Day One-hundred-and-twenty-one: Third times the charge

Banks don't really know money, well, how to give it up. It took me three times and three days to finally get money transferred out of my account. If it weren't for the lousy interest they give me, I could think that their slowness outbound is beneficial to me. Instead, I know it is all for them, because of the lousy interest they give me.

I did the outside, sky chair meditation again today. Instead of the squirrel, today I just saw a partially eaten apple. It was a little brighter, not only because of the fogless, crisp, clear day, but also because the willow tree has lost even more leaves. Now, sitting in a sky chair, which hangs on one hook, means that typically I bob, swing and twist. When the sun is bright, like it was today, the movement of sky chair makes the sun a really bright blinking light. As I sit still, the chair slows down its motion and the blinks slow as well. Thank goodness the rest point doesn't face me into the sun.

While I enjoy it in the afternoon, I still think I like the night time better. The birds and squirrels may not be out but the contractors working on a neighboring house aren't either.

While I must admit to some bias, I was impressed with Barack Obama's half hour. Now for the long night of analysis. I really don't think that I will be able to stay awake that long. Besides, I still have to find my dictionaries to choose my Toastmaster word. I also have to stink up my front yard again to keep the deer from eating their favorite plant. (Liquid Fence's primary odiferous ingredient is rotten eggs.)

Well, another short entry, a blessing for the regular readers and the irregular writer. I can use every blessing I get in this Life after Layoff.

Day One-hundred-and-nineteen: Running on empty

I like multiple meaning titles. The direct reference is to my Prius being on its last fuel gauge bar for the last week, but then I've only used it to drive locally, including going to Safeway twice today. The indirect reference is, at least today, not having a lot to write about. Oh well, a short entry every once in a while may not be such a bad thing. The only real problem is that it gives me fewer chances to weave in my tag line of Life after Layoff, at least more cleverly.

Yesterday I bought some Indian eggplant and used it to make some Gerson Ratatouille this morning. It was good to have some hot food, but I found out that Indian eggplant has a skin between the Japanese/Chinese eggplant and the more traditional eggplant. Now the traditional eggplant I know to peel before I cook it. I now know the same about Indian eggplant, but I ate it tough skin and all. Better, I just won't buy Indian eggplant again.

I also made some Food for Life gingerbread that tasted so good I ended up eating about half of it. This batch was too moist both because I used a measuring cup that didn't have a 1 3/4 cup line so I approximated. Then I probably undercooked it. Undercooking a cake-like food that doesn't have any fat or egg isn't dangerous, it could be messy though. It was cooked enough that the whole wheat pastry flour was done. I obviously liked it.

In case this blog has other readers than my direct family, I copying an email I wrote yesterday about things that have been occurring after I normally write my daily entry.

I've transferred my meditation guides to my iPod. This has given me new possibilities and I've been taking advantage of them. Tonight and Friday night I sat in the sky chair in the dark, well, as dark as it gets in a town. (Back in a canyon in Pacifica, it is darker than it ever got on a Fremont cul-de-sac but we never set up the sky chairs in Fremont.)

Last night it got so late, I did it directly in bed. It probably helped me sleep better.

But the reason I was inspired to write this email this late was the two very different night time sky chair meditations. Friday night the sky was very clear and I could see stars through the branches of the willow tree. It was meditative just to watch them. The only problem was that I left just one house light on. It wasn't distracting enough to get up and turn it off but I learned my lesson.

Tonight the fog had rolled in but with the street lights on Ranier, the "back of the" house lights on Glacier it was still quite bright even though I did turn off all the lights in my house. This meant that I wasn't stumbling around in the dark. When I finally came in, which has consistently been after about 50 minutes, I noticed how bright my supposedly dark house was. It is amazing how many LEDs I have telling me the time, telling me the temperature of the wine. I suppose all of the AC adaptors' lights are LEDs as well. Then there is my modem and router. I don't have any need for the night lights that I no longer have plugged in, even on moonless nights like this one appears to be.

At the end of my meditating, if that is really what it can be called, I thought of another series of topics for my Memories of Marilyn: "Company trips and trips on companies." We really did get a lot of travel in. I can't begin to imagine what we would be doing now. I'm falling behind in my travel.

Day One-hundred-and-five: Great day missing pieces

When I went out to water the back yard, the warmth, the dryness, the sun, the perfectness of the day just struck me. I decided that it would be a great day to just sit out in the sky chair and enjoy. Then I spent the rest of the day looking for the pieces. I found the unopened sky chair. I found the cloth and rope portion of the opened sky chair, in my second more thorough looking in the garage. Then I spent the next two hours looking for the poles that look like various lengths of closet hanging rods. I finally found them in my second more thorough looking in the storage shed. I didn't shift too many things around before I found them in plain sight, up against the wooden lawn table.

After sticking the sticks in all the right places, by then the sun was a little lower and the day not quite as perfect but I enjoyed the time I spent out there. The planes, the construction, the children, the adult intervention, the cars, ... but also the birds, the bugs, the green, the flowers, ... It was a great time. It was also peaceful and quite the spot to meditate. I'm still, well, still. Today was a practically perfect Life after Layoff.

Speaking of "practically perfect," this is something to which I have aspired ever since I saw "Mary Poppins" when I was young. (It is also something I claimed to be to my young children and at least my oldest one believes it is in the genes. It is and I am.)

The rest of the day was more normal and less notable. I did do another self-assessment test. I've eaten plenty, which makes the Fasting Handbook, Dining on an Empty Bowl more attractive. I've read it once but haven't identified any fast that I should partake of. It has quite clear schedules of entry and exit, which means that I need to plan for it, particularly planning so none of my food spoils.