“We have to get to Arizona urgently,” we told our editor on the trail at Waimea Canyon.
“Relax. You’re getting uptight for nothing. And what’s in Arizona that’s so important?” she answered, trying to calm us.
“It’s the government. We’ve been gone three weeks and it seems that it has moved the Grand Canyon to Kauai-- looks that way to me, maybe more green coverage over here. Perhaps more trees were planted.”
“Why don’t you have more caffeine, it might help. The daily water regimen is rusting the brain a little. I’ll admit that there are strong similarities but I don’t think the ‘ditch digging’ Keynesian concept of putting people to work was applied,” she said, ending further discussion.
We like the irony that from Monday to Friday, we wake early, stand outside the condo and call out to the roosters. There is some satisfaction in waking up the ‘little buggers’, particularly as they disturb us on Shabbos and Sunday. There is a mean streak within us as our editor points out from time to time, usually by the time we pass the eight-mile mark on a hike. The days are long in time but short in passing. Sometimes we cannot accomplish what we wish. Better that way, we believe.
Our lovely editor set us on a course for Monday mid-morning in another spectacular place on this island. Although by the time we left the ‘home’ we had worked for quite a few hours, we always appreciate spending ‘blue Mondays’ enjoying a most fortunate life. We realize sweating, straining, climbing through, over, in and around, rivers, mud, rocks, boulders, stones, trees, bears, wolves, snakes, insects and some of nature’s other hazards such as lightning, rain, isn’t for everyone... After thinking about the afore going, we wonder why it should be for us at all. Sounds pretty dumb. Well, there’s no accounting for taste, we suppose.
The Waimee Canyon is quite something, a smaller Grand Canyon but with more greenery. We hiked to the ‘floor’, which is a five-mile roundtrip. There is no level ground until the river or stream at the bottom. For the rest, it is directly down and then up, some 2,000 feet. However, it was a most pleasant hike and day.
We like stories of chesed (kindness), in fact, seeing it in action is uplifting. Yesterday, we were walking around naked. “What’s with you?” Our editor shrieked. That is not something she ever does.
“We have no more clean clothes, no quarters for the laundry; there are no banks or stores around to obtain change so that’s why we are without attire.” She was not happy. After years of marriage, we have learned how to discern her moods so we decided to use some initiative rather than be in the ‘bad books’. We approached a Hawaiian, Bill and asked where we could find quarters. Without hesitation, he took us upstairs, gave us sufficient to do the laundry and refused to accept our payment in ‘paper money’. We were most touched. Today, we are going to ask him if he has any spare gold coins.
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