From Boston to Houston to NOLA

Thorsday 1/10/19

A lot of stuff happening since my last Journal entry on 12/24. On the morning of the 25th I drove up to Schenectady, NY, to spend Xmas with Scarlett and Lleu and their two darling little nieces, Amy and Leah. The girls adopted me as “Santa,” and we spent much of the day playing their favorite board game, Candyland.

Amy & Leah with Santa Oz

On Sat. the 29th I did a Zoom interview with Sumati Sparks for broadcast on her “Successful Open Relationships and Polyamory Summit” on Feb. 19. Then on Sunday the 30th Gypsy and I drove to Boston to record our “Cosmic Encounter” script with Karagan and Jamal. We spent a sweet New Year’s Eve with Jerrie and Charlie, welcoming in 2019.

On New Year’s Day Gypsy and I went to see “Aquaman,” which I really recommend! It’s epic and mythic, evoking the classic legend of the lighthouse keeper and the mermaid, the legend of Atlantis, the reluctant true king (as with Aragorn) and even the tale of Arthur pulling the sword from the stone to claim the Kingship. And the visuals are nothing short of spectacular—the best I’ve ever seen!

Oh, me father was the keeper of the Eddystone light;
And he slept with a mermaid one fine night.
From this union there came three:
A porpoise and a porgy and the other was me!

            (-Peter, Paul & Mary: The Eddystone Light)

On Thursday the 3rd I dropped my car off at the realty office where my big birthday bash had been held in Nov. Barbara, the owner, is kindly letting me stash it there for Jan while I’m gone. Francine drove me to Logan Airport in Boston, where I boarded a plane to fly to Houston to see Dona. As always, we had a great conversation on the drive. On the plane I bit down on something hard that split my upper right molar #4 with a loud “CRACK!” From the airport I took a Lyft 45 miles north to the Ren Faire site in Plantersville, where Dona has a school bus she lives in during the Faire.

Dona in her bus

On Friday the 4th, I tried to get into a dentist in Magnolia, the nearest town to the Ren Faire site, but they were all still closed for the hollydaze. So I took Dona to see “Aquaman” in 3-D. It was like seeing an entirely different movie than the flat version; another whole dimension, and unbelievably amazing!

On Monday the 7th I was able to get into the dentist in Magnolia. His prognosis was not encouraging, but he drilled a bit out between the main part of the tooth and the section that had split and put in a filling, hoping it would hold it together. After that Dona took me on a tour of the Ren Faire grounds, which I haven’t seen since 1982, when I met her on my Unicorn tour of Ren Faires all around North America. She’s one of the senior Rennies, having been doing the Texas Faires (TRF, Scarborough, Armadillo) for the past 44 years.

Dona’s booth at the Texas Renaissance Festival

On Tuesday the 8th Dona and I drove her truck to NOLA. I did the driving. We left at 11:11AM and after a 7-hour drive we arrived at our dear friends, Jiva and Ty, about 7:00, for a fabulous dinner of Jiva’s gumbolaya, followed by watching the premier of the excellent new “Project Blue Book” TV series. We’ll be staying with Jiva and Ty here at their beautiful home in NOLA, and also visiting their farm in Mississippi, over the next couple of weeks. Jiva and Ty have been together for the past 25 years, but they only recently actually got married, in a spectacular ceremony in NOLA that Dona attended.

Unfortunately, the filling that the dentist in Magnolia put in on Monday came out within 24 hours. So yesterday (Wed.) Jiva located a local dentist and Dona and I drove there to see what we could do about my tooth. The only option was extraction, which he did. Even with the anesthetic, it was excruciatingly painful. I confessed everything!

Today we’re going down to the French Quarter to check out Hex, where I’ll be talking on Sat., and just enjoy the Old City, visit the tomb of Marie Lavaeu (“The Voodoo Queen of New Orleans”), etc. And tomorrow we’re going out in Lake Pontchartrain for the virgin voyage of their new sailboat, which they’re naming either “Reina” or “Jeannine LaFitte.”

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