I can see clearly now, the rain has gone..... not! Psych! We've had it in every form over the past few days. At times, drizzle. Other times, it's a downpour. In between, it's just plain old, garden variety (or should I say garden drowning) rain.
Of course, there's no such thing as garden variety rain in Hawaii. At least not as far as the Hawaiian language is concerned. The word for rain is ua, but that's just the simple translation. There are really many, many words and phrases used to describe rain here. They include not just the rain itself - like driving rain, chilly rain, slanting rain - but what time of day it's raining, where it's raining, in what district, in the mountains, the valley or the shore, in the city or the country.
We've had some bad luck with some of our newly-made island acquaintances. To be truthful, they are the ones with the bad luck. One of our first contacts here, our real estate agent, told me to be sure to call her when we finally moved in so we could get together for lunch. Her name was Sharon. When I finally called, she sounded genuinely glad to hear from me and would love to go to lunch in a week or two. She wasn't feeling well at the time. She had been diagnosed with cancer and was struggling with the ill effects of chemotherapy. She said she'd call when she was feeling better. Those few weeks went by. Then a few more. Then one day, while perusing the obituaries, I spotted her name. What a nice lady. I didn't know her well, but I might have, had we had a little more time. Bummer.
Then this week we learned that another acquaintance, our coffee guy, owner of Kiluea Coffee Company, died over the Christmas weekend! We just saw him a couple of weeks ago. His name was Cary. He was a guy hard not to like right from our first meeting. Cary was friendly and jovial with a great sense of humor and great passion for his work and his family. He was constantly bragging on his wife or his dad or his daughter. He seemed perfectly healthy when we saw him last. Cary was only 52 years old. We still don't know what happened to him. The ladies at the post office were stunned and saddened to hear the news. They knew him pretty well, since he came in almost every day. "What a nice guy," they said. Double bummer!
I've begun my first indoor home improvement project. I've decided to start small. Very small. So I'm painting the very small guest bedroom. Once painted, I'll hang some shelves and hook up a small TV to the cable so guests can fall asleep to their favorite infomercials. Right now that room, like the rest of the house, is all white. Time to jazz it up a bit.
The new hard drive is in and functioning well. I am proud to say I installed it myself. I even partitioned it to organized data a little more efficiently. Am I becoming a total geek, or what?
A hui hou. Aloha!
Of course, there's no such thing as garden variety rain in Hawaii. At least not as far as the Hawaiian language is concerned. The word for rain is ua, but that's just the simple translation. There are really many, many words and phrases used to describe rain here. They include not just the rain itself - like driving rain, chilly rain, slanting rain - but what time of day it's raining, where it's raining, in what district, in the mountains, the valley or the shore, in the city or the country.
We've had some bad luck with some of our newly-made island acquaintances. To be truthful, they are the ones with the bad luck. One of our first contacts here, our real estate agent, told me to be sure to call her when we finally moved in so we could get together for lunch. Her name was Sharon. When I finally called, she sounded genuinely glad to hear from me and would love to go to lunch in a week or two. She wasn't feeling well at the time. She had been diagnosed with cancer and was struggling with the ill effects of chemotherapy. She said she'd call when she was feeling better. Those few weeks went by. Then a few more. Then one day, while perusing the obituaries, I spotted her name. What a nice lady. I didn't know her well, but I might have, had we had a little more time. Bummer.
Then this week we learned that another acquaintance, our coffee guy, owner of Kiluea Coffee Company, died over the Christmas weekend! We just saw him a couple of weeks ago. His name was Cary. He was a guy hard not to like right from our first meeting. Cary was friendly and jovial with a great sense of humor and great passion for his work and his family. He was constantly bragging on his wife or his dad or his daughter. He seemed perfectly healthy when we saw him last. Cary was only 52 years old. We still don't know what happened to him. The ladies at the post office were stunned and saddened to hear the news. They knew him pretty well, since he came in almost every day. "What a nice guy," they said. Double bummer!
I've begun my first indoor home improvement project. I've decided to start small. Very small. So I'm painting the very small guest bedroom. Once painted, I'll hang some shelves and hook up a small TV to the cable so guests can fall asleep to their favorite infomercials. Right now that room, like the rest of the house, is all white. Time to jazz it up a bit.
The new hard drive is in and functioning well. I am proud to say I installed it myself. I even partitioned it to organized data a little more efficiently. Am I becoming a total geek, or what?
A hui hou. Aloha!
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