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