Fishing Guide to the Stars starting 9.6.2012

“Indifference to external events.
And commitment to justice in your own acts.
Which means: thought and action resulting in the common good.
What you were born to do.”

Marcus Aurelius Meditations Book 9, #31

Virgo: I surely do love me some Virgo. Not exactly grammatically correct, but the message gets across. I hope. I consider it a personal goal to make sure that my prose chokes at least one grammar checker, and I like the get that out of the way, quickly as possible. Then, too, there’s the message I’m attempting to convey, my love and adoration for all things Virgo. As Jupiter squares off against the Virgo Sun, with a healthy dose of Mercury factored in, there’s a heightened sense, like a sixth sense, “Spider Senses are tingling,” a voice in the back of your Virgo head, something is on high alert. Part of that is the date itself, but then, part of that is the aforementioned Jupiter Square Sun & Mercury. Planetary tensions that make Virgo new, better, the “Hyper Virgo!” Use those super powers, this week, Virgo is Super Virgo, use that judiciously.

Libra: We buried a distant, an aging aunt, while back. In a cupboard at her house, there was a shelf full of 45’s. Black, or deep blue, vinyl disks about six inches in diameter, peeling paper labels, hole in the center about an inch across. Records. “Forty-fives.” Single song pieces of vinyl. For a brief time, this is how music, especially popular music, was distributed. The inherent flaw with vinyl is that the best quality of sound is limited to about ten spins on a turntable. After that, the quality degrades due to the mechanical nature of the process, needle scraping across soft plastic.

Consider what’s important. Consider what your Libra self want to commit to “all-eternity,” and what is just passing fashion. The 45, it did enjoy popularity, probably longer than the 8-track or the “mini-cassette,” both of which are now dead-tech. That 45 was last useful as a method of conveying music, perhaps thirty (30) years ago. Now it’s an oddity that turns up in an estate sale. What do you, as a Libra, want to commit to long-term memory? Decisions now can have far-lasting repercussions.

Scorpio: One of my buddies is a Scorpio. Nice guy. Nice as the day is long. Always been kind, considerate and better yet, merry, every time I’m around him. He’s nice, easy-going, has a little dog he dotes on, all good. My buddy, he’ll be headed out his front door, then pause, stop, and turn around, the absent-minded professor affectation, in and out a second time, and that’s what it’s like for Scorpio. Mars, in most signs, adds a layer of frustration. Mars like heating things up in Scorpio. Likewise, this is your planet, Mr (Mrs, Miss, Ms) Scorpio. Mars will impart extra energy. Mars isn’t bad, not to you. I guess, the biggest, the single message I can implore and intone? Be nice to the rest of us. We’re not moving quite as fast. I watched, I was watering a plant on the patio, while he whipped out, whipped back in, then zipped out again. “Hey,” I called to his rapidly fading backside, “lock the door?” He stopped, “Hey, thanks man!” Dashed back and locked the door. Thank me and remember, it’s Mars.

Sagittarius: Included in one of my quote collections, and I even had it in the original Greek at one point, there’s a line that is attributed to Pythagoras, “First worship the immortal gods as custom decrees.” It can alternately be translated as, “Pay homage to the old gods, first.” I’m not about to argue Greek translation, mythology or belief systems. However, there’s very up-to-date message in the old writings, for Sagittarius. Custom is is custom; ritual is ritual. Observe and honor the custom (or ritual) even though it makes no damn sense whatsoever. Some things are always just done that way because it’s the way it’s always been done. Doesn’t make it right. Doesn’t make it wrong. There’s a time and place to scrutinize the ritual, the custom, the process we’ve always used. Guess what? Not now. Not this week. Maybe make a mental note and think about what it’s done “that way,” and maybe in another few days, we can look at the “why.” Now? Now’s not the time to question. Well, you can question, but don’t expect an answer.

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A Commonplace Book (full text PDF & cut quotes PDF)

Capricorn: Buddy of mine, he’s happily married, Capricorn, you know, and he was watching a waitress serve us. His wife was with us. I mean, my buddy’s wife was with us, and my buddy, he made eye contact with the waitress. Pretty, young, big, dark eyes, a tangled mess of long locks, tucked back and pinned into place, a revealing (but not really) blouse, and enough tension in the long skirt to accentuate the curves in the correct way. I watched my buddy watch the waitress walk away, pure lust in his eyes. His wife was right next to him, looking at him, looking at the waitress. His wife cleared her throat. He muttered an apology, all the while, never missing the sway and flourish of the receding skirt line. A day or two later, I asked what happened. “Yeah, she was mad, but I made it up to her.” Ask yourself, before you stare, is the punishment worth the prize? Is it that big of deal? Weigh it, before you commit the act. My buddy, he was only looking; claimed he was observing something. Was it worth it? Weigh your answer carefully.

Aquarius: I live in South Texas. Searing heat, bone-dry days, humidity like Houston, inspiring vistas to the West, stellar sunsets, and then, the very provincial nature of large towns that are really small towns, in effect. I like it. Why I live here. There’s an element that your Aquarius overview has over-looked. Over-view overlooked. Spell how you like, means close to the same thing, to me. Carries the right message, too. You’ve been too busy with the big picture and haven’t paid enough attention to the small picture. Details. Details are important. In the big picture, not always, and in the Aquarius world-view, the details are best left to others. This isn’t the time for such action. As Mars creates a tiny amount of Aquarius tension, the best way to deal with this is to look at the details.

Pisces: I was heading to the Gulf Coast for a weekend of fishing. It’s two hours south of here, so I have to prepare, a little. I look at the Texas Parks and Wildlife site, usually. The data there is good, not all reliable, but as an official mouthpiece for the outdoor cops, I do respect the site’s integrity. I then look at various fishing reports, from a couple of guides up and down the Coastal Bend area. Some are good. Some are probably less than totally honest. It’s that part-fact, part-sales thing going on, “It’s never been a better time to fish with me!” Still, where are the trout? Where are the reds? Flounder any good? That’s three of the main species I’d target as I fish down there. Three targets. As a Pisces, whether you’re headed to the coast for inshore fishing, or whatever it is, pick three targets. That one weekend? Despite heroic efforts, I wound up with a stringer full of Black Drum. Wasn’t one of the listed targets but that doesn’t matter — I was catching something.

Aries: One of the great coastal bend (Texas Gulf Coast) pass times is fishing for trout “under the lights.” Several resorts, hotels, one fishing pier and at least one trailer park I’ve visited, they all advertised “lighted pier.” That means, yes, there are lights on top of the water, but there’s also some underwater lights. Those lights, underwater, they attract little fish, who, in turn attract bigger fish. On a warm evening in September, as the Moon narrows, the best Aries retreat is something just like that. The trout, they tend to prefer small, silver and gold spoons. Tiny little lures, the fish themselves usually aren’t in the keeper range, but that doesn’t matter, it’s amusing. Every once in a while, a nice one comes up out of the water, as well. Fresh speckled seat trout for breakfast? Sure. The trick, there’s a delicate hand needed for this week. For this kind of fishing, too, but for Aries, for this week? It’s like that, delicate hand, tiny sliver of a lure, not much at all. Nice and easy. Can spend all night fishing under the lights.

Taurus: One of the more amusing aspects of writing a weekly column, what, almost 17 years now? Part of what amuses me is the way a horoscope will read in the beginning, in the middle it sounds different and by next week? It’s a whole different tale, altogether. Same words, different nuances and skewed interpretations, I’d like to think, colored by the planets.

Mars, in particular, he’s a big Taurus thing at the moment. Anger, happiness, anger, hunger, sexual appetite, angry again, this time, at me. All the same. I get blamed for a lot of stuff that, frankly, I really didn’t do. Never mind that now. This is about Mars, opposite you, and what to do with it. Engage the Virgo senses. Attention to detail. Look for the detailed reports that have the minutiae you need. To best corral the Mars energy and what ire it might raise? Dig into the details.

Gemini: I used this as an example before. I’ll use it again, as the idea bears repeating, for my Gemini friends.

“Say ‘Hello’ to my little Gemini friends!”

Nope, that didn’t work. I was fishing at one spot on the backside of the Laguna Madre, off the coast. Inshore fishing is great, bay-boat, shallow draft, skinny water, all good fun. We sat on one spot, for about three hours. Other fisherman would drift up and then drift away, no luck. Every 45 minutes or so, we’d get a tug, then spend another half hour untangling line from one big fish. Wait for another hour, then the drag on the reel starts to make that beautiful, high keening noise as line plays out against the reel’s drag. Good stuff. The waiting is the hard part. Instead of running and gunning all over the bay, we sat in one place. At the end of the day, we had a cooler full of fish. Right now, patience pays off. Gemini: no running and gunning.

Cancer: “Bots” are the bane of existence on the inter-webs. The “bots” I’m referring to? Software that searches and “spiders” websites. The little spiders who crawl around look at every nook and cranny on a website. What’s weird, I’ve got snippets of code that date back 1992, pieces of textual fragments of web-code that have survived that long. I can only hope that it chokes the poor little software spiders that try to digest the site. While I endeavor to keep up with the changes in tech, I can’t always stay on top of the crumbling mass and mess of my own site. I was watching the stats one morning, and there were more “spiders” and “bots” crawling on the site than there were live people with web browsers. Not sure if this is good or bad. There is a way to redirect the traffic, and that’s ok, but then, I’m curious. I have one web-geek friend who hates the bots. Spin that around, they are scraping data and loading it up so the sites can be found. Good or bad? I tend to see it as a necessary evil. In Cancer, there’s a single structure (item, thing, place, maybe ideal or person) you’ve been opposed to, perhaps vehemently opposed to. Maybe rethink your position now?

Leo: Premium supercharged! As the Moon gets closer and closer to your sign, Venus pops into your sign today.

This week.

Near the beginning of the horoscope. Venus is a palliative cure-all. Not really, but if my Leo friends can just embrace that Venus influence? Makes much of the Mars irritation go away. The other part of the Mars irritation? I’d look at some kind of exercise.

Leo? Your mileage may vary.