2007-01-20

Brilliant sunshine softened the blow of cold today and we all enjoyed the calm before the predicted storm which will hit tomorrow morning, at church time of course. After a Morning Offering and a protracted puzzling time, I went upstairs to work on e-mail while Jim continued his basement clean-up. By lunch time he had completely revamped and moved my gift wrapping supplies, as we had discussed.

Meanwhile
- I answered some editing questions Ian still had about Jo D-P’s channeling.
- I got in touch with a Naturopathic Doctor, Martin Milner, to whom two friends have referred me, saying that his advice had aided a friend of theirs.
- I responded to Monica L’s letter. Now there is a perfect case of good-news-bad-news. She was not at all fond of her job, as it kept her away from people; she spent her time working on the computer. However it paid the bills and gave her financial security. She has been laid off along with over 100 other people. We talked back and forth about options for her next move. Naturally, with her livelihood to find, she is not able to take up the volunteer position of moderator for an L/L Research forum now, so I suggested that both she and the proposed WebGuy for that site, her son, David, stand down on that project for now.
- I talked back and forth with Ian about final changes to the Book of Days. We have agreed that I will move the fairly scholarly material presently in the Introduction to an Appendix and write a much shorter and more user-friendly Introduction in its place. We also decided to leave the daily readings as they are, not changing the formatting to italics on the first and last paragraphs as I had been considering doing. Long story short – it doesn’t work.
- Rick C and I wrote back and forth about the remastering of our audiocassette tape products over to CD. I am not getting a proper handle on this at all! We only have five products of that type and still I am confused. I shall look at poor Rick’s patient letter again tomorrow!

In the afternoon, after a most pleasant lunch with Mick and our stretching exercise routine, we went to the basement where he showed me what he had done. The new wrap center is a tremendous improvement over the previous arrangement and looks so much better! It will be much more handy to wrap presents there, and all my supplies fit well in the new space. Jim found that we had some unused drawer and cabinet space in the laundry section, so now I shall wrap away over in that corner. This cleans out all of the space by the basement’s outside door and things look much tidier. Kudos to Jim!

Feeling down-pin, I gave myself the afternoon off and enjoyed a positive orgy of solitaire, reading and knitting. Jim took his cleaning and tidying routine outside and our yard greatly benefited as he found another garbage bag-full of leaves and much storm debris to clear. I think this is the best our yard has looked in years! We walked around and enjoyed the yard together. I love the way Mick re-created the placement of the statue of St. Francis we have. It is now perfectly snugged into a curve in Jim’s brick walkway.

We got together after our bath for a viewing of “The Devil Wears Prada”, a film about the fashion magazine industry and haute couture itself. I got to see a ton of snazzy outfits and wonderful comic acting from Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway. Even Jim enjoyed the film because it had such a good story and good ensemble. He was not that fond of the clothes!

We offered the Gaia Meditation together and then Jim cleaned the kitchen while I pulled out my knitting and did another few rows. I am knitting densely – number eight needles - so the finished blanket will be very warm and snuggly, so it takes quite a few rows to equal an inch. I’ll be knitting for a while on this. Fortunately, the birth date is a half-year away.

We closed up shop and came upstairs for a last snuggle with the kitties quite early. Jim may need to get St. Luke’s sidewalks and steps clear of snow and ice tomorrow morning very early.

We were both awash in gratitude today, for some reason, feeling that these are golden days for us – and feeling lucky to be experiencing them together.