a walk in the woods on the full moon.

The cats woke me up so I’d scare something away, I guess I did. We stood on the porch, they all stared smugly at something in the bush shadows. Big raccoon maybe. Skunks are pretty tame and they seem to get along up to a point. The moonlight was beautiful and my flashlight wasn’t charged. But I went for a walk anyway.

I could only see where to put my feet if moonlight hit the ground there. The trees around the neighborhood spring are 100+ yr old grand fir & Hemlock, around 100 ft tall. I used to hike at night when I was a kid and can see pretty well in the dark but the contrast with bright moonlight was stark, and it blinded me. The ground was thick fallen needles, hard to keep balance on even in the daytime. The creek below the spring is full of ferns and runs into the state forest. Down past the pump house, the trail is blocked by a fallen tree. I felt my way around it. I sensed a lot of joy out in the woods, it was like the elves and Island spirits that lure people into the wilderness. Next time I’ll dress for it better.

I sat on a log and decided that I shouldn’t trust all the joy. It might have been joy but maybe it was a Puma out hunting and thinking about how wonderful it would be to find a clueless meal stumbling around in the dark. Makes me purr just to think. It might have been owls or skunks, mice maybe, who were unconcerned with my excursion. Mountain lions don't come usually close to houses, but one showed up on a garage sentry cam farther up the ridge. I don't like them much because they attack from behind.

Most animals emit their feelings like a vocabulary, people do too but tend to ignore that part and use words instead. We get caught up in phrase tradition, syntax, that only has indirect meaning, till a speaker can say one thing while emitting something completely different. We get caught up in the description and confuse it with the real world. Most animals don't talk and avoid people because they think we're crazy (present company excepted of course).

I remember why I need to have a running camp wagon. Crooked cops be damned.

After awhile I got cold, walked home, and wrote this. Now I’m going back to bed.

Update, next night:

Got prepared w/ warmer clothes. Flashlight still doesn't work. Brought a can of mace for Goblins. I went the other direction down what used to be a Dope growers trail that goes from F rd to J rd, (about a mile one way). Nobody uses it anymore since Cannabis was legalized in Calif. Albion used to depend on dope sales for maybe 50 yrs. but times change. Now everyone's broke and the new store owners are from India who import employees and don't distinguish between hippies and Dalits.

I jog this route so I know there's few houses and only one dog. Also the first half goes by a goat pasture w/ no history of predation. The second half cuts through the woods. I made it to J rd but kept obsessing on the lion. As you might expect, I never saw him. In SE Asia loggers wear hats with eyes painted on the back to make Tigers think they're being watched because big cats are shy about being watched by their victims. The locals there say it works, so I figgured it wouldn't hurt to make some googly eyes that clip on the back of my hat. Yeah, works pretty good so far.

The bear I've previously met a couple of times, he's more considerate of people except when it comes to chickens, apple trees, bee hives, and trashcans. He avoids people and I didn't see him either. A few months ago I heard voices on the far side of a gully near a friends house, so I walked over to see who it was. It was the bear talking to himself. I said "Hi Bear" (from 50 yds away) and he quickly walked away probably in embarrassment from having been overheard, or maybe he felt guilty about being a delinquent.

Tonight there were no sounds except one car going up the ridge rd. In several places I felt very much at home, but in others I felt like I was trespassing on some critters territory. In a few places the trail cuts close to the canyon edge where cold sea wind blows up through the understory like a dark void.

I kept a steady pace and got home in 20 min.

Homeopathy

Homeopathy has a bad reputation for 2 practical reasons:
1. the volume of the actual effective ingredient in the final (diluted) solution can be so low that there is essentially no chance of any atom being present in the end product.
2. The effect of the active ingredient in that solution is claimed to be the opposite of whatever qualities it has in full strength doses, for example, Poison Ivy is used to cure itching.

Concerning the first: This is a video by a Nobel Prize recipient who provides clinical proof that water retains electromagnetic memory of molecules previously in contact with it, even diluted to the equivalent of one drop in the Atlantic ocean (youtube). The video never actually mentions homeopathy so it's perfectly safe to watch by people who don't believe.

The Second claim, that there's no proof that minute quantities of a substance can have the opposite pharmacological effect as large quantities is also unproven, but it's a safe argument because a negative can't be proven. Statical evidence from people who use Homeopathic remedies is interpreted as the effects of a Placebo. Scientific convention isn't infallible, illogical argument exist (not here of naturally), for example if some piece is flakey then the whole thing is too dangerous to drive and therefore don't believe anything you read on the internet. I hate to have to say so but that's bull.

The same qualification applies in reverse though: don't swallow the whole pile just because it has sprinkles on top.

I'm not claiming this above somehow validates this below. I claiming they both are wrongly judged because of misunderstanding the concept.

I messed with astrology for maybe 20 yrs because I was in a peer group that supported it. Much of it is second hand scrambled nonsense relayed by casual observers that quote self appointed authorities. There is no standard authority and nobody is looking for causes. My position: there ARE causes. Many of the effects are hearsay, some of them arent. The latest new age science & stuff (blogspot.com).