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| What Is This Key For? |
We wondered what the key hanging on our shower wall was for. Mystery solved when I noticed water still standing from Grant’s bath eight hours previously. It’s the key to taking up the linear drain to find whatever is clogging the pipe. The miracle was that Grant was able to do this easily, after his midnight obsessing and internet searching. In our long tenure as homeowners, we have found usually there is a vast chasm (are chasms anything other than vast?) between an explanation of how to do a repair job and the reality of doing it. Once, as far as we can remember, and only once, did a repair go as planned, without much cursing and at least one additional trip to the hardware store. Unfortunately, we can’t remember what the job was, but we are both sure it happened.
In this case, Grant sopped up the water with a bunch of the dog towels (too holey for human use), unlocked the drain, and lifted out the nasty, completely full, hair catcher. Voila, the drain was unclogged. We may have used up our one easy repair ticket this early in our homeownership. If so, it was worth it.
While we unclog drains and unpack boxes, our friend lies in tremendous pain in a hospital in Hilo. Diagnosed with kidney cancer which has metastasized to his spine, he and his wife are trying to find a surgeon in Hawai’i who can rebuild his vertebrae to give him some relief. The other choice is fly to the mainland. Not a great option for someone who cannot even sit up for a moment.
After they had retired to the Big Island, we and two other couples visited, with the excuse that we were checking just to be sure everything was going okay. It was. With a lovely house overlooking the Pacific, in Laupahoehoe, a small community of half native Hawaiians and half what I call expats even though I know Hawai’i is a US state, they built a new community of friends. I especially liked they were in Laupahoehoe, because years ago when Stephanie was taking hula lessons, we attended a hula halau (school) event, in reality a high school graduation party for the kumu’s son. When grandma began playing “The Boy From Laupahoehoe” on her ukulele, all the males from grandpa to kindergarteners, including the graduate, jumped up and began dancing the hula that goes with the song. My introduction to the community nature of hula. Unless a designated group is dancing, anyone is invited to join if they know that hula.
We saw this again when we attended a fundraiser lead by Kuana Torres Kahele
to save the local Hilo theater which was required to add solar panels to meet the island’s passive energy code. As the local bands played traditional tunes, audience members either danced in the aisle or joined other dancers on stage. I envied them, but after one lesson at the community center, I knew it would take many years before my hips and legs would get the hula movements.
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| Kilauea’s Lava Pouring Into Ocean. |
I was lucky enough to return to visit twice more. I came by myself when Killilea was erupting. My friend and I had reservations on a small charter boat to see where the lava was pouring into the ocean, but when we got to the boat dock at o’dark hundred, the captain said the water was too rough, and our trip was cancelled.
Some of the others hurried over to a larger boat that was going to make the trip. We chose not to, reasoning that if a captain wasn’t willing to take out paying customers, there was a good reason not to go.
Rather than immediately driving the hour back home, she and I opted to float in volcanically-heated Ahalanui Beach Park Hot Pond and watch the sun rise, then have breakfast. An aging hippie oasis.
Later in the week, we returned and rode bikes out to see the lava flow. Watching the boats bounce around in the calmer seas reinforced our decision to skip the charter. If an engine had sputtered...That week, the Coast Guard put the kibosh on boats getting close after a tourist was seriously burned by a chunk of flying lava.
When Grant and I came back two years later, Ahalanui pond was under 30’ of black lava. Whole neighborhoods were gone, and many houses that weren’t destroyed now faced a wall of cooled lava. Loss of aesthetics is not covered by volcano insurance I’ll bet.
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New Zealand Dancers Waiting For
Merrie Monarch Parade to Begin |
That trip we had won the lottery to buy tickets to the Merrie Monarch Hula Festival. For four nights we watched individuals and groups compete for titles and bragging rights as the best hula dancers in the world. Amazing, but appreciation overload. We said if we able to come back, we’d only get tickets for one day.
Now our friend is sick, and all we can do is text. Covid-19 means no visitors, even family. This requires a miracle bigger than an easy home repair job.
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