Category Living

Sunday, January 12

Jan 12.2020 / / / Setting off.

Hialewa, day 1 (to be cont’d)

After yesterday’s early morning and long hours, no surprise that a long night’s sleep felt wonderful.  Waking to birds was nice; used to it in Greenville, but wasn’t aware of it in San Diego.  Nice breezes flowing through the open windows, the fans in the room helping avoid feeling too warm, and the bird song got me up well-rested and happy to get going.

Listening to the news on the HI public radio station made clear that this weather is really severe and unusual.  On the big island they’re dealing with heavy duty flash flood warnings, alerts of areas/roads to avoid for the next 24 hours, and more.  The weather here much easier—rain, but only .3” forecast, only 5 mph gusts—and I imagine we’ll enjoy a pretty nice day, albeit cloudy.

ou...
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Saturday, January 11

Jan 12.2020 / / / Setting off.

San Diego to Oahu (Hialewa, more precisely)

We got out of the apt with lots of time to spare.  Enjoyed the full moon, now setting, in a beautiful clear sky.  A great way to start the day, for sure.

moon setting…we’re heading to the bus

An easy walk to the bus, and the busses getting us to the airport in 45 minutes—more than 2 hours before our flight.

San Diego’s airport super-easy to navigate.  No line at all to check our bags; no line at all to get through security.  Sitting and enjoying a nice breakfast less than an hour after arriving at the airport. 

The flight was smooth and easy, albeit long. Hawaiian Airlines certainly showed everyone a great experience. All smiles, patience, efficiency, and humor...

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Friday, January 10

Jan 12.2020 / / / Setting off.

San Diego, final day

Getting ready for departure, taking last walks around the ‘hood to appreciate where we’ve been these past few weeks.  SD absolutely a place we’ve loved exploring; our ‘hood particularly conducive to getting around, and we’ve become comfortable with walking, driving, and the bus over these days.  We’ve taken in so many nice spots, so much scenery, gardens, houses, people, and some tourist attractions, but there are still things we’ll plan to hit on a return visit.

Before dinner, i had a bit of personal grooming to take care of…

…then we had dinner at Panchita’s; the same spot we had dinner our first night here.  Good food, and a delicious way to enjoy our final eats here.

Our walk home capped with the full moon’s rise over the horizo...

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Thursday, January 9

Jan 10.2020 / / / Setting off.

San Diego, Day 14

Not particularly good sleeping, and awake at 3.  Did get some productive writing done, but by 7 was nodding off at the table, so back to sleep for a few hours.

We are starting to feel the excitement of Saturday morning’s departure for HI, so little bits of planning for that.  A SCUBA trip in Kona, and an advanced certification class in Hilo, which will include five dives, and training in skills we can certainly use.  Excited for the underwater adventures ahead.

The weather was unusual for our time here; overcast, gray, rainy, windy, a bit cold, actually.  Pattie wanted to pick up a few things, so we did bundle up and walk around a bit. 

We hit the farmer’s market in the neighborhood and wished we were staying, to take advantage of all the varieties of ...

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Wednesday, January 8

Jan 09.2020 / / / Setting off.

San Diego, Day 13

Another easy, productive day.  The choral piece’s writing is coming along, slow but steady; but its writing is mirroring the poem’s form in a way I’ve not experienced before…writing certain repeated elements as individually developing units; perhaps creating parallel lines of development.  The curious part is really a matter of process, rather than content; a reflection of how my mind needs to mete out distinct materials, I think.  At any rate, it’s coming along pretty well, the last few days keeping most all of what I’ve written.

Work this morning followed by some correspondence with dive shops in Hilo, planning trips for a few weeks from now.  Another stroll, Pattie wanted to do a little shopping before we leave SD in just a few days...

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Tuesday, January 7

Jan 09.2020 / / / Setting off.

San Diego, Day 12

After a productive writing morning, a stroll around, today leading us from our North Park ‘hood into the South Park (yes) area of Burlingame. Some beautiful homes, gardens, and flora to be seen along the way

some flora a bit different than the usual

and then on to North Park Brewing Company for a nice beer and sausage dinner. 

North Park Beer Co. Living large.

A good day; productive morning; a relaxing and fun afternoon and evening. Truly a great day in the neighborhood.

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Monday, January 6

Jan 07.2020 / / 0 comments / Setting off.

San Diego, Day 11

Relaxing at (what’s come to feel like) home.

Planning some activities for next stops—a fruit farm tour, some scuba trips, looking at pursuing a course with some advanced scuba, hikes.  And looking further into a future trip centered on scuba.

Much of the day’s start attending to matters related to the semester’s start at ECU.  Some last-minute changes in personnel for a program I direct require coordination of a number of people in different roles.  Everyone very cooperative and easy to work with, but all just need to be informed of changes, hear suggestions for new paths, etc.  It all went well, I think, and points to willingness of everyone to work together to both create things, as well as to solve problems...

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Sunday, January 5

Jan 06.2020 / / / Setting off.

San Diego, Day 10

Another relaxing and productive day here in paradise.  Returned the rental car, took the bus to Balboa park where we just bumbled around.  We browsed the Timken Gallery, watched some fine street performers, and just enjoyed the nice weather.  Happy hour at the North Park Brewing Company—just love tasting their stout selection!—and on to dinner at a better-than-mediocre sushi place. 

The highlight of the day was the rose garden in the park, just so many varieties, colors, and aromas!

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Saturday, January 4

Jan 05.2020 / / / Setting off.

San Diego, Day 9

After a quiet morning of the usual, plus Pattie’s starting to look and plan ahead for a dive trip she’s wanted to make for a while—this for next December already!—we left at noon to head up to the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla. 

It’s not an enormous aquarium, but its highlights are super; namely seadragons, which are new to me.  Sea horses, more familiar, were also great to see, but the sea dragons, as you can see, are otherworldly.

A leafy sea dragon
…and in motion
sea dragons being sea dragons

Their central tank had a nice variety of animals, from California Morays to a 300-lb 30-year old sea bass, leopard sharks, and more.  We enjoyed seeing the divers enter, clean, feed, etc., while hearing a talk about the impressive and enormous sea kelp. 

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Friday, January 3

Jan 04.2020 / / / Setting off.

San Diego, Day 8

A work day, a relaxing day.  Pattie slept in, then had some pampering time at a local shop.  And that time became productive writing time for me (in addition to doing laundry).  A nice stroll around North Park in the late afternoon, followed by a super dinner at Tribute Pizza.  Really great, and we didn’t even taste the pizza! 

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