“What think you of falling in love?”
Shakespeare’s As You Like It [I.ii.24]
Presido, Texas, and Ojinaga, Mexico — one of the longest continuously occupied settlements in North America, and for years and years, it was the home of timeless ritual. May 3 is “Dia de la Santa Cruz,” not much observed for the last 50 years but going back 350 years, to a time when Spanish padres trudged through the area, this was site where one Cura Urban fought — and won — a battle with the Devil. The legend stretches back 350 years, and the cura battled the Devil, and locked him up in cave. To this day, the shrine is still there….
Aries: Stop and feel. Feel the way the evening air stirs your chest hairs. Or, in my case, both my chest hairs, I mean, it’s not like I have a really hairy chest, just hairy legs. I got off on a tangent, wondering about that hair, and as I get older, my hair seems to move further away from my forehead and yet, it does seem to sprout elsewhere. That’s just weird. Anyway, what I was trying to describe was the way spring breeze feels on a cool April night in Texas. So we might not be very popular with the rest of the world some days, but still. That gentle breeze, the sun setting, the way it all feels rather peaceful. I was just taking a load of laundry over to the machine, fixing to feed it quarters, and on the way back, I’d taken my shirt off to wash it, too. I felt that breeze stirring. Seems like forever since I’ve felt that wonderful feeling of nothing more than the gentle reverie of the springtime atmosphere. Mercury, yeah, that series of troubles? If you’ll do like I did, just stop and feel, or stop and peel, like when you’re in the middle of a routine task, even then, you’ll notice a degree of Aries serenity. But you’ve got to stop and feel it to feel it. Pause.
Taurus: A trailer is too small of a space to try and contain the burden of a CD collection like I’ve accumulated over the years. I was bemoaning this fact, and one of my buddies, Bubba, was getting a little long winded with his suggestion on how to deal with storage. “Over there, up on the top shelf, that’s where you stack your ‘guilty pleasures,’ you know stuff that you don’t want any of your friends to see. You bring a date over here, and you don’t want her to see that you’ve got, oh you know, Pat Benetar. Or 80’s Hair Metal.” Or oddball punk? Or straight up country crooners? Or even old Dixie Chicks? Guilty pleasures? The classical, especially Mahler, or a couple of versions of Wagner’s Ring cycle look impressive. Along with some vintage 80’s dance tracks? Some of this just doesn’t match up with other items in the lists. That Bubba was so knowledgeable about my diverse collection was admirable, but he still didn’t quite come up with a useable idea on how to store all this stuff. You’re not unlike me, though, one too many items that need to have a safe place on the shelf, and one too many places that this material just doesn’t fit.
Gemini: I was stopped downtown and I was waiting on a bus, sipping a cup of warm coffee. I was sipping the coffee, not the bus. The bus wasn’t sipping the coffee, I was sipping the coffee. Whatever. One of the myriad of homeless guys struck up a conversation with me. He was going on, in a fairly lucid manner, about how, “Everyone has a monkey on their back,” and I thought that was a particularly poignant point, that comment, “yeah, ” and he continued, “if that monkey’s not there, you might check to see if you’re breathing.” Clarity comes in the strangest of places. I’m not sure what sign the homeless guy was, and given the current economic climate, I’m not sure that I’m that far away from his status. His point about the monkey on the back? I remembered that. I carried it around the rest of the day, alternating between a smirk and nod. Look: we’ve all got some kind of a monkey on our collective back. It’s how you deal with that monkey that’s so important. Recognize the monkey on your back. That’s all.
Cancer: I cruised over to the post office in my sandals, with shirt in hand, just to check the old mailbox to see if there was anything of tangible value there, and I was wondering why I opted to do this at the warmest part of the day, or so it seemed. Rush hour traffic around the post office is bad enough, but vehicular traffic in respect to a pedestrian like myself is particularly noxious. Yet, it also gives me a moment to pause and reflect, like you should, especially if you see something like I did. New, or recent anyway, model car. Sports car. Sleek silver color, convertible. Top down. Guy driving the car had the slicked back style, not a hair of place. His sunglasses easily cost more than the entire ensemble of what I was wearing. Starched white shirt, suit coat thrown casually over the passenger seat. I heard familiar strain of music, “Dirty deeds, done dirt cheap….” It was coming from the little silver convertible, the driver was just rocking along. Right on. Which one are you, my fine Cancer friend?
Leo: When the moon does her little dance like this, it tends to upset the Leo portion of the sky. Not always in a bad way, but there’s a certain tension that exists for a little while. Not that tension is a bad thing, per se, but it can create a little problem in your Leo world. Look a little further down the road. I was at one event, not long ago, and particular young lady took one look at my tanned, sandaled feet, and she suggested I should be a foot model because she thought my feet were just perfect representations of what feet are supposed to look like. It’s all that time in sandals you know? Then, not more than a few hours later, Bubba took one look at my feet and commented on how dirty and ugly my feet were. True to his nature, he added some untoward comment about the rest of my slovenly appearance, and this was partially in jest, but also, partially, his real opinion. As was the earlier compliment. What made me think of this, in respect to your chart, is that it’s all about perception. Two folks saw the exact same thing, my feet, and two people had very different opinions. Tension? Good or bad? I’d be flattered by the comments, either way.
Virgo: I thought I saw the strangest sight the other evening, platform cowboy boots. As it turned out, on closer inspection, it wasn’t a pair of platform cowboy boots, just another retro-ultra-chic platform go-go boots that were one or two sizes too big. What some folks will do for fashion. But it did bring up that idea, platform cowboy boots. Perhaps some enterprising soul could draw those up and market them. Maybe someone already has. I don’t know, I’ve never seen them. The place? Right around the corner from Shady Acres, there’s a legendary bar and live music venue. Odd crowd, but given the location, what did you expect? Given the planets in the sky, what did you expect from your week? You might make a fortuitous fashion discovery, only, in the light of regular daylight, instead of the semi-dark, smoke-filled confines of a sleazy dive, you realize that what you thought you saw isn’t what was really there. It happens. Doesn’t mean that you couldn’t make some money off the idea in the first place, although, I have to question the market value of platform cowboy boots. However, I’ll be the first to admit, I know precious little about fashion.
Libra: I was rolling through South East Central Texas earlier in the spring, maybe a few weeks ago. The side of the road was adorned with Bluebonnets, Indian Paintbrushes, and delicately flavored with pale purple Buttercups. Just as pretty as could be. I got to wondering, looking at the dense collection of Bluebonnets, against a field of green with a background clear blue sky, and trying to figure out if this is where the blue eyeliner was developed. We rolled through La Grange, TX, and I noted a faded billboard that read, “La Grange: a breath of fresh air.” Right. Sure. That town’s name is famous first from a ZZ Top song, then from a Broadway hit, later a movie, even, by a famous [Scorpio, I think] Texas author. I suppose that a “house of ill repute” is hardly a claim that the chamber of commerce, or any other civic organization wants to put on the marquee. Doesn’t matter, it’s all the stuff of fiction, these days. But you have to be careful, too, because someday, you’re going to be mighty famous, and how do you think you’ll be remembered? Why is this particularly important? Partly, it’s a function of luminary influences, and partly, it’s because you could be making move that would indeed, be the point that you’re remembered for, down through the years.
Scorpio: “Why don’t you, like, just recycle some old horoscopes?” Wasn’t a Scorpio asking, but I know more than one Scorpio has thought of that question. What’s funny, to me, anyway, I know a very Scorpio-esque female, and she pointed out that another astrology service does just that. The daily from one day in Gemini was in Virgo the next week. “Is that right?” she asked. I can’t say, I wouldn’t do that. I had this little pact I made with myself. Some would suggest I made a deal with a certain horned-figure, but that’s not true. I did promise myself that I wouldn’t do any repeats. I might mangle a metaphor or two, but I always make an effort to trash new stuff, not the same old material, time and again. Some weeks are lot more successful than other weeks. Can’t promise that it’s all good, all the time, but that’s the way it is. I keep an online archive, just so anyone can jump back and see that I’m offering new stuff, each week. The culmination of the Mercury RX period, the lunar action, and the odd bits of gravel in the sky are working you over. It’s like being stuck on a TV program, or worse, a tape of the TV program, and some infernal person keeps rewinding, fast-forwarding, and rewinding again, and again, and again. Some of those moments are truly Scorpio comic. Some of the moments we’d all like to forget about. Doesn’t stop the old tape from stretching and getting distorted with every push of a button, though.
Sagittarius: There’s a story about a local singer/songwriter/performer, and he’s got this great big voice. Little short guy, too. Cute as can be, if you ask me. He’s got a long string of marginally successful CD behind him, but he doesn’t get a lot of local airplay. Why? He’s a rebel, and he’s not willing to hop through the hoops to get the local stations to pick him up. When he tours Europe, he can sell out stadiums. But here? He plays at the car wash. Sales are strong for his latest release, but as a rebel, he’s not always willing to go through the necessary “meet & greet” required to get on the radio. When I heard the in and out of this story, from a country music program director, all I cold do was say, “It figures.” There’s a history in the music business of Sagittarius fellers “Doing it my way,” but that’s the exception, not the rule. As a Sagittarius, we’re a little like that outlaw performer, like the outlaws around town, and like other sordid folks who just don’t want to follow the rules. The problem? While there are many, given the way things are, following the rules is a good idea.
Capricorn: Jimmy Buffett is a Capricorn, bless his heart. And he usually swings through Texas in the spring-time, on either a Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday. Like any other old road dog, he’s got his touring set-up worked out to a fine-tuned machine. One of your fine-tuned Capricorn machines isn’t working these days. It’s really a function of a couple of planets, and none of it can actually be traced back to it being your Capricorn fault, but there are some upsets in the current tour schedule you’ve got etched out. “But look, [expletive deleted], Mercury isn’t retrograde anymore! Is it?” Well, yes and no. Slows to a crawl, stops and turns around in this next week. But you’re not out of the woods. Last year, or maybe it was the year before that, when I saw the Buffett show, he was moaning about the fact that he got no local airplay. In fact, he got very little local publicity. Which was curious because he was playing to a packed crowd. I feel sorry for the folks in Houston, too, because their parking situation doesn’t allow for the mayhem that usually follows the show around. Finely-tuned Capricorn plans are getting upset by weather, local parking conditions, and other factors way beyond your control. Worry about it? Why?
Aquarius: I am, by no means, a naturalist. My in-depth knowledge of the plants and growing things is rather limited. However, I do notice certain trends. Springtime around here means cool evenings, and the dusk, is particularly special for me. Bats under the bridge, and the fragrant aroma of newly-mowed grass. That smell is accentuated, or punctuated, by–I could be wrong about this–wisteria. Sort bloom cycle, I think? Only in the springtime? Usually blue blossoms? Tree-like plant, right? So maybe I’ve got it all wrong, and maybe what I was detecting wasn’t wisteria at all, but I’m willing to be wrong. It’s just another sign, and it’s a sign that I want to call your Aquarius attention to. There are lots of little problems, lots items clamoring for your attention. Not much you can do about that. But you can pause, for a little while, and marvel at the blossoms on the tree. Enjoy the smell of springtime. Get a clue, Aquarius dear, the little problems are gradually receding.
Pisces: It’s like a lazy saxophone, a little breathy, a little laid back as the throaty tone slides up and down the scales, poking along, experimenting, trying tones, and yet, confident in its musical direction at the same time. Just a saxophone, doing a solo. Maybe like that favorite cartoon character, what’s her name? Yeah, just like her. That’s the way Pisces is. Or will be, as the weekend unfolds and gives way to the following week. Some folks will not agree. Mercury, doing his backwards thing, not out of the woods yet, but there’s still a sense that there’s something going, like that saxophone music. Maybe you don’t play the saxophone yourself–I don’t–nor is it a hobby I’m about to take up. At least one Pisces buddy will read this and think that he’s supposed to start saxophone lessons this week. That’s not the point, it’s that melancholy wail, the way the notes have life, the way the music, although blues derivates, isn’t really “blues.” I like those notes. Reminds me of Pisces jazz this week.
