New Moon Revelations...
So yesterday, shatterpath & I took a trip out to our old neck of the woods. We haven't been out that way since we moved out here to Bremerton 3 years ago. To say that it was an intense day is an understatement.
The day started before dawn, punctuated with quite a bit of rain. We knew it would be raining, but when has this stopped us before? So we made our way up to Kingston to take the 0735 ferry to Edmonds. The ferry was running a little late, but considering how foggy and rainy it was, we really weren't surprised. Nor were we worried. We weren't on a timeline after all, beyond getting home before it was too late. The ferry ride was short and relatively uneventful, and we headed out toward the first stop on our "tour" :: the Sultan Bakery and Cafe. They have absolutely fantastic food... and the place was PACKED!
Once we'd stuffed ourselves, we headed out toward mile marker 34 of Hwy 2 along the Skykomish River. Just past this mile marker is shatterpath's favorite spot along the river... and where we'd buried Toby 5 years ago. It was raining pretty hard in waves on our way out, but stopped while we were eating, then stopped again just before we got to the river. Our normal way of getting down to the site of Toby's grave has been completely overgrown and barred from us over the las 3-4 years. We found another way to get in, but the ground was too unsteady for me to get down there safely. shatterpath gave it a shot... and promptly got dropped onto her ass twice. The second time, she landed on her left funny bone and came home with a couple of nice bruises as souvenirs. She didn't actually get down to the river or the gravesite because it would have been way too dangerous, and I'd have had no way to get her out or get us home if she'd gotten hurt. She took a few pictures, threw down the offerings we'd brought for Toby and our rattie friends who were buried along the river [cat & rodent food & a one of the cat toys that Leo adores [1]], and then came back up to where I was waiting. That was when she voiced what I had already guessed in the back of my head :: we were barred from coming to this place anymore.
The minute I knew I wasn't getting anywhere near Toby's grave, I started crying. It killed me that I couldn't get down there. And yes, I know that there's nothing physical left of him, not after this long. Even if there were bones, the site of his grave tends to be under water annually, so his bones would have been washed downriver years ago. It's always been the principle of the thing. And yes, Toby's spirit still visits us on a regular basis, just like he has since he died. But to know that we'd been barred from visiting that location, from communing with him there, it hurt like a motherfucker. As we continued on our way out to Deception Falls, the rain suddenly stopped and the sun came out. shatterpath said that even the weather was mourning this loss with me. And while I understood what we'd been told back at the river, it hurt too much to process. And to top things off? Deception Falls was closed off, and appeared to have been so for quite some time. We couldn't even get in to see it or anything.
So we turned around and began to make our way back toward Sultan. And the rain began in earnest again the closer we got to mile marker 34 again. And once we were past it, it stopped again. The message was more than clear by that point. I'd have to have been dead to miss it. So we continued back and finally stopped at the Wayside Chapel, tho' we've always called it the Outhouse Chapel because of its tiny size. I got a picture of myself in front of it and then we stepped inside for a brief moment. Someone unfortunately had defaced it with several pagan-type pieces of graffiti, which is just wrong on so many levels. But that's a rant for another entry...
After that, we made our way to the Serpentarium, which is probably one of my most favorite places in the whole fucking world. The 10 most poisonous snakes in the world are there, including my two favorites. The Emerald Tree Boa was up on its branch, but only lifted its head when shatterpath came by, and would look at her, too. Quite interesting juju. While I was looking at the Copperheads and the HUGE reticulated python, shatterpath pointed out that my "nemesis" was fucking active as hell. Glancing over, I saw that the Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake had been moved to a much larger tank and was doing everything it could to get to me, just like the previous times we've been there. He's huge, y'all, a good 6' in length and probably 6" across at his widest point. His rattle never once went off, but he was incredibly active and followed me and my movements avidly. We were separated by half an inch of plexiglass and I wasn't afraid of him. And it wasn't just because he'd been surgically devenomized [as were all of the hot snakes in that "zoo"]. If I'd had the ability, I'd have held him. No questions asked.
The same goes for the black mamba, my other favorite snake there. Once again, I was getting "yawns" from the black mamba [the green mamba was in the process of shedding, so I didn't fuck with it]. You know, the kind of yawns where you'd see the fangs in their full glory if he still had them. These two snakes will be incredibly active and track me when I'm there, but if I step away, they stop completely. It's quite interesting to witness. There were 8 different varieties of cobra there. All but 2 of them reacted to me [the King and the albino monacled]. The little Sumatran Cobra was quite animated and even showed a hood [facing the other direction from me]. I thought this was quite fascinating and that I'd found a new snake friend... until we found out he'd been there for a month and still hadn't adapted/acclimated yet, so was actually scared and freaked out. I felt absolutely horrible after that for making things worse for him. And then the Egyptian Striped Cobra and one of the spitting cobras [I've forgotten the exact anme atm] also showed me their hoods. It was fucking fascinating to have cobras doing this and yet they weren't acting in a threatening/threatened manner [well, except for the Sumatran, but the King at the Woodland Park Zoo has shown me his hood before, too] when they did it.
I got to see my albino Burmese python buddy again, but didn't get my picture with him. This time, I got my picture taken with an 8 month old alligator. SO. Damned. Cute! And so soft! And strong! shatterpath even got to hold him while I snapped a shot of her with him [that's normally against the rules], then a little boy got to hold him so his sister could take a shot. The girl at the counter said the little boy could do a quick shot but she really wasn't supposed to because that's a perk that you pay separately for. So before we left, we left a donation of like $7 to cover both shatterpath & the little boy holding the gator. We also got to see that they'd expanded the place to take over the whole building and were working on getting all of the exhibits over on the other side set up. The other side had previously been a rodeo/horse tack/trinkets shop. I got to hear a Northern Pacific Rattlesnake's rattle while in that section. Not out of anger/aggression, tho'. It was climbing along a branch and its tail fell, causing the rattle to go off for a couple seconds. Very fascinating.
After that, we headed over to our old neighborhood to get a late lunch at Central Market in Mill Creek, which was our favorite grocery store when we lived there. Once done there, we had a quick stop off at Martha Lake, just to see it again, then made our way back to Edmonds to the ferry and home. I was still feeling quite sad about the whole situation about Toby's grave, but was beginning to accept that it was okay because, as shatterpath had said, Toby still visits us on a relatively regular basis. I was fascinated with the waves and the birds on the water as we waited for the ferry to pull out and head us homeward. I even got to have a "conversation" with a gull who sounded much like Gabe does when he's talking to me. It amused me greatly. And then, I just stayed there for the whole half hour trip. At first, I was trying to see if there were any seals/sea lions/dolphins to spot out in the water. Then I got completely and utterly mesmerized by the waves we were heading into and the waves we were sending off from the side of the ferry. And suddenly, I was in the middle of what I can now only describe as a full body/mind/soul "enema", for lack of a better word. There was energy pulsing through me in a similar way to how I normally do my grounding, only I hadn't started this. At least not consciously. At first, it was just the energy of the deep water we were crossing and the land so far below it. But as we turned to a slightly southwestern direction to head into Kingston, the sun hit me full in the face and the wind picked up in intensity. I was getting hit by all four elements at once :: water, earth [the ground below, the land we were coming toward, and the metal of the ferry itself], fire [the sun and the "fuel" of the ferry], and air. I had both hands spread out, palms down, over the water, continuing to soak up this energy like a sponge, as cliche as that sounds. In the process of all this, and as I saw Kingston looming closer and closer, I realized that the old "home" connection to our former stomping grounds was completely severed. The juju ties we'd had there were completely gone. And while that made me sad, I realized that it was necessary. That's no longer our home, and having those ties was cumbersome and draining. Toby and the ratties still visit us in spirit, Toby moreso than the ratties.
Once home, the post-juju carnage kicked in with a vengeance. And while I'm still sad about the whole severance thing, I think I'm more at peace with it. And damned if my third eye blockage doesn't seem to be cleared up now. That all of this happened the day of the New Moon both surprises and doesn't surprise me...
And to top it all off? We actuall got a LOT of stuff figured out for my NaNo novel. I'm unspeakably happy about that.
Oh! And I almost forgot... We saw several animals on our trip. A heron flew over us [I saw that one], shatterpath saw a dead baby goat on teh side of teh roat, we both saw a dead coyote on teh side of the road, and a crow divebombed our car [shatterpath missed that one, too]. Very interesting juju there...
[1] For those who may be new to my LJ [or came to it after Toby'd died], Toby and Leo were basically brothers. They were probably about a month apart in age, but were rescued a couple months apart. Leo was 4 1/2 weeks old when shatterpath's ex rescued him. His mother was feral and had him weaned THAT early. Sitting fully erect, the tips of his ears barely cleared the top of the baseboards! A couple months later, she brought home Toby. [They were named after The West Wing characters] I was still living in Portland at the time with my ex. The minute I stepped into their apartment, the minute Toby and I laid eyes on each other for the first time, it was a done deal. It was like we were meant for each other. He was the very best cat I've ever had, and I don't think I'll ever find another cat like him. The day he died was one of the worst days in my entire life, and it's not one I can easily forget as it happened on 09/11. shatterpath, Leo, and I have never really been the same since Toby died.
The day started before dawn, punctuated with quite a bit of rain. We knew it would be raining, but when has this stopped us before? So we made our way up to Kingston to take the 0735 ferry to Edmonds. The ferry was running a little late, but considering how foggy and rainy it was, we really weren't surprised. Nor were we worried. We weren't on a timeline after all, beyond getting home before it was too late. The ferry ride was short and relatively uneventful, and we headed out toward the first stop on our "tour" :: the Sultan Bakery and Cafe. They have absolutely fantastic food... and the place was PACKED!
Once we'd stuffed ourselves, we headed out toward mile marker 34 of Hwy 2 along the Skykomish River. Just past this mile marker is shatterpath's favorite spot along the river... and where we'd buried Toby 5 years ago. It was raining pretty hard in waves on our way out, but stopped while we were eating, then stopped again just before we got to the river. Our normal way of getting down to the site of Toby's grave has been completely overgrown and barred from us over the las 3-4 years. We found another way to get in, but the ground was too unsteady for me to get down there safely. shatterpath gave it a shot... and promptly got dropped onto her ass twice. The second time, she landed on her left funny bone and came home with a couple of nice bruises as souvenirs. She didn't actually get down to the river or the gravesite because it would have been way too dangerous, and I'd have had no way to get her out or get us home if she'd gotten hurt. She took a few pictures, threw down the offerings we'd brought for Toby and our rattie friends who were buried along the river [cat & rodent food & a one of the cat toys that Leo adores [1]], and then came back up to where I was waiting. That was when she voiced what I had already guessed in the back of my head :: we were barred from coming to this place anymore.
The minute I knew I wasn't getting anywhere near Toby's grave, I started crying. It killed me that I couldn't get down there. And yes, I know that there's nothing physical left of him, not after this long. Even if there were bones, the site of his grave tends to be under water annually, so his bones would have been washed downriver years ago. It's always been the principle of the thing. And yes, Toby's spirit still visits us on a regular basis, just like he has since he died. But to know that we'd been barred from visiting that location, from communing with him there, it hurt like a motherfucker. As we continued on our way out to Deception Falls, the rain suddenly stopped and the sun came out. shatterpath said that even the weather was mourning this loss with me. And while I understood what we'd been told back at the river, it hurt too much to process. And to top things off? Deception Falls was closed off, and appeared to have been so for quite some time. We couldn't even get in to see it or anything.
So we turned around and began to make our way back toward Sultan. And the rain began in earnest again the closer we got to mile marker 34 again. And once we were past it, it stopped again. The message was more than clear by that point. I'd have to have been dead to miss it. So we continued back and finally stopped at the Wayside Chapel, tho' we've always called it the Outhouse Chapel because of its tiny size. I got a picture of myself in front of it and then we stepped inside for a brief moment. Someone unfortunately had defaced it with several pagan-type pieces of graffiti, which is just wrong on so many levels. But that's a rant for another entry...
After that, we made our way to the Serpentarium, which is probably one of my most favorite places in the whole fucking world. The 10 most poisonous snakes in the world are there, including my two favorites. The Emerald Tree Boa was up on its branch, but only lifted its head when shatterpath came by, and would look at her, too. Quite interesting juju. While I was looking at the Copperheads and the HUGE reticulated python, shatterpath pointed out that my "nemesis" was fucking active as hell. Glancing over, I saw that the Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake had been moved to a much larger tank and was doing everything it could to get to me, just like the previous times we've been there. He's huge, y'all, a good 6' in length and probably 6" across at his widest point. His rattle never once went off, but he was incredibly active and followed me and my movements avidly. We were separated by half an inch of plexiglass and I wasn't afraid of him. And it wasn't just because he'd been surgically devenomized [as were all of the hot snakes in that "zoo"]. If I'd had the ability, I'd have held him. No questions asked.
The same goes for the black mamba, my other favorite snake there. Once again, I was getting "yawns" from the black mamba [the green mamba was in the process of shedding, so I didn't fuck with it]. You know, the kind of yawns where you'd see the fangs in their full glory if he still had them. These two snakes will be incredibly active and track me when I'm there, but if I step away, they stop completely. It's quite interesting to witness. There were 8 different varieties of cobra there. All but 2 of them reacted to me [the King and the albino monacled]. The little Sumatran Cobra was quite animated and even showed a hood [facing the other direction from me]. I thought this was quite fascinating and that I'd found a new snake friend... until we found out he'd been there for a month and still hadn't adapted/acclimated yet, so was actually scared and freaked out. I felt absolutely horrible after that for making things worse for him. And then the Egyptian Striped Cobra and one of the spitting cobras [I've forgotten the exact anme atm] also showed me their hoods. It was fucking fascinating to have cobras doing this and yet they weren't acting in a threatening/threatened manner [well, except for the Sumatran, but the King at the Woodland Park Zoo has shown me his hood before, too] when they did it.
I got to see my albino Burmese python buddy again, but didn't get my picture with him. This time, I got my picture taken with an 8 month old alligator. SO. Damned. Cute! And so soft! And strong! shatterpath even got to hold him while I snapped a shot of her with him [that's normally against the rules], then a little boy got to hold him so his sister could take a shot. The girl at the counter said the little boy could do a quick shot but she really wasn't supposed to because that's a perk that you pay separately for. So before we left, we left a donation of like $7 to cover both shatterpath & the little boy holding the gator. We also got to see that they'd expanded the place to take over the whole building and were working on getting all of the exhibits over on the other side set up. The other side had previously been a rodeo/horse tack/trinkets shop. I got to hear a Northern Pacific Rattlesnake's rattle while in that section. Not out of anger/aggression, tho'. It was climbing along a branch and its tail fell, causing the rattle to go off for a couple seconds. Very fascinating.
After that, we headed over to our old neighborhood to get a late lunch at Central Market in Mill Creek, which was our favorite grocery store when we lived there. Once done there, we had a quick stop off at Martha Lake, just to see it again, then made our way back to Edmonds to the ferry and home. I was still feeling quite sad about the whole situation about Toby's grave, but was beginning to accept that it was okay because, as shatterpath had said, Toby still visits us on a relatively regular basis. I was fascinated with the waves and the birds on the water as we waited for the ferry to pull out and head us homeward. I even got to have a "conversation" with a gull who sounded much like Gabe does when he's talking to me. It amused me greatly. And then, I just stayed there for the whole half hour trip. At first, I was trying to see if there were any seals/sea lions/dolphins to spot out in the water. Then I got completely and utterly mesmerized by the waves we were heading into and the waves we were sending off from the side of the ferry. And suddenly, I was in the middle of what I can now only describe as a full body/mind/soul "enema", for lack of a better word. There was energy pulsing through me in a similar way to how I normally do my grounding, only I hadn't started this. At least not consciously. At first, it was just the energy of the deep water we were crossing and the land so far below it. But as we turned to a slightly southwestern direction to head into Kingston, the sun hit me full in the face and the wind picked up in intensity. I was getting hit by all four elements at once :: water, earth [the ground below, the land we were coming toward, and the metal of the ferry itself], fire [the sun and the "fuel" of the ferry], and air. I had both hands spread out, palms down, over the water, continuing to soak up this energy like a sponge, as cliche as that sounds. In the process of all this, and as I saw Kingston looming closer and closer, I realized that the old "home" connection to our former stomping grounds was completely severed. The juju ties we'd had there were completely gone. And while that made me sad, I realized that it was necessary. That's no longer our home, and having those ties was cumbersome and draining. Toby and the ratties still visit us in spirit, Toby moreso than the ratties.
Once home, the post-juju carnage kicked in with a vengeance. And while I'm still sad about the whole severance thing, I think I'm more at peace with it. And damned if my third eye blockage doesn't seem to be cleared up now. That all of this happened the day of the New Moon both surprises and doesn't surprise me...
And to top it all off? We actuall got a LOT of stuff figured out for my NaNo novel. I'm unspeakably happy about that.
Oh! And I almost forgot... We saw several animals on our trip. A heron flew over us [I saw that one], shatterpath saw a dead baby goat on teh side of teh roat, we both saw a dead coyote on teh side of the road, and a crow divebombed our car [shatterpath missed that one, too]. Very interesting juju there...
[1] For those who may be new to my LJ [or came to it after Toby'd died], Toby and Leo were basically brothers. They were probably about a month apart in age, but were rescued a couple months apart. Leo was 4 1/2 weeks old when shatterpath's ex rescued him. His mother was feral and had him weaned THAT early. Sitting fully erect, the tips of his ears barely cleared the top of the baseboards! A couple months later, she brought home Toby. [They were named after The West Wing characters] I was still living in Portland at the time with my ex. The minute I stepped into their apartment, the minute Toby and I laid eyes on each other for the first time, it was a done deal. It was like we were meant for each other. He was the very best cat I've ever had, and I don't think I'll ever find another cat like him. The day he died was one of the worst days in my entire life, and it's not one I can easily forget as it happened on 09/11. shatterpath, Leo, and I have never really been the same since Toby died.