pUr

I started using my water filter again and it is the best. I had forgotten how sweet and fresh this drip by drip water tasted. It takes a while to accumulate but when it does it is worth it. My eyes are more clear my brain is awake and my winter doldrum style illness has finally gone away. I usually drink more than a liter of water a day so to now have super purified water to guzzle freely is sure a treat. The PUR Ultimate Faucet Mount water filter is the most advanced microfilter. It reduces chemicals linked to increased cancer risk, lead, and 99.99 percent of the microbiological cysts cryptosporidium and giardia while leaving beneficial fluoride in the water. Mmmmmm, sounds tasty to me. Check out this link http://www.adhikara.com/water.html

Me and the boy are going to start to make some rock candy today...it will be fun to watch the crystals grow, maybe ours will look this nice when we are done.

Remedies

The best remedy for any ailment is rest, water and proper nutrition - and an occasional aspirin. Remember the old adage "take two aspirin and call me in the morning" well it works as a well as "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" ...we lose sight of simple things in this palm pilot world we live in. So why am I spouting like this? I have had some kind of nasal congestion since around Thanksgiving and it won't go away, it slackens only to return. I have had this kind of thing before but not every year, and what I usually do when I get to my wits end like now is I take claritin or allegra or one of those suppressants. This time I am not.

New York is gonna get hit with some snow after all.

I can't wait!

I have found as the years progress that one of the hardest things to learn to do is to be in the moment. We are always worried about that test we have on thursday or next week I have that meeting or countless other things that keep us focused on the future because after all that is where our goals are. I remember all the conversations I had with both my grandmother and grandfather on my fathers side. I grew up with them and living nearby so I had all day and daily interaction on this little farm with sheep and chickens and goats and an occasional milk cow. These older people lived in a small town in southern new mexico and even though it was the 70's and they had lived in the area through the generations - my grandmother knew about 10 words and 3 sentences in english yet she knew countless things to do with just about every weed, plant or plant weed that grew around the house. She made whistles out of some leaves and tea out of roots, "you got a problem, shes got a weed that'll fix it"..be it playful or medicinal.. My grandfather, on the other hand, could speak english somewhat and he knew about 10 words and 3 sentences in french, german and the local native american dialect, (he was in world war one and learned them there, well not the tewa language, that came from living near and indian reservation) point is when I was 10 he was 70, when I was 25 he died..he was 95 and every day I saw him and I saw him every day almost from the day I was born until I was 19 or 20, he proclaimed each and every day as the best day of his life...he lived in the moment. Understandably he was old and what kind of future was left for him you might say. Point is it took him his whole life, no matter what, tomorrow gets here if your lucky and he was lucky enough to have thirty four thousand six hundred and seventy five tomorrows....thats a lot considering I have only had 16,425...I am about half way there and I have had some friends die..so their clock stops...lets see if I can make it to 40,000...well by saying so I am no longer living in the moment. I have a goal....hence my conundrum. Anyway my grandparents seemed to have the zen thing down pat, married forever, 5 kids, died old. And every day was lived and maximized like there was no tomorrow.

Message in a Bottle

While walking on the beach in Coney Island with the boy we stumbled across a plastic bottle with the cap taped on with duct tape and inside was a rolled up paper object. I cut open the bottle since the duct tape and cap were fused together and inside was an envelope with a letter from 1998.

The letter was written by a person named Latasha Pearson from Mr. Schwartz's Science Class from Glenfield Middle School in Montclair, New Jersey. The letter said that the class was studying ocean currents. Granted the bottle did not get far but it did take
8 years to be found.

We will mail it back and see what happens.

.............hold on a minute..............let me re think this...this plastic soda bottle with a duct taped lid did not "bounce around" Coney Island beach for the last 7 years and 4 months it could have been to Bali or even Phuket and back, (the note was dated 10-12-98) or it could have been floating around the Sound for a while and it could have lingered in Jamaica Bay for a long while and it could have been on the Coney shore for just a minute, or it could have been on the beach for the entire time just bouncing. No one knows. What we might find out is if anyone elses bottles got returned. Lets see if they write back.

on other notes:
I made some yams or sweet potatos or whatever you want to call these tropical tubers not of the orange variety. There is the wild yam that seems to posses enormous healing properties.http://altnature.com/gallery/wild_yam.htm The belief in the strengths of this plant overwhelm whatever doubts you might have. There are also several other varieties that are easily available. I made the yams in tribute to the Bunlap tribe and the Yanomani tribe that I have had the slash fortune slash misfortune of having seen on TV. The fortune is apparent, I get to see a "live" tribe and the misfortune is equally obvious, they have been discovered. To further enhance the misfortune the "documentation" of these two tribes has not stopped since the initial discovery. As a result of this "discovery" that I have watched on the Discovery Channel every so often I have seen these people slowly "learn" everything about western culture that they never had any need to know before. Some of them can now speak english and the Bunlap tribe now has a phone. Not good.

Super Bowl Sunday

Rain and Games

The guy and I have been playing board games lately. It is lots of fun to play with a 7 year old that has just learned to read well (meaning he can read and understand most everything now) and it makes game playing tons more fun.

Almost February

New York did not have the obnoxious snow and wet filthy conditions it usually has in January. The drifts can get large the piles of things to traverse become large, everything is wet - and beneath it all lies dog do which is also large.
http://www.gloomyjoe.com/gallery/blizzard/blizzard8.html


a pretty picture is a pretty picture


I am on the phone right now with a friend of mine from Santa Fe. He is a piece. "Give them what they want not what you want. Dont think about it too much." He cracks me up. You better hang.

He lives in such a beautiful town, fresh air, nice hills and a nice house.
http://rozylowicz.com/retirement/turquoise-trail/madrid-panorama.html


http://www.java-junction.com/

I most definitely did not get the 'razor shave' I said I was going to get, who knows if I ever will. I did get the disappointing hair cut that was seemingly less than what I normally can do for myself.
I fixed the haircut.
I dont know how easy it would be
to fix a botched straight razor shave.
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2002/20020930/severed_head.shtml

Anyway, it is the month of Romance approaching, it will be interesting to watch all the roosters attracting the hens.




The Fighting Roosters And The Eagle
(an aesops fable)

TWO GAME ROOSTERS
were fiercely fighting for the mastery of the farmyard.
One at last put the other to flight.



The vanquished Rooster skulked away and hid himself in a quiet
corner, while the conqueror, flying up to a high wall,
flapped his wings and crowed exultingly with all his might.
An Eagle sailing through the air pounced upon him and carried him off in his talons.
The vanquished Rooster immediately came out of his corner,
and ruled henceforth with undisputed mastery.
Pride goes before destruction.