Change for a Dollar

I spend the morning cleaning the presupposed mold off my long-lost hairclips with the last of the rubbing alcohol. It is the after-weekend, complete with an early sun, an empty bag of coffee, and a pocketful of possibilities. Green and gold is the sunshine and sparkling blue is the air. The acoustic version of life accompanies speeding thought that I strive to slow. As I savor the salt of a last-day-of-the-month, I let my mind skip stones across the frozen world of a day in the snow-filled streets of Turkey. Paper-thin and black-and-white am I. I am the remnant of a remnant. Like the naked belly of a lizard on the screen door - Exposed. But I bandage my aching toes all the same.

I spend the afternoon pondering how much of a life you can fit in a zippered bag. Or should you set it all aside and float around bagless - thingless - shoeless. With imaginary books and whistled melodies, alone and untrammeled. Thoughts become clothes, and love becomes food. But soon the starving gasps alone push you back to the everything. 

And now the sun sinks behind my eyes as they look on the house on the hillside glinting gold from the dying day. Heaven is behing the gleaming clouds high above the crooked streets of this old town. Heaven is blind and blinding with eyelashed holes called stars. But we of the salamander toes and mosquito wings cling and buzz in the shortest of atmospheres. We are the ones with the purple crayon, making up the world as we go along in our PJs.

Simple Things

It has been said that the simple things are those that really matter. Well, my life has been a bit simple of late. Whether it has mattered is still undetermined. Music has been keeping me going lately. Piano lessons and choir class - seeing the kids get excited about music makes it all worth while. I actually broke out (not literally, of course) the grand old violin yesterday. We had a tender and touching, though a bit scratchy, reunion. Among other things that have been happening to me recently:

I accidentally closed a door on a baby gecko -without going into details, it was not a pretty sight.

A whale jumped out of the ocean today, just because I was there.

I discovered a rather fat rat in my garage - it was practically waddling away from me when I opened the door one night.

Despite a general indifference and lack of talent at scrapbooking, I learned how to decoupage a box. It was fun, plus I now have a new favorite word. Decoupage, decoupage, decoupage...

 Spring is on its way... I think. Those of you on the mainland are probably waiting on the edge of your seats for the snow to stop and the sun to start shining again. Here in Hawaii, the winter is our rainy season. Despite some rainy afternoons and wet spells (and a case of acute thunderstorms last week), the sun has been smiling the last few days. The local plumeria graveyard...

...has sprouted a few blossoms...

I wish the internet had a scratch-and-sniff button so I could show you what Heaven smells like. Somebody please invent that.

As the seasons come and go, the sea always and never changes - it is always beautiful and never the same. The other day I watched as distant rain showers fell on the Pacific while the setting sun cast golden beams into the veiled horizon...

On a closing note, here's the latest from snowoholics anonymous:

Whaling Remnants

Pardon me for shouting, but I was only trying to get your attention. Occasionally I wonder whether anyone is reading this as I send my pointless ramblings into the bottomless void otherwise known as the internet. It doesn't really matter... I'll still be at the bottom of the stairs, screaming.

Talking about bottoms... a shipwreck was discovered on the bottom of the sea, 600 miles off the coast of Hawaii. The ship was a whaler named Two Brothers and just happened to be captained by George Pollard, Jr., a man cursed with a habit of sinking ships, apparently. He was captain of the Essex which sank in 1820 due to a collision with a giant sperm whale, thus generating the story that was the inspiration for Moby Dick. A few years later, in 1823, he was captain of the Two Brothers and promptly sank it near the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Needless to say, he quit whaling after that. Two Brothers was discovered in 2008, but no one was sure which ship it was. Just a few days ago the wreck was announced to be the long-lost whaler of the unlucky Captain Pollard.

Remnants of the whaling days in Hawaii can be seen around the islands. Here is a try-works pot that sits peacefully in a park, its blubber-boiling days being long over - note the flat sides that were used for lining up the pots on the cramped ships.

The whaling days are over, but the whales are not, thank goodness. I love to spot them out in the ocean, spouting and splashing in the warm tropical waters. They'll be here for a couple more months maybe before they head back up north.

 

Yes, I do know it's Valentine's Day - you don't have to keep reminding me.

Snow Addiction

If you know me at all, you know that I am a snow addict. Little did I realize when I moved to Hawaii that Snowoholics Anonymous has such a small attendance here. Not much moral support, if you know what I mean. But I find consolation my own way - it takes a bit of concentrated effort, but I'm happy to say that I've survived three years without the pleasures of frozen toes and snowy skies to brighten my day. My methods are perhaps out of the norm, and I rather think I am the only one in Hawaii who dares carry books with frosty titles (such as Snow,which I am currently perusing) to the beach on sunny days.

January is a very exciting time for snowoholics. The rush of Christmas is over and the world can settle in and wait for the snow. With all the recent snowpocalypses on the mainland, I feel a silent urge to be in the midst of it all. Snowboarding in Breckenridge - or ice skating in New York City - or even curling in Minnesota. If snow is somehow involved, I'm in. Too bad that bridge over the Pacific hasn't been built yet. My only release: the Winter X Games. As you may know, the X Games are the most Xciting, Xhilarating, Xtreme sports event on television. I realize I may have gotten a bit overexcited this year, especially since I got asked the question "What's with you and the X Games?" (as if I were dating them) and since I've been thinking in strange terminology lately (like, "so stoked to sit on this gnarly couch, watching sick tricks get stomped"). Healthy? Perhaps not, but in the long run, I feel like I've lived a little winter. Here's a clip of my favorite part of the X Games this year, when Torstein Horgmo landed a triple cork (first time ever in competition):

In case you've been wondering how the weather's like in Hawaii right now, don't ask. You don't want to know. All I can say is, I feel like I'm living in Jumanji. For instance, this is what the setting looks like:

But wait, there's more! Not only do you get the tropical lushness and equatorial sunshine, but order now and you will receive your choice of household slugs slogging down the hallway!

I actually thought this guy was sort of cute, but I still tossed him outside. No one wants to step on a slug with bare feet!