Category Archives: Personal

I’m forced to take a leave of absence

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I’ve been posting at ilind.net more or less regularly for 26 years, beginning in early 2000, if I recall correctly (although it might have been the following year).

I think this is the first time I’m reluctantly putting it aside for more than a few days.

The greatly edited story is that I watched the weekend’s storm from a 6th floor room at Straub Hospital.

Two attempts to complete an endoscopy failed, and I’m hoping to be admitted to a medical center in San Francisco for further diagnosis and treatment.

I might be moved to grab the keyboard now and then, but I need to avoid that little daily background stress and concentrate on my health.

I know you all understand and I appreciate all of your support.

And don’t forget that this remains a good place to search for interesting tidbits from the past z25 or 26 years.

Subscribers will get a notice when I’m ready to resume.

A short personal note

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This is addresseed to regulars who stop by this site from time to time.

I have just discovered a medical issue that I have to deal with. It came up with minimal notice and took me by surprise.

While I’m trying to push the diagnostic process along, and trying not to scare myself by searching online for potential worst case outcomes, I might be a little erratic with posts here.

Hopefully it will be resolved soon.

The best I can suggest is that you subscribe, if you haven’t already. That way you should get an email notice each time I post.

So please bear with me while I sort things out.

Old snapshots = amazing memory aids

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Slogging through the process of scanning old snapshots stimulates the brain cells by reminding you of those past lived experiences! It turns a tedious task into a rather fun ride!

It appears that 1995 was one of Meda’s sabbatical years, although it looks like she took the spring semester off at full pay rather than the full year at half pay. That seems likely because the photo evidence is that we took at least two trips within a few months of each other, Boston in March and Melbourne, Australia, in July.

Seeing the horses reminded me that we stayed at the conference hotel, a Marriott in Copley Square. The horses are installed outside the hotel. From there, we walked around a lot of Boston.

I remember that there was a lane in back of the hotel, and we discovered two restaurants back there that took us through the week. One was a Thai restaurant that we must have gone to three of the nights we were there. And there was also a pizza place that drew us in, or where we would pick up a pizza to take back to our room.

My favorite photo from our couple of weeks in Melbourne that same year was taken on a tour of the wine country north of Melbourne with a the husband of Meda’s colleague at the University of Melbourne.

The years roll on

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Aloha.

A good word to use at this time of year.

It can mean goodbye, as in “goodbye 2025.” And it can mean “hello.” As in “hello and welcome 2026!”

Late in the afternoon on the last day of 2025, we sat on our back deck, looking out over the back yard that still reflects my mother’s selection, placement, and care of plants although she’s been gone over a dozen years, and opened bottle of champagne that cost much more than our regular fare. Unfortunately, it disappointed. It was not up to the standard my memory demanded of this label. It was okay, maybe even good, but not a great bottle. Nevertheless, we persisted!

Then came our big celebratory new year’s eve feast. Reheated Costco ribs, dinner #2 from this container purchased on Monday, along with leftover coleslaw Meda made for dinner on Monday. On the plus side, coleslaw often tastes better after it’s had a chance to age a bit, so perhaps it doesn’t really count as a leftover. We added mashed potatoes, a plate of deviled eggs (which seem to have Kiko’s attention), and a half-bottle of red wine also leftover from the night before.

That kind of sums up things for us. Nothing fancy, but tasty food and enough of it. It was a meal that tickled the frugal bone, you might say.

Meanwhile, the cats were calm because there was little in the way of fireworks in our corner of the island, and even surrounding areas didn’t really heat up until after 9 p.m. But looking at the videos posted online from other parts of Oahu, there really isn’t much evidence that the flow of illegal fireworks into the state has been slowed by highly publicized law enforcement actions, even federal charges.

And it was a fine morning to start the year! I would post my photos from the morning, but my hard drive is busy as I’m backing up the 36,000 or so photos taken last year (2025) in order to start a new 2026 photo collection. Perhaps I’ll come back to it later.