Turkey Time

We've had a very busy month, requiring that I carry my calendar everywhere and avail myself of the Tasks function in MS-Outlook.

It's been kind of a blur lately. All this month I've been singing with our church's worship team. I wish you could see it, I'm the only haole up there, amongst all these local guys (and one teenage girl drummer). On Friday's I go into Kea'au, swim until 6pm, then head back up the mountain for practice (with wet hair), then be at church by 7am to practice some more. It is so much fun, and everyone is either being VERY kind, or they are actually enjoying the addition of my voice to the mix. I don't know any of the songs, so it's been challenging to learn about 8 new songs a week.

Last Saturday, my Rotary club had a Progressive Dinner with 4 stops, one at our house for dinner. Dean and Dash went off to different places and unfortunately took the house key with them so I had to climb in a window to get in the house.

We also experienced our first Halloween, Volcano-style. Dash won a prize for Most Original Costume-got two free movie tickets! I dressed up in last year's costume (hey, nobody here has seen it!) with the modification of cutting bangs in my wig--because I haven't had my eyebrows waxed in six months and I looked like the transvestite bar maid from Shrek. Dean is dressed as a Volunteer Park Ranger, Dash is a musketeer (got his costume free at the thrift shop).

I went to the costume parade at Volcano School and got a shot of his entire 4th grade class. One kid in the school was extremely creative-see the jellyfish costume (at first I thought it was "A Rainy Day in Volcano").

A couple of weeks ago we saw an excellent live production of the Wizard of Oz in Hilo. Really great singing, dancing and acting. The music director is a former Saturday Night Live band member and has one Emmies for Sesame St, Quack Moore. She retired here from New York about six years ago.

And finally, back on Oct. 7, we went on a hike along the Ka'u coast, saw big blow holes, collected salt and were generally wowed by the beautiful coastline. Dean and Dash are seen here entirely too close to a green sea turtle. It was asleep, we did not bother it.

Last but not least, one of the neighborhood Tom Turkeys has been roosting in a koa tree in our backyard every night. At dawn he flys down (more like a controlled crash-who knew turkeys could fly?), pecks around the yard, then wanders off down the road. He comes back around sunset and manages to fly UP, OVER the FENCE and back onto his branch.