The 3rd house in astrology is associated with writing, conversation, personal thoughts, day-to-day things, siblings and neighbors.
Wednesday, June 02, 2004This week's public service announcement
Ahem. Interesting interview with author and sexologist Ian Kerner today at Salon.com on his new book, She Comes First, and "why the well-trained tongue is mightier than the 'sword.'"
Update: Sorry, forgot to mention articles at Salon.com are available by subscription (it's pretty cheap, by the way, and I've found it well worth the price). I can email the article to anyone who wants it.
Dragon thunder
Damn. I should have gone for a walk while I still could. Now there's thunder rumbling across the valley and raindrops are splatting my deck. I checked the radar loop at channel 5 and there's a large dragon's mouth shaped splotch of green and yellow with a couple of blood-red drops (I think this is moderate to heavy rain) moving across central Massachusetts and about to bite into my town. Maybe I can get out later after it's gone on to eat Boston.
Update: Wow, I saw a bit of sunshine outside so I stuck my head out the door to look for a rainbow – no rainbow but a hummingbird just inches away from my face! And gone in a flash.
This morning
It’s turned out to be an unexpectedly nice day – sunny, mid 60’s, lovely fresh breeze blowing in… as Ingrid, my housemate’s dog, has discovered. See below – the shadow makes her look rather chunky. Well, she is pretty chunky, but not that chunky. Fortunately Ingrid doesn’t care in the least. No “Does this photo make my butt look fat?” No, she is quite content with herself as she is. We call her Ingridisima, because she is so-o-o Ingrid.
This morning I took my old jalopy to my mechanic. It’s a 1995 Mercury Mystique with 145,000 miles on it and counting. It has a 6-cylinder engine and it’s still got good pickup, but the chassis practically bottoms out on every bump in the road. I was trying to describe it over the phone to Steve, my mechanic, but he said we should take it for a ride so he could feel what was going on. I got to the shop and all he had to do was give it a few good shoves down on the right side over the rear tire and he said, “Oh. We don’t have to take it out.” The struts are shot.
I have an appointment on Monday. The shop’s about a mile from my house, so I can drop it off and walk home. He’s been taking care of my cars for most of the time I’ve lived here. Nothing beats having a mechanic you’ve known for a long time, and who’s close by. He’s fit my car in right away when I’ve needed it, and even drove out and picked me up one time when it broke down on the highway. He’s inexpensive and since it’s an old car he’ll look for junkyard parts if possible to replace things. (He also likes to show you the greasy-gunky broken parts he’s removed from your car and tell you more detail than you really want to know about what he did and how he did it, but I think that’s all helpful actually.) He does a pretty good job, though I had to take it to the dealership for some electronic stuff last year that he doesn’t have the equipment to handle. But for regular maintenance, he’s my man. It’s like your hairdresser – when you have one you like you come to rely on them.