2024 Ends. We are past our sell-by date. (Except for our young guest. She isn’t anywhere near her sell-by date.) But, we are still here!
Had a festive early evening with my Asylum Family. I confess I was asleep well before midnight.
Start off 2025 with bagels!. Grateful modern dental care and fluoridated water make it possible for old people to eat bagels.
This morning, I happily walked the long way to the bagel store and picked up OK bagels. The usual suspects brunched at The Asylum today, and Asylum bagels resemble hockey pucks. I lived here and complained loudly about the bagels for almost a decade. Last January 1, I remembered that there was a bagel place a block away. Since then, I have supplied the bagels for my table.
This leads me to my New Year’s Affirmation—not a resolution, but an affirmation to Accept and Adapt to whatever 2025 has in store.
Carlton didn’t do Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Birthdays etc. But, he did remember anniversaries. And, December 30 is the day that he considered our anniversary. This is year 46. We had a great run.
Gratitude
After all these years, still grateful that I was hungry on Dec 30, 1978 when Carlton asked “Do you want to go get dinner when we finish work?” He had a project that was screwed up and I was supposed to fix it. Before the end of the year.
I was out on an errand this morning and saw a penny on the sidewalk. I stopped and picked it up. Carlton always picked up pennies. “And when did you get too rich to bend over and pick up a penny?” was his question. I am not too rich. But, I am getting too old. I always assume that Carlton puts the penny in my path as a test. Or maybe a reminder that he still has my back.
Good news.
100% Crop. No Post Processing.
These cranes are not going to be a problem. They are working on an elementary school and a library, neither of which will be much taller than the trees.
And my discovery. The Pixel 8 phone does a fine job with 10X zoom photos. 5X is its optical zoom limit. But while researching my watch issues, I found a little article that urged folk to try 10X (not 9X or 11X) digital zoom on the newer Google phones. It’s some math trick that makes 10X digital OK. This could be fun. Only problem being: It’s difficult to dial it into exactly 10X zoom.
Orphan Oct 2024 – This one is with child. Making a baby orchid. How cool is that?
One of my orphan orchids that I adopted shortly before leaving is with child. In orchid-land spontaneous asexual new orchid is called a keiki which is Hawaiian for baby or child.
Huge white one – gift spring 2022 – it was blooming when I left and still has more buds on the stalk.The First Orchid—Gift Spring 2019. When I left, it had two blooming stalks, and it’s still going strong. It has bloomed almost all year. Gift from Asylum Management during Covid – January 2021. This one started blooming while I was away.Summer 2023 orphan. It started blooming while I was gone. And I really like this one.
The orchids are all doing great. Thank you, Barb, for orchid duty above and beyond…
My five-month-old Pixel 3 watch hasn’t been behaving properly for about a week. I restarted it several times, turned it off and back on, did a factory reset, threatened it, and finally decided it was a charger problem. A new charger arrived late this afternoon, and the watch is all good again. Love it when my guess is correct.
The sun came out today, and I can clearly see two construction cranes. One threatens my view of the Old Post Office Building, and more concerningly, the other threatens my view of the Washington Monument. But that’s certainly completely out of my control.
Gratitude
I am grateful for the view that I have enjoyed for the last nine years. I hope the buildings will be much shorter than the cranes. If not, I have lots of “before” pictures out that window.
The sun warmed things up to about 45° this afternoon. And, I made it out for a quick lap around my regular exercise route. The Taco Truck is still operating, The Party Store is closing, Einstein’s Bagels is still open as is Starbucks. So, the neighborhood survives.
This is good. Ray the Rosemary Bush survived without me.
The week between Xmas and New Year’s is just weird. Everyday seems like it should be some day that it isn’t. I am sure that it’s Saturday. But, it’s not.
It will soon be “The Year of the Snake.” I better brush up on my snake-folding skills. This is a rather unsatisfactory snake.
Cold and gray and damp and generally not nice today. But, I did get 2 months of snail mail processed. Outdoor exercise didn’t happen today. Maybe tomorrow.
Made it back to The Asylum smooth as silk. The entire trek was about 15 hours from condo to Old Bat Cave.
The Old Bat Cave is in excellent condition.
The orchids look great. When I left 2 were blooming. Now 4 are blooming.
4:36PM – The view is bleak. The Asylum is warm. The Old Bat Cave is cozy. Life is good.
I will dedicate the next couple to days to jet lag.
Sunset at the harbor yesterday. The volcano, which had a short eruption yesterday, brightened up the sunset. And vogged up the day.
8AM Mostly packed. Condo mostly cleaned. I am trying load up on patience and serenity for the trip back to cold reality. 3 planes. 37-minute connection at LAX. And 39-minutes at CHI. And American Airlines – my carrier for this trip – has already had a one-hour FAA-mandated total ground stop. So pack extra patience and serenity and hope that all the extra cardio work I have been doing for the past few months pays off.
Sunset picnic last night. a hui hou and thanks for looking after this old woman.
Going to post this now. Enjoying the last of the superior wifi at the Condo. Then head out to find some breakfast.
Never miss a sunrise or a sunset.
I did spring into action today and did “leaving” stuff. But not without a last walk to Honls.
Viking Neptune
Surprise. There is a cruise ship. It seems to just be making a little Xmas jaunt to Hawai’i from LA. I could do that. Now that I am old.
Xmas 23.
I am all checked in for my flights. All I have left in the cupboards is ½ a jar of peanut butter and a little jelly. There’s enough coffee and a banana to get me going tomorrow morning.
I did my annual audit of my subscriptions today. I decided that my last dead tree newspaper – the WSJ could go. And its digital subscription could go too, because Apple News, which I pay for, gives me pretty good access to the Journal.
I hate “renting” software. Nevertheless, Photoshop and Lightroom are rented. I keep antique versions of MS Word and Excel going. I do a lot with Excel and would hate to downgrade to something else. Word, that I could do without. Apple Pages would be fine. Renting MS Office is a non-starter for me.
In addition to renting news from Apple, I rent music from Pandora. And bookkeeping from Quicken. Also “free” delivery from Amazon. Password control is rented from 1Password. VPN comes from Tunnel Bear. Twenty-five vampires suck money out of my various accounts monthly, quarterly or annually. That ranges from The Asylum taking the rent, the IRS taking quarterly taxes, to Apple helping itself to 99 cents every month for iCloud space.
Note to the Peg’s Dead NowWhat Team: There’s a spreadsheet for all this.
Need to get cracking on my Going Back STD list. You can just sorta toss your stuff back in your case, lay down a tip, and walk out the door if you are staying at a hotel. But when you rent from a real person and might want to rent it again, a little more is required.
I accomplished nothing today. Billy and I went looking for waves at 0630. We didn’t find any. Had breakfast. I waddled back home. And rested for the rest of the day.
Last visit to the Mattie at the local market.Carlton’s Final Location. At the wave splash.
Once again, it 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
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.
