My computer is on and I’m looking at a blank document.  I sip my hot cocoa.  Five minutes, ten minutes, then fifteen minutes tick away.  It has been awhile since I last posted anything to our blog.  I must get something out. 

I’ve learned to treasure the moments I write.  I feel lucky to be able to write, to express my thoughts, to share my ideas.  Over time I’ve gotten better at it, but I’m now in a writing funk.  I need something to give me a kick-start.  I slowly move my fingers to the keyboard and write a few rubbish sentences.  So why has writing felt like a chore lately?  I’m not sure why.

In October I began (with Ian’s help) the construction of a 10 foot by 14 foot wood shop (144 square feet is the largest you can build in the city without a building permit).  The wood shop is in the backyard of Ian’s home and we both plan to use the shop once it is complete.

We’ve gotten much of the building material for free from Ian’s friend Tyler.  This includes the glue laminated beams and plywood sheathing.  The glue lam beams were enormous and required Ian and I to cut them down to a more manageable size.  The shop is definitely built more stoutly than it needs to be, but like I said, “The material was free.”  Ian’s next door neighbor calls it a “bomb shelter.”

We are waiting for the metal roofing material to arrive while we complete the inside.  Below are a series of construction photos.

Lisa and I had a houseful over the Thanksgiving holiday.  Chelsi, Eric and their kids, Sasha, James and their kids.  It is always great to get together during the holidays.  Here are some pictures from our time together.

Our community held their annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony last Friday night.  Our granddaughter Kimber was in the school choir and performed at the ceremony.  Kimber is the one with the green bow on her head.

Lisa and I got our Christmas tree from a U-cut tree farm in Mount Vernon on Saturday (It rained the whole time we searched for a tree.)  The variety is Nordmann Fir.  Lisa favors the dark green needles and the tree is know for having little to no needle loss throughout the holiday season.   

Within the last blog posting I asked you to look at the pictures and find an item in one picture that was out of place.  No one found the item we wanted you to find, or at least no one mentioned that they found it.  Look at this picture of the painted eucalyptus trees and you will see someone put a pair of eye classes on the tree trunk.  Lisa and I didn’t notice the glasses until we were home reviewing our vacation pictures. 

Since Lisa and I returned from our vacation in Hawaii, I’ve been busy working in Ian & Kaylene’s backyard constructing a retaining wall (with Ian’s help). 

My racquetball buddy Don, brought over his backhoe and excavated the location where the wall was to be placed. 

Once the excavation was complete, I placed a gravel base for the concrete blocks.

 Then the fun began, moving and placing 240, sixty-six pound blocks.  That would be 15,840 total pounds.  That activity fell mostly to Ian.

After the blocks were in place, Ian graded the upper and lower portions of the yard.  The next item on the schedule is to seed the yard with grass and then build a shop in the back yard (10X14 in size).

The amount of possessions Lisa and I have accumulated over our lifetime can appear, well, overwhelming.  Especially since we are considering downsizing.  Yes, you read that right... downsizing.  Downsize is a verb, meaning to make smaller in amount, volume, or extent.  Synonyms for the word downsize include deplete, dwindle, reduce, and lessen.  All these words describing “downsize” are emotionally difficult for us simply because our household goods, our possessions, our stuff, represent our life history and the thought of letting any of it go is emotionally hard.

“Why do we have to let any of it go,” you ask?  Here’s the scoop: We are thinking of selling our home and buying another home in Anacortes, a smaller home.  Lisa and I have discussed this many times in the past, but we have never wanted to give up our beautiful home on the water.  The time has finally come, having made the difficult mental transition, we are now ready to act upon our decision to downsize.
As many of you know Lisa has great taste and none of our household goods can be considered junk.  Nevertheless, there is a lot of stuff in our 3,200 square foot home.  Getting rid of longtime possessions we’ve grown attached to isn’t going to be easy.  Every time we’ve moved in the last thirteen years we have let go of possessions, but not as much as will be required for this relocation.  This will be brutal.  But the reality is, at some point, it is no longer practical to hold on to things we don’t need simply because we’re trying to hold on to a cherished memory.  This is how we have to think of this downsizing. 

As Lisa and I have discussed what to keep and what must go, we realize we are going to have to make some really difficult choices.  We feel guilty about getting rid of some things because of the price we paid for them, or because someone special gave it to us, or because it has great sentimental value (i.e., you gave that on our second anniversary, I can’t let it go).

When the family lived in Puerto Rico many years ago I was astounded and humbled by the weight of the country’s poverty.  The very fact we have soft beds, a roof over our heads, food to eat, clean clothes to wear, and water to drink puts us leaps and bounds ahead of most of the world in terms of abundance.  Recognizing what we have, and the items we need versus what we simply “want” can be a life-changer.  I may think I need another coat, a black long-sleeved tee, or a pair of running shoes that match my sweatshirt, but really?  Most of us truly have enough.

To get through this downsizing activity Lisa and I keep reminding ourselves that people and stuff are not the same, and that we need to let go of anything that is not currently useful, despite who gave it to us, and despite how much it cost.   We are not our stuff and we are more than our possessions.  Our memories are within us, not within our things.

This will likely all happen next year.  We’ll put our home on the market in January/February and then see what happens.  If you’ve had your eye on one of our a furniture pieces, or any of our other household possessions, be the first to let us know.  

I made an appointment with my knee replacement surgeon for a nine month check-up for the purpose of knowing if my recovery was on track.  I told Doctor Hanesworth I was still having some stiffness, especially when I try to get up and move after sitting.  I also mentioned that at the end of the day, on days where I would get in 15,000 to 20,000 steps, my knee would bother me quite a bit.  His reply was, “The reason you had a knee replacement was to make sure you could continue to remain active.  Although, you may find your knee is a 10,000 step per day knee , not a 20,000 step knee.”  I have since reduced my daily steps and my knee is doing much better. 

To close out this blog posting I’m including a picture of a deer that was next to our home a few days ago.  He is a good size buck, big enough he should be sporting a good pair of antlers like the other big boys in the neighborhood (three points or better).  But, as you can see, he only has spike antlers.  Those are the biggest spike antlers I have ever seen on a black-tailed deer.

 

Every time Lisa and I go to Maui I like to do a recap as we always discover new and exciting things we want to share.  It has taken me a few days to reflect on our experiences in Maui before sitting down to write about them.  I like to let things settle, and I’ve come away with the fact that our twelve day trip to Hawaii was far better than previous week long trips.  Normally we just stay on the west side of the Island in and around Ka’anapali, but with this trip being 12 days long, we decided to spend more of our time touring the island.

View from our room balcony at the Marriott Maui Ocean Club.

As you look through the pictures we have posted, look for something that is “out of place”... Whomever is the first to identify the item will receive applause and a surprise.

On a cloudy morning we drove to Wailuku and took in a tropical plantation tour through acres of fruit fields and row crops, learning about Hawaii’s agricultural heritage and farming techniques.  

The plantation grows dwarf Brazilian bananas, locally known as Apple Banana.  It takes 12 to 15 months from the start of a new plant to the time of harvest.  Each trunk will bear only one stalk in its lifetime.  A large purple pod hanging at the base of the stock is the flower.  This flower opens to start each hand of bananas, after which the plant will die and the stump of the old plant will be cut away.

The planting material for pineapple is the crown of the fruit, snapped off the top and planted in rows.  Each plant is hand planted.  Eighteen months after planting a little red flower will push its way up through the center of this plant, and that flower will develop into a golden pineapple six months later.  The fruit is then harvested by hand.  Twelve months later another fruit will be harvested from the same plant.  Each plant will produce up to four pineapples before the fields are cleared and replanted.

 Coconut husking demonstration.

We had lunch at the plantation at their Mill House Restaurant.  The ingredients in their meals are hand picked within the plantation fields or provided by local organic farmers.

The plantation also had a fruit stand where you could purchase their produce (much better prices than at the grocery store).  We loved the William’s bananas.  So sweet.

Everyone has to sit in on a luau when vacationing in Hawaii and we attended the Old Lahaina Luau.  It is believed by many that the Old Lahaina Luau is not only the very best luau on Maui, but actually in the entire state of Hawaii.  The Old Lahaina Luau has been a tradition on Maui for years now, and as a testimony to its quality, is almost always sold out.  Their location is not at a hotel with a backdrop of hotels rooms behind you, but instead is located right on the beach in the area called Mala in Lahaina.  Its only function there is to perform luaus.  There are modest groups of visitors at this luau as compared to most as they only accommodate some four-hundred people, which is small in comparison to other luaus.  The entertainment at this luau was also different from others we have attended in the sense that it all deals with the culture of old Hawaii rather than other cultures.  The show is permeated with Hawaiian chants and traditional songs and dances.  

When we first entered the Old Lahaina Luau we received a fragrant lei, as well as a tropical welcome drink before being shown to our seats.  We wandered the luau grounds and relaxed along the sea wall.  A really great live band was playing island music as we strolled the beautiful grounds and enjoyed the pleasant breeze coming off the ocean before dinner.  The servers were courteous when we returned and invited us to the buffet when the time came (no so great food).  The show after dinner was marvelous, energizing and entertaining.

We sat across from a young couple visiting from Tennessee.  They both work for Apple in a retail store.  Lisa had an engaging conversation with them about her early days of working for Apple in Cupertino, CA.  The discussion eventually transitioned to the topic of the Road to Hana.  This couple had taken the Road to Hana a few days previous and told us about an application for an iPhone that they used, called the Gypsy Guide, and recommended we download the application and listen to the narrator (storyteller) as we drove to Hana.  This we did.

The Road to Hana is one of the island’s most scenic drives and a popular sightseeing activity to see Maui’s spectacular waterfalls, black sand beaches, bamboo forests, lava rock formations and amazing ocean views as you wind your way through 620 curves and 59 bridges.  Below are a number of pictures from our drive on the Road to Hana.

People didn’t seem to mind stopping for us while we had our picture taken on the road.

The black sandy beaches of Maui are not so sandy.  More like pebbles.

The most well known grove of rainbow eucalyptus on Maui is located near mile marker 7 along the Hana Highway.  These trees may look like they’ve been painted, but these colors are all natural.  This spectacularly colored tree is called Eucalyptus deglupta, also known as the Rainbow Gum tree.  It grows rather quickly, averaging around 6 feet per year and can reach heights of up to 200 feet high and 95 inches in diameter.  The multi-colored streaks on its trunk comes from patches of outer bark that are shed annually at different times, showing the bright-green inner bark.  This then darkens and matures to give blue, purple, orange and then maroon tones.  Poor Lisa.  She was eaten alive by the bugs in this beautiful grove of trees.

The island of Maui is composed of two volcanoes with a valley in the middle that forms a land bridge.  This land bridge was formed by the erosion of the eastern volcano beginning a half a million years ago.  The eastern volcano, named Haleakala, a 10,000 foot volcano whose name means “House of the Sun.”   Haleakala’s elevation means that it sometimes has snow on top in the winter.  The western part of the island is home to Mauna Kahalawai, an eroded volcano commonly called the West Maui Mountains.  Hawaiians also refer to the West Maui Mountains as “house of the moon.”

We took two trips to the top of Haleakala, once during the day to see the landscape and geology in the daylight, and again at night to see the stars.  We were not disappointed on either occasion.

Haleakala with clouds hiding the peak.

On the slopes of Haleakala looking down at the land bridge with Mauna Kahalawai beyond.

The top of Haleakala is a stunning volcanic wasteland.

Artist version. 

On our way up the mountain we talked with a cyclist who had traveled to Maui specifically for riding his bike to the top (10,000 feet) and back down.  “A lifelong dream,” he said.  We started down from the summit just before he did and he was soon riding on our tail on the winding road.  I pulled over to let him pass, thinking how wonderful the ride down would be without having to follow some car to the bottom.  He gave us a wave as he sped by.
 

On top of Haleakala are a number of observatories.  Within these domes are powerful telescopes used by defense, academic, and scientific communities.  These observatories were built at the highest point on Maui because the site offers the fourth best viewing conditions on the planet.  Above the clouds the atmosphere is clear and dry, with minimal air and light pollution.

On our next trip up the mountain we arrived at the summit a little before 7:00pm, leaving a few beautiful minutes to watch as the sky changed colors over the cloud line.  

As twilight faded, the magic of the night sky began.  The view above was beyond explanation.  We were surrounded by stars, planets, and constellations.  The stars stretched beyond the clouds below us, and it was if we were center stage in a massive planetarium.  Never had we seen such a sight.

One hazy lazy day found us at the Maui Ocean Center and Aquarium.  Having been to the renowned Monterey Bay Aquarium a few times, we were not expecting much from this small facility.  But, we were pleasantly surprised by the variety of exhibits and marine life.  

Let me close with one negative observation about our Maui trip.  It’s the only disappointment I can think of as we had a wonderful time together in Maui.  At the resort, you can’t lounge by the waters edge unless you pay an additional charge.  The beachside cabanas are for use by paying customers only.  They are expensive to rent, $55 per day.   

The other option is to rent an umbrella for $35 per day and they provide you with two chaise lounges.   

If it's hot and sunny and you want to sit to read, try finding a shady place in the center of this hotel!  Good luck.  There are a lot of chaise lounges set out in the sun, but as you can see, not many people want to fry in direct sunlight.  And yes, these are provided free of charge.

To complete this blog posting I’ve added a few random pictures from our trip.