Saturday 12/19/09
4:55am - My inner clock went off, right on time… we don't need no sticking alarms. The room was warm now, so I turned off the heaters, which had been going on and off all night, trying to keep the air above the temperature where we could see our exhalations and have our reading glasses fog up.
I put on my long johns and a long-sleeved t-shirt, and then my pants, shirt, sweater, and coat, and went outside for my morning fix of nicotine, caffeine, and fresh air. There was a heavy drizzling overcast, so the beautiful star-light that we had been appreciating thru our window as we drifted off to sleep last night was not available as I had hoped it would be. Instead, I was bathed in almost total darkness.
I heard some movement in the brush, and strained to see thru the blackness. It was a wolf… a BIG wolf… and it was headed straight towards me. Then I noticed its tongue was hanging out the side of its mouth, and its tail was wagging.
Whew… it was a neighborhood dog, and it was only coming over to say hi. I dropped my cigarette behind me, and put both my hands down by my knees and turned them so the backs of them were facing the beautiful 'husky-wolf-mix', the way my mom had taught me… to let the dog smell my hands and not feel threatened.
I wish people were as good as dogs (and other animals) at sensing the intentions of people. Animals seem to be able to tell right away if a person is kind and gentle, or angry and potentially dangerous. Bees are that way too. I wonder why humans seem to have lost that ability?
As I was daydreaming and scratching the top of the wolf-dog's head, I remembered the 'going to sleep technique' my mom taught me when I was a young child. I wrote it down to share with others a few years ago, and this seems like a good place to 'insert' it:
SLEEPING WELL AND WAKING UP HAPPY
As you put your head on your pillow, and start to relax… Listen to your breath. Hear it become deeper and slower. Let your body go limp, and let your mind unwind. Let your mind begin to stop turning.
Then… as you sense yourself starting to drift off to sleep, Think about something that happened that day. Do not think about anything specific about what happened, But instead, think about the good feeling it gave you.
As you continue to relax and as you continue to drift to sleep, Try to make the last semi-conscience thought be… Of something that you know is going to happen tomorrow. Again, don’t think of anything specific about what will happen…
Think only of how good it will make you feel. It even works if you can’t think of anything that you know will happen. All you have to do is believe that something will happen Which will make you feel good.
You can even let a little smile etch your face if you wish. My mother taught me this technique when I was a child. Now, I do not even have to think about it when I go to sleep… But I ALWAYS wake up happy.
Thank you Mom
Rand and Kathy were running late, so they asked us to go to the restaurant ahead of them, to make sure we could get a table at the popular breakfast hang hot in down town Weed. I ate my 'meat lovers omelet', and then proceeded to finish the remaining half of G's food. I was embarrassed, but not enough to not finish it… including her bread with all four containers of the jam that came with our meals. G is working with me to try and break my habit of feeling like I must finish all the food on our plates. Like she says, "The scraps I leave will not help any of the starving orphans."
When I mentioned to our hosts about how I had been trying to find some mistletoe to share with the friends and family we were gonna being seeing on our adventure, Rand assured me that we would find some as we were coming into Ashland (Oregon), where we were headed after we finished our meal.
Sure enough, shortly after getting off the freeway, they over at a wide spot in the road, and there it was… waiting for the picking. I reached down and grabbed a medium sized broken branch lying at my feet and used the hooked end of it, to carefully snap off more than enough of the stuff to suit my needs.
I laughed and said out loud as I was harvesting my treasure, that it probably looked as if I had done this before. They seemed surprised when they found out this was the first time I'd gathered mistletoe, nor had I seen it done this way before. I was kinda happy the stuff wasn't as hard to collect as I had anticipated, and kinda sad… it would have been more fun for me if it had taken a little more effort.
I gave a few sprigs of it to the ladies, and put all but a little piece of it in the back of my truck. After holding it over my head and giving G a little smooch, I waited for Rand to finish up with Kathy, and then walked towards her. She was so cute… she had just met me… and I could tell as I approached her that she had no idea what was coming.
NOTE: The following description is not what really happened. I just wrote it this way to make the story 'better'.
She was stiff when I put my lips on her cheek, but almost instantly melted into my arms and bent over backwards at her waist, allowing the moment to be as overly dramatic as I had hoped it would be. After pulling her back up into an upright position, I turned towards Rand with the mistletoe held high. He backed away slowly, with his arms held out in front of him… shaking his head and saying with a little a smirk on his face… "I don't know you well enough Ned, let's wait awhile for this." Thankfully G's friends were just as silly as her boyfriend.
We arrived at their newly purchased condo with just enough time to unpack, and then were off to the movie theater to watch 'Avatar', the new movie that was getting so much hype. I had hoped to wait until I was with one or both of my daughters to see it, but the excitement in our hosts eyes when I mentioned the movie, was enough to easily make me change my plans. The movie was entertaining, but not the 'next classic' like some of the critics had been advertising it to be.
I want to talk only of two things about the movie…
1. The 'G-rating' of the brutality and the sexuality: I was totally impressed and refreshed by the way these normally 'over the top' aspects of most movies was kept at an almost 'Walt Disney' level. No breasts… no gratuitous groping… and NO BLOOD. The violent scenes were still violent and as far as I'm concerned there was nothing lost, by not having gore and guts and blood spilling out everywhere.
2. The line, "I SEE YOU": It is the translation of an 'alien word' that is used when two people are in love, and they want to express that feeling to the other person. Personally, I think the meaning translates the same in both languages. I thought it was beautiful. Of course… I am a hopeless romantic.
After the movie, we stopped off at a local market so Rand and Kathy could pick up some snacks to take to the potluck we were going to next.
It was an Eckankar Christmas party. I italicized the 'x-mas' word because I thought it was kind of interesting that a group of people who didn't believe in Jesus, would celebrate his birthday. I know, I know, I know… they celebrate the 'concept' of what Jesus stood for, I don't really have any problem with this, I'm just trying to be cute. G… am I cute?
One of G's friends is a leader and in the philosophy of something called, 'Higher Alignment', which is a method to describe and understand the way certain people are the way they are. The way certain aspects of a person's personality effect how a person thinks.
It's pretty complicated and involved, the only reason I'm bringing it up now is because 'Larry' says that when two people are in a relationship and their 'energies' or 'processes' are not the same… one of the keys as to whether their relationship will survive or not, is whether they can honestly say to the other person, "oh, isn't that cute", when they do or say something that may be the complete opposite of what they would do or say, in the same situation or circumstances. So far, G and I think the other one is very cute.
We stayed at the potluck for about an hour and a half, and then G and I excused ourselves, with the excuse that we wanted to watch a football game. It was not a total fabrication, but when we couldn't find a pub or sports bar right away, we both took advantage of the alone time, and went back to our friends' condo.
When we got back, the first thing we did was get on line to check my email, to see if my youngest daughter Ashley had followed thru with her promise to provide us with a couple choices of motels to stay at the next evening, near their home in Portland. As I pretty much expected… she had not. I sent her an, "Oh, isn't that cute" message, and then read my book for a while before G joined me for some lovin'. Two nights in a row… this is a fun adventure!
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