forced remodeling

the van a the neighbors' probably wasn't robbers, or they would have backed into the driveway.  the next day more trucks and people, and something clearly was going on. those neighbors are off in Florida keeping warm during the cold months. and they aren't the type to have someone remodel their house without them there to keep an eye on the doings!

eventually a huge pile of wood, insulation, flooring, grew in their front lawn. the sad story is that their furnace broke, and when their daughter came to check on the house, the pipes had broken, the downstairs flooded, the water froze, and what with the ups and downs of our weather as the sun returns, things even began to get moldy.

more placebos

mupie's pseudoceuticals

mudpie has not heard back from the folks who requested her fake 'prescription'  placebos. 
 are they taking them as directed? are they working? 
or did they sit them on the shelf as a cute conversation piece (bah).

she has a brilliant idea, and several requests for ... ta da!...
assisted suicide placebos  
(it being February and all)
 but is nervous about actually giving them to anyone. 

if you believe in the placebo effect, well, what would they do??

the unseen becomes felt

often people become more 'spiritual' as they age.
the usual explanation is that they feel the approach of death.

but i think it's expanding awareness.

picture my baby son at the ocean. 
the infinite sky, the endless beach, the limitless sea.
what did he do?
picked up nearby cigarette butts.

as children our area of awareness is so small, because everything is new. 
once the nearby is familiar we extend our awareness out another step.

awareness expands and grows as we age and become familiar with a wider and wider circle, until it reaches and then includes the unseen, the felt, the sensed world beyond our 5 senses, the world we maybe scoffed at in our body-centered youth.

teeny xmas book

liz made some teeny tiny books to sell at the xmas craft fair in december.
they were so well made, with such good quality paper, i had to have one.
even tho she had added a ribbon to hang it on the xmas tree,
which is not something i do.
but they were so wonderful, i got one anyway.

after xmas i realized i could write in it if i wanted!
what if i wrote in one every year, what happened on xmas?
what if i'd started this years ago?  

as the chinese saying goes "the best time to plant an apple tree is 10 years ago. 
the second best time is now" 
or something like that.

so i wrote in this one and plan to buy a few more...
let's see, if i live to be 120 i'll need...omg.

well it turned out the darn thing had like 40 some pages! (each page had 2 sides)
here's the first 4 pages (i only wrote on one side)

"now two-thousand twelve is ending"
"tis december twenty five"
"and despite the mayan warning"
"we have managed to survive"

and on and on and on it goes!!

i can haz book?

from "brushes with"

from "brushes with" by emily toder
the last 6 lines of the book:

I got back in the house
my woolen farmprint pajamas of petting zoo textile
I let them on me
and they hung on me
ways I have managed to sleep after this
vary little

(reprinted here without permission! sorry! but her little book is a favorite of mine, and it comes from Tarpaulin Sky Press)

suddenly i remembered the feral clothing museum that Osprey created in Second Life, and i wanted to add a picture of it because these lines remind me of it.  but alas, the museum is gone, vanished in whatever mysterious disaster  took away Cowell and Salazar as well, and i can't even find any old pictures of it!

sewing with CATS

no sewing class or instruction addresses the subject of CATS, but they ought to.
this is not an acronym.  i mean those small furry creatures.
they love to be involved, and they make me laugh so much!

i appreciate their holding down the fabric while i measure or cut.
...until they decide that ...
a. some of the pins would look nice dropped in their water dish (try catching a cat running off with a pin in his mouth!)
b. the voices in their head are telling them there's a mouse under the fabric.
c. it might be useful to find out how much thread is on that spool on top of the sewing machine. 
d. it's cool the way things drop off the table when you push them.

general rules are: 
1. don't leave the room if there is a hot iron on the ironing board
2. don't leave the room if there are pins anywhere in reach
3. don't leave the room if the sewing machine is uncovered (unless you want to have to thread it all over again with slightly chewed thread)

there may be more rules, but meanwhile, here are my helpers:

HAIR as it should be

youtube has a video of GWU performing HAIR -- the real HAIR!

if you've heard the soundtrack or saw the movie, you couldn't guess what an uproar HAIR caused. 
it went all the way to the supreme court! 
frontal nudity, obscenity, flag desecration for starters. 
banned in Boston and nearly everywhere else in the world, too. 
(i did manage to see it in Boston the one pre-opening performance before it shut down).

the movie of HAIR is cleaned up and has good music and beautiful people, but it just doesn't have the raw energy, joy of life and in-your-faceness that make the real thing so thrilling. not to mention the missing songs.

HAIR's the explosive expression of a dream of a better world of love, joy, and beauty, back when the government was trying to kill us, before iphones, before AIDS, 'the pill' was new, before women realized...well, but you know all that.

the GWU performance on youtube is like going to the theatre and having really bad seats for a really good show. 
even so, it's wonderful to see it as it should be, young, raunchy, rude, crude, defiant, youth in love with life, body, self, and each other.  
the music is great, especially if you already know the words. i wish their audio-visual department had been up to par with their theater department!

tiny women stand up and dance!

mudpie joins with other female tinies on Raglan Shire's beach to dance for women's lives!

Petlove Petshop is making a video for the One Billion Rising campaign, part of second life's participation in this call to action to end violence against women and girls. 
not that violence is a problem for tinies, but out of solidarity with our biggie and real life sisters!
on February 14, 2013, men and women in Second Life will join activists, writers, thinkers, celebrities, and people across the world to Walk, Dance, and Rise as a show of unity, individual strength, and the need for change.

stopped at the light

late for meditation.  of course, the light turns red just as i reach it. 
wait... wait... wait... wait... wait... wait

up the hill strung out along the sidewalk to my left some people come striding along in the cold, chatting happily.

without a pause they walk off the curb and cross the road in front of me,
of course, just as the light turns green.

to myself i mutter "may we reach enlightenment at the same time"
and at that one of them looks up.

she waves to me and mouths "thank you!"
and it makes all the difference.

festivities of february!

longest of the months

yet having the fewest days

february is

(haiku by mudpie)

february! (apparently pronounced feb-yoo-wary) here in winterland seems like the longest month.  maybe that's why it has so many holidays.

there's Feb 2nd, one of the halfway holidays between the equinox and the solstice -- the sun is halfway here!! 

of course this is groundhog's day, the day when we badger a woodchuck.

it's also Imbolc (from the belly) or Brighid's day. 

could also be candlemas, whatever that is.

then comes the day the music died - Feb 3.  if you don't know, look it up.

and then bring it on!! -- Valentine's day  -- on which volumes could be written!

next i think is president's day, in the USA. 

a boring for sure but necessary long weekend in this month of waiting for the sun to get 3 weeks closer!

hmmm that's it, except for those odd days that nobody knows where they come from like Thank a Mailman Day and Hoodie Hoo Day (feb 20)

now and then we get an extra day in february.  this excites lots of controversy and speculation and consternation as if there is some greater meaning!

has anyone pulled together stats for feb, like car accidents, heart attack deaths, weddings, births, drastic haircuts, hospital surgery errors, hospital surgery recovery times, people who decide never to speak to their sibling again, murders, meals eaten in restaurants?

after writing this, it came to my attention that there is something of a holiday for many americans, called superbowl sunday, which has it's own special foods, drinks, outfits? and is the occasion of many parties.  party on whoever you are!   

aunt weese

once or maybe twice my mother said disapprovingly to my sister "you look like aunt weese."  of course it was said disapprovingly, as was just about everything my mother said to my sister (which oddly enough caused me some suffering as a child, and still does, my sister being my idol and my hero).

we puzzled over that for years.  we did know that aunt weese was one of daddy's mother's sisters, but other than that we knew nothing about her, not even what she looked like.  i'm pretty sure her name was Louise, as i have since met a woman named Louise who is called Weezy.

was mom referring to her manner of dress, or her hair, or was she stout, or buxom?  did she make funny faces?
it's a great joke now that there is nobody to explain it to us.  if my sister's hair is sticking up, or she's wearing something odd or she's feeling insecure, i'll tell her "you're just like aunt weese!"

hooray for the post office !

it's great to get internet greetings saying Happy Birthday -- email, FB, twitter, and even e-cards.  e-cards can be amazing. but you know what? my favorite is still snail mail cards.  i know, i know, they use up trees for paper, they cost money and need stamps, exhaust-spewing trucks and gas hogging planes have to transport them across the country. plastic pens are a blight upon the earth i'm sure.

but still...
i love the suspense of bringing them home from the p.o. and opening them.
i love that my friends went to all this trouble to choose one, write on it, lick it, stamp it, mail it.
i love that they are around the house for as long as you want them, and whisper to you "you have friends out there!" 
it's good to have that reminder lying around your house.
especially in cold January!

tea and film discussion

snowing like mad today. yay!
i love the bright sunny days, but more snow will be fun.

a friend and i met in a tibetan teahouse to discuss the movie SAMSARA, which he sent me a copy of.
a profoundly disturbing film.  has anyone else seen it?  we can find a teahouse with more pillows.  (maybe somewhere warmer, too)

for love of winter

sunny and 30 F today!  i took some more rugs out and broomed them...didn't bother with my jacket, and walked on the frozen snow in my sneakers.  w00t!

had some eggs to use up so i found a simple and delicious quesadilla recipe.  this used up all the eggs (so now am out of eggs) and have now to use up a bunch of cilantro, 1/2 can of black beans, and most of a jar of salsa, 2/3 a package of whole wheat tortillas. 
 there is also cheddar cheese left over but that won't be a problem!

for the book groups i am trying to read Pillars of the Earth, and for the other one, Founding Brothers.  omg they are both so bad.  xtian told me to read Geek Love and the library got it for me -- a paperback covered with tape and well used.  i'm already into it.

what are they thinking?  this looks like it must be popular, can't they spring for a new paperback at least?  but i know it's not that easy accessioning a book, lotta paperwork and stuff.  anyway, Geek Love will save me from death by ponderous tomes.

rug cleaning

it could almost be spring!
i love it after a spell of below 0 F weather how anything 20 degrees or higher feels balmy!
especially with the warm sun and longer days
and yesterday a woodpecker drummed a bit of flirting!

still the sun sits only a bit above the southern horizon at noon, and the shadows are loooong.
any wind takes things back to 0.

yesterday was perfect for rug cleaning.
i dragged the big braided rug and a small asian style rug out onto the snow.
once all the dirt and cooties had frozen off of them, i swept them, feeling like Strega Nona in my too-small plaid wool hunting jacket, the paisley neck 'buff' my sister gave me worn like a babushka, big clumsy work gloves, cords over heavy longjohns, and hiking boots!
after all it was sunny, but barely in the teens temperature wise.

(this is a common fashion look for vermont ladies when they are at home, brown is not advised lest you be mistaken for a bear)

and my broom was the old back porch broom which of course is worn and witchlike!  a good opportunity to practice my cackle.

heart's quilt

a friend of mine is working through a trauma in her life by making a quilt.
witnessing her progress, i understand something new about art.
she's only using patterns of one color, indigo, but shape and arrangement tell the story!
really it seems more like music composition than a visual tale --
long smooth shapes are her life before.  
then small sharp cornered shapes jumbled crazy-quilt style as everything is thrown into sorrow, confusion, shock, and uncertainty.
after that comes the orderly opening freedom of the new future!
it will look amazing. and meanwhile, she recovers and heals.
i wonder how many quilts that i have viewed and thought, "nice", "lovely", "gorgeous", "weird", were opening someone's deepest heart to me, and i had no idea!

0 farenheit and falling

at 10 am the thermometer on the dashboard read 5 F.  the car started right up (Subaru, of course!) and i backed it out of the shed into the sun.  
5 minutes later i came back and it now read 3.
isn't it amazing that it worked at all?  that the tires don't freeze in, that the doors open, etc?
driving through sun and shade the temperature remained steady between 0 and 1.
i had a car for awhile that had to have boiling water poured on something under the hood, i forget what now, for it to start when it was 0 or thereabouts. 
of course by the time i carried the kettle out to the driveway, it was not boiling, but it worked.
brrrr!

mouse portal

there's a certain kind of toy mouse my cats like.
they have others of similar size, shape, covering, noise (a rattle sound) but they ignore them.

Barney will bring it to me to throw for him over and over when he's in the mood. Drop it on my foot or under my chair, then stand on hind legs with paws on my thigh and do the "i'm sending you a telepathic message" thing that cats do.  if that doesn't work, the claws go into my thigh.  THROW MY MOUSE!

after a bit the mouse disappears. totally! i've searched under furniture with a flashlight, used a stick under the fridge, cleaned the house (after my fashion).  gone. 

these mice are sold loose from a bowl in the pet supply store. lest they suddenly stop making them or stocking them, as so often happens, i bought a bunch of them to dole out on days when the cats are bored to crabbyness.  they are popular for awhile, then GONE. VANISHED from the earth.

recently john gave them a new orange one.  hank ate the tail right away. by the next morning the orange mouse was still in evidence, and a red mouse had appeared in the food dish. 
by that evening a green mouse had turned up on the rug behind the rocker.

it seems cats have access to some parallel universe.  perhaps our missing socks will begin to reappear now that the portal is open.

mudpie's unmeds

i mentioned briefly in a previous post that mudpie is making placebos for friends for such ailments as colds, anxiety, sleep problems, and even arthritis.  she is qualified to do this because she has a nurse outfit she sometimes wears in second life on hallowe'en.

turns out she's ahead of her time. a recent article in Harvard Magazine tells of the serious research being done with placebos...why they work so well!!  even when subjects know they are placebos! 
or do they?  it's WAY COMPLICATED and you can read it yourself if you wish to by clicking here .

one of my favorite parts is that they are also experimenting with the doctor side of things to see how different behaviors and attitudes affect the patient's recovery.  
in one experiment practitioners were "...required to touch the hands or shoulders of members of the third group (of subjects) and spend at least 20 seconds lost in thoughtful silence."

the lost in thoughtful silence part amuses me no end. next time i'm at the doctor and she becomes lost in thoughtful silence as she ponders my symptoms, i'm afraid i'll start laughing!

mudpie posing for her picture for the label of the pseudoceuticals

 and being photobombed by her pet mouse

 

$5000/week for AS LONG AS YOU LIVE BUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

there's this mail i got a long time ago -- maybe more than a year?  i don't remember exactly. to win a bunch of money.
i looked through it in an idle moment, and did the "paste this here" "scratch this off here" things, and sent it in. why not?
since then i've gotten lots more!  each time there's stuff you can order, but nothing i can't just go buy somewhere if i wanted it, which i don't, so i just paste and scratch and mail it back.
now they are telling me, a year or so later, that i am about to win $5,000. a week for life!
so i sent that one in. 
oh boy!  
maybe i'll win!
liz says i should send it in the name of a younger person, then it would be worth way more.
which started me thinking -- how long do the people who win these things live?
has anyone checked to see if they are dying young, or after a certain amount of time?
do they die mysteriously in small plane crashes like popular democrats?
after i win, should i change my name and move to another country?