🏝️ Island life. The power went down an hour ago, taking the internet with it. And where we live, the cell signal can be weak. It is improving, but we couldn’t get by without WiFi calling. There is no clear indication when the power will be back on, so it is probably an early night tonight.

Turn the volume up and listen to the bees busy at work this morning.

Looking across to the West Maui Mountains from the Pukalani Community Center as I sat having a bite to eat on Thursday evening.

A bright sun shines over a park with a fenced field, trees, and a mountainous horizon in the distance.

Speaking in ‘I’ Statements

I was introduced to the idea of speaking in ‘I’ statements when I first started sitting with a men’s group back in 2015. The idea behind this simple suggestion is that I take responsibility for my feelings. So for example, if a driver cuts in front of me, making me angry, later when I am sharing the story with someone instead of me talking about how stupid and irresponsible the driver was, I say something like, “I felt angry and annoyed when the car cut in front of me. I felt scared that he might have caused a crash.” I own my feelings around the situation. (On a read through here, I caught myself out for typing, “You own your feelings…”. Not an incorrect statement, but it felt out of spirit with the topic.)

I find myself catching myself not using I statements in my own writing and blog posts. Modern colloquialisms creep in, and I will drop an ‘I’. The context is not wrong, the post still makes sense because it is an understood way of speaking that is sneaking into my writing. Now there might be a place for a particular way of expressing oneself, and so an ‘I’ is dropped, but I personally think that a lazy way of expression can in time help me step away from owning how I feel.

Maybe I feel embarrassed or shame around feeling a certain way, and a form of expression can give me a way out. A way out of not having to own my feelings or to push them aside for now.

So going forward I would like to make a pledge to speak in I statements here on my blog. If I don’t, please point it out to me.

👁️ I was sat watching a movie last night and started getting a migraine aura. Within ten minutes the aura was interfering with my view of the screen.

The aura cleared and I waited for the pain of the headache. It did not come to much. I thought that maybe this time I am going to get off lightly.

This morning I have woken up to the dull thud of a migraine. Not the worst, but still making life uncomfortable. I’ve taken a tablet to try and take the edge off of the pain….that and a little more caffeine this morning. I have never found anything to completely remove these.

This migraine will probably be my companion for the next three days. That is the norm for me.

I think that all looks good with the Shortcut. I realized that there was one error that had me banging my head against the wall, but I think that that is fixed. So testing this Shortcut one more time…and I hope that that is it for now. 🤞🤞🤞

If a post had no category was not working properly, and so testing again.

OK, I have to do one other test. Will the Shortcut work and post to Micro.blog if I choose not to add a title?

Testing Title addition from a Shortcut

Testing my Tot to Micro.blog Shortcut to see if it works when I want to add a Title to the post. This post doesn’t need a title…but hey, I can test the title addition if I don’t try and add a title! 😝

The weather cleared this morning and the fire burning on the side of Haleakala is clearly visible. The good news is that forward progress of the fire has been halted, it is 50% contained, the size of the fire has been downgraded to 355 acres, and there have been no evacuation orders.

A lush tropical landscape with various palm trees is set against a backdrop of hills, with a plume of smoke rising in the distance.

🌄 It’s feeling warm before the sun is up. A warning of what is coming today? At least the Trade Winds are blowing.

Grilling two evenings ago.

A grill with a pan and skewers of meat and vegetables is set up outdoors on a grassy area with chairs in the background.

I feel very happy with myself today. I have managed to write a Shortcut which will publish to Micro.blog from Tot, allowing the selection of a category if relevant. The text of the short post is then saved as a text file. Writing, learning…from Tot.

🌧️ It has been a wet, wet, wet, wet day so far, and doesn’t look as though it is going to let up anytime soon. This is more like winter than summer.

Another fire on Maui, this time on Haleakala Crater Road, upcountry. There have been no evacuations so far though residents are encouraged to prepare for that potential. 500 acres last night, currently down to 420 acres. More information and updates here.

A second test of sending a post to my blog from The Iconfactory’s Tot app. This time trying with the Micropub API. If this works, a hat tip to Jarrod Blundy, @jarrod, for his Publish to Micro.blog shortcut which I lightly edited.

Testing sending a post to my blog from The Iconfactory’s Tot app.

Well I got the outside work done just in the nick of time. It looks as though we have rain for the rest of the day, though the weather forecast deems to differ. There are times when I really like a wet day or afternoon. It just feels right.

Green grass and bushes under a cloudy sky.