Author: Peg

Well, let’s see what did I do today? Darn little. Went beach walking and breakfasting with my friend Billy. Got some yogurt at Safeway. Made a bunch of origami stars out of dollar bills. They will make festive little tips and mini-gifts. Missed yoga because of beach walk and breakfast. But Billy was offering a ride to a beach that is out of my walking range. Not to be missed. I am sort of limited to a 3 mile radius or to where the bus goes. This beach is about 5 miles away and not on the bus route.

Hotel Xmas party for staff and the guests who never check in but never check out tomorrow. And, that will be the end of my festive party life. My beach and breakfast bud is going mainland for a month as well. It is most likely all for the best. I don’t want my weight to start going back up.

Starting to sort out my 2014 photographs. It is really hard – knowing that in 2015 there will be no Carlton photos. There will never be another Carlton photo. The “big” things don’t really hurt – it is the “little” things that cut to the bone. No more photos, no one to say “hey, come look at the whales”, no one who understands me better than I understand myself. No more center in my universe.

Still working my way through lots of pictures from the week end. I am VERY fond of decorated cement mixers. Carlton, you missed a fine parade. The best Kona Xmas Parade ever. Lots more floats. And tons of big trucks.

I went to tea at Carlton’s Palace today. Not enough chocolate. But, I guess that chocolate is not a traditional tea food. They did give us a big chocolatey muffin looking thing to take home. All in all it was rather charming. For two hours, I was a lady.

Went to the Palace Christmas concert late yesterday and had dinner afterwards. Pig and cabbage, saimin salad, rice, chicken katsu, sushi, macaroni salad, and cake. All your favorite local-kine food. Oh and beer. I brought some sushi home. Sushi and avocado will be tonight’s dinner.

Made origami ninja stars this afternoon to pass out at Hotel Party on Wednesday. Gotta make some more. Tomorrow is another day.

Fine day today so far. Went out for a sunrise beach walk and breakfast with a friend. Excellent eggs, coffee, home fries. Sunrise was good too.

Then I went walking to burn off the breakfast and to check out the surfing.

I really don’t have a long enough lens to photograph surfing. But, that never stops me from trying. I spent the last 2 hours deleting 450 of 461 surf photos. And, I started culling the parade photos.

Now, it is time to get dressed like a lady and go to the Xmas Concert at Carlton’s Palace. And then to the Palace Xmas dinner.

My favorite Xmas decorations so far. These are all the decorations. I did not crop out any additional festive items. And, it is in front of what used to be a church maybe it still is a church.

Lots happening in the village today. Shopping, canoe races, and the Christmas parade late this afternoon.

Today is 12/13/14 – don’t think a sequence like that will happen again this century – since next year is 15. Also, the Geminids Meteor Shower tonight. Too much urban light here in the village. I must make a trip to somewhere with dark sky.

I always like looking at gingerbread construction projects.

Ten weeks ago today. That is when my world changed. Carlton would not like for me to say it changed for the worse. That would be negative thinking – and he did not allow negativity in his world. But, it sure did change.

This being Hawai’i – I got a call shortly after 6AM asking if I wanted to go out to coffee, a walk and breakfast. Sure! Eggs, rice and Spam. Good local-kine breakfast. At The Fish Hopper. See yesterday’s post.

This is a great video that attempts to explain the Hawaiian devotion of SPAM. Check it out. Carlton adored SPAM. But only in Hawai’i. And Spam musubi was his favorite SPAM concoction.

After my swim this morning, I was drying off and warming up – when along came a couple of guys. Middle aged. Wearing matching Aloha shirts. A large Hawaiian man showed up and married the two guys. I wish everyone could have seen how happy the two men were. How pleased they were that a damp old woman was the first person to congratulate  them on their marriage. I hope they are as happy as Carlton and I were.

Only in Kona. Big front page article about local high school students spending the day at a McDonald’s “career day” event. I couldn’t decide if a job at MickieD was a good thing or a threat – as in this is where you will be working if you don’t go to college.

Decided it is time to get into the holiday spirit of things. I am not expecting “the holidays” to be a problem for me – because Mr C and I more or less ignored all holidays.

I was bored silly today. I finally went for a swim and some beach time. Then I “went” to the Arlington Library and checked out some magazines. Finally, I went down to the pier to check out sunset and any nearby Xmas lights. Not so bored now.

OK, there must be some advantages to being a widow lady. Well, for the first time in 22 years I get to put my clothes in a drawer or hang them in the closet. I can put my stuff in the bathroom. I used to keep my clothes and toiletries in a box under the bed. Carlton required all the closet, drawer and bathroom counter space. Another advantage, when I have insomnia I can turn the light on and make myself a spot of tea.

These two advantages don’t amount to very much.

Don’t know enough about wana – or sea urchins – to know what kind this is. We have lots of different wana in the area.

Failed to do anything remarkable today. Walked 5 miles. Went to yoga. Went to the beach for a little swim and a lot of people watching. Had tuna, avocado and tomato for lunch. And, that might be dinner too. Read some. And played with the camera. Since my ability to read is returning – I am giving the camera manual another go.

Tomorrow is my day off from exercise. The body is ready for a day of rest. Of course, if I want to actually do anything – I still have to walk… But, maybe not 5 miles.

 

Just because I live in a hotel, doesn’t mean that I don’t have a few domestic chores. I did my laundry, went grocery shopping and cooked up rice cooker “Chicken, rice and broccoli”. The meal was good and I have two additional meals. All stashed away in the newly defrosted fridge in disposable microwavable bowls. Did I mention I hate washing dishes? Thank you Carlton, for years of dish washing.

Went to yoga this morning. I have been doing three 75 minute classes a week. That is about all I can afford and about all my body can stand. So, it works out fine.

I am enjoying being here – but, I am starting to get a little antsy. I think I want to be back in Arlington getting stuff “settled”. I need to get over this little impatient period. Sort of Carlton-like behavior. Wanting to get stuff done that isn’t ready to be done or that doesn’t need doing at all.

Today’s “adventure” was a crab hunt. The ghost crab to be precise. There are two kinds of ghost crab in Hawai’i. The Horn-Eyed and the much more ghostly Pallid ghost crab.

Ghost crabs eat almost anything, they are sort of nature’s tiny beach cleaners. They adjust their color to match the color of the sand on “their” beach. If a crab is moved to a different color beach – it will change color over time to match the new beach.

 

This guy is the a’ama crab. It lives on rocks along the shore line. All of our shoreline rocks are black – so a’ama crabs are also black – but – they are really red. When they molt – they leave red shells behind. These guys are good to eat. Raw. Not steamed. They know they are tasty so they are pretty skittish.

My ability to read has been returning. My ability to read a complete paragraph vanished the day Carlton died. But, as my ability to read has returned – I realize that my ability to read had been fading for the last two years. Without really noticing, somewhere along the way I stopped reading books. I still listened to audiobooks – but, my concentration was not up to reading a book. Or even the newspaper.

Note to Carlton: You used to make the bed. Every single day. As soon as you got out of bed, you made it up. If I rumpled the bed up during day – you would remake it. You said it was a part of your AA program. Well, you will be happy to know that I have taken over the job of making the bed. Every morning.

Aside: I am living in a hotel. But, the maid only comes to tidy my room twice a week. So, I have ample opportunity to practice bedmaking.

Lots of dolphins around this afternoon. I got many of pictures of “where the dolphin was”. And a few OK dolphin shots. But it was nice just sitting on the dock of the bay…

Went out to breakfast this morning at Bubba Gumps with a friend. That counted for lunch as well, and dinner will be very small. Eating out with friends, that is a change that I have made in my life since Carlton checked out. Carlton really hated eating anywhere except at “home”. If we were traveling “home” was the motel room. Maybe in 35 years we ate “out” 5 times max.

And one last dolphin photo…

First high school canoe race of the season. Within a couple of boat lengths of the start line the yellow canoe flips and the #11 boat runs over the #7 boat.

The owner of the legs in the previous photo appears to be OK. The race continues.

The yellow canoe is being righted. Numbers 7 and 11 are off and racing. It is a long race – so the yellow canoe will continue.

Within feet of the finish line – number #7 flips. In this photo it is already a goner and the guy in the 2nd seat knows it.

It was an altogether finest kind day on the water.

What’s not to love? Think I’ll get out there for my daily mental health swim.

(I know I should pull some of the blue cast out of the first boat images. But, I am too lazy to go back and do it just now. Maybe later. Or maybe never. And some of the boat shots are about twice as big. Click on them if you want to see more.)

Blow up beach toys perk up any photo.

A nearby 3 story condo must have a pretty bad case of termites. It has been all bundled up in festive red and white strips for the last 2 days. Termites – one of the bad things about Hawai’i. Snails in your Xmas trees is another bad thing. Our village is short Xmas trees this year – because 1,500 of them were infested with snails. The trees were not allowed to land – they were sent back to the west coast. Somehow, I think they got dumped out in the ocean.

Yesterday, I took pictures of the night heron catching a boxfish. He caught another one this morning. Boxfish must be a regular menu item for our neighborhood heron.

How exactly did I go from being we to being me? Exactly how do I be me instead we?