Tuesday, Day two

We started our day by going to the temple. It is a nice little temple. Here is a picture of the flowerbed near the door.

Then we went shopping at some of the exotic local shops- Safeway, Target, Costco (home of the 4-lb. can of tuna), did a little hanging-out, and ended the day at Huggo’s, our favorite Kona restaurant.

Here are some pics of the view from our table at dinner.

Aloha 2010- Day one

Hello everyone! Most of you know that we arrived in Paradise on Monday evening. You’re probably thinking, “Blog, already!” So here is a quick update.

Monday, day one.

The flight over here was pretty uneventful. Strong headwinds that made us just late enough to miss our connecting flight to Kona, but we already knew that might happen and were prepared to wait another hour for the next flight. We took our chances and went “stand-by” instead of paying extra for confirmed seats. Turned out to be a good choice since there were plenty of empty seats on the flight.

We didn’t have any trouble checking in this year and had plenty of time to walk up Ali’i Drive for a quick dinner at Bubba Gump’s.

Here is an early-morning view from our condo lanai

We sat at a table by the ocean and watched the surf.

Birthday boy

Yesterday was a certain boy’s birthday. He started the day with waffles before he went to a holiday show with jugglers, acrobats and trained pigs. After lunch we had birthday singing, presents, cake and ice cream.

Moo had the first taste of the Lightening McQueen cake

After cake and ice cream we went to the village market for a free horse-and-carriage ride and then back home for resting time.

We had dinner at Texas Roadhouse, where he had his favorite, a hamburger. Then we all gave him a big birthday ‘yee-haw.’

Catching up

OK. So it has been a while since I've posted. Just to bring you up to speed, here's a little sample of the latest, such as it is.

We got our Christmas lights up before the weather got miserably cold. We even managed to wrap lights on a couple of trees. This was the learning year for that and boy did we learn a lot. But they look OK and all the lights work. If I get a picture of the yard, I will post it later.

Our garden had a pretty good year, but we were ready to end the season. We picked the last of our snap peas about a week before Thanksgiving. There is still lettuce under a row cover, but I haven't checked it lately to see if it is still alive.

Our youngest chickadee has returned to the nest for a while.

Correction

OK. I made a little error in the previous post and now I have corrected it. So if it didn't make sense to you before, read it again. If you hadn't read it before, just take it as it is now.

Thank You

I listened to an interesting presentation about actual vs. perceived value today. Here are two thoughts gleaned from the video.

“We have plenty of opportunities for impulsive spending, but none for impulsive saving.”

“We need more appreciation for the things we already have.”


click here for 16 minutes of fascinating, thought-provoking and very funny observations. (You can always click “pause” if your free time doesn’t come in 16 minute chunks.)

Handy (wo)man

In the interest of providing a post for all you blog-deprived readers, I submit this trivial episode from today.

This morning, at about 10:30, when I went to the curb to bring in our green waste can, I noticed that quite a bit of water was running along the gutter and into the storm drain by our house. Being a bit of a don't-waste-water stickler, I looked up and down the street to see what was going on. Several houses up the street the sprinklers were running.

Later (at noon), that neighbor happened to come by my house and commented that her sprinklers had been running since six in the morning and she couldn't get them to shut off. She had phoned her husband, who told her to "push the red button twice," but that hadn't solved the problem. I suggested she push the red button and wait several seconds before pushing it again. When she got back to my house, the sprinklers were still running.

After we finished what we were doing (nearly 2:00 p.m.), I went over to her house with her and looked at her timer/controller. The display said "OFF." And, amazingly, I knew what was wrong! Most of you would know what was wrong, too, but I usually depend on my own personal sprinkler man to solve any technical problems with our irrigation. Somehow, I must have overheard enough manly sprinkler talk to deduce that if the controller was off but some sprinklers were running, there must be a valve stuck open. Mumbling random phrases about solenoids, grit, cracks and debris, we went in search of the valve box.

After searching the entire yard without finding the valve box, we gave up and called for help- "Honey, where is the valve box?" And then my little Scottish friend and I, with some dashing through the sprinklers and climbing behind bushes, uncovered a valve box (buried under a layer of mulch), pried it open with an assortment of screwdrivers (it didn't want to open because chunks of mulch were jammed around the lid), found the right valve submerged in several inches of murky water (yuck! I told myself that all the spiders that were in there had probably drowned) and turned it off.

Of course, I have no idea whether I broke the valve, or made things worse, or what. But at least my neighbor's soggy, boggy lawn is drying out.

The valve will have to be a job for her own personal sprinkler man.