Last day

Tomorrow I go back to the mainland. It will be August 22.

I have been here in Hawaii since the 12th of July.

I am sitting in a chair on the lanai (porch or patio) portion of the gazebo, thinking about all the things I need to do before I go. I could just leave. But then I would worry about all the things left out. . . worried about if they would still be there when I return, and what condition they would be in.

I need to pack up all the things in my “kitchen” that I have gotten out – the one plate, two bowls, numerous cups, my silverware, two frying pans and two sauce pans, with a couple of glass lids, spatula, potato peeler, can opener, wooden scraper, and what few food items I have left. I have eaten all my canned foods, but I still have peanut butter, honey, sugar, etc.

The geckoes are out and I am watching two of them climbing on the bucket next to me that I am using as a garbage can.

These particular geckoes are the Gold Dust Day Geckos that are the popular Geico gecko. They are predominately green with a bit of gold dusting and three or four bold red spots on their back just above the tail. They like papaya, peaches, and pineapple!

The lanai of the gazebo is raised about three feet above the surrounding terrain. It is actually an extension of the hill on which the gazebo is built. Just off the edge of the concrete floor is a planter. I have been throwing my kitchen scraps here so they can become compost. I have not seen the geckoes scavenging around in these scraps, but the birds absolutely love it.

There are three pair of red cardinals that hang around the property. The males are bright red with a black masking around the eyes and a bright orange beak. The females are a dull brown with a faint dusting of red in their feathers, but they also have the bright orange beak. I have found that these birds like bananas. I will buy a hand of bananas from a fruit stand and bring it to the lot. Then I will drape it over a rope tied between two trees that I use as a clothesline. As the bananas ripen, I find that the birds have hollowed one or more of the bananas on the hand, so I have taken to covering them with a cloth.

This morning, there is a pair of cardinals trying to gather the courage to fly down into the planter to retrieve some over ripe banana I have tossed there. I watch a bright red male fly to the lower branch of a tree about 15 feet above the planter. (I call him Larry Fitzgerald) He sits there cocking his head back and forth, looking left and right, trying to decide if it is safe to fly any closer. Directly below him is the round patio table. As I watch the red cardinal, a brown female flys down onto the table. The red one starts prancing back and forth on the branch and squalking and chirping. The brown cardinal looks up at him, then looks left , then right, and flys down to the rock wall of the planter. She sits there looking around as another bird that is half the size of the cardinals, about the size of a sparrow, with bands of multiple colors, orange, yellow, and blue, flys in and lands directly in the planter. I think it is some kind of a finch. But this bird then hops up onto the planter wall with a chunk of banana about the size of it’s head in it’s beak. The banana drops onto the planter wall as this finch takes off with a mouthful of banana. Immediately, two more of these same type of birds fly down to the planter wall and start taking turns attacking the slimy rotting over-ripe banana piece. It is now that I realize that it is these birds that have been attacking my bananas, not the cardinals.

As I stand up, the birds all fly away. The three geckoes on the counter above the water storage tank all look at me to see what I’m going to do. I pick up a bottle of tropical fruit drink and sit back down. The geckoes on the counter ( Larry, Moe and Curly) go back to licking at spots of peach juice, while the two on the bucket/trash can (Shemp and Sam) scoot around to the other side of the bucket away from me.

A to do list would be helpful so I pick up the pad of paper from the ice chest next to my chair that I am using as a table. I make my list:

Put away dishes and kitchen stuff into totes. Put extra food into food tote. Put totes into back of car. Put stove in car. Remove cushions from chairs and put into the car. remove solar light from ceiling of gazebo and pack into box. Put into car. Remove solar panels from roof of shed – store inside shed. Disconnect batteries from shed electrical wiring. Put away shovels, rakes, hoe. Put away chainsaws. Cover chipper. Put away totes on shed porch into shed. Gather all small hand tools and put into tool box in shed. Rebuild steps leading up to shed porch. Put oil on extra pieces of rebar and store under shed. Rehang the gates (I had taken them down so the trucks and equipment would not damage them when working on the septic tank – and to give them a little extra room to get through the gates)

I get up and start working on the list, resisting the urge to just go spend the day at the ocean. The kitchen first. I put away the dishes and pans and silverware into the totes, leaving out one bowl and one spoon for breakfast in the morning, my last can of beef raviolis, and a cup! As I carry the totes up to the car in the driveway, I smell a faint odor of a campfire. I have smelt this for the past two days and I assume it is from one of the neighbors. I untie the cushions from the chairs and throw them into the back seat of the car. Then I carry the gates back up to the gate columns and re-install them on their pivots. I leave the stove to heat the raviolis for dinner!

I gather up the shovels, the rakes, and the hoe and store them under the shed along with the excess rebar after rubbing oil onto each piece of rebar to try to keep it from rusting. I put away the two non-running chainsaws. I pick up the one that I recently bought at Ace. I tried to start this yesterday, but I think I flooded it. No matter how many times I pulled the starter rope, it just would not fire! I figure that I gotta try it just one more time. I pull the starter rope . . . nothing. I check the switch – it is in the off position! No wonder it would not start! I pull out the choke, and press the priming bulb three times. Pull the rope. One cough! OMG! I pull the rope again, – nothing! I push in the choke, and pull the starter rope. Cough, cough, cough! Again, – nothing, again, nothing, again, cough, cough, cough, cough, squeeze the trigger to give it some gas, and off it goes, coughing and sputtering, but it is running!

Up near the gazebo, there is a stump that I have dug out all the rocks around it. I wanted to cut it out yesterday, but could not get the chainsaw to start. Trying with the handsaw was too laborous – especially down in a hole.
Taking the chainsaw up there as it is running, I start to cut it out. Wood chips start flying. Then there are sparks! Damn! There is a little rock hidden in the roots under the stump! I thought I had checked for rocks, but apparently not well enough. This rock is about the size of a peanut M &M, but it is wedged tightly between two roots! 1/2″ either side, and I would have missed it! The chain won’t cut a thing! Razz-a-phraza- schick-a-munda-blla-noda!!!!

I shut off the chainsaw and put it away under the shed!

I cover the chipper with a tarp and tie it on as best as I can! The gas cans are put under the end of the chipper under the tarp.

My neighbor has agreed to give me a ride into Waiohinu in the morning so I can catch the bus into Kona. I send a text message to my neighbor to make sure he remembers and is still in agreement. I get a response, “Yup. See you at 5:30” I had checked with the bus company on Friday to make sure they were running on Monday – that it was not a holiday, or some kind of training day, and I’m good to go. The lady mentioned that the TSA is recommending that you be at the airport three hours before your flight so that you will have time to go through security. My flight is at 11:30 in the morning.

The 8:20 bus from Waiohinu gets to the airport around 10:30. Maybe not enough time, so I opt for the 6:20 bus.

I grab four soda bottles filled with water that are laying on the corrugated roofing in the sun. As they are emptied into the bucket at the shower, the bucket drops a little bit from the added weight. Taking a shower feels really good! As it is 4 o’clock in the afternoon, it is time to disconnect the solar panels and take them off the roof. They are put into the shed against one of the sets of doors – the set that is hung with hinges that I do not use. Maybe next trip I will hang the other two sets of doors on their hinges. I have said that before the last two trips, but have yet to do it! I leave the batteries hooked up to provide power to the refrigerator and the lights in the shed.

Dinner consists of beef ravioli. After dinner, the pan and the plate get washed up and put into the car. I’ll let the stove cool down and put it into the car in the morning.

It is time to sit back on my cushionless chair on the lanai by the gazebo and watch the day turn into evening. As it has every afternoon for the past two weeks, it starts to lightly sprinkle. A little after noon, the clouds began to float in until the sky was totally overcast. The bright, sunny day turned to a cloudy day. Now it is a rainy evening. The rain is not much more than a light mist but I still get up and move my chair back until I am under the roof of the gazebo. The string of solar lights along one edge of the gazebo are on, but you could not tell it if you didn’t look closely. They do not give off much light, and in the dusk, they are barely noticed.

After a while, the two lights on the pathway leading to the lower section of the property come on so I turn and look at the driveway gates. A few minutes later, these two lights come on as well. In a few minutes, the light in the gazebo will also come on, but I go down to the shed to get ready for bed.

I use the remote control to turn off the light in the gazebo that has just come on. I will have to pack this light up in the morning before I go so it is not coming on and staying on all night while I am away. I play a few games on the tablet – backgammon, solitaire, etc. before calling it a night and going to bed. I set an alarm on my phone to wake me up at 4:00 AM.

During the night, I keep waking up every two hours and checking the time. It would be horrible to over-sleep and miss the bus and the flight!

I am up at 4:00 AM. It is still dark! Have a bowl of cereal, put away the stove in the back of the car, disconnect the batteries from the shed electrical, lock up the shed, and take my suitcases up to the road.

As I am coming up the stairs in the pathway, I see a fire burning at the side of the path near the driveway! What the Heck? The little wooden box that is the planter I made for the plumeria tree is on fire!

I grap some bottles of water and start pouring them onto the burning flames as my neighbor pulls up. This little planter is partway under some trees, so I drag it out from under the branches and out into an open area. The planter was sitting on an old tree stump, and the stump is still burning, as well as the ground all around it! More water to douse the flames! In fact, I tip the planter over and dump everything out. The only thing that was on fire is the sides and bottom of the planter. Nothing inside was burning!

I rush back to the gazebo, and pack up the light. I take it to the car, and go back to the planter!

I scatter the stuff that was in the planter and turn it upside down. More water! More water on the old tree stump and the leaves around it.

This is spooky! And very scary, and un-nerving! What started the fire? There were flames two feet high on the side of the planter! The bottom of the planter and the stump it was sitting on were cherry red, burning coals! I need to stay and make sure this is out! But I have to go! More water! More water! More water!

I go out to the road and load up my suitcases. As we drive into town, I tell my neighbor what had just happened. He says he will check on it after dropping me off, and a couple of times during the day!

A very worrisome bus ride into Kona!

I arrive at about 8:45AM and there are three people in line at TSA!!!

I text my neighbor. He responds that all is good!

I drink my milk, eat my papaya, and my banana. Drink my pepsi and my POG (Passion fruit, Orange, Guava) juice! All remnants of the last of my refrigerated foods! I eat the last of the rolls I bought at the Punaluhu Bakery last Wednesday!

It is 10:00 AM and I notice that there is now quite a line at the TSA Check in! Dang! I should have gone through earlier, but I needed to drink all my liquids – the milk, the soda, the juice!

It takes 45 minutes to get through security. Only half their lines are staffed! When I get to the gate, I sit and I wait; along with 130 to 150 other passengers! At 11:15 they announce that they are about to start the boarding process. I’m not in the first group who paid an extra $50 to board first, I’m not in the “Families with young children” group, or the “Military in uniform” group, or the “disabled who need extra time to board group”, so I remain seated! At 11:30 they announce that there is a technical problem with the plane and that as soon as the FAA clears the plane, we will be boarding! At 11:45 , they are still waiting to hear from the FAA! At 11:55, we start boarding.

We take off almost an hour behind schedule. Good thing I have a two hour layover in Oakland! I worry for the entire flight!

While in Oakland, I get a text from my neighbor. He checked on the planter again and all is good! I texted back that there is a second wooden planter in the same area – would he please tip it over, dump it out, and scatter it around also? As we are boarding, I get another text – Done! I owe him big time!!!

Still worried! Still concerned! Hope it will be OK till I get back in September!

TTFN