November 10, 2004 B

"Great Grey Matter"
10:36pm

''Good Food, Good Games, Great Grey Matter''

Thus begins the article about the local Mensa group which appeared in today's MORE section by Darin Fenger (photo by Jacob Lopez). I would give the URL to the article, but I think this magazine is called MORE because it's more than what can be had on the web for nonsubscribers.

Anyway, it was a well written article, and we enjoyed seeing Julia's pic in the paper!

November 11, 2004 A

"One More Year of Knowledge"
9:19am

One of the birthday wishes I received said, "Happy Be-lated Birthday my dear! One more year of knowledge under the belt!" I thanked 'Fuguee' and then said that was a good way to put it, one more year of knowledge. It is particularily apt now than I am on the third read through of a particular text, and it seems as though I am a different self than the selves which read it the earlier times. I am still finding things I didn't see before, and am understanding familiar passages with a different perspective.

KNOWLEDGE, it's a wonderful thing. It is the beginning of the path to both power and wisdom. May power and wisdom always be wed together!

Last night, I was looking at the trio of statues Julia has at the top of the bookshelves and was fascinated with the play of light upon them. The center one is of a Goddess who is her middle namesake, Cybele, and the other two were gifts given to us by friends who'd been to Greece this summer. Karyatis, a priestess of Artemis is on the left and the Goddess Athena is at the right. Her shield is adorned with snakes. Athena's attributes are self-confidence, power, courage, intelligence and diplomacy. The city of Athens was named after her!

''Karyatis, Cybele and Athena''

November 11, 2004 B

"The Pharoahs Never Saw This!"
8:41pm

Water in the desert is a rare thing. It's a precious thing, indeed. I remember with great dismay viewing the Rillito River Wash in Tucson. "But there's no water in it!" I shouted to Laura. A strange land, indeed, with waterless rivers. However, if there's a big storm, then the river again flows.

It's a desert in these here American Southwestern parts. It's a desert, too, in parts of Egypt. But the sight below is one I'm sure no Pharoah ever saw! SNOW! along with pine trees amidst the huge pyramids! It's as if Flagstaff Arizona, with its high elevation and snowy pine tree covered mountains just got plopped out in the sand dunes not far from here. Not gonna happen!

This odd image was discovered on a bottle of ale Julia had at Burgers and Beer today. Ale, aka 'beer', that was one thing the ancient Pharoahs did see. Not only the Pharoahs, but "Workmen at the pyramids of the Giza Plateau were given beer, thrice daily - five kinds of beer and four kinds of wine were found by archaeologists 'poking through dumps, examining skeletons, probing texts and studying remains of beer jars, and wine vats' at Giza." (C. Seawright). But I bet they didn't find any pine cones!

Giza Plateau of Flagstaff, Arizona?

November 13, 2004 A

"Let's Hope We Never See This!"
4:34am

"When Hell freezes over!" I almost said that in the previous entry. "When the entire northern realm of the world freezes over!", I could have said. It did so in a fictional movie we watched last night. "The Day After Tomorrow" is about the arrival of an ice age in this century. I felt so cold watching it, that even a vest and the heater did not help much. It was much too intense for the large screen. Was this because I felt so cold? I had to pee four times. It was fortunate we waited until the DVD version. But, yes, it was good. The characters were all well drawn and acted. And once again I marvel at the special effects possible today. I won't forget the sight of New York City buried under snow.

If such a thing did happen, Yuma would become premium property, as anywhere north of us would be covered in ice. We would become the only inhabitable place in the U.S. Even in remembering the snowy scenes I feel cold.

I think I shall return to the warm bed for some more shut eye.