How many pictures of yellowtangs do I need? A lot fewer than I have that is for sure.
Had a strange morning. One of the local homeless guys invited me out to breakfast this morning. His treat. He had the “special” and two bottles of beer. I had french toast and about four cups of fine Kona coffee. And, I think we both had a good time. Think about it. A homeless man bought me breakfast. There must be a lesson here for me.
Then I went off and scanned more photos.
Tomorrow – I begin serious going back home prep. I think it might be rainy. Rainy would keep me in the room. Which might help with the sorting, boxing, shipping, packing, tossing…
We rarely have a sunrise worth getting up for on this side of the island. A combination of geography and vog, I think. The sun just appears. No fiery preview. But, this morning – a sunrise.
Today I did going back home chores. Returned books to the library, went to WalMart for cheap underdrawers, to the drug store for my favorite coconut oil. Plus the normal treks to farm market and grocery.
The new iPad. I thought I would be wanting one. But, I am not. This is subject to change when I get back home and visit the Apple Store.
Another thing I am not interested in is the NFL/players lockout. The Millionaires vs The Billionaires. Give me a break. It is as silly as the daughter of she who must not be mentioned “writing” a book.
One week from now – we’ll be halfway back to Arlington. Just about ready to get on a plane heading from Seattle to Atlanta. I really hate the airlines.
But, before I complain too much… I am very old. I remember flying across the Atlantic on a plane with propellers. I remember crossing the Atlantic on a boat. I remember when a ticket on every airline was the same high price. Really crappy routing is the cost of “free” enterprise and the cheapest possible ticket.
So, I’ll just use the iPod. Worked on the photo scanning project today. And on the cookbook project. Also went for a nice swim and lounged by the pool. Alll that without Internet.
Spent most of the day scanning old photos at our local palace. I have done about 1,000 so far. Shoe boxes hold lots of forgettable images.
We had little meatball subs and chocolate pie for lunch today. Tuna, rice, avocado and papaya on tap for dinner. Did I mention that there is a diet in my future??? Hope I still fit in the jeans. I might should start the diet before the sunsets tonight.
Been wondering if I should backup my Gmail account. Since Gmail seems to have wiped out 150,000 account over the weekend. Already back up my addressbook – from time to time. At my age, I have more things to worry about than losing my emails. So, I’ll not backup my Gmail.
Looking forward to finding out about the new iPad on Wednesday. She who dies with the most toys – wins.
Yesterday I finally got us tickets home. Leaving March 9 arriving in Baltimore March 10. One can get from the Baltimore airport to our apartment using one bus and two subways. I got us a good price. No strike that – I got us the best price I have seen in a couple of weeks. And, the routing is only slightly silly. Kona to Seattle to Atlanta to Baltimore – then to the 1 hour bus/subway/subway trek to our apartment. All that for less than 400 bucks each. Not great – but not too bad either.
I have a feeling that there will be a diet waiting for me when back home. The wetsuit is starting to feel a little tight – even for a wetsuit. And, I’ll not be buying a larger wetsuit.
Had nice shark steaks yesterday and our beloved Spam Musubi was today’s main event. Chicken katsu is on tap for dinner. Papaya, avocado, too. And lettuce. I went to a rummage sale this morning and came away with two bunches of leaf lettuce. That is pretty Kona-kine behavior. One donates what one can to the local swim club rummage sale. And, one of our local lettuce farmers donated a case of mighty fine lettuce. Sure beats donating a pair of Speedos with sprung elastic!
Drat… my Virgin Mobile internet device has turned into Slut POS non-working device. Oh well, at least it had the decency to crap out with only 48 hours of airtime left. Back to using the unreliable Skywave service at the hotel. Naturally, I could connect to it most of yesterday after I decided that the Virgin Mobile device had died. Oh well. I am on line now. That is what matters.
Whale as seen from the hotel room this morningWhere the Whale Was- Looks a lot like "where the dolphin was"What 7 dollars gets you at the farm market. On a good day.
We woke up at 5am today. Huge rainstorm… Even lightning. Lightning is very unusual out this way. By 9am – it was over. But, it remained cool all day.
Had poke, rice, avocado and banana for lunch. (The Hawaiian poke – which is our local-kine sashimi – not West Virginia poke weed)
Dolphins everywhereWhere the dolphin wasJumping out by Jack's Old Boat
After spending most of the day scanning mediocore snapshots – I went out and sat on the end of the pier and watched the dolphins at play.
Jumping out by Kalani's strange boatJust Jumping
Someday, someday, I might get brave enough to jump off the pier and swim out to visit the dolphins. Not worried about being hurt by the dolphins. Worried about over estimating my swimming prowess. These shots were taken with 300 mm zoom.
A fine slice of the Kona life. Why do I think that the chickens don’t belong to the person who placed the ad in the paper?
Good news… The USB memory key that went AWOL yesterday reappeared today. And, it reappeared before I hiked up the hill to WalMart for a replacement. Life is serene again.
Speaking of the serene life. Yesterday I started wondering about my life philosophy. I am not a person of faith. I would be considered an atheist, a freethinker, a secular humanist, None of the Above, or a plain old pagan. I have as much faith the tree as I do in the dude who was nailed to it. But, how, as a faithless old woman, how do I get along in the world…
In a single word “NEXT”. I think that NEXT sums up my outlook. No matter what has happened. What happens NEXT is where I focus. NEXT would be a great thing to have on one’s tomb stone. Assuming one had a tomb stone.
And then there are the three trite guiding rules:
I can always have the last word – sometimes the last word has to be “Aye aye, Sir”.
It’s a white man’s world and the sooner I accept that the happier I am. (It doesn’t always have to read white man’s world. It could be someone else’s world at the moment, but for most of my life “white man” worked fine.)
Nobody is promised tomorrow.
And, that really is about all there is to my operational plan for a reasonable life.
Yesterday, I spent way too much time swathed in my long white dress with my best hat on my head, my ceremonial nuts around my neck and my feet blessedly unshod. Details at http://www.huliheepalace.net/new-members-2011
Hard thing was behaving like a lady for 6 hours. And, the Daughters of Hawai`i think that one’s legs should not go all the way from the ground to the crotch… And, if one’s legs do go from ground to crotch – then one must wear a slip under one’s long white dress to conceal that fact. I can barely manage the dress part. I don’t own a slip. Haven’t owned a slip in at least 40 years. Much less a floor length white one. So, I spent all day hopping around like a mermaid so no one would report me to the slip police. (In fact one lady brought a slip of me to borrow…) I am so not a lady.
Somewhere between yesterday evening and noon today – I lost my 32gig usb memory drive. I think I must have left it on the bed and when the sheets got changed today – it went out with sheets to the hotel laundry. The good news is that there were only pictures on the drive. And I think that I have copies of everything here or there. I had it all set up to use with my photo scanning project – I think, hope, that everything is over at the palace on their elderly computer. Peggy and USB memory keys don’t mix. Dropbox is for me.
