Under pressure........

Life is lively around Pendragon Hold today. The wife is wondering around the house banging on things. She wants to incorporate rhythm instruments into our ceremonies. I have this drum my friend Joe gave me. He gave it to me because it doesn't really sound that hot, no matter how I hit it. I'm allowing that I don't know the nuances of drumming, which is probably a better explanation. So, we are on the lookout for things that sound cool when you hit them. Seems like a perfectly pagan way of doing things.

I'm amazed at how centered I am right now, considering the pressures I have been under lately. Juggling money is like juggling razor blades, no mater how you do it, things are gonna get bloody. Sometimes I feel positively anemic. There are other pressures which have nothing to do with money. Now that I'm fifty, it seems I'm no where near as horny as I used to be. There's a doctor at work who claims my testosterone level is to low, and he's taken blood samples to prove it to me. I really don't doubt him. Chances are I'll be smearing testosterone gel on myself, and I get this feeling it's going to be a two-edged sword. Sure, the wife's likely to get some reward out of this, and that's all well and good, but you that know me know that I have a mouth that likes to motor. Having my natural male aggressiveness enhanced is likely to loosen up my tendency to speak first and think about what I'm saying later.....much too later. Combine this with bosses who are all women, and I think you understand the peril I am embarking on here.

Meantime, the wife is having her bad knee lubricated. Five weeks of injections of this stuff made from chicken feathers and physical therapy, to ease the pain and hold off the day when a new knee joint needs to be installed. I wish the goatmobile could be fixed so easily. When are they going to sell health insurance for cars? Not that I could have afforded it.

A friend has offered us a vacation, all but free of charge. the "all but" is that we can't get there. We haven't seen anything resembling a vacation since the ark settled on the mountaintop. But you know something? Sometimes the offer alone, untaken, is worth a trip to Disneyland. It felt good just imagining it. If he doesn't know how much I appreciated the gesture, I hope he does now.

The wife is as nature-concious as I am, but sometimes her modern sensibilities get in the way. Contemplating the disaster that this septic system has become, I was looking into composting toilets. These things are amazing, in that they require no plumbing, are vented in such a way as to make odors no problem, and give you rich compost back, instead of depositing all that crap in a concrete tank that ultimately needs to be pumped out anyway. She's really leery of the idea of human waste, that it's a disease ridden thing that just needs to go away, sight unseen. Hell, human waste from humans who aren't inflicted with terrible diseases to begin with is no worse than goat dung, which we use in our garden. I could divert the grey water from the washer and sinks to the shade garden, which would be great in the summer time when we tend to get long dry stretches without rain. This idea that marriage is a democracy sometimes puts a kink into common sense solutions.

The murder rate in Jacksonville has ramped up these past few years. The common thread seems to be young black men getting "disrespected", usually by other young black men, and repaying the favor with extreme prejudice. Plenty of other excuses abound, such as poverty and lack of hope, but guess what? I've had my share of less than stellar financial health lately, with plenty of disrespect from my employers, and I could easily give up hope that things will ever get better, but somehow I have yet to feel the need to go postal. Instilling fear in others does not earn one respect. It only earns you enemies. These kids must be taking their cue from our government.

With some of our best bloggers taking extended vacations, a kind of chill has run thru our little community. Well, neither rain, nor shine, nor gloom of night, shall stay this blogger from his appointed rounds. A hurricane might, but gloom of night? Naw! The following are things that might slow me down. Hurricane. Direct hit by tornado. My electric being shut off. My computer melting down. My connection going down. Thermonuclear war. Pandemic. Suicide. My wife getting her fill of my blogging. A visit by the NSA. Short of all that, you can count on THE Michael. Whether or not that's a good thing remains in your stead.