Solstice Greetings to all of you!
However you choose to party or pray
May the light start shining on your way..
Moving out of this darkness into the light of a new day
Best wishes for a Happy Holiday!!!
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We have been having crazy windy rainy hailing thundering wild weather for days now with no end in site. I hope the skies part enough to see the Total Lunar Eclipse this evening.
I, for one, am very anxious for the light to return!
My friend just died.
We were tight in the 80’s in Fairfax.
Mahanaim (Naim) Satya - 1987
We worked together at The Good Earth Natural Food Store when it was on Bolinas Road.
We ate together at Wildwood Cafe.
We watched Purple Rain a dozen times!
He ‘turned me on’ to some fun dance disco music (Pointer Sisters) when dancing was my passion..and World Beat bands ruled Marin (think Freaky Executives, Big City, Looters). Although he never danced with me.
He taped the whole Bob Marley collection for me.
He was a complicated man, spiritual, musician, and chef.
He knew me in ways no one else ever has, he had that knack to get at the core quickly.
We lost touch when I moved to Humboldt in 1990, I only saw him once since then probably in ’92?
We reconnected last year on Facebook.
He emailed me last month and said he had a stroke but was healed miraculously.
He died yesterday, December 14, 2010.
Of course I am sad. Crying actually.
One of the things death brings up for me is not only do we miss the ones who left, they took with them the memories and knowledge of who we were to them (a part of who we are).
No one else has those memories of me now, ‘cept for myself of course. So it does feel like a piece of me died too.
Mahanaim Satya (Kenneth Jenkins)
23 June 1945 – 14 December 2010
We bought a new to us Toyota Tundra.
I have been looking online, Craig’s List, from Oregon south to the bay area for a month or more, every day.
Seems like if you have a Toyota truck, especially a Tundra, you don’t sell them. They don’t lose value and there are few to find, especially in the price range I was looking for.
Russel needs a new work-school truck to haul his Aikido mats, his old 1990 Toyota is worn out, but still drivable, so the question was,
“Do we put a ton of money into it to keep it safe and functional, or do we get a replacement?” Then the thought was, ‘well I (me) didn’t want just another Toyota like his old truck, it was uncomfortable.’ And I couldn’t find anything for sale which wasn’t just buying the same problems we have with his 1990.
So after much looking and hard decisions, we decided to pull some money from our retirement account that my Dad left us.
Maybe not a smart idea, but that’s what we did.
2004 Tundra 4x4 Stepside SR5
We bought a 2004 Toyota Tundra 4×4 Stepside SR5 TRD… this truck is like new..really like new. You can’t tell anyone ever drove it. It only had 28,000 miles on it. It’s a bit fancy for our taste, but rides great, I don’t feel like I am in a blender, as I do in both of our other Toyota’s.
We need to get the truck bed a spray on bedliner, and a rubber mat for the bed. Still need seat covers and some really good rubber floor mats.
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Seem’s sort of fitting somehow.. today is my Dad’s birthday.. and he is still giving to us.
We spent the day at Charlie’s house, just up the road from us.
His grand-daughter Bailey was with us for a little while, it’s always a joy to see her and watch her grow up.
A very relaxed day of cooking and eating, with Penny & Charlie, and Tim arriving with a delish apple pie.
A small gathering of chosen family, just the way I like it.
Charlie, Bailey, & Penny
Mateel Aikido celebrated 25 years of training on November 20-21, with Frank Doran Shihan. Black belts arrived from as far away as Alaksa, Oregon, and all over California. There were 49 people on the mat training at the Beginning’s Octagon in Briceland!
Mateel Aikido 25th Anniversary Gathering
Some of the Sensei’s relaxing a bit!
Michael Friedl, Frank Doran, and Russel Wisby
The potluck was fabulous, and also a birthday party for Frank Doran. What a great bunch of people and what an honor to Russel and Forrest Kan and the rest of the Mateel Aikido dojo to be honored with such a full house. A great weekend!
More photos online at Mateel Aikido’s Facebook page.
I missed spring, summer and most of the fall. It is now winter, with rain and gray days, running the generator way too much as there isn’t enough solar to keep our small system going.
I haven’t been off the land to town in over 44 days now! Thank the goddess for internet as it seems to be my main social contact. I try to phone someone every few days, but talking on the phone is just not my thing. And my throat / voice has been stressed and strained and talking just makes me cough more.
I am now on day 3 of antibiotics (AGAIN) for the tickle – wake – me – up all night cough – all day cough, that developed as I was finally getting rid of the ‘end of summer colds’. I obviously have something going on that is causing this, (bacterial infection?) but no diagnosis.
I want to wax eloquently about how great a garden we had this year, we actually made tomato sauce to can last week end. I picked off 4 large flats of green and pink tomatoes to ripen off the vine. We dug some red potatoes a couple days ago that were just sooo goood. (carrots too) and peppers. I have 10 good sized butternut squash to store for the winter, and several acorns to eat up. I love being able to go into the garden to determine what’s for dinner, but those days are over for this season.
November is just around the corner. Russel’s Aikido school, Mateel Aikido will be celebrating 25 years this month. There is a big retreat planned for the weekend of Nov 19 – 21, with Sensei Frank Doran headlining. There is a Mateel Aikido facebook page that one of the students put up, that you can check out.
I have been dreaming of a warm sunny relaxing massage filled sauna taking swimming several times a day eating only good food retreat with mountain views. Just a few days (maybe more!) to detox, relax, and rejuvenate. Maybe southern California, as I need to get my passport redone before I can go to Mexico. But this is just a dream at this point.
Election in few days.. will be interesting to see where the ‘collective we’ end up with regards to Prop 19, CA governor, and some local issues.
Russel started working back at the schools on last week, by Wednesday (Sept 13) he came home with fever and chills which launched into a full on sinus & head cold.
I managed to keep feeling good until Sunday, the 18th, when a cough started and by Monday I was full on into a head cold as well.. and still today. All the usual aliments, stuffy nose, running like a faucet, sinus head ache, coughing, sneezing and feeling miserable.
This is just a bit much to take on heels of just getting over by 70 day bout with coughing. We also had a brief weather change in there a few days of gray cloudy weather and rain on Monday.
Today if was foggy all morning and now the sun has appeared, seems we are in the middle of Indian Summer .. with the full Harvest Moon just yesterday along with the Fall Equinox… changes coming. I just wish I felt better as there is soooo much to do.
OH and by the way Facebook is down today! My connection to the world, at least I can keep talking here, but really don’t know how many of my friends actually check this site out?? So if you do come by, please drop me a note, ok?
I have an E-friend, Terry, who I met through my old friend from the Boulder days, TR, who now lives in Florida, he connected us years ago, (they are a couple) and we have been emailing and now Facebooking for almost 10 years! She was in Washington state, heading south, so I encouraged a visit.
It was wonderful having her here, meeting her was like greeting an old friend, which I guess we are, but we only talked on the phone once or twice in all that time and this was the first face to face.. it went so good. She is always welcome here.
She slept outside in the screen house / tent with her very old small dog.
It was also the first time anyone has stayed with us longer than over night. I felt like this has opened the door to that, especially if they are into camping. (no more dogs here though.. just doesn’t work for me).
The one room house doesn’t really afford anyone the amount of privacy they would want for any long term stay inside.
She stayed 6 days, it was hard to have her leave. We both got great massages the last couple of days she was here.
There was no lack of conversation, and I feel we barely scratched the surface and hope that she will put us on her list of ‘must visit’ folks when she is traveling.
See that jacket she is wearing? I went through a few containers of my Guatemalan clothes & tipica, she became the proud owner of several items. The same with my ‘too small for me to wear’ batik rayon dresses and some other clothes. It was good to pass some of this on to someone who really appreciates it. I just never got around to Ebay-ing the items, it just seems like too much work for the return.
