I wrapped another long, eastern loop of the trail, not quite retracing all my steps from Wednesday, and I added a watering stop downtown, at the tail end of the trip. Plus coffee. I was going to time myself, but my watch kept saying it was noon, and when I was 45 minutes on the trail, I realized something was wrong with the watch, obviously, I should’ve had on the Kermit piece instead. Then, on that final leg, I had to indulge in something to eat, roadside food as it were: a hot dog. Just a little afternoon snack to accompany an icy bucket of brown, fizzy water (Diet Dr. Pepper) and a lottery ticket. The simple pleasures in life are sometimes the best. Like the Thursday special at Sandy’s, for dinner. Burger, fries, drink, $3.18 (tax included).
As we sat outside, under the darkening twilight, as day shifted to night, I pointed to the sign across the street, Palmer Event Center, Body, Mind, Soul Expo & Shallow Water Fishing Expo, both at the same venue, at the same time.
“Dude, it’s like, you’re kind of a place! New age and fishing, does it get an better?”
Yes, well, I’ll be sitting in a booth at one, wondering if I’ll make enough to wander over to the other and buy a new fishing pole.
The dinner chatter detoured into computer talk. He talked ab out getting an iPod. I told him my iPod went to 11.
No reaction.
“I worked on that joke all day long,” I pleaded.
“Sounds like you wasted a whole day,” he deadpanned.
Applied astrology & fishing?
Thursday morning, the Sun was at twenty degrees of Pisces, and at six in the morning, so was the Moon. Dark of the Moon and the New Moon are excellent times to start something new. Give it a little extra kick to get a good start. What this astrology stuff is all about, how to time an event to the best of the advantage of the end user.
With the phase of the moon, there’s about a 24-hour, maybe a little longer, window for fishing. Optimal fishing. No just good, but potentially excellent fishing. From guessing at the local weather patterns, though, I’m figuring most of the fish have a temporary case of lockjaw. Might ease up after the weekend. Maybe before, too, but I’ll be working so I can’t test the theory. Although, as I’ve tracked results, it does seem to work. Sometimes.
Didn’t much matter, not Thursday night. I had a chance to fish some after dinner. One tiny perch, but a couple of bigger boys and girls were lurking nearby.
And the point to fishing under a benevolent influence? Means that I hope to fish a lot more, during the next 28 days, that lunar cycle. Set a good impression.
Now for musical portion of the entry?
We should ask the question, is writing on a website good for employees and employers? Some folks think so.
Incoming mail
Just what the inbox generates on any given day, this one is in two parts.
Incoming part one:
Round a-bout, 3/10/05 11:53 AM, ya’ll said:
> Just ran across your “SXSW Guidelines for tourists” post (via the Austin
> bloggers meta-blog) and wanted to offer a hearty “Amen!”. Great advice for
> out-of-towners and great, prickly humor for the locals. (I especially
> appreciated the little comic barbs, a la “What to bring? Black band
> T-shirts. The more obscure the band, the better.” So true! The
> “indier-than-thou” t-shirt war is always waging during SXSW!) . Anyway,
> thanks for the mid-morning smile.
Incoming part two:
Round a-bout, 3/10/05 4:09 PM, ya’ll “john williams” JJwms@webtv.net said:
> There is something wrong with your site, I think it lacks true astrology. So
> what are you playing GAMES with words and the stars. Im doing some real
> fishing for a better site reguarding Astrology. Your site is really bad and
> needs attention, so work on it. Ill check back on your progress in a month,
> good luck… JW
My reply?
“Check back in a month, I’ll work on it.” (verbatim)
In the first note, I exchanged an anecdote about part of the source for the guide: a guy nicknamed Bubba (and too much tequila.)
In the second note, all I did was a reply nicely. That’s it. No more, no less, no pissing match.
Let go back to the start, I’ve got over a decade of archives on the site, some it still in bad html format, but the text is there, replete with original errors. When I started, I didn’t know what I was doing. I might still not know exactly what it is, but I’ve been doing it for over a decade. On the web since 1994. Continuously and uninterrupted, since then.
A few years back, I encountered a term that summed it up pretty good, “Oracular Astrology,” and it’s not my term, but it fits about as good as anything.
The position of the planets is an absolute. Plain, old fashioned hard science. Basic physics. The interpretation of the meaning of the location? That’s art.
I was thinking while I was showering, it reminded me of my own mother, one her sardonic Scorpio criticisms, “I don’t want to know about fish, I want to be told what to do.”
If that doesn’t generate a laugh, I don’t know what will, telling a Scorpio what to do.
And according to some, it’s a valid point. But I can’t tell you how to live your life. The planets lend influences, but the outcome of that influence is up to the individual.
Now, back to the e-mail analysis, Web TV? If that’s true, then what the sender probably saw was this.
What amused me, and of course, points to the problem of interpretation, and a lack of investigation, was that the Pisces scope, at the top, could be open to that very criticism. Although, one Pisces did let me know how right I was. More amusing, just one sign below? Aries? The way I read it – and I wrote it – shows actual astrology in place.
I was a bit peeved at first, but as I dangled a worm in the lake, I grew more amused.
Life is like a poker game, it’s not always about what cards you’re holding, sometimes, it’s about how you play what you’ve got in your hand.
