Archive | December 2021

One Year In The North

An update from the middle of everywhere.

Dec 16 marks the 1 year anniversary of our move to the North side of the island. This will be a brief, possibly not so brief, but maybe kind of brief update on our first year on the Other Side of The World.

Let’s break it down. Some of this may have been covered in previous posts, but this is a review so deal with it.

December 2020, The Big Move

Yes, we decided NOT to employ movers. Our “reasoning” was, that since we were leaving almost all of our old furniture (the new house was already furnished), that we didn’t need help of movers – or anybody else for that matter.

No problem – we were able to move everything without too much trouble except for:

All of the little crap that had to be put in boxes and then lost during the move.
We had to swap refrigerators between the two houses so we had to disassemble the doors on both refrigerators, move them and then reassemble both refrigerators in their new homes. We did pretty well, only a few leftover parts.
Our bed turned out to weigh about 40 metric tons (not standard… metric!). So it took the two of us until yesterday to actually get them in the house. (not true – we got them in on moving day – I’m going for drama here).
Our cats were NOT HAPPY with the whole moving thing. All three ended up having to see the vet for various stress related issues. Call it Cat PTSD. They’re fine now, don’t panic.
My large toes on both feet ended up losing their toenails from pushing backwards up the U-haul ramp all day long. Not right away – they had to change colors first. Thankfully there are no pictures – I’m not a MONSTER.
COVID – I’m not going to put anything in about COVID. Except to say that I’m not going to put anything in about COVID, except to say that we didn’t catch it. But yeah, nothing about COVID.

So not too bad – we were in the house for the holidays. Woo-hoo!

January to April 2021, Fix this, fix that… RAINNNNNNNNN!

So we spent a lot of this time just getting settled into our new home in Princeville. Some of the highlights are:

Minor home repairs – the house hadn’t been lived in for over a year so there were a few items that needed attention. Over half the pot lights in the house were burned out, the solar water system was leaking water like crazy etc. No problem, well small problem, but we got all that stuff fixed.
Removal of the weird storage unit in the garage. We knocked that sucker down and opened up that area for our exercise equipment. It only took a couple of days and two 2 inch nails through my foot to complete.
The bamboo. Yes, the bamboo. It arched over our back and side yards like a monster. We started to cut it down ourselves. But when the neighbors started to point and laugh at us, we decided to hire a landscaper to remove it and grind down the roots. Eff you bamboo! Nearly a year later it has not tried to grow back so we feel like we won.
The rain! The rain in March was epic. Epic as in causing a landslide that closed the road to Hanalei. Fortunately we are up the hill from Hanalei. UNfortunately a lot of the great beaches and many of the restaurants that were still open are down in Hanalei so our options became limited. The DOT was able to get one lane open after a few weeks but access was severely restricted and when you WERE allowed to go down the hill you had to escorted by pilot vehicles there and back.
We got the ball rolling on a project to add a closet, a front lanai and an expansion of the back lanai. On Kauai, project balls like this tend to roll slowly uphill so….

The bamboo, the solution and the landslide

May to September 2021,

The island started to open back up. By June, restaurants were attempting to open up again. The main problem was that, well, no one wanted to work. In line with what was happening on the mainland, people decided that working was a bit icky and they didn’t want to do it anymore. So restaurants and businesses in general were having a hard time filling open positions for bussers, chefs, wait staff etc. Combined with the distancing requirements inside the restaurants, the limited number of eateries that had reopened, and the onslaught of visitors to the island, it became very difficult to actually get a reservation at any of the restaurants that were open.

For myself, I actually got to play a little music with my old band down in Kalaheo. Just practice, but it was still nice to be able to get together with a full band and act like I can play guitar. It’s a freaking long drive to do it, but fun nonetheless. I also enjoy playing with my friend Dan down the street periodically. Plus alcohol is usually involved. The more I drink, the better I think I am playing.

Work travel also started to ramp up again during this time. I took a few trips back to San Diego for work. It’s great to see my old friends and my mom while I am there, but it is always good to get back home here on the island.

The house project has HOA approval and is slowly working its way through the County approvals. We ordered a new front door as part of the project. It will probably take months to actually show up here even though the money has already been snatched from us…

October to Now (Dec 2021)

Well our microwave took a dump. No big deal, right? Just buy another microwave. Except OUR microwave is part of an Oven/Microwave Combination Wall Unit. So we had to order a new Combo unit from Costco. We should get it in about a month – HAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHH! Make that 3 months, possibly 2025. We’ll see. In the meantime we bought the cheapest microwave we could find at Walmart. It works, but takes longer to cook than a conventional oven. Or a campfire. In fact , the food seems to get COLDER when we use it.

In October the road to Hanalei finally opened back up to normal traffic. While the work is not 100% complete, it is far enough along that both lanes are again open without a pilot vehicle 24/7. That means we are back to more frequent beach walks at Hanalei Bay and have access to Hanalei town whenever we want.

Work travel continued into November but I think I am done for this year. The fun part is being crammed into the Flying Tube of Death for 5 or 6 hours. But honestly not too bad other than being away from home.

The Holidays: We had neighborhood Thanksgiving with 8 of our neighbors. A good time was had by all and we got an impromptu magic show from a resident magician and a musical interlude from a visiting professional saxophonist. Barb’s sister will be visiting for the holidays and we are excited to have her come stay with us. She will be the first visitor since the move. Our friend Jojo and her family were just on island here and it was great to see all of them while they were here.

The Project: The approvals are all done and we are just waiting for the door. We are hoping to start the construction in January. Our contractor is lined up and ready. Hopefully the work will go quickly once started.

In conclusion, the first year was a “settling in” year. We are happy to be up here in the Great Green North and are looking forward to an even better 2022. Aloha nui loa!