Wishing You

ALOHA, Friend!

"Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true."

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1850

 

Hope you are in a good place

"The object of a New Year
is not that we should have

a new year.

It is that we should have
a new soul."

                                          G. K. Chesterton

"While angels sing with tender mirth,
A glad new year to all the earth."

Martin Luther

"Never tell your resolution beforehand,

or it's twice as onerous a duty."

John Selden

From all of us here on the isles of Hawaii. . .

We wish you the best in the coming year!

The important thing about blogging is not posting.

What really is important

is visiting all of your friends

and sharing their lives.

While I've been "fasting" from the keyboard & screen

you have been much in my mind.

Thank you for your posts, your words, photos, 

and generous comments here.

Here's to a new year! 

Here's to you!  Here's to all the Best!  

  Cheers!  Warmly,  cloudia

"Be always at war with your vices,

at peace with your neighbors,

and let each new year find you a better man." Benjamin Franklin

Limbo

A L O H A!

"Nurture your mind

with Great Thoughts."

Disraeli

Malia Obama and her Dad get Shave Ice.

Imagine how that little kid feels to be so warmly embraced

by the First Daughter! It is spontaneous moments that show our

true nature.

 Photos of Obamas, Courtesy of SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images 

@ Huffington Post

The Famous Smile,





We ALL eat our Shave Ice one slurp at a time :)





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><}}(°>                                                     <°)}}><   The time between Christmas & New Years is a sort of Limbo, neither 'here' nor 'there'
not quite this year - but not yet next year either.

I got lost in limbo.

That's my story (excuse) and I'm sticking to it!

  SORRY to be "un-posted" for so many days without explanation or excuse.

  We have not sunk,

though we are submerged in the mind-scatter that accompanies this 'special' time of year

and Vog for too many hazy, 'Kona' days.

Add in the rainy rain

and the husband home from work for an extra day. . .

What was I saying?

Sorry too for the Pineapple Express of moist, rain-to-snow weather we sent your way on the Continent :(

Tonight there will be a professional American football game played on a Tuesday night for the first time since 1942.

I suggest that you stare at that, or some equivalent mindless amusement (sorry football fans. Not really.)

I'm sure glad that you chose to look in on THIS

mindless amusement!

Just think of all the stranded travelers

who long to sit

hand in pants

relaxing at home!

Thanks for your dear visit!

How/What have YOU been up to?

Please tell me in your comment-

Now here's a little song to make it up to you. . .

 cloudia

Thank You Mr. President

ALOHA to Our Visitors;

To The Obama Family & to YOU :)

"Your idol is shattered in the dust

 to prove that God's dust

 is greater than your idol."

Rabindranath Tagore

"Strange violin, are you following me? 

In how many far cities

 has your solitary night

 spoken already to mine?"

  Rilke

"Turn your face to the sun 

and the shadows fall behind you. "

 Maori Proverb

Did you know that here in the US: middle class taxes are down, the economy is improving, and the bailouts of Wall Street, AIG, and General Motors, are on track to turn a profit potentially in the billions for us taxpayers?


President Obama and the Democrats have accomplished much of value in the face unrelenting partisanship.




According to BLOOMBERG:   
No Congress Since 1960s Has Impact on Public as 111th

• For the first time since President Theodore Roosevelt began the quest for a national health-care system more than 100 years ago, the Democrat-led House and Senate took the biggest step toward achieving that goal by giving 32 million Americans access to insurance.

• Congress rewrote the rules for Wall Street in the most comprehensive way since the Great Depression.

• It spent more than $1.67 trillion to revive an economy on the verge of a depression, including tax cuts for most Americans, jobs for more than 3 million, construction of roads and bridges and investment in alternative energy;
• 
  
•  
• ended an almost two-decade ban against openly gay men and women serving in the military,

• ratified a nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia.

• approved legislation to help rescuers and clean-up crews suffering from illnesses linked to the wreckage caused by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York City.

• The S&P 500 Index has gained 38.9 percent since Congress convened in January 2009, thebiggest increase for a two-year congressional session since 1997-1998, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

•  in Ohio, for instance, the legislation created 122,000 jobs for teachers, police officers and construction workers.

“This is probably the most productive session of Congress since at least the ‘60s,”  “It’s all the more impressive given how polarized the Congress has been.”

 Alan Brinkley, 

 Historian, Columbia University.




Welcome home to Honolulu, Mr. President.
Here you are loved.




          And thank YOU for visiting :) cloudia

Aloft by Millions

A l o h a !

click on the pics

"Give me a pen

and a place to write

and I can move the world."

Cloudia

 (with apologies to Archimedes)

"I knew that someday

with luck

I'd be 50 -

but I never really believed it."

How many megapixels are YOU shooting? Tell me in comments.

The President should be landing here on Oahu today.

Kayakers near his (rented) Kailua home are already respecting an enforced exclusion zone

that encroaches on their usual routes.

"That's OK. We like him."

 One paddler told the TV news.

Like most Hawaii residents, Barry's parents and grandparents lived in

rentals and apartments - not a family compound like the Kennedys and the Bushs.

At this time of year ancient kings closed the passes over the mountains.

Energy is low around solstice time,

and they were wise enough to know that it was time to nurture

the waning light,

time to feed the incipient coals

so that light may rise again.

Nurture YOUR little flame-

perhaps by seeing it as one

in a sea of candles

held aloft by millions of people

like you

and like me.

We are the sparks of tomorrow.

Never forget to pass your wise kindness

on the those needing it.

Would you rather live with a tiger in the house

or a rabbit?

The year of the tiger is winding down.

The gentle rabbit is on her way.

You and I-

we've seen it many times before.

So remember to take time

to waste time-

that's sometimes the wisest investment

you can make.

Thanks for spending some time and attention

here

with us!

What small secret pleasure do you enjoy this time of year?

And how many Mega Pixels do YOU shoot?

Fondly, cloudia

Dry Running

A  L  O  H  A !

Still Here!

"Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist

but the ability to start over."

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Moana Surfrider. 100+ years of Aloha

"Speech is of time,

silence is of eternity."

Thomas Carlyle

"Art is the only way to run away
without leaving home."


Twyla Tharp

"If you neglect the welfare of others,

ultimately

you will be very lonely."

Dalai Lama

"Christmas waves a magic wand
 over this world,
 and behold,
 everything is softer and more beautiful."


Norman Vincent Peale



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My feet are dry.

That is no small thing.

Though we have had some Winter Rains

 here in the Islands-

(Sorry for that Pineapple Express, West Coast :(

-and my carpets here on the boat 

have been damp for two weeks or so,

slowly slowly we climb out of the slime and muck;

sometimes literally!

Those of you who know about our emergency (HERE)

know what I'm talking about.

Meanwhile. . .

First Lady Michelle Obama,

 her girls & the dog are waiting in Kailua

for the President to join them this week

on this island of his birth.

The press has taken over a ballroom

 (at least!) at the Moana Surfrider

and strange, stiff, focused men

 in slightly "off" aloha shirts

are seen around Oahu

 talking into tiny headsets.

I feel pretty safe. 

We're having a "Dry Run"

for the Asian Pacific Summit

 which will happen here in 2011

requiring coordination of several heads of state

moving about on one tiny island

converging on the Convention Center

a few blocks from here.

(Juicy: The chi chi Waikiki Edition Hotel
overlooking this harbor

is already booked solid for the event.  It's popular with diplomats - who knew?)

Folks are stoked that President Local Barry

 is coming home.

And he's sure to be seen around the islands,

golfing with high school friends.

(Our new Governor has been known to the Prez

since childhood as his parents' friend!)

I'm sure it's reviving for him to be in a place 

where he is appreciated.

It's almost as much of a thrill to see him

 and the girls eating Shave Ice

as it was to see Johnny Depp among us.

(We still miss ya, Johnny - please come back swoon -

 I mean soon.)

So yes, I'm still here! I missed you - 

but a wet boat in a rainstorm

is not the place to work on-line.

So now I'm off to see what YOU

 have been up to these few days.

Thanks AWFULLY for looking in today.

Leave me a comment so I can hear your breathing :) 

     fondly, cloudia