I saw a group of Buddhist monks enter Peking House Restaurant on Grandview Wednesday night. I knew they were in town from William Meyer's photo in the Journal Sentinel a day earlier. Tibetan Buddhist monks were creating a mandala sand painting at WCTC and the public was invited to see the painting or take part in the closing ceremony.

Loaded with blessings and prayer for personal health and healing, the mandala was auspiciously created on 9/11 by ten monks over a total of about 24 hours. WCTC was the right place for this event because it was educational and entertaining. Plus there's a pond on campus. Water is necessary for the last ritual, the dispersal of the sand.

There were many open minds in the Student Lounge during the final blessings and prayers and, though there were periods of singing, drumming and blowing of loud, ten foot horns, there were also solemn moments of chanting. I prayed my cell didn't ring. Actually, I didn't hear any cell ring, which was very good because the chanting obviously requires concentration.

About an hour after the closing ceremony began, one of the monks slowly began taking down the three foot wide round mandala sand painting. After all the colored sand was swept into the middle of the table the monks distributed half to the audience in plastic bags, a prayerful reminder of healing made more meaningful by this week's 9/11 anniversary. The rest of the sand was placed in a container to be poured into the pond.

Several of us processed behind the monks and the ten foot horns, past students eating lunch in the cafeteria, to outside. We stood across the pond from them while they concluded their prayers and watched while they dropped flowers in the water. The sand from the mandala is cast into flowing water to spread healing energy throughout the world, but it was so windy Thursday that I didn't see any of it hit the water. The sand was dispersed to the wind. So I ask; did you feel any different Thursday afternoon?

It's 3:00 a.m. and I'm too anxious to sleep. Too many things going on. Maybe if I blogged about it...

In two hours my phone will probably ring to go hot air balloon crewing. The grass is really wet in the morning and the mosquitos swarm around us when we're readying for a flight, but the days are getting shorter and I welcome any opportunity to go. Regularly crewing is one of the best things I've done with my swiftly-coming-to-a-close summer.

Yesterday morning we took an excited retired teacher up. She was simply following her dream, had already rode a motorcycle. Another thing to check off on her list of things she must do before she dies. Many of her fellow teachers, including the principal, chipped in for the flight and were there to see her go up. By the time they calmly landed on a residential street there were about seven cars following. One of them opened a tailgate and had a little breakfast party ready for everyone.

After ballooning this morning, my mom-in-law and I will drive east for the last ethnic festival of the year at the lakefront, Indian Summer. The non-denominational prayer ceremony will get us into the fest for free but the real incentive is to participate as a Native American. To learn more about Earth Mother, honoring ancestors, sacrifice and cleansing of the soul. There'll be much dancing, drumming, music, speeches and stories. Attending religious services at the many ethnic festivals is another of the best things I've done with my summer and I'm sad that the year is coming to a close.

I'm anxious to get going with this new blog tool we've heard about, and BrookfieldNOW's been using, for a month. It will allow readers' comments and dialog directly on my blog, and if it works right I should be able to add my own photos. It should have begun by now so I'm just waiting.

Still trying to get a new furnace and A/C. I signed a contract and scheduled the install with a highly recommended Rheem dealer then cancelled it after talking again with the Carrier dealer. Hopefully there will be resolution soon.

Looking forward to a tour tomorrow of the near half million sq. ft. Journal Sentinel printing plant in West Milwaukee. It'll be interesting to see how they produce 85,000 copies of the paper an hour, and it'll be nice to meet the publisher, editor and Journal Interactive V.P. Like the downtown facility, the new plant is something I've wanted to tour when I worked as a weekend Journal Sentinel distributor but never had the chance until I left that job and started doing this. Another blog-efit I enjoy.