🥵 It’s humid today. Muggy, like walking through a think cloud of invisible warm water. I think a prelude to Tropical Depression Gilma arriving here this weekend. Gilma is waning which is a blessing. Last week it was a hurricane midway between the US west coast and Hawaii.
I’m slowly making my way back through the Watch To 5K program. I have just completed the second run of week 2. At the moment I feel that I am pacing myself better than last time. Not racing against myself, but rather trying to set a steady pace to work my way through the program.
I’m enjoying the new venue for my run as well. I’ve chosen the path that runs along the bottom of the runway at Kahului airport. I’m not running round a busy park now, working my way through thick grass or over tree routes. Now it is an even surface. I get to watch the aircraft come and go, and wave at new arrivals. On the other side, just over the bushes and dunes, and visible at times is the ocean.
Onto week 2 run 3 in two days.
After a hot day and strong trade winds, yesterday evening the world seemed to settle down at dusk and take a breather. As the sun set and the sky darkened, we sat outside and chatted. I feel blessed to call this view home.
Watching and listening to an aircraft fly into the distance against a star filled, inky black sky tonight makes me think of scenes from the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I remember being taken to see the film by my grandmother when I was in my early teens. I remember the scenes where we looked to the skies to see if there was anything out there, both when we were expecting something and when we were not. I remember sitting there in awe while the cinema shook as the Mother Ship landed.
I have not seen that film for a good while now. However, I remember it fondly and as a masterful piece of story telling by Steven Spielberg.
A sticker encrusted sign at the local gas station.
🌞 Yeh! The sun is out. The first time for 48 hours. Hopefully it will remain so until the next storm arrives at the end of the week.
🏄♂️ Meanwhile my stepdaughter’s partner and their son are off to find the good (big) surf thrown up by the storm. Island life.
Wet mornings.
🌧️ Now it’s coming in. Sideways and every other way that it can manage. Wind assisted.
Wind and rain this morning. Not as bad as the Big Island which is taking the brunt of the weather, but Tropical Storm, now Category 1 Hurricane, Hone has arrived in the islands.
🔌 Charging lights, phones, etc and making sure that candles are at the ready, just in case the power goes out tonight as Tropical Storm Hone arrives in the islands.
As Tropical Storm Hone arrives in Hawai’i this weekend, it feels appropriate to read in Orion Magazine about All the Ways to Name Rain in Hawaiian. The are apparently over 200 words for rain in the Hawaiian language. This article touches on only a few of them, but oh how descriptive and nuanced they are. If you want to know more, the article shares a reference.
Nature's Friends
Saturday, August 24, 2024
Last night my wife and I took our grandchildren to see the movie My Penguin Friend. Set in Brazil, it is based on the true story of an old man who saved a South American Magellanic penguin that he found washed up on a beach, almost dead and covered in oil. The man cleaned the penguin and nursed him back to health, the penguin only leaving 11 months later when a fresh plumage had grown.
Well this morning wasn’t planned. What was going to be a quick tidy up before I got on to other things ended up being an exploration as to how to navigate up and down Dictionaries in Apple Shortcuts. I delved into this a couple of weeks ago, and thought that I was done, as in figured it out. This morning proved that not to be the case, and after stumbling across a little gem of information I disappeared down a rabbit hole that I just wanted to get fixed.
There was a fair amount of trial and error involved, and ChatGPT was my companion on the journey. All appears to be working correctly now. I’d like a few more goes at problems requiring Dictionary access and manipulation before I will say that I have this licked. For now though I feel as though I have learnt and accomplished something.
Coriander Micro Greens, almost ready to be harvested.
It looks as though Hawai’i is in the direct firing line of these two Tropical Storms. The eye of closer storm, Tropical Storm Hone, is due to be close to the Southern Point of the Big Island of Hawai’i Saturday night into Sunday morning. Then according to The National Weather Service,
…Hone will then strengthen to a Hurricane late Sunday as it passes south of Oʻahu and Molokaʻi.
🚿 Taking an outdoor shower with dark grey clouds rolling in, sprinkles of rain falling, wind blowing. Island life.
This morning I was greeted with the moon and a faint rainbow hovering above it. 🌈
The moon was still up when I got up this morning.
I have an iPhone 13 Mini. Sometimes when I am traveling, perhaps on a flight to Europe, I like to be able to write. This can happen in my journal, and sometimes I want to write something electronically, perhaps for use when I land. I don’t own an iPad and I might not want to reach up to get my bag down to write on my MacBook Air. In such situations I reach for my Mini. I have typed some quite long pieces on that little phone. I don’t find it ideal, but it works.
Until now. Today an iClever Foldable Bluetooth Keyboard, BK03 arrived. I have just paired it with my iPhone and typed the quote below in Drafts on the phone.
Testing the iClever keyboard. I think that it will take a little getting use to the smaller keys, but on the whole it feels a lot more comfortable than I thought that it would do.
The pairing process was no problem at all, and apparently up to three devices can be paired with the keyboard, something that I cannot test. The first thing that I noticed is that when using the keyboard the phone keyboard got out of the way and I suddenly had more writing real estate, a big deal on such a small device. The keys although a little smaller than my Air’s keys, were responsive and I got use to them pretty quickly.
A stand for the iPhone is supplied and is very sturdy, holding the phone at whatever angle is comfortable for you. Also in the box is a charging cable - USB A to USB C, with the keyboard having a USB C socket.
A nice pouch is supplied for carrying the folded up keyboard, along with some silicon pads which can be attached to the base of the keyboard if you find it unbalanced. I have not felt a need to use them.
So after this initial brief use of the iClever keyboard, I think that I will be very happy with it. Slightly longer versions exist, one including a track pad, and another a numeric keypad, two features that I don’t need. The BK03 model is nice and light, 6.6oz (187g), running at dimensions of 10.3in x 3.5in (26.2cm x 8.9cm). I’m very happy camper with this purchase.