Smell No Evil?

March 11, 2012

I had this strange thing happen to me this week, and it may all be in my head, but here’s the story: I went to a Goodwill store on Wednesday. They had lots of used books – for a buck or two – and two books caught my eye. One was an old favorite of mine – I must have read it 30 years ago, The Road Less Traveled, by M. Scott Peck, MD, and the other was the sequel to that book, People of the Lie – The Hope for Healing Human Evil which, maybe I’d hadn’t read. I bought them both.

I started reading People of the Lie the next day, but noticed it had a strange, musty and dusty smell. While I was reading I rubbed the corner of my eye with the tip of my finger and suddenly my eye started itching profusely and the itch wouldn’t go away. I read the book in bed before going to sleep that night, but was awoken in the middle of the night with my eye itching again, along with a major nose itch, you know, the hard-rubbing, deep-massage-to-assuage kind of nose itch. I noticed the book on the bedside and thought of the weird smell (which I thought I was still smelling).

Well, this is going to gross you out (sorry!), but the next thing, I get this thought (yes, at 3 AM): What if that book had come from some HOARDERS – what if it had been sitting in a pile, amidst a ceiling-high pile, in a filthy house, for years, perhaps, and it was contaminated with – God knows what. Mold spores! – for starters.

When I got up the next morning, I swear, I had a full-fledged allergy attack – sneezing like crazy and then my lungs started burning. I kept thinking about those HOARDERS who maybe died or something, or had an intervention through their family who donated their shit to this thrift store (isn’t that what the families do?). I don’t know whether my lung, nose, and eye issues might actually have been brought on by the thought of the whole thing, or what … but I am so grossed out!!!

In this book Dr. Peck (a psychiatrist) tries to define ‘human evil’- how you might (if you’re lucky, and preferably professionally trained in the field of psychology) recognize an ‘evil’ person. He talks about ‘malignant narcissism’ which, well, is decidedly more interesting to read about than, say, How to Clean Everything (which was another book for sale at the thrift store). – Well anyway, at this juncture I think I know how to recognize an evil book!

Whatever. I just can’t get the image of the whole ‘HOARDER’ mess out of my mind, but I wouldn’t mind finishing the book, I’m finding it totally fascinating and well-written!

I wore a sweatshirt with a hood this morning, clumping the hood into a wad and shoving it up against my nose, to read the book over my morning coffee. My husband entered the kitchen and chuckled at me – “Why don’t you throw that book away and get it at the library?”

He had a point. The sweatshirt covered my nose so well that I was mostly breathing through my mouth. I did a lung check. Yep, they still hurt a little. I was still sneezing and couldn’t avoid the … dust? Smell? H&#$%ERS?

I went to the library. YES! They had People of the Lie – uh… crap! It’s checked out!

I’m on page 173.

Here’s a picture of the book:

Looks innocent enough, eh? Yeah.

Let me know and you can have the book. It’s riveting. If you’re interested in the study of evil. Sort of hits you right in the face (and beyond).

Maybe just don’t breathe while you’re reading it.

I read 30 more pages in the book today. And my lungs kinda hurt. I’m honestly worried that I’ve contracted some kind of lung fungus.

Whatdoyathink? Should my appointment be with a lung specialist or a psychiatrist?

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Kauai – Part…uh …VI!

March 4, 2012

You didn’t think we had left Kauai, did you? I still have to tell you about our last day! – Saturday, Jan 28. Temp: 80 degrees. Verdict: Cram as much fun into our day as we possibly can. Our flight home doesn’t leave until 7PM!

There’s plenty to do right here in Princeville. Like imagining you’re hanging with George Clooney and crew filming, “The Descendents”

every time you pass this fountain in the center of Princeville.

Or….

Clinging to Tom Cruise in a ‘War of the Worlds’ experience –

“Aaaaaaa! Don’t get sucked into the alien spacecraft hovering above us …

by that probing tentacle!”

“Oh Noooooo!”

“Not this way! Run! RUN!”

Eric suggests one last hike – just a short drive from the house to

the SeaLodge Resort.

Where you overlook an awesome beach

We might not need our swimsuits, though…

What hazardous conditions does this beach NOT have? Sea serpents?

Eric is up to his usual mischief

NO DEATH MARCHES, ERIC, REMEMBER?

He lures us onto the trail.

It does prove a bit challenging

Thank goodness I’m wearing tennies this time.

Nice touch, Eric. A waterfall.

We arrive at the beach.

Lovely to look at… 🙂

Time to head back.

“Hey, Eric. Climb up that palm tree and get me a coconut!

Uh, but how would we get it open?

Um… shouldn’t we be hooking up with Tom Cruise about now? …

‘cuz, uhhh …. is that limb really an alien tentacle waiting to curl around and snatch up my hubby?

We are back up off the trail now. I try to capture the ocean view at SeaLodge Resort (Yeah, right. Impossible to capture but will share my attempt)- in this video

You can’t see them here, but there ARE some die-hard (it would be!) surfers out there catching waves (and getting stung by jelly fish?).

Eric takes a photo of David and me.

Crap! Vacation almost over… (can you read that in my facial expression?)

Wait. You didn’t really think we would be leaving Kauai NOW did you?

Don’t you want to hear about the second half of our last day on beautiful Kauai?

(Sigh)

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Farewell O’ Fairest and Finest Matriarch

February 24, 2012

‘Marie Theresa Caraher took over the kitchen in Heaven on February 14, 2012. God awoke on Valentine’s Day, smelled Mother’s cinnamon rolls, and said, “This is good.” She, God, got up, went to the kitchen and said, “Welcome. I hear they called you the Scrabble Queen on the celestial plane from whence you came. Feel up to a game?”

So began Marie’s obituary…

David’s mother (who lived in Arizona her last 17 years) passed away in her sleep early morning on Valentine’s Day. When I awoke at 7AM at home in Idaho David was already up. I found him sitting in quiet repose at the kitchen table. “Mother passed away last night.”

‘…Marie was 99 when she died. She was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa on September 27, 1912. Her father died when she was five and her mother gave her up a few years later. She grew up on a farm south of Council Bluffs, Iowa, cared for by her Uncle Chris and Aunt Annie. In spite of the fact that she was the fastest runner in her grade school and excelled at school work, she was not allowed to attend high school; her foster parents could not imagine how education could be useful for a woman….a bitter lesson that Mother never forgot.
So instead of going to high school, Marie milked cows, worked in the hay fields, cooked for thrashers, and spent her teenage years being groomed to be a farmer’s wife. But she never stopped reading…’

David and I decided immediately. We must travel to Arizona for her Memorial. Megan was up by now. We broke the news to her. She opened the Valentine’s gift we had left for her on the table.

The new stuffed puppy offered little comfort, albeit we chuckled at how much it looked like Rudy, or Rudy looked like it, for a moment, before he jumped down and dashed over to the cat bowl and licked it clean.

‘…She married a farmer, Thomas Fenton Caraher in 1932. And, Oh my, what a revelation it was for both of them. They became a couple. Child bride though she was (she was 19, he was 40), Mother was free. And with a man who loved her. Their early years together were spent on a farm south of Council Bluffs. Later, as their family grew, they tried city living in Council Bluffs itself. It didn’t take. In 1956 they moved to Jamaica, Iowa, and shortly thereafter to Bayard. A third of their brood of 11 children had flown the nest by then. But there were still seven young boys in the house…’

David was born in the middle of the brood. Child number … 8? The four oldest were daughters, followed by seven sons. David was the fourth son.

‘…Tom died in 1963. It broke Marie’s heart, though she, having known so many hard times, tried never to show it. Someone accused her of not crying at Tom’s funeral. Her tears were there; just not shown. Nearly fifty years later, one hopes they’re reunited in tears of joy…’

David was 16, the oldest child at home, when his father had a massive stroke and died. Marie was 50. David had to step into his father’s shoes. He planted the corn that year, albeit, when the rows grew tall, they weren’t as straight as David would have liked. 😉

‘…Marie remained in the Bayard area until 1994. During that time she did an admirable job of raising sons who were, uh, let’s say, a challenge. Subsequently to being known as the Mother of “those boys” she became known for her singing, her flowers, and her sewing, and (to some) for her Scrabble ruthlessness (“It took you that long to play THAT!”). Though widowed, she reveled in the freedom to try new things (albeit from economic necessity): She was a cook at the Bayard school and a cook at a fraternity (she understood boys) at Iowa State University. But the best job – she loved this job – was as a part time librarian in Scranton. It completed the circle of her lifelong love of reading…’

I collected photos from our walls at home to take to Phoenix to display at the Memorial.

‘…In 1994 Marie moved reluctantly to the Sunbird Golf Resort in Chandler, AZ to live with her daughter
Pauline. (Mother, you’re 82. We worry about you being alone in the Iowa winter). Their patio was adjacent to the tee box on the 4th hole of the golf course. Marie enjoyed looking down the fairway and pretending it was her back yard…’

David, Megan, and I hit the road for Chandler, AZ on Wed. morning, February 15. For the next six hours we drove mostly through rain, drizzle, sleet, but finally, heavy snow in southern Utah …

which, according to a sign we just passed here, off to our right is the town of “Snowfield.” Duh.

It’s a fifteen-hour drive to Marie and Pauline’s. We stopped in Vegas our first night. Stayed at the Rio:

view from our room

We arrived safely in Chandler, Arizona, (just south of Phoenix) on Thursday.

‘…But it wasn’t Iowa. And the soil! Bit of heartache there. She finally did manage to produce a wonderful set of flower gardens, again reveling in learning, study, and perseverance. She was shamelessly thankful for things she’d never had before: A dishwasher and an automatic garage door opener…’

Here’s a photo of their home in Chandler. Marie loved her flowers.

‘…In her last year, Marie’s health deteriorated, yet she remained unbending to conventional wisdom – she still got on the plane and traveled. She became more dependent on others, especially Pauline, and, while grateful, was uncomfortable with becoming a burden…’

Marie had flown up to Idaho for six days this past December to spend Christmas with us. At age 99!

Here she is December 26, 2011,

with our son, Ben. (Just seven weeks ago…)

‘…But she was never heavy. She’s our Mother…’

‘Marie was preceded in death by pretty much every one of her peers (99! You rule, Mother!), her parents, her husband, Thomas, her sister Ana Nansel, son James, and daughter, Rosemary King.
She leaves her sister Mae Green behind and nine children missing her: three daughters, Catherine Rahn, Pauline Caraher, and Margaret Larocca; and six sons, Tom, Ed, David, Jerome, Dennis, and Paul, 27 grandchildren, 37 great grandchildren and 18 great, great grandchildren.’

A Memorial in Chandler was held on Sunday, Feb. 19, for family, and friends in Phoenix who knew Marie her last 17 years. Another Memorial will be held in Bayard Iowa at the end of July.

We headed back to Idaho on Monday, Feb. 20. David did all the driving. And the gassing up.

We enjoyed the scenery in Northern Arizona and southern Utah.

We drove the fifteen-hour drive straight through, without stopping to browse at

Browse, which, why would we if there’s no services?

We arrived home close to midnight this past Monday night.

A large wind came up yesterday- the largest wind we have seen in a long time. I took a video of it
when I coaxed Rudy out in it to go potty (turn up your sound and watch it till the end):

That’s about a 70 mph wind gust you see at the end of it – a wind that toppled trees and limbs all over town. (Albeit with near-50 degree temps that melted all the snow – temps that are virtually unheard of this time of year.)

Looks like wind, but sounds a bit like … ocean?? (CLose your eyes and listen again?)

Which … Hey! Whatdoyasay we venture back to Hawaii? I’m sure Marie’s on board with us!

I haven’t yet told you, have I? About our last day on vacation in Kauai?

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Kauai – Part V

February 11, 2012

Hanalei Bay Beach

Puff the Magic Dragon
Lived by the sea
and frolicked in the Autumn mist
In a land called Honalee

This 1963 song by Peter, Paul, and Mary tells a story of the ageless dragon Puff and his playmate Jackie Paper, a little boy who grows up and then loses interest in Puff, leaving the dragon alone and depressed. The story takes place “by the sea” in the land of Honalee.

His head was bent in sorrow, green scales fell like rain,
Puff no longer went to play along the cherry lane.
Without his life-long friend, Puff could not be brave,
So Puff that mighty dragon sadly slipped into his cave…

“What’s with Puff and your blog?” you might ask?

I think we saw Puff! In his alone and depressed state oh so many years ago he may have slipped into the crevice at Rock Point (where we were yesterday- see Kauai-IV blog) and when he sees a human out there on the rocks he explodes out of that crevice as the angry, abandoned ‘Hissing Dragon.’

Or…

Puff could still be here at Hanalei Bay, and happy! – frolicking with the strapping young surfers. (If you look at this next picture carefully you will see them out on the water catching the waves.):

I could be happy, frolicking with the strapping younger surfers.

Just a thought…

Anyway, getting on with our trip …. We hiked the Kuilau Ridge Trail –

And I half-expected to run into Harrison Ford and crew filming another sequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark. I just now Googled it and, sure enough, the opening scenes of that movie were filmed in Kauai.

It’s a tropical forest. Without the bugs. On all of our hikes in Kauai combined, the only insects I saw were tiny ants, one small bumblebee, and one wasp. Well, and spiders. That’s the beauty of hiking in Paradise. If you see a flying winged thing, it’s probably a bird.

On Friday morning we hike the Kalalau trail, an 11-mile ridge trail along the Napali Coast. (Impressive, huh?) We start at Ke-e Beach and head for our destination: Hanakapi-ai Beach. Okay, so it’s only two miles to Hanakapi-ai Beach- but the trail climbs 600-ft to the ridge and then drops 600-ft to the beach.

Eric leads the way. Right away we experience a close encounter

of the worst kind for Eric…spiders. You can’t really see them all in the picture but there are five webs there in a cluster, and, well, we learn not to look too intently above our heads. I feel sorry for the first person on the trail in the morning busting through spider webs (yeah, in my dreams, while I’m sleeping in).

It’s a steep climb that first half mile and we arrive at the ridge. We take in the view of Ke-e Beach behind us

and the Napali Coast in front of us.

It’s a 2-hour hike to Hanakapi-ai Beach. We are getting close now…

What’s that sign say? Unseen currents have killed how many people? (Okay, so we won’t swim at the beach)

We cross the Hanakapi-ai Stream

and encounter wild life on the rocks near the beach

Seriously, this “Kauai kitty’ looks affectionate and cute, but there is no way you’re going to catch it, or even touch it. There’s a litter of three hungry feral cats here about 3 months old. Did someone carry them in and abandon them here? Did their pregnant mother fall out of a helicopter and land on this beach?

David and Eric on the beach.

They’re a tough breed.

I didn’t take a picture of the water (Duh)

We’re headed back now

up, up, up,

There’s our trail traversing that hill ahead

It’s nice to have hills you just look at and don’t have to climb…

We’re atop the ridge again

The ocean is fifty shades of blue.

The view of Ke-e Beach is just as awesome on the way back.

Almost down now…

I mean, up! AAaaaa! Don’t slip! We did pass a hiker half-covered in mud.

We’re down now. Time to rest and enjoy some ice cold coconuts.

The milk’s the best!

A native visitor meets us by the car.

It’s Alpha rooster. He wants his share of that coconut meat.

Afterall, It’s HIS island.

Okay, so I gotta put a wrap on these seemingly endless Kauai blogs.

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Kauai – Part IV

February 8, 2012

Tuesday, January 24. Day 5. (Or is it day 6? Jeez, it’s flying by…)
We are headed to Kauapea “Kay-oo-uh-pee-uh”
(about every one of these Hawaiian beaches and trails sound the same to me) Beach, otherwise known as ‘Secret Beach.’

The waves are magnificient.

We climb the rocks for a better view (you can see the Lighthouse in the far distance).

“Mountain Goat” is always ahead

and usually higher than the rest of us.

Uh, maybe we don’t want to get too close …

It might be approaching high tide

Don’t see anyone swimming…

We’re headed back to the car now.

Thank goodness we’re at sea level. I wouldn’t want to be climbing this hill in high altitude, I’m gasping for air as it is.

We drive to the Ki Lauea (great Scrabble word if you’re burdened with vowels) Lighthouse. I didn’t capture a picture of the Lighthouse, I don’t know why, you see it in lots of brochures. But I did capture a great view from the Lighthouse of the coastline (and Secret Beach, where we just were).

We learn about the Red-Footed Boobies

that are nesting all over Crater Hill

there, across the cove.

We’re pretty pooped at this point (literally) so we return home.

Except Eric is restless and hyped up to check out the ‘Hissing Dragon’ at Makapili Rock, or what I understand as ‘Rock Beach.’ He piques David’s and my curiosity and we decide to come along.

He had found the exact route to the Hissing Dragon by way of a one-lane dirt road that we drive on for almost a mile. Then it turns into a mud hole, so we pull off and walk the last half-mile of road

to get to the rock bench that runs along the shore to Makapili Point.

Rock bench? I was thinking ‘beach’ which is why I’m wearing flip-flops.

We climb over rocks for the next 45 minutes. I take no photos, I’m so focused on every step, and fearful of falling, or losing a flip-flop, breaking a flip-flop, stubbing my toe, breaking a toe …

We can go no further now. David and I meet up with Eric sitting on a rock.

“So where’s the Hissing Dragon, Eric?”

We wait around for a few minutes. I’m thinking of how I could catch a helicopter back.

Suddenly we hear a sucking noise coming from this crevice in the rock cliff a few feet away.

David walks over first. The water comes foamimg up and blasts out of the hole like an explosion. Holy %$*#!

I flip-flop over there and wait with my i-phone. Nothing happens for several minutes. Then the sucking noise… I take a photo. I take another photo, then another…. WHOA!

I fly 10 feet back from the thing. I’d hate to experience this exploding geyser at high tide.

We start heading back.

I’m flip-flopping at a ferocious pace to keep up with David.

Waves come thrashing up through rock crevices along the way.

What’s this thing?

Some kind of omen?

That white speck against the patch of green up there is Eric.

He waits for us to catch up.

Are you serious? I’m supposed to get up there?

This section is pretty sketchy. Especially in flip-flops. With your stomach tied in knots.

We’re back off the rocks now, away from the shore.

If you do get your rig this far in you may not get it back out.

What happened to these people?

We’re walking on the road again, headed to the car (sounds like a verse to a song, and I feel like singing it, too).

Yay! Whew! What a relief to find the car, undisturbed, right where we left it, was it two hours ago?

If you ask me, this whole excursion had all the makings (and evidence??) of a death march. (…Eric)

Yeah, well, I gotta admit, that Hissing Dragon was pretty cool.

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Kauai- Part III

February 5, 2012

Our trip was all play and no work. Except, well, you know that expression, ‘fish and relatives stink after three days.’ So by the fourth day David, Eric, and I thought it prudent to jolt ourselves out of ‘freeloading’ mode and offer Steph and Vic some assistance with home repair/improvement projects.

So we had a ‘work day.’ Starting with following Victor to the dump.

David and Eric are unloading our rental car. (I see Eric’s wearing his obnoxious Einstein shirt.)

I’m taking photos (hey, that takes two hands)

of them recycling boxes.

(Isn’t this fascinating?) Have photos, will post! Does this blog totally validate me or what, regarding my contribution on ‘work day’!

David replaced lights on the outside of the house

while Eric replaced lights on the inside

because Eric has a total irrational fear of spiders… uh, these Kauai spiders in particular…

which, I might add, were nesting in the outside bushes and along the roofline and which are completely harmless (as long as you don’t disturb their web).

Victor is famous for his Won Ton soup

Yum!!

He did most of the cooking:

Meanwhile, Steph never wastes a free moment, even on vacation,

researching scientific articles about bio-chemical processes to write her health blogs.

David is still replacing outside bulbs

Eric scrubs the grill

and repairs a deck chair.

I do have a picture of myself at work

lounging beside Steph on the deck (oceanview side) so she can discuss with me her theories on cholesterol sulfate and why its production (mainly in the skin from sun exposure) is essential to health. My work here in the above picture is three-fold: listening to Steph, producing cholesterol sulfate in my skin from sunbathing, and photographing it.

Our other quest was to find evening entertainment. We consulted the concierge at a nearby resort to investigate the local prospects of our favorite vacation past time: Karaoke. Verdict: None. (What’s that about? They KNEW we were coming?) So we had to improvise, implement Plan ‘B’ (Turn up your volume)

Hey. What can I say? Steph and Vic have an i-Pod with about a thousand tunes that connects to a Bose sound system.

Who needs Karaoke?

Yeah, well, when you’re vacationing in Kauai, everything you do is play.

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Kauai- Part II

February 3, 2012

So where were we?  Oh yeah, we had just finished lunch at the Koke-e Lodge and were watching Eric cast his magic spell over the feral chickens (tossing crumbs from his leftover sandwich).

We made our way back to our cars – in anxious anticipation of Victor’s hike – which would take us to two fabulous lookouts, the Kalalau and Puuokkela  in Kokee State Park. Say it aloud: “Kay-lay-lay-oo and Poo-oo-oh-Kay-el-ay in Koe-Kay-ee State Park ….”  Oh, forget it.

We’re on the trail now.  It’s a tad more rigorous than I had anticipated.

Steph on the trail - David above Steph

How did you get UP THERE, Eric? And how am I going to do it?

Oh, that’s right. You’re half mountain goat.

We climbed, clung, and clawed our way to the top.

David at the summit

We’re headed back down now

Clouds rise up the side of the mountain and roll over us

That’s the ocean in the distance. It follows the ridge. Or maybe the ridge follows the ocean.

We’re halfway down now

No, I guess it’s up.

And still up – before we gradually descend to lower ground.

The ocean comes into clearer view.

We’re down now. Headed back to the car.

Hey!!
Why did the rooster cross the road?

Because he owns it. Seriously. These fowl critters strut around like they’re the State bird.

We pass through Waimea canyon again on the drive home.

A mermaid washes up on shore.

"Cuddles Cutes"

And then another mermaid.

It's my Hubby!

Yeah, well we put them on the dishes when we got home.

What do you suppose those two were up to after that? …

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Kauai – Part 1

January 31, 2012

We just returned from an 11-day trip to Kauai. Which, it turns out, Kauai is Paradise. My i-Phone holds the proof with the nearly 1000 photos I took. Don’t ask me why. I started taking photos and then couldn’t stop. Do you want to see all thousand of them? No? Maybe see a few photos (or maybe a lot of photos) along with a little narrative of our trip? Absolutely not? YES????

It’s Thursday afternoon, Jan 19, and we have just arrived at my sister Steph and her husband Victor’s new home in Princeville, Kauai –

That’s my hubby, David, and my younger brother, Eric (alias “Cuddles”) walking up the driveway.

Eric sweetened our welcome with some housewarming gifts for Steph and Vic:

Hahahaha. (We made a beer run immediately.)

And…

Provident. But where would you hang this sign? Above the potted hibiscus?

Here’s their back patio ocean view-

They have a mountain view too…

and a pool. I shot these photos with my i-Phone to send to my friend, Rene, back home – to make her seethe with envy.

Next day’s breakfast is served on the patio…

Oh and by the way, the red hairy fruit is called ‘rambutan’

You bite it open and out pops the fruit

and the green balls on the plate are ‘longon’

They are also a fruit. Both fruits, free of their shells, look and taste a bit like the innards of grapes.

Eric is happy.

You think he’s looking at the camera but really his eyes are on the steak. (Hey, why is half of it already missing?)

After breakfast it’s a walk to the beach.

Are all those extra roots really necessary?

Or are those attached splayed spindley things extra trunks?

That tree’s a monster

You suppose this beach is haunted?

Steph and Vic, you are standing there all nonchalant in full vacation mode,

all relaxed and smiley-faced and having fun when maybe you should scramble out from under those morphed mutant tree limbs with roots gone wild (or are they tentacles?). Maybe you oughta be all wary and creeped out lest those limbs…hey, wait a minute, didn’t I say we were in Paradise?

Eric, did something fall out of your pants?

Oh, never mind. It’s a sea cucumber. The motion you see in this picture is about as much motion as you get from these delicate sea creatures (delicacy in China, anyway). Except when you pull them out of the water they squirt sea water at you out of their mouths, or is it their butts(?), since both ends look identical to the untrained eye.

Eric spent much of his spare time poring over the Kauai travel book for trails and other such natural phenomena we could explore. He was the youngest of the bunch, and clearly in his element in the wilds, a mountain goat by mental and physical nature. We are not. We warned him against setting us off on trail hikes that turn into potential death marches. We made SURE to calculate the total distance of each hike – which, for example, if it’s 8 miles to the destination (hidden waterfall or something) and the route description does not contain the word ‘loop’ then it’s a 16-mile hike.

Anyway, I caught Eric with this sign:

NO!!! Stop it, Eric. Although there probably are 75 miles of hikes on this island, we AREN’T doing them all.

We did do the Okolehao Trail, along the Hanalei River. I know this because I took a photo of the sign

affixed to the bridge at the trailhead.

Pronounce it with me! O-koe-Lee-Hay-O. (Maybe. I do know that in Hawaiian you pronounce every vowel and you hear an awful lot of LONG vowel sounds.) Now try to remember the name of it.

The trail was a ten-minute drive from the house. Here is a photo I took on the hike up to the summit

Here’s the summit (well, in my book.)

David and Eric had long since charged ahead, onward, and probably upward, but still caught up with us on the way back.

Steph and Vic at the ‘summit’

That evening we took in the sunset at Ke’e Beach.

Here the sun was behind the clouds. But then it dropped into clear sky below the clouds

and very quickly dropped away.

One day (was it Monday?) we drove to Waimea Canyon

“The Grand Canyon of the Pacific”

It was awesome. I captured a picture of Eric overlooking the canyon.

The canyon view from this angle was still awesome. But what’s with Eric’s shirt? He turns to face and greet us and we have to look at Albert Einstein sticking his tongue out at us in every obnoxious color imaginable?

Then Eric hooked us up on this muddy scruffy hike that kept taking us down, down, down. “Where are we going Eric?”
“Uh, well the book says this hike ends with a view of the Pacific Ocean.” ….”Through the center of the Earth?” cuz the trail kept leading us steeply downward, over thick slippery roots, ruts, rocks, fern-like growth and crevices. It wasn’t, uh, particularly pretty, either.

This is us, hot-tailing it back to the trail head and in the direction of the ‘really awesome hike’ that Victor had suggested before Eric got his way with his hike.

But first. Hey, wait a minute. We’re starving. We stopped for lunch at the Kokee Lodge.

On the way back to the car we watched Eric, the Chicken Whisperer.

Uh, have I told you about the chickens? That they are ubiquitous in Kauai? Apparently got all swept away after Hurricane Iniki in 1992, – so they just run around and procreate in the wild. You are apt to hear a “Ur-a-ur-a-Urrr!” from about anywhere. And see them strutting and clucking out from everywhere.

Well, if I’m going to bed tonight I’d better sign off. Let’s see. Oh yes. I must still have about 800 photos to look over and consider posting as I finish my blog about Kauai. Aren’t you thrilled?

So, about Victor’s awesome hike …

To be continued….

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Snuffed out on facebook

June 3, 2011

Like a gazillion other folks around the world, I have set up a facebook page. Not enthusiastically, mind you. If I remember right, initially some ‘friend’ emailed me a message or something and I had to join facebook to view the message. Then some other ‘friend’ sent me a message about how ‘pale’ I looked with that shadow bust profile pic and so I stuck a profile pic up there on my fb page.

I then tried to ignore fb as much as possible. But our four kids are on it. And they are pretty spiffy with it. I occasionally click on their pages and post some fogey-sounding thing on their wall or send a personal message.

I now have about 95 friends, having accumulated friends through friends of friends and other friends who keep friending new friends and sending friend requests.

I share the computer with our daughter, Megan, who checks her facebook several times a day. One day recently she was on fb and it appeared that she needed to refriend most of her friends, that somehow they had dropped off her fb as friends, and were now lined up in front of her in a long row to “add as friend”(?). Which, of course, she did- she clicked down the row on every one of them. Except it was my fb page she was on – those ‘friends’ had been automatically generated to my page (compliments of fb) as suggested ‘friends’. Now, having sent out friend requests from me from my fb page to about thirty of her friends, the confirmations started coming back. “So-and-so (Megan’s ex music teacher from Middle School) has confirmed your friend request.” “Nooooo!!!” “So-and so (my son’s ex-girlfriend) has confirmed you….” “CRAP!” These friend confirmations came filtering back for several days. Because, hey! You don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings by NOT accepting their friend request, do you?, Even if you never met this person in your life.

I’m gradually weeding through my ‘friends’ and silently unfriending these various ‘friends’ I don’t even remotely know.

And I do look at Megan’s facebook. Except today, when something strange happened with facebook. I spent about an hour of my life trying to figure it out and finally sent the following private message to our son, Aaron:

“Something evil and weird has happened to our fb at home – Megan and I are both disappearing from fb – I see she is not one of your friends anymore, however, I’m pretty sure you didn’t unfriend her. I was going to just look at her page and discovered she has disappeared from my ‘friend’ list. If I search for her – fb cannot find her – so I thought I’d search for her on your fb and send her a message – but she’s not on your fb. I am not on her fb and she can’t find me if she does a fb search.(I tried) It’s annoying and infuriating – I can’t even send a custom message to fb to explain the problem – if you try to find me through search on fb then my page does not come up.(!!!!) Don’t know why I”m telling you this – see if you can find Megan and friend her again… She isn’t on your fb as a friend is she? (As far as I can tell…) I don’t know what the hell is going on….”

To which Aaron replied:

“Uh…..Megan is still my fb friend….”

Huh? I call Aaron. He’s at work. I’m apologetic. Okay, so maybe I need a day job. He suggests, “Mom, maybe she has blocked you.”

“Huh?”

“Megan, did you block me on facebook?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“I think you know whether you did or didn’t”

Okay, so she did block me on facebook, and has subsequently disappeared from every friend’s fb page that I click on who has ‘friended’ her. Likewise, I have disappeared on any ‘friend’s’ page she clicks on that has me as a ‘friend’. But, she can call out to me from anywhere she is in the house. We hang out together half of every day. We take long walks together. I still tuck her in and kiss her at night.

“How about you unblock me? Do you know how?”

“Maybe.”

We go to the computer together. Sure enough. There’s her block list. There I am, along with a surprisingly long list of other ‘friends.’ (???)

I send her a ‘friend’ request. She accepts it.

Whew! We’re back online. Connected.

I do find it a comfort to know that you can literally snuff someone out of your facebook world.

And where social networking is concerned, all of my kids, even Megan, are at least five steps ahead of me.

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China sales are up on eBay

May 19, 2011

Mother’s Day has come and gone and every year the pressure is on for my kids and hubby and ME to make ME feel special on Mother’s Day. “Get out of dinner free” is a surety, whether it’s replaced by the hubby manly-man-grill-action thing on the deck or eating out. And someone, even if it’s ME, can buy ME flowers. Or perfume. Or jewelry. Or a new spring outfit. Hey, in this liberated age, women (better!) know how to look out for themselves.

My husband always remembers his mother, 98 years young now, and when I look to him for validation and special treatment on Mother’s Day, it feels awkward: “You’re not my mother.”

My mother passed away 13 years ago. I have to admit that I was always a little miffed at her for bestowing on us, what I considered to be, a chintzy wedding gift thirty years ago: an incomplete china set my parents had inherited from my dad’s aunt. “You might use this.” Yeah, mom.

I had grown up with that ancient decrepit box of incomplete china from my dad’s aunt, which remained forever unpacked, carted along with every move, always relegated to storage somewhere. My mother gave it to me, finally, and as far I was concerned, our wedding was her opportunity to rid herself of it.

Alas, we lugged the box of china from one storage place to another through our first twenty years of marriage. Then, ten years ago, we bought a house that had two built-in corner china cabinets in the dining room. I unpacked that delicate old china and displayed it in one of the cabinets. Hmmm. Nice to look at, but we’ll never use it! It only has 5 dinner plates! We have a creamer here, but no sugar bowl. Missing 3 coffee cups and saucers, two soup bowls, 3 dessert bowls, and several pieces are chipped, to boot.

A couple of weeks before Mother’s Day I was chatting on the phone with my younger sister, Lisa, who collects dishes, and mentioned that china set. Did she want it? I described it to her, along with my gripe about how we ended up with the set in the first place.

She called me back:

“That was actually a nice wedding gift mom gave you, Jody”

“Huh?”

“I looked it up on the internet – it’s German, Tirschenreuth ‘The Eton’ from 1927. You could easily order the missing pieces and complete the set. You could USE the set and then pass it along to one of your kids as a family heirloom.”

“Huh?”

Lisa called me again.

“Jody, I have just emailed you three internet sites where you can order replacement pieces to your china set. Check it out!”

I did check it out and thought the idea ludicrous. But then I started thinking about my mother, and me, and how maybe her giving me that set represented a loving, special act that had been lost on me. After all, my parents had eight kids, I was their third daughter. Maybe I had been a totally unappreciative, spoiled, shallow, rotten brat about this, after all, it was me she had gifted that set to, and what the heck was I so miffed about?

So, of course, I did the only noble thing I could do at this juncture – in honor of myself and my mother on Mother’s Day!!

I embarked with unbridled fervor on a mission to complete the set. Pored over those internet sites. Only, I don’t know a thing about eBay. I have never ordered a thing off eBay, that I recall. So, I started clicking on those sites. I set up my eBay account, and … look here! Someone is selling four coffee cups, three bowls, three plates, plus a covered sugar bowl, in my set at a super bargain! Just for me! I know it! It’s a God thing! “Cha-ching!” Done! ‘Pay Pal’ is a swell pal of mine! Oh, an extra 20 bucks for shipping. Oh well. Just DO it! Order now so it gets here in time for Mother’s Day!

I found another great buy (relative to what, one might ask) from another seller – on a covered vegetable dish with my name on it. Click! Pay pal, enter password … done!

The covered vegetable dish arrived within 3 days. It was stunning! I set it on our dining room table and raised the lid on it, imagining steam rising up into my face from a heap of creamed brocolli at Easter dinner. I arranged it in the corner cabinet with my other dishes. Isn’t it beautiful!!!

The package containing the cups and saucers, plates, and bowls arrived. Uh… gees, the gold edge is worn clear off most of the dishes. And the saucers are literally stained from…. USE! Yuck! No wonder they were such a great buy. (Guess I should have read the fine print on these a little more closely??) I stacked the dishes up with the ones I had. You can’t really tell the three dessert bowls I just got from the ones I already had, right?

Of course you can! Crap! I could use those bowls as Easter cat dishes or something? That’s annoying!

Oh joy. And this plate arrived broken.

So now I deal with the seller on that? The lost $9.99 plus shipping to replace it?

Checking out the sites, it is clear that any piece of this china in good condition is going to start at 9.99. Plus shipping. Double crap!

After spending on myself for Mother’s Day, uh, the cost equivalent of a family meal out, two dozen red roses, a new spring outfit, and a pedicure, I have … well, okay so I still need three dinner plates, two soup bowls, replacements for those worn dessert bowls, four sandwich plates … and that’s just to complete service for eight.

Okay, so that’s 9.99 – 15.99 plus shipping times about … fifteen? That’s it!! This is nuts!

Ahhhh! Lookee here! A photo of the 37 pieces of 1927 German Tirschenreuth ‘The Eton’ china for sale on eBay!! 37 pieces in near-new condition! – at a mere price of 149.99! (do the math here – ahem, it’s an average of about 4 bucks a dish!) And a mere fifty bucks for shipping! That should cover it! I’m doing it. I’m totally springing for this purchase and getting this exercise over with!

The Mother lode of the German Tirschenreuth ‘The Eton’ china. Coming my way!

“Huh?”

The box arrived a couple of days ago. I’ve wrestled the monstrous thing into a corner of our living room. Can’t quite muster up the energy to deal with it. I gotta open it, unpack the dishes, you know, might want to see if all 37 pieces arrived intact and figure out how I’m going to shove them all in with the rest of the set in that corner cabinet.

But hey! You want to attend a formal dinner for twelve or sixteen or maybe twenty at my house? Got it covered!

Except, the gravy bowl is chipped. Whatever. I’m calling this project ‘done’. Meanwhile, the box containing the ‘mother lode’ could double as a card table or something in our living room until I feel like dealing with it.

I know. Let me just say, I treated myself grand for Mother’s Day. And I do believe my mother is smiling down on me from heaven. Or is she laughing…

Now, Do you suppose in about twenty years I should divide this set up so I can pass down two incomplete sets to my kids?

Well, I’m pretty sure www.replacements.com will still be in business by then.

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