Imbolc    New Moon  (Moon of Winds)

Somehow the coincidence of these two stories tickled me.

Cemeteries go eco-friendly
Seth Tupper The Daily Republic, Worthington Daily Globe
Published Monday, February 23, 2009
Most cemeteries can be described as green spaces, but some are going “green” in the ecological sense.
“Green burials,” which can lack embalming fluids, caskets, vaults and sometimes even markers, are gaining in popularity around the world.

The cherry takes a trip
by Euan Kerr, Minnesota Public Radio
February 23, 2009
A Twin Cities icon heads off on a restorative vacation today. The cherry from the Walker Art Center’s famed “Spoonbridge with Cherry” will be lifted off its mount in the Sculpture Garden and sent away to get a little work done.

Imbolc      New Moon

Today will be a gardening day.  How?  I’m going to start seedlings for this year’s garden.  Leeks and a few others have to get a long head start here since our growing season, even in its climate-change boosted longer version, still does not have enough days for many, many tasty vegetables.  The hydroponics has to get cleaned out and spiffed up, too.

It may become a total transplant site until mid-May.

Also, BJ, Kate’s sister from New York comes in today and we’re going to eat supper with her.  That will be fun.

Kate’s neck has started giving her fits again, this time in spite of several different medical interventions including physical therapy, a TENS unit, a neck stretcher and nerve root injections.  This may be headed toward surgery.

Just days after the nation honored the 200th anniversary of his birth, 65 historians ranked Abraham Lincoln as the nation’s best president.

Former President George W. Bush, who left office last month, was ranked 36th out of the 42 men who had been chief executive by the end of 2008, according to a survey conducted by the cable channel C-SPAN.

Bush scored lowest in international relations, where he was ranked 41st, and in economic management, where he was ranked 40th. His highest ranking, 24th, was in the category of pursuing equal justice for all. He was ranked 25th in crisis leadership and vision and agenda setting.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090215/ap_on_go_pr_wh/ranking_presidents

Imbolc    Waning Wild Moon

Last week Frank and I headed for Blue Cloud Abbey on Thursday.  It is now the next Sunday.  That’s ten days.  It feels as if the time warped around me and a week somehow got lost in the process.  Learning how to cope with intermitent vertigo has absorbed a lot of physical and mental energy.

It does not surprise me now, or make do something drastic out of fear; but, it does distract me and drains energy.  I imagine that will lessen with experience.  At some point, it should recede completely.  I’ll be glad.

Our grand-daughter, Ruth, is three.  She asks her parents to talk to Minnesota Grandma then refuses to come to the computer.  A real 21st century family circus.  She’s a cutey, but she has a stubborn streak.  Yes, it’s part of being three, but it’s also part of being a Johnson.  Trust me on this one.

All this technology has changed our lives in ways subtle and obvious and has done so in a short period of time, less than 20 years:  cell phones, personal computers and the internet, applications to link us with loved ones faraway, even overseas.  I have a wireless weather station and a programmable treadmill.

Coming to consciousness after a subliminal ten days.  Bye for now.

Imbolc          Waning Wild Moon

The retreat followed by the tilt-a-whirl put me way behind on my Sierra Club blogging and research. It took me all day yesterday to catch up.  It was weird because I found the scrolling lines of words on the computer screen necessitated my stopping for a moment every now and then.

Now I’m caught up, I have my new HP mini-computer, a netbook, to take the capitol and I’m raring to go.  Next week, live from the state capitol, Ancientrails and the Northstar Blog.

I’m still behind in some other ways but I’ll catch up over the weekend.  No big worries.

Kate and I got an A+ at our accountants, who says we have done a knock-out job on our money.  I think she’s right.

After that meeting we went over to Kate’s clinic.  There she presented the heart block quilt to her colleague, Dick Mestrich.  Each person in the room had received a blank heart on a quilt block, made by Kate.  They filled it with a personal message.  He has cancer and was visible moved during the presentation of the quilt.

Kate has a wonderful, personal touch with folks and she knows how to use her sewing skills to make others smile.  A gift to the world.  Lucky I’m married to her.

-10  bar rises 30.67  0mph SW  windchill -10   Samhain

Waning Gibbous Moon of Long Nights

Oh, boy.  Drivin’ down the highway, heading home after a couple of hours of transcendence with the icons at the Russian museum and BLAM!   Something happened to my right front tire/wheel/axel and the tire blew, the wheel dug in to the third lane in which I was driving.  It was clunky going but I drove to the right shoulder, whipped out the cell phone and began making calls.  Now I’m home.

No Woollys for me tonight.  Anything that doesn’t end in seriously bodily injury is a good event, so I’m happy.

Still, the night was about as cold as you can expect for December.   The wind was fierce.  Still, I got a tow guy with ease, he brought me to Carlson Toyota where the little red car gets its work done and it’s sitting in a dock at the bay.

Upstairs now for some of that portugese kale/potato/chorizo soup I made yesterday.  Yumm.