davidd's A Doll A Day 2019

[davidd]

Oooh, that's a wonderful commemorative photo!

This is none of my business, but wouldn't it be better for you to try to move from Utah to a place more similar to Hawaii? I know moving to another state is a giant undertaking, but I think that being constantly unhappy is way too high a price for saving money and stress by not moving... Sorry for being nosy, it's just that you really seem to be very unhappy where you are now.

Y'know, after reading your comment earlier today, I started thinking... which I really shouldn't do... and remembering all the not-so-fun stuff about living in Hawaii. There wasn't a lot that wasn't good, and some people might say nothing major, but it was enough to add up to a significant amount of stress over time. So it wasn't all sunny skies, gentle tradewinds, and the Aloha spirit.

That said, Utah is probably not nearly as bad as I make it sound with my constant complaining. Mostly it's the winter weather that I find discouraging In fact, the television weather forecast tonight mentioned snow being likely at altitudes above 8000 ft / 2400 m over the next few days. I live at 7000 ft / 2100 m. Positives include: not too many people around (although the valley across from our house had zero houses in it when we moved here four years ago, and now there are five), nearby National Parks (half an hour to Bryce Canyon, 45 minutes to Zion, 2-1/2 hours to the Grand Canyon), and I am currently able to make a living without working very hard by operating a couple of vacation rental units. The sun rises over red cliffs, the sunset lights up the red cliffs, and there are, quite literally, as the old cowboy song says, deer and antelope playing and buffalo roaming. Well, technically, the buffalo are on a ranch one mile up the road, but it's a BIG ranch, so they get to roam. There are eagles soaring overhead and owls hooting in the distance at night. So I should really stop complaining.

The realistic plan is to find someplace to "escape" to during the coldest two or three months out of the year. Although even now, we can drive two hours south and find palm trees. They are desert type palm trees, not coconut palm trees, but still, they are palm trees. If I want to escape the snow and see palm trees in the darkest, coldest months of the year, all I need to do is climb in to the car and drive a couple of hours.

Yeah, I should definitely stop whining.

Although there's no ocean. I haven't seen the ocean in four years, which is a bit of a stretch after having lived so close to the ocean that there were sand crabs burrowing under the front porch steps. (Now I have rattlesnakes.)

It lessens the disappointment to know that to an extent I am following in the footsteps of "the poet laureate of Hawaii," a writer and artist named Don Blanding. Blanding, a "haole" (white man), created the "Hawaiian holiday" of Lei Day while working as a reporter and columnist for a Honolulu Newspaper. (When I was a teacher, I was the only teacher at my school who knew the history of Lei Day, or who taught a lesson on the origins of Lei Day.) While Blanding loved Hawaii and lived there for a number of years in the 1920s and the early 1930s, he eventually left, later living in Florida (next on my list) and in the American Southwest. It amuses me to know that, like Blanding, I moved from Hawaii to the Southwest, but (as Alliecat so often says) Hawaii still feels like home.

There, that's more than ya wanted to know, I bet! 

Aw, that looks lovely

Thank you. I like the warm light cast by the little battery-operated tea lights.

Aww  I got a similar little hula girl at the International Marketplace (the real one), from the absolutely nicest vendor.  A lovely older man and we had such a nice chat.
Yay for 16 years of adventure.  Would love to hear the stories.
If only it was just moving to another province, and not another COUNTRY...   In a minute....

I purchased one of the hula girls at the Aloha Stadium swap meet. The second one was sent to us by a relative in Minnesota (cold and snowy Minnesota) as a joke while we were living in Hawaii.

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9 September – The Dollie Dungeon Circus Sideshow Celebrates Wonderful Weirdos Day

Thank you to neon_jellyfish for pointing out that today is Wonderful Weirdos Day, and for inspiring today's photo.

And after the photo-session:

Kenna: Hold still! Stop wiggling! This is so adorbs! 

Dr. Evil: Adorbs? This is not 'adorbs!' This is painful! I'm stuck! It hurts! Help me get out of here!

Kenna: Just let me get one more shot!