LEGO Meditation

Wear non-binding clothing. Sit in a comfortable but erect position. Focus on a single thing. As thoughts arise, distractions, let them pass, always returning your attention to the here and now. Suspend judgment. Have faith. Concentrate on the quality of the process, not on the outcome. Naturally, I'm talking about assembling LEGO kits.

Last week, while building the Star Wars LEGO "walker" shown in the previous post, I suddenly realized how meditative the process is. The big LEGO kits (thousands of pieces) require a certain state of mind to assemble successfully. One can neither be jittery nor tired, over-excited or bored. What it takes is a sort of meditative state where the builder is acutely aware and alert, but extremely relaxed and with a certain clarity of mind.

The instructions contain not a single word, freeing the mind from the vagaries of language, and allowing the process to flow from a part of the brain that is non-verbal. For me, the process is so enjoyable and relaxing, the end product is just a bonus.

Bugg vs. the LEGO AT-AT Walker

Bugg is pretty non-plussed by the whole thing...

Yet more snow...

Well, we got like another foot of snow over night. We're officially snowed-in and our trip to California is canceled. Bummer. We came to the conclusion that we'd rather be stranded at home than somewhere in the Siskiyous - especially with Austin and the pug aboard. We had baked about 500 cookies to take with us. Hope the neighbors like gingerbread.

It's interesting how a relatively little thing like bad weather makes the world suddenly much smaller. We'll make the rounds later today to deliver cookies and check on our neighbors - particularly the older ones who have a hard time getting out on a good day. We're fortunate to live in a neighborhood that was built before cars were common - where it's easy to know one's neighbors and have a sense of community.
For now, at least we have all of life's necessities: coffee, baked goods, Internet access... coffee...

The photo is of the BBQ grill. Hmmm... maybe we'll have a luau. Leis might be hard to come by, but we're pretty resourceful. To any of you living in places like, say, Boulder or Denver: yes, we are snow wimps. But then, this kind of snow doesn't happen very often here - not since the winter of 1949/50 anyway. If it keeps up, the snowfall record before that was in 1870-something.

Dammit - just as I went to publish this, a big branch broke off one of the (very) big trees and hit the house. Guess I had better go look...


Update: Some advice - If branches start breaking off a tree, don't go stand under the tree and look up like an idiot. Almost got smooshed by a second, much larger branch. Heard a loud CRACK! and ran for the porch. Boom/Crash/Cloud of snow, etc. Some Russian guy trudging by, pulling a sled with groceries on it, laughed and said, "Heh heh! You move just in time, no?" Um, yes, actually, but whatever. Thanks for your concern. Enough excitement for today. Back to hibernating.

More snow...

On second thought, shopping can wait until tomorrow.
Or the next day.

Goofing around in the snow...

Snow

We've been getting an unusual amount of snow for the past week or so. Now that I'm officially on vacation and don't have to drive in it, I'm much more enthusiastic about it. It has been pretty blizzardy all day today; not that much actual precipitation, but blowing around like crazy with dark skies and poor visibility. Our poor Christmas yard animals have experienced blowing snow, freezing rain and high winds, and probably wish they could go back to the store where it was nice and warm and dry. The moose has stood his ground admirably against the wind, but all three reindeer have embarked on brief flights immediately followed by rather graceless crash landings. Fortunately they're pretty easy to bend back into shape.
We're planning to drive to California in a couple of days. Hopefully some of this mess clears up by then. I'm not so concerned about us driving - it's all those other people that worry me. We shall see.

Holiday Arts and Crafts

We bought these cute "ABC" gingerbread man cookie cutters from Amazon that have teethmarks and a leg, arm, or head missing. They're so fun we can't stop making them. There's something awfully entertaining about gingerbread men in various states of shock and horror. ABC stands for Already Been Chewed. They're pretty popular at the office now that people have figured out they're supposed to be that way.

Rudy made a rule somehow that if we don't make a Christmas stocking every year, we don't get anything. Here are ours this year. As usual, "Pa" wins the decorating prize.

Austin and Rudy made the mini-stockings and gift tags for our extended family. Cute, huh?