Indoor/outdoor.

Warm day today...

Warm?

I'll be darned. It is currently 62 degrees F. Work online, then on the Farm, then in the house.

A set of Photos from Today

Here are some pics.

Holo Holo between computational episodes. BTW, today marks two weeks here.

Doesn't take much.

I present comfort food, Hawaiian Style. (as close as you get get, anyway...)

Every once in a while, you get a bad day.

Homesickness. Sudden, unexpected and absolute. It fucking sucks. I hear that travel and striking out on your own builds your experience and your character. Change is good. Without change there would really be nothing to look forward to; a sun that never sets, a night that never comes. Without change, that light would never turn green, you would never leave your desk, and 5 PM would never show its happy hour face.

Why then the attachment to the old, the familiar? The resistance to change? Your guess is as good as mine.



Enough with the goth mope, change is at hand.*





*This bumming diatribe of bitter herbs and spices brought to you by the letter O and the number 42.

How to tell that you are not in Hawaii

1) The Thermometer reads 65f interior temp and 30f outdoor temp.

2) The alarming lack of warmth, sunlight and tradewinds.

3) Ground Ice!

4) You notice the horses water tub is frozen over.

5) You go to the end of the yard and you can't seem to find the Waianae range.

6) You marvel at the severity of dress just to take the dogs out for a walk.

7) Cold toilet seats. Seriously.

8) You can't walk around in bare feet.

9) You are not wearing a beanie to for a fashion statement or as a proponent of "thug" life

10) You always take a pair of gloves with you when you leave the house.


A Hui Hou!

The Flight II: Son of the revenge of the flight.

The cool thing about the flight is that they give you little hand held media boxes. These are loaded with music, music videos and Movies. This time around HA loaded Hawaiian music. The uncool thing about the flight is that i'm sure my neighbor was annoyed with my taste in movies. I watched the movie about that rat that could cook, and the movie about the family that's colored yellow ...you know, snowball II? Yes, that's it. Over and over again. Ad infinitum, rinse repeat. Hana Hou. One more time! Play it Again..



As always, i made a couple of loops around the airplane between bathroom breaks/booze breaks/animated movie breaks... it was a very packed flight. I noticed a lot of laptop sharing; a whole row of seats huddled around a laptop.

Yes, they served nuts.

Pictures of Boxes.

I know that we all have a secret love affair with cardboard boxes and packing tape.

Behold!

Why we moved or how I learned to embrace the cold

So why did we move?

Simply put, we moved because she said so. Getting to the point where I could feel comfortable with the decision had many factors involved. Why? Should we? Logistics? Cost? Social Impact ? Jobs? Jobs? Can we eat? Jobs? Can the animals eat? Money? Jobs? Do you see a pattern emerging? Read on.

Here are a few reasons for moving for the curious among you:

Want land for your horses? Figure in close to a million dollars for a piece of property that's not a landfill. It just might have access to water and utilities if your lucky.

What about the outer islands? Good luck with that buddy! Prices are starting to creep up again, it would seem that land zoned for farms and AG are starting to be edged out by developers of suburbia or worse, more golf courses.

Cost of living. No sales tax.

Did I mention the abundance of land? I live on a farm now! ( My name is Frank and I approve of that I Live on a Farm now message ...)


Back to the move:

Monika suggested that she come back after securing the new home to help with the transport of the animals and horses. Of course, being an adult and a grown man, I immediately agreed. While there are some things I think i know how to do, moving and the logistical support thereof is not one of them.

I realized that i would be facing the prospect of living alone for the first time ever. Wait a minute... is this a good idea?

*cue music, roll credits*






On 11 Jan, 2008, Monika left for Oregon. On that following Monday, the house was secured.

If your were my dogs...

If you were my dogs on their last day on the islands, you would have seen this

4 Minutes from right now will mark my one week anniversary in Oregon.I am still disoriented and fully expect to look out my lanai once i get up in the morning. Space heaters ,mud rooms, and bluejays are as alien to me as any discourse in epic Finnish poetry.


The uptick? I'm home, I'm home, I'm home.



Pictures of GroundClouds, Grass Ice, and Fairy Animal Bunkers are here.

Fitting Lyrics...

It's astounding, time is fleeting
Madness takes its toll
But listen closely, not for very much longer
I've got to keep control...

Where did all this stuff come from?

One of the hard things about moving is the process of choosing what gets packed and what gets thrown away, sold or donated. it's at this point you begin to realize what actually has worth to you and what you spent a lot of money on that is worth absolutely nothing. Our rather large collection of books was whittled away to what we thought were the essentials. It's still a lot of books.

The moving company quoted a delivery time of 3-6 weeks. While i'm sure there will be another purge of "stuff" vs things of value.. and while it is good to not be attached to things, realizing that my home was being reduced to a pile of cardboard boxes was less than fun.

Moving

There were many steps involved in this move. I'll list three for now.

1) Establish forward base of operations in Oregon.

2) Transport Animals to Oregon

3) Packing, cleanup and disposal of unwanted items at Oahu location in preparation for movers.


Sounds easy, right?

The flight.

The flight was scheduled for 1400 HST. HA flight HA26 from HNL direct to PDX, arriving at 2145 local time. The Hawaiian Airlines jet was adorned with the Hawaiian flag and given the name "Moli", the Hawaiian word for Albatross. The forward cabin area was adorned with Ti leaves. I spotted one local family on the flight, possibly about to be transplants like me, perhaps expatriates going back to their new home in Oregon.

While I am not fond of flying, it was even more difficult to take a look at my world from that tiny airline window. The skyway operator waved goodbye, and I flashed a shaka sign back as the jet backed out of the skyway.

I could see Diamond Head and the Honolulu skyline as we taxied down the runway, gaining more speed. Once the last set of wheels left the tarmac, it all began to sink in, the finality of it all. In a few minutes, all I've ever known will have been left far behind me.

Gaining more altitude, the pilots banked over the windward side of the island. From this view, you can see the entire length of the island of Oahu. Postcard perfect, the view was beautiful, of course.


Four words that helped on a trip i thought i would never take:

First. Class.

Free. Booze.

The end of the story...

Let me start at the end; Aloha from Oregon! On February 12, 2008, I left my home of Oahu, Hawaii to follow my wife to the state of Oregon. This move just might be for good, so I guess it is a good idea to write the whole thing down