Holiday Lights

The Roommates were busy today putting up lights outside. Each year they buy a little bit more to add to their decorations. This year they added white icicle lights; but they had to go back to City Mill 3 times to get get all strings to work properly. (Apparently on the 2nd trip the sales person did not pull the entire string out of the box so did not see that one of the panels was not working.) Because of the vegetation people driving by will not be able to see everything, but the many neighbors walking their dogs will be able to enjoy their efforts.

I awoke from my nap to find this.

From my room it looks like this when the lights are on.

I won't need to turn the light on to plug in my car!

You have to find the right spot to see straight to the front door.

From across the street.

From the same side of the street.

I had a very slight headache when I woke up this morning; a little self-massage and it went away. I drank a lot of water throughout the day because it is a Fast Day. But I still had a slight headache when I got up from my nap. I think I need to sleep without a pillow for a few days to relax my neck muscles; I can feel the headache return when I move my neck in certain directions. I will also be avoiding the workout portions where I am on my back and raising my head; I can feel my neck muscles straining when I do that.

Today was the 6th NiU NOW webinar; there will be only one more in December. These webinars were developed from a conference celebrating niu (coconuts) that was supposed to be held this fall. When COVID-19 caused the cancellation of large gatherings they moved to a webinar model. They are hoping to be able to hold the conference next year. Today they had presentations by 5 speakers; the first was ʻAha: Cord Bound presented by Hanalei. He told us about his journey learning about a skill known by his grandparents but that he was never taught, how he came to learn working with cordage & weaving, and how it is now an integral part of his life.

Hanalei studying Hawaiian fans at the British Museum.

One of the fans he was studying; the frame for all fans are midribs of the niu leaf.

Cordage plants.

Historical use of cordage.

Contemporary use of cordage.

Figurine with a cordage skirt.

Contemporary cordage garment.

Hanaleiʻs display at the Honolulu Biennial.

Hanalei & models wearing his contemporary designs.

Hanalei & fellow cultural practitioners at a rededication.

 

The 2nd speaker was Indrajit with Niu Role in the Spiritual World. He started with a slide showing the areas of the world that niu grows in, highlighting Hawaiʻi & his native Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka, besides its use as a food and construction material, niu is also used spiritually.

All parts of this funeral arch were woven from niu.

The house on this small lot was built around the niu.

The 3rd speaker was Mahi, he talked about Kīʻoʻe: Wat's da scoop? A few years ago he began making kīʻoʻe, which are made from coconut shells for use as ladles and spoons. He has continued to refine the shapes of the kīʻoʻe ʻawa that he makes for the ʻawa ceremony.

This kīʻoʻe ʻawa was made in honor of the god Lono.

The 4th speaker was Vilsoni, he spoke about his journey weaving baskets from niu in his presentation, Caressing a Niu Leaf! One of his baskets was recently in a show; he put a high price on it because he did not want anyone to buy it!

Vili used a frond that was hanging in the path to make a hat!

This is where Vili learned to weave niu.

His wife talked him in to entering his basket in this show.

Because he lives in a condo he uses fronds removed during tree trimming.

Last was Noelle with Clusters of Mana: The Art and Poetry of Niu. She presented both historical as well as contemporary use of niu in art and poetry.

Historical art showed niu was the dominant tree in the landscape.

She was wondering why someone had sent her this while she was researching niu in art.

She looked closer & saw the unusual tattoo; usually tattoos were geometric designs.

This is a contemporary show by a New Zealand artist.

This is what the original George Carter painting looks like.

The Carter painting is again used as the backdrop.

Historical photos of the land where the Sheraton Waikiki is built.

All the NiU NOW webinars end with ʻOli Mahalo, a chant of thanks.

Because I did it right and ate dinner last night, I was able to do almost all 24-hours of the fast. But The Roommates were ordering delivery from The Ripple of Smiles so I ordered Lemongrass Salmon. A few days ago there was a news article about how the restaurant was vandalized. Again. There is a person that has vandalized the storefront quite a number of times; each time the owners change their storefront to make it less accessible, but he keeps on breaking in & vandalizing it. With the pandemic and less customers they were concerned they would have to close because they can't keep on fixing things with so few customers. My dinner was excellent! I am sure we will be getting more meals from them.

It didn't rain here today, contrary to what the Aix weather app forecasted. But based on the graphic from the Tesla app it looks like it was at least cloudy in kapaʻau.

It looks like Keala has figured out how to get in to S'mores & Luna's feeder. I think what she does is waits for S'mores to open it; then while S'mores is eating the kibble that she has scooped out of the feeder, Keala sticks her head in and eats from it. On their feeder, her collar registers as Pet C, who is allowed to eat for 0 minutes at 0%. But as you can see, Pet C had been there for more than 0 minutes (yes, I realize, mathematically that 0 x 0 is 0). She tends to max out her feeder for every eating period within the first 30 minutes or so of each 6 hour feeding window that the day is broken in to; she almost always eats 100% of her daily allowance.

She is maxed out on feeding window 3 and has to wait for the next one to open up.

I have not figured out if I can load gif files so you will have to look at stills of cat behavior that many cats exhibit.

 

A college student in Nebraska grew a mushroom canoe. Katy Ayers thinks mushrooms are one of the ways to help the environment; I wonder if she is aware of Paul Stamets and his research on mushrooms? The canoe she made is from the mycelium; after she takes it out of the water it provides another crop of edible mushrooms!

Some photos I liked on my friends' Facebook pages.

 Some holiday thoughts.

 

Apparently there has been a concern that the developing COVID-19 vaccines can give you the disease. Unlike the attenuated polio vaccines, there is no live but incapacitated virus that is being used to develop these first vaccines that are coming out. (I am not sure how vaccines are being developed in other countries.)

California is seeing a surge in COVID-19 cases, prompting them to begin tighter restrictions. This is bad news for us since San Fransisco is the origin of the largest number of flights here. The increasing number of cases in California and other originating cities is also what prompted local officials to tighten our quarantine and post-arrival testing protocols.

There were 57 new cases of COVID-19 reported today, ringing the total up to 17,840 known cases. There were 4 new deaths reported today making the death toll 244; currently there are 1254 known active cases. The 7-day average of new cases on Oʻahu is 66 with a 2.1% positivity rate.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Victoria & Valory!