I fell into bed at 7 or 7:30 last night, well worn out (but in no way stiff or sore, thankfully!) from the “rock garden” task this afternoon. But that means I slept like a rock for eight hours and then woke up, fresh as a daisy, and I can’t go back to sleep (yet), so I’ll visit with YOU (virtually) for a while.

 

I woke up hungry because I didn’t eat dinner last night. (Too weary to feel hungry.) So, I’ve just made myself a tuna sandwich and a cup of Sweet and Spicy tea with a spoonful honey in it, and I’m ready to roll.

 

NIGHT-TIME THOUGHTS

 

While I was laying in bed, wondering whether to try to go back to sleep or get up and do this, I had a series of unrelated thoughts about various things:

 

I thought about my friend Tia and her two best friends in Russia and how nervous they must be feeling, given the present volatile situation between the Wagner Group and Vladimir Putin.

 

I thought about Trip Thomas and his scary news that his doctor thinks he has a brain tumor, and that’s why he has been having seizures. My mom passed away from brain cancer in 1998, and so I fret, but hope it’s a benign tumor, if indeed he has a tumor.  I’m waiting to find out…

 

I thought about the years when Mom, Dad and I were building and remodeling restaurants all across the country, because I wondered how close I came to being able to see DeForest Kelley in that play in Lubbock Texas in 1974 at the Hayloft Dinner Theater. We were in Lubock at one time, but I don’t know if it was in 1974. I do know we were enjoying going to dinner theaters around that time. We saw The Rainmaker, The Fantasticks, and some other plays at around the same year. I’m sure if we had heard that De was inLubbock the same time we were, we’d have been in his audience… but it’s one of those nostalgic things. If I could go back in time to any previous period of my life, I would choose to see De in BEGINNER’S LUCK live on stage in Lubbock.  Seriously, because I missed that, and I will be forever unhappy about it!  (I wondered if Phil Weyland had the ability to videotape De’s performance back then and, if so, if he did.)

 

Phil Weyland and DeForest Kelley, Lubbock Texas 1974

 

I thought about getting my interview with Phil Weyland (De’s director for BEGINNER’S LUCK and his stand in for the motion poictures) put in the can at blogtalkradio so I can announce that we’ll be playing it on the next EVER NEW this coming Saturday, July 1st   — that is, of course, if Roger D. Noreiga can do the background tech that will make it all happen sometime between now and then. I have several messages in to him, but zero response yet re a definite date/time, so I’m waiting to post the next EVER NEW until I find out what we’ll be doing that day. (GRRR! I’m on pins and needles because the inteview date isn’t locked in already!)

 

I thought about getting my fifty plus plecos to Aquarium Paradise sometime this coming week. I keep missing the owner when I call there, who can tell me when to bring them in. When the plecos are gone, I will have mostly guppies and glofish in there, except for one dwarf African clawed frog.  I’d like to keep two or three plecos if I can make sure they’re all males or unpregnant baby females, so they can’t reproduce.  In less than a year and a half, I went from three plecos to over 100, total, and I don’t want that happening again.  If I was able to sell them, it would be one thing, but I can only trade them in for credits or aquarium supplies or additional fish at Aquarium Paradise (and maybe not even that with plecos and guppies; I may end up just donating them).

 

I thought about having only one rat left (of the nine I adopted almost three years ago; they live only two years on average) and how, when she dies, I will turn this den into a complete office again. I’ll take the 45-gallon reptile tank out (her cardboard box sits atop it), shampoo the carpet, and free up the space for other things, or for nothing.  Perhaps a lovely large plant will fit nicely in that space. Or I might relocate the 55-gallon aquarium to that space if I can figure out why the wall sockets on that side of the room have no electricity coming in to them. I need working wall outlets to relocate the aquarium to that spot.

 

I thought about getting to Ruby Beach on the Olympic Peninsula real soon (within the next two weeks). I’ve been thinking about going for two or three years and it’s GOING TO HAPPEN this year. I am putting a date on it so it does. No more waiting to go. I’m going, with or without friends along. No more delays.

 

I thought about canceling my trip to Cle Elum on the 4th of July to try and sell some books at the South Cle Elum Independence Day Festival. I have a free table, if I decide to go.  I’m just sitting on the fence about it.  If it won’t be too hot that day in Cle Elum, I will probably go, but the idea of sitting at an outdoor booth all day in the sun (without a canopy) doesn’t float my boat. The likelihood of selling books is probably slim to nil, unless 1969-era Cle Elum classmates stop by, and most of the ones I know will be in other places on the 4th, so it doesn’t seem really worth the trip or the heat. I’m not desperate for book sales, and doubt I’d even earn back what I put into the gas tank to get there. So, yeah… it’s a pickle.  And I can’t stay overnight to watch the stars because I need to lock the chickens in at sunset so raccoons can’t get in to feast on them. Too many “what if’s” to make any kind of definite decision right now!

 

So Much for Thinkin’!

 

Those are just the thoughts I remember thinking. Goodness knows how many more came and went without registering longer term!

 

MY BRAIN HAS CHANGED

 

One thing I’ve noticed in the past couple years (I think since I started following Deborah King) is that when I close my eyes at night, I no longer get what looks like an  easel with hundreds if not thousands of images being pulled off it every minute. That was a constant issue before. And before I could even identify most of the images, they’d be pulled down and another image put in it place. It was similar to those old-fashioned cartoon character flip books (before computer assisted design) where one image replaces another with just a minor change, and flipping the pages made Mickey Mouse move.  Remember those? But, in the case of my mind images, none of the images were close enough to the ones before and after them to create a moving picture or story of any kind. Instead, I sensed I was missing crucial details that would make sense if only the frantic pace would slow so I could actually see what I figured I was supposed to be seeing.

 

Since following Deborah King and practicing some of her exercises (meditation, breath control, etc.), my mind has stopped doing that almost entirely. And on the extremely rare occasions when it does, it doesn’t last long at all, mere seconds, and the “pages” stay up longer so I can see them and make sense of them. In other words, my mind has slowed down enough to allow me to process what it’s trying to tell me.  The messages no longer feel frantic or impossible to interpret.

 

But the interesting thing is that, when I’m wide awake, I don’t ever feel anxious or  furiously prompted. I haven’t felt that way in decades! Only as I was falling toward sleep would this happen…  Weird, huh?

 

Another topic just occurred to me so I’m going to end this post and start another!  Catch you there SOON!