in a little less than twenty one hours...
I will be fifty years old...
I guess that makes me the sad really old goth...
Forgive me for waxing nostalgic, but I was thinking today of all the things I've experienced in that time, things I've seen, things I've heard. It's pretty amazing, the events that have occured in my life and in the world in that time...
I remember standing in my yard with my parents in the middle of the night to watch one of the first American satellites in the sky overhead. It was called Echo I.
I remember the first human to orbit the earth, Yuri Griguran, a Soviet.
I remember watching the first American to travel in space, Allen Shepard, take off from Cape Canaveral.
I've lived through the asassination of an American president.
I watched the funeral of Sir Winston Churchill on TV.
I've lived through the era of the Viet Nam war.
I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show.
I've seen a total eclipse of the sun.
I've seen a comet.
I've gone from writing on a typewriter to writing on a computer.
I've been in a tornado and several hurricanes.
I saw the Berlin Wall put up and stayed up all night watching it being torn down.
I watched the civil rights marches in Washington.
I almost made it to Woodstock.
I've been priviliged to be an observer of so many events that have shaped our lives that I can't even imagine being able to write them all down.
And, aside from those events, there have been so many personal events that still come to mind now and then...
the smell of our house when my parents turned on the heat for the first time in the fall...
the quiet solitude of the woods behind my house, where, as a young person, I first became aware of the presence of the Goddess and the God in the world around me...
the excitement of a child's Christmas...
the thrill of seeing a flight of geese overhead in the Autumn...
the smell of burning leaves...
walking home from a friend's house during a snowfall, how quiet it was...
first love....
it's amazing how many events make up who we are. I could never list them all without turning myself inside out to do so.
Time is fleeting... the future never seems to get here, the past happens so quickly.
I hope the next fifty years are as interesting...
Blessed be, friends.

comments, anyone..?

congratulations..!
to all our friends in the People's Republic of China for a successful launch of their first manned spacecraft. I hope all goes well and that this will be an avenue of further understanding and cooperation between our countries. While there is some popular opinion that the exploration of near space is a waste of money and time, I think that anything that increases our knowledge of our little planet and the vast universe we inhabit will have untold benefits in years to come. The more we know about what's "out there", the more we learn about ourselves.
Blessed be, friends.

i am not dead...
I've been slaving away on the renovation of the lair's kitchen. All the cabinets have been stripped down to bare wood, which is a nice, rich red oak. I've spent the last few nights sanding and applying a clear acrylic coating. It's slow work, but the results are worth it. When they are done, I'll put on the new hardware, which will probably be green cut glass handles, which will be a nice accent to the green tin ceiling and the slate floor, both of which are yet to happen, but have been picked out. We're also opting for a press tin backsplash behind all the counters, which will match the pattern of the ceiling, but will probably not get painted, as they come a nicely lacquered stainless steel.
I spent the past Sunday cleaning up the flower beds and planting some hardy mums and some more multi-color petunias for some late color.
The leaves are starting to turn and the diminishing light is starting to bring on the usual seasonal melancholy, so stand by for the usual depressing shit you've come to know and love.
The new page design is crawling along, all I need is to finish some photography and send it to the web designer so she can get this thing rolling. It will be something to see when it's done.
So, that's it for now, I think. I'll try to keep you updated on things as time allows.
Blessed be, friends.