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In Which Our First Month in Hawaii Goes By
Feb. 1st, 2020 09:55 pmWow, I can't believe we've been here a month already.
The last 31 days have been an almost endless series of opening up boxes, building furniture, cleaning up our stuff, and driving debris to the refuse transfer center and the recycling center. We're slowly clearing our house of debris (though most of the boxes I packed remain due to a lack of shelving), and we're slowly making a home. But, most of our rooms remain underfurnished, most notably our bedroom.
Today was the first day where it felt like I really relaxed. I napped for the first time since January 1st or 2nd and I read a whole graphic novel (They Called Us Enemy, by George Takei, which is gutwrenching).
I've been driving Julie the Benz for four weeks now, and she's certainly a part of our lives. And, though my shoulders still get tense as I take corners at high speed on these narrow two-lane roads, I'm certainly settling into driving. In fact I drove into Lihue four times in a forty-eight hour period Thursday, Friday, and Saturday: twice to the DMV (all ultimately successful), once to Home Depot (where my dad and I again failed to get material for shelving), and once to undertake a variety of errands. I'd like to go without for a day or two now! (Though I see I'm going to need to go get cat food before our Amazon subscribe-and-save order arrives.)
And I've gotten out to enjoy the island here and there, but it's still less often than I hoped. I walk in the golf course a few times a week, I've swum five times, I haven't hiked yet. However, despite that I get to enjoy the beauty of the island every single time I walk across the street to put our trash can on the side of the road, every time I pick up the mail, every time I step out of a store into a parking lot. It's amazing.
Getting to see my dad and Mary so regularly is amazing too. My dad often calls me after work to get together. Our excuse right now is working on the house: Thursday or so we finally replaced the mirror that the renters had mysteriously ripped off the wall. And, building a first batch of bookshelves in my office closet has been a continuing plan, but we haven't managed to find acceptable wood that would fit in Julie. And sometimes instead I'm invited to walk the golf course with my dad and Mary in the evening. And every Sunday we've been here so far I've visited with them in the afternoon.
And things are quieter here, calmer. I sometimes find it's the evening and I haven't checked Facebook or the news. And, that's a good thing. I was ready for lower stress, for more energy to work on my own stuff.
(My own stuff hasn't been getting much attention, but that's because I spend hours every day on the aforementioned work on the house and unboxing and furniture building and all the rest.)
No Island Fever yet!
But I still really need to get back to hiking and gaming. I just need to make the time!
The last 31 days have been an almost endless series of opening up boxes, building furniture, cleaning up our stuff, and driving debris to the refuse transfer center and the recycling center. We're slowly clearing our house of debris (though most of the boxes I packed remain due to a lack of shelving), and we're slowly making a home. But, most of our rooms remain underfurnished, most notably our bedroom.
Today was the first day where it felt like I really relaxed. I napped for the first time since January 1st or 2nd and I read a whole graphic novel (They Called Us Enemy, by George Takei, which is gutwrenching).
I've been driving Julie the Benz for four weeks now, and she's certainly a part of our lives. And, though my shoulders still get tense as I take corners at high speed on these narrow two-lane roads, I'm certainly settling into driving. In fact I drove into Lihue four times in a forty-eight hour period Thursday, Friday, and Saturday: twice to the DMV (all ultimately successful), once to Home Depot (where my dad and I again failed to get material for shelving), and once to undertake a variety of errands. I'd like to go without for a day or two now! (Though I see I'm going to need to go get cat food before our Amazon subscribe-and-save order arrives.)
And I've gotten out to enjoy the island here and there, but it's still less often than I hoped. I walk in the golf course a few times a week, I've swum five times, I haven't hiked yet. However, despite that I get to enjoy the beauty of the island every single time I walk across the street to put our trash can on the side of the road, every time I pick up the mail, every time I step out of a store into a parking lot. It's amazing.
Getting to see my dad and Mary so regularly is amazing too. My dad often calls me after work to get together. Our excuse right now is working on the house: Thursday or so we finally replaced the mirror that the renters had mysteriously ripped off the wall. And, building a first batch of bookshelves in my office closet has been a continuing plan, but we haven't managed to find acceptable wood that would fit in Julie. And sometimes instead I'm invited to walk the golf course with my dad and Mary in the evening. And every Sunday we've been here so far I've visited with them in the afternoon.
And things are quieter here, calmer. I sometimes find it's the evening and I haven't checked Facebook or the news. And, that's a good thing. I was ready for lower stress, for more energy to work on my own stuff.
(My own stuff hasn't been getting much attention, but that's because I spend hours every day on the aforementioned work on the house and unboxing and furniture building and all the rest.)
No Island Fever yet!
But I still really need to get back to hiking and gaming. I just need to make the time!