Oh, Gentle Reader. It would be, really, impossible to describe just how much fun we’ve been having of late. A friend accused me of being a “fun hog” after hearing the most recent happenings.
Anyway, on Monday, the first morning I’ve felt even remotely OK for weeks and weeks, before I had coffee, the Dog, who’d had a Big Day the day before at the farm supply where we buy his food and he has, essentially, a fan club whose members stuff him with treats and hugs, barfed all over his spot. This included his just eaten breakfast and treats. I realized at once that he’d a) overindulged and b) been affected by the bone crushing level of stress around here. This caused me to remember a song, whose artist I don’t remember, the lyrics of which are in part: “I smoke two joints in the morning/I smoke two joints at night…” This actually made me laugh because when I used to hear that song, I didn’t realize the truth of it, which is that cannabis is a powerful aid in dealing with intrusions, both unwanted mental ones and the more rude, intentional ones performed by humans. Feeling thus bucked up at the realization that I’d actually made it through several more Scylla and Charybdis episodes with a bit of such aid (the Dog gets flower essences for same), I further rejoiced at the finding that there IS a use for AARP magazines. They are excellent at picking up dog barf.
But and so. We had no internet or phone service for around two weeks. This is special on so many levels but I maintained a sense of pride at not having screamed at anyone even once, over the three hours on the phone this caused (including the part at the neighbor’s where one person started shooting his .45 at rocks about six feet from me while I was talking to a young man in the Philippines who promptly freaked out- and I probably did not exactly help by saying, Oh, it’s nothing, just a drug dealer shooting himself in the foot) explaining that no, I can’t be in front of my laptop now because I am 20 miles away from it, where I have phone service. But when I WAS in front of the laptop this is the diagnostic code I got. What part of off the grid don’t you get? especially given that NOBODY has Hughesnet unless they have absolutely no other recourse. Well, my favorite guy said, I’m here to help!!!! Which he did by saying we’d agreed that I’d take a $10/month credit on my bill over three months to make up for the extra money it cost in gas, and all the joys of having an internet business with no internet and missing calls and orders. Not to mention that I’d paid for service I did not get.
So in the course of one day, I got to:
a) begin wrestling Hughesnet to the ground about the non agreement with absurd offer and get a proper credit for non-service,
b) wrestle with my health insurance about how they sent me a request for information to avoid cancellation which I got the day before it was due back to them, so therefore it would not be “on time”, and
c) continue working on the Larger Issue which I can’t write about here since Actual People Are Involved, but which borders on being life and death. The person I’m dealing with, in the middle of yelling at me, said, oh, you are just so ENTITLED. At which point I started laughing, calmly restated my position (which happens to be the only legal one in the picture on some level) retreated to Yurt Central, and had cocktails. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do. I hope progress has been made on this front, is all I can say.
In the meantime, as usual to calm my jagged nerves, I cooked. Focaccia, squash lasagne, butterscotch pudding, and at the same time as my friend in Chile did, baklava. Plus of course tacos, Thai style coconut fish curry, and a million wonderful ways with beans. Also, my planted peach pit sapling bloomed after we had a week of 75+ degree weather. Then we had several hard freezes, of course, but the tree is FINE. I am thrilled. I mean: PEACHES. !!!!!!!!!
And of course as usual I learned alot. How dumb was I, is a frequent question these days, but…..I learned unequivocally that whatever you call it, faith is both indispensable and the lever with which you can move..well, whatever it is. After four months of living in the pit of my stomach I was shown that good decisions do not emanate from that region. You just gotta move up toward the heart. You have no duty to accept abuse but must remember we’re all here together. Solutions can be found, but at least one person in the room has to be coming from some spot other than the Democratic Republic of Ego.
There’s also a good bit of observing and letting go. In the midst of all this, more of the typically upsetting news I get from my (in fact only one person) family of origin arrived. Realizing that freak outs of any sort are strictly prohibited in such perilous times as we currently are experiencing, I reviewed the situation, which involves me having severed contact a few years ago, and realized that in fact the whole thing turned out, for them anyway, as well as it possibly could and that was something to appreciate. FROM A DISTANCE. It also meant that I could no longer kid myself about my position in line so to speak, accept it and realize that I am in many ways exactly where I ought to be, and faith is my…well, strength and shield. I have something to do besides chase worldly success and please people. It’s a new paradigm, Gentle Reader, and those who can leave their matched sets of emotional baggage behind at, or close to, the outset have my deep admiration.
When reality looks like this? Who are we to question. Missed you!!!!! blessings and thanks, as always.
Boozilla: learning to fly one room at a time 