Winter jobs.

Only because,  one year I sort of forgot,  and that wasn’t a good thing.

See,  if you’re going to trim a grape vine,  springtime isn’t the best time.  They leak like crazy. Let’s not talk about it.

Anyway,  it needed a trimming,  and now it’s done. 

I don’t think I would be cut out for growing much of a crop of grapes, since I do have some slight issues keeping my fingers warm.  It was a balmy 0°C or something like that, but there was no way I could stand much more than maybe a half hour out there.  

 

Isn’t this riveting stuff??

I suppose I did manage to do something ever so slightly more exciting,  in that I finally hooked up our “Smart” TV to the net. 

I had considered buying a “dongle”,  (yes, that’s a word) but the TV is a wee bit too far from the wireless source for that to work,  so I figured I’d run Cat 5 cable.   You know,  that blue stuff.

Kind of “old school”.

Rather than mess around with naked ends and a crimping tool,  I used a length of cable that I’ve had hanging around for a few years instead.  (‘Cause I know it works!)

Most of my experience crimping those ends on can be summed up in one word.  “Bad”.  Unless you have a tester,  there’s way too much guesswork involved.  Best to just go with what you know.

I hadn’t really been looking forward to this part,  since it means moving the TV after unhooking everything.

After many,  many trips back and forth, (goes better with another set of hands) I got it sorted.  I just ran the Cat 5 cable out through the cable box.  Cut a new hole in the plastic cover thingy.

Which,  I didn’t take a picture of, but it doesn’t matter. 

So,  I haven’t quite figured out just *what* we’ll be watching now that the TV is hooked up to the net,  but at least it is.   I did find some stuff on Youtube,  but I need to hoof it down to the store for something for dinner,  so that was the end of the exploration.

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. 

 

Keep it between the ditches,  and thanks for stopping by.

 

Oh shoot!   Forgot to add some more Maui pics!  

Oh well,  mañana.

Back to mostly normal.

Whatever that means.

Forgot to mention,  it seems we missed “No Pants” day!  Oh no! 
I’m not so sure that one is going to catch on though,  since most of the participants seemed to be in places where wearing pants,  (or “trousers”) if you’re in the UK, needed to be worn for warmth,  rather than as a fashion statement.  “Pants” in the UK refers to your “Underpants”.  

Just thought you should know that. 

And if someone offers you a “Fag”,  you won’t get arrested.

 

Dinner didn’t look too shabby last night,  so I took a picture.  I had the car for whatever reason which meant a quick stop at Denninger's,  and of course couldn’t resist the steaks sitting there behind the glass.  Such a sucker for choice meat.  They were mighty good too.   Pretty pricey,  but cheaper than dining out.  That’s the best I can come up with.

Oh, the funny looking orange stuff there is sweet potato,  cooked the only way I like it.  Sliced, drizzled with olive oil and maybe some basil,  and roasted on a pan in the oven.

 

Then,  just to add to the gluttony,  we thought we’d delve into a little gift that was brought to us all the way from Vienna,  when our visitor came to Canada before Christmas.

Admittedly,  this Sachertorte was getting a little “well aged”,  but it was fine.   It’s so rich that you can only eat one piece anyway,  but we may take another stab at it again tonight.   I think there’s a pun in there somewhere.  (note the knife)

OK,  I shouldn’t have to point out the puns.  Keep up.

 

Since there’s not a heck of a lot going on here at the Ponderosa,  I’ll throw in some pictures of the Luau.

 

These three were the musical accompaniment.  They were actually pretty good.  You just have to play in tune, and not suck.

The first part of the show was a little “campy”, as the “MC” (if that’s what you call him)  was there to warm up the crowd.  I guess.  Who knows? 

Anyway,  he picked some Dude from the audience to participate.  (Um, the White Dude?) 

Of course,  he was a salesman from the mainland.  Complete dork.

 

There were various costume changes and different dances representing all the Polynesian Islands.

The request was to not use flash during the fire dance portion of the program,  so I had a few duds. 

The solo Dude was actually pretty damned awesome.

I only managed to get a selfie of him and I.

And of course,  one more of one of the cute little dancers.

Cripes.  Maybe I should have just photo-shopped a big “smiley face” over my mug.   The guy up on the stage wasn’t the only dork it seems.

 

I think my chicken burgers are ‘bout done,  so that’s it for today.

 

Thanks for lookin’.

The giant yellow orb.

It’s been so gloomy since we came back from Maui, that when the sun finally came out yesterday afternoon,  I wasn’t really sure what to do.  I vaguely recalled that it was something *nice*,  and it did help melt the rest of the ice off the driveway.

Which, by the way, was pretty damned nasty.  The word is,  it rained and then froze when we were away.  So getting *up* the driveway with luggage was a challenge when we arrived home Tuesday night.

Matter of fact,  I just got back home from spreading a bag of sand on my sister-in-law’s driveway just now.  She has a good two inches of ice.  Digging, chipping, whatever was out of the question.  The sand was surprisingly effective. 

Gratuitous photo of one of the pools where we stayed.

I’m not going to do one of those “Day One, Day Two” ordeals,  but instead I’ll try and throw in some snippets along the way.

Speaking of getting home.  We were lucky.  Completely naive as to how bad it was in Toronto,  which meant that we still didn’t really realise how lucky we were until we were watching the news on Wednesday morning.  So that’s why there was all that extra luggage hanging around!

I mean,  Toronto pretty much sucks when it comes to actually getting you *out* of the airport,  since no matter how far you have to hoof it back from your gate to customs,  your luggage is never out on the carousel.   You still have to wait.  And wait.

Turns out,  they never did put our flight up on the reader board,  but I had overheard someone say our luggage was coming in on carousel number seven,  (there are 13 in total) so that’s where we waited.   AND, we only had to sit on the plane for maybe 20 minutes to a half hour waiting for them to get us to a gate.   That’s when it starts to stink of jet fuel in the plane,  but that was the only time I was  feeling kind of poorly.

I find it’s best not to obsess over how bad it is when you’re returning home from somewhere warm.  It just puts a dark cloud over the whole experience.

We knew it was cold,  and that’s all we needed to know.

 

Daughter Number Two and Travelling Companion sitting outside House Number Two.  

 

I should explain that we rented two houses for the 10 days that we were in Kihei.   Looks kind of crowded on the map,  but it was fine.  Within walking distance of Foodland,  as well as a host of restaurants and of course,  the beach. 

Directly north of Kihei is Lahaina, which is up there on the coast.

 

Maui isn’t a very big island,  so we just about made it around the entire place.  Did the “Road to Hana”,  went up to the Volcano.  Took in a Luau.   All fun stuff. 

Daughter Number Two and I at the Luau.

Just a comment about the shirt I’m wearing.  No,  I did not buy it on the island.  I’ve had it a for a few years now,  but I typically only wear it south of the Mason-Dixon line.  Just thought I’d point that out.

It doesn’t really *work* for around here,  unless of course I need to be picked out of a crowd.

 

I took a number of “selfies”,  even though I was hefting the Nikon.  Having these minor challenges is sometimes fun.

 

One of the cute little dancers.  I’m sure she was thrilled.

 

Well, la-de-da.

 

I’ll yak a little more about Maui over the next few days.  I could have been doing that over the *last* few days,  but my motivation was lacking. 

 

Keep those sticks on the ice.

 

Thanks for stopping by.