Vision

Hi,
Back from a wild, wet weekend. Not that we didn't have plenty of sunshine, but the clouds finally delivered. We spent most of Saturday at the new house. I'll fill you in after a musical interlude.
Not too many of you wanted to "Dance With Me" over the weekend. Orleans is the group you have to thank for the memories.
"Drive west on Sunset, to the sea. Turn that jungle music down, just until we're out of town. This is no one night stand..."
Clue: This is by a group fronted by two very prolific writer/performers that we visit quite often. Tune is about a wild time in Cali and somebody shakin' it. What?
We had to get up extra early on Saturday in order to be at the site at 8 o'clock. When we arrived for the blessing of the Spirit House, there was quite a scene. Two men conducted the ceremony. In western terms, I guess they would be considered laymen of the temple. They brought their own six foot table, complete with a red covering. The table was filled with portions of various kinds of food. There was rice, corn, chicken, duck, vegetables, a big basket of fruit and, last but not least, a pig's head. Incense was burning all over and there were bunches of flowers. We were each given a candle. On this candle we were to write our name and birth date with a special stylus.
One of the men, the head guy, sat and began chanting from a thick notebook. This was the initial blessing of the land, of us and the spirits that live on the land and the ones who may visit the land. At one point we were given a prescribed number of incense sticks and were instructed to offer prayers of our own. The whole ceremony went on for a little over an hour and a half. It included tossing of water on us, dabbing our palms and foreheads with a special paste, walking around the 'house' three times, and sticking incense into all of the food. Small figurines were placed on the Spirit House, to represent our ancestors. A long strand of string was run from upstairs in Lisa's studio (tied to a small Emerald Buddha) and stretched all the way across the yard to the Spirit House. A piece of that string was tied around each of our wrists and we are to wear it for three days. I will post pictures of all this on the Flickr site.
Things are really changing as far as the house is concerned. The inside is basically finished. All the window treatments are done, most of the touch-up and cleaning is done and now it's just the little things that we're catching and having corrected. We moved a few things over and the first furniture arrived. Bed frames, dressers and dining room chairs give it all a feeling of anticipation.
The landscape crew is still planting borders and creating little gardens all around. We had our first bird sightings during the ceremony. They've discovered our trees. You may recall that I was wondering about how the geckos would know about the house. Well, somebody told them. We spotted a tiny baby upstairs in the studio. Amazing Thailand.
Sunday marked the arrival of the first truckloads of water for the pool. By this afternoon it was almost full. The pool guy was in the water, in his trunks, walking around with a net, cleaning the surface. Tomorrow they're supposed to fire up the waterfall and test the pump and filter. Guess who's getting excited?
Needless to say, we've started doing some real packing and making preparations for the move, which is still based on the arrival of city water. Boot is staying with us now, since she gave notice on her place. So, we're getting a preview of living together. It's going to be pretty cool.
Have a Wonderful Week.

Peace,
Danny

"The only limits are, as always, those of vision."
~James Broughton

Gettin' Funky, Thai Style

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