Indigo Incarnated

Egads... It is really boring without Doug this week. I will be really glad when he comes home on Sunday. He said that it is STILL snowing in Erie! Aiee!

Note to Phosgene: I made it home in one piece! Yay! Thanks for asking :)

On the bright side, I started ringing in a new handbell choir at the Unitarian church in Columbia. My Wicca group is affiliated with the Unitarians, and they rent chapel space to us for a whopping $120/year. Yay! 

The choirmaster, Tom, ses like a pretty easygoing sort. I don't think he's been directing bells for very long. All the equipment looked brand new and none of the sheet music scores have ever been marked up. It's a small choir of five members. The other four seem to have a skill level similar to mine, so I was happy about that. At my old choir, I was sort of a low/mediocre talent at best. At this choir, I'm more of an equal. 

The bells were pretty neat looking. The bells I'm used to using are round, brass, and have the strikers on the inside of the bell. The ones I used on Monday night, however, were rectangular, aluminum, and had the strikers on the outside. 

This type of bell has its plusses and minuses. On the plus side, they produce a loud, very pure tone. They also resist fingerprints (always a bugaboo with brass bells). The rectangular form factor also means they don't roll around on the table.  The down side is that you can't ring four-in-hand with square bells. Because they have external strikers, there is less dynamic control than on round bells (ie. These bells ring mezzo-fotre and forte, but not mezzo-piano or piano). 

My first bell assignment is for six bells. Very cool. I usually only got three bells at Saint John's. A smaller choir generally means bigger assignments. 

Of course, it can't hurt to have Turning Circle represented in the UU's handbell choir. The Unitarians let us lead two of their worship services each year too. They're pretty supportive of the Wiccan community even though they aren't Wiccan. 

I think this is going to be pretty fun :) 

Indigo Incarnates

Doug and I drove up to Erie to visit Doug's mom for New Year's Day. In the past, I was never able to visit because Doug's sister had violent tendencies. However, she died in 2009 so I was able to visit with the rest of Doug's family ( he has a pretty small family -- just his mom, an aunt and an uncle). 

The area of Erie she lives in is called Edinborough. It's very pretty and has a huge lake about 200' from the house. Walking around the lake is usually good exercise but that was not possie with this visit. It snowed all four days I was here. Doug cleaned the car off twice but it just gets buried again. I think it totalled two feet. It's also really cold here too. The high yesterday was about 25 degrees. It was so overcast that the streetlights stayed lit all day. 

I did have time to finish chapter 59 of the novel I've been writing for the past several years. It now had 288,000 words and 617 pages. My best guess is that I'll have it finished around 750 pages. 

I have to make the dreaded six-hour drive today so I can be home in time for work on Monday. Doug has the whole week off since he gets more vacation days than I get. The drive may take 7-8 hours because of all the snow. Ugh! 

Indigo Incarnates

I have to say that I won't miss much about 2009. It wasn't the worst year I've been alive to see, but I've certainly seen better. 

In our personal lives, Doug's sister died of cancer this year. I got diagnosed with an inconvenient heart condition (not life-threatening). I got two pay cuts this year because of the recession. My laptop bit the dust. The cardiac meds made me gain 25 pounds. 

In the broader view, we got yoked with a lazy, lying President that utterly betrayed the GLBT community at every opportunity. He pretty much broke every other promise too. He spent $2 trillion in borrowed money wilth nothing to show for it. The economy is actually worse than the Carter years under his "leadership". 

This year also saw the Christians declare outright war on the GLBT community. Bills like Prop-8 and Prop-1 stripped us of basic civil freedoms and were 100% funded by Church donations. Rick Warren and his cronies also are responsible for the gay-extermination legislation in Uganda. It's a trial run for what the Christians want to accomplish in the United States. 

So, yeah, this year really sucked. Good riddance!

Indigo Incarnated

I know it's been a while since I posted. It's the same tired story every year: the sun goes away, and with it so does my energy. Sometimes I feel like I'm maxed out just going to work and back. It doesn't help much that, in Baltimore, the sky can be overcast for weeks at a time in autumn and winter. Add to that the fact that we usually get a thin, bone-chilling rain instead of snow. It just plain sucks. 

This winter had an additional twist. I was prescribed a cardiac medicine to control tachycardia (my heart sometimes goes to 210+ for no good reason). Well, the medicine was a disaster. Not only did it *further* deplete my energy, but it caused me to gain 25 pounds in about three months.  So I stopped taking it. 

The Solstice has come and gone. With the malfunctioning meds out of my system, I'm back at my usual exercise routine (being a little more careful, so as not to trigger the super-fast heart rate). The days have lengthened just enough that I can see the sun for a few minutes after work (on the rare non-overcast day). 

So things are looking up. 

I've been writing a novel for the past five years and am now working on chapter 59 (the chapter is called "The Palace of Hemi-Powered Drones"). I have 277,200 words written overall. The fact that I'm writing again is another effect of the seasonal energy-drain letting up a bit. 

I wanted to thank Java, Phos, Carol, and Celtic for always having kind words for me. :)

I'm looking forward to spring. 

Blessed be!

Indigo Incarnates

Doug and I had a pretty low-key Yule today since the worship service at Cedar Light Grove got postponed until Saturday (thanks to about 2' of snow). But it really is nice getting REAL snow at least once per winter. And to have snow at Yule was a real bonus. 

The funny thing us that Christmas and Yule basically celebrate the same thing. Jesus is a lightbringer, born of Mary. The Sun God is born of the Mother Goddess. The days will start getting longer again. And, in a few short months, life will return to the land. The cycle of life, death, rest, and rebirth continues, as it should. 

Doug gave me a pair of statues for my altar and gave me a book. The Goddess and God figurines are pretty and really round out the altar. 

I did a very complete job cleaning the house as a special treat for Doug. He was pretty happy with how clean the house looked when he came home. I didn't have any money, but I could at least do something nice for Doug. 

Blessed be :)

Ashen Incarnates

The pathetic fools in Baltimore whine and cry over snow. Then they death themselves in bloated SUVs so they can buy five metric tons of bread, milk, and toilet paper. Pathetic. 

It's also the Jesus Freak time of year. Nothing says "Christmas" like maxing out one's credit cards to try to convince one's pathetic friends and relatives that they mean something. Pathetic. Useless fools.  The annual obscenity of Christmas "cheer" is illuminated. We have the children believing some mysterious, all-knowing, immortal being brings toys to all the greedy spoiled brats. I wonder why they don't crucify Santa Claus in March. The jolly old elf seems to be the figure of worship by Chtistians in December. 

Pathetic. 

Indigo Incarnates

Today was the monthly community supervision day at work. As usual, three of the six people I was supposed yo verify did not actually live where they say they live. One had an upstairs neighbor who hollared down "He doesn't live here now!" Another house was a boarded-up building. A third had one of those big padlocks on the door that meant he was evicted. Whoo-hoo!

But hey, we didn't get stabbed! 

The work truck got a whopping 7.42 MPG. What a disgrace. It's a Dodge, only two years old, and already has recurring mechanical failures. Yeah. Dodge sucks. It has a noisy, rough ride. If you run over a cigarette butt, you'll feel it in this truck. Pathetic. Anyone wonder why Dodge/Chrysler is nearly defunct? Their cars and trucks suck! 

It was a soul-freezing cold but at least it was sunny. It was good to actually get some sunlight for s change. In only eleven more days the daylight will start coming back. I will be glad for that.  

Indigo Incarnates

Although the Episcopal Church has a reputation as being at least somewhat GLBT-supportive, when the excrement hits the whirling blades, the Episcopal Church shows that it's no different than all the other hate-based, homophobic religions.

There's a bill in Uganda that, if passed, would elevate homosexuality to a capital offense. Currently, getting a conviction of simply being gay will get you a 14-year jail term in that country. But now the religious fundamentalists want to put the very lives of homosexuals up for popular vote.

What is the Episcopal Church's OFFICIAL view on the possibility of exterminating gays via the ballot box? Here it is:

"The Anglican Church of Uganda on Nov. 6 issued a press release saying that it is studying the bill and does not yet have an official position on the proposed legislation. However, the release restated the Ugandan church's position that "homosexual behavior is immoral and should not be promoted, supported, or condoned in any way as an 'alternative lifestyle.'"

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_117435_ENG_HTM.htm

Thanks for NOTHING.

Indigo Incarnates

The Thanksgiving weekend was surprisingly drama-free for a change. My uncle invited Doug and I over for Thanksgiving dinner and there was a reasonable amount of vegetarian things for me to eat. My uncle's sister refrained from making racial slurs or making disparaging remarks about Wicca. My cousin's little daughter is out of the "terrible twos". So all in all it was a nice visit. 

Yesterday I drove up to Pennsylvania to visit mom. She remains very Ill, of course, since her lung disease is incurable. But she was doing well all things considered. She still likes her new apartment and is out from the clutches of the uber-jerk Uncle Jimmy. She made a pizza from scratch and it was yummy! She has a really cute itty bitty kitchen. 

I got to torment mom with some episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and them was watched part of the James Bond marathon on sci-fi channel. 

Apparantly I didn't miss much by not visiting Jimmy for Thanksgiving. My sister visited him and he was quite cruel to her. But Jimmy's good at ruining holidays. It makes me wonder why she was invited over if all Jimmy was going to do was humiliate her. Methinks my sister won't accept the invitation next year. 

Indigo Incarnates

So... the changeling effect claimed another victim recently. The laptop I bought about two years ago started having some serious (and expensive) problems. The keyboard and touchpad would become intermittantly unresponsive, one USB port was dead, and the machine started having serious problems with video playback. The battery life was also getting kinda short. So Doug said it was my turn for a new computer since he had recently purchased a netbook.

We had an account at Dell. I found a little laptop I really liked for $579 in the "small business" section. When it came to checkout, however, Doug learned that he couldn't buy it since he wasn't an incorporated business. The same computer in "retail" section (for individual consumers and not businesses), cost a lot more money and had a much weaker video card and less memory. To boost the retail version up to the corporate version, it would have cost about $250 more. I wasn't willing to spend $800 for a computer since I know these machines typically die horrible and quick deaths when I am the owner.

So we ended up not buying one at all. Doug gave me his 4-month-old netbook that he's used only a handful of times. I like this little 10" computer quite a bit. And it's already paid for! Whoo-hooo!

But the experience did leave me scratching my head a bit. How come Dell sells two versions of the same machine in which the weaker one actually costs more money?!