Category: The DayBook

I have often said that Kailua-Kona is a drinking village with a fishing problem. I was on the lanai doing a little work when I heard a commotion and it isn’t a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer. 

This is a narrow alley. The man is in serious danger. But well-meaning passers by on foot and in cars try to get him to move. By and by the cops show up. And they ever so gently get him to sit up then stand up. Then walk away. They asked him what his first name was. Where did he live? Did he need food or medical assistance? They never touched him. They didn’t threaten him. Just got him out of the way of traffic.  The cops didn’t know him. And he is very pale. So, I suspect he recently arrived for the mainland. Expecting to live off the land or something. 

Gratitude

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Always better to be lucky than smart. I just happened to pick up a sandwich for dinner tonight. Which is lucky, because just about when I am starving. It starts pouring.

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Just another day in paradise. 

Sort of doing the vacation thing today. Well, after I cleaned the kitchen. Did some yoga. Took a modest walk. Stayed out of the water because my gear has gone east. And, a have a cut on my leg that is almost but not completely healed. Nice tradewinds day. And, since it is the weekend the drilling that forces me to use earplugs isn’t happening. I am going to leave my box of earplugs on the countertop for the next people.  I have eaten up all of my “major” food – so, in keeping with the vacation mode, I’ll be taking myself to dinner tonight. 

The news about Covid is getting grim. The Asylum closed our nursing unit to all visitors today. Cases are up substantially here in Hawai’i and back home as well. I am pretty certain that I (along with the rest of the planet) will get the omicron version. I am just going to hope that 3 Pfizer-BioNTech shots will keep me from getting really sick. I am safer here. Where windows are open. People eat outside because that is where they always ate.

However, I become homeless at 11AM Xmas Day. So, I will head back to The Asylum per plan. I guess I should voluntarily sequester myself upon my return, lest I infect my friends and neighbors. By then, I might not have a choice. The Asylum may lock me up. Which will piss me off. I still intend to move out if they start down that path again. Yes, Carlton. Wreckage of the Future. 

Plan right now is to hunker down in the asylum for a month or so. Doctor and dentist visits. Income taxes. Then be gone again. Covid willing. I still have jackrabbits in my shoes.

Church bells. Must be 5PM on Saturday.  

It’s about 4:30 PM. This time next week I should be sitting and waiting at the airport for my 6:15 PM flight to Chicago. Arriving about 12 clock hours and 8 real hours later. 

After I sat down for dinner last night, I looked up and was really glad that I had a book to read!  It is hard to unsee that!

Shipped my wetsuit and mask home today. I think the fins can go home in my suitcase. Or I can just leave them here. And get a new pair next year.  Realistically, how many more years do I have to swim out in the ocean? How many more years do I have to do anything? Not many. But, that’s no reason to stop doing. Remember, Carlton played (and won) singles tennis a couple of hours before he died. 

Tomorrow morning will be “Clean the Apartment” drill. The owners are coming over in the afternoon to talkstory. I want the joint to look like I took care of it. In case I want it next year. There are cheaper units in the building, and there are units with better views. This unit has A/C and a washer and dryer. For longer stays washer/dryer is really nice. And, A/C is good for sleeping.  There is a dishwasher as well. I didn’t use it. And, I sure didn’t stress the stove too much. The microwave and coffee pot. Well, that’s another story.

 

Note to Carlton: Nevermind that your beloved Hulihe’e has been locked up since March of 2020. People still leave ho’okupu. The grass is still being cut. The building continues to decay. But the spirit remains. 

It was a lovely sunny tradewinds day today. I did some preliminary packing today. And a lot of relaxing. 

Yesterday I posted a couple of pictures from the hotel Sam and I will be staying in next week. These are the boats that were waiting on dark and the rays.

Slowly breaking camp. Mentally preparing myself to return to real life. 

The grocery sells enough of them to keep a couple dozen in stock.

These shots are current, about 6pm, from the webcams at the hotel where the grand and I will be staying for a few days next week.

Note to Young People. Consider doing a diary blog. Like this one. Because I am here in my living room bemoaning my advanced years etc. What to do, but check on my life 20 years ago.  So, take that old woman. Things weren’t always better in the “good old days”. 

Saturday December 15, 2001, 4:14 PM

 

Marriott’s tree looks better than usual this year. I am wondering if my friend Ben decorated it. It looks like his work. 

Today wasn’t a vacation day. It was an administrative day. Recordkeeping. Checking the accounts. That sort of thing.

And next year,  I must organize a meeting or series of meetings, in person or via zoom, to introduce all of my finance/legal people to each other. And rope my son-in-law into the mix as the watchdog.  I at least want someone to know the password to 1Password. I am old. I don’t come from long-lived stock.  It was time to do this last year.  

And on that note. I think I’ll wander down the road and get a beer and burger.

Lunch today. Had to show my covid vax card to get in. It was your normal Kona gathering. Some of the women can trace their family line back to before the overthow. One of the women traces her family back to precontact. Others are winter residents.  Everyone was vaccinated. 

And, since this is Hawai’i.

Mita, dancing was also at my table. When they started singing Puamana, she says “My grandfather wrote this mele back in the ’30s” and next thing you know she is dancing. 

Punamana – about her family home in Lahaina. The children each planted a coconut tree in the yard and they were responsible for its care.

Puamana is my home in Lahaina
With flowers so fragrant
Glistening my home is so loved

My home is surrounded by coconut trees
That stand majestically
Gently in the breezes

A beautiful home nestled along the shore
With the bright moon
Upon the whispering sea

Told is the refrain for my beloved home
Trees filled with much rustling
Happiness and joy

I came back after about 50 minutes. With 15 good seconds of zebra eel video. It was in 20 feet of water and with my wetsuit and covid fat, I couldn’t get any closer. (It needs to be full screen. Honest there is an eel.)

Must finish making origami stars for tomorrow’s lunch. The dress is “holiday festive”. My holiday festive is jeans skirt and a red tee shirt. It’s a fundraiser and I am a patron so, I am guessing they will let me and my checkbook in. 

But, ordinary fish are better than no fish. And, so what if I can not do as much as I did when I was younger. Damn grateful to be able to suit up and swim out. 

Sat on the pier to dry off after. Talk story for a while with Kānaka Maoli man of indeterminate years. We watched the tourists go into the water with full-face snorkel masks and with their phones in some sort of plastic “waterproof” container that I am sure they bought off amazon on strings around their necks. May the goddess protect them. And their phones.

Many plants were unhappy to have been doused with salt water during the recent storm. I hasten to add that these are not “native plants” or even “canoe plants”. This bougainvillea. And I have seen this very plant in this pitiful condition at least 3 times in the last 20 years. It will survive. Fun little write-up about the bougainvillea in Wikipedia. 

The first European to describe these plants was Philibert Commerçon, a botanist accompanying French Navy admiral Louis Antoine de Bougainville during his voyage of circumnavigation of the Earth, and first published by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu in 1789. It is possible that the first European to observe these plants was Jeanne Baret, Commerçon’s lover and assistant, who was an expert in botany. Because she was not allowed on ship as a woman, she disguised herself as a man in order to make the journey (and thus became the first woman to circumnavigate the globe).

I am really tired today, rather like the “after” bougainvillea. For absolutely no reason at all. Maybe I am old. Maybe I have Covid. Maybe I have a fatal illness. Maybe I could score some speed. Maybe I need to just get on with life. My brain is a dangerous place.  Pretty empty place sometimes.  

Heading off on a little adventure with the grand on Dec 20-23. She leaves late on the 23rd. I’ll bunk in the unit that night. Do the sheets and towels on the morning of the 24th. But, I’ll leave the place all sparkly clean on the 20th. And, I’ll be all packed up and ready to go. 

Carlton is still very much with me. Today, I used some of the cash that he had on hand when he died to buy breakfast for Billy and me. And this afternoon I was pondering stopping to buy a cup of coffee and heard ever fugal Carlton saying… “Just walk across the street to your apartment and make your own damn coffee and save $5”. Which I did. 

Trying to decide where/what to do with the oldest grand when she comes to visit for a few days. Don’t want to stash her in the Holiday Inn. We would really not enjoy sharing this space. Thinking we might have a real vacation and stay at a hotel if I can find one with rooms that cost less than $1,500 a night. Plus taxes and resort fees, of course.

Enough about money. Greatest thing today was giving an old run-hard put-away wet homeless guy most likely in his 60s a granola bar. His beat-up old face erupted in the most glorious smile. He was so delighted. (He wasn’t panhandling or asking for money. He was just laying on his ratty blanket which seemed to be his only possession minding his own business. I invaded his space with my granola bar.) Best use of a granola bar ever.

Went out for a late afternoon stroll. Looking for maybe a sunset and a place to eat. No sunset. And, the places that I went to for dinner were closed on Wednesday and a third seems to have morphed into a bubble tea emporium. Came back home and had cottage cheese and pineapple for dinner.  I could not cook dinner because my kitchen counter is taken up with origami. Hey, that’s the best excuse I could come up with. 

No swimming today. “Brown Water” warning. This means a whole bunch of crap (literally) and debris ended up in the ocean. Logged 3.5 miles walking. My creaky old body is happier if it gets regular walks.

Time to start accepting going back to The Asylum. It will happen in about 2 weeks. Unless I can figure out someplace else to go.