Eclecticism

A few snippets from the past month…

• Dealing with trying to get the ‘net and phone moved over, in Prairie’s words:
  

  Us (On Sept. 4th): Is there any way to speed up the process? This move was unplanned, and we couldn’t call you before now to set things up.

  Them: Yes, we’ll have an installer out there on the 21st. How would that be?

  Us: Would it be possible to have anyone out here sooner than that? You see, the move was unplanned.

  Them: Yes, we’ll have an installer out there on the 21st. How would that be?

  Us: Yes, but could you make it sooner? We’ll be without phone and Internet for a month by then.

  Them: Yes, we’ll have an installer out on the 21st. How would that be?

  At which point we just gave up and agreed that the 21st would be lovely…

• Prairie’s ‘before‘ shots and my ‘after‘ shots of the new apartment.

• A few shots of me and my parents as they stopped by in Seattle on their way back up to Alaska after picking up the Turtle (their new RV).

And now, we have one last night of ‘summer’ before school starts tomorrow morning. Yeesh. Weren’t we supposed to be able to relax in here at some point?

After twenty-two days, we’re finally up and running in the new apartment — internet and phone are both finally working as they should.

This took far, far too long.

But, it’s done, and we can finally start paying attention to and staying in contact with the world again.

So.

What’ve we missed?

The move is in progress — tons of boxes filled with crap floating from one apartment to the other, and all sorts of unfun disarray and nastiness. Ugh. Moving’s stressful enough when it’s anticipated and planned, but having to suddenly dive full-force into it with no advance notice is horrendous.

It should be pretty obvious that given the situation, I’m not checking in with much of anything online right now, and likely won’t be for at least a few days (we still haven’t set up switching the ‘net and phone service to the new apartment). All things come with time….

We’re home. Generally speaking, this is a good thing: the wedding was wonderful, the experience at the resort was good (though not really our style, as we ended up deciding), the camping was incredible, and even traveling home was surprisingly pleasant (and I’ll get to all of those in more detail in due course). The actual arrival home has been one of the most traumatic we’ve yet experienced, however.

While we’d done a pretty good job of staying close to Seattle time during our camping, going to bed as soon as it got dark around 7:30 PM and getting up at first light around 6 AM (both times local to Hawaii, 10:30 PM and 9 AM respectively Seattle time), our flight home left Kona at just after 9 PM (local, midnight Seattle) and arrived in Seattle at about 5:30 AM (Seattle). Neither of us sleep well on airplanes, so by the time we landed, we were running on about twenty-one hours without sleep. By the time we collected our luggage, caught a shuttle to the parking service’s lot, picked up the car, and then fought our way through the construction on I-5, we didn’t get home and into bed until right around 8 AM, at about twenty-four hours straight without sleep.

Three hours later, the banging of construction in the apartment next door woke me up. Prairie had earplugs in, so she made it for another hour, but then she was up, too. And here’s where the real fun begins…

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Well, all worries aside, we made it! Right now, I’m sitting in our room on the sixth floor of the Hilton Waikoloa Village‘s Lagoon Tower, looking out over Waiulua Bay. Stepping out onto the deck, I can look nearly directly down into the Dolphin Quest pool, where people (with a whole lot more expendable money than we have) are swimming with dolphins. Not long ago, I was snorkeling along through the resort’s lagoon, surrounded by schools of fish, diving down to get a closer look at eels, pufferfish, and parrot fish, and sidling on up to pat a sea turtle’s shell as it nosed through the spray of a waterfall.

We may never stay someplace this ritzy again, but boy is it a treat to be doing it now!

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In a couple hours, Prairie and I will be heading for the airport. Our flight leaves this afternoon, stops over in Maui, then lands in Kona this evening. At least, that’s the theory….

Meanwhile: Flossie continues to head for the Big Island, which is on hurricane watch, tropical storm warning, and flash flood watch, has closed its public schools, and is officially under a state of emergency. Oh, and there was an earthquake this morning, too.

I dunno who did what to piss off the Man upstairs, but this vacation is looking to be mighty interesting. Right now, we’re figuring that if our plane leaves Seattle, then there’s a good chance we may end up stuck in Maui overnight. The wedding isn’t ’till tomorrow evening, so as long as the storm passes and the winds die down, we should still make it in time for that.

We’re definitely keeping our fingers crossed, though. What wonderful timing. Yikes!