2006-11-13

I can hear some elves in the woodwork as the holidays creep ever closer! It was cold and sunny today, and Jim dealt all day with the huge numbers of leaves that have all come down at once on many of his clients’ lawns.

Meanwhile I worked as I could and managed to write about Adolf Hitler, at last doing the final bit of writing on Chapter Two of The Choice. I was most thankful to get some forward motion going on that project again at last, no matter how slow and slight.

Jim had a grand idea on how to adapt to my present crisis. He said he could put a board over the tub in the upstairs bath for my papers and such, and then have me sit on the john with my lap desk holding my computer. That way I would not have to take the time away from my work to make the round trips to the throne from the upstairs office. It’s a definite thought but I ponder the desirability of branding my bottom with the imprint of the toilet seat.

I had a chat with Jan, at the Hubbard Clinic, and she said that they had a suppository they prescribe for those whose tummies are sensitive to pain medication. She will give me a prescription for those suppositories Thursday, when I next have an appointment there. The severity of the cramping is sometimes acute and I could use some help in dealing with that. The prognosis is that I will experience these symptoms for some time to come, with the present helping medication beginning to take effect only after about half a year, so I do need some pain management, presently.

I feel that I am beginning to be able mentally to cope with this, and that is a wonderful feeling. I acknowledge that there is a loss of mental acuity from the pain, and so I am giving myself more time to do things and more time to rest and even nap. This is not an easy situation, and my body needs the rest. However I believe I can start, now, to take up my normal work, the writing and editing. This is a judgment made cautiously, but I believe I am on good ground.

It seems to me important that I build on my recent work and continue to look at my real work not as fiddling with my computer and producing things in the world, but as remaining present at all times and in touch with the joy of my being. With that essential work in place, THEN I can do the writing and other outer work. But first comes my connection with the Creator, with my guidance and most of all with my essential self.

On another topic entirely, we certainly have a difficult neighbor. The charmer that he is, he strung a string from some benchmark at the back of his property up to the street in order to show Jim that our satellite dish was – I am not kidding – four inches over the property line. “If you wanted more property, you should have bought more property,” he said. This happened perhaps a week ago.

Jim did the Right Thing, walked away from a confrontation with the neighbor and called the dish people, who moved the dish safely within our property line today.

They did it for free, since it was a hostile neighbor with a property line issue. They have seen all this before! I told the guy about this neighbor and he said that this happens often enough that there are federal guidelines which govern such placement. Otherwise, neighbors who do not like the look of the dish – a gadget that would fit in a space three feet square – would rag their customers to death.

The dish guy was grinning when he came in to have me sign the work order after moving the dish. The neighbor had sidled up to him and tried to talk him into moving the dish somewhere in the back yard. There’s no place in our back yard where you can find a site without interference from trees. They’ve looked. It cannot be done. He said he took some enjoyment from explaining to the neighbor that he was working within federal guidelines, and he would be delighted to provide him with a copy of them.

Jim worked so long today that he was stopped only by the advent of darkness, not arriving home until about an hour and a half after he was due. I was so glad to see him pull in! Nothing was wrong – the work was hard, and took far longer than he had hoped. He was cleaning gutters as well as crunching leaves, and the ladder moving takes time.

We had a good bath and then enjoyed a very quiet evening. After supper and the Gaia Meditation, we came upstairs for a romantic snuggle and some time with the cats before saying good night around 11 PM.