You're Doing It Wrong

National Park Service article about old apple tree.

There was a super old apple tree at Fort Vancouver. We visited it a number of times. Here’s a quote from the website:

Recognized as the oldest apple tree in the Pacific Northwest, its longevity derived from its anatomy as a seedling tree that grew upon its own roots, as well as from the particular robustness of its genes.

It has been in declining health for some time. A storm did a number on it. In 2020 the trunk disintigrated and left behind rootsucker trees that will be the new old apple tree.

Bob was out in the world and he was able to get some cuttings from the tree. I have two on my windowsill. I thought it was a lost cause. The leaves dried up and it looked like a sad stick in dirt.

But look! A miracle sproutlet!

These are the very last of the summer tomatoes. They don’t taste great and the texture is not good either. But seeing these little reminders of summer on the windowsill when I get up in the morning makes me happy.

I am running out of steam on this post every day stunt but I am so close to the end I’m going to power out the few last posts.

Over 20 years ago I did a post very similar to this. Nothing changes.

At various times I get this idea that I am going to improve my style. As in my fashion look.

But I hate shopping and no one ever sees me. People don’t come to our office and I don’t go out and talk to people. I suppose that brings up another idea of who benefits from nice fashion? On one level – shouldn’t I just be happy to look nice and not care if people are seeing me? But also, if you’re going to spend money and chase after a look, don’t you want someone to notice?

Back in the day when you had to go to stores, I didn’t love shopping and the Internet shopping hasn’t made it any better. You can’t see how things hang or get a feel for the fabric and obviously the fit. Plus if things don’t work you have to send them back which for me is a big pain I would rather avoid. That leads to me hanging up clothes that I don’t like and either guilt-wearing them or shoving them in the donation bag after some time has passed.

To be fair, it’s also led to me loving clothes that I would never have picked in other circumstances.

I am wearing the same boring office slacks, long sleeved t-shirts, and cardigans that I have worn for years. Why change now? It looks nice but doesn’t take too much time to figure out what to wear each day.

This is, L to R, Cookie and Summer, my sister’s dogs. They are not especially fond of each other but here they are being good dogs.

When I was younger, lets say teens to mid-thirties, I was endlessly unhappy with my weight. Over the years I had any number of terrible ideas about losing weight and inspiring myself to get fit.

I randomly remembered wanting to get my body fat tested. There used to be a gym by my old office (this was in the 90s) and for some reason I arranged to have my body fat measured there. I went into the pool and somehow they measured it that way.

Everything about this is sad: Why would I do this? What benefit did I expect from having this information? I must have had to pay to get this done. I wasn’t a member of this gym. I would have liked to but it was clubby and super expensive. If the gym did it for me, they must have done it for other people. Maybe gyms still do this now, I don’t know. Why was this a thing? It just seems unnecessary and unhelpful.

Sometimes I come out of my room to find that I have been left a sandwich nubbin.

My husband loves sandwiches and he is very creative at making his own. He can take almost any kind of random bread product and leftover and shape it into a sandwich.

He likes to leave me a small portion for my own lunch.

Often they are delicious. Sometimes they are a little too busy for me.

He especially likes mustard(s), pickles, and cheeses plus lunch meat(s). In his book there can never be too many flavors.

—

Here is the sum up of NaNoWriMo:

25502 / 25000 words. 102% done!

I made my goal. It isn’t pretty but I kept up my efforts. It’s still not the end of the month and I thought about moving my goal to 30k. But I don’t have the time or energy for extra credit right now so I’m going to call it good.

There is a new food cart pod downtown: The Midtown Beer Garden.

Well, it’s an old food cart pod, possible the original food cart pod, and it was pretty gritty to the point that I didn’t like to go there.

The lot has been cleaned up, repaved, improved utilities, seating added, restroom added, a stage, and a tent thing with heat lamps for winter.

It is fabulous. The only bummer is that it’s a good walk from the office so not worth it in bad weather. But I went there a bunch of times this summer.

There used to be a trio of carts up the street from the office. There was a lady doing traditional Mexican food. Really good. I went there all the time.

One day a new cart shows up next to hers.

Mexican food.

The next time I went there I said, “What’s up with that?”

She said, “I don’t know. There’s not enough customers for two carts. I’m talking to the landlord.”

A month went by and she was gone. I refused to even try the new cart. Another couple months went by and he was gone, too.

I think this photo came from Orleans, possibly on the river.

I’ve gotten to the age where’s tough to find a photo of myself where I don’t have a lot of chins. That’s the terror of accidentally hitting the selfie button on my phone — I end up with an amazing view of all my chins. Not my best side.

—

Every once in a while I will learn a digital tip or find an app and feel like it’s going to change my life. Like when you’re shopping and find a gadget or something you think will transform you into a new person but eventually, it’s like everything else and you have to deal with yourself the way you are.

—

I very rarely watch more than 2 hours of TV in one sitting. That’s all the time I have after dinner and I hardly ever watch TV at other times. It never fails that I end up with 3 episodes to finish a season or a series. And you know how the penultimate episode always leaves you hanging? Then I either have to go to bed in suspense or try to stay up late to finish the show.

—

There is a Dutch Brothers coffee place and a Popeyes restaurant on the way to Dad’s retirement home. We often count how many cars are waiting at either spot. There is almost always a staggering amount. Especially Dutch Brothers – and I’m never there in the morning. People love their afternoon coffee.

I have used a drive-thru one time since I can remember. I was bringing Dad back from an appointment and it was easier than trying to get him out of the car. I don’t like drive thrus. I think it’s because I worked the Jack-in-the-Box drive-thru in high school and I have biased feelings about it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This was the last morning of our visit. We had a beautiful double rainbow while we finished the last of the pineapple and ran around trying to pack up all our stuff.

Feels like a good omen for the next year.

I also hiked across the airport to buy 2 fresh pineapples to bring home. I can’t believe there wasn’t a line around the building to pick these up. I guess they were expensive but when are you going to get fresh Hawaiian grown pineapple again? I looked at the pineapple at the grocery store and if I understand the label correctly, those were grown in Central America. Fresh pineapple is fresh pineapple and delicious but Hawaiian pineapple is extra delicious.

We are planning a very quiet Thanksgiving here. Wishing you the best where ever you are and whatever you do. xo

I saw that the bar had something called cocoweizen. A hefeweizen with roasted coconut.

Definitely worth trying out of curiosity but I don’t think a night out drinking this would end well.

We also had to get the traditional mai tai one night. That was quite a drink. It would definitely put hair on your chest. I brought them upstairs and we enjoyed the sunset with our drinks.

This is the cocoweizen mascot. I like it.

Have you ever heard of the green flash? “The green flash is a meteorological optical phenomena that sometimes occurs around the moment of sunset or sunrise.”

Eons ago I remember reading about it in a magazine. I think it was Reader’s Digest which I subscribed to in high school. That’s how long ago. The author of the article made it sound like a rare spectacle and for whatever reason I remembered it while I was sitting there watching the sunset one night.

I didn’t expect to see anything which is why I was surprised when I did see a quick green flash.

I told Mom about it but the next 2 nights the conditions weren’t right and the last night we were out have a delicious fish dinner at Paia Fish Market so only that one sighting.

But every sunset was beautiful. We were also treated to the evening tiki lighting and conch ritual (scroll down) which was fun.

This is from the scenic trolley ride we did. At one point we rounded the bend and it was blue water, white froth and chunky brown rock as far at the eyes could see. I practically cried it was so beautiful.

It was an open air trolley which was nice although I didn’t think my hair was ever going to be the same. I didn’t bring any products so my hair was super frizzy as it was and after the wind swept ride, I looked like I slept under a bridge. But happy.

On trolley day we stopped at Kahala Mall to look for a muumuu for Mom. It was almost as grim as any mall you’ve been in lately. I keep saying this but I don’t think I will ever be over the death of retail. Remember when going to the mall was an event? Shopping? Food court? Seeing people from school. When we were kids, my sister and I once saw the actress who played Cindy Brady at the mall (Canoga Park, CA). We were beside ourselves for days.

We were all hungry and Bob found a ramen place that was amazing. We really didn’t eat any bad food the entire time we were there. There were a couple of weak breakfasts but they weren’t bad.

Did you know an acai bowl is basically fruit sorbet but they sprinkle bee pollen and add fresh fruit to make it seem healthy? I don’t know what I thought it was, but not that. It was delicious and I am in favor of any sugar laden treat branded as a healthy breakfast.

We did find Mom more of a summer cover up than a true muumuu but it worked for her.

This was a side order of pineapple that I asked Bob to pick up so Mom and I could get our fill. He was going through the take out bag and checking the contents and when he opened this we all gasped. We ate it for three days enjoying the last little nubbins on the morning we left.