Sunday 21 December 2008

A lazy afternoon with a banshee

There were so many plans I had for my 4-day weekend: paint the inside and outside of the house, replace the roof, build a new deck, kill all the moss in the garden and plant a new lawn, kill every coqui within a half-mile radius and finally chop down the rubbish trees and plant some fruit trees in their place. So what happened?

I bought a nice copper-plated thermometer for the lanai, a sandwich maker and some fertiliser. Oh, and I took some trash to the solid waste transfer station ("the dump" for my British friends).

The thermometer is great, it always reads 76 degrees, so clearly the climate here is more stable than I realised. I haven't been out in the garden to use the fertiliser but the sandwich maker works, I used it this morning to make a nice grilled cheese and ham sandwich. So much for plans...

I settled in for the day to watch some NFL football and then fell asleep and missed most of the latter game. That shopping trip yesterday must have tired me out more than I realised. So, before the Sunday night game started (and what a game it was in the end!), I headed off to Hilo not really knowing what I was going to do, but just had to get out of the house. A visit to Home Depot was definitely on the cards though.

On the way I stopped to take a picture of Hilo Bay and it's the one above. The water looked inviting but the time needed to correct any problems with the panorama didn't, so you get whatever the first run through hugin gets you. I have more important things to do like feed the cats.

Then, when I realised I had the camera with me, I took a drive to the scenic route just north of Hilo. That was a mistake.

On that route there's a spot you can park your car and take a nice picture of the coast. There was no-one around today so I parked the car, got out and started to take several pictures which I'd planned to make into a mind-blowing panorama that would make everyone else really jealous!

I was halfway through that process when there was a scream from hell about two feet behind me. Not only did I try and throw the camera over the cliff's edge I was standing on, I was going to throw myself off the cliff as well. Anything would be better than facing the banshee who'd sneaked up behind me.

"HEY *%$@**!, THE VIEW HERE IS THE GOOD ONE!"

A couple of local girls, and "girls" is a relative term here, had driven up behind me without me noticing and parked their Honda on a blind curve assuring an accident if any unfortunate tourists were driving the other way. It was OK though, they left their hazard lights on.

I find it hard to describe my feelings when this happened. I was carefully aligning my camera to take some great shots of the coastline, was halfway through the dozen or so shots required and was really concentrating hard. Try sneaking up on the next person you see in the post office working hard on filling in a form, get within a couple of feet of them and then shout to your friend a hundred yards away that they really should see this. Then imagine a 200-foot drop right in front of your victim.

I was not happy, but at least I'm still alive to write this. It's the season of goodwill so will try to forget this incident, but boy, it'll be difficult.

The panorama I tried to take? Pretty much destroyed. The camera lense is dirty but hopefully isn't damaged, it doesn't like being jammed into a wooden fence and then dropped to the ground.

I was trying to take a panorama of this place:

As for visiting Home Depot? Perhaps another day...

4 comments:

Zuzana said...

Some people, right?;)
I look forward to see the panorama picture next time.
If I do not get a chance, I would like to wish you a VERY Happy Christmas.;))

Diane said...

Now you know what life is like with a little girl (especially if her friends are visiting). Best is when there are squeals when I'm driving (they're not related TO my driving, mind you... it might just be because the Jonas Bros came on the radio or she remembered something 'important'). One day I'm going to drive straight into a wall or a tree from the fright.

If you don't look TOO closely, that bottom picture looks a bit like one I took on the coast of Maine!

Oh, and no, I've never been to the Grand Canyon. We're going to spend a couple of days in Sedona as well, as I've always wanted to go there. It'll take forever to get there, so we're camping all the way out and all the way back... should be a great trip!

Keera Ann Fox said...

You were looking for a new photo for your header. I'd say this panorama fits the bill!

Tom said...

Protege - if I don't get around to it beforehand, I wish you the happiest Christmas ever!

Keera - you might be right - I have a better one but hugin isn't quite getting it right - something to work on another day I think!

Diane - Sedona is beautiful and I can't think of a better place to go camping. The town itself is far too touristy for my liking but the countryside is wonderful. And in a way I'm glad you haven't seen the Grand Canyon yet - you are in for a real treat! It's the most amazing place on the planet as far as I'm concerned.

The blog entry I wrote was Lowell country in case you're interested. There's also a great curry house in Flagstaff as well!