That’s Why You Don’t Leave the House: Vacation Interlopers
My husband and I just got back from a couple of weeks on the mainland. Florida, to be more precise. Not Tallahassee, but close-ish to Sydney’s childhood home. Not that this trip was anything about Sydney; it was about seeing our families. But it is hard not to think in terms of Sydney’s context anytime I set foot in Florida. We had a good visit, one that can’t even be marred by the fact that travel has become such a monumental pain in the ass. I was going to treat you (ha-ha) to a mini-rant on the subject, but the Read more…
The Latest from Lava Land
I am a superstitious person. I’m not obsessively superstitious, knocking on things right and left, or swerving out of my way to avoid cracks or black cats. (I do avoid walking near ladders, but that’s because I’m a klutz.) I’m not even consistently superstitious. But superstition sneaks in around the edges of my peripheral vision, like the supernatural logic of a Stephen King novel. I tell myself it’s the by-product of a gifted imagination. (Feel free to use that excuse yourself.) Whatever the reason, I do feel funny sometimes about sharing good news, or at least sharing the cessation of Read more…
Postcards from the Punatic Edge
Okay, so this is the part of the blog where I share the trials and tribulations of living in Hawaii so you don’t spend your wintry days pining for far, exotic shores and feeling resentment toward the people who live there. Our challenges admittedly do not include snow flurries, but we do have flurries of white stuff. (Not sand; we don’t have white sand in east Hawaii.) I live in lower Puna on the Big Island, the home of the active lava flow. Kilauea has been continuously erupting since 1983, but a particular portion of the June 27, 2014, flow Read more…
![Puuhonua o Hanaunau by OldPine at wts wikivoyage (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://www.judykwalker.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Puuhonua.jpg)
Peeking Warily Out of the Writer’s Cave: Confessions of a Curmudgeon
I’m a big fan of the Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie version of PG Wodehouses’s Jeeves and Wooster. In Season 3, they travel to the United States, and there’s an episode where Bertie’s poet friend Rocky is in crisis. (Bertie always has a friend in some uniquely upper-crust crisis.) Rocky happily lives in the then-relative-wilds of Long Island, but a moneyed relative is forcing him to move to New York City. Rocky says, “Good Lord, l’d have to dress for dinner every night. l won’t do it, l can’t do it. l don’t get out of my pajamas ’til five in the Read more…
Errands before the Apocalypse: Save the Wee Fishies!
I’m sorry, but, once again, lava flows lend themselves to hyperbolic titles. And once again, there is a bit of truth in the hyperbole. For many people living either in the path or in the areas that are likely to be cut off, there are big plans to be made with children and family and animals and property and staying or evacuating. And then you also have to pick up milk. Because no matter what, you’ll still be there long enough to drink a carton of milk, right? You’ve got to have milk for your coffee. And you should probably Read more…
^