Nobody is Promised Tomorrow. . .
Today was the Kona version of a “snow day”. Not a big ass blizzard, just a nice snow that you would just as soon not go out into. A by-the-fire coffee and brandy and book day.
What better way to spend the day than by attempting the 30-unit icosahedron? How hard can it be? Right.
I also cleaned the kitchen and had pumpkin pie.
Now, Dinner?
It start out rainy.
Then the sun came out. So I went out for a walk. It was hot.
Finished my 2nd 12-unit Sonobe Kusudama. And I started on a 30-unit version. Time will tell if I can finish it.
But wait. There might be a nice sunset across the street.
Pretty good. Really cool clouds.
Made myself a peanut butter and banana sandwich for dinner and thus another day in exciting downtown Kailua-Kona comes to a close.
My RSV shot and very early morning yoga class left me exhausted by 9:30 this morning. Fortunately, by a little after one this afternoon, I perked up enough to go for a swim. The ocean was delightful.
And a humuhumunukunukuapua’a came a swimming by.
And I took myself out for an early dinner. You know, old people don’t like to drive after dark. Well, this old person has gotten so I’m not particularly eager to walk after dark. I am not afraid of being robbed assaulted or otherwise violated. I am afraid of tripping on our not too even sidewalks!
Not a really exciting Monday so far. And, hey, that’s OK. Today’s major accomplishment was to get my RSV shot. At Safeway. Because you get a coupon for 10% off your grocery bill. Groceries. Not booze or ciggies. And, it may prevent me from getting RSV, which I am not in the least bit worried about getting. But, I am sure I’ll need additional groceries before heading back to the mainland. The shot cost me zero. So, why not go for 10% off groceries?
So. What do I, the great complainer about the food back at the asylum, actually eat while I am here?
Papaya and cottage cheese may seem pretty lame. But, I love it. Of course, the papaya has to be perfect. But, that’s the way Hawaiian papayas are. Perfect. Papayas are not perfect in Northern Virginia. In fact, they aren’t even edible.
So I steamed some shrimp and fried some bacon and an egg. How hard is that? I don’t really cook. I sorta assemble things on a plate or in a bowl.
Stopped by the pier on my way back from the grocery early this morning.
But by the time I decided to go for a swim… there was rather a lot of chop and the really protected side of the pier was otherwise occupied.
That’s Waimau and an unrelated juvenile male. Waimau is the largest female monk seal on Big Island. She is at least 200 pounds overweight. And how did this happen? She’s one smart seal.
Off the Kona coastline, there is a Kempachi fish farm to grow and harvest fish for the markets and restaurants of Big Island. Waimau was the first seal to figure out how to get fish out of the nets. (Other seals learned from her. She must have learned by watching dolphins.)
Waimau is so good at getting fish from the nets that she has become rather large. She is now estimated to weigh over 600 pounds, which is more than double the average weight of a female monk seal.
Despite her weight, Waimau is a healthy seal. She is able to swim and dive for long periods of time, and she frequently goes out to visit with groups who dive at night from the harbor. (Which isn’t far from the fish farm!)
Hey Hey Hey. Beautiful Sunday.
Billy calls up wanting an early walk and breakfast. I’m in. And he shows up with a quart of lobster bisque from the remains of Thanksgiving.
We drink our coffee and head off on a little walk. We see the Anawa’s helicopter heading to the airport. Either picking up or delivering people to the private plane departure lounge at our airport. Our airport runs an excellent private big jet operation. Some years ago there was a bit of a stink because it cost more to park a car at the airport than it did a plane. Don’t know if that is still the case.
Then we head off to our favorite breakfast joint.
We have an excellent view of the ‘copter returning. It made several other trips to the airport and back while we were eating.
The rest of the day I read, rested, cataloged photos, and thought about working on origami. It’s only 16:15 so, I still might get origami in.
Black and white photo is my only contribution to Black Friday. I never really understood how one was actually saving money by buying something that was “on-sale”. One saves money by not spending it in the first place.
Speaking of spending money. Jorge Paulo Lemann knows how to spend money. His yacht, Anawa is parked out front today.
Anawa was launched in 2020 and is 203 feet long. (The ship I went to the Arctic on was 456 feet.) It cost about $100 million to build and outfit and another $10 million per year to operate. It has space for a crew of 20 and 12 passengers.
And what did I see later but the matching helicopter flying by. Our little village really loves seeing a mega yacht show up.
I have sweet potato, avocado pie and kabocha pie in my to-go bag. In Hawai’i you are always sent home with a “plate”.
And you gotta love it. MaryEllen extended an invite for next year. Never mind that I am 79 and she is 89.
Thankful for my extended ohana. Everywhere.
Walked quickly to Tiki’s early this morning and made it back home quickly as well. Trying to increase my walking speed to get more cardio. Got 2.5 good quick miles in before 7 AM this morning.
I decided that brisk walking is for exercise. But swimming is for fun. So, for fun, I went to the pier for a little swim. A very little swim, I didn’t even take my fins. Spent the last 15 minutes swimming around with this guy. He/she is a 3-4 foot cornetfish
The video is the last couple of minutes of our swim. This is unedited. Just me swimming around. Without fins. But, it was fun and he/she did the only color trick our cornetfish know how to do.
It was a fine day here in exciting downtown Kailua-Kona.
Finalized my San Franciso plans last night. After much consultation with Google maps.
Started out the morning with coffee, bananas, granola bars, and Billy at Old Airport.
The fire department put on a very fine water search show for us. We didn’t know if it was for real or for drill.
By and by we headed off for a small walk and a big breakfast.
So, what else did I do? I figured out how to get from the San Francisco Airport to near the San Francisco Amtrak Bus stop at about 10 PM (travel gods willing) on Xmas Eve. BART. The last BART leaves the airport at 11:30. The plane might land at 9:30 PM (the aforementioned gods willing) It has a good chance of working.
Next problem. How to pay for the BART trip. $10. But, of course, money is useless on transit systems. Well. GooglePay. I went to my trusty Google Wallet, and told it I wanted a “Clipper Card” with $10 on it. And slick as can be, it happened. Two problems solved.
Developed a Plan B. The 296 bus that will leave the airport at 5:45 AM on Xmas morning. It will get me to the Amtrak Bus bus on time. And, if Plan B fails, then I am totally screwed. It has happened before. It will happen again.
Now, All that remains is to optimistically get a hotel reservation in downtown San Fran. Don’t think it’s a really safe town for an old woman with luggage to sleep on the street. Getting to a hotel a couple of blocks from BART could be dicey enough. I could just get a car service pick-up. But, where’s the excitement in that?
Well, I wasn’t actually a complete slug today. I just don’t have a great answer to “What did you do today?”
This exquisite paper was too fine to use. However, it proved to be exceptional for folding elegant cranes. Despite the temptation to hoard such exquisite paper, I decided to put it to good use. After all, I had acquired it at Kona Hospice Thrift Shop, a place where many items come from the homes of the dearly departed. Perhaps someone had been saving this paper for a special occasion. And what could be more special than a Thanksgiving dinner invitation from a dear friend, complete with pickup and delivery service? So, that’s what I am taking to Thanksgiving dinner. A box of cranes.
And, the crane project is in keeping with my “Use up the good stuff” mission.
Waiting a stop light returning from a 3 mile walk this morning a man says “You don’t know me but I knew your husband. We talked on the pier every day. I miss him. How long has it been?”
Would that I had just one minute, even 15 seconds with Carlton. I would say that I was the luckiest woman on the planet to have shared my life with you. I am sure I said those words to him when he was alive. But, I never really understood how very lucky I actually was until he was gone.
The day was so lazy that I made a paper airplane and flew it around inside the condo. Also made some outstanding cranes. Well, the cranes were just normal cranes. But, I found 8 pieces of outstanding folding paper at the thrift shop. $6 for 8 pieces of paper. They know the value of good origami paper here. So, I am turning the wonderful paper into cranes. I may need to up my origami paper game. Which would require a trip to Japan perhaps.
Trying to get back into serious walking. Slacked off for 5 days on Kaua’i.
There’s more than just chickens on Kaua’i. There are about 400,000 chickens and 55,000 pigs.