Tuesday, March 25, 2008

A lot going on!

Appearing soon in a blog near you! Yea, yea. That's why I'm a carpenter....

Major news shorts: Jody is still reeling from her mom having walked on, and her sister has a pretty advanced case of cancer. It bums me out to see her so sad. Her mom and sis were her two closest confidantes over the years I have known my beloved. Did I say years? I meant decades. Jode still tries to cope through work, and on occasion getting into her own garden. We are entering that stage of life though where friends and family will begin to experience the final stages of life as we know it on this planet.

And speaking of which, Jode and I have been reading the new Eckhart Tolle book, A New Earth. It is worth the second reading I am giving it now. Oprah Winfrey, the celeb, has been running a live webcast on Monday nights going through the book chapter by chapter with the author. So far we have had one week where we actually got unbroken reception. You are wondering where the segue is. Well, life as we know it on this planet is quite illusive, maybe even elusive, or even delusive. Consider this: When you look up into the sky at night, what do you see? We know from Hubble photographs that there are thousands more galaxies than we can even see in a spot of space about the size of a stamp just above the big dipper. That's how far away they are. Despite all that mass, what do we mostly see? Dark space. And if you zoom in on an atom, what do you mostly see? Little particles zooming around in empty space. If we removed all that space from our atoms we would be incredibly small. So what are we really? Are we the roles we play? The thoughts we think, or what we feel? Or something behind all that?

Tolle's book helps answer these questions, and in reality illuminates a path to genuine peace on this planet.It is altering us and the way we communicate with each other.

Which is good because our youngest son Miles has asked if he could move home for a spell. He is tired of Seattle, and wants to quiet himself and his pace down, and get geared up for his next life step. He's secured work and all that, so that isn't the problem. We'll just have a slightly more crowded nest here at the Harrison household is all. Miles himself is going through consciousness changes, so despite being crowded, there will be plenty of good energies mingling together.

Our oldest is trying to get out of our house, and now that he's starting another lawn/gardening season, he might be able to do that. He was comfortable in Coupeville, until his roomie took up with a new love, and then they didn't want to share room space anymore, and asked Taylor to vacate. So he's back to what he likes doing, and trying to gather new clients for garden work.

Jody is still at the nursery, fully in charge of the pottery and statuary. Which means a lot of lifting of heavy items, which she then puts out for display. Last year was a banner year for pottery. It made a lot of money for the nursery, tripling sales since Jode took over it. Plus she still gets into the garden shop and takes care of all the painting, and a ton of other little stuff that wouldn't get done at all if she didn't do it. It's even more poignant because they aren't necessarily things under her job description or title, but things that need to get done that others aren't willing to do. Jody however, is more concerned about making sure that the things that need getting done get done. If she ever quit, they'd find out the hard way just how much she does around there. Now that the weather is getting nicer, she'll start spending more time getting into her own garden. I think this year will be the deer proofing year. Meaning a fence of some kind. Our neighbor, as nice a guy he is, has decided that the semi-domestic creatures need to be fed, so anything for them, and there are a lot of them, is fair game. Mostly including our garden! He has his fenced in, and these deer hardly need to be fed as there is plenty of food, and no up-link in the food chain. they pretty much rule the roost as it were. Some get hit by cars, but overall the population will simply grow to the limit of the food availability, and then either disease or something else will draw down their numbers. Anyway, Jode doesn't fume about these pests as I refer to them, like I do. But now that it's affecting her investment, it's time to protect it.

As for me, well, I'm nearing the end of my nail bending days. I'm putting together a business plan for a cash machine of my own. My bro-in-law Tim directed me toward a web site that has been quite helpful in getting things done properly. I don't necessarily want to just occupy myself, I want to hire out the work, and move into another venture, and then hopefully a third one. That's the grand plan, but one step at a time. I find the most limiting thing is my own belief system about being wealthy. That too shall pass. And, because that doesn't take up enough time, I entered Fire Officer Academy. The Standard Operating Procedure for promotion changed around here. I'm in a station though with no Lieutenant right now, and come September, no Captain. The current Lieutenant is on leave, and may not be coming back. Mind you, the span of control might warrant a Captain and Lieutenant, but our span of control has been down to four at one point, and right now we are at seven, which requisites two officers. Two of those though are high schoolers who will eventually move on, and reduce our number again. But at least I'll be ready to serve, whether or not the opportunity opens up.

And there's still the poetry readings! I have some ideas brewing, so I'm off to contact some folk to make some of these happen! See you later!