Mars Opposed to Sun

Not a disagreement in sight, just me with a rake in what's left of the light trying to give some sense of being cared for to the triangle in between the driveways to the front and back of the house - the space I used to call the Bermuda Triangle because anything I planted there disappeared in a week, victim to drought, deer, rabbits and my lack of knowledge of horticulture in general.

But I was so much older then, ha ha, I'm younger than that now, and I have an eight foot high hollyhock growing and just beginning to flower in the, er, north garden, which anchors the end of the triangle closest to the house.

It's the scorched and barren wasteland at the other end I'm trying to make look tended, for want of a better word, and it's so frigging hot the window of activity is short, hence the raking around in the dark last night.

O for Picasa to be able to post images, although without a *before* only another struggling *gardener* in this drought-stricken wild-life-rich wind-blown corner of New Mexico would see anything that looked like an accomplishment. Yes ma'am, everything is definitely relative.

Earthquake! Earthquake!

Blimey. I know I've for Jupiter opposed to the Midheaven right now but a 5.2 earthquake (in New Mexico) is going a bit far. Good to know the house foundations are stable though.

Just like me, she says, flat on her back, waiting for it not to be one hundred degrees so she can move.

Jupiter Sextile Ascendant

So there in the mailbox is a notice there's a package at the PO and when I get it it's an I heart New York tee shirt with the heart made up of lots of little paw prints, a pair of work gloves and a pair of socks, the socks especially appreciated as they're the ones that barely cover your feet but are made of nice thin cotton instead of terry cloth, and it's in the mid-nineties every day here at the moment. God bless Albert.

With Jupiter opposed to the Midheaven, sextiling the Ascendant and about to square Mercury - and of course in its exaltation - life seems pretty good these days for a twelfth house Aries Sun, and only the start of the monsoon season could make it any better. It's all relative.

Jupiter Opposed to MC, continued...

... or is it Venus in the First, not that I'd ever associate Venus with corrugated tin. Whatever it is/was, yesterday as soon as it was cool enough to go outside I started lugging all the logs that were supposed to be forming a *rustic* boundary for the driveway up on to the slope of the hill and dragging down the bits of corrugated tin (iron?) that I bought at an estate sale way more than a year ago that I want to replace them. Definitely time to sort out Picasa so I can upload pictures here, even though of course there is no *before* shot.

I'd go on, but I slept till 8:30 after my engineering exertions and need to go food shopping while it's still cool enough to go outside, Department of Very Boring Details.

Jupiter Opposed to Midheaven

So this must be why I was cleaning the soles of a pair of Ralph Lauren Bowery Boots with a toothbrush last night so I could get them on eBay and get them out of this house. I need to clean up any leftovers from my past life that are still affecting the present adversely and get all this crap that people have left behind out of the way to clear space for the exciting new life that I know is waiting for me as soon as there's an empty corner it can fill.

The black floating shelf and the two small white ones that I have no idea where they came from but have been here for years went on to Recycle Grant County - I'd put the link but it's a closed group so it wouldn't do you any good when you got there - AND the wood burning hobby kit I bought at BigLots when Bogie died in 2006 and I thought I'd make a grave marker for him and have never opened got bundled up with them - all four pieces for $10 - come and get it but no one has yet.

Now the big question, having looked at Bowery Boots on eBay, is do I buy a pair of shoelaces so the ones going up for auction look better, or shall I be lazy, not buy shoelaces, and risk not getting as much money for them than if I did? More will be revealed.

Venus Conjunct the Ascendant

I had this in my solar return a few years ago and it seemed all year long people gave me things - a set of four chairs for outside, a fire screen, a truly fabulous hat (which I lost).  Not exactly all year long, but more largesse than usually comes my way.

Thursday, with subject title in effect, D and I played tennis and the first thing she did was hand me a new pink hat she'd bought in ABQ. And in next year's solar return, not that I look ahead or anything....

Venus Trine Midheaven

Good for creative endeavors - does that include moving tree trunks around to widen paths in the enclosed bit at the back of the house and setting up three smaller ones around a big one to make a, er, rustic table and chairs in the ever-evolving still not finished after four years front *garden* outside the addition?

Whether it does or not, that's what I did, as well as finishing off my taxes and - wonder of wonders - filling out the beneficiary forms for the two bank accounts that have any money in them and mailing the whole lot off, in some weird state of I-can't-quite-believe-I-am-actually-doing-this-after-all-this-time that I might soon get used to.

Mars Square Natal Nodes

While transiting Mars causes bloodshed and mayhem across the globe as it sets off the Grand Cross, closer to home it got me to sit down and tackle my 2013 taxes - that and Sun and Mercury, both in two right now, I suppose.

I made a valiant attempt, anyway, calling Citibank to ask why I didn't get a tax report for selling stock in a brokerage IRA - oh right, I remember, because I didn't withdraw the funds so there was nothing to report...

Commercial affairs - hah!

Transiting South Node on Mercury

Is it this that has finally got me listing stuff on eBay, after thinking about it for months if not years? Yesterday, with the aspect exact, the Flax tunic I bought myself four years ago for my 65th birthday when I thought I would try and upgrade the way I dress (keyword: thought)  sold for $36, with no watchers at all for the Jones NY jacket and the Western shirt with appliqued cowboy boots I shouldn't even have bothered to list but never mind.

If it doesn't sell it goes to the thrift shop and either way I never have to look at whatever it is again and think that I want to put it on eBay. Now if I can just get the Ralph Lauren Polo Bowery Boots that J wants me to sell listed then maybe I can move on to the 50 or so Mutoscope cards Curtis gave me about 30 years ago and then of course there's the brand new pink Timberland boots I bought myself here two years ago for $15 and have never worn...

Better get a move on though because the node is moving on, next step Sun for me, and God only knows what happens then.

Venus Square Moom

Played tennis at 7:00 am - first time since February 12 when broke wrist - back home, potted plant for L, loaded car with non-smelly recyclables, drove out to Mimbres, lunch with L at Living Harvest, remembered to hand over plant, drove back to Silver and went straight out to the dump to unload, back to house, got room ready for b&b-er, drove back *downtown* to play Upwords with B, lost as always, back to house, watched The Lone Ranger and fell asleep. 

Sun in the Second

So I'm supposed to be reflecting on my values and the things I value and examining my relationship to the resources of my life, whatever that means, to quote Prince Charles in a slightly different context, although he's an appropriate person to come to mind as he too, I believe, has a significant relationship with the plants in his life and spends a fair amount of time chatting away to them if not constantly digging them up and trying to find new homes for them where they will be happier. (That, I believe, is done for him by others, except come to think of it it's not as his plants very probably get put in the right place from the get go as both he and the people who do his planting for him have a deep understanding of horticulture and know exactly what kind of soil and location will make each new addition to the garden grow and thrive, completely unlike me out here in the middle of nowhere weeding the Gila.)

Which segues neatly into what I do indeed currently value, which is the life of *my* plants outside, although not for one second would I say I have greater control of my life through them, whatever that means. (Sorry, astrodienst. Not with you on that one.)

It's the exact opposite. The plants, at the moment, are controlling my life as I spend the greater part of the day running around after them covering them up with shade cloth and bit of old sheets - the ones I haven't already dug up and moved to different locations, that is.

Any day now I'm going to download Picasa so I can add photos to this. In the olden days I used to be able to upload straight from my computer but Larry and Brin have put a stop to that, the creeps. Come to think of it, that's something I really did value, but enough of this nostalgic whining. The Sun has moved again.









At this time you should reflect upon your values and the things that you value. During this month-long transit you should examine your relationship to the resources of your life. At this time you need to express yourself through your material and nonmaterial resources, using them to define you to yourself and others. Now you want to have greater control of your life through the things that you value. On the material level this may mean that you will acquire possessions in order to gain more control over your own life or over other people. On the psychological level it indicates a need to assert your value system. But remember that others have a right to their own values. You should stand up for your own, but not by obliterating someone else's.

Venus Trine North Node...

...and Sun trine Moon, which just happens to be at the degree of AAPL's  Sun, which makes it a fitting day for the stock split to happen and, with Venus also trining *my* North Node in Capricorn, me to spend a happy hour trying to figure out what the new split-adjusted dividend will be.

The financial obsession, with Mercury now retrograde in Two, took on a new twist with me calling Dish and telling them I was fed up with getting special offers for new subscribers and what could they do for me as a long-term loyal customer - the answer, leaving me somewhat stunned,  being taking $27 a month off the bill each month. My God it's so easy when you just do it, which Nancy Reagan, of course, always knew.

Sun Sextile Sun

Taking stock? Ha! Watching the Aladdin segment on the Tony's and can't for the life of me understand why Soldiering On hasn't been snapped up by now.

Almost frightening myself with how productive I'm being, if finally looking through and sorting and filing months' worth of mail can be considered productive (and it can). Even made a start on getting taxes ready to file and am working on gardening book (!!!!!) while watching Broadway's Best.

Next?

Venus Sextile Mars

I have this by progression for the next couple of years so I'll have to make sure I have friends over every couple of months so I can keep the house clean.

The corner shelf unit in *my* bathroom and the high-end closet organizer that sits on a shoe shelf under the window have been pulled out from the walls for a couple of weeks as a supposed nudge to myself to clean the baseboards behind them, but  all I have done is lean over them both to get to the sink and cleaned my teeth at arm's length. You can get used to anything when you're lazy.

Have a friend come over though with the subject aspect and out comes the Spic'n'Span and the flannel sheet I was going to return to Land's End because it lasted only two winters but after five years realized that wasn't going to happen and cut it up for rags and I have a clean bathroom - magic. Or celestial influence. Take your pick.

Venus Square Pluto

I think that Venus in my chart
Is crasser far than love or art.
Instead of "Oh I love you honey"
I got a great big bunch of money.

The above, written for one of Michael Lutin's astrology classes, proves true yet again as my 2012 New Mexico tax refund, contested by the state and requiring additional proof of withholding, sent probably three months ago, * miraculously* appears in my checking account as this aspect perfected this morning.

Mars Trine Uranus

So I managed to get two bits of twisted metal - remnants of the chicken coop - into Zippy, along with a disintegrating old tarp from the woodpile, an ancient Marimekko comforter and six bags os smelly trash, and do yet another trip to the dump, but the really surprising part of the day was sitting down at nine am to start transcribing work and realizing that even with the software replacing the transcribing machine, I needed a foot pedal.

Could I find the foot pedal? No. Do I think I threw the foot pedal out? Would like to think not, but it's looking like a yes. Could it still be in Cambridge? Anything's possible. Will I have to order a new one? Yes.

And there is a God, I realize. After deciding I would spend $150 on a genuine from 1963 pink Marimekko dress on eBay I managed to stop myself at $310.50, with the auction ending at $315.50. Bidding had stopped at $67 when I entered the fray, going higher and higher and always being outbid but driving the price up nevertheless.

Somewhere in the world the winning bidder is sticking pins into a faceless voodoo doll, while I'm listening to Judy Garland singing "This is my Lucky Day" over and over again.

Sun Square Mars Part II

There really isn't one. Yesterday, with Mars trine Uranus, I didn't go back to writing, surprise surprise.

Sun Square Mars Part I

So of course this is the day I decide to do something with the slump blocks (!) given to me I think three years ago and also to attempt to move the compost heap, definitely something I wouldn't try without energy (idiocy?)  beamings from above.

The compost heap has been a mistake from the start. Rather than spend $200 on one of those new-fangled drums on legs things which I know from word of mouth work very well and are simple to operate, I decided it made much more sense to spend - don't remember - $25? - on a piece of black rubber with holes in it and four plastic stakes that turn it into an unwieldly free-standing bin that you throw all your scraps into, so that the compost, such as it is, forms at the bottom and you have no access to it because you keep throwing stuff in on top and the only way to get at what's on the bottom is by dismantling the whole thing and having a great big mess of eggshells, avocado skins, grape stems, orange peel and whatever other remnants of your diet that make compost scattered over an area three times the size of the bottom of the bin and then having to somehow dig out what has actually turned into compost and then reassemble the bin and put all the stuff that hasn't back in.

Disclaimer: if I had done it properly this would  not have been the case. I know I didn't keep it wet enough. I know I should have added more topsoil than I did. I should have dug around in there more often and mixed it all up. I should have put in fertilizer to help it along. All of that would have helped, as would reading the FM, but I didn't and the result was what I was faced with yesterday, and as this is turning into one of the longer posts ever made I think I'll do it in installments.