Category: The DayBook

We would like to wish everyone the best of the festive season – no matter what it’s called at your house. In pagan traditions, the solstice is a time to put away the things of the old year and look forward to the new. One observance of the solstice involves extinguishing all the fires in your home before midnight on the eve of the solstice and lighting a new fire the next day. This probably won’t be quite as symbolic if you have central heating.

The winter solstice falls on December 21 – the word solstice means “sun stopping.” The winter solstice is the day on which the sun reaches as far south of the equator as it gets, and is as such the shortest and darkest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. The solstice marks the rebirth of light for the coming spring.

The winter solstice also marks, among other things, the druid festival of Alban Arthuan – a time for bestowing gifts upon those less fortunate than ourselves. Out of this observance has grown the more popular tradition of gift-giving, Black Friday, last minute shopping, maxed-out credit cards and 70% off sales. May the goddess be with you during this season – but don’t blame her if you get socks again.

We celebrated the Winter Solstice today – I know, a day late. The Solstice was actually at 7:30 PM yesterday here in Kona. For our Solstice feast we had a massive amount of mahi mahi . Rice and a salad of avocado, oranges, and pineapple. And cake. And coffee. We enjoyed a nice day out in the ocean and in the sun.

Carlton hasn’t given up the Kindle yet. He is still reading Dracula. I got him Dracula from the library – but, he keeps reading it on the Kindle. I can wait. I am listening to Steven King’s Under the Dome (30 hours) on the iPod and got The Magician King from the library. So, I can continue with the old technology. Offered to get Mr. C his own Kindle. He doesn’t want one. Which I guess is good – ’cause I’d have to keep it filled up with books. And charged. And, I am very tired of taking care of things.

Well, I finally ended the To Kindle or Not To Kindle drama. I decided on the “old” keyboard version with G3. Why the old version. Well, I rarely purchase Version 1.0 of any thing. And the Touch Kindle seemed to be a whole new gadget. The G3-ness, think dialup speed – but it works, is limited on the Touch Version. Limited to shopping at Amazon. The old version is supposed to let you connect ever so slowly to Gmail and the like. Sometimes, when bereft of WiFi – I would like to do that.

I say “is supposed to” because as soon as I got the thing – I charged it up and loaded Dracula on it and handed it to Carlton. He hasn’t put it down. Enjoying Dracula and the Kindle. I am glad I didn’t put War and Peace on it!

I got the Kindle at our local Target. Far cheaper than from Amazon.

 

Time to get into holiday mode. Persons of the Christian faith are not the majority on our islands. But that does not diminish the festivities.

Speaking of festivities. How about this little old lady?

I hope things work out OK for her.

She definitely a practitioner of Nobody is Promised Tomorrow.

This old woman is tired of trying to think up “things to cook using only a microwave”. We’ll be having sandwiches until I get out of this funk.

 

The sun was out for a couple of hours today before going back into hiding. I went out looking for a Xmas Wrasse. Found none, but had a nice swim.

Still thinking about  getting a Kindle. Not iPad. Not that I don’t think they are seriously cool. Not that I wouldn’t have fun with one. I just don’t want another anything to take care of. I am not about to give up my computer(s). And to me, the iPad is just another computer. A rather limited computer at that.

Kindle Touch is cheap enough to just  toss when it breaks or is superseded by something better.  I know me, if I got an iPod it would be the most expensive one available.

And, all I really want to do is read books. I enjoy having a nice collection of audiobooks always handy on the Classic iPod. I nice collection of e-books would be good. Especially in a 1/2 pound package. Especially when traveling.

The internet was broken yesterday evening. I think it was the stormy weather.  Anyhow, it was back by this morning so I could see – as soon as I woke up – that my equity portfolio continues to plunge.

We have had a couple of cloudy/chilly days – good for getting into the holiday spirit.

Still thinking about getting a Kindle. Not the “Fire” but the Touch. With G3 – I seem to have WiFi issues. Cost isn’t the issue. The issue is having MORE STUFF. The Touch Kindle slips nicely into the back pocket of my little “travel” purse. That is a plus. But, Michelin Green Guides, which are my very favorite travel books – do not have Kindle editions available in the US. (I am thinking that a Kindle could be a good travel buddy.)

Almost everyone in the parade. I think there are more participants than spectators.

My holiday decorations are up. The Kona Xmas Parade just finished. Everyone in town who had a red t-shirt and a dog marched in the parade. No decorated cement mixers this year. I guess the economy is too bad to for the cement company to waste the fuel to be in our parade. There are usually 3 or 4 decorated cement mixers.

At this instant, a really loud Hawaiian reggie band doing a concert at the luau grounds across from the pier. Thank goodness for industrial strength ear plugs. Marriott owns the luau grounds now. Old Mr Marriott would not be pleased with the loud music annoying the guests at his hotel. (If I can hear it – I am sure the Marriott people can too.)

As you all know – I haven’t had a really good night’s sleep in over 10 years. I stopped fussing about it. Or even worrying. There will be plenty of time to sleep when I am dead. Last night – I enjoyed my non-sleep time by watch a total lunar eclipse of the full moon. Splendid way to spend the night.