Well. Here we are again.

I want to buy a monastery.

Neat, huh?

Miguel has been building bookcases, (as seen here - and another similar one on the facing wall) ready for when our books arrive. We've been told there's another barge coming on Wednesday, so maybe our stuff will be on that one. I've also been begging bits of plants from people, and I'm growing some pineapple tops. They look very tropical. The piano stool that the dieffenbachia is standing on came from the metal dump. I love the metal dump. Too bad I didn't find a piano to go with it.

It's not so tropical outside... It has been snowing steadily, the last two weeks, and the land is now all covered. It's been about -3 mostly, which means that when the sun shines it melts the top layer of the snow and then refreezes it, so it's slow going around town. I fell on the ice yesterday, bringing Rachel back from the dentist. Miguel has been slithering a bit in the new truck, trying to get used to it. I sold the old truck while he was in Edmonton, just recently.

It is Ember Days, and I've been fasting. I love fasting. This time I've been doing it the Anglican way - with bread, fruit, and tea. In other words, banana for breakfast, slice of bread and slice of mango for lunch and supper, and lots of tea. It's called dry fasting, but it doesn't mean you don't drink anything, - you just don't eat anything hot or or particularly interesting. Although the multigrain bread is beginning to taste like the best thing I've ever shoved in my mouth. I feel nice and light, and my thought processes have slowed. Also I have lots of energy. I accomplished a lot this weekend, even though I spent most of Saturday morning in a semi-conscious state on the couch in the living room. I wasn't hungry, and yet I couldn't fall into a full sleep, and my thoughts were long and deep. I thought a lot about my parents, and I thought a lot about the readings I was going to do today in church. It's supposed to be conducive to prayer, and for some reason I feel as if that might be true, because my concentration is good and I feel happier when my stomach's not always trying to digest something difficult.

Truly I still don't think I'm a religious person. I enjoy, when it's my turn, standing up in front of the congregation and giving my stream-of-consciousness talks, just like I used to do with the Alternatives to Violence Project - I love looking for thought-provoking things to read out loud in front of everyone. I don't write my 'sermon' out and then read it, I try to think of the points I want to make and then I just talk to the people in the audience. I'm especially interested in the reactions of those I don't know very well, I find it interesting, what they take away from what I've said.

In other parts of my life, headquarters has sent out dire emails warning all of us that we are not to discuss our work lives on the internet. I'm becoming increasingly leery of having anything online, and so I probably won't ever talk about my work again. Which is a shame because it's by far the funniest things that happen to me. Oh well. When Ed and Delia come up here to visit me, I'll tell them stories until they die laughing.