Thursday Zodiac October 13

Today and tomorrow are your best times for a vacation. There is introspection and contemplation and you may find yourself letting go of plans and projects started in a more outward phase but as yet uncompleted. You may take an interest in your own psyche, religion and spiritual ideas. You may take the time to absorb and take in new impressions and information. In summary, here is a natural breaking point in life--you let go of what has been occupying you for the last years and assume a new attitude. This is a period that emphasizes an enhanced sense of personal possibilities and potential. There is tremendous psychological growth, which can lead to great personal success if you follow through with it. A romantic evening is ahead.

This is a low cycle day that allows you to take the time to revise some of your plans, straighten out problems and refurbish your energies. You will work best if you take your allocated breaks and get outside during the noon break or find somewhere for a little solitude. Is there a library nearby? You may find that both your personal growth and your career may depend on how you can handle some sensitive psychological material from your co-workers this afternoon. You will benefit from logical insights, getting to the heart of things. Communicating and getting your message across to others is at a high just now. Today and tomorrow are the two best days to seek a loan. Your timing should be perfect for whatever you want to accomplish today.

Any challenges you have today will bring you insight into plans that are needed for the future. This means personal as well as professional challenges. You gain new insights and realizations. Positive results are just a matter of time. Today and tomorrow are good times to seek whatever advice you think you may need. Think through your ideas and motives. Come from the long-term effects instead of the short-term process. A little exercise before dinner this evening is a fun way to create a change of pace--perhaps bicycling. Over dinner tonight, friends of yours may talk about crop circles, or some other fascinating subject--think about time travel. You find their ideas interesting. Stimulating ideas are created in your mind. This evening is for love.

This is a good time to buckle down and focus on your career. Your organizational abilities and sense of responsibility will guides you and direct you to success. Radical changes in self-care may be helpful. You may learn to cut through the unessential and superficial and get to the core in matters of food and health--attending to the details of your life. You are driven to conserve and take care of yourself. This is a good day to start a new and positive habit. All the energies are working in your favor. Work, health, diet and the other things that take care of us if we take care of them can provide a lot of satisfaction as a new life phase begins. These things can lead to love and a new self image. A phone call this evening can be passionate.

There are many rewarding days this month. You will be reaping the rewards of your hard work, even though it may only be the good feeling that comes when you do your best. This is a rewarding day. This is a great time to be with others and to work together. You gain new ideas through listening and helping others. It is easy for you to see which path is the right one for you. There are plenty of opportunities to grow and improve in any area you want. You may find yourself wanting and able to do almost everything. While success is important, don?t go overboard--your friends and family may begin to forget who you are--just kidding. You could easily talk a loved one into being romanced this evening--dancing may be in order.

Now is the time to buckle down and concentrate on your career. Your organizational abilities and sense of responsibility will be what proves successful. Your career could assume a much more determined form--a firm foundation. You appear charming and refined. Now could also be the best time to make that date, apply for a particular job or otherwise make yourself known. Ambition and achievement are qualities you hold in special regard. Progress in your professional life gains you recognition. You will enjoy your career and savor its rewards. A career in the category of coordinating events or conducting a well-coordinated party may involve catering, entertaining, etc. The social graces pave your path to success.

You will be pleased at the progress you have made recently--just take a look! This is a gratifying day. You may feel a love of order and law--an appreciation for responsibilities and duty. Problems are valued for the lessons learned at this time. This afternoon there is an opportunity for some future planning to examine the changes you may want to make in your profession--changes are needed. This may mean that you will not want to change the company for which you work necessarily but you may want to change your position within the company. The climb up the corporate ladder can be fun and you are willing to do whatever it takes to make the bigger income. Related courses could find you quite enthusiastic to expand your education.

Other people, or the general circumstances in which you find yourself at present, may unite to call upon your imagination and your creative insights in a problem solving session. If you included all the people around you in the problem solving game, you know that you would find just as many answers. Now what you have to do is find the acceptable answer that will be pleasing and with financially favorable results. Today is the challenge you have been waiting for that will give you the opportunity to be acknowledged and appreciated. An authority figure could be hard to connect with now--wait awhile. You will benefit from diagnostic insights and getting to the heart of things--penetrating. There is an opportunity to become fully absorbed in a romantic evening.

Remember--when you get into a battle of wills, it is time to regroup, rethink, look for the motivating factor and deal with it instead of the surface tension. The battle of wills is also an indication that someone is taking the small things in life much too seriously. This day does turn into a gratifying one and will afford you the opportunity to correct any negative thinking. This is a great time to understand your own situation, just how you feel about yourself. Emotions and feelings, whether they are yours or someone else's, may be very clear now. The energies to gain attention and support for what you want to accomplish are strong. You will certainly feel that you are in touch and in harmony with others. This is a good day and much is accomplished.

Extra effort put forth in your career brings greater satisfaction and definitely can gain the attention of those who can influence your success. Beginning new projects or programs now will be favorable at this time. Special interest groups or professional associations provide excellent support, although you must take an active part to profit from the situation. Romance is what you yearn for now. We're not talking just lukewarm. Passion and jealousy may present you with some experiences if you allow it--careful. Break away from habits or attitudes that undermine your happiness. Get rid of any negative energy so that you make good choices . . . perhaps through reading a romantic book, taking in a movie or some form of exercise.

This could be a tough day to solve problems or to look for insights. You may feel that your independence is stifled or just not available to you at this time. Being on the go and keeping in tune with the changes that happen all over the world keep you in touch. You are not fond of delays but that is what much of today is about; easy does it. This energy will pass and communication and delays will be corrected. If you think about what you want to say first, your communication to others can be very clear. You have a lot of energy and may come across as one that can be in control. This is a period of great mental activity. Changes in the neighborhood inspire you. Perhaps dinner away from home would be the best choice of activity tonight.

A higher-up is keeping up with your career and may be of great help to you in your profession. This is a real time to bring a focus into your career. Work, achievement and ambition are the things that mean a lot to you. Your organizational abilities and sense of responsibility will be what guides you and proves successful. Your career could assume a much more determined and solid form--a firm foundation. You may find that there is an increasing need to change the way you appear to others in the business world--perhaps a new suit is in order. This is a good time to purchase, select colors, etc. Circumstances may stimulate appreciation and enjoyment of your life situation. Your systems of values deepen, providing you with discrimination.

George W. Bush Post-presidency

George and Laura Bush wave to a crowd of 1000 at Andrews Air Force Base before their final departure to Texas, January 20, 2009.

Following the inauguration of Barack Obama, Bush and his family flew from Andrews Air Force Base to a homecoming celebration in Midland, Texas, following which they returned to their ranch in Crawford, Texas. They bought a home in the Preston Hollow neighborhood of Dallas, Texas, where they planned to settle down.

Since leaving office, Bush has kept a relatively low profile. However, he has made appearances at various events throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth area, most notably when he conducted the opening coin toss at the Dallas Cowboys first game in the team's new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. An April 6, 2009, visit to a Texas Rangers game, where he gave a speech thanking the people of Dallas for helping them settle in (and specifically, the people of Arlington, where the game was held), was met with a standing ovation.

His first speaking engagement occurred on March 17, 2009, in Calgary, Alberta. He spoke at a private event "A conversation with George W. Bush" at the Telus Convention Centre and stated that he would not criticize President Barack Obama and hoped he succeeds, specifically stating, "[President Obama] deserves my silence." During his speech, Bush announced that he had begun writing a book, which was published under the title Decision Points in 2010. The book focused on the "12 difficult personal and political decisions" Bush faced during his presidency. On May 29, 2009, Bush and former President Bill Clinton appeared at a policy discussion at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, moderated by Frank McKenna, the former Canadian Ambassador to the United States.

Bush made a video-taped appearance on the June 11, 2009, episode of The Colbert Report during the show's trip to Baghdad, Iraq. Bush praised the troops for earning a "special place in American history" and for their courage and endurance. He joked that it would come in handy, saying, "I've sat through Stephen's stuff before," in reference to Colbert's performance at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association dinner as well as The Colbert Report's history of satirizing Bush's administration.

On August 29, 2009, Bush, with his wife Laura, attended the funeral of Senator Ted Kennedy. Bush made his debut as a motivational speaker on October 26 at the "Get Motivated" seminar in Dallas.

Obama, Bush, and Clinton, January 2010.

In the aftermath of the Fort Hood shooting that took place on November 5, 2009 in Texas, Fox News Channel reported that Bush and his wife had paid an undisclosed visit to the survivors and victims' families the day following the shooting, having contacted the base commander requesting that the visit be private and not involve press coverage. The Bushes own property less than 30 minutes from Fort Hood and spent one to two hours at the base.

In January 2010, at President Barack Obama's request, Bush and former President Bill Clinton established the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund to raise contributions for relief and recovery efforts following the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

When asked in February 2010 about his low profile since leaving office, Bush replied "I have no desire to see myself on television... I don't want to be a panel of formers instructing the currents on what to do. ... I'm trying to regain a sense of anonymity. I didn't like it when a certain former president – and it wasn't 41 (George H.W. Bush) or 42 (Bill Clinton) – made my life miserable." Bush was referring to 39th President Jimmy Carter, who was an outspoken critic of Bush throughout his presidency.

On June 2, 2010, during a speaking engagement at the Economic Club of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Bush referred to the waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed by saying, "I'd do it again to save lives."

On October 19, 2010, Bush reflected both humorously and seriously on his presidency in a speech at the University of Texas at Tyler. A dinner preceding his speech raised more than $200,000 for the university's scholarship fund.

Bush attended every home playoff game for the Texas Rangers 2010 season and, accompanied by his father, threw out the ceremonial first pitch at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington for Game 4 of the 2010 World Series on October 31, 2010.

Bush worked with Christopher Michel on Decision Points, a Bush memoir which was released November 9, 2010. Michel was the Deputy Director of Speechwriting to the President of the United States during the second term of the Bush Administration. During a pre-release appearance promoting the book, Bush commented on his view of his legacy as president, saying he considered his biggest accomplishment to be keeping "the country safe amid a real danger", and his greatest failure to be his inability to secure the passage of Social Security reform.

After Bush announced a planned visit to Switzerland in 2011, Amnesty International, in a memorandum to the Swiss authorities in February 2011, asked Switzerland to uphold its "obligations under international law" to arrest and detain the former president for "his alleged involvement in and responsibility for crimes under international law, including torture...." Event organizers, United Israel Appeal, canceled the visit. Reports differ over whether the cancellation was because organizers feared Bush's arrest for war crimes, or, as was stated by the event organizer's lawyer, the event was canceled to avoid the prospect of violent protests. Human rights groups have vowed to continue to seek Bush's arrest.

On May 2, 2011, President Barack Obama called Bush, who was at a restaurant with his wife, to inform him that Osama bin Laden was dead.

On September 11, 2011, former President Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush joined President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama in New York City to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks. At the Ground Zero memorial, Bush read a letter that President Lincoln wrote to a widow who lost five sons during the Civil War.

Notable works

• Decision Points, released November 9, 2010