Athena Born From Zeus's Headache; Good News, Right?

Two Man Contemplating the Moon Giclee Print by Caspar David Friedrich

"Two Men Contemplating the Moon" by Caspar David Friedrich

So, in my life of daily non-adventures, I get asked this question more or less than you might think.
I have had multiple head traumas, one factor in this transformed migraine mishagas.

The truly weird part is I can never remember all of them when it's medically relevant. So, I'm writing them down here for three reasons:

-so I'm more likely to remember

-so I can see how that and the genetics and the hormones and the meningitis are all really in my life and part of the thing from which I am determined to rise again.

-I'm not being flip, but I am trying to employ some humor to help me take my situation in a forward-looking direction with the power of mental leverage!

-1963 - car accident - no seat belts; rear-ended by an 18-wheeler on the Bay Parkway? Can't tell you street names to save my life. The state was NY.

-1975 - college dorm, leaning back against the bed side of closet, speaker up on wall was loose. Comes down and knocks me out, barely missing my eye. I come to, crying blood, seeing through blood, and very maturely go off running screamingdown the hallway.

-1977  - First star wars... New automatic garage door opener  - I tried to make it in time before closing hour, honest! Who wants to be clunked by that!

-1979 - Arizona - the boys make me set the rock climbing expedition up Mt. Lemon's pace so that it wouldn't be too hard for a lil girly. Bright sun shining down; me being macho so as not to let down my entire gender, while negotiating a particularly difficult hand/foothold, I finally - I thought - got it just right and lifted myself with all my might into a giant overhang. As the blood was pouring into my mouth, the boys wanted to carry me back down, but there was no way. We'd ALL fall down and go boom. So, they spotted me... one in back and one in front, and somehow we made it back. Concussion, no hospital. Radio.

1982 - "Please get me the 'blank' file out of that cabinet."
"Sure - I'll be right back with it."
Only thing was that the file was in the bottom drawer of a forward-opening file cabinet, whose top drawer hinge had, unbeknownst to me (or anyone, so they say) er... broken, so that when I opened the bottom drawer, the whole top landed on my head and knocked me out cold.

1984 - Fell into the closet. Fell out of the car. Turned out to be - really? Spinal meningitis and month long stay in hospital with people in space suits reaching, reaching toward me for.... 5 lumbar punctures later... took a year to feel mostly 'right' again, 2 years to outgrow the wheat allergy I developed as a result...25 years for my toenails to grow in right, and we'll see how long until its slumbering after effects completely leave my body... probably when I do too, so I hear. Leave a deposit with the monkey, and I'll play you a tune.

1987 - Car accident, sitting at a red light, a mostly oblivious person, changes from an exit-only into my lane and rams into me, so hard that the car - and me, btw, are bounced back and forth off of it and the car in front several times.

1988 - Car accident, sitting at a red light, a mostly oblivious person, changes from an exit-only into my lane and rams into me, so hard that the car - and me, btw, are bounced back and forth off of it and the car in front several times. Sound familiar? It was - two whiplashes for the price of one. Unfortunately, this time I saw it coming... and first thing I thought of after hitting my head on the pre-airbag steering wheel was.... do I have any teeth left in my mouth? I had to check, actually.

1990's - I KNOW I'm missing something(s) here... Edit function is useful!

2000  - Fell in a ceramic bath/shower and hit my head. Really does make a 'Thwack!' sound after all. Who knew?

2005 - Fell down the stairs. Don't want to joke about it either.

And that is my cheery tale of woah! I'm happy I can write a bit nowadays. I've always wanted to, and not much else I seem to be up to. This, at least, I can do here and there, at those good moments, and don't have to enter the world of standing, wherein lurks vertigo, dizziness, and flashing lights.

Sweet Teeth - Stick Around Thermopolis!

Teeth Giclee Print by Joe Correll Tooth Fairy Art Print by Blonde Blythe Thermopolis, WY - Big Horn Hot Springs View Giclee Print

Left:  "Teeth"by Joe Correll
Right: "Tooth Fairy" by Blonde Blyth
Bottom: "Thermopolis, WY - Big Horn Hot Springs View"

So, how are your teeth doing these days, this morning? Are they up to date with your dentist? Have they been slowly or professionally whitened, or do you let you teeth flag fly? Maybe you have fortunate genes. In the procession to the great ice cream stand in the sky, will your teeth be coming with you? I've been thinking a lot lately about my chances.

I have an odd prediliction to lozenges. And I can't help but crunch after a bit, like in the old, "The questioners ask Owl how many bites it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop ad (I believe it's 3). I know it has to do with how dry my mouth is made by meds, but still. There's no way out. Dry mouth is breeding ground too.

I'm screwed, basically, unless I turn this huge boat around. Right now. I'm going to do it! I will call upon some of the best Teeth Mentors in my life to be my guides, par exemplar.

What a way to start your day.... in the morning.... 

Is that why I woke before 5am, or is this the new shape of things?
Is it just because we have kittens who storm the Bastille on a daily basis?

Who knows. Who cares? It's early. And either watch a bit of this season's worth of 'House,' to catch up when I'm able... or write my truth, baby.

Yesterday's museum memory story made me think of three others, but now I can't remember a single one. I have to start writing this stuff down. AND hope those memories rise once more out of the quagmire.

Here's a shorty pants story:

Driving across the country for the 3rd time in the early 80's, radiator blew 15 miles outside Thermopolis, Wyoming. 

Let me ask, where would YOU set the best place for a story if you're going to overheat your car? But seriously, it happened. Nuff said. Right outside of the world-renown hot springs mecca. That was the first and only time I ever saw hot springs fed into a large outdoor swimming pool, literally filled with people.

It was all very odd. As we sat there, trying to let the engine cool down enough for us to make it into this healing-propertied town, I tried various methods to prevent heat stroke. Including having a tantrum if memory serves - wait, no, that's someone else's life. I think I exacerbated the whole thing by putting a heavy - dark- shirt over my noggin, but finally we were freed... made it into the town's fix-it garage in our Plymouth Fury III, stacked to the hilt - and I do mean every square millimeter was cleverly packed - not by me... goes without saying... with everything we owned (Ah - the light load days.... How I miss that now.)

Looking forward to natural hot springs easily set next to a cool river, I was sure I had suffered heat stroke when I saw the weirdness of 'Hot Springs" town in the middle of f$#% all. By the picture above, it looks like we didn't have the gumption to carlessly walk to the places where it was REALLY happening...

That pool - it haunts me to this day, but they were able to fix the car by nightfall, so  - cool... on our way again.

Day Is Done; Just Beginning For Some

Dragon's Dream Poster
"Dragon's Dream"

Sweet Dreams Through The Night
Drink Some Milk; Hold Blankets Tight
Tomorrow's New Day.

I am exhausted, but wanted to put brackets of memory around the conscious part of the day...
at least semi-conscious. I tried. 
Made mistakes; hope I learn from them earnestly, eventually.
Night falls in shades of deepest velvet.
And I melt away in Hypnos's Arms of Morpheus

Thank you to all who read what I've written these past such a few days.
Though I feel there's not much here yet, and much 'warming up' is yet to be done;
It's a start, and it gives me great sense of doing SOMETHING to sit here and try to think, write, revise, post.
Contined sharing needed an insight to continue, and now I understand something new about my fears.

Moving forward.
Decision made.

Side....? Effects of a Looooooong Long Day.


I know lolcats are all over... and I especially love the morphemes that subscribe to the well-known feline knack for creative spelling.

I do not know what I'd say here, for this picture. 

But I've seen it - and I think it's spreading... this business of unconsciousness (especially, but not limited to... cats).

I will not at this time give in to negative thinkatry. Many are growing and not atrophying. I hope to be one of them of the human persuasion. The odd thing about being unconscious of certain things is that you're unconscious of those very things. Too odd.

One of our cats sits hunched over with such poor posture that her front legs cross her stomach and paws land on tail. She is VERRRY comfortable that way. And it is a complete understatement to say that it's pretty darn hysterical. I hope she didn't get it from me (well not the tail part, of course.)

I Admit There is Some Oddity to Watching Anton Standing With His Back Forward, Unless You're Going TO...

Dance along, Even in your head. I can't help doing the latter, myself.

All the same to the membrane.
So is observing technical acuity 
or transcendent performance.
Good to be moved in some direction.
So is throwing vegetables (known as Juggling) 
and talking to your computer.

And really, he can look whatever way he wants.
My eyes are closed.

Too bad that the Raven didn't quote "Nevertheless"
He might not have been such a mean ol' mess, 
Stalking and Driving the poet Insane,
Thus quote the little bit left of his brain.

Brian Jonestown Massacre at the Hove Festival live playing Nevertheless





and... Live at Hove Festival, Norway, 24-06-2008, with a speicial GUEST...  It'll be a shame if YouTube does indeed go under due to no profit margin. A shonda.






Planetarium To Pompeii Graffiti Business Man, and Third Floor Loo at Dinosaur Hall - All Natural History!

  Skeletons of Dinosaurs Being Displayed at the American Museum of Natural History Photographic Print by Hansel Mieth Dream in the Ruins of Pompeii, 1866 Giclee Print by Paul Alfred De Curzon

Left:  "Skeletons of Dinosaurs Being Displayed at the American Museum of Natural History" by Hansel Mieth
Right: "Dream in the Ruins of Pompeii, 1966" by Paul Alfred De Curzon

So, Tom and I were in NYC for hijinks back in 1976 or thereabouts.... I'm quite bad with years/better with general context. I know it was when I was at first university.

We had gone to the vicinity to see the Hayden Planetarium's star-filled trip through time, but it was closed for repairs. That'll show us - good to do research BEFORE GOING TO THE CITY.

At least in our disappointment we were assuaged by the nice day it turned into, sunning ourselves on the steps of the American Museum of Natural History - main building next door to the planets.

We were just sitting there, askew, trying to make stone stairs into a cushy recliner and endlessly debating our possible infinity of next step choices, when this Well-Dressed Man in a suit came running down to us from the top stair.

"Have any time to take in a show; it's not for a while yet?"

"Er... huh?"

"Well, you see, I have these members-only tickets for the Pompeii Exhibit tonight after they 'close' the regular museum, but something's come up and I need to leave. It'd be a shame to waste 'em as it's been sold out for some time."

"Yeah.... sure. We'll take them," I said... thinking at least then we had the choice if we were still in town at that hour - to go or give them to someone else.

I think my favorite parts of the exhibit were the overall feeling of being in a bustling town from long time gone.... that - and the feeling of an everyday quality that showed up in things like the graffiti, the shop signage that incorporated the gods of Roman mythology in a rather human way. 

Mercury's fish mart is a bit odd, though, as a) he was not associated with water, but air... and b) all these years later there's an abundance of mercury in our (fattier, especially) fish.

It was extremely moving to see a whole town/city transported with such care for details - excavated from volcanic earth, but especially the last exhibit - the contorted shapes of three people and a dog... hoping, trying with all their might to flee the molten river quickly approaching.

I do not want to do these once real forms housing real spirits any disservice by talking about their experience in those last minutes of those lives. They could be back right now, reading this blog for all I know about the ticking of this or any other universe.

All I will say is that my heart ached for three days thinking about that dog. Maybe that was all I could handle or relate to at the time, try as I always do to put myself in another's situation. We're not talking success rate here, just intention.

So, anyway, it turned out to be a lively, educational exhibit, ending on a bit of a sad note, because after all facts are facts. Things arise from and go back to ground. To seed for another season, perhaps. 

However, the most dramatic part of the whole thing was my trip to the ladies'. The museum was closed so that only ticketed members and employees would be in the museum for the exhibit.... which took the entire first floor, if I remember correctly.

So, I asked one of our friendly red-uniformed attendants where might the ladies' room be located?

"Oh, that would be on floor 3, Miss. You can use stairs or elevator right over there."

As I started climbing up, I immediately noticed it darkening as I left the luminescence of the well-lit first floor. By the time I got to full floor two, it was dark except for some emergency lighting rationed about the stair opening.

As I started to advance on the 3rd floor, my head passed floor level and I was in for quite a shock. To the right, just inside a VERY high-ceilinged arc was the barest hint of the immense skeletal jaw of a Tyrannasourus Rex - and it wasn't a T.R., Jr. either.

I stepped back one or two stairs.

Yeah, I knew they weren't alive... and had been all dead much much MUCH longer than any people depicted on those tiled mosaics lining the walls of the richer folks of Pompeii. For heaven's sake, they were bones... and yet something reptilian or early mammalian in my brain reacted with great fear.

Great, one of those helpful vestigial minders of our past that isn't often useful any longer. Not useful now.

Finally, I climbed to the full landing of the 3rd floor - having long forgotten about the loo... and stared to the right: at the vast hall of gigantically terrifying and truly fascinating creatures left behind in time.

I made up my mind, right there in the dark, that I would walk the long length of the room, slowly, and back up the other side of the middle display 'counter,' if you could call it that.

I dared myself. I absolutely had to in order to do this thing I wanted to experience alone. I started walking... and the fear began in my lower rib cage, communicating all the while with my feet (via brain matter), which were moving very slowly. I stared up in awe at these creatures to whom I would've been an ant, or at least a mouse, and trembled a bit. I looked at each one, wishing I had enough light to read the signs, but THEM themselves: their bones glowed eerily white and were most easy to see clearly.

And that's it. With a backward glance over my shoulder, I got into the elevator, and waited until the restaurant for the loo.

Eos and the New Day: Dawn Must Get a Break, you'd think, but NO.

    Stock Photo - solar eclipse. fotosearch - search stock photos, pictures, images, and photo clipart The Greek Goddess of the Dawn Known to the Romans as Aurora Giclee Print  Earth at Dawn from Space - On Sale Reg $11.99

Morning has once again announced itself as the two cute one-upon-a--single-handful kittens atttempt to break down the door. 

I don't know exactly what to do about them as they "should be" fully integrated into the household by now, but still love to chew on electric cords. Dangerous business, eh, Watson?I've tried so many things and still haven't found the right solution. So if anyone is peeking in and has a great idea for technophiles with more cords than food, please do not hesitate to post it. I would be forever grateful.

Anyway back from the dark into the light.

From this wiki:

"In Greek mythology, Eos (Roman Aurora) is the beautiful goddess of the Dawn. She is the daughter of Hyperion and Thea, sister of Helios and Selene, or the sun and the moon. She had flame-colored hair, white wings, and rosy fingers. Each morning, she rode her chariot across the sky to announce the coming of her brother, the sun.

In Hindu mythology, Ushas is the Goddess of the Dawn. She remains eternally young while men grow old. The night is dark and deep when Ushas rises and her mother, the sky, begins to adorn her. She uses hope to cloth her, life to anoint her with and light for her ornaments. Ushas is also known as Usha - the name is cognate with the Greek name Eos."

What is not said is that Eos is a Titan, from before the time of the Olympic crew. But banished she was not.... and continued to please the gods with her beauty and her herald of light.

It also doesn't mention that she is a watery Titan, as she must arise into darkness from the many seas and oceans... which are ultimately one.

"Eos in Greek Mythology 

In Greek mythology, Eos was the goddess of Dawn. She appears in the Theogony of Hesiod as the daughter of two Titans - Hyperion and Theia. Eos is therefore also the sister of Selene(the Moon) and Helios (the Sun). Hesiod recognizes the eternal significance of these gods in his poem:

"Theia yielded to Hyperion's love and gave birth
to great Helios and bright Selene and Eos,
who brings light to all the mortals of this earth
and to the immortal gods who rule the wide sky." 
(Hesiod, Theogony, 371-74)

Eos also plays a role in the epics of Homer. The Greek poet frequently mentions this beautiful goddess in the Iliad and the Odyssey, referring to her as "rosy-fingered", "early-rising", and "saffron-robed". The team of horses that pull her chariot across the sky are named in theOdyssey as Lampos and Phaethon (translated as Firebright and Daybright).

There are a number of mythical stories about the affairs of Eos. Some scholars have attributed her strange fascination with mortal men to an unfortunate incident - apparently, the goddess of the Dawn had a fling with Ares. Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, was no doubt angry that her lover had been involved with Eos, so she punished the dawn-goddess by making her fall for a series of mortals. Tithonus, Cephalus, and Orion are some of the fatal attractions of Eos.

Children often came from these romantic liaisons. Eos was the mother of several notable offspring, including the Winds (Zephyrus, Boreas, and Notus) and the Morning Star (Eosphoros) all of whom she bore to the Titan Astraeus; and Memnon, her son by Tithonus.

The Romans called the goddess of Dawn Aurora. "  http://www.loggia.com/myth/eos.html

Also for Ushas, here is an introductory url:  http://www.indianetzone.com/31/ushas_dawn.htm

Hmmmm. Seems like every time something is beautiful and fills the world with light, there is also a side of darkness. What is it about those two-sided coins, anyway? Duality is the first shift from oneness. And we know how it keeps splitting from there. Ever watch one of those old - or new - videos of a fertilized egg dividing? Our minds produce the same realities. We call them myth and dress them up in Story. 

It oughtn't be discouraging, though. It is wholeness. And gives many opportunities to move from darkness into light, every day, every moment.

I know I get all mushy eventually. But you know what the other side of that coin is? You got it, sibs!

Indentured "No Service" 'tude.

Laughter's Elite Poster
"Laughter's Elite"

Laughter is the best medicine, they say.
Sometimes it's the only thing that can relieve the downward you're spiraling into.
Especially if you don't have enough inner resources to just be. Be. B.
The moment can get a hold of You instead...
if your guard is accidentally down for the right second.
And it comes searching for you on Google.

And mark the times it happens.
It's more than you probably think.

Tickles and quips,
SarcIronicasm too.
I'm just trying to enjoy it when it comes along;
 wouldn't you?

Goofy... see? The silly goose strikes again.
I collect people who call me a silly goose.
It's more than you probably think.
And quite accidentally.

Two now.
More than I thought.

Wow... This was meant to be a post about walking on eggshells when you're living with people who are agreeing to care for you and keep you off the street... and trying not to get in the way, be invisible so they can have their normal good life, but presence changes things, and it truly is hard to get around.

Now That My Shoelaces Are Tied, There's No Stopping Me from Embedification... Well, maybe...

Thanks for bearing with me on these two Dandy's videos. 

You might even like them, but as Bubble would intone, "Who can say?"

I'm playing and having some fun.... after a er... how to describe... DAY.

The second one is 'then,' with "Good Morning"
The first is 'this morning,' with "Mission Control" 
Different look for Courtney - how they manage to put science, country, and psychedelic shoe-gazing into a fun borrowing flower, is beyond me...