life in the old lane

The first floor of The Asylum is OVERSTUFFED with Xmas decorations. One of my friends says it looks like Macy’s. Hopefully, the stuff will all vanish tomorrow. Christmas is one of the reasons I go to Hawai’i. To escape. 

Turns out, and I didn’t know this until 2020, “my” floor has its very own circa 1955 creche (complete with snow-white baby Jesus)  that appears shortly after Thanksgiving. 

Apparently one or more of my fellow residents thought that the creche and all of the other Christmas accouterments should leave. Now. So, whoever has appointed themselves our Floor Xmas Decorator says “Christmas Dec 25 to Jan 6”. 

I deserve a medal (with oakleaf clusters) for not taking my crayons out and defacing the sign.

And I would hasten to point out that the Three Wise Guys shouldn’t be displayed until Jan 6 in any case.

Finished, more or less, my total immersion MidJourney project. I learned much about controlling MidJourney. It produced some really good images. Most needed a little tweaking with Photoshop. It is something that I could not have done without a lot of stock photography. I spent two days doing it. It was a nice exercise. It’s a little 3-minute thing to loop on the screen in the auditorium whilst people gather for a meeting next Monday. 

Except for New Year’s Brunch, I spent Day 1 of 2023 doing MidJourney. Coming up with pictures for my little slide show. 

Just before dinner, MidJourney busted me for “Imagine 1500 pairs of underwear”. Turns out underwear is a forbidden word. It was willing to:

Since I didn’t want to get banned for life I didn’t mess around much past “pantaloons” and “unmentionables”.  

PEG’S WAYBACK MACHINE – JANUARY 1, 2003

So far so good for 2023.

The Asylum is having a “normal” New Year’s Eve Celebration. Last year they canceled New Year’s Eve and locked us up. Their ability/willingness to lock us up seems to have seriously waned since then.

I spent the last day of 2022 puttering around with MidJourney. I have a real project. On with a deadline and a client and 20-30 images are required. That will focus my learning.  

Tonight, dinner with my accidental family. I made origami bunnies. Missing Hawai’i on New Year’s Eve. The New Year is more important than Xmas in Hawai’i. Parties, food, fireworks. And, New Year’s was celebrated from January 1 until at least the lunar New Year. January 22 in 2023. 

Fired up ChatGPT today. It is scary good. 

Now, why can’t someone come up with a good Robot AI Cat? 

Carlton didn’t do Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Birthdays etc. But, he did remember anniversaries. And, December 30 is the day that he considered our anniversary. 44 years ago. He is still the one for me.

He is still a part of my life. I do things like contest a $1.63 incorrect charge on my Asylum bill because he would expect me to. AA is still a part of my life. I don’t go to meetings. But the principles are stuck in my head. Every time a see a penny on the ground, I have to pick it up. I figure he put it there to test me. 

GRATITUDE

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Grateful for all the good years I had with Carlton. I kissed a lot of frogs before he showed up. We worked at the same company. Grateful we didn’t WFH then!

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About that new Google Watch. I like it. A lot.  Mostly, I like that it passes texts, emails that Google considers “important”, Alexa reminders, and phone calls to me when I am here and my phone is there. Oh, and it tells time too. And acts as a remote for the phone’s camera. That’s pretty cool. Sooner or later Google will implement the “Help I have fallen and can’t get up” feature. Which is what my friends used to rationalize the purchase of an Apple Watch. Not me. I just like toys. 

After visiting the dentist for my quarterly teeth cleaning, I decided to “Imagine fluffy super cute rabbits celebrating new year.” again. And this is what I got. It is undoubtedly Artificial. But none too sure about the Intelligence part. But, there are 4 rabbits and 8 ears.  The allocation leaves something to be desired. 

Played on. Midjourney is kinda like a computer game. It sucks you in. 

Illness continues to roam the halls of Castle Covid. Nobody gets out alive.

Covid is increasing here at the asylum. 21 new cases among residents in the last five days. We are sort of like China. Draconian measures kept Covid at bay for 3 years. And then a return to “normalcy” unleashed the cases. 

My big event today was a 2-hour nap. And, I finished up the mail. Played with the watch a little. Went for a nice fitness walk. Not too shabby of a day for an old woman. 

Going to the dentist tomorrow afternoon. Grateful to have teeth and enough money to pay the dentist to help keep them.

The Google watch arrived this afternoon. A day early. When I went down to get the watch, I stopped off for a tankard of coffee. Be Prepared.

Of course, I use my stovetop as a workbench. You don’t think I use it to cook, do you?

First thing I had to do was figure out how to swap out the large watch band for the old lady size one. 

I got it to tell time, date, temp – outside, and heart rate – mine. 

Guess my next job is to figure out what it does other than date, time, temp and heart rate. 

Wonder if this will be a technology keeper or another one in a long line of techno-toys that really didn’t hack it for me. 

Surprised at how dark it is at 6:47 in the morning. And, this is the time of the year when no sun shines in my windows. The sun will return in about 6 weeks. 

One problem came up in my absence. My CPA retired and none of his partners were willing to take me as a client. So, job one for me is to find a new tax guy. And,  I think I will need to consider doing my own taxes this year just to check out the new guy. Assuming I find a new guy. Or I could just go back to doing my own taxes. Frankly, getting the stuff ready for the tax guy is most of the work. 

Gratitude

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Grateful that I need a tax guy.

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I got a box of cookies today.  In a really cute box. Boxing day. 

MidJourney’s take on Boxing Day.  I like my box of cookies better. But, this is interesting. 

Good thing I didn’t worry too much about getting home. That’s one thing that not doing TV does for you. You don’t have so much to worry about. I left for the Kona Airport at 3 PM HST.  And walked into The Old Bat Cave at 1:03 PM EST, which is just about as fast as can be expected. 

Had a (scheduled) 3-hour wait in Chicago. There were people milling around who looked like they had spent way too much time at the airport.  They had a lot of luggage, Starbucks cups, and foil/mylar survival blankets. My trip was normal. But not everyone’s was.

The biggest “problem” was the lack of coffee on the Chicago to National flight. According to the flight attendant. “The coffee pot is frozen.” Damn sight better than the fuel line being frozen. 

Suddenly taken very tired. ( 8:50 PM.) Bedtime!

One last breakfast with friends. One last visit to Honls. One last walk by the ocean. Hope to do it again next year. But, No one is promised tomorrow. Enjoy every moment.

Pretty sure I’ll make it to Chicago. The plane that will take me to Chicago is well on the way  to Kona and is scheduled to land in plenty of time for a near-on-time departure.  

GRATITUDE

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54 nights in Kona. Happy visit with Sam. Enjoyed the glow from the Mauna Loa eruption. Enjoyed good health. Made some new friends. Lost a couple of unwelcome pounds.

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Trying to keep positive as I return to frigid Castle Covid.
PS – Just ordered Peg a Pixel watch.

Think I should think about packing. Soon. Not yet. But soon.

Mālama Pono

Or, if you think you are having fun, you are having fun. Went out to enjoy the last little bits of my time in Kona and discovered 6 visitors and 3 rented kayaks. They were not paying attention and ran their kayaks into the rocks. All six of them ended up in the water. They lost paddles, shoes, and all 6 phones. The paddles and some of the shoes floated. The phones sank. No real serious damage. Except we now have 6 young adults on vacy sans phones. And, it’s Christmas and Weekend. Most likely hard to replace here in Kona. 

I rejoyced when the Thomas Kinkade shop in Kona went out of business. And now. Thanks to Ai Art – I can make my very own dreck art.  Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. 

The snow that fell on Mauna Loa is still visible from the village.  I took that shot on my way back from the Salvation Army Thrift Shop. I decided that my cotton travel pants might need a little help if I end up outside for too long in the anticipated arctic blast. SO, I got a pair of leggings/yoga pants to use as a base layer. Have enough layers for the topside. Good to go clothing-wise.

Finished up all the food today. Down to just coffee and 3 granola bars. Figure I have 2 breakfasts, and 2 dinners left. I don’t like throwing food away. So, I’ll get stuff as needed. One meal at a time. Or eat out.

Right before the kiddos came over, it was the Annual Boat Parade. Kona is not a big Boat Parade village. Kona likes real parades.

I think that the boat paraders have more fun. I am pretty sure they were enjoying adult beverages.