Please Shut the Gate!

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

7/3/21

Aloha All – Happy 4th of July!

We have a number of snowbirds from Canada and from the US northwest who flock here each winter to escape their cold and cloudy weather.  Right now I suspect many are thinking of returning here to cool off.  Wow, 116d in Portland!  People in Canada, Washington, and Oregon dying from the heat! The only upside I can see is that the blistering heat wave seems to have passed quickly.   

I really hope that more folks don’t decide to come to Hawai’i right now no matter what the reason.  In the 20 years we’ve lived here we’ve never seen the problems tourists bring as bad as this.  The economy is doing great, but the cost of that is incredible traffic, empty store shelves, overcrowded beaches, long waits at restaurants, and a general breakdown of the “aloha spirit.”  For instance, this week we noticed stressed-out and even surly clerks at a several venues, a very unusual phenomenon here. And in response to higher demand, airlines are adding flights and using larger planes to bring even more people, One thing that might have a positive impact on the problem is that our weekly cruise ship is going to return to service in a few weeks. Here in Kona this brings a thousand visitors who sightsee, spend money, and then get back on the ship and go away. As long as this stays at one ship we can handle it. Another thing that might help is that our vaccination levels are getting high enough so that restrictions on capacities at venues may soon be eased, making facilities available to more people at the same time.

I finally managed to get my driveway power-washed and most of the bird poop removed. Some poop seems to have industrial-strength sticking power, though, and even the force of the power washer has difficulty getting it off. We have an electric line that runs above the driveway that is a favorite roost-and-poop spot.  I shoo birds away whenever I see them up there, but they still manage to make a mess. Indeed, after the power washing the driveway was nice and clean – for less that 12 hours.  The next morning as we started our neighborhood walk I found three big splattoes, like the birds were thumbing their beaks at me.

The driveway was one of my few physical efforts this week, other than doing some insect spraying and heavy pruning.  Karen, on the other hand, in addition to our usual weekly workout at PF, played golf twice.  Once was her weekly round with her golfing buddy, and the other was a small group lesson given by the course pro.  This is a four-week course on Friday mornings and after this week she has two more to go.  I’m beginning to feel like a slug compared to her!

Caught two more coqui frogs this week, one of which I’ve been after for weeks that was setting up in our front garden.  He was a young one, which means he would only call a few times in a row. Even though the area is close to our kitchen and living room, I took just a little too long to get our there, and by the time I arrived he would shut up for an hour or so.  I was close to catching him a couple of times, but I was never able to see exactly where he was hiding.  Finally, I happened to be out there Thursday night when he started up and I was able to locate him and make a successful grab.  This was a very good one to get early, before he could start mating and producing a number of little coquis because this is an area where we would hear them loud and clear inside the house.

Finally, I have my 6-week eyeball check later this afternoon. I’ll let you know next week what the outcome was.

Take care everyone.  Stay healthy and cool.