Our zipline tour was fun, but it poured rain on us the whole time. We wore some mildewed jackets they provided. I’m so proud of the boys having no fear of ziplines.
The next day we went to Slaughterhouse beach and finally got in a solid beach day like I like - boogie boarding and body surfing for hours until we were all exhausted. My thawing frozen shoulder and burgeoning frozen hip were challenging with that level of activity - especially the hip, where I’m in pain if I make any movement other than straight up and down. But those long beach days are what I live for, so that made me happy.
On Christmas Eve I had scheduled our Molokini snorkeling tour. We had to get up at 5 AM, and I found myself having massive anxiety about the whole thing - we were all nauseated and cranky from getting up early, it was so cold, and I was worried about the kids being out in open water. So to be honest I was pretty miserable until we got out to our first spot, the crater. I was picturing myself and/or the kids not going in the water at all and the whole thing being a bust; but then all of a sudden you’re getting into your wet suit and putting on your snorkel gear and just going for it whether you feel like it or not. And once again the kids were just fine - we were all cold, but the kids willingly got in the water and had zero qualms about using the snorkeling gear or being out in the ocean. The snorkeling at the crater was meh. But our second spot I did get to see a couple of sea turtles which is always amazing. I have to say it couldn’t have gone better - perfect weather, calm seas, and happy kids. My anticipation anxiety was all for naught.
On Christmas Day yesterday we decided to take on the Road to Hana, even though we knew food would be hard to come by (we had hoarded as much as we could from the Safeway the night before). Of course I got my period first thing in the morning (at least it didn’t happen on the road). It was a looong day; the entire drive with stops took about ten hours. I enjoyed it for the most part, but I felt guilty that we didn’t get any swim time at all, and missed two of the biggest stops because we got there too late (the park with the seven sacred pools closed just as we drove up). So we saw lots of roadside waterfalls and had lunch on a lovely secluded black sand beach, but other than that it was just a lot of driving. Thankfully I took Dramamine so I didn’t get horribly nauseated as I’ve gotten on all of our road trips (apparently I have car sickness now). If I could do the road to Hana again, I would definitely not go in winter, and would arrange a night in Hana so I could spend time on their spectacular beaches and parks. It’s too much to try to do in one day.
Today is our final day. We should be able to make it home tomorrow, but there is a chance we won’t - hundreds of flights have been canceled all weekend due to crews testing positive, so I am preparing for the worst; trying to figure out how to stay here longer, arrange for the cat sitter to come one more time, keep our car longer, keep the car at home in its spot longer, etc etc. I hope to god we make it home without incident - it’s the last step in a long thread of things having to go our way. Once we’re home, I just have two gigs to get through and my obligations are over. Even if the kids get covid on our trip they will still clear it in time to start school in two weeks.
A strange thing happened while we were at the beach. Our desert neighbor angrily texted that garbage and toilet paper and building materials are littering my entire property and blowing onto their property, and was I aware of what was happening?? She sent pictures of shitty toilet paper caught in the creosote bushes and roofing blown all over. Ugh. So I started a long conversation with her (apologizing of course) about our struggles with this contractor, then asking her if her boyfriend who is a contractor might be available to take over; we’ve arranged to meet out there on the 2nd. Then got on a text with the contractor in which he said he’d go clean up the mess, and asking if I pulled the project now if we could get some money back (he did offer this a couple of months ago). We didn’t come to a consensus; I told him let’s put everything on hold until after the holidays, in order to buy me time to talk to this other guy. For all I know he’ll charge an arm and a leg and won’t be possible. But it’s worth a shot, even though I have to accept I’ve been had, financially. The current contractor has almost all of the money, claims it’s all spent and has nothing to give back, and I’d have to pay probably the same amount all over again to this second guy. The only way this ends is me paying a fortune for something which never should have cost more than $20,000, tops. It’s a huge disaster. Still, though? I’m actually really relieved by this news - it means we can finally get away from this guy, potentially, and actually get it done. I asked and as of now the current guy really had no plans to get back out there and work on it, and fully acknowledged he’s been a disaster. The new guy may not get to it for a while, either - he has two other jobs lined up - and we may just not want to work with him for a variety of reasons (or he may decide he doesn’t want to do it). But we won’t know anything until we get out there next Sunday and actually talk to the guy. At least, though, I have some hope of this actually finishing. At this point I don’t really care if it costs more. I’m at my limit with waiting around for nothing to happen.
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