after a tremendously busy weekend, predominantly being stuck with paperwork and clients, I finally find some time to write. The new clients I have picked up over the past couple of weeks are testing the limits of my schedule and physical resources. Something is going to give, and usually this means my health.

Echinacea is my friend.

---

The weekend was not without its pleasantries, however. Marrin, visiting home while taking a break from university in the States, stopped by on two occasions, Friday and Sunday evening. During the former, she was able to meet Freda, after hearing so much about her through The Spiritual Journey. I knew they would hit it off. During the latter, Marrin was able to once again reunite with Lowlandz; we three shared the hell of the public school system together for many years. This time, however, she was finally able to meet Rhiannon, and Lowlandz' two daughters.

Nothing like wee ones to mark the passage of time.

Seeing Marrin, I always find myself stuck in the wax of nostalgia. "Remember when we did this?", "Remember so-and-so?", are often used phrases characteristic of my getting together with Marrin. While the time I endured school is something I seldom feel compelled to look back on, Marrin is a reminder of the few things that warrant reminiscing about.

---

The Goddess is stuck unemployed once again. After working Saturday and Sunday with the woman inflicted with MS, enduring a horde of verbal abuse, unsafe working conditions, and tasks that were not part of the initial working agreement, The Goddess rightfully decided that the situation was not tenable. Suffering from this terrible, degenerative disease for nine years now, this woman refuses to access some of the professional services and equipment that would afford her a greater quality of life. Instead, she is in abject denial, is bitter and angry, and is looking for some innocent employee to dump all of that bile on.

The Goddess is a lot smarter than that. She is well aware that, at forty, this woman is not apt to change her abusive ways simply because a relative stranger tries to establish some healthy boundaries with which to work safely and pleasantly. And as experienced in life as she is, there are some things she is just no longer willing to accept. Herself is much better off finding someone who can appreciate the holistic services that she has to offer, albeit at a rate far, far less than she is deserving of.

As has become our mantra, something better will come along.

---

Alyx has made it his personal mission not to see us stuck with grass more than half an inch high this summer. He announced his return from his Mecca to the States this afternoon with the revving of the lawnmower. It is becoming his calling card. Over coffee and lunch, he told of his adventures south of the border with spark and enthusiasm. His theme was 7100 kilometers in six days; sounds like the title of a good book.

He was missed; it was great to see him again.

---

And I thought Moo was finished Moostruating. As it turns out, when last I wrote on said topic, her heat was just gearing up to what has been its climax these last couple of days (excuse the pun). In my naivety, I figured that Reekie, being neutered, would be as nonchalant about Moo as he usually is. Well, he is quite the horn-dog, and I guess that even though some of the equipment is gone, the instinct to breed is not, particularly in the presence of a hormone laden Moo. To our ignorant horror, The Goddess and I have found ourselves trying to separate a stuck Reekie and Moo on no less than a half dozen occasions since the weekend. Sometimes cold water works, sometimes it does not. Sometimes they just have to stand there, ass to ass, the most forlorn expressions on their mugs, and wait for the tender moment to pass.

It is a foregone conclusion that Moo will not have another chance to go into heat.

Be Well