life in the old lane

Hotels you just leave. Vacation rentals that you might want to use again, you have to sort of tidy up. Especially since you are dealing with the owner directly. The old owner would take me to the airport. Not 100% sure about this one. I’ll text them tonight. Transportation on Xmas Eve is iffy.  My backup plan is to get my friends that I am having breakfast with to take me to the airport VERY early. But, I have to know that before 7:30 AM tomorrow.

The Journey.  Lots of moving parts. 
Auto, Plane, Bart, Bus, Train, Train, Metro, Metro, 16M Bus, Old Bat Cave

Stopped off at the pier on my way home from collecting my breakfast at the grocery.

About not having a car: You get a lot of exercise without exercising when you don’t have a car. You want a KTA spam musubi and you have a car. You drive. You want a KTA spam musubi and you don’t have a car. You walk. And get 2 miles of walking. 

Don’t get me wrong. I love trash collection. Not so fond of watching/smelling the trash go into the truck and then getting squashed. 

Still cool and cloudy in always sunny except when it’s not Kona. I wandered down to Honls and sat on a rock for a long time. Just watching the ocean. 

Not happy about returning to The Building. Today next week’s menus arrived. And I realized that menu was my menu starting with dinner next Thursday. 

During the winter festive holiday season, The Building residents engage in Creche Wars. Until Covid, I was blissfully unaware. 

This sign apparently appeared by one of the Creches. I was preparing to write a snarky email response when, ever helpful Gmail suggested that “Nice poem” would be a good response. That’s way snarkier than I could come up with. 

I’d much rather sit on a rock at Honls. 

Honls is where the boogie board was invented in 1971. Read about it in my post from 2021.

Just got invited to a Xmas Party at the Tattoo Studio. How cool is that?

Once again is the traditional Bethany/Combs Solstice greeting.

Wishing everyone the best of the festive season – no matter what it’s called at your house. In pagan traditions, the solstice is a time to put away the things of the old year and look forward to the new. One observance of the solstice involves extinguishing all the fires in your home before midnight on the eve of the solstice and lighting a new fire the next day. This probably won’t be quite as symbolic if you have central heating. Or if you are in Hawai’i. 

The winter solstice falls on December 21 – the word solstice means “sun stopping.” The winter solstice is the day on which the sun reaches as far south of the equator as it gets, and is as such the shortest and darkest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. The solstice marks the rebirth of light for the coming spring.

The winter solstice also marks, among other things, the druid festival of Alban Arthuan – a time for bestowing gifts upon those less fortunate than ourselves. Out of this observance has grown the more popular tradition of gift-giving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, maxed-out credit cards, and 70% off sales. May the goddess be with you during this season – but don’t blame her if you get fruitcake again. 

Carlton and I did not celebrate Xmas. But, we did observe the solstice. Summer and Winter.

GRATITUDE

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I am grateful for that which I have.
I am not sorrowful for that which I do not.
I have more than others, less than some,
I am blessed with what is mine.

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May we survive another trip around the sun. 

This morning, it seemed like it was time to begin breaking camp. Washed all the beach towels. Stashed all of my stuff carefully away in the closets and cabinets. (Stuff: one pair of cheap but much loved yellow and blue fins, one blue yoga mat, one omelet pan, and one wetsuit.) I don’t expect to see any of this stuff again. But if I do, I will be happy. My snorkel mask and pipe, they are coming home with me. 

Checked out Kona coffee selection at my grocery store.  They don’t have any of this year’s prize winners – but – no one does. Friend Paul will have to make do with good Kona coffee. Not this year’s greatest. The prices are for 6 to 8 ounces.

The Twilight Zone. One of the unfortunate side effects of old age is the complete failure of the epidermis. Skin is supposed to keep the inside in and the outside out. This convinced me that a tattoo was a very bad idea. 

Really strange afternoon. My rental unit changed ownership during my stay. The new owner stopped by. Don’t think she had ever seen the joint. Or shall we say really looked at it.  I showed her around then we went out for happy hour. She will take me to the airport. 

Woke up this morning. (Hey, that’s a good thing.) And discovered that the MacBook AKA Forbin wouldn’t connect to WiFi. The phone did, the iPad did, and the watch did. But, not the mothership. The Mac did make a hotspot connection to the phone. So, things are OK-ish. 

It’s wintery here. Didn’t make it to 70° today. And, it is rainy now. Got instant ramen, homemade lilikoi cheesecake, Kona coffee and one beer. No need to go anywhere or actually cook this evening. 

Wifi just barely working this evening.

So, I’ll post this to let you know that the Old Bat is alive and well. 

The Twilight Zone

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Yesterday I got 18 cans of beer. Today I gave 16 cans of beer to the building cleaning woman. She was so happy. It made me happy. Lots happier than drinking 16 cans of beer would have made me.

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Well, wifi is good enough to sneak a few images in. From this morning’s walk to the bank.

Ok. A bowl of instant ramen for dinner? Or go out and get something? Out is winning. 

Lazy Sunday. There was the Annual Jingle Bell Race, but I didn’t take my camera to breakfast. The announcer said there were 500 people. It looked more like 100 – 150 to me. But, it was very festive. As usual. 

Had breakfast with friends. Right along the race route. It wasn’t a serious race. Many of the “competitors” came in for breakfast. 

Last night I was in grumpy old woman mode with my neighbors for being noisy. Well, they were leaving today and brought a suitcase of decent beer and some instant ramen over. I really shouldn’t attempt to drink 18 beers in 7 days. Oh, I could do it. But…

The Twilight Zone

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But, at somewhere between 79 and dead, Just because you can do something doesn’t always mean you should. Moderation only leads to long life.

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Thanks to those of you who encouraged me to not hang up the blog. I don’t think I was serious about stopping. And. And this is truly horrible. What if The Orange Lord comes back? I will need somewhere to chronicle the death of the republic. If he doesn’t come back, then, if I don’t get the good and speedy death that Carlton got, I will need somewhere to chronicle the inevitable decline of this old bat.

PS: This is a sweet story from a few days ago. 

Snorkeling company rescues paddling coach who got separated from canoe in rough Kona waters

Not much going on today. Went down to the pier about an hour ago to see what was happening. Other than a fight among some young men, which some old women broke up, nothing was happening. 

There are a lot worse things than nothing happening. I’ll just enjoy the rest of the day. A cup of Kona coffee. A book. Life is good.

 

The time between Thanksgiving and  Xmas is the quietest time of year in the village. On Xmas day – as soon as the first planes land from the coast the island starts filling up.  Except for our usual Wednesday visit from the Pride of America, there will not even be any more ships until 2024. 

Today was “brisk” walking day. So, I briskly walked to Ace Hardware for some origami paper. I want to make some of those balls that I am learning to make to give to friends here and to anyone I meet on the trains. Assuming I make it to the train. The 12 hours between the arrival of my flight and departure of my train requires some magical thinking. 

Gratitude

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It is a wonderful life!
Filled with friends who are family and family who are friends.

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Now for the big decision of the day: Steak, poke, or barbecue for dinner?

It seemed like it should be the weekend. Nevermind that the weekend would be busier in the village. 

I am about the most boring old woman on the planet. Everything is going along nicely. Maybe it’s time to hang the blog up. I don’t mean that. How many old ladies have a 22-year-old blog?  And I do like looking back and realizing that I was always crazy. Frequently boring. And usually cynical. 

In this case, AI isn’t nearly as imaginative as real people! Score one for the humans. 

Billy stopped by this morning with two hands of bananas from their acreage. Looks like I’ll be enjoying peanut butter and banana sandwiches for the next 10 days. I went to the post office the other day and a stranger gave me several avocados. Fish shows up from time to time. Everyone is looking after old Auntie Peg. I am more at home in this drinking village with a fishing problem than I am at “home”. 

Don’t get me wrong. I have the finest accidental family that anyone could hope for back East. But this is where I find peace, tranquility, and simple pleasure. 

Just another winter day in Kona. Yoga, swim, origami, read, visit, drink coffee, the usual. 

The predator fish were absent this morning so the school was just hanging out and hoping that something to eat would swim into their mouth.

Nohu is one of my very favorite fish to accidentally find. This big one is doing a great impersonation of a rock. You don’t want to step on him. He has nice sharp venomous spines. Unlike some of his relatives in other parts of Polynesia, nohu’s string will not kill you. But it will run your day. He has nice red and orange fins that he flashes when annoyed. I decided it would be rude to disturb him just so I could admire his fancy fins. 

And that was about it for the day.