on State of Play, who was running again. (I'd been looking at horses and runners and odds for at least a week beforehand.) Several of the U.K. online bookies offered punters the ability to watch the race online if a bet was placed, which got me very excited until I found out U.K. betting shops can't accept money from the U.S. Online bookies in the U.S. are happy to take your money but don't broadcast the race, and also require you to state whether you're betting to win or to show BEFORE you wager your moolah, I discovered AFTER, by mistake, betting more than I want to mention for State of Play to win. (He didn't.)
All of the above *research* was done the day before the race, which took place at 11:15 am EST on Saturday. I'd given up by then on watching, as the National is broadcast only by the BBC and is carefully guarded, but had found its radio sports channel, and was listening to the build up to the start. At about 10:55 I did one final Google search for "Watch Grand National Live Online" and up popped a "Watch TV on your Computer $49 One Time Only Unlimited Access Fee." With my usual careful consideration and forethought, I reached for my wallet while clicking download, and a minute later started to download a program that would take eight minutes to get into my computer, ignoring the screen that told me to use Chrome.
Eight minutes later, when the TV watching application wouldn't start, I downloaded Chrome and suffered through another eight minutes or so, watching the clock get closer to 11:15 by the second ha ha. This time the program, Satellite Direct, launched but told me I needed updates of two supporting programs, and while I was looking for those I was eyeing the clock and congratulating myself that I'd at least found good old radio coverage on BBC Five. Just as I started on the second update, an announcer's voice informed me that the race segment (!) of the Grand National wouldn't be broadcast due to copyright infringement, and the radio went dead.
The next ten minutes were given over to a frantic scramble from newspaper site to newspaper site, looking for live blogging of the race. Saturday was also the day that Mercury opposed Chiron for me, and I got a full taste of what THAT one feels like when I finally discovered which horse had won the National - a rank outsider called, yes, that's right, you can't make this stuff up - Neptune Collonges.
13 April, 2012
Retrograde Mars Stationed Direct in Five
"Wherever you have Virgo in your chart" Michael Lutin wrote on his website earlier in the week, "you are in for a shot of cosmic B-12," and by an amazing coincidence, children, love and even a hint of personal creativity have reared their respective heads for me over the past couple of days, with Mars stuck at 3 Virgo in my Fifth.
Of course, children (in the shape of Star Child and all her little friends constantly asking me if I'm her granny) have been around for a year and a half now, but three days ago, due to circumstances beyond my control, I found myself babysitting all day for an eighteen-month-old, taking her with me to pick up SC at noon and having her till five o'clock when her father picked her up.
The love bit happened the next day, and did not, of course, involve me, but sprang from my roommate asking me what the big deal was about Wuthering Heights, one of the books available to her at no cost on her Kindle, which I am not going to link to. This led to me going immediately to YouTube, finding the 1939 Laurence Olivier/Merle Oberon version, emailing her the link and then losing myself completely in passion, hatred, revenge, vengeance, bitterness, animosity, retribution and death, otherwise known as love.
Yesterday the eighteen-month-old appeared again, when her babysitter stopped by to give me my birthday presents, and last night passion, hatred, revenge etc. reappeared in a watered-down form when I started watching Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights with Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche, and I'm not going to link to them either.
As for the personal creativity, on the bus down to New York last weekend I began making changes to Just For You, and will continue with it tonight or over the weekend, depending on how many other versions of Wuthering Heights I can find and whether or not I start to read the book again. I'd work on it now, but I need to go and pick up SC. I'm going to pretend I'm walking over the Yorkshire moors on my way to Penniston Crag.
Of course, children (in the shape of Star Child and all her little friends constantly asking me if I'm her granny) have been around for a year and a half now, but three days ago, due to circumstances beyond my control, I found myself babysitting all day for an eighteen-month-old, taking her with me to pick up SC at noon and having her till five o'clock when her father picked her up.
The love bit happened the next day, and did not, of course, involve me, but sprang from my roommate asking me what the big deal was about Wuthering Heights, one of the books available to her at no cost on her Kindle, which I am not going to link to. This led to me going immediately to YouTube, finding the 1939 Laurence Olivier/Merle Oberon version, emailing her the link and then losing myself completely in passion, hatred, revenge, vengeance, bitterness, animosity, retribution and death, otherwise known as love.
Yesterday the eighteen-month-old appeared again, when her babysitter stopped by to give me my birthday presents, and last night passion, hatred, revenge etc. reappeared in a watered-down form when I started watching Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights with Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche, and I'm not going to link to them either.
As for the personal creativity, on the bus down to New York last weekend I began making changes to Just For You, and will continue with it tonight or over the weekend, depending on how many other versions of Wuthering Heights I can find and whether or not I start to read the book again. I'd work on it now, but I need to go and pick up SC. I'm going to pretend I'm walking over the Yorkshire moors on my way to Penniston Crag.
11 April, 2012
Retrograde Saturn Opposed to Mercury Exact
No tricksterism from The Cosmic Chiropractor on the day itself - communication pure and simple was the focus. I was already on my second Tracfone, the first succumbing to a protracted soak in Nyquil, interestingly enough on a long car trip last Easter. I'd bought the original on John's urgings back in the days when Uranus was in the Eleventh and I was making frequent trips to California to see him, often in the dead of night on desert back roads. There would have been no reception anyway if I had ever needed to use the phone. but I never did, and my having it set his mind at rest.
These days I need the thing only when I'm babysitting, and am so unused to it I often forget to charge it. This, I've learned, makes it lock itself into emergency mode, which is impossible to get out of without, I've also learned, removing the back, taking out the SIM card and re-inserting it. Major problem here is I'm unable to get the back off by myself (!) and have to take it into a Radio Shack to ask for help.
This past weekend, after a week of carting around an unusable phone, I took the miserable object down to New York, where my apartment is three doors away from a Radio Shack, intending to get the thing back into service. I was being met at Boston South Station on my return on Monday morning, and after my experience in Madrid when I was twelve hours late and had no way of getting that information to my sister who was meeting me in Malaga, had no desire for a repeat of that experience.
The fly in the ointment, or the perfection of the Saturn opposed to Mercury aspect, was that I left the phone's charger in Cambridge, so even with the back taken off and the Sim card reinserted, the battery still wasn't charged and the phone put itself back into emergency mode only. (Exactly what this is I have yet to find out; maybe it will only make a call to 911? To say what? "Excuse me, can you lend me a charger for my phone?")
To make a long and boring story short ("Too late," the ghost of George S. Kaufman whispers in my ear), the only choice, if I wanted to be able to communicate, and I did, was to shell out $40 for the cheapest new phone in the store - AT.& T's version of the Tracfone. The Lord of Karma strikes again.
These days I need the thing only when I'm babysitting, and am so unused to it I often forget to charge it. This, I've learned, makes it lock itself into emergency mode, which is impossible to get out of without, I've also learned, removing the back, taking out the SIM card and re-inserting it. Major problem here is I'm unable to get the back off by myself (!) and have to take it into a Radio Shack to ask for help.
This past weekend, after a week of carting around an unusable phone, I took the miserable object down to New York, where my apartment is three doors away from a Radio Shack, intending to get the thing back into service. I was being met at Boston South Station on my return on Monday morning, and after my experience in Madrid when I was twelve hours late and had no way of getting that information to my sister who was meeting me in Malaga, had no desire for a repeat of that experience.
The fly in the ointment, or the perfection of the Saturn opposed to Mercury aspect, was that I left the phone's charger in Cambridge, so even with the back taken off and the Sim card reinserted, the battery still wasn't charged and the phone put itself back into emergency mode only. (Exactly what this is I have yet to find out; maybe it will only make a call to 911? To say what? "Excuse me, can you lend me a charger for my phone?")
To make a long and boring story short ("Too late," the ghost of George S. Kaufman whispers in my ear), the only choice, if I wanted to be able to communicate, and I did, was to shell out $40 for the cheapest new phone in the store - AT.& T's version of the Tracfone. The Lord of Karma strikes again.
07 April, 2012
Solar Return or Birthday - Which to Celebrate?
I won't be celebrating either of them - not in the generally accepted use of the term, ("mark a significant or happy day or event, typically with a social gathering") anyway, but I think I'll pick today, Saturday, solar return day, over tomorrow, birthday as known by non-astrologers and the calendar day of April on which I was born. It's a bit of a toss-up, because if I choose tomorrow I'll have Venus trining Neptune and, thanks to a natal sextile off by one degree, the Sun sextiling the Moon, but all things considered I'll pass on having Saturn oppose Mercury exactly on a day that's supposed to set the tone for the rest of the year.
Of course, as Astrodienst is quick to reassure me, "this does not mean that the whole year will be disappointing if the day doesn't work out exactly as planned" - very good news for me as it seems absolutely nothing has worked out as planned for me for a very long time, not to sound despondent or defeatist in my thinking or anything.
Anyway, as I'm receiving a new impulse from the energy center within me, this could be the day I get myself to the post office with the two packages of books that have been sitting on the mantlepiece since January; in my current state of physical torpor, this would be enough of an accomplishment to carry me through for at least another couple of months.
Also, as "any new venture that I start at this time will ride the crest of this new energy and will very likely come to an acceptable conclusion," and as, on the bus down from Cambridge yesterday, to my own amazement, I opened Final Draft and began to rewrite the second act of Just For You, I'll continue with that because "whatever I do or begin today will bear the stamp of my individuality more than anything else."
That way, with Venus trine Neptune tomorrow, I can revert to my usual occupation of watching films noir on YouTube and eating licorice. Whoever said Saturn opposed to Mercury is a time of questioning and self-doubt got it completely wrong. I know exactly what I'm going to do.
Of course, as Astrodienst is quick to reassure me, "this does not mean that the whole year will be disappointing if the day doesn't work out exactly as planned" - very good news for me as it seems absolutely nothing has worked out as planned for me for a very long time, not to sound despondent or defeatist in my thinking or anything.
Anyway, as I'm receiving a new impulse from the energy center within me, this could be the day I get myself to the post office with the two packages of books that have been sitting on the mantlepiece since January; in my current state of physical torpor, this would be enough of an accomplishment to carry me through for at least another couple of months.
Also, as "any new venture that I start at this time will ride the crest of this new energy and will very likely come to an acceptable conclusion," and as, on the bus down from Cambridge yesterday, to my own amazement, I opened Final Draft and began to rewrite the second act of Just For You, I'll continue with that because "whatever I do or begin today will bear the stamp of my individuality more than anything else."
That way, with Venus trine Neptune tomorrow, I can revert to my usual occupation of watching films noir on YouTube and eating licorice. Whoever said Saturn opposed to Mercury is a time of questioning and self-doubt got it completely wrong. I know exactly what I'm going to do.
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