Day 65 of the oil gusher in the gulf doesn’t look much better than day 64. Or day 58, 57, 56, 55. In fact, every day the disaster continues looks worse than the day before it. Last night on Countdown, there was a discussion about the worst case scenario – that the gusher can’t be stopped. I wondered what my dad would think of this.
He spent nearly 30 years working for Exxon in Venezuela. He went there in 1937, on the heels of the depression in the U.S., a young man hungry for adventure, the touch of the exotic, and a steady paycheck. He wasn’t an engineer, wasn’t one of the oil rig guys. He was an accountant, a numbers man.
His first assignment was in Carapito, on the shores of Lake Maracaibo, one of 17 ancient lakes on the planet, created more than 36 million years ago. It’s rich in oil, now filled with wells and rigs. In those days, the Rockefellers were just beginning to tap into the wealth of oil in that lake. My dad lived in an oil camp, a kind of makeshift village where the gringos were housed. He was single in those days and the women he dated were nurses, teachers, women imported from the U.S. and other countries.
My dad knew the score. From the start, he realized that the U.S. was exploiting Venezuelas’s resources.But he, like the fishermen and shrimpers now cleaning up the gulf coast, needed the work. The alternative was bread lines in the States. There are points in every life where ideology simply can’t trump necessity.
He returned to the U.S. when war broke out and enlisted. He traveled to India and at some point in a furlough, returned to Tulsa, Oklahoma and met my mother on a blind date. Within six months, they were married, and within a year, he took her to Venezuela, where they lived until 1963.
My sister and I were both born and raised in Venezuela. We were oil brats. We lived in Maracaibo and in Caracas. This photo is of Caracas – 3,000 feet above sea level.
As Exxon’s profits escalated during those years, we flourished. We weren’t rich by any stretch of the imagination, but we weren’t hungry, either. We loved Venezuela – its eccentricities, its mountains and valleys, its dramatic beauty. In the U.S, there are snow days and hurricane days, but in Venezuela, we had revolution days, when the political situation was so unstable that there were runs on grocery stores, gas stations, when everything shut down.
After ninth grade, I went away to boarding school in the states. There weren’t any good alternatives for high school in Caracas, so Exxon paid for it. I was15. The culture shock was considerable. I was Heinlein’s stranger in a strange land. I hated it, hated the Massachusetts winter, the restrictions, the way the school tried to shove religion down your throat. I begged my parents to let me return to Caracas to go to school. But in my junior year, the Venezuelan government nationalized the oil industry and my father took early retirement from Exxon and he and my mother moved to Boca Raton, Florida. He was younger than I am now. In those days, Boca consisted of maybe three stop lights.Today, it’s a traffic jam.
In later years, my dad became a memeber of Mensa, the high IQ society. It’s not like he was an active member. He just liked knowing that he, a guy with a high school education, qualified. He often reflected on his three decades in Venezuela as the best he had lived – psychologically, emotionally, spiritually. He regretted certain decisions he’d made, applauded others. But he knew the bottom line was larger than him or his life and that eventually our dependence on oil would suffocate us. He was a Republican, and yet at the end of his life he grew disgusted with politics. He knew the struggle went well beyond how you voted and who was in office.
“It’s always the same,” he said. “We pillage a country that’s rich in natural resources, we cut corners, we create disasters – and then wonder how the hell it happened.”
He might have been describing the present debacle in the gulf.
– Trish
great! i thought so too – it seemed to be just totally on point for her situation at this moment – and it was her birthday, to boot! did i ever mention she was actually "born" at two separate times? literally? and there are two times of birth listed on her birth certificate – same day but different hours – and yes, a long and uh, painful, story!
I'd say the baby frog symbolizes something new for your daughter. A nice stroke of luck for her! New beginnings. Transformation.
oh, meant to mention something else – yesterday afternoon we had another really horrific thunderstorm – lightening was bolting out of the sky constantly and was right on top of us – hit a big tree in the back yard – like you could hear the crackle it was so close – in any event, last night when my daughter let della the dog out, just as she was shutting the patio door, something came in through the opening – jumping – a baby frog – the only way he could get up to the door was by coming up about 6 very high steps from the ground – this could very well be a personal event for her as she had decided just the day before to cut her ties to the past [including selling the home she and her ex-husband had bought] and moving – literally –
or – i'm just wondering if it might be related to the other environmental things going on right now [remembering your section on frogs in 7 secrets] – perhaps both, even –
just finished reading at both star light news site and mountain astrologer – seeing the eclipse chart laid out by gary caton was really something – and the message from both astrologers something that really should be shouted from the rooftops!
i saw some of the mess at pensacola beach on tv – just ghastly!
my son who now lives in texas called last night and said he had been watching the news of louisiana and was sitting there crying in sadness and pain at the sight of it all –
you tube vid of the surf off pensacola beach
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-SlRmNDUGg
Barbara – wow, that must've been scary. The lunar eclipse is in Capricorn, with Pluto exactly conjunct the eclipse degree.
nature always seems to get the short end of the stick when it comes to the greediness of humanity…
Trish and Rob, excellent post.
As for the 'quake in Toronto', it wasn't in Toronto, but in Quebec, 60km NNE of Ottawa, Ontario. Those in Toronto, including myself, felt tremors that radiated out from the epicentre. I suspect that the downtown office workers felt it more as there is a minor fault line that runs down the St. Lawrence Seaway into Lake Ontario. This would carry the vibrations of the earth shifting more quickly than through solid earth. Fault lines tend toward weakness rather than strength.
I felt the quiver intensify over 30 seconds, and my lovebirds were distressed when their cage rattled on top of the bookcase pedestal I have them on. Also I had heard a deep rumble like thunder in a sunny sky just before the quiver began. I've read that the sound of an earthquake will precede its arrival: some say it sounds like a locomotive headed your way. That's quite the amazing thing when you consider the quake occurred at 1:41pm in Quebec 300 miles away from Toronto, and at 1:43pm I heard the boom and felt the quiver.
As for downtown Toronto experiencing the tremors more, the majority of the office buildings have underground malls beneath them and some are built over reclaimed areas of Lake Ontario. In reality that's an unstable element to consider. A quake of more magnitude closer likely would cause those buildings to collapse.
I've been restless for the past two days wondering what was about to happen. It died down after the quake, but now I'm restless again and binging on dark chocolate. There's a mass wave of energy to be unleashed on the 26th, the lunar eclipse. So we'll see what happens then.
Great post! You have certainly lived an interesting life and your parents sound cool. I certainly hope that all of you are wrong about these things. But you are right about Pluto, the eclipse, and the Cardinal Cross. Pretty heavy stuff, coming right up, with Capricorn taking center stage! I don't think this storm will be the big one, either, but I am preparing, just in case I have to get out of Dodge in a hurry. Never a dull moment, here!
Thanks for reminding me of this article. I finished reading it a few weeks ago and sort of blocked it out of my conscious mind!
All that is happening in the US chart is related to Pluto's effect. Here is an article on the Cardinal Cross/Lunar Eclipse happening on Saturday:
https://mountainastrologer.com/tma/cardinal-cross-lunar-eclipse
The eclipse will be aspecting Pluto, who is transiting the USA's Venus (among other things).
How right you are, Debra. Pluto, dissed by astronomers. Ha.
Burning butter lamps.. (prayers)
The astrology of it all: I haven't wanted to go there…..
Pluto alone is deep stuffola.
Take a look at this link: https://www.starlightnews.com/
Click on nancy's blog. This woman is a really excellent mundane astrologer. If she says a hurricane is headed into the gulf, I believe her.
Another astrologer friend who is unbelievably accurate with eclipses and meteorlogical/EQ events, told me back in april or may that Fl might be hit this year. Then she fine tuned it after the gulf incident, thinking that what she saw astrologically might be related to the oil gusher. I'll send her an email and see what she thinks now.
I may eat these words, but I just don't feel it with this system. It's just a bunch of thunderstorms at this point. Yes, conditions are conducive to development, but it seems that it may hit the yucatan before it can develop into a hurricane. Then again, these systems can be tricky. And astrologically, we're ripe for something big.
Oh yikes. I saw the NOAA page and models. It's now red, indicating possible cyclone within 48 hours, as you said. I didn't doubt you. I was looking for the b-pressure. What a horror. Massive black rain. And the fires that would result from downed powerlines, etc, covered with gas and oil. The ramifications are too much of a nightmare to consider. One has to have been through a "regular" hurricane to imagine what this could mean. Something never before seen in our known history. Sounds too much like Cayce and Nostradamus and Ruth Montgomery. cjc
This is what I've been feeling, Guys, because the pressure has been dropping and drops in barometric pressures tweak my sensitivities fiercely. Summers in FL are difficult for me for that reason. Rapid pressure drops cause my BP to fall into very low ranges, and my heart rate slows significantly. And, unfortunately, the system is labeled 93L, which is 15/6, the frequency of 2010's first named storm, Alex, also 15/6. Those frequencies really speak volumes and I watch for those alignments. Have been feeling something beyond imagining in the Gulf. Maybe this won't manifest. HOPE. WV: rhogre cjc
oh, good grief! that's a significent increase in percentage, isn't it!
cjc – heavy and dense – exactly – dp, your dream is really interesting – the most notable universal type dream i've had lately was of a cold barren tundra-like landscape where we all lived in geodesic dome houses –
Uh-oh. The low pressure system in the caribbean has gone from yellow (20% chance of developing into tropical cyclone in 48 hours to re – 60% chance). https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/
It looks like it's headed straight for the gulf. Even the computer models put it there.
Loved your post, Trish.Such an interesting life you have led.
Not loving the predictions. 🙁
Gypsy, I commented to T&R via email this morning that my eyes are watering….a new symptom… along with the headache and sense of impending doom….and nothing is wrong with my eyes. Other new symptoms. Just terrible sense of foreboding, like you. It feels "heavy", and dense. Wish we could change something, however small it might be.
cjc
For me it seems the quakes are not over, there's more pressure building up. Like Connie, I have a marked increase in my sensitivity to EMF's. Here in San Diego, there is a pulsing coming from the ground. My left ear is having high pitch rings, which come with large quakes and volcanic eruptions. Also vertigo and pressure on my skull. Today I have sense of grief, similar to what I feel before human tragedies.
I did go back through my dream journal (looking for clues), and the week before the Gulf Spill, I had a dream that a man was desperately trying to stop a woman from bleeding to death, but we all (in the dream) knew it was futile. The landscape was black & white with abandoned warehouses and dead animals. This dream may be a reflection of your post on the oil as Earth's blood.
I have often felt this empathetic gift is useless in it's ambiguity.
in terms of less physical things, i am just overwhelmed with a sense of foreboding – i don't know what else to call it – and i definitely share cjc's dismal perspective about the gulf itself – i cannot get away from the gas issue – smelling it and feeling it – and my symptoms have been related to that – watering eyes that began a couple of weeks ago – the smell of gas – my headache – and connie, i'm sending you and trish a separate note about the monitor you're wearing and geomagnetic charges –
and the quakes – not over –
T and R, I wish I could be specific about the symptoms. They are DIFFERENT from any I've experienced throughout my life. I do need to say that I am wearing a cardiac event monitor with electrodes leading to contacts all over my chest. This is called an "Artificial Intelligence Device", is very sophisticated, and of course is for medical purposes. I am tending more and more to sense that this device has exponentially increased the severity of my planetary symptoms. I tested this theory by temporarily removing it and even putting it into another room. The symptoms decreased to their usual level. When I re-connected myself to the device, the symptoms immediately increased. This is not "all in my head". It absolutely happened, and the device itself creates no symptoms connected to wearing it. So, bottom line, I think I'm much more vulnerable than usual to the electro-magnetic charges in the atmosphere, and to shifts in those and in barometric pressure gradients, etc. We aren't far, geographically, from the tropical low in the Atlantic, and I'm picking up signals from that as well as the turmoil in the Gulf.
More quakes to come…biggies…and forgive me for pessimism but I call them as I feel them: something awful in the Gulf spill. Awful. cjc
Here's an LA Times link on the suicide of the BP employee
https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/06/gulf-oil-spill-boat-captain-despondent-over-spill-commits-suicide/comments/page/6/
debra – the link should've worked. I'll see if I can find one.
The symptoms: are they more earthquakes, ladies? Volcanos? More with the rig? Any ideas??
you know, nancy, that's exactly what the pro-drillers are saying now – that so many jobs depend upon it – the economy needs it, blah blah blah – well, where are those jobs now? how many businesses all the way across the gulf are impacted now? and what of the loss of those 11 men and their families – even those in louisiana are advocating for offshore drilling to continue – i am totally mystified by that perspective –
musing – connie and i have been swapping notes on our symptoms the past week or so – she was specifically on point – some of mine remain as do yours too, connie? things remain very unsettled but i think that is obvious to everyone on the planet, unfortunately
Trish,
Thanks for sharing your story.And Gypsy too.
Gypsy,yesterday's death included the suicide of a ship's captain who had been contracted to work for BP. I tried to post a link here and my post never made it.
cjc: I have been having many "quake symptoms" going 4 days now. This AM I was awakened by the ears ringing and a 4.0 quake here in San Diego.
musing egret: The quake in Toronto was in my hometown area. That was such a rare event.
pop was an accountant for an oil company?????,, yeah the grand (mine) parents also lived in Venuzala (however it's spelt) but that was after little brO and my self lived with them in Iran, not the grand father who had his picture taken with B. Ruth but the other,, wonder what grand pops occQ was,,, whose synchro is this any way Rob or Trish w.v. raggers
Musing, definitely picked up the EQ in Canada all morning and all day yesterday, and am still having worsening symptoms so haven't a clue what's imminent. It was astonishing to see the circle of impact on the CNN map where the quake was felt….so many states here in this country as well as in Toronto. Pretty wild ride for just a mag 5.0. I'm betting the tectonic plates were slipping and sliding all over the place without actually erupting into overt quakes, for it to have been felt so many hundreds of miles away. cjc
Expected to find Sparrow Hawks but that was one heck of a story instead! Great to read something like that.
… eventually our dependence on oil would suffocate us – how true.
Wonderful story..I also wonder what my Grandfather would say to all that has been happening..I remember him questioning the taking of oil and not finding alternate ways..There were alot of people in the past which questioned our path we were taking..but unfortunately they were not heard or just ignored.
Such an enlightening story, Trish! And you too, Gypsy. Thanks so much for sharing. I have too much to say to write on the blog. Am waiting…hoping…praying that what I'm sensing is off the mark and wrong. What can we say in the face of this horror that hasn't already been said, except I fear the worst is yet to come, and I hate even thinking that because I so want to program positive resolution! My planetary empath symptoms are off the chart today. DPage, Gypsy, how are you feeling?
Again Trish and Gyps, thanks for the enthralling bios. A glimpse into yesterday! WV: poncesse
"Cess-pon"? cjc
What an engrossing story about growing up in Venezuela; thank you.
On another note: Did anyone else see the story about the earthquake in Toronto?
https://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/06/earthquake-shakes-eastern-canada-felt-in-several-us-states-/1
Did our empaths pick up on this?
wv: unnymiu
Oil really is suffocating us.
Great story, Trish. It was interesting that your father and my father came to the same conclusions in their latter years. My father came to hate mining. He had worked in mines, on and off, for many years in Nevada. But in the end he was disgusted with what it did to the environment. The mining companies say they are bringing jobs to Nevada, but what really happens is they bring in all their own people for the high paying jobs, and the rest are parceled out – mostly to people who follow the mines around – not Nevadans. Then they take all of the natural resources, not even paying their fair share of the taxes. Lobbyists are the bane of our civilization.
Thanks for sharing this poignant story….I also grew up overseas, an embassy brat. This is the universal story – whenever I see clearcut sides of mountains in Northern California, and try to envision people cutting down the last remnants of the old growth redwood forests, I wonder "how"? How can anyone cut down a tree the size of a skyscraper, a 3,000 year old tree? A whole mountain of them, leaving behind a bald, devastated wasteland?
oh, gee, cold chills reading this poignantly beautiful story, trish! a story so timely in so many ways – and one which i particularly relate to – i've not mentioned this before, for a lot of reasons, but my maternal grandfather [papa perry] was a major oil man in new mexico – in his youth he had been a texas ranger who had followed the beat of that other drummer – and his life was full of colorful stories involving pancho villa, billy the kid, to name a few – but by the time i was born, he had retired from that life, choosing the life of an oil man – when i stayed with him in the summer, every morning just as the sun was rising, we would get in his truck and head out to his oil fields – then we'd get out and he'd take my hand and we would walk out into the middle of the fields and stand there – in the midst of oil rigs as far in every direction as the eye could see – these were his rigs – and we would just stand there – not speaking – and listen to the sound of them – there isn't another sound quite like that – and then, there was the smell – to this day i can smell oil miles away – we would just stand there for what seemed an eternity to me and then, he would turn and we would head back to the truck and back to "reality" – but in those moments, time seemed to stand still for me – and i remember thinking even then, wondering, what it was about that black stuff that smelled so badly that was so mesmerizing to papa perry – of course, i think of those scenes today for obvious reasons – and your story called them to the top of my mind this morning – as i wonder, too, what he would think of today's disaster in the gulf –
wv this time is "ouside" – outside or our side???
This is a perfect explanation of how we get where we get, politically and economically. Yes, this story of your dad tells the American story too; the story of all businesses and how they seduce us all to accept what goes on. Well done.
trish and rob – i heard last night on some news blurp that the two men who died, died under "other" circumstances – one allegedly took his own life? wonder what that's really all about? was half asleep when i heard this so don't remember any other details but sounded really interesting in light of everything –
oh, listen to this wv – CHEATE! that speaks volumes!