4/18 Drove down to Galveston with Jim to visit Dad and Julie in the new house and help move last of Dad's things out of the Berlocher studio apartment. Returned with Jim on Saturday 4/23.
5/2 Completed final preparations to leave Mineral Wells and the luxury of daily Internet access. Finished sewing zipper around ground cloth border to double as a baggage cover for bus trips or as a waterproof bivy sack for gear and crossed legs while sitting under tarp during windy rainstorms. Also finished lining homemade Rishikesh wool cap with scraps of soft black fleece salvaged from a too-tight balaclava. Finished sewing interior compartments for my new Breeze Golite backpack. Total weight of pack and all gear: about 13 pounds. Total body weight: 155 pounds, 10 pounds too much for lack of daily exercise and excessive eating out of time. Field tested gear by sleeping overnight on the unpopulated wooded oak hill west of Gerald's building, first time under open skies in a long, long while, ever since northwest trip last summer 2004. Tried out new Kelty Light Year 3D 45 degree Polarguard sleeping bag with a handy foot zipper which permits inverting the bag with my head sticking out the foot end while practicing meditation in a sitting position, all toasty and restrained from fidgeting. It's high time to get on the trail again. My thanks to Gerald for this pleasant interlude.
5/3/05 Greyhound bus Mineral Wells - Ft. Worth - Lubbock - Flagstaff ponderosa pine woods and alligator juniper behind the Lowell Observatory from where Pluto was discovered. Promising everyone to access Internet on the 15th of each month (look for updates here).
7/12/05 Flagstaff update: The usual July monsoon rains have been delayed, weather is beautiful but sometimes windy. Exploring the Coconino National Forest behind Mt. Elden beyond city limits where camping is allowed. Have revised a lot of gear over the past two months: current solution is a small daypack plus a 12 x 24 duffel. Duffel is hidden in a buried plastic bin during trips to town, safe from coyotes or human discovery, knock on wood. Mailed the lightweight 45 degree bag to godson Kenneth for his birthday and obtained a warmer 30 degree Marmot Never Winter down bag. Mailed the Golite Breeze backpack to Cristian for his birthday after downsizing to the more flexible combination daypack plus duffel. Cut off the zipper border around the ground cloth, an idea that was never used enough to justify the weight.
Meditation-wise, not much to report, some days enthusiastic about sitting, other days not. Internet and media distractions still cause mental waves that take days to subside. Very hard to repeat the Thai Boonkanjanaram experience of total solitude, an unforgettable ten days. Decided to relax the sixth precept against eating after midday to make my practice consistent with my vows. Starting process of changing permanent mailing address from Mineral Wells to a mail-forwarding service with online access based in Las Vegas, Nevada. Depending on the intensity of the overdue monsoon rains, when they finally do arrive any day now, among other reasons, may visit the high desert of northern Nevada at Elko below the Idaho border. Then planning a probable desert retreat October-November in Nevada or southern Arizona. Then maybe a return to my beautiful Andarivel tree garden in Costa Rica in December. A feeling of obligation to visit my godsons conflicts with a desire to sit in peace. On the other hand, sometimes I wonder if my quest for enlightenment is an unattainable dream, and whether I might as well entertain my mind and pass the time better learning Chinese with a CD player powered by solar cell rechargeable batteries, or play over grandmaster chess games, or plant more trees in my garden, or do all three. Doubt is one of the obstacles to practice. The prescribed remedy is patient endurance, because in this world nothing endures and even doubts fade away in time.
Late July: Mild and pleasant afternoon showers finally arrived. After experimenting with the sixth precept and discovering that "much" was too ambiguous to be useful, restored the rule to its original form (please see current list on home page). Significantly condensed the seventh rule, now called a "training rule" instead of a "precept" to distinguish from the Theravada standard. Also restored the eighth and last rule to my original form after experimenting with "not lying down during the day" My idea to prevent daytime sleepiness by never lying down was much too ambitious and stressful for my old body. Worried that the tiredness may have a physical basis such as internal loss of blood.
8/1/05 Visited two separate health clinics to get a referral for a laboratory blood test but refused to pay the high patient registration fees. Instead, remembered the ease of obtaining lab tests in Costa Rica such as X-rays for osteoarthritis or blood tests for anemia. Therefore decided to end this pleasant, unstressful season in Flagstaff and return to Costa Rica for lab tests there.
8/2/05 Greyhound bus overnight to Los Angeles via Phoenix.
8/4/05 TACA Lacsa Flight LAX - San Jose, Costa Rica. Lab tests in San Jose all negative.
11/3/05 Three days in David, Panama to renew CR visa and take a break from intense physical labor on Andarivel the past three months.
12/14/05 Continuing to plant trees in my Andarivel garden. Recent additions: 20 bananos (in Spanish fruit words may be feminine but tree names are masculine), 4 fig, 6 grapefruit, 6 lime, 1 yellow lemon, 6 rainbow eucalyptus (deglupta), 2 cork eucalyptus, 4 silver eucalyptus. Godson Fabian successfully matriculated in the private school Escuela Cientifica, Perez Zeledon, for fourth grade starting in February, 2006. Middle right finger stung by 8-inch centipede under wet rock, with congestion, pus and blood for two sleepless nights and possible loss of the nail. Upgraded jump drive from 128 MB to Lexar 512MB. Fritz 7 chess CD. Age of Empires Gold CD. Connected electricity to the sala to read at night.
Home Page (jwleaf.org)