2007-05-01

Happy May Day! It was a warm and sunny day for Mick to go to work with a vengeance after Morning Offering. The weather report was predicting possibly heavy rains tomorrow and so Jim hustled hard all day, rolling in at after 6 PM, a very long day, but satisfying, as he has now mown all of tomorrow’s jobs except one small one. So he will be able, tomorrow morning, to mow most, if not all, of Thursday’s acreage. This is most helpful as rain that is coming tomorrow afternoon is predicted to continue into Thursday morning!

A mower loves the rain, as it makes the grass grow, but then has to find a way to cut the burgeoning harvest between the raindrops!

I collected Dana Redfield quotes all morning, a most enjoyable experience, collecting not just for this week’s UPI article but for several weeks to come. The more I get into her thinking, looking at old letters and things she has written, the more I see that it’s excellent to share. She has thoughts that are either based on LOO concepts or harmonize with them, so it is interesting to appose her quotes and Q’uo’s q’uotes on the same topic.

My stomach was giving me some woes, and Gary kindly brought me some belly burners from the White Castle, which did their job. I felt much better after lunch!

My afternoon was spent generating the second article in the Dana series, which I called The Power of Words. I sent it in to UPI at about 5 PM and then worked a bit with Gary. He had some tax receipts/thank you notes for me to sign for generous contributors, who can rest assured that we are entirely grateful! It is interesting that the majority of our contributions right now are coming from Europe and Africa rather than the United States.

Gary also pointed out to me that I need to fill in my profile for my journals, as we have had over 1500 hits on that profile now, and it’s blank. It’s on the list for me to write!

Gary also created a new blog for me, at my request – the Avalon Journal of L/L Research. I shall place a priority on starting that up with a really thorough and heartfelt opening entry. It will be good to bridge the gap between our archived Avalon Journal, where so many volunteers offered good thoughts and then disappeared from the L/L Research scene, and the present day. In fact, I may do that first thing tomorrow.

Gary is also tying to flesh out my McDuffie database, which gave me fits the first time I used it. He smoothed out all the problems, we think, and now it only needs some information for some of the contacts for him to finish the job. I think it will really be super to have that done. From now on “sends” for the class of ’61 should be much easier to get together.

As Mick was late getting home and we had company coming, I abandoned further office work and prepared for our dinner. Gary reached the coffee maker and filters down from our high shelves – we store it between uses as none of us drinks coffee, preferring green (me) or herbal (Jim and Gary) tea. I got the coffee and water ready to perk, got coffee cups, sweeteners and the cream pitcher out and found spoons. I also made some sweet tea, as we call it in the south, black tea sweetened a bit with old-fashioned Florida crystals. That got the beverages ready to go.

I set the trays with plates and silver. Then I addressed the dessert course, setting out cake plates and ice cream bowls and dessert silver. I popped our various dishes in the oven to warm up and voila, we were ready to entertain.

Cleaning the kitchen of all signs of tea-making and other chores, I turned my attention to the bath. Usually Mick runs the bath while I am still up in the office working, but today it was I who got the whirlpool ready, hoping against hope that Mick would show up in time to share it with me! He did, just, and we even had a precious half hour or so to unwind before our guests showed up.

We try to get together with our old, old friends, Linnie and Larry W, each Christmas. We never make it on time! Last year we got together, finally, in late June! We did better this year, having a May Day party.

Linnie and I go back to 1969! At that time, I had welcomed Don Elkins into my life. The Elk and I took an apartment together, Apartment 3 at 2120 Douglass Boulevard. I loved the place, as it was blessed with many large windows and the large, high-ceilinged rooms were old and a bit shabby, but elegant and spacious. We lived there for 12 years, from late 1968 to 1980. One of the first things he did when we got together was to take me over to meet his aunt, Tot, and her husband, Marion.

Linnie and Larry were practically newlyweds at the time and lived in the basement apartment at Tot and Marion’s house. Linnie and I took to each other immediately and have been bosom friends ever since – about 38 years. When Marion had died and Tot needed extra care, it fell on Linnie and me and we shared much during those years. She always called us her two daughters.

Now that Tot is gone, we have much less need to see each other and, she being very busy earning their living – Larry is 18 years older, almost 80 now, and retired – we only manage to be together once a year. It was a super visit. We got all caught up on their doings, and they, on ours.

And Linnie and I walked all around our beautiful yard at dusk, a lovely time to taste the evening and smell the good smells of earth and blossom. Our huechera is coming back and there are buds on the peonies, the iris and the late azaleas, while the early azaleas are ablaze. The lavender is starting to come out too, and several ground covers are in pretty bloom. And the lilacs are just beginning to perfume the air with their marvelous, spicy sweetness. It was heaven out there, talking with my beloved sister of the heart in the sweet, indigo gloaming.

Mick and I offered the Gaia Meditation late and quickly, as we moved about the house putting all our party materials away until next time. We were thankful to restore all to order and come upstairs for a final kitty snuggle around 10 PM, saying good night at 11.