Monthly Archives: June 2016

Has the Rest of the Country Caught Up With Hawaii?

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Aloha!
So we get into a cab at the airport on Maui, and it looks a bit like a traveling circus wagon. The driver nods a lot and laughs a lot, as there is a language barrier.
But she certainly understands the local way in Hawaii, according to a worn, printed sticker on the passenger door:
image

It says (in pidgin)
8 am Supposed to start work
8:14 We come dragging in
9 to 10 am COFFEE BREAK
10:30 to 11 am We “talk story”
12 noon KAU KAU…time for eat
1 to 3 pm Rest up from lunch
3 to 4 o’clock Coffee Break
4 to 4:30 Shoot da bull on da phone
5 pm. PAU HANA!! Time for quit work

When you move to Hawaii, one of the adjustments is the sssllllooow pace. Things get done when they get done, regardless of your schedule.
But maybe the rest of the country has caught on. Between checking email, surfing the web, and surreptitiously shopping online while at work, -(okay, admit it…are you reading this at work? 😁) how many mainland workers have their own version of that sticker in the taxi?

The world is becoming homogenous. Now workers can pretend that they, too, are on “Hawaii time.” Now all they need is a palm tree outside their window…

A hui hou! Thanks for reading along. If you’d like to stay in the loop, please click the “Follow” button to the right, or on the Homepage.

Aloha! Jamaica

Happy Feet (not)

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Aloha!
Is there anything more delicious than the feeling of summertime, running around in shorts and flip-flops… (known as “slippahs” in the islands)?
I often say that the reason I moved to Maui was because I never wanted to wear real shoes again – – and that wasn’t much of an exaggeration. My feet and I have been at war since day one, since I wear a triple A with a quad heel. Yeah, try finding those on sale at Target. And those shoes had to house an impossibly high arch.

Flip-flops were the solution, and I had happy, happy feet…or so I thought.

As I sat in the podiatrist’s office, he took my bony little foot in his hand and said, “How long in Hawaii?”
Silly me, I thought he was just making conversation. “16 years,” I replied.
“Well, that’s the whole problem, then,” he said. He pointed to my arch, then pushed down on my foot, and it kind of squished out sideways. “Fallen arches. Flat feet…”luau feet”, they’re called here. Comes from running around barefoot, or wearing slippahs all the time. Big problem here.”

The solution is closed shoes and orthotic inserts. Not very island-friendly! In fact, anyone running around the islands in tennis shoes and socks will be suspected of being a tourist.

I had a friend who was about 4’10”, and she wore 4 inch heels her entire life. Then they bought a condo in Hawaii. They spent six weeks renovating it, and she ran around barefoot the whole time. Her arches fell within that amount of time, and she had to have surgery on her feet. Paradise lost!

As Gilda Radnor would say, “It’s always something!”

A hui hou. If you like to stay in the loop, please click the “Follow” button to the right, or on the Homepage.

Aloha, Jamaica