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Thursday, June 1, 2006 | New Paltz

ONCE AGAIN sitting on the some steps near Starbucks after closing; fortunately they leave the wireless network on. I'd love to know what kind of router they have; it could probably warm up a croissant. I'm getting a full signal about 35 feet from the counter. There are not a lot of WiFi connections around these parts, and this is the only one I know of that I can access at night without driving about 20 miles north (that would be Natesh's house).

My trip here has turned into an unscheduled break from my full-strength writing schedule. I'm also getting a lot of time offline for the first time in ages, and one thing about New Paltz is that there are trees. This is different than where I usually hang out -- European cities. And it's nice. I've been able to spend some time at my two favorite spots up in this part of the world, a waterfall in the Town of Rochester, and a cave called the Chironian in Rosendale. Both one of a kind outside spaces where I have connections with the land that go back many years, where I did a lot of growing up and learning about myself.

They have one thing in common, which is that they change very slowly. I can go to these spots and it feels like time has not passed. In the Chironian, the only evidence of time passing was that the Chiron symbol I wrote in charcoal on the altar stone had faded a little. There were not even footprints down there.

The other really special part about coming back to this part of the country is that it's a community where people have been reading my column for the entire time it's been published. Writing can be lonely, but on the Internet where you get to meet so few people face to face, it can be especially so. That pretty much evaporates here, where all I need to do is say my name and there is instant familiarity, and the warmth I see in people's faces is real. Nice to soak that in for a while, and the trees and rocks remember me as much as I remember them.

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Tonight on Astrology Secrets Revealed I've got a bit about our current path through Gemini, including the Sun's forthcoming opposition to the Great Attractor and the Galactic Core. Check back later on Thursday.

Here are some related links.

The Great Attractor
http://www.ericfrancis.com/sagittarius/sagittarius10.html

Sagittarius Secrets Revealed
http://cainer.com/ericfrancis/dec9.html

Katrina Astrology and the Cardinal Points
http://cainer.com/ericfrancis/sept9.html

Bridge to the Core, short version
http://www.chronogram.com/issue/2005/02/backbone/planetwaves/