Time is More Valuable than Money

     Now that I am retired, I am thinking that I have more time to do stuff.  More time to read.  More time to sew.  More time to write.  More time to work on my two renshi groups.  More time to exercise.  More, more, more time...but not!
 
     I am so busy.  I am just hoping that I am busy doing productive things.  One of my goals is to write in my blog at least once a month.  Okay...today is October 25th and I am just starting to write for my blog on life's ironies.  I really don't know how I had time to work between the years of 1971 and 2008!!

     Now that I am retired, I am realizing that TIME is more valuable than money.  We can survive with little money but we cannot make up for time lost.  I remember my mom harping on this concept that "Time does not wait..." "shun-shun, hurry up and get things done."  Now I see the wisdom of her words.  I guess this is the reason why I really appreciate handmade, homemade things.  I know that the person who made the item put in time and thought to make the sweet something whether it is one of Pua O'Mahoney's chocolate banana breads, my grandsons' action pictures, a little bag sewn by my quilter friend Polly Hiltibrand, or a note scribbled by my favorite sister, the Rose of Kawela.

     In this days of rushing from place to place, it is nice to just sit down with a cup of coffee and just drink up the beauty outside the window.  This short respite from doing things can fill one's soul with peace and tranquility and these are treasures to cherish.  Although this discussion seems to be contradictory, the emphasis is on creating a quality time of life.  Life is indeed to be lived.

Island People Should Try a Mainland Road Trip!

     In Hawaii, we are always crabbing about how much gas costs.  Just the other day, a gallon of gas cost $4.79 in Hilo.  Yet, if we were in Europe, gas or petrol is so much more expense and they sell the gas by liters and not gallons.

     In September, we took a trip to the mainland and traveled by car from Indianapolis, Indiana to Kentucky and ended up in Columbus, Ohio.  We filled up the car gas tank three times for a total of $73 for all the miles we traveled!!  We rented a Toyota Yaris which was a gas saver.  The rental company employee asked us if we wanted an upgrade which meant a bigger car with a bigger appetite for  fuel.  Nope...the Yaris was just fine with us.  Driving on the Interstate Highways of Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio can be somewhat hairy since people do not seem to observe the speed limits.  Then there are those huge Mac trucks and we were quite uncomfortable about being the filling in a semi-truck sandwich.  But as a whole, we found that the professional truck drivers know their stuff and we've been in situations when we have tailed these humongous trucks for miles, and miles and miles.

     A big factor for our courage (and success) is the printout of Goggle maps from one destination to the next.  Once you get the hang of using these directions, driving is so easy.  We did the printouts as sometimes glitches on the phone can get us in trouble.  Being old codgers, holding onto the map and directions provided a sense of security.

     Driving through these states enabled us to eat at the restaurants we see advertised on TV but not available in Hawaii.  We also got to see the countryside.  It is wondrous to see sites what we might only see on TV such as Riverside Stadium in Cincinnati, the beginning of the fall colors, wildflowers, and animals.

     By the way, the cheapest price for gas we saw was in Indiana for $3.22.  Whoooo hoooo!

      It is a joy indeed.  You should try it sometime.

Battle for the Buck

On a recent trip to Oahu, I learned that it would cost a minimum of $92 for a car rental and more since we would be needing the car a few hours beyond the 24 hour period.  So let's say that the cost is about $125 for the time on Oahu.  Then the hotel charges $20 for parking, tip for the valet, and street parking charges say $5.  This brings the total to $150 for the convenience of having a car.  Add to this amount, the stress of trying to remember which off and onramps are the best for getting where you want to go...the total is a whole lot of money and stress.

We ended up settling for some alternatives.  Upon our arrival, we decided to catch the speedishuttle to our hotel. To catch a shuttle bus, check the SpeediShuttle kiosk by the baggage claim area.   For the two of us, it cost $29.10 and we were the first to be dropped off at the Ala Moana Hotel.  We gave the driver a $2 tip.  We walked to the Ala Moana Shopping Center so it was convenient for whatever shopping we wanted to do.  We could have purchased a round trip on the shuttle bus but wanted to keep our return trip flexible so only purchased a one way ticket.

On the ride back to the airport, we decided to catch a cab from the Ala Moana Hotel.  Since we had some slack time between checkout and our flight time, we checked our bags at the bell desk and walked back to the shopping mall and took our time looking around, watching people, having a cup of coffee, and meandering.  Before we knew it, it was time to hele on.  We walked back to the hotel and caught the cab.  We rode on TheCab which hasn't raised its prices like Charley's and Independent.  Drop off at the Hawaiian Airlines curb cost $31.10 plus a $5 tip.

We saved money and saved ourselves a whole lot of stress in driving!! We also walked a lot to and from the hotel and the various stores in the shopping center and that is a good thing.   I think that the rent a car businesses may be pricing themselves out of business if they don't wise up.  Consider alternatives while in Honolulu...you might learn something!!

Overstuffed Plate? One Spoonful at a Time

     Ain't it funny how sometimes you might feel like a SuperPower ready to take on the World!!  It is a delusion, a hallucination to be sure because you cannot do everything for everybody!  Yet there are times when you fail to listen to reason and obey the prodding of Pride.

     And what does that get you?  A whole lot of stress...that's what!

     Having survived a semester with nine credits in art, an internship for 126 hours, and sewing my 'elemu off for the 50th Merrie Monarch Festival...I'll have to say that I am a maniac for taking on all of that in the first place!  But things are winding down and I now can comment on the three things I learned this semester.

1.  Tackle one thing at a time and when it is completed, mark it off the list with a wide marking pen.

2.  Work forward rather than working to catch up.

3.  Take time to relax, even if it is only for 10-15 minutes.  (Sharpen your ax, you can cut a whole lot of wood with a sharp ax!)

     If ever, you hear me talking like a lunatic again, remind me that I am a crazy fool and hopefully, I'll listen to you.

Planning for one's demise

     It is often a burden, thinking about the end of one's life.  We all don't want to do it.  We all don't want to think about it...for ourselves and our loved ones.  But it has to be done, some time.

     Not wanting to burden our children, we made up our minds to take care of the situation by going to a mortuary to purchase a funeral plan.  I thought that the funeral cost would be exorbitant judging from what I knew about other people's experiences...$500 for a cardboard casket for cremation?

     So we talked things over and opted for a simple process - cremation, services at our church, and scattering of our ashes.  The cost was $1500 to be paid over 10 years at  $12 a month.  Now is that a deal or what?

     Since we were on the train of thought, we decided to document our Demise Party Plans.  We both wanted to have the gathering a celebration rather than a sorrowful event marking our demise.  We jotted down our thoughts, listed the hymns to be sung, noted the specific details we wanted done. We emailed our plans to our kids and that was that.

     After all of that, it is amazing how liberated we feel.  Just one more thing done on our endless checklist of things.

The Grass is Always Greener

     We have about 22 acres of pastureland on our property.  My husband Don fenced off about a quarter of an acre since we have a couple of fruit trees in that area.  He put an electric fence to keep the cows out.  Well, the calves found this place where the grass is chest high.  Then, their mothers followed them into the fenced area.

     I am always wondering why they need to get into this area when they have acres and acres to forage in on the ranch.  Perhaps it says a little about how we too often want what is fenced off and inaccessible to us.  There is no difference in the grass between the various locations and I suspect what is offlimits to us is also the same as what we can get our hands on.  Yet we are driven by desire and yearning.

     Then once we get what was offlimits, we learn that it's not such a big deal after all.  People are sometimes, crazy stupid.  The most important lesson to learn is to realize that we can be stupid and so should try to wise up to avoid total obtuseness.

Gingery Ironies

     It is ginger season in Puna Ma Uka.  As one travels the Volcano Highway, the scent of wild white and yellow ginger drifts into the car.  Other varieties of ginger can be seen in bloom such as the shampoo ginger and the blue ginger.  Up in Volcano, the kahili ginger and coral ginger are also blossoming.

     I remember my childhood in Lahaina.  In the back of our house, there was a concrete basin which we used to wash our feet before going into the house.  The muddy water from our dirty feet flowed into a patch of white ginger, an anomaly in hot and dry Lahaina.  We had gone to Hana which in childhood days seemed hundreds of miles away and dug up the ginger roots.  My mom planted the ginger near our wash feet sink and made sure that the plants received a lot of water.  The mango tree gave the perfect amount of shade to help the ginger to flourish.  I loved picking the blossoms and putting them in my hair, waiting for the breezes to blow the fragrance past my face.

     Living in Glenwood means we are living in ground zero for ginger.  The yellow ginger plants along the highway grow to over 10 feet tall.  If you want to pick ginger in the ditches outside of our yard, you need a second person who is standing on the road or a tree stump to direct you to where the flowers are.  When we first moved to our ranch property, our yard was choked with ginger.  Using much physical labor, we dug the ginger out, corm by corm.  We mowed the lawn, bit by bit, encouraging the grass to grow.  We pulled out the keiki or young plants.  Finally grass triumphed and our lawn was complete.  Yet right outside of our heavy fence strong enough to keep out marauding wild pigs, ginger plants crowd around trying to get back into the yard.

     I still love the fragrance of ginger.  I love the feathery ginger leis made by my friend, Eva.  I love the paradox of the plant:  fragile and wispy blossoms which grow on aggressive and sturdy stalks.  But I don't like ginger in my yard.  Let them grow freely along the highway, they don't take well to captive environments.