Virgo New Moon TUSAL

I am so annoyed with myself for not writing at all this month. I'm really glad for the TUSAL project, because it forces me to come out and play at least once a month!  New commitment time (committing to myself, that is) to record my days, or they slip away from me.

It's been a very full month, too - Mercury Rx totally kicked my behind non-stop in the form of bureaucratic glitches and hang ups that had me spending more time - mostly unsuccessfully - sitting in various government agency waiting rooms being told I couldn't get there from here (it had to do with an ID issue, and I very nearly fell entirely off the grid for lack of a way back in).  Mostly solved now, but wow, annoying!

Rheumatoid arthritis flares have been making the month challenging too, but that's not anything new, just what colors the overall picture.

I got a bit of stitching done - including finishing and passing on the UU Spirit of Life blackwork sampler I designed for a church friend's kids.  I could not get the picture to really show what it looks like - the coloring is not quite as intense as this seems.. pale pink fabric, and variegated floss in purple and pink.  The small marks down the stem of the chalice are Ogham tree symbols - each of her three children are named for Ogham trees.  This was a lot of fun, but I think I'm done with this pattern now.... it's similar to the black and white design I made for the church auction, only this time I changed up the blackwork patterns to give a vaguely Land and Sky and Sea effect - I may be the only one who really sees it that way, but the top two, to me, look like mist or smoke, and feathers for Sky, the middle looks like flowers and a woven mat for Land, and the bottom like waves and of course fish, for Sea.

This past week has all been about the weather!  First, that earthquake - and no, I do not want to hear from west coasters saying how it was 'nothing'... while I don't think we should cower before natural events like this, I don't think we need to be all jaded and blase about it either!  It was really, really unexpected and strange - I was washing dishes when it started, and had time to process (holy moly, did a bomb go off... wow, still going on, wow...earthquake?! hmm... maybe time to get away from the cabinet full of glass..), crab walk hanging onto the sink over to the door frame - notice the china cabinet rocking side to side and decide to stay away from that, and scoot away from the dining room into the living room to grab my cane in case I was needing to try to crawl over stuff in a few seconds.  It was a big slow roll and I think the only reason that china cabinet didn't come down is that the rolls were coming from the side of the cabinet rather than front to back.  I hear it went on a good 90 seconds.

As soon as it stopped, I was outside checking on Sadie Beagle (who was happy to see me but didn't seem bothered at all about what had just happened), checked for downed trees - none - exchanged exclamations with neighbors, and walked the yard until my heart stopped trying to punch its way out of my chest.

No damage - a few things fell over, but none breakable, so alrighty then!

And now, we're buttoned down waiting for Hurricane Irene - we've got lots of water stowed in containers, filled the freezer with more containers of water to maximize the time things will stay frozen, have food that doesn't need cooking, and a good supply of liquor and board games. hee..  We're inland enough that flooding isn't an issue but power outages are likely.

Now, this Virgo New Moon - which doesn't start until tonight, but I may not have power by then - seems to be all about analyzing and perfecting our lives.  It's a good time to make a recommitment to whatever our path is - to make sure our walk is matching our talk.  My intentions this month is to continue our recent path of shopping and eating local, seasonal foods as an ethical and spiritual practice, to be involved with our UU Church (I just 'signed the book' and it is a short step from that to being approached by various action committees), and also to beginning a Druid study for the next couple years.

So - goodbye Mercury retrograde (ended yesterday), hello Virgo New Moon!  If you're in the path of Irene - stay safe!