This week Monday the patio was to be finished. However, the mason ran out of stone and had to obtain more from Home Depot. But remember this is an island and when Home Depot is out, you are out of luck until the next ship arrives. Perhaps, the ship will arrive Friday and then again maybe not and maybe the stone will be part of the load. We are learning to be patient, it’s called “island time”.
As of Friday, no stone…..it gives a new meaning to “when my ship comes in”. In the meantime, we found somebody to install gutters so that when the patio is complete, it won’t erode with a heavy rainstorm. One of the installers is from the Chicago area, another refugee fleeing Midwest winters, and they did get the gutter installed on Friday (not island time, almost immediately) wow!
Seal duty has been sparse this week, one volunteer thinks it is due to the recent full moon. We did have a volunteer meeting on Thursday, at the Island School in Lihue. It was a true Hawaiian experience. We all provided pupus (appetizers) and the meeting started with a circle, all holding hands, while the kumu, Sabra, chanted a blessing for the food we were about to eat. She has a great voice, and the Hawaiian chant was very melodic. After we finished eating, she gave a presentation explaining the traditional harvest chant of the Hawaiian people, 1200 lines long, that was given at the beginning of the harvest celebration, Makali’i (also when the seven sisters appeared in the sky). This was also a time of peace, it was taboo to wage war during this season. Kumu Sabra had a lovely voice to demonstrate the chant. She provided the lines in which the (land rat) and the sea ( monk seal) were mentioned as the land and sea equivalents. The entire chant touts the interrelationship of land, sea, animals, plants and humans and said that when the land can no longer support the taro plant, that too is the end of humans. This chant is at least 800 years old and she enthralled us with it and the explanation, also mentioning that the Hawaiians described evolution long before Darwin. She ended by thanking all the volunteers for striving to protect the seals and trying to maintain balance between the land and sea.
In our weekly (daily?) trip to Home Depot, we found that our pavers hadn’t appeared yet, so our schedule is extended ….again. Our grass has also been abused with the guys putting in the pavers. So all of the work getting our grass to grow continues to be a challenge.
After much pressuring, Charlie volunteered to cook on Saturdays, so this week he started with lasagna and we invited Peter and Kathy over to test it. It was fine and Peter and Kathy seemed to like it. We finally got back on Sunday to our normal sunrise at the Grand Hyatt. The big news there this week was that Justin Bieber decided to jump off the cliff in the background of the picture ……..the same one that Harrison Ford and Anne Heche jumped off in Seven days and Seven Nights. Some people recognized him, and were taking pictures. Bieber had one of his two bodyguards confront the picture takers – an altercation resulted, and one of the bodyguards was arrested.
Afterwards we decided , not to go to the bar to watch the Packers play, but still had the opportunity to see the overtime from home (we only get to see the Packer games if they’re on a nationally broadcast game, or playing a west coast team).
Only two seals appeared on Poipu this week, T12, a two year old and a new one for us.
So cute!
Then K31, Pilikea, appeared, otherwise known as Trouble, ( we think he might be the papa of most of our seal pups). That was the extent of seal duty this week. The other news is that our seal volunteer buddy Royden was in the hospital, having fainted and fallen, hitting his head and requiring stitches. He had lots of tests to try to determine why he’s had fainting spells. No answers yet, he’s seeing another doctor this coming week.
Kathy and I continued planning for our Thanksgiving day dinner. We’re providing our house as the site, plus some pupus, the turkey and stuffing. Charlie will make the stuffing – in fact, two stuffings, since some of the group have particular food likes (and dislikes). The others are bringing various dishes. Since Kathy no longer cooks, she’ll be visiting Costco the day before Thanksgiving to get her items. At least the Packer game won’t interfere with our 5 pm dinner or it’s preparation – the game will be on here at 7:30 am!
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