It's a two crane day.

I do love my new journal. The cranes are glued down so that I can open them up and have a 3-D journal. Too fun.

I didn't realize just how messy my handwriting has become since I type almost everything!

Sorry to bury you in posts.

I've been posting and the Internet hasn't been working.

I'm sorry if you get buried in posts.

The cable company is going to have to rewire our building so our Internet will work. In the meantime, I have to go to the library to get online. It's kind of a pain in the neck, but I'm just grateful that the library is so close to me and that it offers free Internet access.

With hope, my posts will be a bit more regular as I get in the habit of going to the library more often. The great thing about the situation is that I remember again just how much I love the library.

I'm starting a new vice today. I'll post about it when I can.

Hugs.

Reading; The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

I found an old friend while browsing at the Friends of the Library used bookstore.

The copy I found for $3.00 is an old book club version. Ray Bradbury (1920 - 2012) wrote it around 1949. Actually he wrote it for many, many years before that and finally pulled all the pieces together into one book.

The book has been printed continuously since 1950. The imagery is amazing. The sand ships still paint the same pictures in my mind they did when I first read this book in high school.

It is so much more than a science fiction book. Have you read it?

And book clubs. The Doubleday Book Club still exists. Wish books weren't quite so expensive. I about choked while wandering the Barnes and Noble bookstore. It's the last physical bookstore that sells new books here. There are only two used bookstores left on Maui. What made me choke? A paperback book for $18.00. I'm sure our Barnes and Noble will close soon. The company is doing horribly and it's just a bad time for bookstores everywhere. My son in Goleta (Santa Barbara, California) has to drive about 30 minutes to get to a bookstore. He's near the University of California. You'd think a "college" town could keep bookstores open, wouldn't you?

A dishcloth here...a dishcloth there.

I'm enjoying a busy brain time. I have to do more than one thing at a time to quiet my thoughts.

My husband is used to me reading, playing a computer game, listening to music or watching a favorite movie, and doing handwork all at the same time. (Yes, it is possible. I bet it looks even stranger than it sounds.)

Here's what I'm knitting:

Simple, useful, fun, and no counting. The pattern is "Grandmother's Favorite Dishcloth." Dear Son gets them as packing in his packages...and he loves them. They can be thrown in the laundry and tossed, without guilt, when they wear out.

I've got the pattern written out somewhere. It's easy to find a million places on the 'Net. The only thing I do differently is I slip the first stitch and work up to 54 stitches. It also works as a great baby blanket pattern. I'll find my copy and post it later if anyone wants it.

Reading; The Ranger by Ace Atkins

I found a new-to-me series.

It's about an Army Ranger, Quinn Colson, that returns to his hometown in Mississippi.

I'm on my third book in the series and I'll go through all the copies in the ebook section of my library.

Ace Atkins is the same author that took over writing the Spenser novels when Robert Parker died. This series reminds me of the early Spenser books before Parker tired of writing them.

I'm going to try to keep posting the books I read. It's hard to remember by the titles alone. Atkins's books all start with "The" and that's just not helpful.

New Journal

I found the most wonderful journal.

You can't tell by the scan,but the lines are shiny gold.

The journal is perfectly flat when it's open. Just right for a folded crane to live on one page. I'm enjoying folding a crane and then writing an entry...or not. One day I made a happy face on the page next to the crane. Today, a note to myself. After I wrote the entry, I wished I had left the crane upside down on the wrong page. I may do it that way on purpose tomorrow.

My Internet is trying to work again.

It's not pretty around my house when our Internet access doesn't work.

My husband and I are both info junkies. I must look things up at least 10 times a day. (OK, more if I'm honest.)

I've been making trips to the library to work, but it's just not the same. Thank goodness our little library with free Internet access is only a mile from my house. I still usually manage to forget something when I pack up my "mobile" office. It's also hard to not have water or coffee to drink.

So I've been writing posts offline and I'll publish them when I can. Good thing no one knows this blog is here except for a dear friend or two.

I'll be back soon.

Returning to the online world...

Aloha,

Thanks to dear friend Lizzy, I'm reaching out to the online world again.

Fresh start with a new blog and a new email address.

Thank you, Lizzy, for reaching out. As you can tell, I've been a stealth reader of your blog for the last several months. A year?

And to answer your question. I'm fine. Life has been how life gets sometimes. The volcano on the Big Island is spewing, but so far the winds have blown all the vog and laze away from us. Our volcano continues to sleep peacefully.

This article shows a blue methane gas flame photographed by the U.S. Geological Survey:

 [Imagine a cool, stolen pic of blue volcanic flames here. Blogger isn't moving fast enough here to add a pic. I'll add it later. Of course as soon as I wrote this Blogger let me post the photo. The article is still interesting.]

Will at least try to post a couple of times a week while I get back in the swing of posting. Thanks again, Lizzy, for calling out to me.