life in the old lane

Major accomplishment today was absolutely nothing. Zoom yoga. Some walking. Some rearranging the deck chairs on my financial Titanic. 

All the while I keep looking at the returns from Georgia. How is it that we are even having this election? If the citizens of Georgia are stupid enough to elect Mr. Walker, I can only wonder why the Civil War.  Why didn’t we just let Georgia leave the Union? Good riddance. According to The Times, Atlanta votes aren’t reported yet.  Still hoping the guy who can read, write and tie his own shoes wins. 

This brings up Elon Musk’s brain implant chip. He apparently wants to test it on “humans”. I have a few suggestions for where he can start.

Aren’t these interesting times? 

Yes, one week later the volcano is still alive and well behaved. Now, lets just keep this going for another couple of weeks so my granddaughter can see it. And maybe I get a better view. 

Pretty laid back here. Which is just the way I like it. Carlton and I started coming to Hawai’i earlier each year to get a Holiday from The Holidays. But actually coming back on Xmas day, I pretty much get to miss most of The Holidays.  I am not a Holidays person.

Speaking of holidays. I got tired of trying to get Santa into ocean sports. 

MidJourney is very good at  putting sweaters on small fuzzy animals. 

 

Sort of cloudy most of the day. At least some of the clouds are caused by the volcano. Not vog (aka volcano smog) but real clouds. Water vapor in the air. And hot surface area. The volcano has slowed way down it is now advancing at about 40 feet per hour. Instead of being a fast-moving river, it is wider and thicker. More like a slowly unrolling carpet. 

Funny sort of only in Hawai’i story. “They” set up a parking lot and a little side road so people could SAFELY watch the volcano. As opposed to pulling off the side of the highway. Well, “they” discovered unexploded ordinance in the SAFE parking lot. 

MidJourney.

Woke up this morning to a kitchen full of water. Icemaker sprung a leak. The floors are tile but the rug got wet. I got the water turned off. Everything is pretty dry now. No icemaker is sort of the ultimate of 1st world problems. The coffee maker works. The wifi works. What more do I need?

Nothing is in focus. But it was raining. I know, that’s a lame excuse. 

Dinner was worth getting a little damp. That would be the standard monster chef salad with a big slab of seared ahi and a couple of shrimp.

Just 3 weeks left. One “normal week”. Then a young people visiting week. Followed up by recovering from young people and getting ready to fly on Xmas Eve. And toss in a little visiting and Xmas stuff. 

My project for the next 3 weeks is to get my photos from 2022 all tidied up and cataloged. It really only matters to me. But, if it makes me happy, then I should do it.

My daily MidJourney session: Surfing Santa.

Santa is going to be in a world of trouble in less than a second. A ton of water is going to land on his head. Try again.

He’s going to wipe out too. 

This one is fun. Having a little trouble with fingers.MidJourney has trouble with fingers and toes.

I hear my ham sandwich calling. Oh and the volcano is still alive and well. It is advancing at about 40 feet per hour now. Maybe the highway will still be open when the kiddos come. 

The volcano is still awake. Actually both volcanos are awake. Way back on October 18 I snagged rooms at the Historic (old and a bit run down) Volcano House. We will be there Dec 12 and 13 – so I am hoping for good things from Madam Pele. It’s in her hands.

Big ass ship out in the bay. The village was pretty crowded today.  Didn’t do a swim today.

But I did play with MidJourney. I was trying for a Hawaiian Santa. Not an easy concept for MidJourney.

This one kinda turned out like a cleaned-up Jerry Garcia.

This one gets into the spirit of things. 

 

Okay, that wasn’t what I expected.  I guess that’s why it is ARTIFICIAL Intelligence. It has not figured out that in December reindeers fly. But, I do like that little red plane that it tossed in. 

Some have wondered about my dinner from a few days ago. As the bureaucrats at the Asylum would say “Let’s unpack it”. 

There is a soup that exists only in Hawai’i – Saimin Soup. Our version of noodle soup or ramen. There is a variation on it called saimin salad. Which is saimin soup sans the broth.

This is a seriously tarted up saimin salad.

1. Ahi Poke (raw redfin tuna with “special sauce”)
2. Saimin noodles – chewier than ramen noodles.
3. “Texas” toast.
4. Raw Carrots
5. Our purple sweet potato. Cooked.
6. Huge shrimp
7. Sorta Frito like Japanese things
8. All the other junk you find in Saimin soup. Onions, egg, fake crab. But no Spam.

I didn’t finish the noodles. Or the lettuce. The rest was pretty much demolished. 

Our volcano continues to perk along. It “makes it’s own weather” and last night it had clouded up too much to see the glow from my alley. The lava flow has hit flat terrain. So, “they” say it will take a week for the lava to get to the highway. Madam Pele is still in charge. HOPING it is still visible and accessible when my granddaughter gets here in 10 days. Madam Pele is in charge of that too.

Volcano still perking along. Our shiny new highway is in danger. “They” say lava will reach the road in a couple of days.  But, actually “they” haven’t a clue. Madam Pele is in charge of this show.

I didn’t eat it all but I ate all the good stuff.  

Today’s swim was pleasant. Nothing special. I am just really happy to still be able to get out into the ocean. As for whether is it smart for an old woman to swim out alone… “They” certainly wouldn’t recommend it. But, what if I drown? What will I miss? Dementia? Depends? Pancreatic Cancer? Maybe all three? It’s pretty much a no-brainer. If it doesn’t endanger anyone else. Do it. 

Somedays I just feel old and tired. Today is one of those days. So about noon, I gave in and took to my lounge chair with iced coffee. 

Went down to the pier after sunset to check out the volcano. Lots of people were there. People had folding chairs and food. Of course, there were dogs. I suspect that volcanic glow is a lot like sunsets and northern lights – it depends on the cloud cover. 

When I got back to my lodging on the alley, discovered I could see it from my lanai. But, it’s much nicer from the pier.

Thinking about being tired. Well, being rousted out of bed for zoom yoga isn’t restful. And, I did walk 5 miles yesterday. That didn’t use to be much. Maybe it is “much” now. Don’t know why I am complaining. I am damn grateful that my body has made it this far without requiring any replacement parts. Was it Mickey Mantle who said, “If I’d known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself?”

Woke up the morning to find that Mauna Loa woke up after a 38 year nap. And, that we could see it for Kona. Well, not from my house. So. Get some coffee and get out for a look. Sure enough. We can see it. Wonder if we will still see it when it gets dark this evening. 

Mauna Loa is a relatively dangerous volcano. But so far the lava isn’t endangering anything. And I don’t think we are having any real ash problems. It is cloudy today. At least I am assuming that it’s clouds making it gray. 

Other than a huge volcano erupting 50 miles away – it was a normal Monday in the village.

After finishing playing housekeeper around the apartment I went out to Old Airport Beach.

Earthquakes and volcanoes are related here in Hawai’i. The 1868 eruption caused considerable damage. As with most eruptions of Mauna Loa, the 1868 eruption began at its summit caldera, Moku‘āweoweo. On March 27th, a column of smoke was seen emanating from the top of the mountain. Some on the island reported seeing a glow from molten lava.

Earthquakes and tremors soon began to increase. The following day, March 28th, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake occurred in Kaʻū, on the southern portion of the island, causing extensive damage. A steady stream of quakes followed in the subsequent days at rates of 50- 300 per day, with at least one as large as a 6.0-magnitude.

At approximately 4:00pm on April 2nd, the great Kaʻū earthquake struck. It is thought to have been 7.9-magnitude. 

Just a little history. And a warning that it could be a very interesting week. (The 1868 eruption went down the southwest rift. The one is going down the northeast rift. That a good thing. )

Our little village may be a bit shopworn. And worthy of the sobriquet Kailua-Coma. But it is not quiet. 

I enjoyed a very lazy day. It was cloudy. But that didn’t stop the trucks from rumbling up and down the main drag celebrating. Our public high school won the state Divison One football championship last night.  Hawai’i is a lot like West Texas when it comes to the importance of high school football. 

I had a splendid day doing absolutely NOTHING. 

I made an awesome fried egg sandwich for breakfast. Has sushi for lunch. It’s 6:30 now and I am hungry. Maybe some chicken and veggies? Time to hit the kitchen. 

These are the pants I bought yesterday. Thrift shop of course. They are “capri pants”. The most unflattering pants known to woman.  However, they seem to be favored by old women and European men. For now, I have a pair. And yes they make my legs look short and fat. Which they are. They might make their way back to the thrift shop. 

I didn’t want to go swimming this morning. I wanted to lay on the sofa and read. But, I got off the sofa and went out. 

There were dolphins out. It’s against the law to actually swim to the dolphins. However, there is sort of a “stand your ground” rule. If you are very lucky and the dolphin swims by you – you don’t have to move. The dolphins stayed away from me. 

But, after swimming – I sat on the pier and watched them.

The GoPro wasn’t the camera for the job. But it was the camera I had. Just enjoy sitting on the dock of the bay. Full screen and you can just make out the dolphins. 

Took a nap this afternoon. That’s my old woman day.

No boats. But, I did my part. I went to the thrift shop and bought a fine new pair of summery travel pants. They wanted $1 for the pants. I forced them to take $2. 

Spent too much time playing with MidJourney.

MidJourney imagines 4 versions at a time. Then I told MidJourney to Imagine this image:

And A Rose.

Not real happy with any of those,

OK. Those are better. Now make #3 bigger

And it put in a beer can. A glass of red wine would have been more elegant.