Tally at the End of January

Time to evaluate all those resolutions and pay the piper.  The missing word starts with an "A", but escapes the page.  Ah, yes, accountability.  The dreaded tally of accounts.
1. Lost 6 pounds, 5 in the first week, and now hovering.
2. Lifted weights regularly, at least twice a week, instead of 4 times as scheduled. (Ick, weights!)
3. Cleaned out the keepsake letter box on the file cabinet, but not yet got to the file cabinet itself, let alone the basement.

4. Witnessed the grandeur of nature.
5. Studied Sri Vidya with one more day to complete the one hour remaining of 8 hours of seminars.

Only 40 more to go on the list and 336 days left to do it!

So far, so good.

Obstacles

The mind sets up these barriers for reasons of security, safety, unconscious laws and beliefs.  In my case the barrier is dropping below a weight ending in zero.  The scale hovers at xxO, then up to xx1, then down to xxO, for weeks at a time.

Meanwhile I eat macaroni and cheese, chewy chocolate bars, and bake cookies all to keep me there hovering at the zero mark.  It happened ten pounds ago and is happening again.  It is weird the power of the unconscious mind, that unused 90%, that has a vested interest in the zero mark.  Above is okay, below is dangerous.

What would Freud say?

And how would D'Artagnan reply?

Radiance

What has occupied the morning?!

Exercise, baking a skinny mac & cheese from a recipe on skinnytaste.com, packing for the Burn Hut ski trip, skating on the driveway, chasing to the pharmacy for bandages for the heel blisters to come.

The sutra for today is something about the power of perception, but I went back to Chapter One, verse 36, Vishoka va jyotishmati.  When one goes beyond fear, anger and grief - vishoka, meaning without sorrow, there comes a divine illumination - jyotishmati.  That's where this mac & cheese will take me.

Ice

The microspikes have been sent ahead to Colorado and the Yak Traks are missing.  Daisy still has her 4-paw drive, but I find myself slipping and sliding on our walk to the mailbox.

Love Brook is still open and running, especially after the rain yesterday.

We are welcomed home by footprints of ice leading to the doorway.
The word ICE comes up on my phone every time Jim calls because he is listed as "In Case of Emergency" or ICE, and the letter "I" comes before "J".  It's an idea that hasn't really caught on, but it amuses me to see his telephone call, with his image next to the airplane emboldened by the word ICE.  It is as if a cool and unflappable pilot is calling   His phone used to ring with a French police car's siren when I called him.

Back East

Back to the rain on snow in the East and packing for the next trip.  Nine days until another travel adventure.  Sleep is playing hard to get.  It is the time change and altitude variations.  The weather swoops from sunny and sixty to rainy and raw.

Or as the natives say, "It's rawr".

Vanishing Point

Dawn marks the Colorado border where the windmills blink but are not turning.  I love this part of the country where the vanishing point can almost be seen.

The wind is blowing about 200 feet above the ground, but it is calm on the surface.

The mountains are usually visible at Fort Morgan, but today they appeared in Brush.  Glad to see there is more snow on the peaks compared with last week.  Off to Boston!

Christmas in January

There was a recipe from a newspaper cut out and laying on the counter.  It looked exotic and tasty.  So I made it.

And it was.

Today the geese are flying north, poor birds.  The pond outside Cabela's is almost all mud with some ice, but the geese rest there overnight.  This morning they are heading to the stubble fields.  Either that or they are foretelling an early spring.  That'd be nice.

Year of Dragon

Yesterday was Chinese New Year!  Sorry not to wish you well in a dragonesque year.  Consider it wished.  Two hundred thirty-six miles later, we accomplished much of the adventure we set out upon.

Good scenery to get to books,

martinis, visitation and supper.  

Brian and I went on a walk to see Doc the Horse.  Doc expected carrots and got a camera instead.  This could just as well represent the snout of the dragon in honor of the New Year.

Mary made the requested turkey with added bonus special of chocolate covered strawberries for dessert.  Today there is another skval rolling through with blowing snow and low viz.  Nothing planned for the day except doing taxes, having a late luncheon with Dave, weighing in this afternoon, and making a vegetable tart for supper.  The recipe calls for eggplant, but there is none to be found in western Nebraska.  Butternut squash will have to do.

The Elements Behave

It turns out that the snow stopped, the wind lessened to below 40 mph, and the visibility increased.  In other words, the Red Sea parted.

So it was Madelyn's birthday celebration yesterday at the church where she has played music for 50 years.  Perhaps I exaggerate.  It was a well-attended gathering.

Sandy is at the end of the table greeting guests and old friends.  I am out of the picture eating mints and nuts.

The view on the drive home was spectacular.

Today Mary texted me with a choice between ravioli and turkey breast. Of course I want the ravioli.  But the martinis will provide more than enough compensation for choosing the turkey.  The adventure today is traveling to Scottsbluff for books, then Alliance for visiting, then maybe Broadwater on the way home.

More than a squall

What a surprise!
Today is a scheduled birthday party in Broadwater for an 80 year old.  She has invited the town to her party.  We had planned to drive up and have tea and mints,

but with this weather bordering on freezing to the roads,

winds in the 50 mph range,

and visibility of less than a mile, it looks dicey.

This is where the ability to control the elements comes in handy.  What was that sutra on how to cocntrol the elements? Rupa lavanya bala vajrasamhanana kaya sampat.  No, that's a description of what it is to have a perfect body; beauty, gracefulness, strength and adamantine hardness.  I'll stick with a perfect body and let the elements play out as they will.  Maybe there will be a pause in the winds, like a parting of the Red Sea, long enough to drive to Broadwater and back with our perfect bodies. Meanwhile, parked here in the McDonald's parking lot, the car is rocking in the wind and I'm getting seasick.

Bos to Den

 From ice removal equipment at Boston Logan to

flying over a full Lake McConaughy in Ogallala

to Denver and a beautiful day

including a tailwind before driving through the front

then a headwind back into the cold

where footprints on the golf course are frozen in time.

A good trip all in all.

Rising Moon

Crescent moon rises at Boston Logan, Terminal C, Gate 12.  Three inches of new snow made a messy drive to the bus station.  Security is grouchy at 5:30 AM.  Today, for some reason, I wore hat, belt, boots, coats, all requiring removal before the naughty full-body scanner.  But I'm through the gauntlet and wait for boarding.

Off we go!

Packin'

Our neighbor, the yodeling one, once told us that he was packin'.  He frightened us because he didn't seem very stable.  He had been electrocuted some years back and was on disability.  The shock did something to him because he was "off".  But on this packin' occasion, he was after coyotes, not us.  We never encouraged him to visit again.

I am packin' to travel tomorrow.  Just clothes and stuff, no guns.  Hope to take the computer with me and keep up.  See ya.

Resting

Resting against the woodpile

It's above freezing today and the water drips off the melting roof.  We're heading home from the lake.  I always sleep better at the lake.  Maybe it's the pink room.  Maybe it's the 180 degree open view.  Maybe it's the comforting wood fire.  Whatever it is, we'll be driving away from those things, and heading towards a blue-green room, a home surrounded by woods and a noisy oil burning furnace.  But there will probably be tools resting against something there too.  We're retired.

Shopping for a teenager

Perhaps the light bulb will flash before getting to the mall and I will know the perfect gift to give a new teenager on her 13th birthday.  Jeez, can we afford a Little Kitty ipad?  Sure, but that's not what I'm going to find.  Help!
It would have to be something with a mirror, glittery yet functional, like a jeweled calculator/mirror combination.  That may be a tall order.  Maybe thirteen bottle rockets and a fancy bottle decorated with mirror glass from which to shoot the fireworks.  That would involve playing with matches.  Perfect.  The light flashes.

Bright beings

 

The newest Packer fan sleeps a sleep of great disappointment, retreat and contemplation.
The five stages of grief are Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.  I looked it up when a friend lost her job yesterday and said she'd already gone through all stages and was going to Mexico for a week. And then I applied them to the atmosphere of the house this morning after the Packer loss. Shares of the Packers, worth 2.5 cents yesterday, fell to zero today. It was a big night of peanuts tossed at the television, and a clean-up this morning was imminent.  But someone forgot to place the vacuum bag inside the new shopvac, and it filled with dirt and hair, just as it is supposed to.  So to use the wet vac as a dry vac, some preparation was required.

Packer fan the day after, vacuuming the vacuum, practicing acceptance.

The Third Resolution of the year is Deva-karya-samudyata; to be involved with those things that make us shine brighter. Hence contemplative retreat, vacuuming the vacuum, and skiing in zero degree air, .

Make Something Pretty

Resolution Number Two:  See Beauty Everywhere.

Would making something pretty be something crafty?

Like knitting, embroidery, or crochet?

Or something especially tasty like chocolate pancakes?

Or would the pretty be to concoct a perfumed incense?

Or play a song on the piano?

(Not so pretty without more practice.)

Hello, my Pretty.

Noisy

The rain left a crust on the snow this morning.  Not a quiet gentle glide through the woods, this.  Instead of ice augers buzzing, I contend with my own skis chafing through the ice granules, like a rusty saw through knotty wood.  Some chafe.

Sabbady Point is open this morning so I don't quite make it to landfall before turning around.  The back ache tells me I need more strengthening exercises for the backside.  Always something.

Freezing Rain

The skis are heading out this morning on their maiden voyage of the season before the rain begins.  We received about 5 inches of snow, drifting to a foot in places.  And today freezing rain will fall.

 I am aiming for the Sabbady Point (short for Sabbath Day), fifteen minutes away by cross country ski.  There is open water off the point where the gulls like to hang out.  Looks like nobody picked up the water buoys at the end of the season.

Another weather alert for today gives driving a hazardous mark due to the rain that is just beginning.

Home is in sight with its warm fires burning, nicely plowed-by-the-hired-man drive , and clean shoveled walkways.  The ski was a success.  I am practicing for the February ski trip.  The sleeping bag is ready to be packed, and the airplane ticket is in the travel billfold.

Flight Review

The snow is blowing horizontally, flags flapping with a slight upward tilt.

Yesterday's calm before the storm allowed Hip Man to test his ability to get into the airplane.  We landed a couple times on ME6, a grass strip on land belonging to one of our flight instructors.

It's a pretty little place in a valley between a blinking tower and various small hills.  The ground was frozen and a little bumpy, but perfect for reviewing techniques of take off and landing.

Arrived alive.