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Tag Archives: memories

Halloween—why would someone do this to a child

31 Friday Oct 2014

Posted by Bob in B.O.B.s, myCulture, myNews, myWhys

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candy, celebration, child, children, coat, coax, costume, decor, decorated, evil, experience, fairy, fear, friendly, frightening, fun, gesture, girl, halloween, happy, image, kiosk, laugh, mail, memories, memory, outfit, parent, pirate, princess, rubbing, scared, sugar, townhouse, trick or treat, unfriendly, unhappy, younger

I was gathering our mail from the mail kiosk at the townhouse complex we live in. As I pulled up, I noticed what looked like parents taking their small children trick or treating. All the children and the parents were dressed up and the townhouse was decorated with the traditional unfriendly decor.

All the attention seemed to be on a small child dressed in a black outfit with tiny yellow ears. I could only see his back. This child was obviously very unhappy and it seemed like the parents were trying to coax the child into the house as they all seemed to be friends. The child would not go. The man who answered the door was dressed as a pirate. He bent down to make a friendly gesture to the child and ease his fears. Then he squatted down to be level with the child. By now, a young girl, slightly older than the scared child, dressed in a blue princess or fairy costume, came out and was rubbing the back of the younger one.

It was a no go for the little one. The pirate man began, one by one, to take off some of his outfit, checking along the way, as if to say, “See, it’s only me.”

As I watched, I began to wonder what sort of memories this poor young child was going to come away with on this Halloween night? Is this really what we want to do to our children? Oh, I’m sure a lot of candy can sugar-coat the experience and all will eventually laugh about it. Really, come on. The frightening experience will be buried and covered in a grave of celebration of evil. But, no memory is completely erased.

I looked for an image to add here, but the overwhelming numbers of evil images made me think twice. Who really can believe in ‘Happy Halloween?’ Can celebrating evil actually be fun?

Think about it!

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Kauai — From Christmas to New Years

01 Sunday Jan 2012

Posted by Bob in myNews

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abundant, academics, activities, air, airplane, alcohol, bag, banana, bar, bathing suit, beach, bed, board, boarding, boogie, bowl, breakfast, brother-in-law, burrito, camera, cameras, clearing, coconut, combo, confident, contract, course, crowded, daily, daughter, days, demonstrate, dining, dinner, dirt, dishes, drift, drink, drinks, drive, edit, electric, expensive, family, fancy, fantastic, feature, feed, fire, fireworks, fish, float, flying, food, fun, generous, golf, graduate, grand caravan, grand hyatt, guacamole, guests, guitar, hawaii, hawaiian, hosts, ice cream, instructor, instructors, jazz, juggling, kalua, land, lanterns, launching, lava, lecture, lesson, links, live, macadamia, Marriott Waiohai Beach Club, mask, master, meal, memories, mexican, mitch, morning, movie, movies, music, neal, nelson, new years eve, night, nut, onboard, outdoor, pacific, paddle board, pancake, park, party, pedro, people, performance, photoblog, photography, photos, plastic, pocket, poipu, pool, post, potholes, price, private, pulled pork, qualifications, qualifies, red, reef, regulators, resort, restaurant, riding, road, rocks, rough, scuba, seattle, shore, shot, sing, sister, skills, snorkel, snorkelling, son, sort, sorted, spam, stand-up, stocking, storage, sun, sunrise, sunset, surf, surfer, surfing, surfs, swam, swim, swimming, syrup, talked, teaching, trains, treat, trip, TV, ukulele, underwater, vacation, vancouver, velocity, video, virgin, waiohai, walked, water, waterproof camera, waves, wife, world war II, written, youtube

Whew! We are flying home from our fantastic vacation at the the Marriott Waiohai Beach Club in Poipu, Kauai. My sister made sure we were kept busy experiencing all that we could. I have already mentioned some things we did. I continued to take an enormous number of photos, many of waves and sunrises. My storage for photos has been eaten up by the unexpected videos I shot with the little waterproof camera my sister gave us. I am now down to the onboard storage of both my cameras. I should make it, however, I will have to do some real juggling to find storage space to sort photos and edit all the videos into a short movie.

Back to the activities. Our hosts, my sister and brother-in-law, were truly generous by not only stocking the unit we stayed in with plenty of food, but also, getting us out to eat in the local dining places. For them, it is the experience with the dining rather than the price, however, they always point out that we are the least expensive guests to take out since we do not drink alcohol. So, the food is even more abundant.

One night we went to a semi-outdoor restaurant nearby. We sat right near the live music which included a fellow who surfs by day and plays the electric ukulele and sings by night. He was good too. Besides the fellow playing guitar at the outdoor bar at the Waiohai, we did not hear much more live music. Oh, there was a small jazz combo at the Grand Hyatt bar as we walked through.

One morning, we went for breakfast at the local golf course and had another huge meal. It seems that the World War II canned meat spam, still has a following in Hawaii. There are many dishes incorporating the meat, long forgotten elsewhere. I also had Kalua pulled pork, on other occasions too, even on the airplane a while ago. I tried my sister’s breakfast burrito and had a banana and Macadamia nut pancake with coconut syrup. I simply could not resist.

Another night we went to a Mexican restaurant, yes, Mexican in Hawaii, just to be different, I guess. The unique experience here was the table-side guacamole. Pedro came and made the guacamole, two servings, in a lava bowl right at our table and it was surely the best I have ever had.

We were treated to more surfing lessons. Our instructor, looked like true Hawaiian surfer. No family, just teaching surfing everyday, all day. He was there at sunrise and still around after sunset. Very dedicated. We were learning on reef surf, different from the beach surf at the previous lessons. All I can say is, it is still hard to do. But, we sure had fun. My son really took to stand-up paddle boarding and spent some hours on the last day trying to graduate to catching waves on the board.

The resort has a new contract to have daily scuba lessons available. Our instructor struck me immediately as very confident. There was my sister and three of us from my family. Neal told us that we had to do the academics first, so, he gave a short lecture, but, at a high velocity. One rarely runs across someone who can speak so fast. He assured us by giving his long list of qualifications, including the fact that he is the top person for the Pacific area and does work in movies and trains and qualifies instructors. Next, we had a couple of performance skills to master and demonstrate, such as clearing our mask of water and finding and clearing our regulators, all under water. It turned out to be so simple that, in no time, we were swimming around the pool underwater and having a great time. After, my sister invited Neal for a drink where we talked more about scuba and other interesting stuff. We came away from the experience knowing it had been a real treat. We had been in the company of a true master, just as we were with Mitch and Nelson, our surfing instructors.

As the trip was nearing its end, my sister urged me to do a few more things. One morning they took me to a somewhat remote beach for some photography. The drive was rough, through some private land. The road was the common red dirt with deep potholes, however, the Grand Caravan finally made it. We walked along the beach, along some rocks, I took many photos and then we did some snorkelling.

It was the last day, so when we got back from the early morning trip, my sister still had a few more activities for me to do. I had to keep up, somehow, so I grabbed some food and then we were off to have a swim with my wife and daughter at another beach and then, do some boogie boarding at still another beach on the other side of the resort and past a park. It was a crowded beach that we went to. People were body surfing and boogie boarding. It was difficult to keep from running into each other. On one ride I crossed over and my son ended up riding on top of me all the way into the shore.

I was not finished yet. My sister had some fish food to feed fish while snorkeling, so, off I was again to snorkel. My wife even went too. Not knowing where to put the food while we swam out to the reef, my sister suggested I shove the plastic bag into my bathing suit pocket. At one point, as I was using my small video camera, I realized that there were more fish than normal. A quick check of my pocket and I knew they already got the fish food.

Finally, it was time to get ready for the New Years Eve party on the beach. We started at the bar with some fancy drinks, virgin for most of us, and some dinner. People were already setting off fireworks on the beach and launching fire lanterns (I know there is proper name for them, but, I don’t have it on hand) that would float high into the air and drift away. Then came the big Poipu Beach fireworks display and the party was over before midnight. We went and had some ice cream, watched TV and then got tired, so we went to bed.

I feel as if there is so much I have not written about. We really did pack plenty of memories into this eight days of fun in the sun. We are about to land in Seattle for our connecting flight to Vancouver.

I will post some photos on my PhotoBlog and Feature Photos website once I get them sorted. I may even post some video on YouTube. I may also post links relating to the trip, if I get a chance.

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Beginning to move away from summer

05 Monday Sep 2011

Posted by Bob in myNews

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adjustment, alderwood mall, august, balance, baron, baron of beef, baseball, BBQ, bed, beef, bike, birch bay, birthday, birthdays, blogging, border, bread, busy, butcher, changing, chocolate, chocolate chips, cook, cookies, cool, cooler, cousin, crab, curious, curling, curtains, customs, days, deal, demonstration, demonstration forest, dinner, dogs, don, eaten, eight, endless pasta bowl, fall, favourite, feast, feelings, florian, food, forest, form, games, german, gordon, happy, hauled, hill, home, hot, hunk, I-96, jumping, kids, kilometers, labor day, labour day, lanes, life, lineup, loaves, macys, malcolm, mall, market, meat, memories, michelle, mind, molassas, night, nights, office, olive garden, parties, party, patti, paula, photography, pillows, pne, queensdale, queensdale market, raisin, relatives, resist, ride, rotisserie, routines, school, seasons, seattle, shocked, shopping, signals, sister, sleep, summer, temperature, thought, trip, umpires, uncle, uncomfortable, us, ventured, vowed, weather, wife, winter, work, year, years

It is Labour Day and that signals the start of the Fall routines. Let me take a moment to wrap up my Summer for you.

Such a busy summer it seems to have been. Michelle and Florian were here for over a week again. It was a nice time. I have sure eaten a lot of food. We had parties and I did a baron of beef on the rotisserie. This was interesting. Patti went to Queensdale Market and checked out the beef. On the day of the BBQ, she sent me to get it. The butcher was one of the umpires from some of Malcolm’s baseball games. I explained that my wife had talked to someone about a baron of beef and that it would cost about $30. He went into the cooler and came out with a huge hunk of meat. I was a bit shocked at the size. As we talked about baseball, he carved away and then handed me the most perfect chunk of beef for $31. Wow, did that cook nice. What a great dinner.

Days before that, my sister had a party for all the August birthdays. I think there was eight of us. That was a pretty good party.

We made a trip to the US and Michelle and Florian wanted to go all the way to Alderwood Mall, almost to Seattle. I vowed never to do that sort of long trip and shopping in one day again, and that was last year. On the way down, we were in a modest lineup and then got hauled over. It turned out that Florian, being German, is required to file an I-96 form every 90 days. So, there we were for the first time held up in the customs office. Once done, we headed to all the usual shopping spots, including Alderwood and the Olive Garden for the Endless Pasta Bowl special. While we waited for the kids to shop, Patti went into Macys and found a $400, 20 piece, bed set for $65. How could we resist such a deal and chance for Patti (and I) to have a wonderful bed set. It even includes curtains.

Yesterday, we ventured back to the US for my Uncle Gordon’s 90th birthday party at Cousin Don’s at Birch Bay. On the way, we shopped more and ended up with a car full of pillows. When we got to the party many relatives I have not seen for years were there. There was so much food and I had a really great time. It was a long tough wait at the border to get back. Everybody was jumping lanes and making new lanes. Not great. Then we found out that Malcolm, who was looking after Paula’s dogs, was not given a ride home when they got home from the party at Don’s. Malcolm had been there for 16 hours and we had to go get him late at night.

I wanted to go to the PNE today, however, we all wanted to sleep in and spend the day with Malcolm, who did not want to go to the PNE. So strange, I always wanted to go to the PNE when I was young So, we went on a tough bike ride up to the Demonstration Forest. Malcolm, of course, was able to out ride us, but, we still managed to get plenty of kilometers in, some of it was up hill too.

When we got home, we had a feast of crab given to us last night at the party. Such a treat. As I write here, Malcolm and Patti are making cookies. Tomorrow, we start getting back to the routines that happen after summer.

I have not been making much bread over the summer, except when Michelle and Florian were here I made a raisin bread with molassas. We were short of raisins, so we substituted some chocolate chips. It is pretty good and I gave the kids one of the loaves.

I have had a curious thought on my mind the last few days. It started with my feelings around the time of the start of Summer. I had a routine and was sort of used to getting up earlier and taking Malcolm to school, then heading to work. I knew that an adjustment to life was coming as school was ending and thoughts of hot days entered my mind. The thing is, I am uncomfortable in hot weather. I feel best when the temperature is in the low 20s C and the nights get cool. As things turned out, the first half of the summer was not hot and August has been my temperature. For many folks, is has been less than Summer like, yet, I have been busy and not too hot. I am used to this routine now and just as I have reached this point, I am faced with changing again. What sort of winter is in store for us this year? Have I really made good attempts to enjoy the Summer days and make the most of them? Part of me is happy with this late Summer routine and part of me is looking forward to getting back to other routines. Curling is starting soon. I may be able to get more blogging done and even photography. May favourite seasons are Spring and Fall. Photography is better then too. I think I am experiencing perfect weather, plenty of interesting things going on, lots of work and it seems hard to leave all that behind or, in some way begin to move away to find a different balance to life. Late Summer has been pretty good and that has brought happiness. Perhaps the months to come may balance out in some way as Summer has. At least I have some good memories and perhaps that is what counts.

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Preamble

I have many interesting activities in my life—so many that I have sometimes neglected my blogs. Since myBobLog is my original and first blog, it is here that I endeavour to continue my blogging journey once again. I started w while back with a new theme.

Then I wrote about a project of growing my hair to donate to cancer patients. I had a fundraising page that I linked to. I was going to write quite a bit about my return to playing music with my cornet and how had a dream come true by acquiring a particular cornet; and was also going to write about the two jazz bands I was running. In fact, I begun websites for them too.

Then my Essential Tremor condition worsened and I have had to resign for the bands.

Next came the great Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. This curtailed my music activities even more—to the point I can barely play me cornet.

Thus I am currently focusing on my books and my  Technojungle Safari website. I suppose I have been blaming my blogging neglect on the writing and editing of my upcoming book. I have even postponed work on my photography.

Don’t worry about the details of all these projects and activities. I will make sure the mud settles as soon as I get a better handle on how I want to set up things here on this blog to start with.

It will take some time, so stay tuned and be patient.

This Preamble hints at only somme of what I hope to write about in the future.

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