It's Christmas Once Again in Honolulu

Art has been captivated by this song, It's Christmas Once Again in Honolulu. I think it's written and performed by Barry DeVorzon. I could get the link to send you to the YouTube site with the song, but I couldn't upload the video to add to this post. Therefore, if you have a moment for a smile, do click on the link to listen to this song.

I grew up in Hawaii feeling good about the holiday season. We may not have been Christian, but Christmas was a time when everybody was happy and of course, there were those presents and candy canes.

After 35 years of snowy Christmases in Chicago, it's an adjustment to return to the tropical Christmas. On the mainland, we had to be very careful with our calendar because of all the holiday parties. We walked gingerly over slippery ice to celebrate the beauty of the season at all the neighbor's homes. Many of the homes were decorated one way or the other.

We are adjusting to the warm tropical holiday season. No black ice here. No blizzards, just winter storms. People are happy here, but they're pretty happy most of the year 'round. Nope, no holly or mistletoe, but we do have lots and lots of poinsettias. As Barry DeVorzon sings, "but we've got a lot of Christmas in our hearts."

The Last Marathon (for now)

Tiffany and KC's United flight was delayed and arrived at 9:05 yesterday evening. KC loved wearing her welcome lei again. It was 10:00 by the time we got home and we were in bed around 11:00.

Art strained his back a bit carrying the heavy baggage. I gave him a foot and back massage so he could get to sleep.


We got up at 3:00 and my brother, Dennis came to pick us up at 4:00. He and Art checked the weather on-line to see a huge rain cloud poised over Oahu.

We drove to Ala Moana for the 5:00 start time.

After dropping Art off near the starting line, Dennis and I went to the City Hall area to wait for him to pass by. It was still very dark.


It was fun to see Hawaii Hale (City Hall) all decked out in holiday trimmings.


A Hawaiian Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus greeted all the runners and several people asked us to take their photo in front of it for them.

Soon motorcyclists went by, then came bicycle riders. The wheelchair racers came next and then the ELITE runners. They were way ahead!

And soon, there was Art! He had run 2.5 miles and looked good. I was relieved.


Dennis and I drove to Niu Valley to catch a glimpse of Art and cheer him on.

We were at the watering station where water and sponges were being passed out. Runners then threw the sponges into shopping carts as they ran by.


I'm not sure what flag this is.


We saw a LOT of runners in a lot of pain. Niu Valley is about the 14 mile mark. One woman stopped in front of Dennis and asked him to stretch out her leg cramp. Incredibly, once he helped her, she continued with the race. We also saw a lot of runners showing obvious signs of knee pain and heat exhaustion.

The race video crew came through filming the runners.

Still no sign of Art and we were getting worried.

We must have been in the ideal spot for stretching because lots of runners stopped to stretch and rest before continuing on.


It was fun to watch the runners dressed in lots of fun costumes. We saw model planes on hats, balloons, a giant soccer ball, etc.


Several ambulances came rushing by with their sirens blaring.

Many more than last year.

Where was Art?

I had visions of seeing him in the ambulance.

And finally, ART! But he did NOT look good. Dennis and I were really worried. Really, really worried. Art hates to quit and I was frightened that he would refuse to stop no matter how ill he might feel.


He went past and we went to Ala Moana to pick Tif and KC up to get to the Finish Line.
It didn't rain after all, but cloud cover was a blessing.

After waiting quite a while, one of Tif's friends called from Illinois to say she saw that Art had made it through the Finish Line. We'd missed him!

He was tired... extremely tired.

KC enjoyed seeing all the fan fare around the Marathon grounds.

Our son, Jon called to congratulate his dad.

Art got his Finisher t-shirt and said words that were music to my ears, "I think this will be my last marathon."

He was too exhausted, felt nauseous and finally agreed that this might not be the best thing for him.

However, this evening... he's feeling better again and is wondering if it really will be the last...

Anticipation

It's hard to believe that tonight the walls will be ringing with KC's voice. Well... I'm sure she'll understand that she needs to be very quiet so Grandpa and Grandma can get to sleep in order to wake up at 3:00 AM so that Grandpa can have as much energy as possible for the Marathon he'll be running tomorrow.

We've already bought a disposable raincoat since there is a chance of rain. Art has also stocked up on gel packs to make sure he can keep himself replenished with calories.

For every trip to Oahu that KC has made, I've had these silk flowers ready for her. It's the same ones every time. One is a lei and the other is for her head. Once she gets to the house, it goes back into the box for her next return trip.


At almost 4 years of age, KC knows how to do stairs. However, Tif says she's been a bit over-confident since her gymnastics class so we've put up the child-gate just in case to remind her to slow down.

I've promised KC a shave ice if she's a good girl on the airplane. I told her about the child who was extremely badly behaved on our flight to LA last month. That child screamed and threw tantrums for half the flight. I wanted to hug the mom, I felt exhausted for her.

"But I know you're going to be a good girl," I told her.

Well, for Tiffany's sake, I'm keeping my fingers crossed. KC should be just fine since she's a seasoned traveler and Tif is a seasoned, well prepared, traveling mom. Let's see...

We'll have to go to the beach. Then there's the zoo. Then there's the beach... Maybe the Waikiki Aquarium. Then the beach...

Oh MY gosh! They're going to be here TONIGHT!

Honolulu Marathon Expo 2010

Well, it's that time of year again. Art will be running the Honolulu Marathon on Sunday. Tiffany and KC are flying in Saturday night. Art says it won't matter because he'll be too keyed up to sleep early anyway.

I'll be struggling to open my eyes at 3:00 and Dennis will pick us up at 4:00 to make the drive into Honolulu for the 5:00 AM Marathon start time.


We went to the Hawaii Convention Center today to pick up Art's bib and racing chip.

Yes, those are real palm trees. I checked.


Mom was surprised at seeing so many Japanese people milling around all the booths. I believe well over half of the 25,000 runners are from Japan alone.

When I asked a question at one booth, the salesman laughed and said, "Oh good, you speak English! And I mean that in a good way."

I wondered what a bad way would be.


Here's Art picking up his number and chip.


He looks mighty happy doesn't he? It's forecasted to be cloudy and rainy. It'll keep him cool if not wet. I made him promise to stop if he feels he is too tired and hitting that proverbial wall. He's 66, for goodness sake! Wouldn't a half-marathon be good enough? Does he have to run 26 miles and 385 yards or 42.195 kilometres?


Mom had fun watching Art write on the runners' Graffiti wall and seeing all the Japanese messages. You'd think we were in Japan.


And of course, he couldn't resist buying some racing gels for Sunday. I wanted him to buy a really big hat to protect him from the sun but it was $40.00 and he refused. Ah well, it's supposed to be cloudy anyway.


Lunch was a carb laden bowl of ramen noodles. Not good for mom or me, but we couldn't pass it up. Ala Moana Shopping Center was decorated with cheerful holiday glitter and color.

I can't believe Tif and KC will be here on tomorrow and that Art will be running on Sunday! I need to go clean their bathroom.

New Windows (Using Federal Tax Credits)

Part of President Obama's stimulus package was giving a tax credit to encourage people to make energy efficient changes to their homes such as solar panels and replacing old windows with new energy efficient windows.

Yes, we did a lot of research and got a lot of estimates. We had 11 jalousie windows to replace with 7 vinyl sliders, double hung and awnings by consolidating a few that were right next to each other.


Mike and Shawn arrived right on time at 9:00 AM.


Why did we end up choosing Windows Hawaii? The warranty for one thing. Anlin Windows provides a lifetime warranty for their windows (two years on the hardware for Hawaii) and Windows Hawaii provides a lifetime warranty for their installation. The price was comparable with the others. We liked the quality of the Anlins after seeing quite a few of them.


They removed the jalousie glass very carefully.

There used to be three jalousie sections here. They removed the partitions to replace it with one large window that had a picture window in the middle and two sliders alongside it.

Shawn carefully began caulking the outside of the windows.

Mike did the inside caulking. I told him that I've learned caulking can hide a myriad of spaces and defects in construction. He laughed and said, "Caulks got what carpenters naught."

I was surprised that there would be very little areas that would need touch up paint.

Mike and Shawn both said they were really surprised at how clean the house (inside and out) was. I told them mom was a stickler for keeping things looking ship shape.

Once they were done with the installation, they showed us how to care for and remove parts for cleaning if desired.

Here's mom's bedroom Before.

Mom's bedroom, After.

Family room Before

Family room After

The other side of the family room Before

The other side of the family room, After

Art went out for a jog early this morning and returned to hear the television in the family room blaring extra loud. He went outside and discovered that he couldn't hear much of anything from the outside. The windows really kept the neighbors nearby from hearing mom's treadmill and television. This is a very good thing since she does her exercise at 5:30 in the morning and then in the evening.

We're also noticing that the rooms are cooler now in the afternoon. This is also a very excellent thing.

The glass is supposed to be somewhat self cleaning and will provide mom with much better security when we're not around. Jalousies were far too easy to break into.

Well... that's it for 2010! The rest of the renovation work will be up to Art and me.

Sigh....

Pet Holiday Peeve

We just got a Christmas card today. The address labels to and from on the envelope were computer generated. The card itself did not have our name on it anywhere and the signature was also computer generated.

Ummmm....

There is no actual handwriting anywhere. The card has never been warmed by human hands. No newsletter to indicate what they've been up to all year. No photo. This isn't the first time. It's like this almost every year. (Yes, there's been a few years where they've actually written their own name on the card.)

Why did they bother to send this card? Perhaps I'm being too harsh? It is after all the season to be merry.