Aloha!
We wish all of our readers a joyful Thanksgiving, filled with love, family, friends, and heartfelt gratitude for all the blessings we all enjoy.
Here at Mauidailyescape, we are so grateful to have readers like you, who are interesting, engaged, and keep us on our toes!
Mahalo and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Warm Aloha from the Mauidailyescape.com family,
Jamaica, Mike, and Lili (who is thankful for stuffed mice)
Aloha!
We are dealing with frustrating renewable energy/sustainability issues here at our house. In trying to reduce our carbon footprint and help save the planet, we plunked down a very large sum for photovoltaic panels on our roof (much of which eventually comes back as tax credits) and in true Hawaiian style, we now have panels on the roof, BUT no electricity to them. (Panels are below the tree branches in photo.)
And along with the panels, we got all these new boxes on our house, for MECO (Maui Electric Company) to keep track of how much energy we are generating:
First, MECO lost our application. After weeks of that and about 27 emails, the company finally installed our panels. (We used Cliff Ryden at Blue Pacific Energy and were impressed with his services.) So now the sun is shining and we are good to go, except the County of Maui won’t issue the permit, because they are so back-logged! Any idea how frustrating it is to have the capability to save almost $400 on our electric bill, and nothing is happening?? Aaaarrrghh!!!
On the subject of sustainability, a new magazine is coming to Maui in December, called “Living Aloha”, which will also be distributed throughout the United States, including Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego, L.A. and New York City. If you live in these places, you can watch for it.
The magazine aims to serve residents and visitors alike, who are looking to promote health, community, culture and sustainabilty. It will provide information on healthy living and green products, offering a broad range of solutions to help reduce our carbon footprint. It will cover yoga and teacher training retreats, massage and massage schools, Reiki, Pilates, tai chi, chi gong, acupuncture, local/organic food, renewable energy, and activism.
To see a sample issue/media kit, go here: http://livingaloha.net/img/demo-2.pdf
This past week I interviewed Maui resident Mark Sheehan for my current screenplay. Mark is a member of “Maui Tomorrow”, and was highly instrumental in saving Big Beach (in Makena) from development. If you have been to, and enjoyed Big Beach (part of which is a nude beach) you can thank Mark for its very existence.
So imagine my surprise when I opened the link to “Living Aloha” magazine, and there was an article by Mark Sheehan. Every day you live here, you realize…
It’s a small island…
A hui hou! Mahalo for stopping by. If you’d like to subscribe to this blog, please click the “Follow” button on the Homepage.
Aloha, Jamaica
Aloha!
So, we thought Mike just had a bad cold…but a trip to the doctor confirmed walking pneumonia (which is pneumonia, just not quite so bad a case of it.) Back when I was a concierge, hotel guests used to comment that it “must be nice to live in Hawaii where you never get sick.” Yep, Mike is living proof of that today. He feels (and looks like) something the cat hacked up.
On another note, the VOG has rolled in and my throat feels raw… and my friend who gets a migraine every time the VOG is in, isn’t yelling “yippee!” either.
Yes, even in Paradise.
A hui hou! Mahalo for stopping by. If you’d lie yo subscribe to this blog, please click the “Follow” button on the Homepage.
Aloha, Jamaica
Aloha!
In Maui, with the sameness of the weather, day after day, you find that after a while you
just take it all for granted. But we had a whopping storm night before last, courtesy of the Philipine typhoon, and everything suddenly came to life.
It poured all night long. We woke up to sunshine, clear skies, and vast puddles everywhere. I was also awakened at 2 AM by my niece, who is staying with us. She’d gotten an “alert” on her cell phone saying “Flash Flood Warning” which put her on edge, thinking we were going to be washed away. I sleepily explained that this was only for flood-prone regions, such as the road to Hana, or anywhere near a rising stream.
But hoo-boy, do I miss the way it used to be here. Currently we have been under drought conditions, and the county pleads with us to save 20 to 30% of water daily. And as I’ve shared before, the VOG rolled in and 2008, and has never let up for five straight winters now.
But yesterday was a gift. It rained again, all day! Like it used to rain, the skies were clear like they used to be, it was brisk and bracing and I found myself full of plans and good cheer… as opposed to the Maui sluggishness which seems to infect us all after 10 or so unending months of very high heat and humidity.
Even a HOT shower felt good today. It made me want to act like Joel McCrea in his shower scene in my favorite classic Film, “The More the Merrier”, where he makes sea lion noises and slaps his body bracingly in the shower, as his startled roommates listen from the hallway.
If only this would just keep up, like in the old days, maybe we could even wash our cars if we felt like it. And take a good deep breath not filled with VOG.
Happy Veteran’s Day…and THANK YOU to the men and women who serve, or have served, unstintingly.
A hui hou! Mahalo for stopping by. If you’d like to subscribe to this blog, please click the “Follow” button on the Homepage.
Aloha, Jamaica
Aloha!
Let me just say, you chase your tail a lot when you live in Hawaii. Here’s my recent example: I got dinged with a library book fine for “having SAND in the plastic book cover.” You know, like I’d toted it to the beach.
Two problems: I never took the book out of the library. And, there was no way to pay the fine!
Yes, I checked the book out. But I was leaving on a trip… So I walked it from check out to book return, all within one minute. So how exactly did I get sand in this book cover? Yet a very formal (threatening) letter arrived from the State of Hawaii about this fine, and it was all of two dollars! As in, they spent almost in much in postage as the fine would be.
And here was the major catch: the book was from the Pearl City library (books are shipped for free interisland, it just takes a month or so to get them) and there was no way to pay the fine, because the fine had to be paid IN PERSON. I live on Maui, Pearl City is on Oahu, do we see the problem here? I could not mail a check, mail cash, or do it by credit card.
So I drove down to the Kahului library, and had a meeting with the librarian, who told me to write a letter in return and plead my case. For TWO DOLLARS?
I have to laugh, because this is one of those going-around-in circles things that happens when you live in Hawaii. For the most part, the government says no to everything….It was easier for them, back in plantation days, when people were illiterate, or did not speak the language well, to JUST SAY NO to everything! (way before Nancy Reagan jumped on the bandwagon.)
Just try to get a building permit here, for example. The immediate answer will be no, and they will make it about as difficult as you can imagine.
And so it is that they make it impossible to pay a library fine, (for SAND in the book cover) yet are perfectly willing to lend books to another island such as Maui.
Only in Hawaii…
For the record, that major fee was waived after they put an inspector on the case, and determined that YES! the book never left the library under my name. And how much do we think this inspector cost the State? Absolutely archaic. Shake your head and laugh so you don’t bang it against the nearest wall.
A hui hou! Mahalo for reading along! If you’d like to subscribe to this blog, please click the “Follow” button on the Homepage.
Aloha, Jamaica
Aloha!
So what do the locals do with all their STUFF–since they’re busy having parties in their garages? (Or maybe it’s that haoles just own too much STUFF.)
It was interesting when first moving here to drive around and see people partying in their garages. I mean, even just Friday night barbecues… They open up the garage door, put a picnic table inside, and BAM, a party. And my questions are always the same:
What about having it INSIDE the house? Hmmm?
And who was the first person who ever decided that the garage was an ideal place to get happy?
And where IS all their stuff?
We couldn’t possibly have a party in our garage…at least not one that wouldn’t depress everybody, as they squeezed between the pile of windsurfing boards and the broken vacumn cleaner that (somebody) in the household just can’t bear to toss.
If I have a party in my garage next Friday, will you come?
It’s one of those great mysteries of life….in Hawaii.
A hui hou! If you’d like to subscribe to this blog, please click the “Follow” button on the Homepage.
Aloha, Jamaica
Your Daily Dose of Paradise with Jamaica Michaels--A Maui Blog 