You know, it really kills me when my dad says he’s given up on anymore christmases because he knows he’ll never be able to afford one again.

An interesting ride home. I was driving down Bond Street in Westminster and the driver side muffler of my dual exhaust decides to break clean off of my header and half drag on the ground. So I pulled over in traffic, hopped out and crawled underneath it, only to realize that the only tool I have is a multi-tool, and no flashlight. So I do the best I can to try and break the bolts free from the end of the pipe that’s still dangling, but they are so rusted I can’t. I found an old bungee in the bronco and try to use that to tie it up to the frame, but low and behold, it’s too long and I just can’t seem to get it to hold up the pipe high enough.

Luckily some guys stopped and brought me some flashlights as well as some wire coat hangers, and I eventually hoist the hunk of junk onto the frame with those. Very nice of them to help me out. They said they were worried I was going to get hit by a car, and they were sorry I had to get my costume all dirty (wasn’t really wearing much of a costume, but anyway).

So now I need new headers….and new tailpipes for the new bronco. Until then I’ll just cope with having an intensely loud bronco for a while.

In addition to that, my dad says we have termites. Luckily I work for an extermination company, so I should be able to get termite treatment for somewhat cheap. Considering a discount and how small our run down shack really is. 30×30 foot.

Still, I did not need to spend money on these things, when I’m trying to save up for a christmas for my father.

At least I’m thankful I have a job.

Today I’ve decided to make a personal dedication. A year from today, I will hope to have transformed.

Just came home from the Samhain ritual at the Grove. It was a good ritual for the most part, honoring the ancestors, lighting a pumpkin on fire, the towering skull with the tribal markings. All part of the environment to create the general feel of the feast of the dead.

But again, they opened up praise offerings for this ritual, as they did for the last one. We had been doing fine with the generic praise offering period where people make their silent offerings while people drummed or sang. But this open praise offering shit is really starting to get annoying. It’s not so bad if a few people come up and say “Hey, I’m honoring this person who passed away” and were done with it. But we had people come up 2 or 3 times to honor someone new that popped in their head. And with a ritual that large, it’s just not viable. I’m sitting here in the cold wet mud with my hands frozen like fucking icicles from drumming constantly. It just doesn’t work out.

Sorry, had to rant. (no offense to anyone who reads this that did that, it’s not your fault)

So overall, very enjoyable. For a while I couldn’t feel my fingers at all. I had to crouch next to the fire in order to regain any feeling, they were so frozen.

Directly after ritual, I was coaxed into playing guitar right away, so I didn’t actually get a chance to eat, though I did grab some bread and chocolate later after everyone. So I played, and had a small crowd gathered that sang along. There’s always new people who ask me to play all kinds of songs I don’t know yet and give me all these compliments which make me feel good. I should start leaving out an open guitar case and see if anyone will toss me some quarters.

The turn out for the ritual was pretty large, I haven’t counted up all the signatures in the guestbook yet, but damn, my advertising really paid off. I just hope we actually got some good donations in.

My sister seemed to enjoy herself, since there were some younger girls there about her age to hang out with. I’m still hesitant about involving her in things too much because I know my mother will flip a proverbial lid if I do and take me to court and accuse me of worshipping satan or other such nonsense. But at least she gets some exposure.

So we’re both nestled at home now next to the woodstove. I smell like a goddamn campfire, I’m hungry, my hands are still sore, but I had a great time.

I love half days at work.

It’s rare that I get a chance to drive home while the sun is out, so in the interest of saving gas in the beast I drive, I decided to savor it. There’s one stretch of my road that is surrounded by trees, and in the autumn it’s like driving through a curtain of reds and golds. If only my camera was back from the shop.

But instead of going out and getting some exercise when I got home like I wanted, I hauled some wood in and stoked up the woodstove to keep it warm. Then apparently fell asleep. I guess I needed it though. It’s been a stressful couple of days.

That in addition to today being payday with my retroactive balance from my raise, made today quite a swell day.

My sister was dropped off about 9pm, I promptly cooked her dinner, put on “Emerald Forest” (I think she’s starting to get into the tribal stuff like me), and we did a few girlie things. The most amusing being my nightly facial cleansing with olive oil and green clay mask. She’s getting too tall for an 11 year old.

Tomorrow I’m taking her to work with me and then down to the Grove for the Samhain ritual. Sunday is a day just to myself. I’ll probably split wood, go for a hike, veg in the hammock. Who knows.