Christmas Eve in Dreamland (Lake View Cemetery).  In the distance is Garfield's Monument.  The single set of tire tracks are mine. And I just got done running a crunch-aching 3.5 miles.

On the ride toward home from Dreamland, Christmas Eve.  I was born under the sign of the Sun.  I am precisely inexplicable to Astrologers who do not allow for such an interpretation.

A stranger I happened upon on my Christmas Eve sojourns (after sunset, still fuzzily homebound - stopped for Christmas cheer) earnestly invited me to a Christmas dinner. Gonna have a duck, a goose, a hen, and roast beef.  I will be there in spirit - even as I  sit, sun-kissed, in meditation - finding my way.

Cleveland got it’s third heaviest historic one day December snow fall yesterday making it the snowiest December on record.  I spent a combined 6 hours yesterday and today whacking, hammering, shifting, shoveling, pushing, lifting ice-snow.  What made it especially onerous yesterday was a sudden changeover to rain for several hours after 15 inches of snow fell and then, just as quickly, a switch back to snow again.  The snow got water-logged and each shovelful weighed about 30 pounds. So imagine 30 pounds by 30 pounds by 30 pounds lifted and tossed about a thousand times and  that approximates the ordeal of the experience.  Oh yes, I also got soaked by the freezing rain: slushy shoes, washrag socks, dipped pants, drowned winter coat, dripping cap, even dowsed underwear.   And I had to go into work like that since I was late (for having to shovel my way out the drive) and didn’t have time to change.  So at work I spent 45 minutes with a hairdryer stuffed down my pants desiccating myself.  When I finally dried off I was as happy as a baby with a needed diaper change.

 Here’s a short description of the storm from the local rag:

Roads turned into sledding chutes, and holiday travel plans frayed. Power lines snapped around the region, at one point leaving 100,000 homes in the cold. Overtaxed roofs buckled under snow and ice and collapsed in Avon and Solon. Homeowners were stranded.

Breakfast this morning consisted of: 2 ova of Gallus domesticus, 16 ounces of legal (coffee-mediated) speed and 2 tabs of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory salicylate .

Though I have to work today, I have the rest of the year off of the ‘regular job’.  I’m so looking forward to reading some good books, studying my Chinese, taking some long (7 mile+) Dreamland runs, and entirely revamping my approach to work and love.

To revamp our interpretation system means to intend its reconditioning. It means that one deliberately and carefully attempts to enlarge its capabilities. By living in accordance with the sorcerer's way, dreamers save and store the necessary energy to suspend judgment and thus facilitate that intended revamping. If we choose to recondition our interpretation system, reality becomes fluid, and the scope of what can be real is enhanced without endangering the integrity of reality.

     -Carlos Castaneda (Art of Dreaming) 

 And to All: Peace on Earth, Good Will Within