Mountains and Islands

My abs are becoming rock solid, if I don't say so myself.  Of course, they are covered in a thick, great-if-you're-an-arctic-walrus-but-not-so-attractive-in-Hawaii layer of flab, so you really can't tell.  I would love to attribute this to all the sit-ups and crunches and planks I do in the gym, but that would be misleading.  My core strength can only be fairly credited to the kitties. Yes, it is they who have me clenching my rectus abdominis with great fervor each morning as they jump without warning up from the floor to land square in the middle of my gut.  No clench, and my internal organs are toast.  They do this when I am sound asleep, dead to the world, out like a light, snoozing soundly, so I am forced to wake up, realize what is happening and react, all in a nanosecond.  It's got to be good training for something, though I'm not exactly sure what.   I now rue the day when I learned to sleep on my back.  All I can say is, "Ugh!" But my core thank...

Ron tried to tell me the other night that, because we live on this island, we should be safe from swine flu.  Right.  I passed this jewel of wisdom onto my mom, who added, "And it's not like you have any pigs there."  I laughed so hard I almost soiled myself.  That mom.  When she's on, she's on. Speaking of pigs, I saw a woman on the side of the road the other day, almost to Hilo .  She was leaning against the door of her car, photographing three young, black pigs as they browsed through the foliage that grows thick and lush along the meridian between the north and southbound directions of the highway.  I've seen these little guys several times.  They won't stay little for long.  Anyway, this gal had one bodacious lens.  It was wildlife photography, Hawaiian style. I ventured up into the vog to the gym today, unsure of how much energy I might have after my recent bout with whatever it's been.  Not bad.  Half and hour on the elliptical , half an hour o...

The latest developments in Hoppsy's health are good and not so good.  The good is that she can now negotiate the back lanai stairs by herself to go potty.  She still slips easily on the hardwood and has trouble orienting the feet on her left side, but her mobility has improved.  The not so good is that Friday night she had a massive seizure.  Right.  Not so good at all.  She had two on Saturday night.  So a quick call to the vet on Sunday got us a prescription for Diazepam (aka Valium) which is used to both stop and prevent seizures.  You wouldn't believe the hoops you have to go through to pick up that prescription, it being a controlled substance and all.  Sign in blood, names of nearest kin, physical address... OK, I'm exaggerating a little.  But it's more than picking up a scrip for Advair , I can tell you that. Long term, there are probably better anti-seizure meds out there, but in a pinch, this works well. I'll just give it to her at night, since that...

OK, so you know how I was bragging about the beautiful day in my last blog entry?  Well I'm afraid I must retract that.  It was nice that morning until about 10:00, then it started pouring.  It's been raining ever since.  In fact, it's been since January.  December maybe.  Who knows.  It's been raining forever. I took Hoppsy to an orthopedic dude over in Kona on Wednesday.  Coincidentally, he once worked at the clinic in Englewood, Colo. where Doc the Doctor Dog had his shoulder fixed.  Besides the trauma of a three-hour car ride, she did pretty well.  I was fully prepared for her to undergo what's called a myelogram , a procedure that requires general anesthesia, in which die is injected into the spinal chord, then X- rayed to see where there might be a blockage of neural transmission.  After examining her, however, the vet decided that the procedure would not likely show us anything definitive.  What we really need is a CT scan.  He's trying to get one of t...

It's three days and counting until the big adventure to Alaska and my immersion into the land of graduate school. I am excited about the trip but reluctant, as always, to leave my furry babies, especially Crawford. I know Ron will take good care of them, but I still worry. I think I inherited that worry gene from my grandmother. She was the best worrier I ever knew. I hope July fourth was a fun one for all of you out there in cyber-land . I worked a sweaty day at the winery. It was a holiday, however, so I earned time-and-a-half for my trouble. Cha-ching ! Doc was not so thrilled with the festivities Friday night. When he heard the neighbors' firecrackers, he insisted on sitting in my lap, putting his paws on my shoulders and burrowing his head in my chest. Poor baby boy. Poor enormous, heavy baby boy. He just couldn't get close enough. Lucy sat on the end of the couch with us for awhile. Whenever she heard the sound of a bottle rocket - that tell-tale whist...

The slacker has returned! Today was fantastic. It was one of those days that could trick me into thinking this must be paradise. Over the past week, we've struggled with vog . It hasn't been so bad at the house. OK, it's been kinda bad. But not as bad as elsewhere. We had a few bouts of thick haze, but it was intermittent . The haze has been everywhere. Even O'ahu and Maui have had their landmarks, like Diamond Head and Hale'akala , shrouded in volcanic spew. They closed the volcano viewing station for a few days because the wind was blowing toxic gas and fine glass particles in the direction of where the visitors would be standing. Apparently it's not good for one's health to breath fine glass particles and toxic gas. The trade winds died away, causing all of this nastiness. Today, however, a light northeasterly breeze returned, palm trees began to sway and rustle, the sun shone brightly, the sky was blue and all was right with our little world...

The other day, a man walked into the winery. I had never met him, yet I felt I somehow knew him. He wore a white stetson and a shirt with snaps instead of buttons. The man looked to be in his sixties, with a slightly weathered face, a warm smile and sparkly blue eyes. When he approached the bar with his party, I made some sort of joke to which he responded, "Yer kind of a smart alec , aren't ya?" "Yep," I smiled. He winked and grinned back at me. We'd never met before and yet, I knew him. He was a rancher from Montana, but he might just as well have been from Wyoming or Utah or Nevada or Colorado. This man was an honest to goodness cowboy. Not the George Bush variety, mind you, but the real deal. Here was an honorable, chivalrous, hardworking cattleman. The Code of the West is real. These guys live it. It was nice to hang with the fellow and his family for while. It was a little like being home. I also enjoyed a couple that came in yesterday. ...

I love the smell of sulfur dioxide in the morning. Shoots, cuz . Da kine vog get plenny pilau . Stinky! Actually, it doesn't smell so bad as it tastes. Once you get it in your mouth, it seems to last all day even after the vog lifts. The gift that keeps on giving! The vog was so bad today that the Park Service closed the crater rim drive inside the park due to volumes of sulfur four times the amount deemed "safe" to breath. Today, I became a brochure photographer. By mid afternoon, the vog lifted and the sunshine was beautiful. So I shot some photos of wine bottles provocatively posed (OK they were really just propped up) on a giant piece of drift wood on the winery grounds. They were complimented by flowers at their bases. The images came out pretty good (or is that pretty well?) if I don't say so myself. I still wouldn't go so far as to characterize myself as a real photographer . I'm just someone who sometimes gets lucky with a shot. And...