Samhain Winter Moon
Brother Mark taught in Hail two years ago and had technical school students. These kids might have been in his classroom.
“Saudi youths demonstrate a stunt known as “sidewall skiing” (driving on two wheels) in the northern city of Hail, in Saudi Arabia March 30, 2013. Performing stunts such as sidewall skiing and drifts is a popular hobby among Saudi youths.”
Samhain New (Winter) Moon
Kate’s timing was ideal. She got home as the rain cum snow began. She accepted the greetings of a grateful doggy contingent and a happy husband. Good to have her back.
Snow’s coming down with some energy now. Big fat flakes which usually mean less accumulation, little snow big snow being Northern weather wisdom. We’ll see. As the temps cool down tonight, the snow could increase in volume going from fat wet clumps to smaller flakes that will collect in larger amounts.
A severe shock of below normal temps will hit western North Dakota meaning those poor bastards outside in the Bakken Oil Fields. It’ll be so fracking cold the workers will have a tough time staying limber.
Samhain New (Winter) Moon
Kate’s in Mitchell, sleeping near the Corn Palace. She’ll make it home tomorrow Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise. It’s been a week since she left and the house has had that not full resonance. Tonight, knowing she’ll be home tomorrow, it has the she’s just gone for a little while feel. Slowly taking on its more usual tones as her presence returns, a piece at a time.
It’s been an interesting week since I’ve been without a car and have not left our property for the duration. The only difference I’ve noticed is that the occasional urge to go somewhere, to the grocery store or a quick trip into Minneapolis, vanished quickly. As soon as it surfaced. Otherwise I’ve followed my usual routines. Missing Kate, of course, but also enjoying the monastic moment.
Tonight will be the last night alone in the bed.
Samhain Thanksgiving Moon
Kate spent the night in Sundance, Wyoming, near Devil’s Tower. She remarked on the beauty of Wyoming and I agree. It’s a beautiful place with very few people, fewer than 575,000, which puts it at 50 of 50 in terms of population. That’s 5.9 folks per square mile, lower density than 48 others. Only enormous Alaska has a lower density at 1.3 per square mile. Beauty does not feed people. The barren high plains and intermontane areas plus the Rocky Mountains on the western edge make Wyoming inhospitable. Sounds like a perfect place to live. Except for those Cheney’s and the homophobia. Laramie’s in Wyoming.
Samhain Thanksgiving Moon
That is, if you have a loved one traveling between Minnesota and Colorado.
Samhain Thanksgiving Moon
May the Thanksgiving Moon shine over me and my gal. She’s set out on Federal Highways, Interstatials to Denver, the back of the truck packed like Santa’s sleigh, only in this case it would be Tevya’s wagon with dreidels decorating its wooden sides. As always, I travel with her as she stays home with me, our lives entwined, sometimes entangled. This sounds bad in a psychobabble way, I know, but it shows merely and oh so much the degree to which we have become partners, not dependent on each other, no, but relying on each other. Love. What it is.
As she drives south in Minnesota, then into Iowa, heading right at Des Moines and left at the moon, across the bridge across the wide Missouri and the often shallow Platte outside of Omaha, past the home of the Cornhuskers in Lincoln and under the silly arch for the pioneers somewhere near Kearney, she carries us along. We are now the older generation, the ones closest to the final passage. We are Grandma and Grandpop, bearing responsibility for our family as we both wish our families had done for us.
I’m thankful for classical music and seasonal subscriptions. If the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra had been locked out, we never would have met. Strange. How many couples will go undiscovered with the pitiful display the Minnesota Orchestra has put on these last few months?
So much in our lives happens by chance. No intentionality behind it. Life shows up and we either greet it or miss it, that’s the way it is. Opening ourselves to the fates, who weave our lives on some misty mountaintop somewhere, makes this the adventure of a lifetime.
Samhain Thanksgiving Moon
Ovid got some attention this morning. Jupiter’s pretty mad at Lycaon. Mad enough to destroy all of humankind. There’s a flood coming.
Missing in the afternoon. Adding description, sprucing up the defenses of Hilgo, the Winter Realm’s port city on the Winter Sea and describing the terrain advantages in general for the Winter Realm.
Yesterday’s push left me dry today. Not as on, but then yesterday was an exception. The normal is plug alone, plug along, plug along. Like today. No magic, just work. Now, the work was fun. Yes. But not inspired. Most often not inspired.
Kate’s been to the library for audio books. Nebraska is interesting depending on the author you choose. I’ve been laying in supplies and will make a final sally forth tomorrow to Festival for the last batch. It’s odd, but being without a car for a week doesn’t daunt me at all. My work is here and there’s plenty of room around to get outside. With the food delivery service from Byerly’s I might be able to last quite a time. As long as there are no doggie or human emergencies. I have plans in place for those if they occur.
It will be like being a hermit in my own home. A hermit with three dogs, a computer and an HD TV.
Samhain Thanksgiving Moon
Brother Mark is settling into Muyhail, Saudi Arabia. He said it has a back of beyond sort of feel and its location makes that no surprise. I posted this map a while ago, but here it is again.
Muyhail is in Asir province and shares a border with Yemen. It’s also not far from the Red Sea though a long ways from the Suez Canal. What it’s very close to is the Rub Al Kahli, the famed empty quarter that is the desert of Arabian Nights’ fantasies. And mine, too, for that matter.
He’s teaching in a Basque owned company providing technical college students an opportunity to learn English. Tip of the hat to brother Mark for finding a new position in the land of oil and sand.
Samhain Thanksgiving Moon
Beginning to get that over the river and through the woods feeling. This coming Sunday we head out for Denver. Kate discovered, in a drive to Denver that she made this spring, that if she drives, her back doesn’t give her fits. So, she’ll drive and I’ll watch. Lot of good book thinking between here and the Rockies.
Holiseason has begun to assert itself more and more. I’ve heard the occasional Christmas song, seen the articles about Hanukkah and Thanksgiving, been asked what we’re doing for them. Now the feelings, those old, yet always new feelings, Holiseason feelings have begun to bubble up. They’re positive for me, though I know they aren’t for a lot of folks.
As a pagan these days, I focus on the lights, the many festivals of light, the Christmas tree, the Yule log, the Thanksgiving medieval banquet, the turn of yet another new year, but reserve my real longing for the Winter Solstice. It has become my favorite and most significant holiday of the sacred year. I’ll be writing more about it as it approaches.
Now it’s Thanksgiving. When growing up in Indiana, we went to my Aunt Marjorie’s for Thanksgiving. She was the acknowledged queen of the kitchen in the Keaton family universe, consistently turning out great meals. The kids got the card tables in the family room while the adults had the dining room table. After the meal, the men would retire to watch football and smoke cigars.
I would read comic books, generally try to huddle in a corner somewhere, usually overwhelmed by the mass of people. Too many and too little chance to escape. Even so Thanksgiving was a strong part of the glue that held the Keatons together, me and my 21 first cousins. It’s now a shared memory, several blocks in the quilt that covers our generation.
Later on Kate and I cooked many Thanksgiving dinners here in Andover, for many different configurations, but those days have waned with the movement of the kids to lands far from here. So now we pick up and go to Jon and Jen’s who cook in their renovated kitchen.
We’ve done a couple of family Thanksgivings at Lutsen and I hope we can again.
And I don’t even like turkey. Go figure.
Fall Samhain Moon
Trip over. A key reason I dislike our state security apparatus (in addition to the primary one of there being a state security apparatus at all) is its unpredictability and its inscrutability.
My friend Tom Crane, who flies many thousands of miles a year, a pro at the airport dance, observed quite a while back that smaller airports are more restrictive because they see exceptions infrequently and don’t know how to respond to them. The airport at Lihue, Kauai gave me an early instance of this when they detained me to investigate my DVD player which had already transited, without comment, mainland security.
In Atlanta last night I experienced pre-check screening. My eligibility for this surprise, a pleasant one (which was a surprise in itself), came at the TSA kiosk for security. The woman said, “Pre-check screening.” And pointed. No explanation. She pointed toward a roped off section. A TSA officer opened it for me, provided a cryptic explanation and pointed me toward another roped off area. No one was there to open it so I had to move the stanchion myself and go around.
In a second line. Checked again. The TSA person here looked at my i.d. and my boarding pass, blew out her cheeks for whatever reason and passed me through. At this point I encountered a miracle. I passed through security with shoes on, belt on, all objects in my backpack and went through an old style metal detector. No buzzes, no scans, no dirty looks. Just straightforward, go on through. Thanks. Whoa.
After my experience in Charlotte on Saturday, this highlights the unpredictability of the whole process. Here’s a note from the TSA website about precheck screening.* If you read it, you’ll note it says something about pre-flight volunteering. Nope. Did not. A mystery.
Here’s a link about the program and how to access it.
*TSA Pre✓™ How it Works
TSA Pre✓™ includes U.S. citizens who are select frequent travelers of participating airlines or members of existing Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Trusted Traveler programs including Global Entry, NEXUS, and SENTRI programs. Canadian citizens who are members of NEXUS are also qualified to participate in TSA Pre✓™. In addition, passengers 12 and younger are allowed through TSA Pre✓™ lanes when traveling with eligible parent or guardian.
Eligible participants use dedicated TSA Pre✓™ lanes at participating airports for screening benefits which could include no longer removing the following items:
If TSA determines a passenger is eligible for expedited screening, information is embedded in the barcode of the passenger’s boarding pass. TSA scans the barcode at designated checkpoints and the passenger may be able to receive expedited screening.