August 6th

I’m writing this post on August 14th, where the temperature outside is going to be well over 100°; yesterday it was 103°…and our heat pump/ac unit has quit on us. Sheesh. Of all times for it to go out!! Even though I called our a/c company on Saturday, they can’t get out here till tomorrow afternoon. I’m grateful they’re squeezing us in, though. Our house faces makai (west), and the late afternoon sun comes beating hot and heavy through our windows, even with the Mylar shades pulled down. The bedroom/bathroom also face makai, and by midnight, when I took a cool shower, it was hottest of all. Even just after my shower, I got sweaty. It was hard to get to sleep.
As I tried to fall asleep, with the fan blowing hard on me, I reminded myself that I was in my own home in my own bed, and not in a shelter. I was grateful that my ʻohana is safe, that I wasn’t living in the midst of devastation, that I hadn’t experienced the kind of horror that all those in Lāhainā are going through. I’m grateful that my friends on Maui are safe. My heart is still so heavy about this terrible tragedy, and expressing gratitude helped me get to sleep for a few hours. I sent in two donations to Maui Strong in memory of my beloved friend, Carol, and also in memory of my dad, who used to work for the Kahului Railroad.
It helps to post beautiful photos here, too. But I do so knowing that people on Maui, both in Lāhainā and Kula, are still suffering.
August 5th

All day long I’ve been watching the news from Maui and seeing the images and videos of the devastation in Lahaina. I spent many, many, happy hours there, sitting on the lānai at Pioneer Inn with my friend, cooling off and eating shave ice under the banyan tree, and holoholo through town. My heart is aching. Pioneer Inn, all gone. The library, gone. Homes and livelihoods destroyed overnight.
Maui nō ka ʻoi…its people are strong and resilient. It’s going to take awhile, but they will survive.
When Jake and Sara brought over the three pīpī, none of the cows had names. So we’ve been calling them “the girls”, or “the cows”. Sometimes it got confusing because Nolemana and I refer to our daughters as “the girls”. So I asked Jake if he and Sara had named them, and they’d only named the tūtū pīpī, officially, the grandma cow. Sara named her “Bessie”. But the heifer and her calf had no names at the time. Then Jake told me that since I’m from Hawaiʻi, he and Sara would like them to have Hawaiian names! How sweet is that!!
Continue readingI finished these two bobbins for my final spin for the Tour de Fleece/Tour de Femmes. Shetland wool in a lovely colorway called “Island Paradise” from Southern Cross Fibre in Australia.
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