life in the old lane

All things considered, I would rather be in Kona.  We really need rain. But all we got was clouds. Lots of clouds.

This getting old shit sort of creeps up on you. Today, I found myself reading an email advert from NatGeo. They were trying to interest me in going on a hiking vacation. It was shocking to have to admit that I am most likely not up to a “moderate” 8 day tramp around Provence. Much less a trek up Kilimanjaro. Not ready for this yet.  The body is getting old.

Another thing I can not do is figure out how to deploy a bunch of Alexa’s throughout the Asylum to little old ladies who don’t have kids to set them up. Mostly, these little old ladies don’t have smart phones or Amazon accounts. 50 years ago, I could have figured out a clever solution. 25 years ago, I could have come up with a workable solution. Now, I can solve the problem for an individual little old lady. But, I can not figure out an “enterprise” solution for all the little old ladies.  The brain is getting old.

That is looking out my window at sunset yesterday. A fine autumn sunset. With the barest hint of changing colors. Most likely the changing colors are due to drought conditions, however.

The clouds were more interesting than the waterfront today.

The weather was nice today so, I hopped on a bus and went down to Old Town Alexandria. Just wandered around. Looking at stuff. Playing tourist. Came home. Had a little rest then dinner with my friends. An excellent early fall day.

Nothing like learning a new origami to kick your self out of a little funk. This one is special. I will be sending some off to decorate a Christmas Tree at the Museum of Natural History in NYC. This is a rather interesting model. It is attributed to Endla Saar who was an unpaid kindergarten teacher at a displaced persons camp in Estonia in the late forties. They had fir trees but no decorations. So Miss Saar came up with this star for their Christmas tree.

Found this in my email box today. Now where exactly was a degree program  Medical Cannabis when I was struggling through Kelvin-Stokes theorem? Maybe it isn’t too late to go back to college?

UMB to Offer M.S. in Medical Cannabis Science/Therapeutics

Ok, I should have this widow woman shit down pat by now. And, I think I am doing pretty good.

Today, I was very grateful for all the great years Carlton and I had. I dug out an old “burn list” for our “exit lines” CD which we listened to in the car anytime we were going to a funeral.

Name	Artist
A Change Is Gonna Come	Neville Brothers
The Far Side Banks Of Jordan	June Carter Cash
N Dis Life	Israel Kamakawiwo’ole
Looking Forward	Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Goodbye My Friend	Keali’i Reichel
Someday Soon	Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Dress Sexy At My Funeral	Smog
St James Infirmary	Louis Armstrong
Box of Rain	Grateful Dead
Tears In Heaven	Eric Clapton
Will The Circle Be Unbroken	Neville Brothers
See That My Grave Is Kept Clean	B.B. King
Only Good Times	Keola & Kapono Beamer
The End of the End	Paul McCartney

An eclectic assortment.  Rock, Hawaiian, R&B, Country. And that was kind of us. I made the first version of this for cassette tape from real vinyl records.  Every five years or so, I would tweak it. But, it always had to fit on an old school CDDA format CD.

And, I still have all those tunes on Forbin – so, I fired up the list, put on the headphones and listened. Carlton and I did a lot of talking about death and life with these tunes in the background.

Such a long long time to be gone
And a short time to be there

 

When I needed all the help in the world just to get across the street – Faye was there for me. When Faye would need a little support for the Palace, I tried to be there. This afternoon, I heard that Faye died unexpectedly. But, as she wished.

It was a good afternoon to received such somber news.

I took these pictures 5 years ago today. Carlton was coming back from a bike ride and I was going out for a little walk before cooking dinner. My camera was on burst mode and I just fired it off as he was crossing the street while I was waiting for the light. Later that evening, I deleted the pictures. And a couple of days later I got them out of the trash can. Because these are the last pictures I took of Carlton – while he was alive. We should all be riding our bikes the day before we die.

A hui hou malama pono.

Now I can say “This month I will be going back to Hawai’i.”

I take pictures of people all the time. Every now and then someone sneaks up on me. Who is this old woman?

 

Ever since I moved into The Asylum, this rather scary 7-foot tall bronze statue of a 1950’s woman has graced the atrium. After a while, you get used to her. And eventually, you can sort of like her.

The Iron Lady – whose real title is Woman Power – is the work of one of our elderly residents, Caroline Hufford-Anderson. She died at the age of 96 last week. She was active in every good cause that ever there was in Arlington for years.

I am not feeling so very perky right now. My left shoulder has gone seriously wonky. And, my left leg – which was better than the right one is feeling a little “off” today.  All part of the decay/aging process I guess. It doesn’t matter what is wrong with me. What matters is how I deal with my decaying body. For now, I am ignoring it. Nobody gets out alive.

A rather fine stink bug find. These are considered good stink bugs because they dine on other not so fine bugs. The bite the victim and then suck out their insides through that long orange tongue/straw.  Using the usual macro lens. (Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 60mm f/2.8 Macro Lens).

Called Kona. I am expected. “My” room awaits me. Speaking of Kona.

This shot is from another camera on to of The Fish Hopper. I wanted to see the Royal Caribbean Ovation of the Seas. It has about 4,000 passengers. And is about twice as big as the usual cruise ships that stop in Kona.  It doesn’t seem to have had an impact on the fishing. So, life is good in Kona.

 

A fritillary and st michaelmas daisy is a close as I can get to fall today.  Summer is hanging around a little too long for me. Enough with the heat.

I found this tiny little flowering plant in our garden. Looks like something that should pop up in spring.

Oh, now I know what it is.  It is some sort of cyclamen.  Give my elderly brain a high five for pulling that out of the mush up there.

OK, what now? Before breakfast this morning, I finished up my last four videos. After breakfast, I moved a bunch of the files off Forbin. Now, what should I be doing? This project has soaked up most of my spare time for the last 4 months or so.

I went for a walk and stopped in to check out one of my special little charities. Phoenix Bikes.  After many years in an old storage shed, they now have a nice little setup in a community center near The Asylum. But, I think that they are still good people, helping kids on lots of levels.

Spent absolutely all-day finishing up the little project for the Employee Gift Fund. By this time tomorrow, I will be done. Hey, someone over in Maryland just had a little fireworks show. Very little. But still fireworks. Thank you whoever you are in Maryland. I love fireworks.

What do I love?

1. 1. 1. Fireworks
      2. Guinness
      3. Dark chocolate
      4. Almost anykine icecream
      5. Being outside
      6. Dinner with my Asylum sisters
      7. Turtles
      8. Octopuses
      9. Butterflies
      10. Remembering the good times Mr C and I had.

Not too shabby a list. Superficial. But, that would be me.

When I get upset with my country, it is good to be reminded that people actually want to become citizens. And, it is great that the residents of The Asylum pay the citizenship fees for the employees. Elizabeth has been in the US for 11 years and she has been a housekeeper at The Asylum for 9.

The current fee for a U.S. citizenship application is $725. That total includes $640 for application processing and $85 for biometrics services, both of which are nonrefundable, regardless of whether the U.S. government approves or rejects an application. A non-trivial chunk of change.

Diligently working to finish my project for the Employee Gift Fund. It has gotten to the brutally boring phase. Being sure that everything is lined up. All the transitions are smooth. And, that I am not going to bore everyone to death or offend too many people.

Went out this afternoon for a little nature photography. I took the Olympus 60mm micro  4/3s macro lens.

As luck would have it – the first thing I found was a robin. So, I shot the robin with my macro lens.

And then I found a nice butterfly.

 

Got home from the office.  Tired as usual on Wednesday.  After a much needed little nap, I discovered that my Pen F camera had just returned from the shop. I started getting the settings back as I want them, and went out for a couple of bee shots.

The camera seems to be “good as new”. Now, if only I can get the settings reset  to what I like! Back in the day it was ISO 400, F8, and whatever shutter speed seemed OK or the lightmeter suggested. And that was it as far as settings went.

Got my flu shot today too. I got it in my “bad arm”. Figured that I would give that damn arm something to complain about. And, at least I still have one “good”  arm/side to sleep on. When you get old, you discover that if you have two of a thing – one will go bad. Guess that is whey we get two arms, legs, eyes, etc.

Anyhow, the bad arm hurts like crazy now.

Updated my iPads to iPadOS 13.1 . It was a quick update. And, except for a dark mode, I haven’t seen much new. But, I haven’t played around a lot yet either. As you might imagine – I live DARK mode.

It’s Aloha Wednesday. No work ’til Monday.

The big bee up in the header was taken with my  Olympus 60mm micro  4/3s macro lens. And the other bees are with the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-150mm f/4-5.6 II Lens.