Fizzled Fireworks, Celebrating a New Beginning

 [Note: this is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland.]

7/10/21

 Aloha Everybody –

Last weekend was one of snafus, but one wasn’t a problem and the other was actually fortunate.  I showed up at my eye appointment on Saturday only to find I had misread my calendar and it was actually *this* Saturday.  Not a problem, really, because the new office is just down the hill from us less than 5 minutes away.  So today I will be having my follow up and possible eyeball injection.  I’ll update you next week.

Our community fireworks were supposed to be Sunday night, the 4th.  Everyone was pretty excited since this was the first display since Covid.  This time the venue was changed to the shoreline park just north of town. We were leary of getting stuck in traffic after the event, so we positioned ourselves upslope in a nearby shopping center parking lot, along a few hundred other people, many setting off their own fireworks.  Many hundreds of other people were positioned in other vantage points -- we

locals really know how to make the best of  our conditions. The time came for the big bang and......nothing, nada, zilch.  We waited for ½ hour and then went home.  The story we’ve heard is that a computer cable malfunctioned and no one had a backup.  Of course, there was no way to get word to the spectators, so the celebration slowly wimped down as people drifted away. The show was re-scheduled for the next night, July 5th, which turned out nicely for us, because that is the date Karen and I moved to Hawai’i twenty years ago.  We celebrated with champagne, dinner on the waterfront, and FIREWORKS!  Granted, the show was only about 10 minutes long but very well done.  

It is hard to believe it has been 20 years since our move. Looking back, we agree it was a good decision and we’re glad we did it.  It is a very special place to live and when we consider the alternative of staying in Ohio, well........

We’ve canceled our Ethiopia tour for fall ‘22, for good this time.  We’re sad about this – it was a place that has been high on our destination list for decades, but something always seems to prevent us from going.  We’ll see how the political/health/agriculture situation goes over the next 6 months or so, but from our research it doesn’t look good.  So we’ve now booked a small group tour to the Caucusus – Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan – for three weeks in May next year. This is another very historic area with unique culture that should be very interesting.  We’re also trying to put together a trip to Mexico this fall.  We contacted a company that does custom itineraries to make one in the Oaxaca area for a couple of weeks. Our thought is we’d couple this with a visit to southern California to make it a bit longer.  So far we haven’t heard back from the company so this is all very iffy.  I’ll keep you posted.

I’ve been doing some plumbing repairs that have involved replacing corroded parts in two bathtubs, a fairly easy task except that I discovered some non-standard installation in the original work that posed some complications.  So far, so good though.

Ok, that’s about it.  Stay healthy, sane, and cool.