October already!  Entertaining thoughts.

Woman with baby stroller stuffed with 3 little dogs while carrying a 4th in a baby front pack.  Only at the AlaMoana Mall.  Exit mall - woman with toddler on a leash.

Waiting for the bus - two old men, vets reminiscing about their 60's war time experiences.  They are having an animated conversation.  One holds a tiny vodka bottle in hand - already empty.  It's 7 a.m.

 Did you ever wonder why the sidewalks in major cities always look like they have a hundred years of black and gray gum spots glued to them?  And never any new ones? 

I am building positive karma by tolerating the construction project nine stories down on AlaMoana Blvd.  They work all night long.  Such a deal - 3 a.m. welding that lights up the universe soaking through my not daylight proof draperies....monster tonka toys give a new meaning to things that go bump and grind and thud in the night.  My dreams are flooded with visions of the front wall of the Ilikai crumbling down.

Did you know Waikiki was built on a swamp?  It used to be a river delta with taro ponds and lots of fishing.  The mall is the result of the landfill scooped out of the Alawai Canal...The canal funnels water from the "swamp" that is now a sea of skyscrapers.  Ilikai means surface water...hmmm.

September 27, 2011

City dweller challenges - the city is doing major utilities work in the street below me - Ala Moana.  Waikiki is getting ready for the APEC meetings in November...beautifying away.  Nonetheless - 9 stories above the street, I have been startled at all hours of the evening by loud crashes of heavy equipment, annoyed by endless backup beeps, and amazingly surprised by the brilliance of welding projects at 3 am immediately below my home....honestly, light pollutions is almost as troublesome as noise.  And it's temporary so I endure it.  And wonder silently why the neighborhoods in proximity to the rail project archaeology test survey are complaining already.

The day flew by.  I ran into a work colleague waiting for the bus on the way in.  John lives in Portland and comes out for a week at a time.  Has family at home.  There are alot of us here.  Work was busy.  Dawn and Ryan and I ate lunch at the YWCA of all places.  Dawn took me to eat at the bowling alley last week.  Amazingly the food is pretty.  The Country Express E bus was over 10 minutes late.  And the trip home is only 15-20 minutes total.  Trouble is - all the other Waikiki buses pick up at a different location.  Good news though - lots of options.  No room for boredom.  

I realized that I have been taking the bus for over 50 years off and on...since I was about 3 or maybe longer.  I remember the summer my Mom and my sister and I took the bus to downtown Toledo from Grandma's house near Perrysburg.  I don't know the year - but Toledo, in an effort to bring folks back to downtown, built a mall...with ponds and for swans of all things.

Then there was the summer I took the bus from Lemont to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, every day for six week.  I was in high school and got a scholarship to an Anthropology class.  The class was from 9-3 daily, and I left home at 6 am and returned at 6 pm....all for what should have been a 45 minute trip.  The bus to downtown was notoriously late and then I had to get on another bus to the museum.  Guess the class was worth it - I went on to get a degree at the University of Chicago in Anthropology.

Those Greyhound and Trailways buses aren't too fun.  I remember taking the bus from Kansas City back to Denver with a husband and 3 kids.  They oversold the seats.  Jim gave a very pregnant woman Eddie's seat and held Eddie (age 3?).  I held the woman's 6  year old the entire trip.  We survived - but I wasn't inclined towards those kind of trips again.  That trip was the result of our car getting wrecked outside of Des Moines over the Christmas holidays.  The Iowa State Patrol called us the Miracle Family that year as no one got hurt.

Day 1 - Blog site needs much layout work. And I am writing anyway.

• Swams of tiny fish fleeing in the Hilton Lagoon. Slamming into the bigger fish unaware of their own destiny. Bird and human tracks imprint the pond edges.
• Giant yellow hibiscus flowers. The last time I photographed them was in Tahiti in the 1970s.
  
• I walk by Fort DeRussy and ponder this Armed Services Recreation Resort - Hale Koa. So - if we play war games for entertainment in our time off...what do these guys do for recreation. Hint - it's on Waikiki Beach. LOL.