CREATURES

ANIMALS ARE OKAY, but generally I prefer interacting with people. Mr. Bob, however, loves animals. So I suggested he attend the entertainment downstairs yesterday........"The Nature of Wildworks". A lady came and talked about the animals she'd brought along with her. At one time she worked for the Los Angeles Zoo until they closed the Animal Show. So she took the animals and went out on her own.





Mr. Bob sat right in the front row and aimed his camera. I suspect it was the best thing that's happened to him since he went into the hospital before Memorial Day weekend.

He could have a pet at the Manor if he so wished and I think a little dog would be perfect for him, but he's threatened to leave me (where would he go, I wonder?) if I presented him with one. A bird, a dog and two cats live on the premises with residents. I think the limit is 23 pounds.

But Mr. Bob doesn't like the idea of walking a dog with plastic bags in his pocket so he'll just need to live vicariously through programs such as the one presented yesterday.

Meanwhile I was upstairs knitting away. That activity really is soothing to my soul so long as I don't drop any stitches.






Brother Frank referred me to this owl link.


Tell us.......are you an animal lover? Do you have a pet?

God made all the creatures and gave them our love and our fear,

To give sign, we and they are His children,                  one family here.

                                                    ~Robert Browning

ALOHA

PARADISE...........or so some folks say, not taking into account the cockroaches, including the flying variety or ........... well, maybe there's nothing else to detract from the Hawaiian Islands. We've traveled there four times and I'm still not altogether sure where it falls in my ratings of places to go. I do remember that one of the times I felt the greatest sense of peace was while riding across the island of Oahu, past the pineapple plantations......the wide horizon showing blue, blue skies and fluffy white clouds, with Hawaiian music playing on the car's radio. The Dole Plantation was where I learned that a little bit of salt on diced pineapple enhances the flavor. Another treasured recall involves the visit to an old, old church in Haleiwa (I think) for Sunday services and as the choir filed in, the sound of flip-flops. So the memories are good. If Trader Joe's would play Hawaiian music as background, I'd be tempted to clear the shelves into my shopping cart. It's a good thing that they don't often use that musical selection.

I've told you before about the time I sent Bob on the island tour and I stayed on the ship and sketched Lahaina from the deck.

Where I'm headed is to tell you that the other evening, the Manor had a luau and I came to the realization that I didn't have anything vaguely Hawaiian or even floral to wear. Almost all of the other residents rose to the occasion and were dressed appropriately. Even Mr. Bob had a closet full of Hawaiian shirts from which to choose. These days he's happiest when he's in the dining room interacting with other people.





After a tropical dinner full of pineapple, pork, coconut shrimp and even coconut ice cream, it was time for the entertainment. I went to our room for something, got caught up with my knitting and never went back but Mr. Bob found a seat in the main lounge and readied his camera to capture the event for the Manor Album.

The contrast between the beautiful, smooth-skinned young ladies and the wrinkled,
wizened, bent-out-of-shape oldsters is remarkable. I wonder if that's part of the reason the idea of knitting was so tempting?

Residents were called up to take part in the hula. Mr. Bob didn't volunteer for that event, but sat there and snapped and snapped some more, while four floors up, I knitted and purled up a tropical storm.

"Hawaii can be heaven and it can be hell." 

                                                                                                       Jeff Goldblum