Another break from the moving saga…..
My brother from Phoenix was our first visitor from the mainland and we hope only the beginning of a tidal wave (poor choice of words (?) perhaps) of such company. Devany's brother and wife are coming in late July for a stay. We understand from other longer term residents that such connections become more frequent given Hawaii’s obvious drawing power. Now if we can only get my son in New Jersey who has a fear of flying to visit us, that will be really something.
WesIsland and Uncle Chuck at Akaka Falls
In Hawaii the term Uncle or Auntie is one of affection and respect, not necessarily specifying a blood relative. We call Chuck “Uncle Chuck” for the same reason although he’s really my brother.
We did only a fraction of the things we considered during Chuck’s almost two week stay. The major distraction was what seemed a minor home improvement project that ended up consuming the better part of almost four days and requiring help from not one, but two friends. It sounded simple. Our front door (a French door) had no screens so we went to Home Depot and bought two retractable screen doors that rewind into themselves – sort of like roller blinds only vertical.
It turned into a semi-nightmare since the instructions were indecipherable and both of the doors had manufacturing flaws – one so bad it had to be returned. Our one friend, a handyman extraordinaire, looked at the directions and thought that a licensed contractor would probably have problems. Our other friend, a structural architect and finished carpenter who had installed three of these doors, saved our bacon by spending almost two hours correcting the flaws in the doors design (and some of the work my brother and I had done – to be fair). Anyway here it is – and we love it – no more bugs in the house!
The Door – Finally
.Short of that distraction, we went to Akaka Falls, the Tsunami museum, the farmers’ market, Laupahoehoe Point, the ‘50’s diner, the Laupahoehoe train museum, downtown Hilo and Kona, several parties (including a True Blood viewing (a TV series running on HBO)), a performance of Hawaiiana at the Palace Theatre, and, of course, numerous trips to Home Depot and Ace Hardware.
Laupahoehoe Point
A good time was had by all and we look forward to many more visits from Uncle Chuck and others. It’s good to get touched by the spirit of Aloha.
I LOVE the new screen doors! It was fun having Uncle Chuck here too of course, but the doors are a life changing item. You see, because we live on the ocean, we get a constant breeze from it, but the way our house was designed, there is only one window on the West side of our house, so we opened our front doors and had to put a barrier up to keep the dog and cat from exiting. It was neither efficient or attractive to have two big Metro Shelves covering our front door. Now we have a lovely view out of the front as well as security for the pets.
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