Saturn in Scorpio Saga Finale: And how was YOUR day (again)?

After yesterday’s failure to dispose of the putrid Saturn in Scorpio poison, Round-Up, I took off at 7:30 A.M. today, for the same disposal place, which I figured I could hit before taking my car to get its Trip Check and oil change for my upcoming journey to the waters that border Minnesota and Canada.

Figured this task would take about 20 minutes, tops.

I got there, and the “hazardous equipment” guy told me he could take the almost full container of Round-Up which had been sitting in my shed for over ten years, but not the paint cans. What? Yep.

Since the ones with paint did have kitty litter in them, and had been sitting there for months while the paint absorbed and dried, it was okay to dispose of them in the trash. But, he continued, they had to be in special orange bags. Go to Kroger to get them. And the bags had to go to another disposal facility. Where? “Out Walnut “all the way to the four-lane highway ” (that would be SR 37, now being transmogrified into I69). “Just across the road, there’s Dillman Road. It’s right there.” He was helpful. Even came out to look at the paint cans at my request.

Okay. So I started driving north on Walnut, reversing the way I came, five miles to the nearest Kroger for the orange bags and thought about how the man at the facility seemed not just willing, but even eager to take the Round-Up. Which made me shudder. That meant that someone else will use it. That it will be used on the earth. That this poison, though I wasn’t the one to use it, would contaminate whatever it touched. Which made me remember how I still, STILL! sometimes forget my cloth bags when I go to the grocery store, that I still get and do use plastic bags on occasion. If I’m that unconscious, how can I expect anyone else to be more aware? The Earth is being poisoned, and I’m part of the problem: Saturn at the final degree of Scorpio. Take responsibility (Saturn), Ann, for your part of the death (Scorpio) of the natural world.

Orange bags purchased, I started south on Walnut again, passing the first facility, on my way to “Dillman Road.”

Well, wouldn’t you know, where he said the second facility was was not where it was. I crossed SR 37, drove up a winding wooded road a ways, and came to a cement construction company. Stopped the car. A burly young man got off a lawnmower and walked over to lean in my window. Sweaty round face. Beaming. Very sweet and kind. We commiserated for awhile as to how he had never heard of Dillman Road. I turned around, went back to SR 37, drove north about 1/2 mile and there was the recycling facility, just off the road. I remembered being there a long time ago. Went up to the window. Was told I had to go to the place that said “scales” to pay the woman for the bags. “They will be $3.75 each.”

I put all the old paint cans in four orange bags and drove up to the “scales.” The woman on the other side of the window and I joshed around awhile, especially when she told me she didn’t have the capacity to take a credit card. Oh no! I had no cash. But then, thank the goddess, I did have my check book, something I never bring with me. Continuing to kid around I told her she’s lucky that I had my checkbook, otherwise she might not have lived through the situation. We both laughed, especially when she asked me the check number and I told her “911”!

That fun little interaction over, I drove the car up and over the scales to the giant blue container I was supposed to dump the orange bags in. Of course one of them broke as I was lifting it out of the back of the car. (But as I said, the paint was dry.)

On the way north on Walnut again I was reminded of my new motto as I go through life, the one I told my siblings last March at one of the two weddings we all attended. Not many people “grokked it.” I figure because it’s just too obvious!

Here it is, once again:

When you get right down to it, it seems like what we are doing in this life is just “movin’ stuff around.” But really, that’s just an excuse for relationships!

So here I was trying to “move stuff around” (Round-Up and old paint cans), and in the process I interacted with four people (including a clerk at Kroger), three of which were, though of course short, both interesting and very very human. Each interaction made me feel good, made the heart lift. Made it easy to continue on down the road.

When I finally walked in the door at World Wide Auto (that entire saga had taken over an hour rather than the 20 minutes I had budgeted) I glanced at the clock. 9:11! Hilarious.

At (Leeds-certified) World Wide Auto we’re all used to each other being in relationship. As a matter of fact, I think that this is why this shop, which is more expensive than most, is so successful. We are all there together in a culture that feels good.

Being somewhat out in the country, World Wide offers rides home for those whose cars are in the shop. This time I sat in their Prius with a woman who works at IU’s new IT building not even a mile from my house. I asked her about the place. She told me that it’s strange, because the space is open. Everybody works in the same big room together. “At first, we all thought it would help establish an atmosphere of collaboration. But now, except for the groups that need to work together anyway, it’s turning out to be distracting to those who need solitude. Some people now work from home. Some managers allow it, some don’t.”

Once again, relationships! We who had just dropped our “stuff” off, were in a car together with a sweet old male driver, talking about cultural connections or lack of them. And yet we ourselves were in relationship for those ten minutes it took to deposit me at our little eco-pod, which I told her about, and I have a feeling that she’s going to want to visit. She also eagerly took my exopermaculture business card.

So, Saturn in Scorpio, dealing, finally and completely, in a protracted way, with old gunk from the past — those paint cans represent changing of the colors in various rooms over the past 13 years! — and yet, square Venus/Jupiter in Leo: people easing their way into being with each other while expressing their own selves. Both. At once.

And all this morning, I didn’t see any excessive Leo “ego” in action anywhere. Instead, I could feel and enjoy the natural self-expressive being of each person with whom I connected, in relationship, however briefly.

A great morning!