Retrograde Pluto Sextile Mars

So when Pluto sextiled Mars the first time I was in Cambridge making a start on clearing out the storage locker and surprise, surprise it rolls around again with Pluto Retrograde and I’m getting ready to go to Cambridge to have another go.

Not my idea to go right now but the perfect time for Ama and Star Child before they take off for St. Croix for the summer. Definitely not the perfect time for me as the irrigation system is still not working and I will come back to what JDG accurately describes as crispy plants, but from somewhere I got the energy to spend two days – yesterday and today - digging up whatever twigs I really wanted to save and potting them to farm out to nearby friends to be kept alive.

I dug up all five already crispy honeysuckles and moved them to what is laughingly called the enclosure off the back patio, stuck them in the ground under a tree and surrounded them with the green plastic covered wire I bought at Ace O so optimistically at least a month ago. Then I got some of the old wire and put that over half the top, with bird-proof netting over the other half, attractively attached with the wooden clothes pegs (or are they called pins here?) I bought when I went to Cruces with D to pick up the wicker chairs on Craigslist – again, about a month ago. Pluto definitely coming close to sextiling Mars, and fortunately for me combining with transiting Mars on the Ascendant, beginning its transit through the First House.

They (the dug up honeysuckles – got a bit carried away there) still won’t get any water unless Irrigation Woman has a brain transplant and goes to install the new pressure regulator that she supposedly ordered two months ago  (goes not comes because I’m currently in New York in the only un-air-conditioned apartment that doesn’t have wifi left, not that I’m not grateful or anything) and I’m so tired of calling her and leaving messages I haven’t done it for three days, but at least they’re in shade and I soaked the soil as best I could so they stand a chance.

Loads and loads and loads of work it was to do, and still I got done only half of what I wanted, but maybe, just maybe, when I get back and start soaking the ground again with the hose and do it long and often enough, a few little green leaves will appear. It’s happened for the past two years, when I’ve been out in Silver for only three months each summer, so my fingers are crossed from afar.

Everything in Two

Well, not quite, it's only Mercury, Venus and Jupiter, and Jupiter's been there for a couple of weeks with no noticeable increase in my earned income, but as I don't have any earned income I suppose that would be too much to ask for anyway even from Jupiter.

It's not like nothing's happened. I did sell my piece of Merimekko on eBay and might even get paid for it one day, I did finally get my refund from the boots I bought online from Denmark when Mercury was retrograde (detailed in A Cautionary Tale Part I, with Part II half-written and waiting as a draft for me to finish. I just checked).

In case I never do ha ha, the short version is the boots sat at Newark Airport for a week waiting for an invoice in English, I had to pay FedEx a $21 some kind of customs fee, it took three delivery attempts for the boots to get here and needless to say they didn't fit when they arrived.

It then took me about three weeks to ship the boots back and when the credit was eventually applied to my account (two emails) it went to an account that's no longer active as my credit card was hacked the day after I bought the boots online and I had to get a new card.

Never mind, it's all sorted out now just in time I should think for Mercury to be going retrograde again so I can conduct some more well-thought-out international commerce, perhaps this time for a race horse from Ireland what with Derby Day coming up and all.

And I'll have the money because thanks to JDG, who pointed out when the chicken coop blew down that it wouldn't hurt to contact the insurance company as out-buildings are usually covered to some extent, I do have a check for $805 - an Eighth house matter, surely, instead of a Second house one, but who's complaining?

Mars Trine Jupiter...

... and then square the Moon.
I'm writing this a week after the aspect perfected and I know I made to the knitting group, but what really sticks out in my mind is watering the plants in the evening and getting furious with the hose as I dragged it around and it caught on various logs, rocks, bits of rebar, tree trunks etc., stopping the flow of water so I had to go and dis-entangle it. (I know, I know, it's a hard, hard life.)

It's one of those "you'll never have to buy another hose again" things - probably an inch in diameter, heavy thick rubber, fifty feet long and joined with duct tape (it leaks) to another fifty foot one just the same, and a true pain in the neck unless you work out and have muscles like Popeye's.

Of course I *shouldn't* be watering at all as I have an irrigation system, out of commission as it needs a new pressure regulator, and I'm paying the price for being clueless as I have to wait for the woman who set up the system to appear with the needed part. I've been waiting for about two months and watering by hand in the meantime, probably the true reason I was getting more and more pissed at having to act like a pirate and do a Yo Heave Ho all by myself.

Fortunately for anyone I know, whatever aggression (and there was a lot) brought out by the square was vented on the hose and not a person, which is probably the lamest concluding sentence I've written for a while.

Mars on the Ascendant

So this was the day the eBay auction for my piece of Marimekko fabric (Didn't I mention I put it up for sale last Friday afternoon just as Venus was conjuncting Uranus? Gosh it's a good thing I called this nearly-everyday-astrology.) was due to end, and wanting to be an A+++ eBay seller I took myself off to the Post Office to get a flat-rate envelope and - incredibly efficient and organized here - ask for my mail to be held for two weeks as I would appear to be going to New York on Wednesday.

The mail hold bit went well, as did picking up the mailer. So what if the Silver City Post Office had exactly one flat-rate envelope on the premises? I got it, didn't I? Nothing to complain about, and onward to PAWS to drop off yet another bag of clothes and then, miracle of miracles, to Restore to drop off the file cabinet that got ousted at the time of the *estate sale* when I went berserk with buying furniture and am still trying to clean up the back patio from.

Somewhere in the course of the day both Mercury and Venus sextiled the Sun, and by the end of it, trined it, which put paid to any outbursts on energy on my part and, Mars now in the first house or not, plonked me on the couch watching reruns of Law and Order SVU for a change and wondering what I can buy with the $36 I'll get for my bit of Merimekko if the auction winner ever pays me.

Venus Sextile Pluto

So I didn't notice any transcendental sexual relationships or feel any great need to belong to an individual or a group, but I did decide if I didn't do something about looking for the title to the house so I could go back to the lawyer I first saw in February (!) and get the will taken care of I'll have to move out of town in case I run into her in Walmart or somewhere.

I know there's an *issue* with the title because when I was refinancing (also in February - big month) the title company for that called me and said there was a problem with it: when I bought JDG out in 2006 evidently the deed wasn't recorded properly, which I dimly remembered, and for only $100 the title company for the refinance could sort it all for me.

I made a feeble effort at doing it myself. I asked for the name of the notary who did it wrong and pretended to myself for about a week that I'd go into the county building and sort it out before calling them back and saying go ahead, it's only money ha ha, but  I did ask JDG if he knew anything about it.

His memory was that there had indeed been a problem and that he and I had had to go back to the county building not too long ago - two years? three years? and go through the recording process again, which did sound vaguely familiar, but where the resultant piece of paper was I had no idea, and I needed it to take to the lawyer so she could draw up the Transfer On Death.

I did call the title company for the refinance about six weeks ago and ask if they had the deed, but they said no, it must be in my possession, and ever since then it's been one of the things hanging over my head like go up to the well house and take the water filter out and take it to Ace so I can get the right one to replace it and clean up the back patio which has looked like Restore's yard ever since I bought the tree trunks at the estate sale. God it's easier in an apartment.

Anyway, ten days ago, with Venus sextiling Pluto (he of sex, death and taxes), I had the astonishingly brilliant idea of looking in the great big envelope that holds the paperwork from the 2006 buyout, and there it was, a legal-sized piece of paper dated July something 2010 with both our signatures and a proper notary stamp and signature and all, and all I have to do now is get that copied and take the copy to the lawyer's office.

I've been carrying it around with me now for a week to take it to the UPS Store to get copied, and every day I bring it home un-copied I wonder if I could do it here and staple the bits together. It has occurred to me that the lawyer's office, dealing with all the legal paperwork there must be every day ha ha, very probably has a copying machine that can cope with legal size paper, and that I could very easily give them a call and have it copied there.

On the other hand the UPS Store is on the way to Ace so I could do it when I take the filter in, but before I do that I need to find the receipt for the un-used circular saw blade from when JDG cut the corrugated tin for me and only needed one. That way the filter will only cost me half as much and I mean, really, there's no sense in wasting money, now is there? That's just silly.

Mercury on the Ascendant

So when I finally sat down and went through the pile of unopened mail that had been building up for a month and found out my car had been recalled I immediately made an appointment for the fix for the first possible day - Monday May 13.

Only later did I realize this was the day Mercury (cars, duh) came to the ascendant, very fitting as the Hyundai dealer is in Tucson, three and a half hours away.

I was feeling very proud of myself driving down the hill to Lordsburg. I'd printed out a map of where the dealership was and knew what exit I was to get off at, and had written out the last part once I was off the 10 in big letters so I could read it while I was driving. I knew where the nearest Trader Joe's was. I'd brought a little insulated bag with one of those frozen ice things in it. I'd remembered to bring something to drink. I'd left the light on on the back patio in case something dreadful happened and I didn't get back till dark. Ginger was inside. I was in plenty of time for my 1.00 pm appointment - I'd left the house at 9:00 and the drive takes round about three and a half hours.

Running through that list in my head, I was feeling pretty smug  until the dreaded daylight savings time question popped itself up - what time is it in Tucson?

One would think that after coming out to the southwest for eleven years I'd have sorted this out by now, but I have enough trouble with plain old daylight savings time by itself without adding in living next to a state that ignores it. One could also think that having taken a flight from Tucson Airport last summer I would remember whether if it's nine am in Silver it's ten am or eight am in Tucson, and whether it's in summer or winter that it's the same time in California as it is in Arizona, but no such luck -  I hadn't even remembered time was an issue till I was on the road.

Once I did, dim memories from last year of being all excited thinking I could have Popeye's fried chicken in Willcox on the way to the airport and then it being so early when I got there Popeye's wasn't open began to surface, and while I couldn't remember what time the flight had been (surprise) I was pretty sure it had been earlier than one, meaning (in the way my mind works, at least) I was going to get to Tucson at 11:30, an hour and a half earlier than necessary.

I was right. The great big TA stop in Willcox thoughtfully provides its own simplified version of the array of world clocks on 57th and Madison - they only have four but frankly that's more than enough for someone like me, especially as I used to think there were only three - and there it was, time in Tucson, one hour away from Willcox, 10:30.

Anticipating this ever since I remembered the , I'd decided that assuming I got off at the right exit and the map was right and Trader Joe's was as close to the dealership as it seemed to be, I could go to Trader Joe's FIRST and get whatever I decided I couldn't live without in Silver and THEN keep the appointment, especially as I'd been thoughtful enough to bring the insulated bag.

And that's exactly what I did, stowing my two little logs of goat cheese away so they'd be cool while I waited for whatever they did to the car to be done, and best of all, because that flight last year must have been earlier than the dealership appointment, I got my chicken fix and wasn't even hungry in Trader Joe's. And I got back before it was dark.

Oh, and yeah, I forgot - the Ascendant's other people, right, so the man in the red van who had to swerve so as not to hit me when I pulled out too soon on the way to the 10 after the car was fixed was probably just saying hello when he shook his fist at me....

Mercury Trine Jupiter

So as soon as Mercury stopped squaring the moon and we got the  call the plumber/I can fix it see-saw out of the way its trine to Jupiter kicked in, and somehow I found myself in the computer room behaving as though I'm a playwright.

I pay a ludicrous amount of money every year to belong to the Dramatists Guild and for the past year or so have barely opened the e-newsletters they send every couple of weeks. I leave them unread in my mailbox and after a month or so open them and check the Submission Opportunities. Lo and behold, if there is ever an opportunity for which one of my plays meets the qualifications, the deadline is long gone and I delete the email, wondering if being on Wellbutrin for eleven years has turned me into an ambitious-less zombie or if I'm just pathologically lazy.

Whichever of those choices it may be (and maybe there are more than two choices - maybe I'm an ambitious-less pathologically lazy zombie ha ha)  I did see a submission opportunity for which one of my plays might be suitable, and - alert the media - sent a query. And, lo and behold II, received a considerate and thoughtful acknowledgment thanking me and telling me it will take about six weeks for all entries to be read, and that the theatre will then be in touch. Doesn't often happen.

Mercury Square Moon

I would have expected Neptune to be in here somewhere but I don't have my house guest's chart and it wasn't really the time to ask him. He was washing breakfast dishes when the faucet JDG had told me needed tightening suddenly proved JDG correct and torrents of water sprayed all over the place. "Turn off the water!" house guest yelled, and I went haring up to the well-house, happy I, for once, knew how to do something.

Simplest way to describe the next hour is to say I kept repeating "Let me call the plumber" while house guest asked me questions like did I have a something or other tool (I never did) or was there a turn-off valve under the sink or was the turn-off valve under the sink for both hot and cold water and didn't I have any kind of wrench etc. etc.

Simplest way to describe the hour after that is to say I kept repeating "Let me call the plumber" while we all went down to what used to be Mr. Ed's Fix-it Center and is now Sun Valley Hardware and house guest engaged in long and incomprehensible conversations with Greg On The Floor about exactly which piece of hardware needed purchasing and exactly where it went in the line-up of bits that were going back into the faucet.

Simplest way to describe the rest of the day is to say I kept saying "Thank you so much" to house guest after he fixed the faucet that JDG had told me needed tightening and saved me the cost of having the plumber come to the house.

Jupiter Square Jupiter

So this has been going on in the background for several days with the somewhat ominous heading of "Impending Shortages" given to it by astrodienst. Funnily enough <roll eyes>, I've put myself on a strict budget since the beginning of the month and am attempting to buy only what I need and nothing that I merely want - this after a credit card bill for April of $2,600, which gave me pause even though I'm aware my putting every single item possible to put on it on it so I can get Air Miles often has it hover around the $2,000 mark.

I do - choke - pay it off every month but each month I do so takes another month of life expectancy with moolah away, so right now if AAPL stays where it is I'm good until I'm
73 - older than many people in the Obit column every day for sure, but the women in my family have tended to live into their eighties or nineties and being 85 with no moolah is not what I'd call an inviting prospect.

So - today was the day I applied for my Chase Select Credit Card, thus in some convoluted way giving myself another year or so of life + ability to eat if I can only stop buying anything that catches my eye, even if it does cost only a dollar or so in the PAWS thrift shop.

I did do well in Deming yesterday, spending absolutely nothing except at Lottaburger <deep sigh>, although of course to not spend money in Deming scarcely qualifies as any kind of achievement. There's a Walmart (and there's one of them in Silver), a K-Mart, a Dollar Tree and a Tractor Supply Company, one of which is also in Silver and into either one of which I have yet to set foot <pardon my syntax>.

Today I had to shell out about three dollars for some plumbing supplies but can scarcely complain as the house guest who fixed the kitchen faucet for me saved me an at least fifty dollar visit from the plumber. I did also buy a sixteen dollar wrench on house guest's advice as I've realized it's a crucial household tool I've never had, and definitely romps home to a win in the "need" rather than "want" category.

So we shall see. Twenty-three days to go until the end of this credit card billing cycle and I'm already up to $660 seemingly without breathing. And while I don't really WANT 100 gallons of propane, I need it and *should* have ordered it today.

Venus on the Ascendant

Okay, so I have absolutely no discipline and have been remiss, to put it mildly, with posting, and if I could only manage to get something up every day it would all make so much more sense as a narrative, but I'm not capable of it so it doesn't.

So - a quick backtrack to Easter when JDG arrived with three dozen eggs and a not-so-long ago backtrack to when the bikers were here and Food Basket had a special of two boxes of 18 eggs each for four dollars and then for two days in a row the bikers didn't have time for breakfast before they left for the day.

Result - lemon curd, which I made on Saturday night and left out on the counter to cool. Sunday morning I scooped a big dollop onto a spoon, started licking it, came into the computer room to check astrodienst for the day and there is was, five minutes off - Venus on the Ascendant. Love, art and money? Not for me, at least not on Sunday.

Jupiter Trine Moon

This seems to have passed almost unnoticed after the frenzy of having the bikers here and the lightning trip to Cruces to pick up the chairs with Jupiter sextiling the Sun and Mars sextiling Mars, but I suppose that's what trines do.

The bikers left late Sunday afternoon (this, of course, is glossing over five days of lots of egg-cooking and dishes and emptying trash cans) and I fell in a heap, played tennis Monday, came back and got the room ready for the two friends who are here for a week, had dinner with them, got up yesterday and had a tennis lesson, back to the house, friends went out and I fell in a heap again and caught up with The New Yorkers that pile up week after week.

So today I have the dregs of the trine and here I am at the desktop in the back room staring at the winter's worth of filing on the desk and planning a trip to the dump - both very optimistic house-related goals. We'll see.

Jupiter Sextile Sun

So Jupiter sextiles the Sun and here I am frantically emailing someone on Craigslist Las Cruces to get the measurements of the two wicker chairs they have on sale for $25 the pair




And three days later: that was exactly as far as I got before D offered to take me in her car so there'd be room for both chairs and we went to Cruces and got the chairs and then I came back and the bikers were here and....