“Conscious existence is essentially fluid, though only poets and sensitives seem to understand this to any appreciable extent. Guidance toward life’s fulfillment must begin as anything organic always does, through am emergence of meaning out of a vast complex of convenient and converging realities.”
From The Sabian Symbols in Astrology by Dr. Marc Edmund Jones (Santa Fe, NM: Aurora Press, 1993. Page 100.)
I grabbed my copy of Sabian Symbols because I was looking up a single point, but like a good text, as I was glancing through some of the introduction, I happened upon that passage. There’s a lot more, but it seemed to resonate well at the time.
2. Lyrical notation:
“Down around the corner, half a mile from here, see them long trains running and watch them disappear….” Pop Life cover.
3. Just interesting tidbits:
Weather Underground Blog.
4. Hurricane quote?
“O, that hast damnable iteration, and art indeed able to corrupt a saint.”
Shakespeare’s Henry IV, part i; I.ii.85.
It’s Falstaff blaming Prince Hal for tricky behaviors.
5. In the local news?
I have a great deal of respect for Omar, although, truth be told, I’m less enamored of his employer, but as an Aries with a strange little side, he can capture a moment so well.
The sound and the fury
The hurricane is almost upon us. Fortunately, I’ve been in a bubble, sans TV and therefore, without media saturation. I got all twisted up, clicking through on hurricane and news sites, to the extent that the computer choked and bombed. I think it’s a sign.
This week’s audio message is eerily prescient about the hurricane, with the theme being, “Get out of the way”.
I was glancing through whatever newspaper was left behind at Sandy’s, and the article jogged my memory, Allison, June, 2001. Wasn’t a hurricane, just a named tropical depression and in three days, it made three passes through downtown Houston, 37 inches of rain – more than a yard. 6/01 to 9/05, 4 years. So the last “big one” wasn’t that long ago.
Sidebar item naturalist’s note:
There’s a study, posted online (outline), about how the oil platforms in the Gulf are providing an unexpected breeding ground for migratory birds.
A Gemini neighbor pulled me aside, as he hopped out of his fancy SUV, “Hey, can you explain to me, why a hurricane on the gulf, over 200 miles away, why I have to buy a case of bottled water?”
I just stood there with a fishing pole in hand, looking dumb.
Corpus Christi, TX. The Texas Coastal Bend:
I’ve worked and played in the area for the last dozen years, as often as several times a year, but at least once a year, or so it seems. While I’m enormously fond of the Gulf Coast, as I’ve made my way down there, I’ve paid close attention to the “Brush Country” of South Texas. From San Antonio, about 30 miles south of town, there’s a low hill, headed south on the highway, around Pleasanton, I think, and the elevation drops. From that point, south to the edge of the warm waters of the Gulf, it’s not much more than scrub mesquite, gnarled branches, wind-whipped and drought resistant. Basically, San Antonio is the first place with any degree of elevation. A really big wave could wash up to a hundred miles inland, be my best guess.
I’ve joked about it, but in a conversation with my overly-concerned mother, I suggested that the vegetation, Nature, provides a clue. The area, that tough and hardy plant life, plus the topography, it suggests that there’s always the chance of a big storm. Occurs, in geological time, frequently. Plants and wildlife adapt to it. The topography is obviously sculpted by it. Wind and water. And searing sun.
The Coastal Bend area is full of contrasts. Next to an airport that primarily services oil platforms, there’s a wildlife refuge. At one place where I’ve bought bait, as recent as last month, I’ve watched, as soon as the shrimp was sold out, the guy backs his boat out of the slip to fetch some more. I’d call the coastal marshes and bays a fragile ecosystem, but Nature has a way of taking care of herself. Big storm like this? I just bought a map with coordinates for fishing points in the bay. By the time I get to use that map? I’m sure some of the barrier beach will be “reorganized.”
Approaching Corpus Christi on the highway, there’s a “refinery ring” that comes first. Exit signs are marked with names like Corn Products Road, Southern Minerals Road, and there’s the ever-present sulphur aroma that accompanies a couple of large petrochemical plants.
I’ve got clientele, customers, and more than a few friends, all in that area. What comes back to me, though, more than anything else, was recalling that night, a summer’s eve, sometime in the last decade, the couple had survived more than one hurricane.
“Why do you stick around? You could just head up the freeway to San Antonio, right?”
“Never can tell, might be able to do something to help, like keep the roof from blowing off the house,” he said.
Doing my bit:
I’m providing emergency relief for a certain red-headed Capricorn. While I’m out of town, remember the axiom “get out of the way,” She is, in turn hosting her immediate family from Houston.
I’m not concerned about personal safety, though, not me. I live in a constant state of denial. My fishing buddy on the coast is currently just a little south of here, just north of San Antonio. But as of now, we still have a plan to fish on Monday morning.
And tales from other fronts:
“So, you remember her? She was in the grocery store, before she headed out of town, her boss sent everyone in the office to higher ground. She was going to pick up some water, but the aisle with bottled water was completely empty except for one jug of water. A guy was approaching from the other end, and he said, ‘It’s mine. I have a gun.’
“Can you believe that?”
