Hattie's Web

Home again

Last night about 4 a.m. I went out on my deck and observed the glow from Pu'u'oo, the nonstop volcano 25 miles away from us. The surf was pounding away and the sky was full of stars.
Our photovoltaics are hooked up and producing electricity for us. Just now the sun's very low, and still we are getting some power.
It's great to be back!

Back in Hilo

Well, there's tons to tell, but I'm on dialup. In short, we did not have too much earthquake damage except that the retaining wall got a little jumbled in one place.
More tomorrow, by which time I think we'll have our DSL modem again.

Greetings from Paris

This crummy overpriced hotel has wi-fi, anyway. We had to have a place to stay for one night on our way home. Oh well, at least they threw in a white bathrobe! We will be spending the night in San Francisco on the way back, just to break up the trip, but it will be hell. I suppose we must be punished for the good time we had by spending hours and hours in the tube of pain. Last night we climbed the many stairs to the top of the Arc de Triomphe and saw the illumination of the Eiffel Tower. Paris by night! I thought of Walter Benjamin, of course. Paris, capital city of the 19th Century! It would be fun to live here for a while, long enough to learn French.

I could also spend time working on my opus magnum, tentatively entitled The Ego and Mass Society. Only kidding. I guess if I were a more serious person, I would have accomplished something important, but hey, I'm too easily distracted. Still, when I get home, I'll be re-reading Civilization and its Discontents.

All the history here makes my mind work along these lines.  I was imagining what it was like when the German troops marched through the Arc de Triomphe. How completely demoralizing that must have been to the French.

Just one picture now, but many more to come. This is in a church in Villa Neuve, Avignon.

Greqt fun!

<i hqve decided just to go zith the French keyboqrd: it is amusqnt! For one thing; it is eqsier to type exclamation points than periods; so <i will use them insteqd! There is not q hell of a lot the French don't know about enjoying everyday life: so ze're just hanging out and doing what they are doing; strolling around; enjoying the streets qnd gardens of the town, sitting in sidewalk cafes in the pleasqnt fall weather! People of all ages; incomes and races share the streets with a diversity of vehicles; and little dogs shit everywhe're! watch your step! The stores are full of quirky useless items that are fun to look at:

After a pleasqnt dqy with some of the obligatory cultural stuff thrown in, (churches; museums) it's back to our Appartement for cheese bread and wine qnd our evening repose!

Getting out of the U!S! for a little while right now is such a treat! I am not looking forward to returning:

Here I am in a cybercafe enjoying the Freqnch keyboqrd! It's kind of fun to see what letters pop up! Since I can't  get wi fi; photos will have to quit until we get back. Avignon is wonderful. Our Apartment is very large qnd strangely decorated,  but after the initial shock , I think I quite  like it! It's very roomy. It is right next to a music conservatory; so we hear the agonies of early musical education in the classics.  Like the old gqg qbout not really wanting to know how sausage is made, so our ears are best spared the sound of beginning violinists and clqrinet players

We walked all around the town today, just enjoying being here. There is so much to write about, but this keyboard's driving me mad, so <i'll report on things some other time.

In Paris

Two words: jet lag! Even with a layover in Seattle,we have been practically prostate. And I got “airplane flu” to boot and was quite unwell for several days. Being twelve hours off your body time is just crazy. This is really a business trip for my husband. If this were a real vacation, it would make more sense to take a boat from NYC. Or more economically, spend a week in NYC and then a cheap flight to London, which would also allow us to adjust gradually.

Luckily, we have rented a wonderful apartment  in Montparnasse. The building is 200 years old but has been remodeled in the interior, so it is modern and comfortable. Since I have been spending so much time here lying around getting over the trip, I’m glad it’s nice. Of course I am somewhat disappointed that I can’t get out and about more, but I have seen a lot of the sights here on several trips.

We have managed to visit friends, had a superior meal at a famous fish restaurant, and I have been enjoying the peace and quiet away from all our daily obligations. We have today together and T works on Tues. We take the train to Avignon Tues. evening. We plan to do a little sightseeing, enjoy the ambience, and take it easy. A friend of ours phoned Terry’s cell from Washington D.C., wanting to know how we withstood the earthquake. It was 1:30 a.m. our time. First we’d heard about it, so we turned on CNN and saw the pictures. Calling home, we found out we had no damage except that some of T’s file folders in his office fell down. When I called her, my cousin told me it was a kind of jiggling back and forth that went on and on and on. It was a 6.5 on the Kona side of the Big Island, but it looks as if most of the damage took place on Oahu. Mayor Kim  was on the radio reassuring people right away. Since he is a civil defense specialist, my cousin was duly reassured, as I imagine most Big Islanders are. We’re probably the best prepared people in the country for emergencies, since we have so many of them. The last time there was a natural disaster in Hawaii, the big flood of Oct. 2002, we were on the Mainland.  27 inches of rain  fell in 24 hours, flooding the downtown and washing away some of our neighbors' backyards and fences. There is a big landslide in one of the gulches on the highway, so we might have to take an alternate route home if it is not cleared away. Apparently there was a lot of damage all over the islands. Got to e-mail everyone and make sure that everything is OK.

It's true. Living well is the best revenge.

We flew first class out of Kona to San Francisco and then up to Seattle to visit family. I had about two too many glasses of red wine and a filet mignon and (best of all) ice cream with chocolate sauce and whipped cream,  one of my all time favorites! In the frame of mind engendered by all this food and drink that I did not have to prepare or serve myself, I settled into my comfortable seat and watched "The Devil Wears Prada," a movie that I would ordinarily scorn except for Meryl Streep's comedy turn as a fashionista bitch. But so jolly was I that it could have been the best movie ever made!

Yes, I am truly on vacation!

You again!

I have a persistent troll who lives in Toronto. I thought I had gotten rid of him, but like a smelly snotnose kid that no one wants to play with he keeps on coming around, pestering, annoying, throwing tantrums.
I just keep his comments in a file. Since I can't e-mail him, I am forced to let him know where he stands in this post. Other readers may avert their eyes.

Look, troll. I know you are just one guy in Toronto. I have notified your ISP and sent them samples of your crap.  I am keeping a file, and if you cross the line again from insults into threats I will find out who you are and take action against you. Don't imagine you are dealing with a person who is going to back down. I have financial means and other kinds of support that could make me a fairly nasty opponent if I had to take this to the next level.
As I said once before, and you failed to take my advice, buzz off.
Consider this a serious threat.
Aunty Hattie

Sorry for this unpleasantness, even though it is not my fault.

Clever Dems

The Democrats are being a lot cleverer than they are getting credit for. In particular, they are refraining from blaming the military and the brutality of our soldiers for the Iraq War fiasco. That was the mistake they made in the Vietnam era.
Even though Vietnam vets were treated quite well by most of the quite liberal people I know, maybe too well in some cases (a lot of them were frauds), the perception was that liberals hated these soldiers. Randi Rhodes and Al Franken go out of their way to laud ex-servicemen and returnees from Iraq. Randi Rhodes is ex-military herself, and Al Franken goes on USO tours.
Whatever gets the Republicans out, that's my motto.
Actually, the military is right down there with the Catholic Church and the U. S. Congress on my least admired institutions list-- full of self importance and hidden abuse.
We need government, some need religion, and we all need protection, but these paternalistic outfits need to be done away with and replaced with something decent. That will never happen, of course. We'll just stagger on from one crisis to the next.

I'm off to France (Paris and Avignon)  to eat, drink, and be merry. I'll be posting when I can. I'm taking my laptop, and we're staying in apartments that have Internet access. Expect my usual trenchant commentary and some photos too.
Aloha!!

Anyone can have a blog, you know

Michael Berube says it best:

...I sometimes think that there are some people out there who just really like saying a lot of foul shit about people on the Internets (in the interests of conducting their experiments into why liberals don’t understand polemic, you understand), and who proceed to get really, really pissed when the people in question call them on it, at which point they unburden themselves of scrupulous—and strangely liberal—theories of power imbalances and bloggy responsibility.

To which I say, get your own blog.