"All places that the eye of heaven visits
Are to a wise man ports and happy havens."
Shakespeare’s Richard III (I.iii.279-280)
The Sun is in the Tropical Zodiac Sign of Gemini. Along with a retrograde Mercury. But what does it mean?
Gemini: I was sitting in a doctor’s office, probably waiting on a friend or something, and I picked up a magazine. One of the teaser titles, a headline of sorts, "Best place for $5K NOW." I flipped to the article, it was a magazine about retiring rich, and if you’re in the dentist’s office, you know someone will be retiring rich, like the doctor himself. Herself, in my case.
So the best place for five grand? Right now? Invest in home repairs, which would increase the value of your home, invest in continuing education which would help you make more money, pay off high interest debts — especially high numbers on credit cards — and the rest of the article was full a no-nonsense approach about how to dispose of an extra five K. I think they missed one point, the bit about the hiring a professional, and a reading from me would certainly be helpful if you had an extra $5K. And I don’t charge near that amount so there would be plenty left over.
What would you do if you had an extra $5K? Invest wisely? Blow it on something fun? Do a little of both? Mercury is still backwards, and what that headline and teaser suggested — along with its graphics — was there was a hot stock tip. In the real world, there isn’t. Spend a little time in a more common sense way. I’m just saying, what with Mercury and all….
Cancer: I saddled up and got ready to tackle a phone tree. It was a customer service problem, and it wasn’t a big deal, but it was. To me, it was a big problem. To the company, not so much, I’m sure. The first clue in dealing with automated phone systems, the first step to repeatedly stab "zero" on your phone. Doesn’t always work, but it’s a fairly common method for getting a live person who can speak English and can therefore, take steps to resolve the issue.
I have a method for dealing with phone systems, too, I have to be in the right frame of mind. Headset, fresh cup of coffee, checked most of the loud websites I usually check, and then, I’m ready. Got the details out of the way, after all, can’t distracted when I’m trying to be a nuisance. That’s the way to face what is still going on, even as we’re looking at this week, getting yourself in the right frame of mind for doing what needs to be done, even though, like me, you don’t want to do it. Someone has to.
Get the parts and pieces together, gather up the odd items you think you might want or need. I always need a fresh cup of coffee. Not really, but I think that I need this, and I’m sure there is some kind of chemical bond that I get with just such an item. Then, I make sure the headset and handset are ready to go. Been sitting on the charger all night. All a matter of having the right places and the correct items in hand. Me fighting with the phone tree, trying to get to a live person who can fix the problem?
Leo: Here’s one I don’t get. It was early Sunday morning. Most of the places I stop for coffee were closed. Starbucks was open. I tend to eschew that kind of place, but then, with Sunday morning coming down, like the song says, I needed something. What was totally weird, though, was a young couple, all bright-eyed and frisky in their Sunday best. Better yet, she turned around and the young lass had a wedding veil. He was in somber suit, she was wearing, as it turned out, a wedding dress of some sort. Prominent cleavage, form-fitting dress. Not a lot of imagination as to why the guy was happy.
They, the young couple, him and her, were taking wedding pictures. At a Starbucks. That just renders me — well, renders me something.
I’m figuring the only place to take wedding pictures is at the Elvis Chapel in Las Vegas. Maybe that’s me and my bitter attitudes, too. Or bitter coffee. Could be a number of items, I’m sure. However, what leaves me with a failure to understand, the other side of that question, it could have great meaning, like, that couple, maybe they met at Starbucks, maybe they worked there, maybe he proposed there, see? A number of possibilities. Now, which side of this equation are you on? The cute version, like they met there, or dated there, or bonded over coffee? Or like me, on the outside, wondering why such crass location was chosen. Which one are you going to be?
Virgo: There’s a friend, a professional cohort, just a chap that I’ve hung out with over the years. We talk fishing and women, usually. He’s a spiritualist, works many of the same shows I’ve worked. He’s also black, not that it matters. I was describing, in conversation, an experience I had wherein I was the only (person of anglo heritage) in particular store, a grocery store, south side of town. South Side San Antonio.
Me, the only white guy. I was describing this in a humorous manner, to my buddy, and I said, "You don’t know how that feels." He corrected me. He does know how it feels. He’s a lot older than me, and he tells stories about a time when there really were segregated water fountains and bathrooms. He also tells such tales with a merry twinkle in his eye. He is a consummate preacher.
Here’s a guy, one of my fishing buddies, and he’s battled insurmountable odds, and, of course, come out ahead of the game. On top of the game. Ahead in the sport we call life. There’s a clue, too, in the manner he deals with adversity and overwhelming challenges, he laughs. Then he quietly goes to work. I’d like to suggest that the same applies, this week, to my fine Virgo friends. A little humor, no grudges, and pushing ever forward. You’re going to feel like one of us, and I hope, it’s in a humorous light, too.
Libra: Language fascinates me. It marks the boundary between the raw gray matter of the brain muscle and the edges of conscious thought. I’m pretty sure I think in English. I could, at one time, think in other languages, but I haven’t done that lately. Language is like an operating system, and the way we speak is like a set of instructions. And it’s the way we get around in our brain. And language, right now, is confused.
I’ve visited enough border towns, lived in the poor side of town, and otherwise been exposed to local culture in such a way that I’m used to the border town talk. Even this far from the edge, there’s still the hint, the flavor, so to speak. Watching the language is important. Now, more so than before, it’s matter of watching the local language that you use. Shorthand terms, slang, other languages that creep in, and sometimes, using one term when you really mean something else. Perhaps, you mean something quite the opposite.
Careful with such comments as it’s easy to be misunderstood. Yeah, right.
Scorpio: I was wandering along the street, minding my own business, and I think I was even wearing earbuds for an iPod. I didn’t want to be bothered by people. I was happily motoring along — on foot — down the sidewalk when a big, black Suburban pulls up. Left front tire kisses the curb. A family starts to disgorge from the vehicle, almost oblivious to my presence. The main male is, I think it’s navy, could be air force, or some army, but he’s got on a black uniform. No easily discernible rank, otherwise, I would have noted it, and then there’s the fetching female with him. Thin, blond, blue eyes, as she was pulling on long, black gloves, then quickly adjusting her formal (but short) dress, and finally, applying a touch-up to her war paint, in her reflection in the big pane of glass.
She glanced back over her shoulder, "Vamanos!" She yelled with a certain authority. Two little kids crawled out of the back seats. I passed. I was left with my mind awash with possibilities. Looked like a formal affair. She looked very anglo. The kids, the alpha male, I was unsure, but certainly wearing an armed services "formal dress" uniform.
With her clear command voice, though, there was no question who was in charge. What threw me, just slightly, was the correct Spanish inflection. Which made me think that I was being too narrow-minded. Which made me think about a Scorpio situation. It’s about using what information is available, and what part is pure speculation, and what part is clearly observed.
Sagittarius: I was engaged in conversation one afternoon, kind of idle talk. Gossip was kicked around. One guy’s name came up, and a mutual acquaintance rolled her eyes. I suggested that the cowboy in question was "riding for a fall." Being next to cowboy country, and being among native Texans, the metaphor wasn’t lost. But my ripe allegorical statement got spun a little, too.
"Not so much, ‘riding for a fall,’ but about halfway between the saddle and ground, now." Seems like a there was downward slope and the one person was already halfway down that slope, before any of us could ever get a hand in the game. This was all casual observation from a less than disinterested point-of-view. Not like we were strangers, or, that the guy headed out of the saddle and towards the arena’s dirt floor, not like none of us hadn’t ever been thrown by that same bull.
It’s just painful when a friend is headed that way, and there’s nothing that we can do to stop it. Now, I’m a Sagittarius, too, but with the planets’ array, I’m saying that I can prevent you from getting hurt — don’t. Don’t do it, don’t partake, don’t engage. The phase of the moon, and then, the evil little Mercury, all that conspires to thwart our best intentions. Or worse, it looks like we’re already out of the saddle and halfway towards impact.
Capricorn: Plot device, in a movie I saw. Book I read. Something with a plot, probably wasn’t TV since TV rarely uses plot. Anyway, I had to depart consensual reality for this one trick the author used: a computer virus that could kill a human. Better yet, the computer who kills? It’s the computer sent by a bad guy to a computer scientist.
I know geeks. Geeks have toys. Geeks have the best toys, usually. More computing power than, well, than something pretty big. I’d say NASA, but that’s not an apt metaphor. So anyway, in the book, or movie, but it wasn’t TV, the good guy is killed, early on, by the bad guy’s computer virus. Right, like that will ever happen. Plot devices are fun.
Sometimes, there’s got to be a willing suspension of disbelief. Sometimes, there’s a little leap. As Capricorn, a little leap is required. Like that book. Or movie. I doubt it was TV. But anyway, you’ve got take a plunge on sheer faith — the plot hangs on your belief. Or your willingness to suspend disbelief.
Aquarius: An article ran in a local trash magazine about the top 100 tacos in Texas. I believe it was entitled, "100 tacos to eat before you die." Then, another local magazine ran an article about the best margaritas in the city, "15 margaritas to drink before you die." I’m wondering, is this a formula? In the magazine that editors read, "Try this for attention grabbing headlines, ‘X number of Y that you must do before you expire.’ See if that one works great!"
Personally, I find the part about X number of Y "before you die" to be a bit fatalistic. Then, too, there’s the problem with the exhaustive list. The list never fails to be incomplete by my standards. There are place that are missed, overlooked and or frankly, undiscovered because that’s the way I like them. Out of the way, hole in the wall, dive, greasy spoon, surly help, or better yet, all of those qualities.
Which means the reviewing magazine, local or not, will miss the salient points. They never find the really good spots. While I know where those places are, I tend to add a cloak of secrecy about the exact location. Suffice it to say, the best taco stands are usually in a barrio. It’s about so-called experts and judging their expertise against hard-earned Aquarius knowledge. Some days, it takes the Aquarius empirical mind to know the difference.
Pisces: "I went to the shooting range," a Pisces girl was telling me, "and I didn’t have enough ammo." One of those sales gimmicks, a little retail magic, you’re at the shooting range, and you need just another box or two of shells. Cost? Twice as much as they do elsewhere. I realize that handguns and Pisces don’t appear to go hand-in-hand, but I know more Pisces girls (females) who are licensed and carry, and who are practiced, which is why I was thinking about this example.
It’s matter of not taking enough supplies, for a given task. I’d suggest, the goal is to make sure you’ve got enough ammunition, real or imagined, for what’s coming up. Could just be an afternoon of practice rounds at the range, but still, you don’t want to pay retail prices for something you’re used to getting at a steeper discount. Or worse, you want to make sure that you don’t run out of ammo halfway through the session.
Aries: I had a teacher, a writing professor, and his explanation? It’s all about the letting the sentence itself convey what the punctuation was supposed to imply. That’s like using certain marks, a question mark, for example, sparingly. Be kind of hard for me, but I’m used to limited space. Then too, there’s the computer shorthand that starts to invade even my daily usage.
I answered a client’s question in an email, and then I had a quick question. Instead of writing out the question itself, I just sent an email that had a single question mark in its body. In other words, I cheated just like I’d tell you not to. This is clearly a case of me preaching but using an example where I do just what I preach not to do. That’s kind of a bad thing, huh.
However, there’s really some solid advice here. Listen to my old professor, let the weight of the grammar carry the emphasis. Don’t add unnecessary markings. No extra markers, no, no little diddles, none of those silly emotion marks like the smiley faces, nope, none of that. If you must punctuate with more than a simple period? Don’t use three!!! Looks bad.
Taurus: An Austin "putt-putt" place was closed down. Tall weeds, overgrown lanes, the windmill not turning any more. On the marquee? "Closed for Re-pars." Be nice if we could all just close for a little repair.
Some folks would suggest that’s what a vacation is for, but far too many of my vacations turn into work experiences. Or it was a working trip, to begin with. Which is what is going on in Taurus, too. The thought of getting a groove, re-grooved, that’s a wonderful idea. The concept of closing down for some much needed rest and repair, that’s a good concept.
The way this works, though, that’s not likely. Not this week.
