Swimming with the fishes & Captain Cook, The Big Step, Ear burning Cold

It's a known unknown that in sales and real estate, you must be prepared to jump on any opportunity to carve out some personal time. I always thought it was odd that people I knew in sales could close out a sale or monthly quota on Thursday or Friday and jump on the phone to suggest to their spouse "Let's go to Vegas." I get it now that we manage our building. Finishing a retrofit project and sealing the deal on a new lease makes it hard to plan personal vacations. Going to Vegas is something you can pull off with a moment's notice. But, last week, my husband and I carved out a week's holiday in Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii. It all came together magically thanks to our family, friends, and the new tenant in apartment 16 who I want to say LA-ha, Aloha, and welcome to you.

We manage the building we live in. It pays the rent, but we are always at work. Even on the weekend, it's hard to "get out of Dodge." However, when friends invite you to visit them in Kona HI, you say, "Let's get out of Dodge." I had an apartment to rent before we could go. In our game keeping the building full is job one.

The hardest part of renting is getting the paperwork right. I don't write many leases in a year, two to four tops. I was incredibly pleased when I rented our freshly updated unit, and the paperwork was approved the first time through. That set our dates for the whole plan we had pulled together in the previous weeks that was ready to go as soon as the ink was dry. So, we had a bunch of things needing to be lined up but not in advance, we had to wait for the deal to close. First, we had to ask for vacation approval from the company that manages the building managers and coordinate with the nearby manager of another building to cover emergency repair issues. Secondly, find a dog sitter for a dog who only likes us, we were lucky to get a relative who drove from Seattle to dog-sit our little wolf. Three tame the details: Airline tickets, car rental, airport parking, and finally our hosts' available dates.

We watched a bunch of YouTube videos that described the top ten things to see and do in Kona and on the big island, we skirted around most of them, after seeing lava rocks at the side of the road around the airport. Mark and I- agreed we didn't need to drive 3 hours to see more. Unless there is an active MAGMA event. I don't think anyone needs to drive to the Volcano to see more lava rock. The best part of our vacation was sitting on the deck of our friend's house a mile above Kona watching the birds in the mango trees and watching the ocean, clouds, and sunsets. My husband said it best, "It was not the vacation our 32-year-old selves would have enjoyed." We drove over the saddle between two big volcanos from Kona to Hilo. I thought was going to be way hipper than what we saw of it. When we tried to go out to dinner the places were all rolling up the sidewalks. Hawaii is not a nightlife destination. Because of the time change from Los Angeles, we had difficulty staying up past 9 pm anyway. Reading over that I do feel grandma-on-vacation old now.

We drove around to a couple of East side beaches the ones administered by resorts and private enterprises had the best facilities. On our other outings, we saw a big outdoor shopping mall and experienced the little downtown on the shore where there are 3 ABC stores in sight of each other, the Former Palace for Royalty, and the cruise ship terminal. Just a mile south of that den of Scum and Villainy are several beaches with easy street parking along with surfers and surf classes. We watched some "tasty swells" surge up into the black rocks. A local told us we would see some great waves and bad surfers.

We took one group tour trip out to see Cook's landing by catamaran. It was what a diver would have called a cattle boat. We lucked out because the boat was only half full. People must have known better and canceled, the visibility at our destination was poor. It took patience to snorkel around looking down to spot any fish. I was chuffed to be able to do a long step off the deck into the water, snorkel around the boat for an hour, and get back up the ladder without any help. I am going on two years without having to go into the hospital. My Crohn's condition is becoming more about prescription tweaking and less about the bad bits. I can swim in the ocean, at least better than Captain Cook.

Projects This Week

I have a car, but I don't drive much or any farther than the store. But now my husband is going to be using it more as he sells his car. My project for the next few weeks is to spruce up the Toyota Sion Xb. First I recharged my AC. Of course, I watched a couple of YouTube videos to become an expert.

On the Xb, the AC connector was easy to reach by opening the hood. I stopped at the car parts shop and picked up a recharge bottle the size of a can of spray paint. It has a hose and gauge that can be reused on a fresh bottle. It took five minutes to get ear-burning cold AC back in my little old car.

What Am I reading this week?

Trickster Makes This World | Lewis Hyde

Loved it! He has a great way of describing mythology from around the world with examples of real people who we can relate to outside of the realm of the gods.