February 23, 2005 The first nocturnal insect thrums of 2005 are heard near the Pecan Park on the night of February 12; by February 15 they are loud enough to be heard at night through the walls of the house. A close inspection of the garden's trees discloses bud tips ready to spring into blossom. Nature's "early birds" are gambling that spring is actually on the way, and that the mid-70s weather of the past several days is not just a setup for the next killing frost. Median time for a winter's last freeze in the San Antonio region is March 1 - but it has happened as late as April. We shall see.

What can be guaranteed, at least for this April, is that an exhibition of the works of Mr. Robert Beer will appear at the Maha Devi Gallery in San Anselmo, California, just down the road (toward the ocean) from San Rafael, in Marin County, just north of San Francisco. Maha Devi is open Tuesday through Friday 11 - 6, Saturday 11 - 5, and Sunday 12 - 5, at 216 Greenfield Avenue in San Anselmo; phone 415-457-7101, fax 415-457-7974, www.mahadevi.com

In other news, Dave Oathout sends in a correction to my last posting:

By your leave, a correction, sir. As the person who came up with the name, I am compelled to point out that the correct appellation was EWMBAPABA (Early Wednesday Morning Bowling And Pinball And Breakfast Association). I deliberately emulated my grandfather's introduction of SPEBSQSA (Society for the Preservation of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America). He was also known to tell people that the initials stood for Some People, Especially Baritones, Should Quit Singing Altogether. He claimed to be the world's best baritone, so I don't think the alternate designation was self-deprecatory.

Florida beckoned on Feb 21. Two days later Lynda & Rose Baudin & I drove to Jupiter to collect Lynda's son Max John Dickinson State Park, an 11,000 acre refuge where select juniors and seniors from his high school had been camping, then proceeded to Orlando's airport to collect Nandu Menon, before wending our way to the hurricane-tattered Kashi Ashram, and a welcome rendezvous with Ma Jaya. Flight exigencies prevented me from accompanying Lynda, Max & Nandu to Sarasota for a planned get-together with Dr. James Williams, but I can report that May 1 - 10 James will be leading a trip to Andean Peru, where the very Don Sebastian who had made my own recent Peru trip with Max so successful will be leading participants in ceremonies at several locations. Details: http://www.wholistichealth.net/events/index.htm

In lieu of conversation re Peru with James, I proceeded to Miami to embark for Brazil...

February 8, 2005 By the time I reached Seattle on Tuesday January 25 it was clear that something was distinctly amiss in my mouth. I have found that unruly teeth can sometimes be made more ruly with the help ibuprofen or a similar NSAID, but as my plane headed north along the chain of volcanoes that grace the Western Seaboard it became increasingly evident to me that this particular tooth was becoming increasingly rebellious, egged on no doubt by the pressure changes that accompany aircraft ascents and descents.

Fortune smiled on me at Sea-Tac, where my friend John scooped me up, drove me to his home, phoned his dentist, and got me an immediate appointment during which the reality of the abscess became apparent, and work was begun to deal with it. John & I have often noted to one another how painful life without dentistry must have been like, musing on the degree to which intractable dental problems curtail longevity. Several months back while wandering the extensive Egyptian gallery of London's British Museum I found myself in front of a pair of skulls displaying dismal dental conditions; the accompanying caption noted that the vast majority of ancient Egyptian mummies had multiple impacted teeth, unhealed abscesses, abscess-related cysts, and other ghastly dental disorders. No wonder they focused so assiduously on the world beyond!

A day or two later, my mouth returning to normal and my admiration for modern dentistry augmented, I shared a beer with Dave Oathout, who I first met on the Thomas Edison High School debate team in Tulsa, Oklahoma, during the last years of the 60s. We debaters spent after-school time playing Diplomacy, and before-school time at meetings of EOWMBAPA (the Every Other Wednesday Morning Bowling And Pinball Association)., and many of us have continued in touch over the years. Dave has just emerged from a tough tussle with throat cancer, including four full months of being fed via a stomach tube - nil by mouth, not even water, for 120 days. He reported that what sustained him during the days of his treatments and recovery was the thought that, while he did want God's will to be done, he also wanted to stay alive to see his children grow up, and not be a cause of major tragedy for them and his wife. So he prayed that God would accommodate his request, and so He has.

The characters in Bad Education, Pedro Almodóvar's latest film, would have done well to pray similarly; but their lives were less straightforward than Dave's. I watched the movie while in Seattle, enjoying it greatly. Back in Texas I turned to pruning, in particular the garden's "p" trees: pecan, persimmon, plum, and pomegranate. The praises of pomegranates come spontaneously to my lips: how they reduce atherosclerosis and hypertension, improve lipids, exert anti-tumor effects. Pomegranate seed oil, in fact, inhibits human breast cancer cells by up to 90%! And the pomegranate has no known toxicity in the human being.

On the new moon night I found myself pining for a fire, so I took a chance that the chimney (unused for five years) in my mother's home would be unstuffed. I opened the flues, set a match to a pile of flammables, and watched smoke pour into all corners of the house, setting off the smoke detector and alarming my poor fretting parent no end. Open windows & fans eventually evicted the worst of the offending cloud, but until Laura's chimney gets swept (that there are no chimneysweeps, but at least two saddleries, in Floresville tells its own tale), I will build no more fires on her hearth!

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