life in the old lane

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.

Or maybe Pele did it. But, wait. I believe that Poliʻahu is responsible for snow on Mauna Kea. She and Pele are enemies. So, Pele could have melted Poliʻahu’s snow. 

It was rainy this morning. Incredibly humid around noon, promisingly clear now.

Today did not go as  planned. Well, yoga happened on schedule. I went to get lunch and discovered that the restaurant only did take out that you had to order in advance. OK. Well, I decided to get some cash. The bank’s cash machine wasn’t working. Time for what happens is what I planned.

Went up to the grocery and got a chicken katsu bento for lunch. Also lilikoi (passionfruit) cheesecake. (Cheesecake from a Japanese grocery store bears no resemblance to real cheesecake – but it is still yummy.)  I plan to have lilikoi cheesecake for dinner.

Accomplished zero today. Does an old woman really have to accomplish something every day? Maybe just getting into my undies without falling on my head is a sufficient accomplishment. 

Plan B. No need to spring out of Kona.

I made it out today. It was wet this morning but now it is just “damp”. We got rained on first. It is over Honolulu way today. This is sort of Hawaii’s version of a Nor’Easter.  Some of the island’s cancelled school today. That would be like a snow day.

Only my Asylum friends will understand my excitement when I got to light a real candle with a real lighter last evening as the power flickered on and off. (No flames not even birthday candles, is one of the rules at The Asylum.) 

The power was back on this morning. I managed to get the lanai stuff back outside with only one major slice to my leg.  Might have been a bit premature. It seems to be getting a bit cloudy.

But, it was actually a good day for metal detecting. Mother Nature mixed up the sand very nicely. This guy was finding lots of change. 

Plan B: No action.