The Expanse

An easy evening so I'm relaxing and watching the latest episode of The Expanse. I've read the books and I'm enjoying the series immensely.

Work was pretty straight forward today. I've managed to knock a couple of things off the list this week and I'm hoping to hammer a couple of more off tomorrow. I've got two projects that are going to go partially live or live with problems and I'm just going to have to ride the tide there. I should get much closer and have a much clearer picture tomorrow, especially if I get the quiet day I'm hoping for.

Other than that I'm doing okay. On the personal level not much going on. The high level of work has kept my personal adventures or misadventures to a minimum. The weather has been beautiful as Spring unfolds around me. I've been loving the return of the various denizens of the bird tribe. They're always entertaining out there on the patio.

Monday Mania

I was primed to let go of a full-scale vent about midday today. Everything in the universe was under my skin. I actually took a break from work and sat down and started writing. Furiously writing. They weren't exactly pleasant things.

Writing them down and then releasing them helped. Finally breaking through a logjam at work helped. A bit of lunch helped. My stress was banging off the walls and every little thing was waiting to let go.

The currents are still running deep inside of me and I suspect I'm going to fight the same battle again tomorrow, though hopefully not as bad.

Tonight though I'm having a small snack and planning on curling up for a while before sleep with Neil Gaiman's retelling of Norse Mythology. I hate to say it, but so far I'm underwhelmed. I'm hoping it gets better. So far I'd have to rate it as a mediocre retelling. But I'm going to figuratively cross my fingers and keep reading.

Let's see - every day has a high point and, though I had to dig a bit to find it, there were definitely a few great moments. Two things popped immediately to my mind. I had a great conversation with TR tonight, which always helps to soothe my soul.

Then, at sometime mid-morning the mockingbird made his triumphant return. He was sitting in the fruit tree across the street running through his repertoire of bird songs and other urban sounds, which includes his imitation of a car alarm. Last year they nested around the corner. I'm thinking it would be pretty cool if they nested just across the street.

I also had a very pleasant hot bath a short while ago, which was very soothing and sandalwood scented. Then, writing this has helped soothe my soul a little, so as days go, though it had its horrible moments of stress, it was, at the end, a good day. And that's all I ask for at the end of the day. Here's hoping for sweet sleep and pleasant dreams.


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A Weekend of Napping

It has been a weekend of the napping. I napped for four hours on Friday and I followed it up with a two hour nap on Saturday. It remains to see what sort of napping I’m going to get out of Sunday. I think that a lack of solid sleep and intermittent work stress kept me from getting solid sleep through the week. Fortunately it was a quiet weekend, with nothing planned, and I was able to take advantage of that overwhelming desire to nap.

I slept well both nights, Friday and Saturday, deeply and peacefully. So I think I should be going into the new week well rested. This morning, Sunday morning, has been productive. I woke up early, with a desire to attend the first mass, so I did. After that it was breakfast with Tyrone at the Hickory pit, then a trip to the Laundromat in Campbell. Not a lot of laundry, three light loads, enough to make the trip worthwhile.

While I was watching the machines spin around I called my stepdad Bill and wished him a happy Father’s Day. From there I need to stop at big lots to look at patio furniture. So far, they are the ones who are the closest to having what I’m looking for. I’m looking for a couch at least 6 feet long the patio. I want something that I can comfortably lay down on. They have a nice one for about $400. It looks to me like the price on most of them, on most of the ones I’m looking for, is pretty consistent across the board. It just dawns on me, sitting here, that there may be something at one of the secondhand stores that meets my need. I may have to take a run to their.

After that I stopped at target to pick up some incidental things including a small birdbath for the patio. Nothing fancy, a ceramic vessel that looks like an oversized juice squeezer. It should work well. Right now there is a small coterie of birds on the patio chirping merrily away as they munch on the black oil sunflower. These birds are the larger brown sparrows and they are quite a talkative lot. There are a couple in the birdfeeder and a couple more on the patio floor. One of the interesting things about the brown sparrows is they definitely have their own internal pecking order. I think one of the fascinating things about watching the birds at the feeder is to watch their social order, is to watch how they are organized, how to go about the process of eating and socializing. With the brown sparrows there is always a bit of jostling as if no one is quite satisfied with the social order. The Red Capped Sparrows on the other hand seem content with their social order. The doves are the most fearless of the birds. If I come home and open the patio they will, at most, move from the feeder to the rail. Then they will sit there on the rail and look at me as if they are waiting for me to make the next move. If they ultimately decide to take flight it is grudgingly. The sparrows, in general, will eat and take off. The doves will eat, then find a comfortable perch, and linger for a while. Sometimes even go to sleep, which is very cool.

My plan for the immediate future is that I’m going to meet Rick and Tony for lunch over at the Sonoma chicken coop in Campbell California. I may change my mind upon arrival but right now I’m looking forward to their chicken Cobb salad. It is very good. After that I want to go out and catch a movie. I am in the mood for light fare so I want to see either 22 Jump Street or Angelina Jolie in Maleficent. Either of them looks like they would be very entertaining. After that, maybe a light dinner, then home for the evening. I have a spot of work that I may do this evening. A couple of email I want to get out. So I’m going to wrap this up and publish it online. I’ve been very negligent in my writing over the last couple of months it feels. No real reason, just the way it has failed to flow. It’s not that I’m not writing it’s just that I have been not inclined to share it.

Further Adventures With A Safety Razor

So, today was the second morning that I shaved with the safety razor.  It went well this time, only one small nick and no razor burn, resulted in a nice, tight, close shave. There is definitely an art to it, but the end result feels very good.

I slept well last night.  I woke up early this morning and lingered in bed for a while before slipping out, and then I've basically just eased through the morning in incidental silence.  I was sitting here having a cup of coffee and a little band of sparrows arrived on the porch and set about squabbling over who got the best position at the bird feeder.  Anyone who has ever seen sparrows at a bird feeder realizes they love kicking seeds all around and for a brief moment this morning it looked like they were having a contest to see who could kick them the farthest.  The sheer joy of life it embodied made me smile.

I started to watch TV this morning and then decided to pass on it - I guess I was in the mood for silence.  I web surfed a bit, but otherwise, I am just quietly easing into the day. I am going to head out in about fifteen minutes to meet Tony for breakfast, and then - well, and then I have no idea what I am going to do.

I do not have anything planned today.  There really isn't any movie out there that I am burning to see.  I may slip out and play some pool later in the afternoon, but time will tell on that.  It will depend on what sort of mood I am in.  I am tempted to circle back home and just spend a quiet day playing in the house, maybe doing some of the house cleaning that I've been putting off.  I don't know.  It is definitely going to be one of those days that I figure out as I go.

Daily Life: A Bit More of Birds and Books

Birds

To dream of chirping and/or flying birds, represents joy, harmony, ecstasy, balance, and love. It denotes a sunny outlook in life. You are experiencing spiritual freedom and psychological liberation. It is almost as if a weight has been lifted off your shoulders.

Books

To see books in your dream, indicates calmness. You are moving toward your goals at a slow and steady pace.?Books also symbolize knowledge, intellect, information and wisdom. Consider the type of book for additional clues. The dream may represent your calling into a specific field of work or an area that you need to devote more study to.

http://www.dreammoods.com/

Well, I had a little bit of time in the inbetween and I went over to Dream Moods (thank you Cynthia) to check on the meaning of birds and books in a dream. I've posted the interpretations above for each of them respectively and I have to say I was pretty amazed at the accuracy of the interpretation from Dream Moods to capture the "mood of the dream". I woke from the dream of birds reading and discussing books in my room in a very good mood - definitely a sunny outlook on life and definitely a great feeling of wonder and calm. The morning of the dream I was talking to my dear T.R. and she imagined the dream as "chikadee's with chapbooks" and that image is also a delightful one to visualize.

Daily Life: Two Dreams

I had a pair of interesting dreams this weekend.

Saturday morning I awoke from a dream that my bedroom was full of birds. They were perched all around the room and there were all different kinds of birds and they all had different kinds of books. It was as if I was in a library for birds, or in a bird book club, where they had all gathered at dawn to discuss what they were reading and those discussions where enthusiastic critiques of literature.

Sunday morning I awoke from a dream in sepia! To the best of my knowledge I have dreamt in color and I have dreamt in black and white, but I have never dreamt in sepia. It was a simple dream of a woman dressing.

(If you are unsure what sepia is, here is a link to a portrait of a woman in sepia, portrait by Steve Malcomson on Redbubble.)

Daily Life: Morning

I woke an hour or so before dawn this morning. As I padded around the apartment brewing coffee and making breakfast I opened the patio doors to hear the sound of a morning symphony of birds and to fill the apartment with the lush scent of rain. Unfortunately, a neighborhood skunk had other plans, so the door was closed as quickly as it was opened! Off to a rolling start here in semi-rainy California.