Contact with the past

Today was a weird day.. I had two calls come in from out of the blue from people I haven't heard in a few years.
One was a co-worker from another company who is working at Exxon. A bright man from Africa, but I think he is so full of himself sometimes, but he is a good man. We talked and he said he has been busy with the refinery work, I wish I could of told him the same.. But I was truthful and mentioned to him I changed my career path to structural inspection work, not refineries no longer..
Second person was one of my apprentices from the time I worked with the Petroleum industry. He is finally a journeymen. I am proud of him, he learned the tools of the trade from me. And he is making it good in Texas, he called me on advice on a project and he was checking on his "old tech".. Damn it I'm not that old, but it was a good feeling to think that someone was calling me to see how I am... Wow, its been a few years and he spend 2 1/2 years being assigned with me.. Many nights of having him hit the books and grilling over math and theories.. He promised to stop by and pay a steak dinner and all the beer I can drink. But truthful I don't need payment for putting time and alot of effort in him.

Has time passes on this new career path I find that enjoy this, I don't come home smelling like sulfur or crude oil.. I am not burnt in some way, no acid suits and gas masks.. But I miss the pay and the thought of a job tomorrow.. Hopefully this week I'll be busy..


Time progresses on the path of Belphegore. The hopes of fortune, treasure, and prosperity is what I ask.. But in what I wonder? I seem to not recall asking for money or gold.. I ask to never go hungry, to have a job, and for a good life.. Does anywhere in that means wealth of money...
I remember a ritual I done to increase my chances to win the lottery.. I included the lottery tickets in this.. The next day the numbers and the scan bar was faded.. I think it was in the incense smoke that did that.. I never repeated that ritual since then, but I am tempted to try again with a few modifications.

Something of interest happened.. I reconnected with a friend from the board through Facebook and had a good talk about oleums and tintures.. I miss those type of discussions. The talk really got me wondering on the next steps of my eucalyptus oleum. After the evaporation process and filtering would I really have that much to work with in the fat base?

I looked for guidelines of what makes a true oleum. THere is really no written information and regulations on it..

I propose these guidelines on myself:

1. A oleum is simple a vessel for the necessary chemical and magickal components of the plant material to travel.
a) Fat base, according to all research is quickly absorbed by the human skin.

2. To judge if the right amount of plant material is used, a majority of the plant traits must be there, judging by the use of the senses. To for fill these step one or more of the senses must be used if applicable (excluding taste if dealing with known poisoness plants)
a) The fragrance
b) The color
c) The feel
d) The taste

3. ???? - How would one judge magick abilities on the oleum? Is that assuming that it has one or all of the plant material traits carried over to the base?

So in order for my Eucalyptus oleum to pass these requirements it either has to be green, smell like it, or semi menthol feel.. I never personally tastes it before, maybe I should chew on a leaf to see how it tastes..

I saw some new growth on my white sage, that might be a good sign that the transplants is taking.. On a side note I am thinking about growing the rarer herbs since its much harder to purchase them, to expensive.. You know you can buy a mandrake root, eurpoean, for $400.. Thats the whole thing, and much more if it has the human trait features...