I called my brother yesterday. I wasn’t sure what to expect when they connected me to his room. It was during visiting hours so I knew someone would pick up the reciever. Suffice to say, I was elated to hear my brother’s voice. He answered his own phone. We take a simple act such as answering a phone for granted, but considering he had a major stroke 2 weeks ago, it’s a very big deal to me.

He seemed to be in good spirits, I had to do alot of guessing as to what he was trying to say to me. Although he understood every word I was saying to him, he had such a difficult time trying to respond. He knew what he wanted to say but just didn’t know how to say it. There was one word he didn’t have to think too much about. “Shit”

When he tried to say, “yesterday”, he’d say “last day” instead. So I’d blurt out words that would sort of fit the subject. He’d say “no” or “yeah” but when I guessed wrong, he’d say “no .. umm … ummm … SHIT”, then we’d both laugh.

He said he has feelings in his toes but not the rest of his leg, nor his hand. I joked with him and told him to look at his hand and say, “Hey Lolo hand, move damnit” He laughed and said, “Shit”.

My brother is known for his quick retort, his sarcastic humor and his artistic mind. It’s sad that he won’t be able to do all of the things he used to be able to do without having to work extra hard on it. He’s young, stubborn and determined which could work to his advantage. I still don’t know how much better he’ll get over time but he knows he has the ohana behind him all the way.

Today was very humid, like oven hot. I went out to smoke a cigarette while reading an ebook on my palm pilot. The minute I stepped outside, the palm pilot immediately started to fog up, much like when I forget to remove my reading glasses when I open the oven door to check on a cake. The humidity today was unreal.

You’d think living directly across the ocean would offer some sort of cool breeze but that’s not the case here. No breeze, no cooling from the ocean, nada.

Our first summer in Japan we lived off base and had only one AC in the master bedroom. During the day, we’d run to the room a few times just to cool off. It was miserable, to say the least. We flew back home for a month and when we returned, everything had mildewed. It was horrible. We had to bleach everything. Mildew had gathered on the rubber around the fridge door, on the fabric of the recliners, on the wall paper in the bathroom. Yuck.

Thank goodness we live in base housing and we have ACs in every room. We don’t run all of them but it’s good to know we won’t need to be too miserable in Japan’s humid summers.

I was waiting for this luau. For once, we weren’t late to an event. I craved the taste of Kalua Pig, Lomi Salmon, Chicken Long Rice, Squid Lu’au, POI and of course, the raw stuff that completes a normal lu’au menu. What we got instead was Roast Pork, Watercress Salad, Island Veggie Salad, Huli Huli Chicken, Mahi Mahi, Mock Laulau and Lomi Salmon-minus the green onions. The food was very delicious and somehow I led myself to believe it would be authentic Hawaiian dishes. You know that feeling, when in your mind you can almost taste the food but when it’s served, it’s something entirely different?

The same was true for the entertainment. Normally, when MWR hires a group from Hawaii, it’s usually someone I’ve never heard of. Lastnight though, the entertainment made up for my disappointment in not having real luau grub. I was pleasantly surprised to hear the familiar voice of Ilona Irvine rising above the shuffling of people being escorted to their seats. She’s now part of an entertainment group that sings and performs Polynesian dancing. The show was great. Since we had to wait for Meg to get off work (She worked at the luau), I took pictures of the group and spoke briefly to Ilona. They’re on the last leg of a 25 show tour throughout Japan, Korea and Okinawa. She told me they were flying out at 3 a.m. to head to Sasebo. We hugged and I wished her and the group a safe trip.

I’ll be adding more pictures to the gallery, so check back soon.

We’re now actively searching for a home to purchase. After months of debating between retiring in Hawaii or Washington, we chose Washington. I would’ve loved to return back to the islands but homes there are so UNaffordable for us.

After viewing literally thousands of homes on the market, we settled on three that we’re interested in purchasing. Now comes the difficult part. Hubby is away at sea again so it’s unlikely that we’ll be making any purchases until he returns in a few months. I contacted a Realtor to inquire about the market there. Not surprisingly, he said the market is brisk for the type of home we’re interested in purchasing.

I know purchasing a home can be a stressful procedure but when you’re in another country and unable to just hop into a car and personally inspect each of these home, it just kicks up the stress level a few notches. Then the fact that hubby is out at sea, add that to the mix and watch that level rise even more.

Bottom line? My stomach is in knots and I can feel the onset of a massive headache.

Earlier today none of my entries were displayed due to some sort of database error. I’m happy to see that it’s been resolved. Once again, thanks to Ryan who always comes through. Can’t ask for anything more than quick support from the webmaster/host.

What happened was this: I was in the process of reorganizing the categories when all of a sudden, the database error message popped up. That meant, I couldn’t edit previous posts to file the entries under the correct category. Alas, the problem is solved and it took about 3 hours to edit the posts. I still have a few more to go but my eyes are crossing so I’ll quit for now.