Here's a picture of the hibiscus I promised. It occurred to me just tonight that there's a camera card slot right on my printer that allows me to import photos to the PC. Duh!As I trudged up the road with the poochies at about 7:30 this morning, I became acutely aware that I was wearing only shorts, sneakers and a t-shirt. I was actually perspiring just a little. No long johns. No snow boots. No gloves. No fleece hat. No parka. Just shorts and a t-shirt. It's November.
November is typically the rainiest month in these parts. It's been an unusually dry one this year, even though we've gotten enough drizzle to keep our water tank full and our grass soggy. The experts are attributing our "dry" weather to El Nino. I suspect that's what's caused all the flooding and nastiness in the Pacific Northwest recently. The past few days have been beautiful here, with plenty of sunshine, no vog and a few big puffy white clouds. Yes, this is the paradise I signed up for.
Locals really get into the holiday spirit here in the islands, with parades, craft fairs, concerts and decorations. A couple of years ago, while visiting on vacation, Ron and I happened upon the Waimea Christmas parade. It was quite festive and freezing cold. Well, not literally freezing. But it was probably in the low to mid 50s with a brisk wind. Since we had planned on balmy weather, we were woefully under dressed, which added to the chill we felt. Still, it was a good parade. Trucks rolled by all decked out in lights. There were marching bands and choirs. It was really fun. Much better than Gunnison's Parade of Lights. That was a feeble attempt by the chamber of commerce to drum up some retail customers for downtown businesses. The one year we attended, the parade consisted of about three pickup trucks and a flatbed with a few lights. If you blinked, you'd miss it. Santa did bring up the rear of the parade and led everyone to the giant tree at the center of town where we all sang carols along with the Gunnison High School choir. That part was great. But the parade was, to be polite, pretty pathetic. Of course, it really was freezing there, so the diminutive length of the parade may have been a blessing in disguise.
This is the tunnel Ron carved with the weed whacker from the front yard though the woods. It makes a very cool pathway. We're thinking that when our ship comes in, we'll build our ohaha-guest house down there.
On Thursday night, my neighbor and I attended a computer workshop in town. The focus of the class was hardware; namely, how to disassemble and reassemble a PC. It was basic, but very valuable information. I now feel comfortable upgrading memory, swapping out a hard drive, replacing a sound or video card, connecting a peripheral device like a CD ROM. The class was held in the upstairs janitor's supply area of a local gym, so we had to listen hard to our instructor over the sound of bouncing balls and shouting kids on the court below. Still, the price was right (free) and I actually learned something.
On Friday, the UPS man delivered our recovered data and hard drive. Having attended the workshop, I was confident I could re-install it with ease. It was returned, however, without the original ribbon cable that was attached when we sent it. So I picked one up at a local computer store. I plugged it in and fired it up, only to receive a "failure to boot" message. Turns out that an enhanced IDE drive like the one we have is only compatible with an enhanced-capable ribbon cable. Go figure. So we'll be picking up a new cable tomorrow to try again. We also purchased an external backup drive yesterday, which we plan to employ immediately once we're up and running again. Meanwhile, this cheapo model has served us nicely.
That's all for today. A hui hou. Aloha!
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