Cackling Crones Caw for Chaos . . . Oops! NO!

November 10, 2025

I was speaking with my dearest old friend, Claudia, on the phone last night (we check in three or four times a year; she lives with her adult daughter and two standard poodles on an island off the coast of Washington). She and I began resonating together back in 1985, when I was a practicing astrologer, who, at her invitation, would travel to San Francisco from Jackson Wyoming to read charts for her gay friends enduring the AIDS crisis in the Castro District, where she then lived.

Her first remark last night, after hellos, wryly, caustically: “Well, we signed up for this.”

We both laughed heartily. Thank goodness we can still laugh! In fact, laughter may be what saves us!

She went on to say, after I confessed my serious addiction to screens, “Hell, keep it up! I very much enjoy it!” That made me laugh even harder.

Then she pivoted to the time recently, when she had called some number to try to deal with a technical situation of some kind. A voice answered that she recognized as decidedly foreign. For me, that’s usually a red flag. But for her, at least this time, the situation veered in an unusual direction.

First, she recognized that English was not his native tongue, but even so, that he spoke it flawlessly. She praised him for this, said how unusual it was, and asked him where he is located. “Egypt.” Turned out he was Egyptian. She asked him how he learned English so well. “We watch movies!” That really set her off. She was thrilled, excited. “You should learn French, Chinese, German! You obviously have a gift!” He thanked her modestly and proceeded to help her deal with the technical issue.

A few minutes later he called her back: “I could marry you!” he exclaimed. She said, “Well, you might want to, but I’m nearly 83 years old!” Well, he continued, “in any case, I very much appreciate you.”

So, said Claudia, to me, “At nearly 83, I got a marriage proposal! My first!” (She had been the one to propose to the man to whom she was briefly married in her early 20s.)

Well, you can imagine how we laughed at this one. Suddenly proposed to, over the phone, sincerely, at 83, by an Egyptian who speaks perfect English!

Laughter truly is “the best medicine.”

 

Oops! It snowed last night. All of a sudden, huge weather change. Not even “Fall” anymore, and it’s not even mid-November.

Everythings’ changin’, all the time, all at once. I personally, am dealing daily, hourly, minute by minute, with huge complexities, each of which involves myriad, intricate complications . . . and most of them in the realm of electronic media and my nervous system’s chaotic relationship to it. Meanwhile:

Meanwhile, “Geez, Ann, watch your mouth!”

I was in the nearby branch of our dear local Credit Union (accompanied by puppy Scampi) the other day, when, upon finishing up with the clerk, I burst out, without having any idea I was going to, but humorously, I thought: “I hope the U.S. blows up!”

Oops! Shocked look on everybody’s faces . . .

Castigating myself on the way out of the bank. “Please, Ann, stay with what we all have in common, rather than what seems to be inexorably tearing us apart. Okay? Don’t be part of the problem; not even humorously. That’s not funny.

And don’t get caught up in this “Ascension” business, either. Because no matter what happens . . .

 

Green Acres Presentation, Coming Right Up!

November 5, 2025

As promised in yesterday’s post, here is what I sent to Joni McGary who is organizing the Brownstone Supper Clubs in Bloomington Indiana. She had asked me if I would present on Green Acres Village (she and her husband then visited, and were predictably floored by our “tiny (three home) paradise” inside a Bloomington neighborhood).

Today, November 5, just took some pics.

Earlier today, a rescheduled work party mulched some of the gardens.

The garden still flourishes with cover crops, greens and root crops. Need to cut off, dig up, and eat or preserve everything else before first freeze!

A typical wintertime Community Dinner scene:

 

My presentation had been scheduled for February, but then suddenly she had an opening for the December 9 Supper Club and wondered if I could move mine  up. I said, “sure, I can wing it,” since she had told me meanwhile that new rules meant that the slide show I had been preparing would not be allowed.

She emailed me a few days ago asking for resume and presentation notes, to put them on Events section of the Brownstone.org site. (Not there yet; I just looked.)

I had told her to edit as she wished. But she had no edits, just said it was fine.

Here’s the text of what I sent her:

Resume: Ann Kreilkamp, PhD (philosophy, Boston University, 1972), then 60, moved to Bloomington (from a 20 foot diameter  yurt in Jackson Hole Wyoming) in 2003, when her husband Jeff Joel decided to attend law school at IU; just prior to the start of the second semester she reluctantly joined him. Then, after only one evening together, he died of a heart attack while asleep, leaving her alone in a strange town. 

She had lived both east and west, but had never even visited the midwest, viewing Indiana as a “flyover state.” 

She had a choice. Stay or leave. She chose to stay. Why? She didn’t know. All she knew was that he had left her with a house and an inheritance, and how was she to utilize it?

Green Acres Village is the result. Three homes with attendant gardens, compost area, greenhouse, chicken coop, patio, and workshop, this tiny paradise grew naturally, organically, via what permaculturists call “emergent design.” One decision after another, little by little, “do this, see what happens. Aha! Okay, now do this . . .!” On and on, each tiny step bringing slow transformational change to both our own individual souls and the human and earthly soil in which we are embedded.

Our goal: to bridge the divides between humans, and the land beneath our feet.

Our motto: Growing Community from the Ground Up. 

Our vision: to serve as a template for the transformation of suburban America.

To this end, we garden together in once-weekly Work Parties with neighbors near and far, and offer the surplus to those who walk or drive by. We meet for Community Dinners twice monthly and invite friends, neighbors and relatives.

For over 15 years now, we have been gradually “growing community from the ground up.”

See greenacresvillage.org.

 

Tomorrow, the dilemma even thinking about this presentation conjures up . . .

And yes, meanwhile the Taurus neck still festers, though much less dominating. (See posts Monday and Tuesday). I’m likely to be dealing with this Saturn/progressed Moon situation for the next several months. It’s teaching me to stay present, stay grounded (Taurus)!

More on that tomorrow, too.