Author: Peg

After after the storm, lots of beach glass. 99.9% of our beach glass comes from beer bottles.

Enjoying the return of my brain to normal functioning. I started reading the camera instruction book today. I started with the “Introduction”. And, I intended to read every single word up until I get to the software part.

I had an fine day. But, remember, I am very easily entertained. Started out by resupplying myself for the next two months. Got toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, bath salts, Fitbit batteries – that sort of stuff. Then I took myself to breakfast. After that, I rode the bus down to the end of road and back. The bus ride took just about as long as my New Year’s Day submarine ride. The bus ride cost $120 less. And, it was just as enjoyable. As, I said, I am very easily entertained.

It is still too cold for me to go in the ocean. Even with a wetsuit. The ocean part would be OK. It is the getting out that would be too cold.

Thoughts. Carlton would say that I should “accept what happened and get on with life with no drama or hysteria.” I think I am OK with the “accept” part. And the “no drama or hysteria” part. I don’t seem to be making much progress on the “get on with life” part.

“Get on with life” – I have been doing much thinking about the old folk’s asylum. I have been toying with going on an extended asylum search. Checking out asylums in Honolulu, Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco at a minimum. But, as I mentioned the other day – Carlton was the grownup in our little family. He sort of made it clear that I should move to the asylum that we picked out.

So, now that my brain is returning – I thought about where to live and what am I going to do. First, I love my current apartment. I love the view, I love the location, and the staff is great. I would cheerfully live there as long as my body and brain hold up. But, nobody is promised tomorrow. I do not want to end up in hospital with no place to go except the only nursing home in the area that has a vacancy. (And, in our area, the nursing home that has a vacancy is the last place you want to be. It has a vacancy for a reason.)

The “continuing care retirement community” that we picked out has been in business for 50 years. It is run by the Episcopal Church. They have very nice “independent living” apartments. Sizes from studio to huge. The view are good. Just not killer like I have now. The location is OK. It it not the pedestrian friendly neighborhood that I live in now. One has to take a bus to the metro. Now, I only have to take an elevator. (I will get a car service or at least become good friends with a cab driver.) I am comfortable in Northern VA. I know how it works, where stuff is, I have a doctor, a dentist etc here.

On the plus side. My monthly cost wouldn’t increase much. Unless I get one of the hugest units. Included in my monthly cost would be maid service, all utilities, and about one meal a day. If I am gone for 7 days – then I get a reduction in monthly charges.

And, when I am no longer sound of mind and/or body. They take care of my sorry ass. They would do for me much of what I did for Carlton over the last couple of years. Except worry. I doubt they would worry about me.

So, I am thinking that with this “continuing care retirement community”, a good elder care lawyer and a trustworthy money person – and I should be good to go for the final act. These three entities can sort of watch each other if I become unable to do my own watching.

Which sort of leads to “what am I going to do”? Well, I love going places. I will continue coming to Kona in the winter. And, I’ll go on at least one “adventure” every year. When long range travel becomes too challenging – there a lots of interesting places to go in our area. And the asylum has little field trips – when I get to the point that I can not get out and about on my own.

So, just for today, I think staying the course, staying in northern Virginia makes the most sense. Subject to change, of course.

 

There might have been better surf somewhere else in the neighborhood, but this was the best in my my walking range.

My brain is definitely starting to work a little better. I spent a couple of hours this morning organizing my new finances, paying my umbrella insurance bill, buying a US Savings bond.

I have been reading the camera manual. And, I think a got better focused surfing pictures as a result. I enjoy taking pictures of surfing as much as I enjoyed surfing 50 years ago. Funny how these things evolve.

As for my ability to read – I have plowed through more than a few trashy chic books. Think I’ll try something a little more challenging next. And, if it doesn’t work – I’ll go back to Nora Roberts. I will not beat myself up – it took 2 years to lose my reading ability. It might take 2 years to get it back.

We have a lot of pampered 1950s and 1960s era cars in our little village. This one goes to still goes to work every day.

I was totally tired today. Carlton would sort of notice that I was getting worn down, tired etc. before I did. And, he would nag me into “taking it easy”. He would remind me – oh so nicely – that I “wasn’t a spring chicken”. (I am more like a winter hen, I guess.)

Carlton is 3 months dead. 12 weeks. 84 days. Carlton died last year. It is damn lonely around here without him. He always said that I was the “brains” of our family. I may have been the brains of the family – but he was the grown up. He turned off the lights, wrote what he called bread-and-butter notes, made the bed, cleaned the bathroom, rotated the tires, and balanced his (but not my) checkbook, hung up the coats, made sure the doors were locked, took the books back to library. And, he did his best to take care of me.

Having windy cloudy day. More wind and rain expected. The news guy just said that there are 140 MPH gusts up on our mountain tops. Nothing like that down here at sea level.

Well, here I am. Starting out 2015. I took some early morning pictures and had breakfast. Then I waddled around town a bit.

I made it up to Honl’s – nobody was surfing.

Then I decided to start 2015 with a submarine ride.

At 100ft down – pictures were colorless.

So, how did I like the submarine ride. I am glad I went. But, it is so expensive that I would be hard pressed to recommend it. I only saw one fish that isn’t regularly seen at snorkel depths.

Carlton’s Little Book: I discovered that he wrote our/his address in the front and updated it each time we moved. And, it says I gave him the book in June 1987, January 1 had this unscored: “I will bury every fear of the future” and the penciled marginalia says “chest – 2013”. So, not only was I worried about his health for the last two years – he was too. He just dealt with it better. Why didn’t he deal with it by getting to the doctor sooner. Nope. Don’t go there, Peg. Nothing good going to come from thinking like that.

BTW – I got my cell phone in 2005. SO, it is 10 years old. Maybe it is time for an upgrade.

This cartoon from 2001 is my traditional post. Carlton and I did nothing for New Year’s Eve – even when we were young. So, I’ll just have a normal New Year’s Eve. With my Kindle and a nice cup of tea of company.

I want to go out for breakfast tomorrow – but “my” waitperson is spoiled. She expects her tip in origami money. So, I had to make some more tip origami money.

This fish is much harder than the stars. I can make the stars while I am sitting at the table waiting for food – but fish needs to be pre-made. I may try to expand my origami skills.

I went to yoga class and walked 5.25 miles today. But that is about it. I filled up my fridge and freezer early this morning. Then, I was given a huge bag of frozen chicken katsu and a large bag of frozen beef teriyaki. They would fill up my freezer. But, my freezer is already full.

I declared it too chilly for swimming today – the water with a wetsuit would be fine. But, one has to get out of the water. And, it is cold and windy. Sunny but chilly.

And, here is the last photo of 2014 – with a little vintage postcard treatment.

(Those people on the beach are all visitors. They don’t realized that “Baby, it’s cold outside.”)

All things considered, 2014 sucked. I believe The Queen of England would call it annus horribilis. I am not going to say 2015 has got to be better. Things can always be worse.

I really shouldn’t have that picture of Mr C – getting his toe tag on the blog today – because this is the day that we always considered our anniversary. We have been together 36 years – today. That is half my life. It was a pretty good run. If only he hadn’t been so stubborn about going to the doctor – nope – don’t go there… Carlton lived his life just like he wanted to. No percentage in “if only”.

I am culling the 2014 images. There are more than a few pictures of Mr C in various stages of poor health. I think I posted most of them. I am going to keep every single picture I took of him this year.

Carlton was watching TV – actually – I think he was watching a DVD. Most likely a M*A*S*H TV show. He was into M*A*S*H in the weeks before he died.

Chilly, really windy, sunny today. Wind is blowing 81MPH up top of our mountain at this instant.

Oh, I started reading the camera manual today. It is amazing. I am sure I read it when I got the camera – but nothing sunk in. And,today,  I realized that the music stopped. I haven’t listened to any music since Carlton died. So, tomorrow – I’ll fire up the iPod. And see if I can get the music restarted.

We had dolphins today. Bottle nose dolphins. They are fun to watch, but they don’t do many aerials.  They were in pretty close and everyone and their dog – yes real dogs not figure of speech dogs – were out swimming, kayaking and paddle boarding with the dolphins. If I had had my swim gear on I would have gone out too. Carlton didn’t like me swimming out with the dolphins. But, I didn’t promise him that I wouldn’t. I would have been perfectly safe. It wasn’t that far off shore and there were lots of people and a couple of large dogs around.

It was cloudy and chilly today. So, I didn’t do the swimming and beaching thing today. I read and lounged on my lanai. After doing my fitness walk, of course.

Went out to the Old Airport in search of whales and found parrots. Our resident flock of burrowing parrots. According to the Bishop Museum, they “…possibly escaped from Kona Airport; first reported 1990. Flock of up to 14 reported through 2007, at least, includes some young indicating breeding. Flock roosts S of Kona Surf Hotel and reported S to Honaunau Bay, N to Hapuna Beach State Park, and inland to Pu’u Wa’a Wa’a. Also known as Patagonian Conure.”

Note to Bishop Museum: At least one flock is still around and they seem to be doing just fine. And, it is sort of appropriate that I found them at the Old Kona Airport.

We also have a flock or two of red headed green parrots. Maybe I’ll run into it one day this trip. The red headed green parrots are much smaller than these burrowing parrots.

I played around with manual focus today. Still haven’t broken down and checked the manual. I think I was just careless yesterday. Today’s results were acceptable.

Been in Kona almost two months. So, this morning I sort of cleaned up my stuff. Looked in all the drawers. Cleaned out my beach bag. That sort of busy work. I’ll try to keep myself here until March 1 or so. I am really want to get back to Arlington and start doing stuff. BUT, stuff doesn’t need doing yet. Tax stuff can not be started until February at the soonest. Time to chill out.

I found some red headed parrots from last February.

I thought I would like the dive boat peaking around the rock. I was wrong, I don’t like it. And, did I take a shot without the boat. Nope.

And today’s pictures have all been deleted. I am having a bitch of a time manually focusing my new camera. Which just means, I’ll have to work at it some more. Maybe even do a little research. RTFM. Since I can read again.

Lazy sort of a day today. Lazy sort of a blog entry too.

Has it been 12 weeks??? I think so. I guess since I am not absolutely sure – I must be getting better.

Decided against killer yoga this morning and went whale hunting at the old airport. Found absolutely zero whales. I did find these cute shore birds. I know nothing about birds. So, why not learn something. I found out that this guy is a ruddy turnstone. He or she is wearing non-breeding feathers. And, I didn’t see it turning any stones. They breed up around Nome Alaska and have been known to make it all the way to Kona in about 5 days. Which is pretty impressive. The ruddy turnstone was here when Captain Cook showed up. And, it is a regular winter visitor to this day. Stay tuned for more birds.

I was enjoying a chicken sandwich and a SteinLager this noon,  when the phone rings. It is the desk. I have a package. What could it be??? Well it is another huge boatload of Widow Woman Work. I just finished reviewing the pile. Some additional research is required. At least one thing will have to wait until I get back to Arlington.  And more official copies of my marriage certificate are required. So, I’ll have to order some additional copies. But, I don’t think there is anything “serious” or “threatening” in this pile. The most recent document was dated November 7. More to come or more piling up I am sure.

I have been encouraged to “move on with my life” … Moving on isn’t so easy when you are tied up in red tape!

When I get untied… I need to visit Paris, Namibia, and Singapore.

 Had an altogether fine Xmas Day. I watched the sun come up, took myself out to breakfast, did laundry, went for a swim, rested up after all that activity and finally went to an enjoyable supper with dear Canadian friends.

About the picture. Japanese love taking pictures. They take pictures of themselves everywhere. They like taking your picture and they like you to take their picture. This is not a cellphone selfie thing. This goes back years and involves cameras. Everything gets complicated when the camera involved in the “Please take my picture” exchange is really expensive. The other day I was on the pier with my expensive enough camera and the lens that cost as much as my first new car. Three Japanese were also on the pier with gear that made mine look like it was from K-Mart. But they wanted a group picture. They were going to have to hand that REALLY expensive Nikon rig over to someone. My camera must have been past muster – they asked me to take their picture. I did. Didn’t drop the Nikon. Then, they asked if I would like my picture taken. No, I said – but then I remembered – this was a little cultural exchange thing. So, I said “No, wait, please take my picture”. I handed over my camera – and this is the result. My Xmas photo.

About 3PM this afternoon, the wind stopped and the sun came out to play. So did Santa.

Went to yoga this morning. It was still cloudy and cool at lunch time. I got a turkey, stuffing, etc plate lunch and a beer. Had a good lunch and a nap.

 

We did not get much snow. Hiʻiaka will have to try harder next time. Her sister Pele is resting now too. The lava has stopped advancing – for now.

Note to Carlton: I am having one of Auntie Shirley’s cookies and coffee at this instant. But, then I never liked to share Auntie Shirley’s cookies with you anyhow, did I?

 

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