The Adventures of Judy and Mike

Well, it is official. Papers signed Monday. And, it appears that our VW eGolf (electric) will also sell this week. We head to Reno on March 30 and stay in Carson City for the entire month of April. We will get to see our older grandchildren and spend time with them. Oh, and of course, their parents, our daughter and her husband, Kim & Sven. We are leaving behind here in Hawaii all of Hamilton's dog friends and their families who have become part of our community. We spent lots of hours in the small dog park and the dogs play joyfully as the owners are entertained and chat about life here, families all over the world and the latest on the COVID vaccination front. We will also miss our dear neighbors to the North of us who have shared so much over the last year and then some. We are now at Kona Zona where we lived before and it has been fun to be part of this little neighborhood. We are looking forward to seeing family and friends on the mainland and part of us will be missing ou

Much as happened since our last blog post. We have a new president and vice president, our democracy has been attacked in a way never before seen or contemplated by the founding fathers, our lovely cat, Lucy, had to be put down, and, because of the poor quality of medical care on this island, we have decided to move back to California and sell the Hawaii house.  This past week has been stormy here on the big island. We went down to a beach to watch the ginormous waves. These are some of the results. Please enjoy. Our cat, Lucy, had irritable bowel syndrome since we got her 10 years ago. Unfortunately, it was a long, slow decline and finally when our 7 pound cat shrunk to 5 pounds, was clearly in pain and not eating, we knew it was time. Poor Hamilton was beside himself for a few days when Lucy did not come home with us.  We made the decision to sell the house around thanksgiving time and spent weeks moving items out of the house into a storage unit. It feels like we are living in a mod

Hard to believe. Nov 29, 2019 we had everything moved into the house and Nov 30 we spent our first night in the new house. Much has changed since then. The country has been dealing with an out-of-control pandemic. We have a new president and vice president elect. And we have landscaped a good deal of the yard. Below is a picture of the front from 1 year ago followed by today.  Front of the house on moving day. Note weeds and no planting A year later; note the parking area in front and lots of plants We hope that everyone had a safe and enjoyable thanksgiving. We give thanks for family and friends and wish we could visit. Hopefully, with a vaccine on the horizon, we look forward to returning to the mainland by May--given that we can get the vaccine here on our out of the way island.  Our oldest grandson is a National Merit semi-finalist. We hope that this will open up lots of scholarship possibilities. Keeping our fingers crossed. He and his sister have been going to school part of the

We are seeing images of the skies in northern California and are concerned for everyone's health and safety. One image particularly stands out: satelite view of the west coast covered by a brown haze. Frightening. Couple this with Covid-19 and it is beyond scary.  Judy and I recognize that we are fortunate to be located where we are. Although the numbers on our island have more than doubled over the past month to over 500 cases, we are pretty well isolated. Most of the cases are on the other side of the island (the Hilo side). We do shop and go to the post office, always with masks. The beaches and parks are closed here again which is a smart move. The 14 day quarantine for travelers is still in effect through the end of September.  Luckily an avocado and papaya tree survived construction and produce fruit. The avocados are Hulamanus, an old Hawaiian variety. They are large, creamy and have great taste. This is the last of the harvest. Unfortunately a few fell and burst open only t

On July 4 we adopted Hamilton from the local Humane Society. He is approximately 1 year old, weighs 10 pounds, and is a very energetic friendly companion. He is smart, learns quickly, and was obviously trained by someone before he became a stray. As such, we are making sure to keep him on a leash in the house and whenever we go out--except at the dog park which is totally fenced in.  Judy found an amazing creature in the yard the other day. He's about 6 inches long and clearly was either sleeping or didn't care about these 2 huge creatures fussing over it. My guess is s/he probably eats other frogs since we have not been hearing a lot of frogs of late. This frog is about the biggest I think I have ever seen. It reminded Judy of a frog that scared the bejeezes out of her in Costa Rica; but that frog jumped out from a hiding place and startled her. This frog just sat there motionless so nothing to be frightened of. Unless you are a smaller frog, of course. As most of you are prob

Where did this year go? Sadly, much of it has been consumed so far with a world profoundly changed by a virus that has wrecked havoc. And, unfortunately, the US is the worst location in the world for the novel corona virus. I believe that we have finally identified the rainy season in Kona--at least this year. It has rained virtually daily from about early or mid-May. Although rain usually comes in the afternoon, it has been known to rain in the morning and at night. Never know. The image below was an attempt to capture some of the feel. Judy has done a remarkable job getting the place landscaped. Flowers and trees everywhere. Although the pigs, of late, have been a problem and have dug up some of the cacao. Of course the irrigation system is now done saving us over 2 hours a day in time to water--except that it is raining everyday so we haven't had to spend that time in weeks. We have been using various means of trying to stay in touch with you--our friends and fam