Back from the silence

By this time anyone still tuning in deserves an explanation. Late February was essentially the last time i posted anything substantial. Why so few posts in such a long time?

This is about the third attempt i've made to explain it, and i'm still finding it difficult. Let me just say that i'm finding it hard to continue, and for now want only to add that 1) i am moving to a monthly publishing schedule [even twice a month is evidently a lot for me to keep up with], and 2) i'm learning some new software programs that will allow me to upload to this site photos that i've been taking with my new digital camera. And this is another project which is taking up more time than i'd anticipated. But enough whining.

Things at Heartwood are essentially pretty good. i had 8 cranio-sacral sessions over a 9-week period beginning March 7, which was wonderful: highly recommended. And i will be taking my first intensive course at Heartwood beginning this Saturday: the week-long Cranio-Sacral course, taught by the women who gave me the sessions: Marshall Amini Peller and her partner Kellyn. They are a pair of extraordinary women, and i feel fortunate to know them. Very sensitive, generous, good senses of humor, knowledgeable about so many things that matter.

A new manager, Megan Costello, has arrived at the Welcome Center, so the pressure's off! i have returned to a 35-hour-a-week schedule, and i can return to focusing on my own bodywork practice.

Which has fallen off quite a bit. i thought by now i'd be back to it, having completed the move to a new residence, a 25-foot (in diameter) yurt, with a bubble-dome in the center of the roof, which has been re-christened "Hedon's Eden." But a skin condition has laid me low, and getting or receiving bodywork is absolutely contraindicated. Ever hear of scabies? Yikes, subcutaneous mites burrowing around in your skin, and the itching (esp. at night) can be intense. It's fairly contagious, but i've taken all the necessary precautions. i have no idea how i might've caught it, and haven't heard of anyone else at Heartwood who has it.

My friend Monica at the Wellness Center here has hooked me up with a homeopathic treatment which seems to be doing the trick. Not having health insurance, i was curious to know what it would cost me to go the traditional mainstream-medical route: it would've been $80 for the consultation with a doctor who would 've most probably simply written a prescription for the topical ointment that's needed, which itself costs like $25. i ordered this from a Canadian pharmacy i found online (the drug, premethrin 5%, is sold over the counter in Canada), and it arrived in today's mail, total cost including shipping: $32.

Having scabies was really getting me down. Many of you know what a touchy-feely guy i am, and not being able to hug people (which is one of the most popular pastimes here; you have NEVER seen so many people giving and getting so many hugs in your life!) was making me feel .. infected! And isolated. And so what happened Saturday night was all the more sweet. i'll explain.

First i have to say that even though i'm kind of self-conscious about having this disgusting skin condition, i've thought that it would be good spiritual practice to be open about it, and so i have told my closest friends here that i've got it.

Saturday night was open-mic night, and i was sitting up front on the floor, resting me head on my arms while sitting beneath an empty bench that was in front of me. My camping buddy Sky had been sitting at a table across the way most of the night, but then at one point got up, came over, sat down behind me, and proceeded to massage my neck, shoulders and back for like a half-hour! Man, this guy sitting behind me, and giving me so much touch, so lovingly, meant so much to me, esp. given this condition i've been struggling through. (He wasn't at any risk .. his hands stayed on my shirt the whole time, except when he did a little neck massage, and scabies rarely goes above the throat. They like to hide out in other parts of the body.)

That Sky, i tell you. And that's all i'm gonna say 'cause i think he still checks the blog every now and then. Although maybe he's given up checking because i haven't made a post in so long. So Sky, you still reading this? Would you tell me if you were?! Anyway, hopefully i'll have some photos of our camping trip on the Lost Coast posted here before too long.

Other news: i'm planning a two-week visit to Rochester for late July, early August. Mike Morone, get out your running shoes! i have been training for the Redwoods Marathon which takes place Oct. 15. The director of Student Affairs Tommie Lou Robinson out of Ft. Collins, CO has been running with me every now and then. Although big bummer, she recently told me that she'll be leaving us at the end of the next quarter, for personal (romantic) reaons. What a big loss her departure will create, she is a really sweet woman, very together. i ran (solo) 8.4 miles the other day in 2 hours, not bad when you consider a lot of it was uphill and down, and on dirt road.

Well, the openness thing, here's another true confession: i was arrested for the first time in my life some time ago, and taken IN HANDCUFFS up to the sheriff's office in Eureka. The charge: hitchhiking on the highway (i was near the end of a deserted entrance-ramp to 101 south). Got a court appearance in Garberville scheduled for later this month which i will attempt to postpone, since it coincides with the last day of the intensive. i'll keep you posted.

We had a wicked lightning and thunderstorm last night, that really went on for a long time, too, not so common in these parts. It started about 3 or 4 in the morning, a couple of hours after i'd gotten back from a huge party up the road that Hank Williams the third played at. He and his band play a lot of his grandfather's country favorites, but then for their second set they broke into the most godawful death-metal music you have ever heard (most of us had been told it would be punk). A fight broke out right in front of me (that was very quickly stopped as well, no one hurt), and the mosh pit in front of the band was not the more easy-going mosh pit that i fondly recall from my days of going to Korsakoff's on the Lijnbaansgracht in Amsterdam.

But it was nice to get away from the 'wood for a while, cut loose a little bit, and enjoy some good live music. A lot of people from here went, the venue was not much more than a couple of miles further up the road, and it's well-known too as the site of Nadine's annual Halloween party, the happingest event in Southern Humboldt's social calendar.

Watched "Motorcycle Diaries" with Sky and Nyra Sunday afternoon, highly recommended: the story of a trip around S. America Che Guevara took when he was 24, and before he'd become a revolutionary hero.

OK cats&kittens, i'm gonna wrap this up and go and spend some time on that friggin digital photo software. (My problem, in case anyone out there can help, is that neither Hotmail nor Blogger will upload my photos, even after this program (called VSO) has resized them for me.) Any suggestions for dealing with this would be greatly appreciated.

THE NEW PUBLISHING SCHEDULE: a new post on the full moon. Next post: July 11. See you then, if not sooner.