spent 5 days there, just got back on tuesday morning... nice trip. voggy as hell. on the one day where the sky was blue we went to the beach - onekahakaha for those who know. hadn't been there since i was like 5 years old. crowded... i mean it was packed! couldn't help thinking about how much of the water was actually sea water if you know what i mean. wanted to take photos, but camera, no batteries. what i noticed was that on the surface, in passing, casually, hiloans are really friendly people. smiles everywhere, not like honolulu. i say "on the surface" because i know that hilo can be, for lack of a more tactful word, scandalous. in line at ross', the lady in front of me was telling the ladies in front of her about her divorce - her husband "fooled around" and "wanted out." right there in a discount department store, no shame, so casual. another thing i noticed was that i was drawn to move back there. one thing that worries me about doing that, more than a job, or the vog, or the rain, or the lack of family entertainment venues, is getting "caught up." it's weird. this is not the diary-like blog i had intended. kaleb loves it there and wants to move. i asked him why and he said, "because i can play outside all day." true. makiki living is not conducive to outdoor activities. he actually learned to ride a bike... at 10 years old!
here are some of the main reasons i'd like to move back:
1. we have land to build a house.
2. i'd love to see my brother and sister grow up, participate in their lives a little.
3. the grandparents are getting older and i'd like to spend as much time with them as possible.
4. so kaleb can play outside all day.
one more thing i noticed is not just that everyone in hilo has a nice big yard, by honozoolu standards, but that 99% of the yards are well-groomed and nicely landscaped. my theory is that 1. people actually take pride in their property and 2. the pace of life is such that one can maintain a large property without feeling rushed or stressed or feel the need to procrastinate because of some other, more pressing issue.
maybe it's this pace that causes/affects both handsome properties AND the movie-worthy scandals. hmm.
oh let me tell you about my boy seth. this kid is a soldier. he's a warrior. a champ. or maybe he has no pain receptors. the night we arrive(thursday), he's off playing in my sister's room and messes with a mirror... those sorta full length ones that get mounted on walls. apparently this ones not so well-mounted and it crashes onto his face. i guess the frame of it bashed his mouth and caused his teeth to gash open his inner lip. it was bad. i had to stop myself from panicking. but as soon as we got the bleeding to stop he was fine. the next morning we woke up and looked at it and it was worse-looking aka gross. the gash was full of white stuff and it was more swollen... we took him to the hospital it was so bad-looking. but the docs said they don't stitch anything inside the mouth and so all we could to was montior it, wash it out with salt water a few times a day and so we did. you would think that salt water would sting an open wound like that, but seth was more irritated by the taste than anything. soldier. by monday, just 4 days later, when we asked to check it, he wouldn't let us. he insisted that it was "all pau, daddy." warrior. today, not even a week later, it looks like a coldsore. thats it. done. now i cannot fail to mention God in all of this. sethie handled the pain, but we prayed and prayed for his healing - a quick recovery and no infections... the mouth can be a dirty place. anyway i can't explain it. i've been stitched up many times and even with the stitches it's taken longer to heal than a week. if the cut was on his forehead he would've definitely needed stitches. so thank God that everything worked out and for blessing us with such an awesome little bugger who takes a lot of the stress out of child-raising. for visual reference, see the "sayonara" entry, hes the brown haired one (2.5 years old).
this is long, i'll stop now.
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