Thursday July 17th

It has been a very busy 2 days. I am not counting Tuesday at all; I pretty much slept that day away in the comfort of my own bed and stretched out on the couch while I watched the All Star Game.

Wednesday was a busy one right out of the starting block. I had a meeting with my handy-guy Monte, he is on board to finally fix the door to my garage. Fixing this is a rather interesting project that requires thinking outside of the box and coming up with some creative solutions. I think that we have come up with some great ideas to solve my problems that will add a bit of some "real nice" to my house.

After our meeting I had to go return the Mini-Van to the rental place and then I rushed to meet Monte at Gersons to pick out a door. (Gersons is the world’s most excellent reclamation yard!) We found a door, a beautiful 12-panel door in almost perfect condition. Construction starts as soon as all of the materials are acquired.

The afternoon was spent getting all of my bills and deposits taken care of and sorted out. Then my evening was spent unpacking all of the boxes and doing inventory for Philly. I had not checked my class counts and when I checked, Friday & Saturday are filled and Sunday only has 8 spots left. I could not have been happier. It is good to know that I will be kept really busy for my time in PA.

This morning was spent with the most wonderful Carlysle; I took a 2-hour break from my day and let her work out off of the soreness and pain from the car accident. To say that she is a miracle worker is an understatement, she preformed her magic and I feel so much better. Then I got ALL of the orders that came in while I was away and a few that had been waiting for back orders of tools to arrive. I am 90% caught up. Praise Be!

I just came in from a dusk swim with my bats. I do not think I told you; I have 3 bats this year not just 2. I do not think that they were as pleased to see me this evening, as I was to see them. I have been gone so much and have not taken as many dusk swims as I did last year. I’ll just have to get them used to me all over again. Well the pool was perfect, the evening air was a “cool” 100º, the water was just warm enough to compliment the night air and the sunset was very orange. Those factors along with my bats and my coffee and I was in a perfect spot this evening!

Tacoma was interesting this year, I had not taught for the Festival for a few years and it was nice to be teaching to some old students as well as a great number of new ones. My classes were fun and full and I look forward to going back next year. It was interesting to teach and to have a booth. I have a few ideas that will make it go smoother next year for sure, but the fact that I did plan it out well made all of the difference in the world.

There were a great many differences this year, some very intriguing, some made me very sad and several made me more aware of the world that came from and the world I exist in now. One can gather information in so many unusual ways, the off hand comment or an overheard bar conversation. All you have to do is listen and you can learn a great deal about a wide variety of subject matters. I have become more and more aware of these nuances and my usual way of observing and listening has gleaned much knowledge and understanding of life’s intricacies. The interesting part of it is that all I do is file it all away and ponder it and see how it all fits together. I have always loved a conundrum and over this past year I have learned a great deal about human nature and how the truth about people and human nature can come out in the most amazing ways.

There are wonderful people in this world and I am lucky enough to call a number of them friend! I have tried to never use that word much; I find that it is as overused as the words love and hate are. I “love” that or I “hate” this, so many words and phrases are used without fully acknowledging the ramifications of their meanings or their intentions. I just wish that people would take as much care with words as they do with choosing which shirt to put on in the morning. I believe that a great many people act without full understanding that they will be taken at their word and that they speak without hearing how the person listening will actually hear those words.

Words are a source of amazing power and can be dangerous if not acknowledged as such. The casual speaker, one who speaks without thinking, is the most dangerous of all. I have said it before, how we speak and how we are heard, is one of the truest measures of our humanity! If we speak and do not listen to our words and how we sound, then we have no business speaking at all.