Nobody is Promised Tomorrow. . .
Sunrise at the old airport. And it is boat day as well.
Lucky you come Hawai’i.
I got an email this afternoon from the apartment management basically announcing the end of life on the planet as we know it because of the incoming cold. Glad I am not worrying about a house.
Time for a nice cup of Kona’s finest – medium roast peaberry.
No new photos today – But, I did delete a bunch of images and got 10GB back. However, I did miss a photo op. A boat ran aground about 1.5 miles south. I walked down that way late this morning – just to keep the FitBit happy. And, I decided not to take my camera. Well, as you might imagine – when I got about a mile up the road – there were two what looked like commercial fishing boats hauling the wrecked boat off the rocks. A couple of fearless divers stuffed floaties under the boat. Things seemed to be going well. I’ll read about it tomorrow.
I have mentioned that our little drinking village with the fishing problem is not exactly 21st century ready. For instance – we can not afford to open the beach/public restrooms on holidays. A little lame – but – this is Kona. What do you expect?
Well, one hopes that Honolulu/Waikiki can keep their public/beach bathrooms open everyday. Usually they do. But yesterday, the biggest restrooms were closed. Waikiki ran out of toilet paper. Yep, we have Costco here in Hawai’i. You would think that someone would have been resourceful enough to just go buy a case or two. But, no, they just closed the potties. Take that beach going visitors. Welcome to paradise.
I went to lunch today with 3 other widow women. There was a thing on TV yesterday about some guy who died last year – but he had arranged for the local florist to deliver flowers to his wife for the rest of her life. We four women noted that we never got valentine flowers from our husbands while they were alive. And none of us felt unloved for lack of flowers either while our guys were alive or dead.
Except for doing my FitBit walking and a little swim – mostly I post processed yesterday’s images. Have I mentioned that my free disk space is down to 71GB. Better find the DELETE key soon!
I really have to address the “going back east” issue. I think I have more stuff than I started with. Wrong, I know I have more stuff. At the very least – I have the turtle purse project. And, some beach glass, shells, etc. Well, to quote Scarlett – I’ll think about that tomorrow.
At this instant I am hungry. Maybe a little salad featuring avocado.
Note to self: Don’t put origami butterflies in the purse/tote bag.
Yes, here I am wearing the damn white dress again. Function at Carlton’s Palace. I was a worker bee.
It was a long day. Help set things up. Work in the kitchen. Change clothes. Take pictures. at ceremony. Change clothes. Eat. Clean up. Put things away. Take pictures at concert. Final kitchen clean up. Go home (with leftovers). Post process pictures.
About the post processing. Everyone was wearing white dresses. A post processing nightmare. Why didn’t I shoot raw? I wasn’t thinking.
And that is it for today’s post.
Wind is HOWLING around. But, it is just wind. Not a blizzard. We might be getting a bunch of rain this evening. But, tomorrow is supposed to be fine.
There seems to be no phone service (again). A contractor cut a massive cable earlier this week. Most folks didn’t realize that when the landline is cut – you might lose your cell service too. The stores really hated it. They couldn’t take plastic. If you needed 911 you were out of luck. Apparently many folk suffered mightily from smart phone deprivation. The phones are apparently out again this afternoon. At least that is what they said on TV.
No Valentine’s Day grief. Carlton didn’t celebrate Valentine’s Day. He did commemorate the day, however. Captain Cook was killed down the road from here on February 14, 1779.
I gave out my origami hearts, walked to Target, worked on my turtle purse, read, napped just took it real easy today.
A sort of lazy day. Yoga. Walked 6.5 miles. Talk story. Origami hearts. Read a book under my favorite coconut tree. Might not have been too smart since it was very windy.
Yoga was outdoors. Just like in Yoga Journal. Right on the ocean. Under coconut trees. Best yoga venue ever. It was windy and my hair wasn’t all that well secured. When I got home, I found a big harmless black bee tangled up in my hair.
Wind is today’s theme. The wind brings change. It is time. Time to move on. What ever that means.
Enjoyed an All American Day: 2 National Parks, US Post Office, Fine coffee right at the mill, Breakfast at Denny’s and a stop at Costco. It doesn’t get much more American than that.
Started the morning off with a trip south to Pu’uhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park. There were whales. I only had the plastic lens, so no photos. No photos of sea spray rainbows either.
Next – Peaberry coffee, a stop at the post office, breakfast at Denny’s and a visit to Costco.
And finally – visit Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park. Most of us old hippies call this park “The Old Nude Beach”.
We (my friend Billy and I) started out at 0630 hours and I logged 4.93 miles on the FitBit. I worked on my craft project, took a tiny swim, lounged under “my” coconut tree this afternoon. An altogether fine day.
BTW – One of “my” financial institutions want me to sign up for visual and voice recognition login options. Sounds fine – but wait – what if said financial institution gets hacked. The cyber criminals would not only have my name, address, ssn and credit card number but a photo too. So, what is to stop them from making their own Peg Bethany Photo ID??? Gotta think about this. Of course there aren’t that many Peg Bethany’s around – so I guess they could come up with a photo anyhow…
As for the voice recognition part – I know I have an awful voice – not sure anyone would want to steal it!
I have just realized that I am getting down to my last couple of weeks here in Kona. A couple of weeks ago, when I got the ticket home, I made a going home “to do list”. Then, I promptly forgot that I was actually going to be heading east.
So –
I took a picture of my fantastic salad. I’ll try to remember it in a couple of months when all the veggies on the east coast have come from hundreds of miles away. This salad was all from Big Island – except for the raspberries. Raspberries from California are cheaper here than they are in Virginia – so – raspberries not tomatoes.
I know that several non-US folk read this blog. Thanks!… So, here is a little run up to the next topic.
In way too many parts of the United States way too many people are “armed and dangerous”. Three apparently upstanding Muslim young people were shot by Craig Hicks in Chapel Hill North Carolina last night. There were rumors that this was a hate crime against Muslims.
Now, let the rant begin… According to the Washington Post:
Later on Wednesday, Hicks’s wife insisted that the shooting was only due to parking arguments and not to any bigotry. “I can say with my absolute belief that this incident had nothing to do with religion or victims faith, but in fact was related to the long-standing parking disputes that my husband had with the neighbors.
Now, exactly how is killing three unarmed people over a parking space better than killing three unarmed people over religion?
Another note to non-US readers. Actually if the killing was over religion – that is a federal offense. Killing someone over a parking space is a state offense.
Which reminds me of one of Flip Wilson’s Reverend Leroy routines – Rev Leroy updated the 10 commandment – to include “Thou Shalt Not Kill – Unless they cut you off on the freeway”. BUT, HELLO, it was humor not how to live your life.
Found this fine old Ford at the old airport this morning. Gotta love anything that is older than I am that still works.
After a walk around the beach and the Maka’Eo Walking Path – it was off to the all day craft project to make a little turtle purse.
This is what the project is supposed to look like when it is done.
However, my turtle purse has a long way to go. Very long. Maybe even impossibly long. I refuse to be discouraged. I also think that my little hotel room is not a suitable for working on the turtle. SO, I boxed the turtle and all of it’s parts up. I’ll just send it back to Virginia. And work on it in my well lighted living room.
Note to Carlton: Yes, I will finish it. I do not need to hear about your first wife and her unfinished projects again. But, it might take 6 months. What say, I’ll try to get it done by the anniversary of your death. Not one day at a time … one bead at a time.
Winter here today. Not cold. Not even chilly. But windy with choppy sea. From my bed, I can see the mast light on the sailboat above – so – I can keep track of the weather all night long.
I went on a “fast” 3 mile walk this morning and then had a fine yoga class on the beach. Our teacher didn’t show up. But that didn’t stop the class. Just do it. I finished off my walking with another 2 miles at a stately pace. All this left me tired – so I took the afternoon off.
I lost my mind last week and signed up for an all-day craft class tomorrow. I think I am trying to get ready for the old ladies asylum. I have NEVER taken a craft class. I don’t do crafts. On the plus side – I went to pick up my class ticket – they gave me a nice little package the included some chocolate. That is a promising start. I’ll report on the class tomorrow.
Smart boaters move to any safe harbor they can access when the ocean gets crazy. The Kinikini was leaving anchorage and the second crew member swam out to the sailing canoe.
Note to Carlton: Your friend, Chris died on Saturday. He took roses to Harpers Ferry for you – I feel I should take roses to Gettysburg to honor him.
Nice little sunset yesterday in the village.
Had I nice day today. Frankly, I have had a lot of nice days here in Kona. I may have mentioned that for I while I was concerned that I wasn’t sufficiently bereaved. Whatever that means. Finally, I figured out that I was bereaved every single day from December 2, 2012 until October 3, 2014. I was shocked and surprised on October 3 when I found Carlton dead. But I wasn’t any sadder than I had been on October 2. As the shock wore off so did the sadness. I had prepaid my grieving.
Some random thoughts:
Found a couple of pikake plants this morning. The pikake is an unimaginably fragrant tiny flower. It grows on a slightly thorny bush.
According to the University of Hawai’i:
Pikake is the Hawaiian name for a jasmine, Jasminum sambac, which is one of about a dozen Jasminum species grown in Hawaii as ornamentals. The name is adapted from the word “peacock,” because the Hawaiian Princess Kaiulani reportedly was fond both of this flower and the bird. … J. sambac is known as sampaguita in the Philippines, where it is the national flower, gunda mallige in India, mo li in parts of China, and Arabian jasmine in the mainland USA. It is grown commercially in India, Thailand, China, and the Philippines for its fresh flowers, which are also used to make perfume and as flavoring for tea. In Hawaii, pikake is grown in landscapes and gardens and by commercial producers of lei flowers.
In lei making, buds are strung soon after they are harvested. A single lei strand is 36–38 inches long. The number of buds in a single strand of buds strung lengthwise varies with the length of the strand and the time of the year. During summer when the buds are large, about 85 are needed to make a single strand. During winter when the buds are smaller, about 125 buds may be needed. A large, fancy rope lei with the buds strung crosswise takes approximately 1000 buds. A pikake lei can be kept for 4–6 days with no loss of fragrance or quality when stored in a plastic bag at 40–45°F.
Above, we have the Password Directory. Sold by The Container Store. Now, I don’t know about you – but that looks a heck of a lot like my Mother’s address book. And, how safe would that be anyhow?