The Opening of Penta Costa(...and there was 40+ days of rain....)

I am writing this from Whyte St. Loreburn, population: 98.
If you are a farmer, to say things are not going well would be the understatement of the year. As of midnight, Sept 10, thirteen fields of various crops now lay emerged in 2" of water. Oy.
I would like to congragulate Penta Costa on it's official start to a new year. Everyone seems great and I look foreward to getting to know everyone a bit better. I would have pics but unfortunately the Cafe is expeariencing technical difficulty and may not be able to get some online for awhile yet. (Bear with me Steph. I will get the pics to you come hell or high water.)
It would not be right if I didn't write about the first day of the new academic year. I was cordially invited the night before and met most of the new students down at Jerry's Food Emporium. It was there that a few select people found my purse to be of certain facsination. They did not seem to understand that I live by the motto "Be Prepared" nor did they seem to care. I guess this had something to do with the fact that I had more items then thiers handbags combined. Later, back at the college, Amanda G. graciously invited me to stay the night in her bedroom suite. As I was rummaging through my purse for the five dollars, the contents again became an issue and what started out as an innocent joke became a full blown intervention. Against me!
Everything in my beautiful brown bag was strewn on the floor and subject to scrutiny. Again and again I watched essential items of life get torn away. Stephanie loaned me one of her handbags. [That was very kind of you Steph, but your tiny bag holds nothing. I put in some different cards (Drivers licence and such) and it's busting! It's nice but not practical.] Then they took my beautiful brown bag and hid it, along with all the things they deemed as unneeded. There was a movie after which I had a lovely visit with a young women in the hall who came looking for someone. (My appolagies. Her name escapes me at the moment. TBA) After that it was curfew.
The next morning, 7:00 sharpish, the day began with a hearty breakfast. Then immeadietly following was an orientation speech from the college president.
It was like every other first unofficial day. Lots of forms to be filled out. Lots of oppertunities. Lots of students making fresh resolves that will be broken in a week or so.
Then the day wound down with a delightful football match and a barbacue. Regretfully, I was not in attendance of the barbacue due to prior commitments. If you want to hear about that aspect I would direct you to my friend and writing colleague, Miss Stephanie Pohlmann.
Coffee is on the house today as a salute to farming.
As always, peace out.
Mel

Ahhh. Autumn.
The crispness of the air. The bright colors. The gentle nip of the wind.
It makes you want to go outside and take a deep breath, inhaling all the freshness of this unique season.
Do that here and you'll choke on the chafe and the dirt.
Yes, you guessed it. It's harvest season again. For those who have friends and family in the buisness, you will also know that harvest is late this year. Usually we are just winding down. This year, we have barely begun.
And who do we have to thank for all of this? Quite frankly the weather.
Yes we need rain. Yes, after enduring years of stifling drought, we begged for it. But will the entity in charge of dispensing the weather exercize a little moderation please. It't the running question whether we should combine the wheat or build an ark!
Speaking of arks, I would like to add Comet Cafe to the growing list of support behind the dreadful flooding in New Orleans. I ask my patrons to do whatever is within thier means to aid these couagous people. We are behind you...even when your President is not.
I would also like to take this oppertunity to applaud Wal-Mart, who beat it's own goverment when it came to supplying aid and supplies to the devistated areas.
And for thoose who are growling at high gas prices spiked by the flood....please suck it up. That may sound insensitive but look at it this way. You could bhave your home demolished and be living on the street without food, water or medical aid. Yes, the prices are insane but it could be worse.
In lighter news, I think Stephanies Pentacosta College has opened it's doors. Congrats.
Also, I got a call from Katimavick. They said UI shall recieve my marching orders sometime in October. This is so exciting! However, people who will remain nameless have been sending me 'inspirational' quotes on travel. Here are my favorites:
"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." -- Lao Tzu (Melissa adds "...But so does falling down a flight of stairs")
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -- Mark Twain
"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." -- Helen Keller
"One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things." –- Henry Miller
"A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it." –- John Steinbeck
"In America, there are two classes of travel: First class, and with children." -- Robert Benchley
"If you look like your passport photo, you're too ill to travel." -- Will Kommen
"Long voyages, great lies." – Italian proverb
"A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving." -- Lao Tzu (Where does one end up when one does not reach thier desired destination? Japan? Boria Boria? The moon?)
"He who would travel happily must travel light." -- Antoine de St. Exupery (I must get someone to explain to me exactly how this is done.)
"Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey." -- Fitzhugh Mullan
"No matter where you go, there you are." – unknown
"The journey not the arrival matters." -- T. S. Eliot (Cheezy, yet true.)
"He travels fastest who travels alone." -- proverb
"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page." -- St. Augustine
"All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware." — Martin Buber
"To awaken alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world." —Freya Stark
"Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quiestest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey." — Pat Conroy
"Our happiest moments as tourists always seem to come when we stumble upon one thing while in pursuit of something else." — Lawrence Block
"Hitler didn't travel. Stalin didn't travel. Saddam Hussein never traveled. They didn't want to have their orthodoxy challenged." — Howard Gardner
I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move. ~Robert Louis Stevenson
Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything. ~Charles Kuralt, On the Road With Charles Kuralt
Most travel is best of all in the anticipation or the remembering; the reality has more to do with losing your luggage. ~Regina NadelsonEuropean Travel & Life-->
Half the fun of the travel is the esthetic of lostness. ~Ray Bradbury
Now I know why they tell you to put your head between your knees on crash landings. You think you're going to kiss your ass good-bye. ~Terry Hanson
I have found out that there ain't no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them. ~Mark Twain

And finally...
Whenever we safely land in a plane, we promise God a little something. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960

Have a good day and peace out!
Mel