I have discovered a severe dislike for cockroaches. Smug creatures. The few I found walking late night sidewalks in L.A. were disconcerting but manageable if I stepped wide around them. Here, when we find one in the house, I am reduced to telling Ian, “Eeeww,” and standing a safe distance apart while he catches it with a paper towel and relocates it to the garbage can outside. The reaction is uncomfortably close to that of delicate movie ladies who scream, jump on chairs and hyperventilate when they see a mouse. This parallel may be part of my dislike; it’s embarrassing …
The weather service issued a flood watch for the island over the weekend, but our much-hyped storm turned out to be rather wimpy. Thunder and lightning but little else. It’s not rained for much of December; I wonder if that’s normal? Watched Blue Car the other night. It’s sort of a Finding Forrester (or any other older mentor encourages a young person to find his or her own voice movie) meets Lolita‘s Humbert Humbert. Unremarkable and predictable, but then I guess there’s only so much you can do with the encourage-a-teenager genre. Drove up to Kilaeua to see Cold Mountain …
I’m approximately halfway through The Briar King, and that’s probably as far as I’m likely to get. Although mildly curious as to how the story will work out, I’m finding I really don’t care. I may “release” it with Book Crossing. . . Ian’s apprentice is off to the mainland for the holidays, so we’re on a vacation, of sorts. Tuesday and Wednesday we drove down to the Poipu area of the South Shore for further adventures in snorkeling at Prince Kuhio Beach and Lawa’i Beach. These beaches are less protected from the open ocean than other places we’ve snorkelled, …
We made another attempt at snorkeling yesterday. I may be starting to get the hang of this. I’m reasonably certain we saw yellowstripe goatfish (stirring up sand with their wiskers then nosing forward looking for lunch), several convict tangs, a threadfin butterfly fish (he looked woven), Moorish idol (one of the Finding Nemo fish), possibly some yellowtail coris, a handful of long and skinny trumpet fish, and several others we couldn’t find on our find-a-fish card. Finally saw Pirates of the Caribbean last night. It may be the silliest movie ever. I remember precisely one thing from the ride in …
While grocery shopping yesterday, I finally read the signs by the Hallmark display: “Christmas, Thursday, December 25th.” That means this winter holiday is less than a week away. Driving home, I noticed the hibiscus along the road, saucer-sized blooms in red, pink, orange and yellow. Is it any wonder I’m not in a Christmas-shopping mood? For years, I’ve listened to (and given) assorted rants about the increasing commercialism of Christmas. Somewhere, I probably still have a holiday decoration emblazoned with “Jesus is the Reason for the Season,” an ironic and problematic statement. Nowhere has that been more obvious than here. …
We spent the necessary three hours in line last night to be able to see the very first show of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King at midnight. It’s playing at the only multiplex (four screens!) on the island. I keep meaning to determine the distance to the next nearest theater showing it. . . Excellent movie. I’ll be very disappointed if Peter Jackson does not get Best Director from the Academy this year. The entire Lord of the Rings epic clocks in somewhere between 9 and 12 hours, and Jackson deserves recognition for the consistent …