New place

Two days ago we left our cushy digs up high on the mountain and moved down to our new temporary home, which is somewhat less high up on the mountain. Our last place was cush, for sure. Our host is rad and so are her pets, the cat and ducks. We'd gotten comfortable with them all but move on we must (before over staying our welcome).

Now instead of sharing a house with our host we are in the unrented guest cottage, swapping it for 10 hours or work a week. And somehow, we've moved even further up in the world. The cottage has 2 rooms-living/dining/kitchen and the bedroom. The main room is quite large and is windows on 2 3/4 of the walls. A couch, 2 single bed/couches, tv etc and a decent kitchen. King size bed (too soft though, not so happy-making for my back). The view down mountain is awesome. We're surrounded by fruit trees and the pool is 3 steps from the door. Our first morning here I picked a few tangerine type things and made juice. Grabbed a papaya that is about ripe. Went for a short jog and picked up an avocado from beside the car-crushed young ex-wild pig. After all this activity, I sat in the sun on the back deck and made scribbling entries into my journal. I've not taken any pics of the abobe yet, but did snap a couple of sunset through the papaya trees.

Beach exfoliation

A few days ago The C and I headed out to hang at a beach and do some reading, napping, floating in the ocean and maybe a little journal entering if the energy was to be found. Wanting new views we headed further north than Kua Bay (the only beach we'd been to on this trip) (http://www.hawaiiweb.com/Hawaii/html/beaches/kua_bay.html), a beach I mocked as it passed. A part of me regretted those words as soon as I uttered them.

Hapuna Beach State Park (http://www.hawaiiweb.com/Hawaii/html/beaches/hapuna_beach_state_park.html) is a beach with sands neither The C nor I nor had ever walked. How come? Well, it's popular. Quite popular. Just down the road is a lesser known beach that lacks the seas of humanity. On this day we found the parking lot at Hapuna mostly empty despite the clear skies. Blaming the lack of cars on the early hour (early for us. Not most people. It was after 9am) we congratulated ourselves on our luck, grabbed our towels, locked the car and commented on the wind. Above us palm trees swayed in the wind, an idyllic beach scene.

Within minutes of making the beach a new opinion on the emptyness of the beach surfaced. Maybe the wind was keeping people away? Not the wind so much as the skin-scrubbing sand getting blown in gales across the empty beach. Two pairs of rapidly disappearing footprints that led to a small secluded cove of sand showed our beach savvy. Once there we wrestled to get our blankets on the ground, making liberal use of our books and water bottles.

"What a beautiful beach! Aren't we lucky to have it so empty?"

No response from The C.

Putting sunscreen on couldn't have been harder if we'd first swum in the ocean and then rolled around in the sand. Somehow we covered up and then laid down to relax.

Just down the beach from us an older lady in pink bottoms and a black shirt hunched her way to the water, arm up over her head, jerking around every 10 seconds, at one point dropping to her knees and shielding her head with her arms. When she finally made it into the water she dove under, surfacing every 30 seconds for a gulp of air before ducking back under. I watched and giggled at her show while sand hit my lathered body and clung, forming a moss-like structure. By the time she fumbled her way out of the water a thin layer of sand covered me. The C had rolled over under her blanket asking why we'd not yet left.

The poor woman got not further than 20 feet from the water before getting stuck by the wind and sand. Her husband came to her rescue with a snorkel, mask and umbrella. She slumped to the ground, snorkel pointing skyward and he had to literally drag her up the beach to their chairs. When I tried to roll over and pull back The C's blanket to show her their antics, I found that I couldn't move.

"Hey, The C. Could you dig me out? I can't move."

Instead of helping me out she stood, cascading sand from her towel on top of me. She grabbed my bag and said she'd see me in the car.

There I lay. Stuck, but still giggly. As the sand crept up over my face I wondered at the dedication of the lifeguard who called out advice from his stand. Nuggets like: "Get up," and "go home!"

My savior appeared in the guise of a blue heeler. At some point he'd run away from his owner, a leash dragging behind. The mound of sand that was me caught his attention as something needing marking. A quick fssss and sand pawing. The leash dragged across my mouth and somehow I glommed on hard enough for the now frightened dog to drag me up out of the sand.

After a quick dip in the ocean I fought my way upwind, passing the old lady and her husband forcing themselves to have a good time on their last day in Hawaii. Wind be damned.

Ten miles back down the highway the wind ended and the vog began.

My words didn't taste too bad because Kua Bay was sunny for a good two hours before the thunderstorm rolled in.

I'm still digging out sand.

More random pics

We've found a coffee shop to haunt on a semi-regular basis. The staff would know us if there wasn't someone new behind the counter every day. The little guy below, however, now recognizes us.

I don't have any good pictures of our beach yet, but here's a wave

Thanks to The C's diligence, we found Kaloko-Honokohau National Historic Park (http://www.nps.gov/kaho/index.htm). Unlike too many things we like, it's not far away. A short stroll across exposed lava fields (hot!), past petroglyphs and through a stand of trees brought us to a small harbor that is awesome! Sand is not in extreme abundance, but tide pools are. It might be our new fave spot, one we'll definitely return to for a sunset picnic. On the ocean front we saw a wrecked looking guy hanging out under some trees, a few birds, fish and a couple of sea turtles who appeared to have been stranded in larger tidal pools by the receding tide.

Mostly busted day

Yesterday was the big day: our first real adventure since getting here. The plan read like this:

Head out earlyish and drive north. Stop at the Waimea Coffee Company (http://www.waimeacoffeecompany.com/) for liquid sustenance before pushing on towards Hawi. In Hawi a right turn would take us out to Pololu Valley and a short hike down to a black sand beach. After an appropriate amount of beach time, significant browsing in my fave book shop on the island, Kohala Books. To top off the day, dinner at Sushi Rock (http://www.yelp.com/biz/sushi-rock-hawi) in Hawi before the drive home.

Driving out of Kona we congratulated ourselves on deciding to leave town, as the vog was pretty nasty. Unfortunately, the clouds descended and the rain began to fall as we neared Waimea. Unperturbed, I vowed a clearing of the gray once we'd climbed up and over the mountain north of Waimea. At the peak of the climb the sun did come out! On the backside, we descended back into the gray. The rain was coming down fairly heavy in Hawi but I drove towards Pololu Valley anyway. Since no break was forthcoming we stopped at the bookstore to content ourselves with hours of browsing instead. Out of the car, through the rain, and down the boardwalk under cover to....an art gallery? At first we thought we were in the wrong place, but nope. The book shop had closed!

Exasperation began to set in. I drove out towards the valley thanks to delusions caused by over-caffeination. Finally The C's sense won out and I turned the car around. Our last resort, sushi, was to salvage our day. Or so we'd hoped. Showing up at noon the wait until they opened at 4pm was too long.

We turned around and headed home, this time by way of the coast instead of the upper highway. Hoping against hope, we moved south looking for breaks in the increasingly gray skies. Tension seeped out the cracked windows, hauled away on the falling rain. The speakers we bought for the iPod tried vainly to crank out jolly tunes at a loud enough volume to hit our ears.

And then, there it was. A break in the clouds! Down to the beach we cruised, laying out for a couple of hours in the semi-sun on a not-so-crowded beach! Aahhh, out of the car, resting. On a beach 20 minutes from where we're staying.

At least I got to splash in the waves and get some sun before the rain chased us away.

We'll try again another time.

I fell down again

I thought I slept enough last night, but the way I felt this morning was an affront to that thought. Getting through breakfast was easy enough-The C made it and all I had to do was shovel it into my mouth. Coffee helped, but its effects seemed to have worn off by the time we made it to our work farm for the day (paying gig!). The C went inside to vacuum and I went out to pick up small wrist-sized tree cuttings to place them in piles. Odd note: all people we've worked with seem to think that only I can do the physical work. That The C can't, or should do the easy stuff. Odd, sure, especially since the people giving us work direction have been women. It's a matter of time until The C explodes.

As I stumbled my way over the uneven rocky lava terrain, trees whacking me in the head and every third step sending me sprawling, I realized my tiredness. However, there was nothing to do but press on. So I picked up the sticks. My first load was cumbersome because of course I grabbed too many. Some tried to sneak out of my arms, others tried to grab standing trees or the rocky ground, all intent on making me trip and fall. Despite their best efforts I made it to the wall over which I was to toss them. Adjacent to the chest high wall was an easily scalable rock atop which I found myself. Thinking I'd make the short hop over to the wall and simplify depositing the sticks I leaped without foresight.

The wall onto which I jump was made of lava rock. Lots of lava rocks, ranging from baseball sized to almost torso sized. Nothing is used to hold the wall together except friction and gravity. Just before my foot touched down I thought of this, and wondered how stable it would be. In my mind I was sure all would be fine.

All was not fine. The wall gave immediately. My foot slid forward with the surface rocks while the rocks below caved and rumbled down. Somehow I landed on my back with only a bruised elbow and a few bruises on my shins and knees. One foot was under the rubble but not so badly that I needed to cut off my foot to escape. It was a mess, but it woke me up! I tried rebuilding the wall to cover my blunder, but to have made a great work out of it would have been too time consuming. It now stands, better than it did after I got to it, but not as good as before. Ah well.

The rest of the day went well. Some logs got split, more pruning, some planting and lots of sweating. My pants, which I'd sewn, again (third new split since getting here), held together. Now the other knee is sprouting a hole which will require more needlework over the breakfast table.

Did we get paid? Yupper. In cash and Kona coffee! Love it.

And finally, for the first time since we got here 2 weeks ago, I took a nap! It was glorious!

The cat caught a bird

The day started with a webinar on "Advocacy Strategies for Creating Livable Communities" (second webinar of the week. Really?) and is ending with beer, classical music and introspection. It's been a diverse day.

After my webinar ended my work averse body shambled into the yard in pants that were springing a third leak on the same leg. Before leaving home I grabbed my favorite jeans with a hole in them, up near the crotch. I patched them and that lasted a few days, but a new hole formed on the knee. Again the needle and thread went to work and my shoddy stitches held, but in less than a day another hole formed below the knee hole. Hmm. That hole was greatly enlarged today so we headed into town to find me a new pair. No appropriately sized (and priced) pair came to my attention so tomorrow I return to the field in the same pair. Tonight I'll patch the most recent hole, anticipating the hole beginning to form on the other knee. Much as I love these pants, Corey is going to have to go off on another clothing hunt soon. Tomorrow we work for money again. Thank goodness my work product won't get judged based on my appearance.

After lunch today, as we prepared to slog back out to work more, Candace shouted: "Oh no! Fiona [the cat] caught a bird!"

Fiona played the bird around a low table before proudly marching over with the tiny brown lump in her jaw. Horrified, Candace shouted again: "We have to get the bird from her! No! Bad Fiona!"

Into the bedroom we chased her, shutting the door behind us. . I grabbed my new staff and began prodding her out from under the bed. She was startled into letting the bird go, which flew into a window and dropped to the floor where Fiona grabbed her again. Candace (screaming all the while) grabbed Fiona and I opened the door to the patio. Again the bird flew free, and smacked into the closed half of the door. Fortunately, it moved left, found the opening and shot off into the trees. Poor Fiona cried and cried until we fed her some wet food. Content, she went back to sleep.

Ah, cats. Their ideas for what will impress people is further off than teenage boys trying to impress a girl (or am I giving too much credit to the teens?)

I need to be taking more pictures

Candace clearing the weeds out of the garden

A little stick bug friend. They've been popping out all over the place.

Work is tiring

In the night the rain fell in sheets and waves, heavy then pittering. By morning my sloggy brain ignored the need for money and hoped that the rain would continue to fall and end our day of work before allowing it the chance to begin. At 6:55AM I sprang out of bed in a terror carried over from a dream of having slept until noon. With 5 minutes to continue sleeping before the alarm's cry, I laid back down and slept for 20. The rude shock of awakening didn't depart until an hour into the work.


A gated community of 5 homes. A multitude of yard tasks that would not involve weeding. And for the first time since arriving, a day of unadulterated sun. The breathtaking view from the back deck were not obscured by clouds or vog, allowing us to gaze upon the ocean, harbor, mountainside and a rarely seen horizon. The leaves of the Kukio nut tree were the first collection, landed in the bed of a pickup. A nice easy start breeds complacency and staves off sedition. The sweat started to collect on my shirt and in my bandanna. Our next task brought us into the shade one terrace down from the house, and into the air. Guava trees were shooting limbs forth whose lack of transparency was ruining the view. Into the trees we climbed to prune and saw and hack. What amazing trees! Not only was the trunk a beautiful medley of mottled, but the wood is surprisingly strong. Trees of lesser strength would not have allowed us to step out onto such small limbs without repercussions of falling. I snagged a couple of short lengths of wood from the pile to bring home. And thus began the pruning: guava, banana, mango, avocado (2 types) and a bunch of other trees and plants whose names I can't recall. If it's growing down, snip it. Just above the collar. 


Sugar cane was uprooted along with ginger and some gawdawful pointy plant. Birds of paradise fell before our clippers. A banana tree and a papaya tree were destructed. I've not shed so much sweat in a long time and the stink coming off me blunted alluded to my need for a shower. Water went down, seeped out, and was replaced repeatedly. After 7 hours I was whupped. A pile of decimated foliage 5 feet long and 5 feet high lay aside the house, until we jammed it into the pick up. None of us thought it would fit. My jumping up and down on top of it may have helped. 


Thus ended our first day of paid work (with a tip!). Our tip was not only given in cash. A sack of lemons, a sack of starfruit and 2 green coconuts also left with us. Gotta love the abundance of the tropics. 


Instead of rushing home to feed the begging ducks, the car made its way into town to the Sack N Save. Somehow, an 18-pack of cold Coronas ended up in the back seat of the car! No one inside cared that we stunk and were covered with dirt and banana sap (impossible to get out of clothes. Avoid it). In fact, dirtier people were also retrieving cold beverages. 


Back at the farm we retreated to the downstairs sitting area with cold beers and cold french fries. Amazingly enough, sleep did not overtake us (then). Working tomorrow will not be easy. These muscle of mine haven't done much manual labor in quite a while. Maybe I'll sleep in a bit...

We are getting paid!

At least I assume we'll be getting paid. Tomorrow we have our first paying gig (word of mouth is amazingly effective), which is quite exciting. The work won't be the most thrilling, but money will be nice. Hopefully there is a full day's worth.

Funny story. We went to the library in town to get some books and print out some forms. While Candace was on the computer, the next guy in line got to talking to me/us and was trying to find out our story. An older dude with no front teeth. After a minute or so a lady down the way said: "Could you please be quiet? Your conversation is ruining my concentration!" The dude looked sheepish, apologized, but giggled the entire time. He wandered over to me and all conspiratorial like he said: "I guess I shouldn't have picked today to smoke weed for the first time in five years!" Lots of giggling, from both of us.

We did work today, on our home farm. Spent the day weeding. In the garden we uncovered a few eggplants, more lettuce and some duck poop. The ducks harassed us all day, wandering into the garden to snip at the newly weed-free kale plant. I chased them out, put up a couple of sticks to keep them out, and that worked. Until they accidentally bumped into the stick, knocking it over. At first they fled in mortal fear. But then they forgot about the fear and came back to find their way unblocked once again. It was a game played for too long, and I'm not sure who came out of it looking less intelligent. I fear The C would nominate me for that dubious honor.

Late night hot tub

The night air felt solid as we parted the black, moving towards the tub. Crickets buzzed in the weeds and trees, condensation wend down the beer bottle onto my fingers. A soft "plop" marked the cover's descent onto the grass. One leg at a time descended into the black water, the heat welcome after the chill night air. Fully immersed, my gaze turned skyward. Black. A deep quiet rolled over us as the crickets eased the stridency of their calls. Cold beer seeped down my throat, my body relished the heat after the day's labor. Silence and the night sky. Hidden behind cloud or vog. Two stars appear, dream-like and faint, or is it my imagination? They are gone. Steam massages my eyes and their lids grow heavy, creeping downwards. My head rests on the wood. I'm intoxicated by the quiet, riding the line between consciousness and unconsciousness.

I awake alone in the tub. My beer is gone and a lone star shines brightly. We lock eyes and I make a wish. My thoughts end and it is gone. Water drips onto the grass which tucks between my toes and I walk towards the lit house.

Vog blues

If you've not heard the term "vog", nor experienced it, come to the Big Island and check it out. What is vog? Well, mix a volcano and smog and you get...vog! It's quite the time. Over here Kona side it's not as bad as it could be, but it's here. We've been coughing and sniffling a bit because of it since we arrived, but today we experienced another side effect: lethargy. Granted, we didn't start our work day until after 1pm, but that shouldn't matter. Our morning had been a slow moving yet productive one (productive in a way), and quite enjoyable. Before heading outside everyone was feeling fine. However, after about 2 hours of work we found ourselves slouching from plant to plant, mentally alert and feeling awake yet drained of energy and the will to move. What did we do? Called it a day and headed inside.

Today I did not fall in the pond! Way to go me! I did bonk myself on the head with a few trimmed fern fronds (almost as thick around as my forearm) and was attacked mercilessly by hordes of mosquitoes. I've decided that mosquitoes are further proof (beyond the platypus) that god has a sense of humor. How so? If you're not the one being attacked, it's pretty amusing to watch people flail and curse and run about trying to avoid them.

Picture time!

This is the view from the front door. Not too shabby

Here be The C and the Car, which we've not yet named.

And this is the teak hot tub next to the house. 

I fell in the pond

Last night after our run-in with the Bs, we walked in a parade. As coffee farmers. Never mind that we're not on a coffee farm right now or that we aren't farmers, or that we were something like 20 years younger than everyone else in our group. That didn't stop us! Holding down the rear of the group we trounced along and waved to the crowd, even trying out different types of waves. The C had a full body "yeah I'm excited" sort of wave and I tried the beauty queen wave. It must have worked because a couple of people refocused and took secondary shots of us as we passed. Yup, we're like royalty. In flip flops.

Today was a busy day. Farmer's market and then the Holualoa Art and Coffee Stroll. What was this stroll? Maybe a half mile on a 2-lane windy highway through the cute little town of Holualoa, art shops, coffee shops and stalls set up with coffee samples for a tasting contest. Some of the art was rad (Koa wood bowls, tables, art etc are amazing. I want to learn) and there was much tasty coffee to be had. And had it we did. The twitching ended about an hour ago.

In the afternoon we worked for a bit. I had planned to work an hour or 2 longer than I did but something happened that, well, didn't surprise either of us. Cleaning the pond has become a necessity for me. On the rear side of the pond a small rock "wall" extends in an arc into the water to block of a planting bed of sorts. I nimbly stepped out onto the wall so that I could get out the pesky weeds further out in the water. All went well for a while. Large clumps of weeds (and their roots, finally) yielded to my yanks and added to the growing pile of rotting vegetation alongside the pond. But I got cocky. My movements got faster and I spent less time checking my footing. While tugging on an especially stubborn clump my left foot slipped a little and instead of repositioning it I kept at the weeds. They came loose, as did I. Unfortunately The C missed the flailing/flying/falling, but she did see me waist deep in the mucky water. Thanks to my sloppy entry not just my lower half got soaked, all of me did. I clambered out while The C rolled on the ground laughing. Yet I worked on! For another 20 minutes and then called it a day. Instead of retreating to the house I went on a walk about the grounds looking for fruit trees I'd not seen yet. This act was rewarded in grand style. I found a dozen or more banana trees growing 3 or 4 different types of banana. In all I counted something like 8 bunches, 2 or 3 of which will be ripe soon. Yeah!

What else. Oh, we got a Costco membership yesterday. Which is arguably not our scene, but food is so expensive out here that it makes sense. We are now stocked up for a while. I was surprised not only at the insane amount of people that were in there in the middle of a work day, but at the selection of organic and locally grown foods. That I did not expect.

Confusion

When I first worked on the Big Island back in the Spring of 1995, I worked on a coffee farm for about 4 months. It was an interesting time time for me, made all the more interesting by the owners of the farm. By the time I left there were three of us working there and we'd all been insulted by the owners. One guy ran out of his own going away dinner because of the continued assaults during the meal. The C was told quite bluntly on her first day there that the owners hated vegans, especially those with dreadlocks, as well as people who "love the earth" (odd statement for recent purchasers of an organic farm). Basically they let her know that they didn't like her. Our time on the farm was still fun as we had each other, but we left with rancor in our hearts. In the years since they've asked our friends here to send us their way when we've been on the island, a request we never understood. My feeling was that they wanted to finish the job and bury us in a lava tube somewhere while The C was too confused to even develop a theory.

And then last night happened. Yesterday was the kick-off of the Kona Coffee Cultural Festival, a week long celebration of all things Kona Coffee (yum). There was a Parade of Lights through downtown Kailua-Kona to celebrate the diversity of people in Kona. Our December employer who is quite involved with the Kona Coffee Farmer's Association called and asked us if we'd come down and walk in the parade with their group. The C had been in the parade before and had fun so we agreed to the duty.

The first people we recognized among the mass of parade walkers were the owners of that first farm. I ducked my head and walked past them wondering aloud how we could avoid them, especially since it appeared we'd be walking in the same group. The C just stared at me and told me to suck it up, that it would be fine. Still I dawdled. Finally it could be avoided no longer. My loins girded and stomach steeled we walked over.

The squeal that issued forth from She-B was piercing. "The C and Corey!! Oh my god! He-B! Look, it's The C and Corey! Aaahhh!!" Hugs and kissed, happy happy. He-B came over and gave us big hugs. Both of them looked a little teary-eyed.

I'm not always great at reading people, I've been hoodwinked before. But these two looked genuinely delighted to see us. Hell, She-B even remembered my vagabond sister and asked where she is these (I tried to answer, but I don't even really know the answer to that question)!

As we chatted about their farm, activities and the various interns they've had since us, they told us that the third in our group, D, had emailed them a short while back to ask if he could come out and spend some time on the farm. Wha??? D could not have left on terms much worse than he did, so his having asked to return floored us. And got us to wondering if our version of events didn't quite match other peoples'.

The Kona coffee growing community is not an overly large one but somehow they've managed to fracture into 2 groups. The group with which we were walking was the rival group to the Bs group. While prepping to walk (assembling paper lanters, donning headbands emblazoned with the words "Kona Coffee Cultural Festival" and stringing glow strings around ourselves) The C and I chatted about the mind hump we'd just received.

"D asked to work there again? Really? What the hell. Are we totally off on what happened there?"
"I don't know. My brain hurts and I'm hungry."

Today our confusion has not been allayed. The past is behind us so we're planning to stop by and see the Bs and their farm, which they adamantly requested we do. Still, can our memories be that off?

Nah, I don't think they are, but what a wacky encounter!

Compassion, please

It's not my fault, I don't think. The last job I had ended in August and that one only lasted a couple months. Before that it had been since November since I had had to be productive for many consecutive hours in a day. How could one expect me to be productive, even if for only 4 hours in a day, right off the bat after all of that?

The day started well enough. A little granola with fresh bananas and a cup of Kona coffee. Took my time eating and getting dressed even though The C had already eaten, gone for a run, dressed, studied French and was out spreading mulch around the bases of various trees. By the time I wandered out into the sun she was taking a break and re-hydrating. Always the attentive boyfriend, I sat down to keep her company. She may not have said anything, but the look she gave me was of pure love.

The property we are on is a few acres, and trees all over needed mulch and fertilizer. My nose has been stuffy as of late, so Candace was kind enough to carry the buckets of stinky fertilizer while I hauled the mulch. At each tree we needed to pull weeds and vines and make a nice clean area to spread our load. This was quite nice. I sat down and pulled at green things while gazing around at our beautiful surroundings. Guava trees hid behind every bush and I munched ripe ones when they caught my eye. On a couple of trees we had to unwind these crazy vines that loop and twirl and snake their way up and into trees. I like this, as it's puzzle-ish.

After we'd attended to the marked trees, I plopped my sweaty self onto the ground to catch my breath and take a break. Candace walked off with our now empty buckets and I crawled into some shade. Thinking I must be near to finished with at least half of my daily hours, I pulled off a glove and used my bared hand to lift my sleeve and expose my watch. Imagine my surprise when I saw that only 30 minutes had elapsed! I flopped back onto the grass and stared in stupefaction at the avocado tree above me. Candace returned and prodded me to my feet. Our next task was to clear around and in a small pond on the property. Many vines and unwanteds have grown over the surrounding path and rock walls and into the pond itself. The poor ducks (our boss's pets) have no where to swim! It is sad, watching them quacking and swimming circles in place because there is no where else to go. Feeling good after my break I set into the task with zeal. I was pulling and ripping weeds, tossing them into an ever increasing pile. Sweat began dripping down my back and across my face, my shirt growing darker.

A twinge attacked my right wrist, forcing a yelp from me. I dropped the vine I'd been wrestling and sat down on a bench in the shade to assess the damage. It still moved and felt ok, but I was feeling weak. While stopped, I checked my watch. Only an hour into the day? Really?? I've not felt so defeated and hopeless in a long while. A couple tears leaked from my eyes and trickled through the dirt on my face. Casting the most doleful look I could muster at The C, I explained my predicament: "I'm tired and thirsty!" Again, a look of love spread across her face and she wordlessly walked off to get me water.

Imagine my surprise when a weedwacker roared to life right behind me with The C at the controls!
"Get up, and get working," she demanded.
"My wrist hurts," I whined.
"WHIIIIIRRRRRRRR," said Mr. Husqvarna!

What could I do? I got up and soldiered through the pain, clearing that pond like a champ. All the while The C stood ready to whip me if I stopped. Somehow I made it through the day. But really, it's been so long since I worked where was the compassion? I mean, The C has been consistently employed all the while I've been off so she should not only be used to this sort of thing, but even more energetic at a work day half the length she's used to working.

For now I'll soak in the hot tub to recover, hoping that tomorrow will be easier. On our list of things to do includes putting shoes on the donkey and attacking more vines. Wish me luck.

Pictures

Not the most thrilling, but it's a start. This is our lounge area

Settling in

We've been here a few days now and have accomplished a couple of things. Aside from finding wheels we went to the beach and got slightly sunburned, but we played in the ocean and got sandy so it was worth it. While there, I settled even deeper into (one of) my current book(s)-Infinite Jest. If you're not familiar with this book, it's massive. There was no way I could lay on my back and hold it over my head while on my drifting blanket because my hands would have tired and dropped it on my face. Instead I lay on my stomach and burned some really funky patterns into my back. Our initial beaching foray was to gorgeous Kua Bay which is a bunch of miles north of Kona. The water colors range from deep blue to an impossible turquoise and the white sand is nice and soft. When first I lived here, there was no road leading to this beach. You had to walk a mile or 2 across shade-less lava fields after which you landed on the white sand, and still could find no shade. Which made it a hot and sunburn prone beach (at least for pasty folk like me). It was also not very crowded. The first time we went there (4 of us) I think we were the only ones there for much of the time. Since then they've extended a road from the highway down to the beach and installed bathrooms, showers and shaded picnic tables. Which is not bad, but the crowds are a lot bigger.

What else have we done? Hmm. I guess not much. Today was our first day of work, and it was nice and easy. We spent a few hours plucking seeds from their protective casings for planting. We're working at a nursery and a lot of our work will be maintaining the amazing grounds. I'll take pictures eventually, but know that the accommodations are tremendous. For the next week we're house-sitting, so we're in a guest bedroom. One entire wall in the main room is covered with a bookshelf, there is a hot tub and a downstairs lounge area with wi-fi, comfy chairs and screens. Not to mention the lush surroundings. While we're here, we'll also be able to plcuk and eat the foods growing on the grounds which includes: guava, avocados, lilikoi, spinach, lemongrass, bananas, kale, green onions and...I think that's it. Rad.

The nursery is out a ways so it's quiet, but for the birds and bugs and quite serene. The ocean can be spotted through the trees and since we're 2200' up in elevation, the evenings are nice and cool (perfect for a hot tub!).

A fresh start

If the name of this blog didn't clue you in, this blog is an updated version of my old one, "Jimspeak". You may be wondering why the upgrade? Why not continue with the old? Because I wanted a fresh start, a new tone and feel to this public exposure to which I'm subjecting myself. It's true that there was much travel talk in the last one, but also a lot of fluff that I'd rather not re-read.

So here we are. Page 1.

And here I am, Day 3 in Hawaii.

Hawaii? How did I end up here? The short of it: I was laid off nearly a year ago. This past summer I worked for 3-4 months and then rekindled my affair with Unemployment. Jobs are not prolific in Portland and a change was needed. With offers to house sit, and previous employers willing to bring us on for short periods of time, The C and I decided that we might as well head here to make a subsistence living rather than dwell in agony in the dark months of Oregon with no reliable income. Some work + sun > no work + gray/wet.

Our work life begins tomorrow when we head off to our first gig which will last 2-4 weeks. Maybe 2000 feet up on the mountain, we'll be out in the bush doing assorted farm/planting work in exchange for a place to live. Our host is an awesome woman, and I'm excited that we'll get a chance to hang out with her. Her place is where I first tasted the joy of meditation, many years ago when first she hired us.

Today, however, comes first. What have we planned? Not much: returning the rental car and heading off to the beach in the car we bought yesterday. You are reading correctly, we bought a car amazingly enough. In less than a day we were reminded how tough/impossible it is to get around here without a car. When I first came here in 2005, hitch hiking was still fairly common. Getting rides was fairly easy, and extended thumbs were a common sight on the road. Now, however, that seems to have fallen off and no one has been able to tell us why. Coupling this with the remoteness of our work sites, we would have been stranded (and impeded from obtaining more work in our off time) if all we had for conveyance was our feet. It's been 2 years at least since we had a car, so this feels odd. If all goes well, I'll find a decent bike that I can buy with the money I've made here, and I can spice things up by riding the oh-so-unsafe roads. Portland, OR this is not. Carlessness, an extremely hard proposition.

But first things first. The sun is out, it's gorgeous, and the beaches are calling.