Old Men or why I like Egrets

Here is the guy who started my day. As Nico and I trudged our way up the long winding ramp to his school I looked up. There was a large Egret sitting in the very top of a tree on the school grounds. It was as though he was smiling down on us or more likely trying to send some good juju to Nico so that he would not cry when I left him at his class.

SENDING GOOD JUJU TO NICO

What is it that attracts me to these birds? As I drive down the road I have to whip out my camera to quickly try to capture them. Yes, I have got to stop taking photos while I drive. Well one saving grace. I don't talk on my cell while operating the vehicle. Yes, I know that doesn't cut it. 

Well for these particular photos, I pulled over. Egrets were every where. I quickly yanked my camera from my purse and tried to focus as one Egret was standing in the sprinkler. He gave me the side eye as I rolled the window down to capture him and sauntered away turning his back to me. I swear I heard him say, "tis to laugh, it tis to laugh."

"Man, I missed another good shot." I slowly drove down the road some more (yes I know I said I pulled over but I was on the private road leading out of the recycling center) and there were a few of them walking on the sidewalk.

Giving the eye

The other eye giver

Now I've heard these birds described as Great White Egrets. The Great White is supposed to have a yellow beak and black legs. Hmm that's what he looks like. But every time someone talks about this bird they call him a Cattle Egret which is supposed to have yellow legs. Nope doesn't look yellow to me. 

This bird does have the same M O that the cattle egret has. He will follow the machines around the field waiting for bugs to be dug up or follow any disturbance in the soil or lawn being mowed waiting for a free lunch. 

Ah, but is there a free lunch if he is in the Kunia  fields a few blocks from my house? You've heard me mention the Frankinseeds a million times. But it is worth mentioning a trillion times. Monsanto and their GMO's are growing strong and I worry. As the flocks of birds fly gracefully to the fields in the early morning sunrise, they could be sickened and die like so many tested animals in research on Monsanto's GMO's. 

I would miss this old man of a bird who slowly walks the turf thrusting his head out and then back again, lifting his legs as though he wanted to make sure his knees did not give out. But if it was proved that the birds died from eating Monsanto grown corn etc. Monsanto would only come back with a suit against the birds like they did the farmers whom they accused of having acquired Monsanto patented seeds with out their permission. 

I hope not. They may remind me of old men but their young. I would only wish them a long life. May they grow to be old and cranky. 

His knees hurt because there on backwards 

Watch what you say or it could bite you in the end

Budget cuts sliced our library visits to pieces. Wednesday is a short day at Nico's school so it was a given. Wednesday comes, I get him from school, pile a few of his buddies into the car and off we go to, as Nico called it, the book house.

Now the library closes two or three wednesdays a month to help put money back into the state coffers so they can blow it on, oh lets say, a big trip to China  for the Shanghai Expo for 2010. (see end of article)

Back to our outing. So now the library is closed Wednesdays and I suggest today, Tuesday, we go as it has been a long time since we last went. Nicolai chooses his friend Luke to go along with us. 

Knowing how crazy they get I remind them to behave. They nod their heads vigorously and off we go. At the children's section I once again tell them if they don't behave we will have to go home and they will not get to rent a CD. 

I'm being stern because I want to work at my computer and hope against hope that they will want to rent their CD's so much that they will keep quiet. I'm sitting with my laptop open and getting ready to do some writing. Laughing comes from the far corner. 

"Nico get over here" They both appear at the table looking anxious. "You guys better calm down or we will get kicked out. Do you want to get kicked out?" They shake their heads like little bobbles. Back they go again to their corner.

Finely I have everything all set up. I'm two words into my blog and the security guard comes over and tells me that they are now doing flying tackles behind the stacks. 

Damn. I had finely found my muse. But my word is my word. I call them over and lower the boom. Though we aren't really kicked out they see the security guard standing next to me. I tell them it's over, no CD's and they have to get their books (that's what I really want them at the library for, not the CD's) and we have to check out and go home. 

I'm bummed. I thought I would have at least 20 minutes to myself. I'm the one being punished here not Nico or Luke. But Nico thinks that the library is really for Bakugan CD's and that books are just something he has to take home in order to get his movies. 

So I take them home. Nico with his bottom lip dragging on the ground and his shoulders hunched. ( I swear their is a marker for that in our genes as my daughter, granddaughter and I did that when we were young) 

It took us longer to drive to the library then it did to visit. Disappointing Nico ruins my afternoon. I hate having to be the leveler. I drop Luke off as the rain comes down from the gray, gray skies. As we pull on to the main boulevard I try to cheer Nico up by telling him we will go on an adventure on Saturday with our cameras but his lip still hangs. 

Then I see my reward for having to put up with all this. The ground is wet, the sky is darkened with clouds and the colors on the Orchid tree are vibrant. The flowers have dropped on to the road as though to make a flowered path for me. Nothing softens a bite in the butt like a carpet of flowers. 

 

http://hawaii.gov/gov/news/releases/2009-news-releases/china-trip-update-promoting-tourism-hawai-i-exports-and-clean-energy-partnerships

The Hawai‘i Tourism Authority’s decision this week to spend money on the Shanghai Expo for 2010 was a very wise decision on their part. I’m very excited about it. I’ll be there in Shanghai for that expo as well as to attend ceremonies honoring the 25^th anniversary of our sister-state/province relationship with Guangdong. It will be a much larger trip next year, we will invite members of the community, business community, education community to travel with us on that trip and we certainly hope the media will make that trip. It is going to be a very important 

Judging a book by it's cover

  


     I just finished watching "You've Got Mail." I could not tell you why I like that movie so much but I can say, I so love that little book store and, it breaks my heart every time I see it closed. I get very upset when I think about these bookstore chains that have pushed out the little guys. I enjoyed going into a snug shop with employees who were always able to recommend a book because they knew you and knew your preferences.  I miss the atmosphere of being cradled in shelves of books and not having to wonder in a wasteland of remainders. 

A book in the hand beat a Kindle any day

     I've tried to understand what the draw is. I must admit when Borders first opened I enjoyed it for a bit because I could sit and read in the coffee shop. That is my favorite thing to do. Then the smaller shops started closing and I really missed them because I did not like loosing the personal attention and the ability to get good recommendations.

      That seems to be the way the whole job situation is going. But again as I watched the movie I thought, maybe these large chains employee a lot more people then the small book stores so is anyone getting hurt? Well, a lot of books are being printed overseas. How many jobs are lost there?

      Like other job sectors where their work is going overseas, this means more people without jobs. People without jobs have no money to spend, and if they have no money to spend it does not matter how cheap an item gets, nobody has any money to buy it.

Halloween cards being sold at Borders. Hmm is Hallmark next?  

     So how are these big bookstores, with cheap books helping the average person who is loosing their job? Are we really better off getting our things at a cheaper price because they are being made overseas? Or is it a catch 22? 
     How are we going to buy anything if eventually the only work we can find is going to be in a foreign country? Does anyone get it? 

Books are a good thing!