life in the old lane

Pigtails, graphic t-shirt, old denim skirt. What can I say? 

Due to a serious lack of bugs to photograph – I put the Pen -F in total manual mode and decided to shoot old-school fashion.  And to make it harder, I did not photoshop. 

Gotta get a ticket to Kona. Having a rental, not a hotel where I could just arrive makes a difference. Terry, the landlord, has been paid for Oct 31 to Dec 25. And, there are no more cheap hotels in Kona. Well, there is the Manango Hotel.  I have stayed there before. But you have to have a car to get there. And Hawai’i airports seem to be as screwed up as mainland ones. 

Time to apply Occam’s Razor and not overcomplicate getting to Kona. The idea of just getting on a plane and going to Kona seems really boring.  But, these are not normal times. Boring might be good. 

Did I mention that 5% of the inmates here have Covid? 

 

A short night of sleep followed by a surprisingly busy day finds me looking longingly at my bed. Well, when you live alone, bedtime is anytime you say it is.

We did camatkarasana AKA wild thing in yoga today. I should have “aged out” of that one, but no. It wasn’t pretty anymore. But, I didn’t hurt myself either. 

Thought I might make a little video to go with my butterfly directions. I can put a QR-Code on the directions that will link to the video. Is that geeky enough?

I had steak (rare), baked sweet potato, spinach, beer, and a double shot of espresso for dinner tonight. 

Another Monday and another trip around The Asylum with the macro lens.  Not many bugs out this afternoon. Or I didn’t stay still long enough.

I have a little sinus/allergy issue. Feels like someone stuck an icepick in my left eye. I have problems with fall pollen and leaf mold. It doesn’t usually start until September. But, things seem to be going bad earlier this year. And yes, I did a Covid test. Not Covid. 

Found the greatest thing in my vast collection of audiobooks. Way back in 2014, when Carlton was just diagnosed with a fatal cancer, I seem to have done a little retail therapy at Audible, and I bought the NPR Radio version of Star Wars. I never listened to it. Completely forgot about it. I recently found it when searching for something to listen to. Well, it was 13 episodes of old-time radio magic. Seems that George Lucas sold the radio rights to Star Wars to his alma mater, USC, for one dollar. Read about it, if interested.  It isn’t available on Audible anymore.  I will hunt around the dusty corners of the internet and see if I can find the other two radio “movies”, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

And on the butterfly front.

I am close enough to my target to slack off. I want to leave some for others to make. It’s not all about me. 

Sweet sunrise with a little fog visible along the river. And some cool low clouds. 

A rather strange day. I know 3 people who are in hospital.

One of the residents brought her dog by our table at breakfast for a final good bye. 

Nobody or dog is promised tomorrow. Enjoy every sandwich. 

(The people are all expected to make it out of hospital.)

Let’s see if I caught anything interesting with my macro lens this afternoon. This Eastern Carpenter Bee was my best. My eyes aren’t sharp enough and my hands aren’t steady enough to do better. 

Which brings up old age. It is compromises.  Accept the things I can not change. Thank you, Carlton. 

In addition to shooting bees, I folded butterflies. I have 180 all strung and 30 more waiting to be strung. Will try to be at 270 complete by this time tomorrow. 

In 2016, when I was I much younger person, I managed a head on shot of the carpenter bee. This one shows it’s wonderful “buck teeth”. 

Grateful that we still have bees at all. I have seen very few butterflies around The Asylum this year. Don’t recall many last year either. 

Another August “bonus” day. Not too hot. Not too humid. No rain.  

Big item nagging me all week: How to hang my 489 butterflies. I tried fishing line, heavy silk thread, dental floss, ribbon.  Everything was either too tedious or too tacky looking. And then I tried yarn.

Yarn works. I think I will put 30 on each string. And, each string is about 6 feet. Which means I will need about 16 strings of 30 and I’ll have to sneak the overage –  at this instant 7 – in somewhere. (We have 487 residents today.) 

Gotta figure out how to get to Kona. Air travel isn’t just a matter of throwing money at the problem these days. Have to factor in all manner of things that used to be non-issues.  It’s not so much fun as it was in the Before Time.

Speaking of Before Time. We have 16 residents with Covid at this instant. 

Woke up last night at about midnight and what did I see, but the moon. It has made it back to my side of the building.  It was actually orange-ish. But I couldn’t make it orange w/o Photoshopping it. And I was too lazy. 

Actually, I am too lazy for almost anything today. Lots of things that I should be doing. But my get up and go got up and went as the story goes. 

I will not beat myself up over this lazy spell. Just try to do better tomorrow. Actually, there is an hour before dinner. Why not spring into action and clean up my apartment for my housekeeper’s visit tomorrow morning? 

Awesome blueberry pancakes for breakfast this morning and filet is on the menu for dinner. Things are getting better. They have Roasted Eggplant w / White Beans Kale & Cream Tomato Soup on the menu tonight. And that would be one soup. They still have a ways to go. 

There I was wandering around outside. Armed only with a phone that was about to shut down because it needed electricity – BAD.  What do I see? A fine dragonfly.  Posing for me. Or rather taunting me for not having a proper camera. But, the picture turned out “fine”. 

Long long ago, there was a great origami paper cutter. It cost almost nothing and was made in Netherlands. Well, about 7 years ago, it vanished from the marketplace.  Not real surprising. Absolutely nothing works as well as that thing. Called an Envelopener. There are directions for making your own with a 3D printer. But, I don’t have a 3D printer. Don’t have the space for one anyhow. YouTube to the rescue. Some German guy has a video that shows how to make one out of old credit cards, cardboard, paper, and scalpel blades. So, I made 3 today. 2 for me and 1 for my haumāna (student). It works. Not as well as the real deal. But better than anything else. 

 

Today is my too much exercise day. About 8 years ago I started taking a yoga class at the hospital. It was really too easy for me. Well 8 years later it is too hard for me. That is really difficult to accept. I talked to the teacher about it. She agrees. But says that I should keep with the class, but just do what I can. That’s F-ing hard to accept. It doesn’t help that it is 2 hours after barre class.

A friend was hauled to the ED this afternoon. Covid. 

Major serious primary elections today. I should be more interested in the outcomes than I am. I feel very helpless and keep hearing Carlton’s John Brown talk that always ended with “I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.” 

That was just before John Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859. In Charlestown, Virginia. (Now West Virginia).

A little break from butterflies today. My student wanted to learn how to make jumping frogs!

I live next door to a grocery store that I don’t really like. So, I combined a trip to a better grocery with a walk. Passing over Four Mile Run, it is looking remarkably litter free. But no signs of the coming of autumn here. 

No, the impending arrival of autumn is heralded by “Pumpkin Spice”. For no apparent reason, people in the US will eat “pumpkin spice” anything between early September and mid-November.  I also saw “Pumpkin Spice English Muffins” today. But, Pumpkin Spice Special K was my first pumpkin spice sighting of the year. 

This week, only six weeks after my war on crappy food began, we have new improved menus. With more choices. It might have happened without my carefully planned assault. But, I was delighted to watch a friend dive into blueberry pancakes at breakfast. And, I am looking forward to a bowl of chili and a cold one for dinner tonight. 

Didn’t sleep well last night. That’s a very common old woman problem. When the estrogen goes so does the sleep cycle. Haven’t a clue why. It just happens.

One of the people at our birthday dinner last Wednesday has Covid. So we are all wondering “am I next”? The Asylum still has all manner of Covid exposure rules. (Rules which I generally ignore. Does that really surprise anyone?)

But, I made butterflies, napped, did laundry, checked the very little work that I did yesterday and sent it off. 

Tomorrow, I am supposed to have a WiFi access point installed in my room. It is promised to make things better. I’ll be happy if it doesn’t make things worse.

Folded some butterflies today. Decided that the origami installation would have one butterfly for every resident. The number varies. People go to the Asylum in the sky. And new inmates arrive. Yesterday we had 489 residents. And 489 really isn’t a lot. It will do done on or before Sept 24th. That was the date that I moved into The Asylum seven (can you believe it) years ago.

I also did a little (very little) work. Read some. Went for a fitness walk and generally enjoyed the unseasonably fine weather. 

Happy to report that the food is actually getting better.