There’s quite a few things in life that I don’t think I’ll ever miss. For instance, I don’t miss the traffic in Northern Virginia during the month of December. I don’t miss shoveling sidewalks or de-icing cars. And I certainly don’t miss the occasional opportunity to slip on nearly-invisible black ice while walking across a parking lot.
You know all of those things have in common?
They happen when it’s cold outside.
The cold and me? We don’t get along.
It’s been unseasonably hot in Florida this past week. Apparently there was some record-breaking heat. But for as much as the heat can be a bother, cold hurts worse.
Cold rain? Don’t need it. Cold wind? No thank you. Cold showers? Hate those, too.
Did you know that for every heat-related death, there are nine related to cold? That’s a fact I pulled from Google just now, so it must be true, but it means that cold weather is far more deadly than hot weather.
But hey, it’s not all bad, right? There have to be some redeeming qualities, like beautiful, snow-covered mountains? Sure. But most of the time, I’d prefer to experience those through a thick window or simply through a picture. Winter wonderlands are nice to look at from the safety and comfort of a warm living room, but once I have to actually go outside to deal with them, my pleasant feelings rapidly fade.
Good morning and happy Monday, friends!
Wow, this has been a crazy week. I don’t even remember all of what’s happened during the weekdays, but the weekend in particular was very, very packed.
At some point, I wrote a post on the Carnyx, which is a Celtic battle horn — it is featured on the Gundestrup cauldron, which is iconic for several other reasons (like the depiction of Cernunnos).
On Friday we had coven night. We started the process of making Florida water.
This is half everclear, so it’s pretty intense right now to smell it. We all made our own individual recipes, but I think I used every ingredient we had.
On Saturday the real craziness started. I had to be a rent-a-priest for another coven’s initiation, but it had also become necessary for Selene and I to trade in our car. To account for both of those very time-consuming things, we had an appointment at the dealership as soon as they opened. Turns out they had sold the car we were interested in the night before.
A quick search revealed another similar vehicle just down the road, so we went hunting. We did a test drive and everything seemed to be in order. And then as soon as they pulled our credit for financing, they just abandoned us. We were sitting and waiting for almost 2 hours at that point and just had to leave. I won’t go into all the details, but there was a lot of baiting, lies, over promising, etc. Typical things you can expect from a car dealership, surely. We left with an appointment the next morning to wrap things up.
The initiation went well, but I’m probably biased. I was also able to borrow a copy of Alexander Cabot’s book, which is very autobiographical, so I’ll be reading it in preparation for his upcoming interview.
On Saturday, Selene and I had plans to go visit the Kwan Yin temple. We had to stop by the car dealership to wrap up our deal. We showed up when they opened at 11, but no one was available until at least 1230. More waiting.
We did trade the car, finally, and headed to the temple. Everything seemed pretty good until about 2 miles from our destination… when the wheel well liners literally fell out. The passenger side liner was resting on the tire and got shredded by the time I was able to pull over. We managed to get to the temple by stopping every 100 feet or so and shoving the liner back up into place.
I’m pretty pissed. I was so upset, I didn’t even take any pictures at the temple. I did leave an offering for Kwan Yin, though… and then I angrily ripped what remained of the liners out of the wheel well.
We did manage to find a nice Chinese restaurant after all of this mayhem. Some food helped calm me down. I’m currently waiting on the dealership to call me about repairs, but I don’t have any expectations about them being proactive. I’m fully expecting to have to show up and press for things.
Anyway, since I’ve mostly been ranting, please enjoy this fun picture of our cat, Freya, where it looks like she’s reaching up to take a selfie.
Selene and I have been getting a few inquiries from inmates since our interview on Seeking Witchcraft. I’ve been asked, so I’ll be setting up a ko-fi at some point this week in case anyone would like to send a donation. Literally everything costs money in a prison ministry… from physical stamps to “digital stamps.” But you know what? That’s another rant.
I’ve got a bunch of pending videos in my creation queue. I haven’t had much time to work on that recently, but expect some more things soon!
Cheers!
Aerik Arkadian 
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