Moving to Hawaii

Everything in Hawaii is a "water experience."

 

I am sure there are some very rich people that own a 747 and have sent their household items via plane to Hawaii but for the most part moving here involves ships.

 

Ships involve movers and movers all use containers. The containers are then stacked on ships and tied down for the cruise to the new frontier.

 

Our container looked line any other container; made of metaland about 40 foot long and into that our house, our life, our memories, photos and clothing we woud never wear in Hawaii were loaded.

 

Prior to loading the container there was a month of yard sales and Goodwill trips and dump runs shedding us of all the things we knew we would not use in Hawaii.

 

We thought we did a good job but after a year we realized we should have gotten a 20 foot container and rid ourselves of many more "treasures." I hear this complaint from everyone that moves here so at least we were not alone in our mistake.

 

Turns out that mold grows on everything in Hawaii and it is hard to keep up with its progress. If you own anything that is leather you need one of those machines that sucks the air out of plastic bag to store it so it does not grow fur. If you have a leather tool belt, and don't use it every day, you will not recognize how it looks after a month in the garage. Leather furnitur e can have white mold or black mold or various shades of green mold so you need regular care for leather items. Mink oil helps and they sell it at Target; follow instructions on can for best results.

 

Books are another good thing to put in those air free bags but you have to remove them for reading. I am learning to read books on my IPAD since it does not seem to mold.

 

We store VCR tapes of classics like "Rambo;First Blood" and "Donovans Reef" and "Miracle on 34th St." but am afraid to open the bag and watch one. The other problem is the VCR only lasted a year and who wants to buy one when you have NETFLIX and AMAZON and who cares how they store their old tapes!

 

Bought a new refrigerator and the day is arrived our neighbor came over with some Turtle Wax for cars. We then proceeded to wax our refrigertor and were told that if we did not do this once a year we would see little rust spots start to pop out through the paint.

 

We got away with being lazy for three year s before we saw our first crop of rust. I hate to wax may car and just cannot get motivated to wax my fridge. So now I am buying rust inhibiting paint and learning how to paint my fridge. It might have been easier to wax.......

 

If you don't own a power washer buy one the first week you get to Hawaii. I have gone through two at this point and use it for everything.You will need to power wash your metal roof from time to time (see paragra ph on leather for insight). You will power wash your side walks and rock wa lls and any hard surface that does not look the same as the first day you moved in.All realtors have a fleet of power washers or an army of guys that have an army of power washer s and a tanker full of bleach. If you want to sell a house in Hawaiiyou need a power washer and bleach and a good realtor; in that order.

 

Mold hates bleach. Your beautiful Rubbermaid yard shed will need to be bleached and power washed once a year. You will know when to do this because it will no longer look grey with a black roof but will appear more spotted or even be hard to see in your yard from a distance.

 

The power washer is also good on tires and wheels for cars. Hawaii is really a rock and we crush parts of the rock to make gravel and then we use that to make roads and mix with dirt to make lawns and then spread it around to make driveways. The end result is that there is some fine dust that winds up everywhere and needs to be removed.

 

We have many more birds and birdsongs than we did in our last house on the mainland. And, we never had flocks of wild chickens roaming the streets. Never heard of a Coqui frog until we moved here but I actually like the sound they make; not a popular stance. Coqui frogs are tiny; like the size of your thumbnail but they make a sound like the size of a much bigger relative.

 

Never had a pig wander into our yard on the mainland and never had to repair my lawn from the damage a pig can do when rooting. Rooting is a nice term for tearing up your yard and eating things that ony a pig would eat.

 

Here is a plus. No deer on the island.

 

When we first arrived in Hawaii I was on constant watch at nightfall for deer on the highway; a carry over behavior form my mainland days. 12 years later and I have still not spotted one on the road at dusk but am sure they must be smarter than mainland deer and are just waiting for the right moment to jump in front of my car on the way home from a night in town.

 

 

Oh, that is another thing about life in Hawaii. Hilo pretty much begins shutting down by 6 pm and by 8 pm most things are closed. By 10 pm it is just you and the police cruising the streets.

 

McDonalds and Walmart are open and maybe Jack in the Box but just one restaurant stays open real late so plan accordingly and it is good if you like Pancakes; Ken's House of Pancakes in Hilo is the one.

 

On the flip side we seem to attact great music and great concerts.

 

We had to move here from San Franciso so see Taj Majhal in person and sit 30 feet away while he performed songs I love. We saw WAR and had maybe 40 feet to contend with and then Leon Russell was maybe 20 feet from us as he performed. Ran into Laura Linney one day in Hilo at a local restaurant and got a knowing wink when we did not run up and ask for an autograph.

 

Rosanne Barr lives on the island and can be seen in Hilo from time to time. Vijay Singh, the golfer, has a place here but have never seen him at the golf course in town.

 

Anyway, after a few years I have come to understand that Hawaii is different than my expectations but it is much better than I imagined. There really is something to this "pace" of life thing you hear about and the people really are kinder and after a while it rubs off. You have "arrived" when you find yourself letting someone into traffic or waving them out of a driveway they could never exit on the mainland. Now you need to learn the language but that could be way too much fun.

 

One other thing, you wave alot here at people you will never meet but have shown you some random at of kindness.

 

Pretty nice. Not sure if that is Hawaiian but, whatever it is, I like it!