Strange things are happening in my inner world.  I haven't quite figured out what is going on....
My good friends, Mike and Deb, are moving to Tucson, Arizona.  The move was necessitated by economics.  Mike has been unable to find a job in his field (he's a librarian) in Puget Sound.  At this point, I think I'll even miss his musical renditions on the eggbeater.  Deb and I have a lot in common and I always had the feeling that if I had more free time we should have gotten together more.

I usually don't enter drawings, and it is even more seldom that I win anything, but I entered two drawings recently and won both of them.  One of them was for a free membership with the Seattle chapter of NOW.  The other was for a gift basket from the Olive Farm in Portland (see July 19th blog).  The gift basket itself is a beautiful hand woven basket with a carved wood handle.  It contains olive oil, olive spreads, pine honey, pear vinegar, and pomegranet pepper jelly; most items imported from Turkey.  Whenever I win anything, I know it might be a clue that something is going on in my inner life.

I can only remember winning two other things in my entire life, both were things that I appreciate.  One of them I wanted and had a feeling I might win (like the gift basket from Olive Farm) and the other was totally unexpected (like the membership at NOW).  The one I thought I might win was a stone garden lantern (I was taught they are garden spirit houses).  It was a raffle prize at the Seattle Native Plant sale more than 2 years ago.  The other I won 20 years ago.  It was a door prize at an art gallery Halloween benefit party in Woodstock, New York, where I won a metal sculpture of a maiden by Zak Zakine.

Unlike the earlier two things I won, these two things are consumable.  That is, the membership in NOW is good for one year and the gift basket is filled with things that will be gone when I and my family/friends have finished eating them.  The message I've gotten out of this so far is to enjoy what I have now because some things will not last.  That could be a depressing thought for someone who just turned 50 years old, whose close friends are moving away.  On the other hand, winning two great prizes within two weeks for someone who doesn't usually enter drawings (I'm sure those were the only things I entered this year) might have some happier meanings, too.

As for the prizes in the past, I won the metal sculpture when I made the decision to leave my Chiropractic practice and move away.  I won the spirit house shortly after moving into my current home.  And it replaced one that was stolen from me at my last home in Crown Hill.

At home, Tom is preparing the foundation for our hot tub.  We are calling the small space on the west side of our house by the over-inflated name of "the Mediterranean garden".  We are planning to put in the hot tub, wooden and tile deck, and some large ceramic planters there.

The August colors and this page are new.  I haven't gotten the pictures up from the STP yet, and it won't happen this week either because I'm too busy.

I need to find someone in Dutch Harbor Alaska who I can use as a partner to help me install a new Firewall unit.  I fixed MailScanner on our server and I'm feeling pretty confident about being able to install, uninstall, and configure most usual types of programs on Linux.

I STILL haven't done anything about my ISP and Majordomo major headaches with SeattleLinuxChix.  I need to call tech support but I need to have some time when I can do it.  That hasn't happened yet.

I've been running half a mile instead of quarter miles.  I keep thinking that I'm eating little enough and exercising hard enough so that some weight should come off and I keep being surprised that it isn't happening.

I've gone to the Kirkland swimming pool a couple of times.  Too many kids and no nudity in the women's locker room (one of my pet peeves about upper middle class white culture); but the water is warm enough to be comfortable for me and there are lots of open swim times when float toys are permitted.  The warm temperature in an outdoor pool has made it my current favorite inspite of the annoying culture.

Saturday night, Tom and I saw the documentary film, the Parrots of Telegraph Hill.  It was particularly fun because we saw those parrots on our last trip to San Francisco.  It was a great movie and I would recommend that anyone who likes birds should go see it.

The phlox, lillies, and hosta are in bloom in my shade garden.  The tigerlilly has started to bud.  The tigerlilly bloom is always bittersweet because it heralds the beginning of the colder weather.

Out front, the daisies, coreopsis, butterfly bush, roses, catnip, and tansy are blooming profusely.  The sunflowers are budding.  My pumpkin plants and tomato plants have not done well this year.  I'd be surprised if I even get 3 pumpkins.

Tom and I went canoeing and blackberry picking this evening.  We saw the usual kingfishers and gadwells, then we saw a beaver up close who didn't even seem too disturbed by our presence.  As we canoed home, we saw a perfect Diana's bow with a very bright star just on the concave side of the bow.  I think it was Saturn.