The Cleanup

Begins

(sissy helping me

get a "clean shave"

photo Circa 1977)

Coming home
from visiting
Mom .
November
2005

....having fun with gingerbread!!!...























...and this is the view from just inside my balcony
doors just after the snowfall a couple of weeks ago...
then it rained and washed all the snow away...

...once a poser, always

a poser!!!...

can you believe this is me (with

sissy's cigarette holder and wearing

her high heel shoes!!!) - i must be all

of 15 here...

I LOVE TO REMINISS


Crossing the Equator Ceremonies


Greased
pole
competition:
i'm on
the left.








Captain's Cocktail Party


Truly
"An Officer
and a
Gentleman"

my "companion"
on my 6 week
cruise in ...get
this...1967!!

November 11th
In Remembrance of
Those Who Died for Us


Kamakura Buddah (photo by GB)

"Whatever joy

there is in this

world

All comes from desiring others to be happy,

And whatever suffering there is in this world

All comes from desiring myself to be happy."

- Shantideva

Lest We Forget

Troops, no longer

preparing for war,

form an eight-rayed star and rotate to the left. This image

perhaps indicates that some inner conflict has given way to

harmony.

"Holding on to anger is like grasping a
hot coal with the intent of throwing it
at someone else; you are the one
getting burned".

- Buddah

Japanese reflecting
pool at the home of
Arthur Erickson
(architect) - photo
by pj ( Winter
1977)

Me with
"Maui
Dude"

a long
long
LONG
time ago

This is our cat Queen
Celeste, more usually
called "Kitty", the
name to which she
responds. When I
found her in Chilliwack,
I thought she was our
first cat "Tang", an in-
door cat who had got
out and not been able
to find her way home.
Tang was what I call
a "piss-artist" because


when she got cross with us she would pee all over the place. I had to throw
out a chair, a quilt and several pillow because I could not get the smell out
of them. And she was not even all that friendly. She would not sit on our
laps, and would only come if you had food for her. But she was Sue's cat
and Sue loved her; and she was very pritty, with her one blue eye and one
green eye, and white all over. We had moved to Burnaby, and I was working
in Chilliwack. On the way to my car I heard this pathetic "meowing", and saw
this emaciated white cat in the middle of the road looking at me. Thinking
it was Tang, and armed with mycar blanket, I lured her closer and
grabbed her. She yeowled and carried on, so driving with one hand I
headed for the local vet to borrow a cat carrier as I had a long drive home
on the highway. While I was there I had her checked out, and all the while
she was rubbing up against me. The vet commented, "Wow, she sure is
bonding with you!" During the hour long drive home she scratched and
meowed and I was thinking to myself: "Why on earth are you taking this
horrid little creature home with you, you were well rid of her.?" But of
course I knew the answer. Things had been very difficult for Susan after
my divorce, and I knew she would be thrilled to see Tang again. When
I got home Susan took one look at her and exclaimed: "Mum! that is not
Tang." I said, "Yes, look at the eyes!" "No", Susan said: "Tang had a
very bushy tail, and her right eye was blue, and the left green - this cat's
eyes are the other way around." I had to go and get a photo of Tang, and
sure enough, Susan was right! So who was this stranger that I had I
inadvertently "kidnapped"? Well, I'll tell you, this little creature was a
Gift from God. Just what Susan needed to get her out of the unhappy
state she was in, having just moved to a new school and having to make
new friends. All night long our new "house guest" rubbed against our
legs, jumped on our laps, and followed us from room to room - she was,
and still is, the exact opposite of Tang. Kitty loves everybody! When
visitors come, she flops down at their feet, rolls over on her back and
waits for them to rub her tummy. As soon as someone sits down, she
hops up on their lap, without having to be coaxed. And when I go to bed
at night she sleeps right by the front door in the hallway (just like a
guard dog) because she is not allowed in my bedroom, as she keeps me
awake at night with all her purring and kneading. She is just the best
cat anyone could ask for!

बेगीन्निंग्स ऎंड एन्दिन्ग्स

"A hundred years from now it will not matter
what my bank account was, the sort of house
I lived in, or the kind of car I drove...but the
world may be different because I was important
in the life of a child." - source unknown

Ops!




Zzzzzzzzzzz...


A picture speaks
a thousand
words....




(2004 - photos by
Pamela)

Song of the Day:


...."bye bye miss American Pie, ..drove the Chevy to the levy but the levy was dry....while the King was looking down the Jester stole his haughty crown...and we sang dirges in the Dark the day the Music died...."


(the Barong and Kris Dancers - photo by GBrownlee)

1995 - aerial view of the Enchanted Forrest (photo and story by pj (C)2005

The Enchanted Forrest - realm of faeries and honourable ancestors, where i first locked eyes with Coyote.

Eros came blundering through, in his carpenter's belt, his steel-toed boots covered with sawdust. Wielding his nail gun, he turned my whole world up-side-down; with his 50lb crowbar he roughly chipped away at the stone that was once my heart - slowly cracking open a small crevice into which the moonshine of love could penetrate. He whirled me so high i was dizzy and breathless; when i felt my whole being shattering, he threw
me back down again. And so my journey began anew...

"Unhappiness comes from constrantly debating the outcomes of things that can't possibly be controlled." - David Baird, from A Thousand Paths to Happiness.

The Moon Is In My Heart

by Dwayne Edward Rourke

"I have learned not to worry about love; but to honour its coming with all my heart".
- Alice walker

"Cultivate more joy by arranging your life so that more joy will be likely."

- Georgia Witkin (b. 1943)
American professor psychiatry
from "The Secrets of JOY"

Christmas 2005 - Night-time view from Hideway Balcony