no matter how hard you try sometimes...

there will be things that you just can't get someone to help you with. case in point: my efforts over the past year to find someone that lives in the Boston area to visit Eugene O'Neill's gravesite in Jamaica Hills, and obtain a handfull of dirt for me.

so today i found inspiration to improvise. i called the National Park Service on Monday to make a reservation for a tour of Eugene O'Neill's house, here in Danville. i wanted to go yesterday because it was his birthday yesterday, but they only give tours Wednesday through Sunday. today had to suffice. yesterday would have been a great day to go too because it rained yesterday. the forecast for today was sunny skies. oddly, it actually rained this morning and there were cloudy skies. i got a call at 10am from the park service confirming a spot in the 12:30 tour for me.

i scrambled together my camera gear because i wanted to get lots of photos. i'm working on those now as we speak and they will be up on my flickr account later. i meant to take a plastic bag, but it turns out that i forgot to bring one and had to make due with a newspaper wrapper that was in the back of my jeep.

turns out that only two other people showed up for the tour. this enhanced the probability that i would be able to slip off by myself and get some dirt. not grave dirt, but someone, a Wiccan friend, told me that dirt from the place where he lived would also have power in it, that a talisman could be formed from that.

so after the tour, in which i got a hot new piece of gossip about the O'Neill clan, i slipped off in search of some soil. i went straight to the outside section of garden below his office windows. i am sure this dirt i stole is not actually dirt that he walked on - but symbolically it is dirt here at his place, there is an association that will work for my needs.

i just happened to decide to walk out to the gravesite of O'Neill's dog, Blemie. who he declared was his favorite child. i took a couple of photos, you know me and photos of gravesites, then i walked back to the van in case they were waiting for me. turns out that i was ahead of everyone else and still had a few moments left when it struck me. GET A HANDFUL OF DIRT FROM THE DOGS GRAVE!!! so i turned back and it felt like a magic moment. got a handful of medicine connected directly to the poor old man's heart.



it's funny when i go on these tours of Tao House, how i know things that the tour guides don't know. for instance, today one of the other people on the tour brought back something he found on the ground and wanted to know what it was. the ranger (forest rangers run these tours) said that she thought it was a walnut. i said, "no, that is actually an Oak Gall." these little balls that fall off Oak trees this time of year. she didn't even know that there were two types of walnut trees that grow here; black walnuts and english walnuts. one day i'll step forth and offer walking tours of this town. i could give tours of the cemetery. people in New Orleans give unofficial tours of the cemeteries there. only thing, right now there is no one that famous buried here.

so now i have to figure out how to make these actual talismans i've been talking about for so long. if anyone has any ideas please share.

now in closing, one last piece that only one potential reader will appreciate. i am sitting here in Starbux in Danville. in his day, this would have been the closest business place to his abode. today, only an old oak tree outside is something that he would have seen passing by into town. anyway, i've been to this Starbux several times, i actually like the energy here and it is very close to the vicinity of town where much activity in my novel takes place.

an old heart throb visits here. i've seen her here several times but she won't speak to me, and i'm not feeling courageous enough to speak to her. she came in earlier though and looked at me with a grin she had trouble keeping inside. Kacie... sigh... what a deep love i fell into for her. and this time of year, with the cold air coming in makes her look so healthy. she wears a big coat and a hat that can no way contain her voluminous blonde hair. her cheeks go all red and her eyes just glow. i could fall in love with her again. she is afraid of me though. that is why we stopped talking all that long time ago. i don't know why she is but there is no way i think i'll ever find out either. chance meetings of eyes in a cafe are not enough to make me try to open up or connect with her again. she would have to be the one to speak first.

god she is gorgeous though. she would make an incredible model to photograph. i wish that could be. i wish she could, would be my girlfriend. in a way, i feel like she owes me. she put me through much soul turmoil. maybe someday...