Hurricane Guillermo!

Let me see if I can describe storm coverage for you here in Hawaii. Have you ever had someone describe the most amazing pizza to you? Promising that you've never experienced pizza until you've tried [insert name of not so popular local pizza joint]. You arrive, sit down and someone serves you what is basically just a saltine cracker with ketchup on it? So far, that is exactly what hurricane coverage is like here in Hawaii. Granted, I've only been here a year and we have only had to deal with a few warnings, but that seems to be the general attitude of locals. A storm starts brewing somewhere in the pacific and all of the sudden there is a mad rush for water, rice and spam. The storm passes and now you have a closet full of snacks that your wife wont let you eat "Just in case".

Its actually kind of a joke here. Correction: The weather guy is kind of a joke here. Just do a quick google image search for Guy Hagi memes and you'll see what I'm talking about (apologies for all the pidgin you'll be forced to read) Guy gets no respect. And really it isn't his fault, because what if it actually does hit? Last year the entire island was on alert for Hurricane Iselle, school was cancelled for a day, announcements where made about emergency shelters and all along South Kihei road businesses were boarding up their windows. I was legitimately concerned. Well the big storm finally arrived and to be honest? It was probably one of my most relaxing days in Hawaii up to that point. I made some coffee, pulled up a new book on my iPad and just relaxed. It even sort of almost rained. I believe we actually had less rain during the storm then we did the week before.  I remember all of the texts I was getting from concerned friends in the mid-west, wanting to make sure that we survived. Then Julio came. Again promises of destruction then... nothing

Now, I should probably mention that the Island of Hawaii (Big Island for those of you who don't know better) did get hit with Iselle and over 25,000 people lost power along with some structural damage. So for a few residents, the promises of destruction did ring true. Thanks to the topography of the island, the storm broke apart and was downgraded to a tropical storm. The rest of the islands dealt with a bit of rain, some wind and tourists disappointed that they would have to stay out of the water for a few days.

I may joke that I would love to live through a real deal hurricane, but I probably shouldn't. In 1992 Hurricane Iniki hit Hawaii (Kauai getting the worst of it) and caused over a billion dollars in damage. So to all our friends and family whose ears perked up when they heard about a hurricane in the Pacific, rest easy. The only casualty is that bag of Cheetos in the emergency stash. It didn't stand a chance...

Okay. This time I mean it...

"No dude you can totally trust that I'm going to post at least twice a month..." - Ken Booth circa Feb 2014 (Pre-Maui)

Fortunately, I didn't really have that large of an audience to apologize to and most likely
 if you were reading my blog last year we have been in touch. This year is going to be different (tag this as soon to be ignored resolutions).  Several times over the last year I would sit down to write a blog post and would wait for inspiration. After an eternity that is five minutes I'd find something else to do. Eventually it got to the point where so much time had passed that I felt like I really needed to evaluate whether or not I wanted to continue the blog and if so the direction I was going to take it in. So like most of my other quandaries, I put it on that mental shelf where I tend to let things marinate for an unspecified period of time.  Eventually 8-bit Coconut was born.

With that out of the way, let's review the past year. Yes that's right, I'm posting this on the one year anniversary of our relocation to Maui. I can't believe how fast a year goes by.  Most people want to know how we feel  about our decision to move. The short answer is "Great!" The long answer is far to long and complicated for just one post. Look for future posts where I break down each facet of island living.

I realized that my last blog post was kind of a cliff hanger. We were about to board a plane and then... nothing. If only I had the time, we would have put together a little video of the three of us living through some sort of Lost parody (with a better ending) to explain the long absence. In my last post things were not looking good. We were dealing with "technical difficulties" like the fact that our car was going to be arriving a full two weeks later then we were originally budgeting. On top of that we missed our flight and wouldn't be arriving until later that evening further complicating our arrival plans.

That didn't stop our son from eagerly anticipating our arrival

We touched down but I'm pretty sure our feet didn't actually touch the ground. Some good friends of ours met us at the airport with leis in hand. A very memorable way to be welcomed to our new island home. Little did we know they were just softening us up for the bad news.  Knowing we were arriving late in the evening, they picked up our keys and checked out our condo for us. They regretfully informed us that our condo wasn't exactly habitable as of yet. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't expecting to walk into the Four Seasons, but I had expected we would just rough it the first night and that excitement would serve as our pillow. 

The weary travelers, still flying high

After picking up the rental car (travelers tip: Save money rent from Kihei Auto Sales if staying on the South Side of Maui) We found our condo and our friends frantically cleaning. You see the problem with island living is that a lot of home and condo owners don't actually live here. This means that the properties sometimes sit vacant for days and weeks before being occupied. We have since found that it doesn't take more then a day before dust and soot mar a formerly shiny surface. While keeping anything clean in Maui may be an exercise in frustration, I've come to believe that the previous tenants didn't believe in mopping.... or vacuuming. Not going to lie, my wife may have shed a tear or two. This was not going as planned...

There will be a lot of Arrested Development references. Consider yourself warned

I'd like to tell you that I kicked things into over-drive, manhandled that condo into an acceptable state and was frolicking in the ocean later that day. In fact yes... that's how I will choose to remember 7/2/2014. In reality, I think I was a bit shell shocked which I will blame on the 5 hour time difference. Standing there in disbelief at the daunting task before us, our friends once again came to the rescue. We weren't asked, we were told to get out, go to the store and pick up essentials, go to The Home Depot and buy paint.  It was busy work, but it really helped keep us focused on anything but our current state of affairs. It would be another 3-4 days before I finally made it to the beach but the wait was worth well worth it. So there you have it, I finally continued the story. Since then we have experienced both ups and downs that I wouldn't take back for a second. So how are we celebrating? Well me I'll be celebrating by spending my entire day traveling back to Maui (work-trip). I'll arrive in the evening just like we did one year ago today. This time will be different. This time I'll be greeted by my family eagerly waiting to take me back to our tiny island home. If you have any questions, I'd love to answer them if I can. Shoot me a question and I'll incorporate it in the next post. If you are a returning reader, thanks for coming back. If this is your first time - Aloha.