Category Setting off

Saturday, February 8

Feb 11.2020 / / / Setting off.

Hilo to Maui

Easy travels today. The sights from the plane’s window showed Mauna Kea snow-covered peaks, and the lava flow trails.

Mauna Kea peak from plane
lava tracks on Mauna Kea

Arrival at our place in Maui by 10, sure was great to see Jackson with his ma & pa.

Jackson in his element with dad
and it didn’t take long for Jackson to get some Pattie love.

Joe, and Cristin did a dive while we babysat for about 2’ hours.  Their shore dive was in Wailea, which is home to a ton of elite class resorts, it seems.  So Pattie and I went to a shopping area to stroll Jackson around a bit after we dropped Joe/Cristin off.

In the evening we went out for shaved ice, right at a popular gathering spot–especially so at sunset.

sunset in N Kihei, Maui

Back to our di...

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Friday, February 7

Feb 08.2020 / / / Setting off.

Hilo, final day

The day began with the good news that Joe, Cristin, and Jackson arrived safely in Maui late last night—and that Jackson is clearly ready for some sun-time!

beach time for Jackson!

Shortly after that Joe sent over a picture of a humpback playing a few hundred yards away from their balcony.  Looking forward to joining them in Maui tomorrow morning, and spending lots of good time together over the coming two weeks.

The day was another rainy one, and we started it with personal pampering—massages.  Great massages.  Offset a bit by dealing with a few issues back home in NC, i.e., a car needing towing/repair, and an enormous branch fallen in our yard over a fence.  No crisis in either case, no one hurt, just stuff to take care of.

After a quick bite to eat...

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Thursday, February 6

Feb 08.2020 / / / Setting off.

Hilo, day 12

Another rainy day, and another day good for writing, relaxing, and readying for future travel.  The morning we got out jfor an appt for Pattie, then a quick trip to the local falls—Rainbow falls. 

The waterfall was beautiful, unsurprisingly, but the trees in the area were even more breathtaking to me.  The canopy they created, but also the exposed root system, and just the sheer size of these Banyans.  One reminded me of the girth of the giant sequoias in Northern California, as you’ll see…

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Wednesday, February 5

Feb 06.2020 / / / Setting off.

Hilo, day 11

A rainy, rainy day, and that made for lots of writing through the day. 

Still feeling good about the ending section written over the past few days, though not sure I’m eager to hear that it’s too difficult.  I like it, and have tried to limit the pitch material so that it’s basically a single chord being arpeggiated by each voice, creating the overlapping ‘licking flames’…

I’ll try to make it very clean and send off this ending to James at some point tomorrow, and we’ll see how tepid his reaction is….

Excited that Joe, Cristin, and Jackson are flying this way tomorrow! Can’t wait to hang with this little guy for a few weeks in Maui when we meet them there on Saturday!

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Monday, February 3

Feb 04.2020 / / / Setting off.

Hilo, day 9

Pattie and I both slept late but, as our dive was at a more reasonable hour (9:30am) than usual, it was still an easily-paced morning.  We got to the boat slip by 9:15, happy to find that it was just us on this trip (plus divemaster Phillip and captain Kimo).  Nice folks, we found, and they proved easy-going, and a pleasant pair to be with for the morning.   

We left Hilo’s harbor for a 30’ ride to our dive spot, which was basically the same spots we were last week with Bill—but further out from shore.  There were healthy swells of about 6’, but not anything unpleasant, thanks to my pre-boat sea-sickness medication regimen these days. On the way out of the harbor, we caught this clear view of Mauna Kea, snow-capped peak easily visible. “Most of the volcan...

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Tuesday, February 4

Feb 04.2020 / / / Setting off.

Hilo, day 10

An absolutely gorgeous, cloudless sparkling day here.  We were both feeling a bit under the weather, though, so took the day inside and slow.  We did succeed in making some plans, though, for our first week in Ireland.  While Pattie was taking the lead on that plan, I was working a bit on planning something that we and Joe/Cristin are interested in doing while on Maui. 

A bit of writing, too, led to the first draft of the ending of “Let Them Not Say.”  I’ll still need to work on some lines in the middle, but the ending was becoming clear and I had to get that down.  It’s essentially continuing the “it burned” texture, but subduing it a bit and adding the final lines over it...

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Sunday, February 2

Feb 02.2020 / / / Setting off.

Hilo, day 8

Spending time organizing a package home; getting together some things we bought yesterday which we’ll not need with us, and also sending home clothes and other things we’ve been carrying around but just not using.  Probably losing 10-15 lbs, and making space for the yoga mat I bought in Kona, which will be nice to have along the way.

Did some planning ahead, as well; booked dives for Molokai the last week of February, and narrowed down some plans for Kaua’I diving the two weeks following that.

Also now getting more serious about our Europe travels beginning April 14.  Have a useful list of places we want to visit; planning our first week which will have the treat of a visit from Christine & Stephen...

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Saturday, February 1

Feb 01.2020 / / / Setting off.

Saturday, February 1

Hilo, day 7

Not much sleeping last night.  Yesterday’s rain seems to have kept things nice and comfortable here, and the night was certainly pleasant.  The sleep I had was good, there just wasn’t much of it.  Up since 2:30, finally out of bed at 4 wide awake, ready for coffee, and eager to write.

Finishing up the “It burned” line, and creating a morph into “Let them say we warmed ourselves by it,” the turn into the poem’s last lines.  This won’t be my end of writing the piece, but it will be the piece’s end.  I’m hearing it well and want to get it done, then will get back to the middle section.

After writing, Pattie wanted to get some gifts at the big Saturday farmer’s market; I got a head-shave; we splurged on massages...

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Friday, January 31

Feb 01.2020 / / / Setting off.

Hilo, day 6

A day of resting recovery and writing.  And also…planning for some future dives—Monday here in Hilo, a few others in Maui with Joe/Cristin; getting some gear; catching up on correspondence…

Eventually headed out for a stroll along Kamehameha Dr. along the water.  Shops, galleries, etc., but a completely different vibe than Kona’s waterfront.  Very low-key, unpolished, but a few of the shops having just gorgeous fabrics and wood (Koa) pieces.  We stopped into Tina’s Garden Gourmet Café and, my, so very delicious.

The writing is going well, as in I like the sounds coming out.  I am afraid I’m pushing this group’s limits, but I’m hoping the difficulty is being a bit alleviated by using some repetitive patterns to build the more complex textures...

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Thursday, January 30

Jan 31.2020 / / / Setting off.

Hilo, day 5

The 5th and final dive of our advanced open water certification, again at Lele’iwi beach, and another great day. Perhaps the visibility not quite as good as Wednesday, but still great.

Much of what made this final dive so enjoyable was our increased confidence in maintaining our buoyancy. Pattie and I each felt a significant difference in our skills-growth, and Bill, our instructor, was very ready to talk about our improvement.

The quiet perspective at 30′
A lesson in taking one’s time, going with the flow

The turtles on this dive were just exquisite. At one point we were just in awe watching a few of them all together. Below, one of the turtles we encountered was clearly tuckered out, sleeping with his head on a rock/pillow.

sometimes you’re just too ti...
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