Maebius Musings

Due to some mis-planned lack of vacation over the course of the year, I found myself with over four weeks of paid time for work, which I needed to use up before the end of September.   The end result of this is I’ve been working either half-days at night-shift, or staying home completely for the last two weeks.

I noticed some interesting personal habits during this time, not least of which is that this vacation-time has been filled by camping, travel, and a surprising lack of actual “stay at home time”, which I had expected.

Initially, I spent the first day or two just lounging around.  I played on the computer late at night, I slept in (relatively speaking) with the kid during the day, and otherwise didn’t do a whole lot of anything that might be easily called “productive”.

Then the cabin fever started to kick in.  Either that or the guilt of letting dishes pile up.

The few days I was at work (today and tomorrow) actually feels enjoyable, which surprised me.   I also had found myself spontaneously making plans for chores around the house, like vacuuming the upstairs, mowing the lawn on my day off, and other such stuff that usually gets reserved for weekend free-time.

It’s actually kind-of neat, and strangely telling, how once the initial joy of non-work fades away after a few days, I naturally try to fill the time again with stuff resembling ‘work’ that is usually avoided when hip-deep in “real job” daily life schedules.

I’m not alone in this, according to many many anecdotal stories of self-employd people, retired family&friends, and other blogs.

Must be a natural part of the human condition, to constantly adapt to change, and fill that time with “stuff”.

It makes me realize a bit how before the modern 9-5 job was forced upon us as a societal norm, the old artisans could afford to spend hours and hours of their craftmenship.  Perhaps it was more than just working for a living, with a pride in their craft.   Perhaps it’s human nature to “do stuff”.

It’s just a matter of making sure the “stuff” we do is healthy, beneficial, and encouraging, lest we fall into bad habits.

Habits, after all, are habit-forming.  

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Another wall-of-text about recent events more than Spiritual Musings.  Consider yourself warned!

Recently, I took a week off work, and we camped out in my in-law’s trailer near home, and the wonderfully scenic Adirondack Gateway Campground.  Also, this tuesday, we decided to beat the recent 90+ degree heat and go cave-exploring (Howe Caverns and the awesome Secret Caverns) near Albany.

Camping-wise, Other than a bit of uncomfortable sleeping arrangements (I got the floor), it was a lovely relaxing time.   Particularly mid-week it was quiet with only 3-4 other people in the nearby campsites, and thus the pool and trails were empty for us to enjoy whenever we felt like it.

The hiking was my favorite part, with a looping self-contained series of trails mowed into the sandy landscape, and including three (two easily accessible) small ponds.  The kid brought his fishing rod and enjoyed a few hours of hook-less casting and reeling in invisible Pokemon.  There was a small shed-barn converted to game-room with an old skii-ball, pong-pong, 2 billiard tables, and similarly free entertaining resources.

The part that I enjoyed most was wildcrafting some snacks along our hikes.  The long blackberries were just coming into ripeness, and I discovered two patches of low-bush blueberries which made delicious pancake-additions one of the mornings we were there.

Another really nice musing I had was how our closest neighbors, being obvious fans of Nascar, Huge trucks, and vague incomprehension regarding wildcrafting (Ya can eat those weeds? Ya sure it’s not poison? Won’t they make ya sick?!), we still were able to laugh at all our kids’ joyful antics, swim in the pool together, and connect with the commonalities we DID share.    It was something I wish the rest of the world could do more regularly. (Granted, I admit I first saw the enormous Hummer truck and Loud Country music with a bit of pre-judging myself, but got over that quickly.)

Additionally, it was nice just sitting back and relaxing with no work or stress on our mind beyond “are we getting hungry yet?”.  Evenings were fillled with the obligatory campfire and marshmallow roasting.  The kid even got a real thrill out of being ‘old enough to help’ build and actually light the campfire (thanks to a fuse of newspaper strips lightly sprinkled with BBQ lighter fluid).  Oh no, I’m starting the pyro habit too early, aren’t I?  

* * *

As far as the caverns go, it was interesting to see the difference between the two adjacent cave systems, both in terms of actual geological make-up and in marketing and presentation.

Howe Caverns we went to first, being our main goal for the day.   It has the usual large rooms, pretty formations, and strategic lighting commonly seen in commercial cave systems.  I enjoyed the little boat ride into the deepest section of the cave, which gave our feet a rest and allowed you to simply sit back and watch the rocks.

The drawback to this cave is that it is really REALLY commercialized.  They are quite efficient at getting tour-groups of approx 15-20 people moving through the stops along the tour every 10 minutes.   The entire tour area is paved with smooth brick walkways with secure handrails and other tour groups moving past yours every few minutes (the tour is essentially one way in, one way out, so groups are constantly shuffling past each other in between the wider “scenic stop” points.   You also were reminded often and regularly that in the narrower sections, you can NOT touch anything besides the handrails, as you will kill the cave rock system, no coins in the water, and no touching the water as the oils in your hands will ruin the cave forever.  However, this warning didn’t stop our guide, plus three others from excitedly taking a break from our tour to go climb over the railings and fish out a salamander in one of the closer pools of water so it could be brought back “to the surface where it should live”.   Uh-huh…  *shrug*

(I also understand very well the concept of a living cave, and that the oils and dirt in our hands Does affect the formation of calcite and flowstone can be ‘killed’ by inappropriate contact.  I just thought it sadly funny how the necessary warning to at least minimize such exposure among such a huge touring population was discarded rather thoughtlessly by the staff people, even if they were allowed to do such things. It seemed slightly hypocritical, and could have at least been done in-between groups by a lone staff member without such attention-drawing antics.)

The second cavern system we visited, mainly due to the quirky Billboards, was Secret Caverns.  This was a much smaller, quirky place with plenty of tongue-in-cheek humor on the signs, and from the guides.  We bought our tickets (cheaper than Howe’s and the kid was free!) and waityed with about 4 other people outside for a few moments.  The guy behind the counter selling tickets came out to say that the tour would start soon, after he unlocked the cage our guide was kept in, then proceeded to go back inside and immediately come out a small rusty backdoor, extending his hand “Hi, I’m Zarlak, your tourguide, but you can call me Steve”.  I loved the place already!

You went down a winding flight of rocky formations, (known as “concrete steps”) and the actual cavern itself was more a giant crack in the rocks, with a few chimneys and smaller grottos with the usual formations. It definitely was not as glamorous and ‘pretty’ as Howe Caverns, but the fact that the walkway was rough concrete mixed from the actual rocks of the cave opening, and was on the physical floor of the cave gave it a much more intimate immersive feel.   We were heartily welcomed to touch the walls (you couldn’t really help it in many places) and our guide kept a flow of funny puns, and historical anecdotes flowing as we explored the system.  The fewer notable formations were neat since they were considerably more up-close and personal, if smaller and less dramatic than the larger Howe’s attractions, and the final 100ft waterfall was actually much more impressive than the boat ride elsewhere.

One thing I can say, is to not wear any Italian leather or Prada in Secret Caverns.  It’s not as sterile, and the floor in one part had a decent puddle we tip-toed through where a steadily dripping formation above us had started growing a few years ago.   Yet, this made it more real and visceral to me, making it my favorite of the two cave systems.   It also helped that in Secret Caverns, and its lone-tour-at-a-time made the groups more personal, and allowed us to really appreciate the “moments of darkness” when all the lights were turned off deep within the cave (Steve started cackling quietly when he first turned them out, then laughed nervously when they came on again: “Did you all hear that?!”).

Plus, the nearby woods and pond around Secret Cave were the perfect places for a few Fae to live, with such quirky fun-loving energy and respect for the land that was hinted at by the owners and more felt than spoken.  I’m sure of it.

The kid says he enjoyed Howe Caverns more for the bigger scenery and the boat ride, but had gotten really cold by the end of that tour.  He did really like being able to splash around and touch the walls of Secret Cavern though, so it was a Draw for his favorite.

If you get to that area of upstate, NY anytime soon, I recommend visiting at least one of these attractions, depending on your level of quirky acceptance.  It’s a great place to see under the earth, and appreciate how Big and Old it all is.

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Been off work for the last week, and camping with the in-laws and their 5th wheel camper.

Musings to follow once I recover from the 90+ humid days and unpacking, but in summary:

• The floor is a rather uncomfortable place to sleep, even with 4 comforters under you.  I enjoyed the early mornings when Mrs Maebius went to work and I snuck into the spare bed for a few hours before the kid woke up. 
• The dog is good for about 10+ miles of hiking trails.  Limits of canine Stamina were not quite reached after prolonged activity.   The stamina of a 5yr old is considerably less, and thus our hikes were limited to 1 mile durations.  Still, it’s an awesome picture to see the boy and his dog running along the trails hunting wild blackberries and huckleberries!!
• The place we stayed is really nice and quiet and out of the way, and would be Awesome property for a festival full of drumming and dancing, secluded enough to allow skyclad camping in the back half.
• Speaking of skyclad, it’s such a hassle dealing with swimsuits in the pool.  I miss 4Quarter Farm and Starwood dress-codes. 

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Because I can’t skip over a decent almost useful meme, here’s the most recent I have seen bouncing around my neck of the blog-o-sphere.   Apparently the BBC reckons most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here.

Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an ‘x’ after those you have read.
2) Add a ‘+’ to the ones you LOVE.
3) Star (*) those you plan on reading.
4) Tally your total.

How many have you read?  I have read, if I’m counting correctly,  55.

1. [+ ] – The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. [ x ] – Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. [ x ] – His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. [ ++ ] – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. [ x ] – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. [ x ] – To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. [ x ] – Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. [ x ] – Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. [ + ] – The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. [  ] – Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. [ x  ] – Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. [   ] – Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. [  ] – Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. [  ] – Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. [ x  ] – The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. [ x ] – The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. [ x ] – Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. [ x ] – Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. [  ] – Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. [  ] – War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. [ x ] – Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. [ x ] – Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling
23. [ x ] – Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. [ x ] – Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. [ x ] – The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. [ x ] – Tess Of The D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. [  ] – Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. [  ] – A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. [ x ] – The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. [ x ] – Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. [  ] – The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. [  ] – One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. [ x ] – The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. [  ] – David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. [ x ] – Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. [ x ] – Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. [  ] – A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. [  ] – Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. [ x ] – Dune, Frank Herbert
40. [  ] – Emma, Jane Austen
41. [ x ] – Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. [ + ] – Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. [ x ] – The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. [ x ] – The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. [  ] – Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. [ x ] – Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. [ x ] – A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. [  ] – Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. [  ] – Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. [ x ] – The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. [ x ] – The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. [ x ] – Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. [ x ] – The Stand, Stephen King
54. [  ] – Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. [  ] – A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. [ x ] – The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. [  ] – Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. [ x ] – Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. [ x ] – Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. [ x ] – Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. [  ] – Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. [ x ] – Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. [ x ] – A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. [  ] – The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. [  ] – Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. [ x ] – The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. [  ] – The Magus, John Fowles
68. [ x ] – Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. [  ] – Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. [ x ] – Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. [  ] – Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. [  ] – The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. [ x ] – Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. [  ] – Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. [  ] – Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding
76. [  ] – The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. [  ] – The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. [ x ] – Ulysses, James Joyce
79. [  ] – Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. [  ] – Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. [  ] – The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. [  ] – I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. [ x ] – Holes, Louis Sachar
84. [ x ] – Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. [  ] – The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. [  ] – Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. [ x ] – Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. [  ] – Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. [ x ] – Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. [  ] – On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. [  ] – The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. [ x ] – The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. [ x ] – The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. [  ] – The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. [  ] – Katherine, Anya Seton
96. [  ] – Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. [  ] – Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. [ x ] – Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. [ x ] – The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. [  ] – Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie

Hmm, there you go.  I’ve read quite a bit more than I thought, but consider this a rather skewed list.  It shows a number of similar books (such as Harry Potter being there for each book,  if you read one, you probably read them all).   likewise Terry Pratchett is listed a few times, though I agree he’s a great author, and likewise with Jane Austin novels.

Anne of The Gods are Bored, just wrote a post about her daughter needing to read from an even more erudite list from the Pen-Faulkner award for Fiction.   Reading that listing, I found I only have ever picked up ONE of those books, and never finished it because it was, as she also mentions, very deep and complex and absolutely not a gripping enteraining experience.  I can’t imagine making a grade-school student suffer through them, unless said student showed a literary aptitude, or it was presented in-class with discussion and group effort.  Yuck!

(I picked up “Snow Falling of Cedars“, which was a decent book, but out of my normal range of reading, so couldn’t get interested enough in it to finish.  I can see why it’s a ‘scholarly book though, and used by Literature classes for study)

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After reading Scott Adams’ blog today (Of Dilbert comic fame), I had to actually laugh out loud at the final line.

Still, there’s a hint of interesting muse going on there, beyond the witty humor.    Could such an experiment be done?

I’ve just emailed the local community college to get the name of the psychology proffs.   I’ll propose the situation, since it sounds like just the sort of thing my own psych teacher would jump all over when I attended college.   Our class experiment was about cultural appearances.  We all did the classic “Dress down and go into a fancy jewelry store to see if we get sneered at, then return later all dolled up and were shows much more respect”.

I imagine that if test scores have a remote chance to be affected (even positively) this will get shot down.

Still, doesn’t hurt to try!   That’s how progress is made, breaking down the old to make way for the new….

How are you today?   I, myself, am great, thanks! 

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This weekend we attended a wedding reception for a good friend of my wife.   We unfortunately missed the actual wedding due to prior schedules for a cousin’s 4yr old twins’  birthday bash, and the horrid traffic which turned our hour drive between the events into a bit longer than we anticipated.  Le Sigh. 

The reception though, was awesome.   I’ll keep names out, since they really won’t matter to most of my readers, but the events were nice enough to blog about here.

We arrived and the kid immediately ran out of the car to go wrestle and run with a group of other young boys around 4-10 years old.  This was a nice change of pace, since usually our son tends to be shy and hover around us for the first 45 minutes of any party and only then gets the courage to interact more.   This time, he ran off, listened half-heartedly as we told him where We would be, then vanished among the woods and fields.

The weather was warm and sunny, perfect for outdoor festivities, and there was a local band setup under the pavilion tent.  Great music, gobs of smiling people, and kids running around on the outskirts of the party.  Couldn’t have asked for a better setup.

The happy couple, of course, were glowing and beautiful/handsome, and all the guests chatted easily, and snacked on the delicious TexMex Grill food.

We chatted quite a lot with some friends who we hadn’t seen for years, trading stories of recent life, and feasting “more than we needed to eat”.   The chatter eventually drifted toherbal studies, nature spirituality, and various sundry topic, and we traded blog addresses.  Shameless plug: Go visit the lovely Lisa and her herbal supplies over by Earth, Root, and Flower.

From time to time, our little one wandered near us to check in, ask for a snack/drink, or otherwise relate some story of adventure he was having with another boy, then dashed off to play again.  His clothes were rather grass-stained and muddy, but I wouldn’t have traded clean clothes for that smile in his eyes.  It was nice to see, and reminded me that we really do need to get out more and socialize with friendly kids outside of school.  The campouts and pagan-friendly festivals are nice, but local friends are important too.

As the sky darkened, the kids started to get closer to home-base, and a huge batch of sparklers appeared from some wise woman.    Suddenly, the backyard field was filled with swirling flames, glittering sparks, and a haze of blue-tinged smoke which held the band’s music and laughter of myriad kids and young-at-heart.   This particular moment struck me as powerful Magic.  Probably not intentionally, but I had to stop and smile in awe.  No better ritual of prosperity could have been formulated, than that group of happy kids and the hand-help fireworks.   Our kid loved it!

Eventually, the band played the “first dance” (by Jack Johnson, I forget the actual song), then struck up a rousing rendition of The Who’s “The Seeker”, and rolled onward from there.   Sadly, it was rather dark then, nad our little one was starting to stagger sleepily into us when he came over for another drink or snack.   We decided to call it a night.

On the way home, as we traveled down the Parkway, we saw more fireworks directly ahead of us.  We found a nice pull-over spot in the parking lot of a nearby business, close enough to see the shadow of the people with flares actually launching the rockets, which meant the aerial explosions were huge and overhead.   The kid hopped into the front seat of the car, we rolled down the windows, and gazed sleepily into the night sky.   Once the finale had boomed all around us, we started back home.  The kid was asleep before I even re-buckled him up from the firework display.

My wife and I smiled on the way home, sending happy wishes and firework awesomeness to the happy couple we had just left.    All in all, a great and festive day, full of love and joy and a bit of magic.

Ain’t life grand!?! 

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Well, I must sadly admit we missed the festivities this year.   Not sure how it happened, but here I find myself glancing at the calendar, and thinking, “Hey, it’s already August 3rd?!..um,  Yay harvest! …um  w00t for seedy goodness gone to grain!  We won’t starve this winter!”

We did have a busy weekend, with a birthday party for the 4-yr old twins, followed immediately by one of the most rocking Wedding receptions in the history of awesomeness (blog post to follow soon).  Our friend got married, and at the reception we ran into another friend of hers we hadn’t seen in years, and jsut really enjoyed ourselves.  I’ll consider that event a serendipitous Celebration of the harvest, because there was good food, good music, and a semi-magical event involving kids and sparklers.

So, not much in the way of deeper musing today.   I’m thinking I’ll toss together something fun and festive tonight for dinner, then go outside and launch off a bit of meditation on our many and varied skills we’ve trained this summer.   Horray for Lugh of the many skills!

From gleaning & canning beans, to jellying rhubarb, to drying Nettle for infusions, this year has been the most productive we’ve ever had in terms of stocking the pantry with garden-goodies.   All this, and our actual personal garden on our property has not actually produced anything except a continued stream of fresh rainbow Swiss Chard!  Granted, the beets and corn are setting up nicely, and the ubiquitous potatoes are still not quite ready, but it’s a good year so far.

I’m thinking more and more each year that the traditional celebrations described in most wiccan/pagan calendars are not entierly accurate for our climate, so need to be celebrated more in spirit than in practice.  Only Mayday and the maypole seems to work for us as “traditional” events. 

I’ve started another batch of random liqueur bottles, from raspberry, to elderflower, and am waiting for my local hops to flower later this month to try a batch of True Homebrew beer (local barley & honey, our well water & hops!). Once the elder berries are ripe, we’ll make our annual gluttonous pile of jelly again, plus a bottle or two of cough syrup and cordial, since last year’s got used up faster than we expected.

On other smithy crafts, I’ve gotten much more comfortable with blogging software, and macros.  Also have been spending much more time at the Vernon Park where the kid is now swimming underwater with confidence.

It’s not really earth-based spirituality, but skills are skills, so I’ll celebrate what we got. 

Happy belated harvest to all of you!

((PS:  Now that I’m back off the horrid swing-shift night schedule, I’ll be sleeping and actually musing a bit more.  Feel free to suggest any topics of interest to spur on my imagination!))

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