life in the old lane

Serious case of jet lag.

Went to grocery store. And farm market. And for a small swim. And strolled around the village looking for “what’s new”.

that thing is a rambutan. You eat it.

1055 mountain time.

So far So good. We are flying over the flat part of America right now. And the snow is gone. Mr C is in the next row. I see him reading his kindle. I got mad at him this morning, it was actually good to be mad at him. It has been months since I let myself get annoyed with him. But, unplugging my WiFi is an annoy worthy action.

We got to the hotel at about 7:30 PM. I went over to the ABC Store (think 7-11) and picked up beer, sandwiches, Doritos and yogurt. That was dinner and will be breakfast. Then we went f a small walk. And then I declared myself done for the day.

Using my cell connection with the iPad right now…

Bags packed. Boarding passes printed. Toys charged. Are we there yet?

Still have a few things to do… I told Mr that he is responsible for feeding himself from 8AM tomorrow morning until noon Sunday. He filled up a ziplock bag with granola bars. If the plane makes it to Phoenix on time, I’ll get a sandwich.

When I travel alone, I eat in restaurants, bars, and grab stuff from airport food cars. But, when Mr C is along – his aversion to “eating out” reduces my dining options to Luna Bars. I do go to Starbucks and nicely ask “Do you want something from Starbucks?” “No, he will grumble, I am fine”. And, my great guilty travel pleasure is Egg McMuffins. I love Egg McMuffins. But, I only eat them in airports.

Ok – I am back… I took a break to clean out the fridge. And, I broke down and made a couple of ham and cheese sandwiches for us to take on the plane. I sort of miss the old days. When we complained about airplane food.

Hitting the Metro at about 0800 hours tomorrow morning.

Cleaned the kitchen. Picked up drugs at the pharmacy. Tossed a couple of pair of scuffy shorts, some t-shirts, several swimsuits, mask and snorkel, de minimis undergarments in my backpack. I don’t have an underwater camera at this instant. (mine flooded last winter.) But, that is why we have Amazon. I’ll take one of my cameras and my iPad Mini and the beloved iPod. And the Kindle which is not electronics gear – it is a book.  Might have to pick up additional SD cards. But, that is why we have Amazon.

Now, what am I going to do about my blubbery body? I could do the old eat half as much/exercise twice as much routine. The next 6 weeks is going to be all about ME. As long as Mr C is OK. And, I think he’ll be fine, for now.

Nope. I am not ready to leave yet. I haven’t done anything. zero. ziltch. nada. zip. Indeed, I am sort of sitting here with a deer in headlights glaze.

I was busy busy busy at the volunteer job. Hope I am less busy tomorrow.

And maybe tomorrow or Friday – I’ll spring into action. Heck, I might end up doing what I always said I’d do. Just lock the door. Go to the airport. Get on a plane. And when I get to Kona – just buy what I need. (Except for technology and camera gear of course.)

Nice sunset today. All around nice day. Before going to work, I got us tickets to Kona. And after Mr C came home from volunteering – he got our hotel room nailed down. Our division of labor – if can be best done electronically – I do it. If it is best done in person – Mr C does it.

At his volunteer job today, Carlton helped a woman, only 62, who found herself suddenly widowed with a bunch of health issues that she couldn’t deal with. She apparently has two houses. And plenty of money. But, events got away from her and she is in a very bad place and is really unable to get herself the kind of care that she needs. We can see this happening to either of us. As long as we are two – we are OK. But, as soon as we are only one – the one may not be OK.

As a result of his interaction with her – he said that as soon as we get back from Hawai’i we are going to start out of a quest for “what is next”. We are not real interested in moving to an old folks asylum… But – we really can not count on being run over by a bus. If we are very lucky, we’ll be mentally and physically fit until the end – when we will have a nice speedy exit. But, can we count on that?

I had told Carlton that if I am left alone – I’d move into an old ladies home. But, today was the first time that he acknowledged that a Plan Next is needed. A plan for me. A plan for Carlton. And a plan for both of us.

But, I got distracted – we leave for Kona on Saturday.

Gotta get back to Kona. I have friends coming in on Jan 23 from Iowa. The objective is to beat them there.

The hotel says e komo mai. Which means all we have to do is show up and they’ll find a room for us somewhere.

 

It isn’t pretty, is it? He will not be lounging in the sun sans shirt this winter. Or any other winter. You might notice that his bike is in the background. He went for a ride today. He wasn’t able to ride for a month while his hand was bandaged. (Not to mention the single digit weather.)

And that cup in the lower right. That is not a republican tea cup. It is a League of Women Voters mug. There is a donkey on the other side.

Haven’t gotten tickets to Kona yet. Mr C is sort of fussy. And he is not as perky as usual. I want to get him to Kona as easily as possible. But, without spending so much money as to send him into shock.

Only a man would ask “How can you tell you don’t fit in your wetsuit if you don’t try it on?” Oh, I know that hummer will not fit my expanded butt. And, I refuse to be humiliated by 3mm of neoprene. This year, I’ll have to let my blubber keep me warm!

 

But, pictures of ice flakes is all I have from 2014.

It was raining and foggy all day today. I went into geek mode… ripping DVDs for my iPad. And, I shopped for plane tickets. I want to leave on Wednesday. But, that doesn’t look too good. Maybe next weekend.

Carlton is very flakey. His burnt to a crisp chest that is. He sheds large flakes of skin. Rather like a snake. The “little cancer doc” wanted to see Mr C’s chest yesterday. Apparently, the doc’s reaction was OMG.

Back in October, Mr C got the green light to go to Kona. And less than 2 weeks later he was in the operating room and then spent a month under the death star.

Hope this time works better. This good to go is from the “little cancer” doctor. This doctor removed the last stitches from his hand. And, for the first time since December 9th, his left hand is not bandaged.

Time to start figuring out how to get our sorry butts to Kona. SOON.

My dentist sent this sprig of daisy home with Mr C. yesterday. He said they felt sorry for me, having to put up with him.

Made it over to the volunteer job. And walked home from the hospital. All good.

I just got this email from Evernote.

Hi, 

You are one of the very first users of Evernote and your account is on some of our earliest server hardware. 

To make your Evernote experience faster and more reliable, we will be upgrading the servers that house your Evernote account at 8am PT on Saturday, January 11th. We expect this process to take about 30 minutes. You may not be able to use some Evernote features during this time. 

…

I didn’t know that they realized I had been a user for so long. Actually longer than that. I used Evernote back when it was handwriting recognition software that was bundled with a really funky Fujitstu computer back early in the century.

I am a huge fan of Evernote.

The outdoor construction workers are back at it today. The gent above and I both watched the sun come up at about 7:20 this morning. I spent another day in hibernation. He bricked up the wall.

No jury duty today and I was not called for tomorrow either. So, hopefully, I can make it out of the apartment tomorrow. Mr C made it down to “my” dentist – who is not his dentist too since his dentist fired him. It is 8 blocks away. By the time of his appointment it was over 20°. He came back with a nice newly installed crown. Friday he gets the stitches out of his hand.

And then – Hawai’i Calls.