Too Dang Cold

 It is almost noon and the temperature stands at 34 degrees.  I can see the clouds rolling in and the winds starting to pick up.  The low tonight is predicted to be 14.

Yesterday the winds remained ferocious throughout most of the day and evening with a wind chill of 18 during my work shift.  I was bundled up in a long sleeve T-shirt, sweatshirt, polar fleece vest, raincoat, hooded sweatshirt, hat and gloves.  Still froze every time I went outside.  I had to salt the decks because they were freezing where people had dripped their wet bodies.  The people soaking outside looked blissfully warm and contented.

Four more days to work and then it is my turn.

Happy New Year everyone.

This is NOT one of our pools:)

Winter Has Arrived and Work Has Begun

I am sitting in Minnie rocking and swaying as we are being buffeted with 20-30 MPH winds with gusts up to 50 MPH.  The dark clouds are turning to a rain/sleet/snow mix and I am glad I do not have to be out on the road today.  From the comfort of my home I am watching guests pack up their cars to  leave and I wonder how many of today's guest check-ins will not be able to make it.  Should make for an interesting work day.

In exchange for taking time off at Christmas I now must work six days in a row, a total of 45 hours this week.  That is overtime even for someone accustomed to a 40 hour work week.  My mantra will be "I can do this!" and "If David, my co-worker, could do this, so can I!".  Last night was my first night and already I am feeling less than hospitable in this hospitality business.  I hope not to be a total shrew by the end of it.

I like working by myself but sometimes I just want to take it easy, cruise for a few of those work hours.  With no one else to fill in that slack, it is not always an option.  Thus, sometimes my give-ratio gives out.

I am expected to check in the lodging guests, deal with any problems they may have (me, lighting pilot lights!), give tours of the public and private pools, keep track of the coming and going from three private pools, get people into the public pools and make sure they leave when their time is up, take reservations for rooms and pools, deal with a multitude of people walking in off the street wanting rooms (which we rarely have), rent towels which then need to be washed, all the while being the most gracious of hosts.  At the end of the night I empty all the pools, set them to refill again, close out the books for the night and make sure I close up with everything neat and tidy.  It is just a lot of work.

Oh well, wonder what the day will bring.

Feet

Something is up with feet.  I have begun discarding old shoes and buying shoes that are more in alignment with being barefooted.  I now have yoga sandals, moccasins and a pair of vibram five fingers on their way to me.  I wonder how many of us are not connected to the Earth's energy grid lines because of the shoes we wear.  This is something currently swirling around in my thoughts.

While in Phoenix for a few days I had a pedicure, the second of my lifetime.  I am happy with the result and loved spending time with my sister and mother, but doubt I will make the effort to do this on a regular basis.

Before pedicure

After pedicure

New shoes on the way

Solstice Birthday

Today is my birthday.  I am 59 years old.

I was born during the darkest, most mystical time of the year and each year around this time I celebrate the year that has been, and the year about to unfold.  On this particular birthday I am reflecting on the decade that has been my 50s, an accumulation of time that has forever changed me through an unrelenting series of initiations.

During these years I have walked through hoops of fears, been on my knees begging to be released from this earthly plain and rattled to the core of my being.  I have passed through veils into alternate realities, reclaimed ancient pieces of myself and remembered what has long been forgotten.  In the etheric world I have been skinned, salt then poured onto those wounds, and in the physical world I have spent a year recovering from a trimalleolar fracture.

I have drummed, danced and cleared during my years of ritual.  I have reconnected with land, water and mountains.  I have heard the Lady of the Waterfall sing to me and spent months traveling through energy portals streaming through a particular Tree.  I have seen auras, shapeshifting, orbs and ships from other worlds.  I have seen, experienced, felt and embodied energy that is beyond description in the human language. It has been a journey that has made me stronger than I ever thought possible and allowed me to surrender to a world where I am no longer in charge or in control.  I have given myself over to the flows and tides of my life.

I don't know what this next decade will bring.  I have already been stripped bare and become so familiar with the swirls of change that it is my constant companion.   This companion no longer frightens me and has become the comfort that now surrounds me.  It allows me to live within the mystery and magic of my human existence.

I don't know what the next decade will bring, but I plan to embrace it with open arms.

Cable TV

I can't believe this, but after being on the road for over a year, someone has finally found my outside cable TV hook-up.  It's not that several people haven't looked, a few men insisted they could find it, it's just that it had an amazing hiding place that kept it out of view.  It has finally been found inside the electric cord compartment, tucked up high, but reachable.

What this means is that come college football bowl season, which starts on Saturday, I will have the capability to watch the games!!!!!!!!!  Not just a random few that I could get on my 10" tv if I had the antennae just right, one foot out the door, one finger up my nose, but I will be able to view ALL the games!  I am ecstatic and thinking this is one of the best early birthday gifts ever.  It even makes up for the early wake up call this morning as my new hero was routing around outside trying to get me hooked up.  YEA HURRAY!

Now, if I only didn't have to work so many of those nights when the games are playing.

In with the New, out with the Old

Minnie is sportin' a red bow.  I probably would not have even gone that far if the other workampers hadn't started decorating the laundry room, their outside areas and any available tree or bush.  I love being able to find my way home from the lights circling the other RVs, but for me buying lights would just mean one more thing to find a place for.

X-mas Tree with blue balls

 I bought some new shoes and new clothes and as a consequence spent two days rearranging the inside of Minnie.  I went through my very small clothes closet and discarded enough clothing to give it a bit more breathing room.  Next I tackled one of the compartments over my bed that made me cringe every time I opened it, which was nightly.  I also went through the storage bins over the cab and found a few more items for donation.  A thorough cleaning, dusting and vacuuming made my home feel even more serene.  I also seem to be gathering as fast as I am clearing.

Exhibit A    Postcards I framed

Exhibit B   New poster featuring art work of an amazing woman I met

Exhibit C   Mayan ashtray that I just had to have

Add to that a few gifts I have recently been given and well, there is just no room for much else.  I also tend to become very uncomfortable with too much clutter in my life so my small living space demands cleaning and rearranging for most everything that enters my life. 

All this cleaning is also in preparation for my upcoming departure.  I will be heading to Phoenix for Christmas, then back to T or C, and then the great beyond after January 15th.

I am anxious for my freedom.

Gypsy Blood

Inside a gypsy caravan

When I was a teenager I wanted to get my ears pierced.  My father's answer to that request was "only gypsies and prostitutes have pierced ears and I know of no gypsy blood in our family".  I think he was wrong.

I have always been fascinated by gypsies and when my father told me that current day gypsies traveled around in limousines, this time I could prove that he was wrong. 

I was traveling through Europe for my 21st birthday and while in Greece I found some gypsies on the street.  These young girls were dressed in beautiful, vibrantly colored dresses.  They wore scarves in their hair and earrings in their ears.  They were tan and their feet were bare and their smiles spoke of a happiness that only freedom can bring.  Even though I was solo traveling through Europe, I still wanted to be those young women.  I wanted to listen to wild gypsy guitars, violins and accordions.  I wanted to join their caravan.  I took their picture and had physical proof to show my father that the gypsies I had imagined did in fact still exist.

I have lost that photo amongst all my moves, a photo that was taken almost 38 years ago, but the image still remains.  I now travel in Minnie Minerva, my gypsy caravan, wear scarves in my hair and earrings in my ears.  I weep at the sweetness of  Jesse Cook when he plays his guitar and still dislike shoes on my feet.

And I still think my father was wrong about having gypsy blood in the family.

Cloaked in Aquarius

Art work by Susan Seddon Boulet

A vibrational sound healer walked into the office yesterday.  She came to put some flyers on the bulletin board and stayed to chat for awhile.  She was my gift of the day.

My birthday is fast approaching and for the past several years I have gotten a tarot birthday spread from a wonderful "seeing" woman in Eugene.  I was wondering where I might find someone to do a reading for me this year and what type of reading that might be...tarot, astrology, psychic, etc.  My answer came through the door and spoke directly to me.

As usual, I am not sure what starts the conversation, what leads to specific doors being opened, how we end up in particular corridors, but this healer and I started talking and soon we were conversing in the symbolic language of Spirit.  We talked of the different ways we do readings for people.  I spoke of my divining cloth, she knows of Malidoma, and feels an affinity with the Kontomble.   We talked of the Celtic lands I love and know so well.  She asks if I have been to Tintagel, to Iona, upon the Glastonbury Tor.  Yes, yes, yes, I have!  She knows of Morgen Le Fey and I spread the message of the Nine Morgens.

And then we shared our astrological charts, our various houses, signs and planets.  I watch as her eyes make that subtle shift that I recognize.  It is the shift that lets me know she has changed channels and is now listening to a higher source, channeling messages to me.  She sees me surrounded with Aquarian energy.  I try to remember my natal astrology chart in more details, but no, that would not explain it, and my recollection of my upcoming solar return does not explain it either.  I try to rationally think this through, to make sense of it, but she sees what she sees and can only reconfirm that she can see nothing but Aquarius all around me.

I finally sink into it and allow the message to be revealed.  I understand where this Aquarian energy is coming from and I understand the timeliness of this message.  I see the "sight" of this message and can only compare it to one of Susan Seddon Boulet's paintings, seeing myself cloaked and surrounded.

The magic continues to walk through my door.

2 Down.....

.....1 1/2 to go.

I have made the decision to finish up my 3 1/2 month commitment and then move on down the road.  My wanderlust is getting the better of me and I really just need some time off from working.  Also, these beautiful, clear sunny days are meant for traveling and seeing the sights, not confined to an inside office.

I am still learning what suits my life style the best, and right now, working 30 hours a week is not what I want to continue doing.  Love the place and meeting the people, but I need to rethink this whole "work" thing.

ABC news did a report on workampers the other night.  Made me think of Grapes of Wrath which has put a different spin on things.

I don't want to travel to where the jobs are, I want to find some interesting work in a place I have never been before.  But, then again, maybe I just want to travel and never "work" again.