I went to the Falls Church Farm Market today. Got bread, crab cake, lettuce. Mostly I got outside. Which was nice.

Also cleaned up my 11 sq ft garden box. My prostrate rosemary didn’t seem to make it through the winter. On the other hand, one of the neighboring boxes had a rosemary plant that was huge, happy and blooming. Unfortunately, it’s owner didn’t make it through the winter. Such is life and death in the Asylum.

And, I turned rather a lot of origami paper into recycling. 

Today I was just tired. That is an improvement- other days I have been exhausted. 

Tomorrow, maybe the taxes. Maybe.

This guy was showing off it’s nice blue wings. It is smaller than a robin. Bigger than a sparrow. And, it eats earthworms, snails, small lizards -nice tasty leaf litter stuff. 

Getting slightly adjusted to being back at the asylum. I did finish putting everything away and I opened all the mail. Most of it is piled up on the stove waiting to go to recycling. Notice: Piled up on stove. I don’t plan on cooking any  time soon! 

A new dining venue opened while I was gone. Dining venues are a problem at the Asylum. It is 30 years old. And when it opened it was “OK” to make the residents go through a school cafeteria type line and feed them steam table food. Well, that doesn’t cut it anymore. We want choices and options. Not to mention better food. Management wanted in have a wood burning pizza oven – then they found out how much it would cost to vent. But, the new venue still makes a respectable pizza. 

Terrorists hijack a plane chartered by a symphony orchestra. They threaten to to release a cellist every hour until their demands are met. 

Crappy picture of me. Great picture of my friends. Champagne, cake, cards, friends – what’s not to love?

Got home at about 10AM yesterday. I know it was 10AM – because I was hungry for breakfast as The Asylum stops serving breakfast at 10. Anyhow, I waited until 12, had lunch and the a huge nap, finally Birthday Dinner. 

I was wearing a t-shirt that says something like I am glad to to home where it is  nice and peaceful. 

“Nice and peaceful” – maybe not so much. Lifted from WUSA-9 website.

Investigation underway after bullets strike Va. retirement complex

The Fairfax County Police Department is investigating after apartments in a Virginia retirement community were hit by gunfire on three separate occasions.

The Fairfax County Police Department is investigating after apartments in a Virginia retirement community were hit by gunfire on three separate occasions.

All three incidents took place in the Falls Church area from mid to late February, police said.

Around 10:30 p.m. on February 10, residents in the 3400 block of South Jefferson Street reported hearing gunshots. Police said three units within the apartment complex were hit with bullets.

Another incident occurred around 6:25 p.m. on February 23 when a senior reported hearing gunshots coming from a nearby shopping center. The next day a resident from the Goodwin House in Bailey’s Crossroads reported a bullet hole in his window.

Lastly, on February 27, police said a patrol supervisor heard gunshots coming from the same neighborhood.

Detectives do not believe the residents were specifically targeted, but they are determining whether they’re related.

No injuries have been reported.

In the LA airport. 2 hours to kill in the very boring United Terminal. Got coffee. Now I have to find a cosy corner to hang in until 11ish. Then on to Chicago and finally to DCA.

You understand that your cell provider knows EVERYTHING about you. Even when there is no signal, there is still GPS. This is where Google says I was in Feb 2018. Now Google may not always be able to complete a phone call here in Kona, but by golly it knows that I was in the Nullarbor on Feb 12 and spent 90 minutes in Cook, South Australia. Google is my cell service provider.

It must be pretty hard to be less than honest about one’s whereabouts! There was I time when that would have mattered to me. (No Carlton that was before your time.)

Speaking of Carlton – I went to check out his spot in the bay. I would have swam over – but I am enjoying poor health – so, the landside view.

I am more or less all packed up. My luggage is “carryon-sized” but I am too old and feeble to hoist the case into the overhead. I would have to rely on the kindness of 6 strangers to get it up and down. Not a problem with checking it – except the connection in Chicago is 32 minutes. And, the weather in Chicago isn’t going to be stellar.

Being on the plane with a cold and not being able to wrangle my own suitcase might find me seated on the wing.

Every Australian city that I visited was replete with wall art and/or graffiti. And, I really don’t feel that bad. But, I still have a cold. I went to the drug store and got Sudafed. Figure that will help with congestion and flying. 

Today I went for a little walk, did breakfast with Billy, walked to the drug store, got something for dinner, napped, finished my first and maybe only pass of the Melbourne images while listening to Lord of the Rings, napped, once again had cheese cake and coffee before dinner. 

So, how about some of my favorite Melbourne images? 

Folks wander around the alleys and look at the wall art much like one would go to a gallery.

On Feb 7, one goes to the Parliament Building and watches the sunset.

Oh, turn around Peg – 

And why? You might ask. To see the sun reflect on the trolley tracks. It wasn’t all that great this year. Too many clouds. Clouds happen. But, you get the idea from the color version.

And my favorite Melbourne shot is the one that is the header today. The people lined up waiting for the light to change.

OK, the bad news. I have been caught by a cold. Why we say: I caught a cold is beyond me. I certainly wasn’t chasing a cold. If I knew one was after me I would have been running away from it.

But, after all those plane rides… why am I surprised? And, it just seems to be a garden variety cold. I have 2 entire days for it to get better – before I start out on another huge plane journey. 

Unfortunately, I sent all my ibuprofen, sudafed, etc back to the asylum in the flat rate box yesterday. But none of those are going to hurry up the recovery. So, I’ll just rest. Which was my plan all along. 

And, I can not be TOO sick – because – in honor of Carlton I just polished off  dessert – cheese cake and coffee – before dinner. Being grateful that I stayed 100% well during the Australian Adventure Before Alzheimer’s.

Started on the image cataloging and culling process today. Doing Melbourne.

Took rather many pictures at the Zoo.

For no apparent reason, the Melbourne Zoo lets people wander around in the lemur cage with the lemurs. Indeed, Australian zoo’s allow lots more of that sort of activity than US zoos. I am not sure how the lemurs feel about having people walking around in their house – but – since I only took my cheap-ass plastic wide angle lens and the 35mm prime that I used all summer on the Last Great Photo Shoot – I was happy.

Today’s activities:

1. Got up
2. Went for walk
3. Ate breakfast with Billy
4. Walked to post office for flat rate box
5. Napped
6. Filled up flat rate box
7. Walked to post office to mail flat rate box
8. Stopped at grocery for dinner
9. Napped
10. Moved almost 3,000 images off my cameras SD memory cards – didn’t do anything with the phone images yet. There are 600-700 of them as well. 
11. Nuked dinner
12. Ate dinner

Since the east coast is being crushed by a major winter weather event, I am super glad that I put this seemingly unnecessary break in my return to The Asylum. 

As always, after I big trip when I return I ask myself – why do I have all this STUFF? I got along fine for 4 weeks without this stuff. Why do I have it? So, when I get back to The Asylum it will be time for some serious deacquisitioning.

This rather strange looking milk cow is an unlikely ad for a burger place.

I am safely tucked into the Brisbane airport waiting for boarding, some 40 minutes away.

My bag is full of wet clothes. A sealed in ziplock bags. Why? You might ask. Because, I don’t learn from past mistakes.

50 odd years ago, I put everything stitch of clothing I had into a strange washing machine. I was clad in a bikini and a raincoat. In good time the wash finished and I transferred everything to the dryer. I retired to a nearby saloon. When I returned, my clothes were dry and Barbie doll sized. This was in the polyester days. Some of the clothes were actually melted. Most were just hopelessly shrunken. To Barbie doll size. I had to go and buy all new clothes from panties out. I was 20 something.

Well. This afternoon, a couple of hours before it’s time to leave for the airport, I decided to wash ALL of my clothes. Except for my wool hoody and stripped wool socks. The wash cycle ends. And nothing happened. No drying started. The f-ing door would not open. And I am clad in a bath towel. Got the door open. Got the wet clothes out. Dried undies, a shirt and a skirt good enough using the microwave and a hair dryer. Rolled the rest of the clothes into ziplock bags. And I am now 70 something. And I seem to have learned nothing about using strange washing machines when far from home.

Next stop Honolulu and on to Kona. Hopefully before the clothes mold and a week from today back to the Asylum.

Today, I rode around on the CityCat Ferry. That took about 4 hours and cost$3.50. Australian cities have good public transit. And they have lots more bridges. Including some for pedestrians and bikers only.

Tomorrow I plan on going to another garden, spend up my Aussie dollars, pack, clean up my rooms, get to the airport and arrive back in Kona before I left.

The ferris wheel wasn’t open when I walked by this morning. But it still makes a fine image.

And this bus is just too cute.

Yves St Laurent year of the dog window display. After resting yesterday, I was back in the travel game.

Main objective of the day was finding a koala. Mission accomplished.

After the koala quest, I went window shopping. Found a shop that Sam, my granddaughter would love. A Japanese dollar store. Well, actually, a $2.80 store. I went crazy in the origami paper section. I did not buy one of everything, but close.

And this is home for the next 2 days. I have two of the arched windows on the 1st floor really the 2nd floor.