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In Which We Spend 100 Days on Kauai
Apr. 10th, 2020 09:12 pmSo yesterday was our 100-day anniversary on Kauai: 100 days since we moved on January 1.
And it was also our matching day, because we had previously spent about 100 days on Kauai by my count. That was 12 vacations to this island (I think) from 2001-2019, the first of 14 days, and the others of about 8 days each — except during one of them we spent two days on Oahu. So: 14 + (8*11) - 2 = 100.
Numbers are magic.
We've actually spent about 111 days on the Hawaiian islands prior to our move. Those 100 days on Kauai + those 2 days on Oahu + our 9-day family vacation on the Big Island in 2018. So in another 10 days, on April 20th, we'll have spent as many days on Kauai since our move as we'd ever spent on the islands before.
Numbers are fun.
For about two and a half months I was slowly developing a new routine.
My early work schedule worked well.
We furnished the core areas of house, absent mainly Kimberly's art room and the family room downstairs.
I was spending a few afternoons a week working with my dad on stuff (or swimming). We were visiting with them on Sundays.
We were on the verge of finishing up the first bookshelf for my office, with the second not far behind.
Thursday was my gaming night.
Saturday was on the verge of becoming my hiking, biking, or swimming day again (like it used to be in the Bay Area).
I was becoming used to the rhythms of the island, the rhythms of new life here.
And then COVID-19 came a'calling.
It's shocking how much life has changed in less than 30 days. March 16th was when the Bay Area put their shelter-in-place order in place (and put our house escrow in jeopardy). That same day our mayor began ratcheting down the thumbscrews on the Kauaian people, closing down community centers and campgrounds, but I really didn't notice until March 18th when he proclaimed a 9pm curfew, like we were all 8th graders. That (along with the governor's request to avoid gatherings of 10, around the same time) marked the end of gaming.
Our shelter-in-place came on March 25th. That was the governor's order, and though I think there will come a reckoning down the road when scientists look at all the numbers and see what was effective and what wasn't, it was right in line with what the rest of the US was doing, and I have no real complaints.
But, our mayor continues proclaiming on an almost daily basis, laying down new restrictions and waving his enforcement power around.
It's obviously, all about politics. He's a social climber. He spent his time on the county council, then moved up to the state legislature. But afterward he moved back to the county council for just a couple of years, obviously to give him the local credentials to make a mayoral run, which he did in 2018.
Now, he seems to be doing his best to be constantly active, and doing something, so he can point toward that when he makes a run for one of the four higher offices in 2022 or 2026 (that's governor, senator, or the neighboring islands representative).
But constantly active, doesn't mean constantly thinking, as he keeps doing things and having to redo them. His emergency clarification of the governor's order has now been revised three times, many of them for things he was just too dumb to think about (like the need for dependents and disabled people to leave the house with their families; or the need to actually math out how many people can go into stores, rather than making wild guesses). And then there's the fact that he keeps restricting locals' personal liberties, despite the absence of community spread until today, while letting travelers run rampant, even though all the cases before today came from travelers. For example, he's just shutting down vacation rentals tomorrow, even though that's a step Oahu took two weeks ago.
And so many of his policies have had repercussions that were clearly unexpected to him. Limit the number of people in stores? Great, we now get long lines outside, and instead of people having casual contact inside for a few seconds at a time, they now have more intimate contact for 20-60 minutes at a time, and we know that the latter is the main way for COVID-19 to spread, not the former. And of course if stores were religiously sticking to his numbers, we literally wouldn't be able to get enough food on the island. (Today, Costco was totally ignoring his mandates, and you could just walk right in, which is the right way to avoid food riots and litter Hunger Games on the island. And it seemed safe enough: the store was still a lot emptier than it was a month ago.) Close the golf course? Great, people now have to go further to get their exercise, driving amidst the shelter in place, and then they exercise where more people are congregating. Meanwhile, golf courses where people regularly walk, like ours, are thrown into even more chaos because the golf-course restriction was another badly written order that didn't talk about these particular cases. And of course there's the fact that he's totally ableist — and I never thought I'd actually use that word, but he has blatantly ignored and omitted the needs of the disabled in proclamation after proclamation.
(I think he really likes writing proclamations.)
To date, he's pretty much had the locals eating out of the palm of his hand. I don't know how. Maybe Kauians are particularly "compliant". But some of that support is really ill-conceived. Like they cheer him for our scant 18 cases on the island. Not understanding that per-capita it's middle of the road. Maui has 1 case per 2,600 people, Oahu has 1 case per 3,000 people, we have 1 per 4,000, the Big Island has 1 case per 7,000.
But I think he's finally getting slapped down by some locals, mainly in response to his road blocks on the main highway (it's an authoritarian's dream: there's is just a single road leading from the south side to the main town, so if he can control that, he can control the island). But I think his golf course closures starting tomorrow aren't going to be that popular either. (If he ever tries to shut down surfing, his political career will be OH-VER.)
Unfortunately, we got that community spread today, which I think is going to be his wet dream. He's seemed pretty focused on instilling fear into the population, and using that to control them, and so now he's going to be able to ride that a few weeks more. (Today's gem of fear-mongering: "But you don't need to wear your masks INSIDE your houses." Right, like anyone thought that before you scared them into doing so by suggesting it.)
Screw the mayor. It'd be good if I could spend less mental energy on him. He's just having as bad of an effect on the island as nasty 'ole Mayor Arreguín did on Berkeley. But, it's probably only going to be for the length of this emergency, and then he'll likely become mostly harmless as he plots how to ascend the next rung in the political ladder.
So it's perhaps more relevant for a retrospective of our 100 days to talk about how the island has changed in the last 25 or so days under increasing restrictions from the governor and (almost daily) from the mayor.
Day by day the streets are growing quieter, even if it's nothing like the pictures I've seen of the Bay Area. Still, it's going to be hard going back to Kauai's normal traffic and normal crowds when all of this is over.
The beaches are so very peaceful. When I went to Lawai to swim the other day I was actually momentarily unnerved when I thought there wasn't anyone in the water. But it reminded me of walking out there in the mornings when we stayed here in 2001. It was that quiet, even midday.
Meanwhile, the places to walk are much more crowded. The golf course in particular has been 2x or 3x as busy when I walked there in the last few weeks. (But there will be another big change tomorrow, when "golfing activities" end, and suddenly the walkers have golf course to themselves ... but may lose easy parking.)
And of course, we're all very, very confined. Kimberly and I getting out to Lihue just once a week for our PT/grocery trip. I think I've been out to beaches three times since the shelter in place to swim, but it's been a quieter, more solitary exercise. And otherwise, it's home or the golf course and not much else.
Weird times. I fear the next 100 days will continue that weirdness.
And it was also our matching day, because we had previously spent about 100 days on Kauai by my count. That was 12 vacations to this island (I think) from 2001-2019, the first of 14 days, and the others of about 8 days each — except during one of them we spent two days on Oahu. So: 14 + (8*11) - 2 = 100.
Numbers are magic.
We've actually spent about 111 days on the Hawaiian islands prior to our move. Those 100 days on Kauai + those 2 days on Oahu + our 9-day family vacation on the Big Island in 2018. So in another 10 days, on April 20th, we'll have spent as many days on Kauai since our move as we'd ever spent on the islands before.
Numbers are fun.
For about two and a half months I was slowly developing a new routine.
My early work schedule worked well.
We furnished the core areas of house, absent mainly Kimberly's art room and the family room downstairs.
I was spending a few afternoons a week working with my dad on stuff (or swimming). We were visiting with them on Sundays.
We were on the verge of finishing up the first bookshelf for my office, with the second not far behind.
Thursday was my gaming night.
Saturday was on the verge of becoming my hiking, biking, or swimming day again (like it used to be in the Bay Area).
I was becoming used to the rhythms of the island, the rhythms of new life here.
And then COVID-19 came a'calling.
It's shocking how much life has changed in less than 30 days. March 16th was when the Bay Area put their shelter-in-place order in place (and put our house escrow in jeopardy). That same day our mayor began ratcheting down the thumbscrews on the Kauaian people, closing down community centers and campgrounds, but I really didn't notice until March 18th when he proclaimed a 9pm curfew, like we were all 8th graders. That (along with the governor's request to avoid gatherings of 10, around the same time) marked the end of gaming.
Our shelter-in-place came on March 25th. That was the governor's order, and though I think there will come a reckoning down the road when scientists look at all the numbers and see what was effective and what wasn't, it was right in line with what the rest of the US was doing, and I have no real complaints.
But, our mayor continues proclaiming on an almost daily basis, laying down new restrictions and waving his enforcement power around.
It's obviously, all about politics. He's a social climber. He spent his time on the county council, then moved up to the state legislature. But afterward he moved back to the county council for just a couple of years, obviously to give him the local credentials to make a mayoral run, which he did in 2018.
Now, he seems to be doing his best to be constantly active, and doing something, so he can point toward that when he makes a run for one of the four higher offices in 2022 or 2026 (that's governor, senator, or the neighboring islands representative).
But constantly active, doesn't mean constantly thinking, as he keeps doing things and having to redo them. His emergency clarification of the governor's order has now been revised three times, many of them for things he was just too dumb to think about (like the need for dependents and disabled people to leave the house with their families; or the need to actually math out how many people can go into stores, rather than making wild guesses). And then there's the fact that he keeps restricting locals' personal liberties, despite the absence of community spread until today, while letting travelers run rampant, even though all the cases before today came from travelers. For example, he's just shutting down vacation rentals tomorrow, even though that's a step Oahu took two weeks ago.
And so many of his policies have had repercussions that were clearly unexpected to him. Limit the number of people in stores? Great, we now get long lines outside, and instead of people having casual contact inside for a few seconds at a time, they now have more intimate contact for 20-60 minutes at a time, and we know that the latter is the main way for COVID-19 to spread, not the former. And of course if stores were religiously sticking to his numbers, we literally wouldn't be able to get enough food on the island. (Today, Costco was totally ignoring his mandates, and you could just walk right in, which is the right way to avoid food riots and litter Hunger Games on the island. And it seemed safe enough: the store was still a lot emptier than it was a month ago.) Close the golf course? Great, people now have to go further to get their exercise, driving amidst the shelter in place, and then they exercise where more people are congregating. Meanwhile, golf courses where people regularly walk, like ours, are thrown into even more chaos because the golf-course restriction was another badly written order that didn't talk about these particular cases. And of course there's the fact that he's totally ableist — and I never thought I'd actually use that word, but he has blatantly ignored and omitted the needs of the disabled in proclamation after proclamation.
(I think he really likes writing proclamations.)
To date, he's pretty much had the locals eating out of the palm of his hand. I don't know how. Maybe Kauians are particularly "compliant". But some of that support is really ill-conceived. Like they cheer him for our scant 18 cases on the island. Not understanding that per-capita it's middle of the road. Maui has 1 case per 2,600 people, Oahu has 1 case per 3,000 people, we have 1 per 4,000, the Big Island has 1 case per 7,000.
But I think he's finally getting slapped down by some locals, mainly in response to his road blocks on the main highway (it's an authoritarian's dream: there's is just a single road leading from the south side to the main town, so if he can control that, he can control the island). But I think his golf course closures starting tomorrow aren't going to be that popular either. (If he ever tries to shut down surfing, his political career will be OH-VER.)
Unfortunately, we got that community spread today, which I think is going to be his wet dream. He's seemed pretty focused on instilling fear into the population, and using that to control them, and so now he's going to be able to ride that a few weeks more. (Today's gem of fear-mongering: "But you don't need to wear your masks INSIDE your houses." Right, like anyone thought that before you scared them into doing so by suggesting it.)
Screw the mayor. It'd be good if I could spend less mental energy on him. He's just having as bad of an effect on the island as nasty 'ole Mayor Arreguín did on Berkeley. But, it's probably only going to be for the length of this emergency, and then he'll likely become mostly harmless as he plots how to ascend the next rung in the political ladder.
So it's perhaps more relevant for a retrospective of our 100 days to talk about how the island has changed in the last 25 or so days under increasing restrictions from the governor and (almost daily) from the mayor.
Day by day the streets are growing quieter, even if it's nothing like the pictures I've seen of the Bay Area. Still, it's going to be hard going back to Kauai's normal traffic and normal crowds when all of this is over.
The beaches are so very peaceful. When I went to Lawai to swim the other day I was actually momentarily unnerved when I thought there wasn't anyone in the water. But it reminded me of walking out there in the mornings when we stayed here in 2001. It was that quiet, even midday.
Meanwhile, the places to walk are much more crowded. The golf course in particular has been 2x or 3x as busy when I walked there in the last few weeks. (But there will be another big change tomorrow, when "golfing activities" end, and suddenly the walkers have golf course to themselves ... but may lose easy parking.)
And of course, we're all very, very confined. Kimberly and I getting out to Lihue just once a week for our PT/grocery trip. I think I've been out to beaches three times since the shelter in place to swim, but it's been a quieter, more solitary exercise. And otherwise, it's home or the golf course and not much else.
Weird times. I fear the next 100 days will continue that weirdness.