Aloha Friday: Not Ready For Snow

At the time of this writing, I’m dreading a horrible, awful event that is going on outside: The first snowfall.

For the longest time, I was in denial that the summer was over.  Through September, it was easy to keep this up.  The weather was still pretty warm and the leaves were green.  Then the leaves began changing and falling to the ground and the air got a chill in it.  I’ve made my peace that autumn is here.

But snow?  Now?  I’m not ready to admit that winter is on the way.  I know that, officially, winter doesn’t arrive until the 22nd of December, but here winter weather doesn’t wait until then.  By then, we’ve already had a few snowstorms.

This one isn’t predicted to deposit much snow.  Half of an inch at most.  Still, it’s the principle of the thing.  I’m not ready for snow and resent winter sticking its frozen head into the autumn that I just got used to.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Are you ready for winter weather to arrive?


Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha Friday by Kailani at An Island Life

Aloha #111

Aloha Friday: Dreams and Nightmares

Lately, I’ve been having a hard time getting a good night’s sleep.  Part of it is my own fault.  I tend to get a “second wind” at night and then crash at or after midnight.  I need to start heading to bed sooner.

Besides my late bedtime, the other reason I haven’t felt rested have been my dreams.  Instead of nice, peaceful dreams, I’ve been having weird dreams and outright nightmares.

Last week, I dreamt that NHL had a febrile seizure.  He’s had one before, when he was 11 months old.  For awhile, he turned blue and stopped moving.  It was among the most frightening moments in my life.  JSL has also had multiple febrile seizures.

In my dream, it was just NHL and me.  JSL and B were nowhere to be found.  Even around us, there was nothing.  Just a big emptiness containing NHL and me.  NHL collapsed into my arms suffering from a febrile seizure.  (Somehow in the dream logic, I knew exactly what it was causing this.)  NHL wouldn’t respond to me.  I screamed for someone to help me.  No response.  Just me and my child lifeless in my arms.

I woke up at this point, but was understandably rattled.  The dream had seemed so real and it brought back fears and feelings that I never wanted to experience again.  I hate feeling helpless.  Seeing my child lifeless before me with nothing I can do is the most helpless I’ve ever felt.

Earlier this week, I had a different sort of dream.  It wasn’t a nightmare, per se, but it was very disturbing.  In the dream, I was in my parents’ house.  Specifically, I was standing by the sliding glass door at the back of their house.  There was a light snow outside and NHL was spending some time outdoors while I watched him from the other side of the glass.

I noticed that NHL was walking towards a bug.  A sort of beetle.  It wasn’t a normal beetle, though.  It was big.  And by big, I mean about 3 feet tall and one and a half feet wide.  Yes, this was a seriously large bug.  I called for NHL to come in, but he didn’t.  Finally, as the bug moved towards him and the house, he came inside.  At this point it was too late, though.  The bug was trying to get in the house and we needed to wrestle it and push it back.  I woke up tired from a long night of beetle wrestling.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Do you have weird dreams or nightmares?


Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha Friday by Kailani at An Island Life

Aloha #110

Aloha Friday: Social Media Time Out

As you read this, I’ll be offline celebrating the holiday of Sukkot.  It may be a more minor holiday than Rosh Hashana or Yom Kippur, but I like celebrating these holidays.  Now, I’m not Orthodox.  I do things like take photos, watch TV and the like.  One thing I don’t do, though, is use my phone or computer.  I use the holiday as time off from anything work-related (which includes all computers as I program websites for a living and phones as I could otherwise take calls from work defeating the purpose of being “off”).  Instead, I spend the time with my family.  The forced time offline means that I interact with my family more.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Do you regularly take vacations from social media/computers?


Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha Friday by Kailani at An Island Life

Aloha #109

Aloha Friday: Which eBook Should I Get?

Last week, I found out that I won a Kindle.  Not only a Kindle, but I was getting a free eBook (up to a $25 value).  This put me in a quandary.  I used to be a voracious reader.  I’d go into the library, get out a dozen books and read them before they were due back.

In recent years, though, I haven’t done much reading like this.  Nowadays, I still consume tons of information, but I get it from blogs, online articles, web comics, Wikipedia, and the like instead of a series of big, thick books.

So what book should I get?

One of the first ideas to pop into my mind was a cookbook.  One of the first to spring to mind was The Happy Herbivore Cookbook.  However, the Kindle version of this book costs a mere $4.49.  It seems like a waste to use an “up to a $25 value” offer on a book that costs under five bucks.  I also looked at 1,000 Vegan Recipes or 1,000 Vegetarian Recipes.  These were closer to the price point, but I decided that I have a ton of cookbooks already.

Next, I stumbled on The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking.  As a physics geek, I loved A Brief History of Time, so perhaps I’d enjoy this.  Then again, maybe I’d be better off with a science fiction story such as Earth Abides by George Stewart.

My final option, which many people have recommended to B, was The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins.  This is supposed to be a really good series and being able to pick up all three books for the Kindle in one purchase seems nice.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: What book would you recommend that I get?  Feel free to either pick one of the ones listed above or a completely different book.


Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha Friday by Kailani at An Island Life

Aloha #108

Aloha Friday: Apples and Honey

Today, marks the new year on the Jewish Calendar.  On Rosh Hashaha, we celebrate having a sweet year by eating apples and honey.  This year, we’ll be eating plenty of that since B and JSL picked 19.5 pounds of apples!

My Aloha Friday question for today is: What is your favorite recipe to make with apples?


Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha Friday by Kailani at An Island Life

Aloha #107

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