Insults
Aug. 25th, 2025 02:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Praise Goddess and pass the ammunition! :D
Reading. ( Raymond Blanc, Ceri Olofson, David S. Butler + G. Lorimer Moseley, David J. Linden )
Watching. An episode of Farscape: S02E04 Crackers Don't Matter, which I note with mild alarm (given how "..." we were at it) is considered to merit its very own Wikipedia page?!
The Old Guard 2. I... might yet get around to writing up thoughts.
Cooking. An Salad. An improvised but definitely acceptable for its purposes (i.e. providing nutrition for someone who currently has some decidedly inconvenient dietary restrictions) chickpea curry.
Eating. BLACKBERRIES. Still. Also plums. Really enjoying the plums. So many tomatoes.
Also a box of Many Salads from Mel Tropical Kitchen, some mildly disappointing cookies and a Good raspberry pastel de nata, and another cardamom bun from buns from home. Hurrah for spending a day at the BL?
Exploring. Poking around the grounds of a new-to-me hospital, where I came across an Exciting Apple Tree that I totally failed to actually inspect more closely, and about which I am excited primarily because of just having read a book a solid, like, half of which was Reviews Of Heritage Apple Varieties. (I was a little sad that James Grieve got only a very passing mention.)
The BL! And Beckenham, a bit, while picking up a watering can.
Growing. LEMONGRASS HAS A ROOTLET. Having another go at rooting a bunch of supermarket tarragon.
Observing. We found BABY COOTS. At least five of them, possibly six, plus one egg. They are juuust at the stage where they are practising GOING INTO THE WATER and then rapidly deciding Don't Like That and retreating to the Warm.
It's not Moody Monday yet, but I don't care.
So... I just have to survive tomorrow, the busiest work day of the year, then I'm good for another year.
Last week's bread held out pretty well.
Friday night supper: sorta-nasi goreng, with milano salami.
Saturday breakfast rolls: basic buttermilk, 3:1 light spelt/buckwheat flour, turned out well.
Today's lunch: savoury clafoutis with Woodland Mushrooms, garlic and thyme, served with steamed asparagus with melted butter and lime juice, padron peppers, and baby pak choi stirfried with star anise.
With which we had our traditional unwedding anniversary Bollinger (41 years).
Back when I was in high school, my parents bought a timeshare in Kaanapali, Maui, Hawaii. I visited a lot when I was in high school and my first years in college. After that, it was mostly my parents place (and, for the longest time, they rented out the two weeks to friends of theirs). For the longest time, the last time we were there was right after our wedding, in 1985. After my folks passed on, the unit and interval passed to me. We would go occasionally, but usually we just deposited the interval with Interval International, and just went somewhere in driving distance of Los Angeles. In other words: Las Vegas (in the summer), Scottsdale (in the summer), Tucson (in the summer), Palm Desert (in the summer), and occasionally, Escondido (in the summer). We were last in Maui for our 30th wedding anniversary in 2015. This year, being our 40th, we had the occasion to visit again.
I bring this up because this timeshare is different than most of the timeshares we visit. Other timeshare—the Grand Chateau Marriott in Las Vegas, the numerous Marriott complexes in Palm Desert in Scottsdale or Palm Desert, the Welk Resort in Escondido—they all feel like glorified hotel rooms (because they are). There is no sense of other owners; no sense of the folks with whom you share the space. The closest we came was many years ago when we exchanged for the Palm Springs Golf and Tennis Club.
Here, it is different. There is a closet shared with the owners of the other intervals. Each interval leaves a box of (non-perishable) stuff for their next visit. The box is a timecard of your last visit. Mine still has 3 sets of playing cards that my parents used, together with stationary and envelopes. We’ll add more for our next visit: dry measure cups and kitchen supplies and such.
People leave appliances for other owners. We’ve found, at the top of shelves, rice cookers and french presses, and thermal mugs and all such. You pass it forward instead of being possessive and shipping it back. People do the same with beach supplies. Interval owners are a family—I remember that there used to mixers each intervals for the owners to meet each other. I didn’t see one scheduled when we were there; perhaps they have passed by the wayside.
The people here are a family. We get a weekly newsletter about what is happening with the TIO (Time Interval Owners) and the AOAO (Apartment Owners Association). We know the staff. We see the constant upkeep of the grounds. We learn what is happening in the community. This doesn’t happen with those timeshares where you just buy points to use somewhere else; where the point is just to get some timeshare to get into the system. This isn’t the type of timeshare where people want to sell. This is family.
Way in the back of a cabinet where people leave games and puzzles, I found a notebook: The people of XXX (where XXX is our unit). This was clearly something my dad had put together for each interval to put pictures of their family, perhaps their address. People put in menus and comments on them (and my dad’s distinctive handwriting was all over the place—he really was the outgoing people person). I was probably buried back there, and none of the owners have updated it perhaps since the 1990s. But there was a picture of my parents in there, as well as a picture of my dad and his next wife (my stepmother who just passed away). It was this remarkable time capsule of my parents; a bit of time travel that brought back memories of summer on Maui as a teen. Remember—this was 50 years ago!
Finding that notebook reminded me how special this place it. Perhaps, now that I’m retired, we’ll brave the 5+ hour flight to come out here more years.
This entry was originally posted on Observations Along the Road as Timeshares and Time Travel by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link to the left. You can sign in with your LJ, DW, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. Note: Subsequent changes made to the post on the blog are not propagated by the SNAP Crossposter; please visit the original post to see the latest version. P.S.: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.