go! didn't

Well here we are in Hawaii. Actually in the waiting area for our flight to Kona on go! airline. This area has really lived up to its name today. Lots of people just like us are waiting. And waiting. And waiting. And playing cards and video games, texting, computing, playing tag with their kids and anything else that will pass the time and keep everyone sane. Flights have been cancelled and delayed because of an equipment failure. When you only have a few planes and one of them breaks, it really messes things up.

After we wrestled our way through security and settled in, we found out that our 5:30 flight was delayed to 7:55, then 8:30. About an hour after we settled in I found out that there is another Kona flight delayed until 7:30 and asked if there was room on it. There was, and they rebooked us and said they are moving our one checked bag, so we have our fingers crossed.

When we got here, there was one little refrigerated snack stand with lots of drinks, one sandwich and one salad. We grabbed the sandwich and a tiny bag of chips ($11+). It’s been two hours and the salad, not surprisingly, is still there.

O’s mini power strip, plugged in to one of the only visible outlets in the gate area, has managed to make lots of new friends. And as you can see, we have coughed up the money for an internet connection.

Trees ARE plants!

Today, there was a workman at our house. He asked me about my poinsettia, which stands at a stately 5'7" this year. I told him it was a poinsettia. He exclaimed, "They're trees!?! I thought they were just plants!" Yes, it is both a tree AND a plant. Just in case you were unclear on that.

Little Boy Lost

Today for some reason I have been thinking of someone that I don't even know- I just know of him. A few miles from here there is a little boy in a really tough spot that he has no real control over. He has plenty of worries in his little heart - Where will he spend Christmas? Why can't he find a family to love and be loved by? Why can't he ever be "good enough" to be loved? What will happen to him? Where will he be a year from now? He's pretty much stopped believing in himself and the future. I wonder- will he become a truly lost child?

I don't know why I thought of him today, but I did. Maybe you all can think about him, too, and carry a prayer in your heart for a little boy who just needs someone to love him and believe in him and hang in there with him. And say a prayer too, for the Mom and Dad who can give him everything he needs. They are out there somewhere. They probably haven't met him yet, but maybe we all can pray him into their hearts.

LOL

I am watching (thank you TiVo!) BYU Devotional (or maybe Forum- is there a difference?) and the speaker is Lynn Truss, author of "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" (which I must acquire and read someday, along with her other book "Talk to the Hand"). The book is about the importance of punctuation. About halfway into her speech, the subject of that popular, but comma deficient, road sign "slow children crossing" came up. Someone at a book reading once asked her if slow children crossing grew up to be slow men at work. Too, too funny (to me anyway)!

Calibrate This!

Most of Somebody's Children will remember Somebody's Parent telling them that it was important to learn to apply mathematics to their everyday lives. After all, "Nobody at work has ever asked me to work a page of math problems."

Well, yesterday somebody gave me a page of math problems to work. (News flash- just in case you forgot- I am not in school any more!) I just had to smile and think of a certain Parental Unit and think about how WRONG he was. To his credit though, it was "word problems" which is sort of everyday life. Here are some sample problems:

1. Calculate the approximate speed of a self-propelled sprayer that has an average completion time of 31.5 seconds over a course of 140 feet.

2. Calculate the nozzle delivery rate, in gallons per minute, for a sprayer that will travel at 1.5 mph, apply 2 gallons per 1000 square feet with a nozzle spacing of 20 inches.

3. A spray nozzle originally delivers 2.75 gallons per minute when operated at 25 pound per square inch. Calculate the psi required to deliver 2.5 gallons per minute.

Fortunately, I never have to actually use this information. I just have to know it. And by the way, I got the questions right! Not bad for a math-phobic little grandma.

All the pretty little ponies

So I was walking through a market last week, minding my own business when something in the beverage cooler caught my eye and I had to stop. Sure enough, it wasn't my imagination. Maltas. And not just any Maltas, but Pony Maltas. The real deal. Being a good Mother-in-law (OK-well maybe just TRYING to be a good one) I stopped and picked up a few. Then as I turned away from the cooler, what did I see behind me? More Pony Maltas; stacks of cases of Pony Maltas. In two different sizes. (I'm not sure, but I think the heavenly choir might have sung a chord or two.)

If you haven't ever had a Pony Malta, join the club. I have never had one and don't intend to have one because I am not into malted non-alcoholic beverages. But I know a certain Colombiano who LOVES them. So I put the cold ones back and got a few small ones to bring home.

Sadly (for someone), I have decided to keep them here for future use. Just in case they get scarce again before someone comes to visit. Besides- I don't think Tita has any room left in her suitcase.



Want one? Come and get it!

What's the deal with that, anyway?

So the strangest thing happened this week. Twice. Early in the week, someone pulled over when they saw me out doing yard work, dug around in their car and pulled out two styrofoam cups, each with a big, (dead) spider in it. They had a friend who had found them and wanted to know what they were so they brought them to me. Hmm. I'm not spiderwoman. I'm not even the Spider Whisperer. I told her they looked like some kind of Wolf spider, but that I would see what I could find out. Later I set up my camera scope and computer, took some pictures of them and emailed the shots to a genuine spider whisperer that I know. (and I was right, they were wolf spiders, just really huge ones that were probably 3 1/2 to 4 inches across when they were alive instead of all curled up and shriveled in a cup).


Then Sunday night I got a phone call from someone in our stake. Their kids were freaking out about an insect they had found in the house. I had the dad describe it and then gave him a couple of names to image google. And yes, I was right about that one, too. It was a Jerusalem Cricket.


I don't know what's going on, but if it's a trend, we've got a problem.