Author: Peg

(NOTE TO PEG: If you come looking to see “What did I take to Kona last year. I actually ended up leaving the tote behind and took the little backpack. Worked great. Little backpack does “under seat” really well.)

Or rather getting ready to get there. This is my old computer rollie bag. For the last 5 years, it has held tax returns. But it is sturdy enough to transport the heaviest stuff and a few clothes. The wetsuit etc can ride along in the shopping bag on top. (If you don’t have a car you have a lot of shopping bags) I hate concessions to old age. Trying to rejoice in what remains and not mourn what is lost.

Woe is me. Do not have enough room for both Alexa and Bose headphones.  I have never been happy with blue tooth earbuds.  I am not sure still have any. Maybe I should look. Of course, I have seen people wearing headphones around their necks like a fashion accessory. 

Our table of seven shared this dessert. It didn’t look much like a turtle. Looks more like a sea cucumber or an albino wooly bear caterpillar climbing over a rock. 

And I found this from 2019 – I believe the bats were in Cairns. 

NO MORE BATS UNTIL NEXT OCTOBER. PROMISE.

The bats made a great Halloween display. They are in an area with some air movement, so, they actually “fly” around. 

I did a little “death cleaning” today. It is an issue that needs to be approached. If after I am dead, someone is going to pitch all the contents of a drawer or box directly in the trash – why not save them the trouble and do that now? 

Also sneaking up on getting ready to go. Actually have to start getting ready to go soon. How about tomorrow morning? I am decamping to a hotel Sunday afternoon. Catching a plane out early Monday morning. 

I am interested to see if the flower-arranging crew uses the bats for one of their Halloween displays tomorrow. No problem if they don’t use it at all. I like it. Especially the little sleeping bats.

Tied up some loose ends, just making sure everything is shipshape before closing the Old Bat Cave for 56 days or so. I like to come back to everything all tidy. And the only way that happens is if I leave everything all tidy. 

And, I still haven’t addressed packing. Going to keep it very simple this year. Famous last words before overpacking.

The Asylum is celebrating it’s 35th Anniversary today. They started it off with a mournful Pachelbel’s Canon in d. It looked like speakers were assembling.  So I kept right on walking.

I am going to the fancy dinner tonight. In the Formal Dining Room. Wearing my Wranglers. Some of the residents will get their noses out of joint because of that. Pity.

I actually have a picture of Carlton and me in The Asylum ca 1993. I redid it for Covid Christmas. Still have jacket. Maybe I’ll wear it?

For no apparent reason, I updated The MacBook and both iPads to Ventura and IOS 16 respectively. I saw no reason to do it. I am not interested in cloud sharing my photos. And don’t use Apple’s email client. So, not sure what I am getting. But, I got it whatever it is. And all of the mission-critical applications seem to work. So, it’s all good.

No time for AiArt today. Sneaking up on getting ready for Kona. What do I really need to take? 

1. 1. 1. 1. Picture ID
         2. Credit card
         3. Prescription Drugs
         4. Glasses
         5. Phone
         6. Computer – work you know.
         7. Computer charger. It works for the phone too.

And that really is it. Undies, swim togs, flipflops can be gotten at WalMart. Some t-shirts and shorts from the thrift shop. A mask and pipe and fins from Jack’s Dive Shop. The rest, toothbrush, comb, toothpaste, sunscreen… pick them up at the grocery. And taking the mask, pipe and fins would save a sweet chunk of change. 

There will be books to read and beach towels at the condo. 

Really don’t need much stuff. Focus on that Peg. 

Does it get any cuter than this? 

We had a birthday tonight. The more friends you have the more cake you get. Nobody has better cakes or more fun than The Asyslum Sisters. Think most of us will be eating together tomorrow to celebrate the 35th Anniversary of The Asylum. 

Time to get ready to go.

What if nobody comes? What if too many people come? What if no one can make a bat? 

People came. But not too many. A couple of my friends helped. The art teacher seemed to think the class went OK.  Now all I have to do is string the bats somehow or the other for “decorations”. 

Now. Time to get serious about Kona.

Maybe next fall, I’ll Amtrak up to New England before going to Kona. Now, that’s serious long-range thinking for an old woman.

Been thinking about the triptych that MidJourney produced for me yesterday in response to “Imagine Old woman feeling mortal. I think I have gotten past the graveyard phase. I am not looking at a glass door with a light on the other side. But, I do feel like I am facing a stone wall that must be breached.  Am I teaching the process or is the process teaching me? 

A major concession to “mortal”.  Wheels. Decided that I really can not expect my body to tote my computer, photography, snorkel gear, plus clothes, on my back. I remembered that I have a tiny rollaboard that I used to haul my computer around in. So, it has been impressed into service. I had been using it to store tax returns. For now, the tax returns are in a Trader Joe’s bag. 

Covid booster discomfort was controlled today by some Tylenol. Expecting to be all good by tomorrow.

This morning, I made my annual pilgrimage to the tennis courts where Mr. C played and won his last tennis match.  I keep expecting the sign to be gone. But every time I go to the tennis court someone will see me taking a picture and ask about the sign. That makes me happy.

His AA buddies put up a plaque for him outside a church basement in Glen Echo. But, I haven’t made any pilgrimages to that small monument. 

Also, today was my annual trek to look at the Halloween decorations on North Jackson Street.

It’s not surprising that the displays aren’t as excellent as in the past. The people who own the houses have been doing this for 25 years. Or maybe it’s just me. Maybe I expect more. 

My 5th Covid shot flattened me. I was so tired when I finished wandering around the old neighborhood, I almost called for an Uber to get me home. I made it on the bus. But took some ibuprofen and hit the sack. 

Feeling very mortal today.  To see what might happen, I just ran Old woman feeling mortal through MidJourney. Interesting results.

Something to think about.

As one of my friends said: “Fire, booze, old people, rollators, what can possibly go wrong?”

Well, fortunately, nothing went wrong. 

Spent the day doing stuff that needed doing or maybe rearranging those deck chairs on the Titanic.  But I am now back on schedule to make my escape to Kona on Halloween.

Noticed that Great Britain’s train wreck of a Prime Minister had to resign after 45 days.  Then I look around and see all the train wreck politicians we have.  How did things so totally fucked up in my lifetime? Am I responsible? Using nuclear weapons in Europe, a fascist government in the US, things that were once fodder for science fiction are now all too possible.

On a positive note, I got my 5th Covid shot today. Think it would have been “smarter” to wait. But, I keep forgetting that I am actually one of those “vulnerable elderly”. 

Finally, finished up my Bat Diagram. I was so sick of it this morning that I almost went out to get a Covid Booster! But, I finished the diagram. The class is Monday afternoon.

My current jig. 

Our office was a hospital room. We had one desk and one computer. And a whole bunch of file cabinets.  Our computer system was an Access database and a bunch of spreadsheets. 

This is the first iteration of  Hello World. The one up top is number 6. By then I decided that I had wasted enough time. And I rather like the results.

It was 35° this morning. And, I spent all day glued to the computer.  Mostly, I was making folding directions for my Origami Bat Class.

Making origami diagrams is very tedious. At least for me. It doesn’t help that I am not very skilled at vector art.  I recommend Inkscape The price is right. And if I can figure it out anyone can.

More from work days.

I was having a bad hair day and what was it with that dress? The office was in a “Butler-type” building inside of a USPS warehouse. This was one great motley crew. I hired the “elderly” Vietnamese man, not because of his skills, but because of his application for employment. Question: “Reason for leaving previous employer?” His answer: “Fall of regime.”

Looked out my window this morning and discovered that I can no longer see the sun come up. It still manages to make it into the Old Bat Cave after it clears it rest of the building – but soon enough not a single ray of sun will make it in the windows. Of course, I didn’t know about this until Covid Winter of 2020-21. 

One day someone smuggled a polaroid camera into our office in the Kunia Tunnel. I am pretty sure we would have been court marshaled if caught. But we were very arrogant code-slingers. The black spot over my head was a rubber bat that I hung from the gunite ceiling. The computer,  Control Data 1700, was in it’s own room a couple of football fields away. 

In the upper right-hand corner, you will see the red EMERGENCY OFF button. Some high-ranking officer type was touring the site and walked up and hit the EMERGENCY OFF button. He then wanted to know “What are you going to do to prevent this from happening again?” I recalling say “Sir, the system is soldier-proof, not officer-proof.” 

As I said we were arrogant code-slingers.