Fate of the tiny tourist . . . . .

i know these are unusual times so I should not be surprised if something unusual happens. But, believe me, I was surprised,

A few days ago Sara arrived at my door with a grocery cart filled with supplies. . interesting foods of all kinds to make my meals inviting. As I stepped up to help unload, I saw something fall to the floor from the cart. It was black or dark brown and rather small. I thought it might be a piece of paper. As I bent to pick it up Sara stopped me. “It’s a gecko, ” she said.

We don’t have geckos where we live and I know nothing about them except what I know from the gecko on the Geico ads on TV, and so I thought all geckos are green.

The little fellow looked about and then streaked,across the room and under the air conditioner that’s set into the glass wall at floor level. A few minutes later he appeared at the lanai door, his little neck stretched to look into my living quarters. I hurried to close that door.

He’ll be all right, I thought. Perhaps he can escape down the side of the building, even though that is 29 floors. Perhaps he could sleep on top of an air conditioner, where it’s nice and warm.

Meanwhile Sara had put together a quick meal and now brought it on trays and we settled into our favorite seats. Sara found us a possibly-good movie on the TV and we were looking forward to a nice evening.

Suddenly there was a faint odor of some sort. I had never smelled it before. It grew and grew,. stronger and stronger, overwhelming the room. In a few minutes it was gone and the room returned to normal. The AC sputtered a few times then whirred its usual sounds.

Sara and I looked at each other and with a nod of the head acknowledged what we had just witnessed. Thr air conditioner had cooked the gecko.

I couldn’t help feeling bad about that. His mother was probably still looking for him downstairs in the garage where we keep the grocery carts. At the same time it reminded me that while creatures of all sorts face dangers every day, and often surprises, so do creatures of the human sort face our dangers and sometimes sudden deaths.

Let us hope our recent danger is ending and life can return to normal.\ Stay safe. . Stay well. Aloha.

P. S. Please excuse typos. I am losing a bit of vision and often don’t see them and can’t find them.

Tid Bits . . . . .

Today is a day for tid-bits. A little of this, a little of that.

Something I saw online reminded me of an experience from mychildhood,  and I see kids still experience it today. I’ll bet you have,done this also.  I’m going to guess it was your uncle or neighbor, someone who got a kick out of teasing you, who called you over  and said “See if you can do this.”

He then asked you to sit down, lift your right foot and begin moving it in circles, going to the right. When you had it going he asked you to continue and at the same time to raise your right hand and draw  the letter six in the air.

Did you try it, after reading this? Even though you also tried it years ago? And you still can’t do it? Weird, isn’t it? I guess I thought that with age we might figure it out

I believe I also thought that with age I would figure out the mysteries of God and Jesus and Heaven and Hell and how to win millions and how babies are formed in our tummies, and  who killed Kennedy.

But without mysteries perhaps we would be so bored. We would look at life as our teenagers sometimes look at us when we try to impress them. They look and then say things like “Yeah. I’ve seen that before. So what, Big deal. Yawn ” Maybe they roll their eyes, even while fingering highly important fact-filled communications to their friends.

 

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I purposely sat down today and said I’m going to read what the poetsare writing these days. No doubt I will learn something, I said. I went online and read poems in current poetry magazines and in intellectual magazines, poems accepted by the very best, poems that won contests, poems for which the poet was paid a lot of money.

Of course they were all free verse.

And most were free of anything at all that made sense.

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Having said that, I looked back in my files at some I’ve written in odd moments and perhaps they are odd also in their own old-fashioned way. But it’s free verse!

Please bear with it. I mean the poem ts  meant to be single-spaced but Word thinks otherwise and will not let me change the setting.  Word gives me nothing but problems.

 

The Collector

As I  went searching

through the years

I picked up treasures,

things to use or

things to show

and to admire

but also little bits

of wisdom

earned and stored

until my house was

full to overflowing

and I must sort and

use or share

until my house is empty

once again because

at last I’m full.

What I kept  to use is useless,

What I kept to show is tarnished,

But what I kept in my heart is true,

will go with me

and will be there

forever.

• Doris Markland

This is a hotel I see acoss the street. It normally has two yellow chairs on each of those little curved lanais. We often see guests relaxing in those chairs after a day of adventures on this island. Rooms on this side of the hotel do not give a view of the ocean, but they do have beautiful mountain views and look over the city as well.

Anyway, one day I looked out to see maids carrying all the yellow chairs inside, closing the door and closing the drapes. I did not know it for a while, but the hotel closed that day. That’s what was going on. Probably about the same time other hotels were closing and all the famous designer stores in Waikiki boarded up their store fronts.

It’s very quiet here these days. I live in a complex of over 800 units, so usually it is alive with people in and out of the building, up and down the elevators. Now it is quiet, with no tourist visitors and only those who actually live here. There is no waiting for an elevator. Everyone here and, in fact, all over town, is wearing masks and shrinking away from others. It is so un-aloha.

But we’re hoping there will be a rush to Hawaii when this is all over. I have read it might be so. There certainly will be great prices offered and special hotel incentives. . So many people here at this time have no work, no income. I so feel for them.

Meanwhile my life goes on as always. I’m writing almost every day and have hopes of touching the heart of some magazine editor with one of my pieces. Not likely, of course, as who wants to read the thoughts of a very old lady. Actually, truth be known, as I grow older my thoughts become more interesting, more honest and perhaps more daring. Who is to question me if I write what I learned in 94 years? Not many can match that kind of education. If I speak up perhaps I can earn a summa cum loud.

Meanwhile:     This has to be the strangest time  that I have ever seen

I’ve never worn a mask before, even on Halloween.

t

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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