She was pretty timid at first and didn’t know what all the sniffing was about. Luckily there were a few dogs around the same size as her (although the next youngest one was about six months old) so it wasn’t just our little bitty one and a bunch of big dogs. She started to relax a bit but didn’t really play with the other dogs at all. She happily played with our two boys though.

When she came to us she was just over two pounds. Now she’s about ten pounds. She will likely get to around twenty or twenty five pounds when she’s full grown. At least that’s the theory.

Here’s a picture I just took of her. Ain’t she cute?

Perhaps it was the astrological influences in play that tipped things for me. I get a daily astrological forecast in my email, and early last week it warned about big unstable influences, mostly related to Mercury. Mercury’s associations are with health (the doctor’s symbol, the caduceus, originated with Mercury), with information, and with travel.

And boy, would I feel how that impacts my life!

It started with health for me. On Tuesday afternoon I had just finished lunch (sushi picked up at the grocery store) and was going from the kitchen into the hallway. We have a puppy in our house, and have those baby gate things up to keep the puppy in certain areas like the kitchen and family room. So as I was going out of the kitchen I had to step over a baby gate. I caught my foot on the top of it, lost my balance, and fell over.

And stretched the muscle in my hip. Very painful.

I lay on the floor for a bit in pain. I got up and discovered how much it hurt to walk. Then I started to feel nauseous.

Perhaps it was the sushi which can be off if you don’t get it fresh. Perhaps it was the pain from the fall. In any case, I felt REALLY SICK all of a sudden. I hobbled to the bathroom and was there for about half an hour feeling ready to hurl any second. I ended up not throwing up but the nausea stayed with me the rest of the day.

So did the pain in my hip, of course.

Luckily the kids got home from school and were able to help me with looking after the puppy and with getting a simple supper together. I went to bed early and felt much better the next morning.

Then on Wednesday, which of all the days of the week really is Mercury’s day, my computer hard drive (information storage after all) decided it was not going to work any more. Without a hard drive a computer really can’t do much. You can’t boot the system because the operating system is on the hard drive. You can’t do ANYTHING without a hard drive.

We have another computer in the house (the one the kids use) so I went to it to try and troubleshoot my problem. Nothing worked. It looked like my hard drive really was dead, or else something that the hard drive connected to was not working. I could just see it now — a fried motherboard or CPU or something like that which would mean a completely dead computer. A hard drive can be replaced but anything bigger means basically buying a new computer.

Later in the day on Wednesday things got even more interesting.

I was in the back yard with the puppy around 6PM when some kids came out of the trails in the conservation area behind our house. They were a bit scared. They asked me if we had any buckets they could borrow as there was a fire in the forest behind our house and they were trying to put it out. They had a bucket but they needed more. I told them I’d call the fire department to come and help put the fire out.

So I called 911 and explained things, and the fire department showed up. The big fire truck and everything. Luckily (good luck this time) the fire wasn’t too bad so it took them only about fifteen or twenty minutes to get it all taken care of. I’m glad they were able to make sure things didn’t get out of control.

Meanwhile, I made an appointment with a local computer store to have my computer checked out. Which brings me to Thursday morning. I packed up my computer and went off to see what could be done with it. The support guys were very helpful and determined that it was the hard drive (and not something more serious.) Unfortunately all my info on the drive was beyond help. But good luck kicked in and they were able to give me a replacement drive for free. They popped it in and I was all set.

Well almost all set. I still had to go home and reinstall everything starting with the operating system.

It took a couple of days to get the software I wanted reinstalled, and things set up the way I like to work. I didn’t lose much of my important data except I did lose some of my address book. I can get the email addresses for pretty much everyone from my mail (it was backed up so I didn’t lose any of that). I’ll just have to email people to ask for their phone numbers and mailing addresses again, which is probably good as it means I’ll get recent versions of all those where the old address book probably had some out of date ones.

So as you can see, lots of luck — just not always the good kind. But I do thank my lucky stars that they were just minor inconveniences and nothing life-and-death.

Now I’m off to pay Mercury a little more homage. Gotta get on His good side!

It’s true: April showers bring May flowers!

And in the spirit of the season, here’s a link to Alfred Tennyson’s “The May Queen.”

And in my little family, we have a new puppy!

We’d been talking for a while about the possibility of getting a dog. The kids wanted a dog. My sweetheart wanted a dog. I thought a dog was probably a good idea. So we did some talking, did some research into what type of dog might be best for our family, and then finally picked a place where we could get a puppy.

Then on the long Easter weekend we brought our puppy home.

She’s a cute little curly carrottop we’ve named Paques — it’s French for Easter. She is a mixed breed dog, half English cocker spaniel and half miniature poodle. She’s really cute and all puppy.

Which means that not only do we have a dog in our family, but we also have what is essentially a baby/toddler. Complete with regular bathroom breaks (she can’t hold her pee for very long), an enormous need for attention, and of course a voracious appetite for cuddles and playing.

We’re getting into a routine with her and are starting to get a bit better sleep at night. The first few nights I didn’t sleep much as our puppy would wake up and whine because she didn’t know where she was and was scared. I’d get up, sit with her and cuddle her, wait for her to fall asleep, and then sneak off to my own bed again. She’d sleep for a bit longer (a couple hours if I was lucky) and then repeat the process.

I took her for her first checkup by the vet on Wednesday and asked about sleeping arrangements. He suggested that like with a human baby it’s OK for the parents to let the baby learn to sleep on its own without constant comforting through the night. So we’ve worked out a routine now where Paques gets lots of attention and exercise leading up to bedtime and then when we’re going to bed (which is about the same time for everyone in our house) we put the puppy in her crate, say goodnight, and then leave her until we get up in the morning.

She still whines but thankfully she’s not that loud, and with our bedroom door closed between where she is and where where my sweetie and I sleep it means we’re able to sleep through the night.

I’m sure Paques will settle in and sleep through the night with less fuss. She’s a spring baby and just like the spring is blossoming and taking us closer to summer, our puppy is growing and changing before our eyes, and will undoubtedly become a wonderful grown dog.

Here’s a quick pic of Paques I just took with my laptop’s webcam. Isn’t she a cutie?

The grass still looks brown and dormant but I’m sure that will change over the next few weeks. We’ll also likely get more rain if this spring is typical. There is always a mucky, wet, not-always-pleasant preparation time necessary for things to truly blossom in abundance.

The cycles of life are like that too. We have to be willing to till the soil, add fertilizer (rotting material, manure, things that don’t often smell too good), put up with lots of moisture, and wait a long time for our seeds to germinate and grow. Beauty and abundance will sprout on its own of course but it certainly helps if we actively plan and prepare to help it along.

Now is the time to get our hands dirty with the work of planting for future harvests. Plant for the physical realm (money, health), the intellectual (learn something!), and the spiritual (seek serenity and grace.) Lay the groundwork for balance so that in time you will have an abundant harvest.

Here’s the video courtesy of the embedding code at Google video.

There are always books I’d like to get but haven’t purchased yet. When I get a gift certificate it usually gets spent right away. This birthday wasn’t an exception. It didn’t take me long to fill up my online shopping cart with all sorts of titles to make use of the gift certificates.

The books started arriving a couple days ago. Some of the books I ordered were actually from other vendors who market through the online bookstore I generally use so those books get shipped separately. It also means there are frequent surprises showing up in the mail.

: )

At the moment I’m working my way into T. Thorn Coyle’s brand-new book, “Kissing the Limitless.” It’s been pretty good so far and is exactly the sort of book I’ve needed for where I am right now in my own spiritual practice.

“The Little Book of the Great Enchantment” by Steve Blamires is another one that I just got which I think will prove to be quite interesting. It’s an examination of the work of a poet named Fiona Macleod (a pen name of William Sharp) particularly focussing on her/his Celtic faery mysticism.

Another book that looks promising is Julia R. Zay’s “Ecstasia.” It’s about ecstatic trance work in a spiritual context. I’m hoping that there are lots of helpful tips to bring more of that into my own spiritual practice.

One of the other books I got in this order is called “Good Witches Fly Smoothly” and was written by the controversial authors Gavin and Yvonne Frost. Some people have gone to great lengths to condemn them for things they have written in the past about the use of sex in ritual initiation (particularly when they appeared to be condoning sexual interaction between adults and minors.) Recently I saw similar accusations leveled against them regarding statements about sex in initiation from “Good Witches Fly Smoothly” which I had ordered before hearing about the questionable content. On reading the section myself though I have to say that while the authors do make some questionable statements, the critics have erred by taking things out of context. The Frosts do clearly speak about sex in magical and spiritual practice, but they also explain in a lot of detail why it should only be used by those who are consenting adults who are doing so with full foreknowledge and ethical consideration of what they are doing. And the rest of the book, from what I’ve read so far, is pretty no-nonsense and down to earth.

I guess I would say that the Frost’s work, at least in this book, is worth checking out providing you have a grounding in the topic of Witchcraft, Wicca, and magick already and aren’t likely to take their statements as being explanations of standard practice in anything other than their own groups.

Lots of reading to fill the cold winter nights!

Ben