Sun Square Pluto

So my monday appointment was cancelled as the physical therapist was sick and it's Wednesday when I go for my appointment and put my name down on the sign-in sheet: me, time in 10:55, appointment time 11:00, and under doctor I write PT, feeling very accomplished at knowing the abbreviation.

One by one, the other people in the waiting room are summoned by someone in a uniform and disappear. By 11:15 I'm the only person left. (When I went for my follow-up after first seeing a doctor I sat in a windowless room for an hour and a half, going out twice to the receptionist and being assured I hadn't been forgotten, the doctor would be along in just a minute, which he was - 90 of them.)

Bearing that in mind, 15 minutes was a blink of the eye, so to speak, though how a PT session, even in Silver, could run over time I couldn't quite figure out. I'll wait another five minutes, I think, and then I'll say I can't wait any longer as I have another appointment scheduled. No need that I could see to mention the appointment was to go home and pick up my house guest so we could drive to ToC to the cactus ranch.

Just as I was about to get up and, with as much temperance as I could muster, say my piece, the receptionist looked at me and said "You're still waiting?"  Given the answer by the look on my face she looked down at the sign-in sheet. "Oh," she says. "You're here for physical therapy! You're in the wrong place! Go on through and go down the corridor and... etc. etc. etc."

"Oh!" say the physical therapy people when I go down the corridor etc. etc. etc. "There you are! We wondered what happened to you etc. etc. etc..."

When I eventually get back home with my circular piece of orange rubber to tie round a leg of the dining room table to do my exercises, a voice in my head prompts me to call the cactus ranch, a mere two-and-a-half hour drive away over a mountain range.

"Welcome to Bob's Cactus Ranch," says Bob's recorded voice. "We're open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from nine to three etc. etc. etc..."

Moon Conjunct Jupiter

So here I am with my heart full of love, kindness and friendship wondering what you're supposed to wear to physical therapy and if we'll make it to ToC today or not to go to the cactus and succulent nursery, we being me and a friend from Palm Springs who's here for a few days.

In theory we were going yesterday but a computer problem - his, not mine - took up most of the day and as ToC, like most *attractions* in this area, is two and a half hours away, put paid to that little pleasure trip.

Here endeth my yet one more time attempt as posting on here more often. With a heart full of love, kindness and friendship I am going to do the dishes from last night and see if I can stop the left front burner on the stove from only lighting halfway around and sending out three inch flames on the bit that lights because the fried green tomatoes bubbled over.

Only Moon Aspects Today

... and I'm thinking, Blimey, this is weird, physical therapy for the first time in my life and only the Moon trine Venus and the phone rings and it's the doctor's office and the therapist is sick and I'm postponed till Wednesday.

Wednesday aspect? Sun square Pluto. That's better.

And on the same day.....

....yesterday, while Venus was trining Pluto, Mars was trining Venus, and what do I do?

Interesting - just discovered I saved the above as a draft, and at this point have absolutely no idea what the answer to the question is.

Moral: write this blog every day or don't bother.

Full moon on Mercury

As I rarely write on here these days I have probably not mentioned that there's been a mild chance that I'd be spending ten days or so in Belize in the middle of November. Sometimes it's been a yes, sometimes a maybe, every once in a while a yes with conditions (sleeping under a palm tree), then a no again when the latter turned to be (fortunately for me) prohibited.

With my extensive astrological knowledge and past history of accurate *predictions*, I was pretty sure this full moon would answer the question for me once and for all.

It didn't. But I did get an email from my publisher (ahem) that a copy of one of my plays had been sold, making me a Canadian quarter richer.

Venus Square Mars

One of the better days I've had in a long time, but with no vestige of arguments or discord "arising from unexpressed sexuality" that I was aware of, nor did I find myself "inordinately attracted to find a partner without being very discriminating" (astrodienst as always).

I did find myself trying very hard to find someone who knew something about water softeners, which is turning out to be a futile pursuit, but with my new-found determination to understand the mysteries of the workings of this house it had occurred to me that there must be some way to bypass the water's going into the non-functioning water softener once it gets pumped out of the ground or the holding tank or wherever it comes from so it comes straight into the supply for the house.

 (For several days I'd been getting my exercise by hobbling up the hill to the well house when I needed to shower or flush the toilet or wash dishes, hobbling back down and doing what it was I needed to do that involved water and then hobbling back up to turn the water off when I was done, as whenever the water supply to the house was on the non-working-properly softener was pumping gallons of water out onto the ground so it ran down the hill and flooded the back patio.)

Peering around at the tangle of pipes on the ground near the water softener was as futile as trying to find a technician, but when I called T the Wonder Plumber he came through yet again, telling me the bypass valve was on top of the softener, and all I had to do was push it from one side to the other.

I did, and lo and behold, the incoming water to the house no longer pumped half of itself out onto the ground but all came waste-lessly (?) out of the taps (faucets to you). And this was only the beginning.

Next came a trip to the dump, one of the greater pleasures in life now that I live where I live, and after that it was over to D's house to pick as many green tomatoes as I could find, which turned out to be a lot.

Venus Opposed to Uranus

So on Tuesday I'd called Sears because the water softener up in the well house is going beserk. It's unplugged, because it hasn't been working well (ha!) for a while and with all the other house expenses I've had lately I figured I'd do without it for a while. Unplugged or not, I realized it had been discharging itself all night, with water being pumped out on to the ground, and while there was more rain this summer than in the past three or four years put together I'm not about to waste water like that.

Sears told me a technician would get back to me in 24 hours to make an appointment, but surprise surprise no one had called. Yesterday, with the subject aspect, I called Sears again and when the phone rang ten minutes later, with a rather touching faith I picked it up expecting it to be someone willing to come rushing out to fix the softener.

Instead, it was a DHL delivery man in El Paso, telling me he had something for me and if I needed to go out I should leave a signed authorization for him to leave the package in my absence. I asked him if it was from the U.K., he said it was, and I've been expecting my renewed passport any day now and said I would.

He hadn't come by the time I did have to go out, so I left a note and took myself off.  There was a notice in the mailbox to pick up two packages from the post office, which turned out to be the camera I ordered ten days ago and plants I'd ordered back in June, both of which I knew were coming.

When I got back to the house my passport was waiting on the front porch - three deliveries in one day, but not one of them a real surprise. The good real surprise was a notice from Tufts University that a subscription to their Catnip newsletter had been taken out in my name by my beloved A in New York. The bad surprise - the camera doesn't work and has to go back to B&H.

Venus Trine Pluto

Oh dear. How many times does it have to be proved to me that in my case Venus has absolutely nothing to do with love?

Let me now, as usual, immediately contradict myself and say I suppose it does, a little bit, as when A calls, as he did yesterday, and with many apologies for his lack of technological skills asks me to order a book from alibris for him, I tell him about six times, in all honesty, that it's no bother, I can do it in three minutes, it's not an imposition, I don't mind doing it and he can ask me any time he wants to do it for him. What I don't tell him is that he's someone who's become very dear to me, which I know he knows.

AND he insists on reimbursing me with a little bit extra.

Generalized Musings

for want of a better title. Just when, I ask myself, do I acknowledge   my love affair with astrology is coming to an end and change the name of this blog to Life In The Country?

Do I take the broad view and say Neptune in the Eleventh is wiping out any goals I may once have had while at the same time Pluto is making his way through the Ninth changing my thinking to such an extent that I've begun to drink water with a slice of lemon in it a couple of times a day so what do I expect?

Or do I do something else and go to Walmart?

Mars Square Ascendant

Okay, so we had a little bit of a disagreement about where exactly the house was, with me saying it had to be closer in to San Lorenzo and D saying the map said it was out by Little Toad Inn and me saying well Google Maps can't even get Village Road right let alone somewhere  thirty miles away from Silver but all that being said, at the exact time Mars squared the Ascendant there I was trying to get Zippy up a 30 degree slope strewn with rocks the size of dinner plates.

How how how how how can it be?

Mercury Square Pluto

Well, I don't know about hidden forces and psychological energies that could change my life being brought to light, but I did collect a gallon container of water from the well and take it off to the harvest festival in San Lorenzo to get it tested for free at the health fair - pretty nice, I thought: Mercury (enquiring minds) square deep-down (Pluto) the well, although I suppose Neptune should have been active there somewhere to make it completely accurate symbolically.

Oh! Thinks! Transiting Neptune's in Pisces! All's right with the world.

And speaking of hidden, I also had some blood drawn for a cholesterol test, and I'm expecting a police escort as soon as the results are known to get me to a doctor ASAP.

Saturn Trine Mars

So this is back again, for the third and final time, and while I'm too lazy to look back here to see what happened in January (assuming I wrote anything ha ha, although I think I was busy changing the name of this blog and starting it as a new one), I know in March I was able to knit two cable and lacy sleeves for a sweater for myself, the most complicated (and frustrating) pattern I've ever attempted. I haven't picked up the knitting bag since then and am showing no signs of doing so now, with a few days to go.

I have managed to paint the frame of the mirror I bought in Santa Fe for $4.99 and the metal surround of a clock I bought for $1.99 and hang them in the living room, although the jury's still out on whether I like the way they look or not.

Also, in a sudden fit of home improvement, I took down the two bits of poster board I was using as a bulletin board in the orifice and replaced them with the framed piece of green felt (frame also repainted black and jury still sequestered in the well house.)

Thinks! Is this Sun in Libra in the sixth? Will today's new moon bring the sewing machine out and lead to my making cushion covers from the yards and yards and yards of fabric I cannot stop myself from accumulating?  Will those summer dresses for Star Child finally take shape?

Not so fast, Dear Aries. I see Venus has just moved herself into my Seventh House, so the sewing machine will have to stay under wraps for a while longer, unless of course I decide, thrifty as always, to run up my own wedding dress.

Progressed Mercury Nearing Progressed Sun in Second

I'm boring myself with the Chiron square Uranus chronicle so will attempt a description of what the transit above seems to be meaning.  (And yes, I am aware it's not actually a transit above, it's the using the symbolic year for a day method of prediction which is even more mind-boggling than the regular old transiting planets aspecting natal ones.)

So - with both progressed planets in Gemini (commerce) and due to come together on Christmas Day, over the past year I've managed to refinance the house, saving me a chunk of change each month, begun a B&B which is not exactly bringing in a noticeable income, and sent many of my possessions off to a store in town which takes things on consignment, ditto re income.

I've become obsessed with playing Lexulous on line and am now playing with three different people, spending at least a couple of hours a night glued to the screen.

There's a well-paid copy-editing job in the works which may or may not happen, and also a possible trip to Belize (transiting Pluto in the ninth) which will set me back a couple of thousand dollars at least.

That's about all I can come up with at the moment, with an email telling me one of my partners has played a move waiting in my in- box, but when and if my word-addled brain comes up with anything else, you'll be the first to know.

More on Chiron Square Uranus

So yesterday I was off to get a second cup of coffee and today here I am on my first, and thank God, on the day the "series of unexpected incidents" perfected, all that happened was that with Sun sextile Pluto, I got the paint brush out started changing the many picture frames I've been buying lately to black - nice and appropriate for the Lord of Darkness.

Anyway, there I was on a Sunday afternoon with the water turned off and no more drips coming into the bucket, and lo and behold, when I turned the kitchen taps on to do some dishes, nothing came out! Once again Pioneer woman sprung to the rescue and, armed with a couple of empty plastic gallon water containers, made her way up to the well house, where she used the outside spigot (or is a ballcock?) to do a Jack and Jill, feeling very fortunate she had just taken a shower.

Next morning, she called T***y R, the plumber who had installed the plumbing in the first place, eleven years ago, and the morning after that, Tuesday, he returned her call and was at the house in thirty minutes. Then followed a very messy scene during which he got up on a step-stool and began to pull down about twelve square feet of sodden ceiling and a yard or two of dripping insulation while Pioneer Woman stood by stuffing it all into a series of trash bags and dragging them out on to the back patio.

I then, reverting to the first person, did a couple of sprints up to the well-house and back turning the water on and off while T***y looked up at the exposed copper tubing to see if anything was making a difference. It wasn't. As far as T could guess, the leak was the result of something called electrolysis, two of the pipes coming in contact with each other and causing a minute  honeycomb effect of tiny pin holes. According to him, the leak had been going on for months, building up a larger and larger pool of
water which had waited till Sunday to break through. No argument from me.

Next morning, T the Younger and his helper appeared and replaced the piping, telling me one of my neighbors was an expert sheet-rocker and would probably be willing to do the job of patching up the ceiling for me. Drawing a veil over the "When Father Papered the Parlour" aspect of the repair job, it was completed in a week or so, and any day now I'll have scraped the last piece of plaster off the French doors.

Against my better judgment, I then asked not-so-expert-at-all as it had turned out sheet-rocking neighbor if he would loosen the well-house water filter container for me, as I'd been trying unsuccessfully to do it myself for months. It's a ridged circular plastic thingie that's suspended off the pipe that goes from the water softener to the main water supply (or something like that), and you turn it by putting a tennis racket shaped thing without the strings onto it from underneath and moving it ridge by ridge. At least you do if you're not me.

And once again, to be continued. It's very long. And mostly boring.