Well that is not very welcome. Our Wedding Anniversary today, Christmas just round the corner, and I test positive for COVID this morning. My wife tested positive a couple of days ago. For me, I just have aches and pains for now. Hopefully it won’t get any worse.
These are not the best photographs of Wailuku, but I feel as though it is an overlooked gem here in Maui. Wailuku is the administrative home on the island, with the County and Court buildings based there. As such it is away from the tourist routes. At the same time, I wish a little more love was shown to it with some new restaurants, coffee shops, shops, theatre, etc. They are there, just a few more. A new Civic Center is planned. Let’s see what that does to the town.
I lay in the darkness this morning listening to the rain lash against the windows. My wife has tested positive for COVID and I am sleeping in a barn on our property - and no, I was not sleeping on hay with hens as bed fellows. Gratefully, I was comfortable.
As dawn slowly emerged, hampered by the dark storm clouds, I could see trees, blurred by the rain covered windows, bending under the strong winds. The hilltop across the valley was shrouded in a light mist. I was lying there alone, and in that aloneness and with the weather howling outside, I could feel the cabin, the remoteness that I had called for a couple of weeks ago.
I felt comfortable and with a wish for this day and the next few days, just to be like this.
My favourite coffee shop, and my local one when we lived in Portland was Sterling Coffee Roasters. I still order from them - only three days from Portland, and free postage. A great service. These arrived yesterday, including their Holiday Blend for the Christmas/New Year period.
I’m trying to switch off today. The last few days have been busy, on top of a bad headache, and next week we’ll be hitting the ground running. So after completing a couple of tasks this morning, I’m dialing it back now. In fact I just woke up from a late morning nap.
Home alone reading, and doing a bit of writing as well, while listening to Christmas Carols.
I love listening to Carols, and singing them. In hearing them I find the spirit of Christmas for me…and maybe memories of Happy Christmases with family, warmth and familiarity (and I sense somewhere in there, safety).
I’ve spent the last couple of days playing around with Tot and Siri Shortcuts (or is it Apple Shortcuts, or maybe just Shortcuts…I really am unsure), just seeing what I can do. Trying to create a Drafts lite (very), if you like.
Drafts is not going to disappear from arsenal of text editors, but I have enjoyed the challenge of just seeing what I can achieve. For now I am giving that exercise a rest.
Almost twenty four hours after sitting down in the theater to watch The Boy And The Heron, the movie is still sitting with me. I chose to see the dubbed version so that I could concentrate on Miyazaki’s sumptuous drawings and the story. I still missed a few plot points and character connections, which I had to clear up with some background reading afterwards.
I feel that the film can be read in so many different levels, and for me some of the movies that come out of Studio Ghibli have an elemental feeling about them, touching one subconsciously.
I have not done this for a while - sitting in a theatre by myself to see a movie - but I am looking forward to it. Today’s feature? The Boy And The Heron.
I’ve just booked a ticket to go and see Hayao Miyazaki’s new anime, The Boy And The Heron tomorrow. I’ve chosen to see the English dubbed version, just so that I could spend more time on the rich animation as opposed to reading text. I’m looking forward to it.
Those times when I have a host of tabs open, only to accidentally close my browser without saving them, and realizing that I actually don’t miss them. Even the option to reopen the last closed session on restarting my browser feels superfluous.