Why did the rooster cross the road? I don’t know, bet he does though.
Cool thing is that he knows when you’re coming and probably also recognizes that the only impetuous drivers are in big trucks. Maybe they are like that everywhere (nonsensical drivers in trucks). Stuck on some sort of, “my life has more purpose than yours does, therefore I will risk yours, and I WILL get there ten seconds before you do, hah! Look out roosterman! Most other people drive differently than the mainland though. Max speed limit is 45mph or 72.4kph here. Here, twice as close to east Asia than Hawaii is, you get a lot of metric going on, though it is technically U.S.A. Weaving on metric; I run my air con at 23 to 25C or 73-77F and it’s always cold compared to the tropical sauna outside. Must be acclimating. Or maybe it feels cold because when I was hibernating on my last boat in the summer or inland for a year the room was closer to 90F all day. IDK I just got here, is the tag line.
Things are different here in so many ways that it is uncanny. Could hardly begin to list them. When I lived on boats in the middle of Newport Bay, on and off for decades, often felt like trying to describe living on a spaceship. There are even different names for many things; a kitchen is the galley, or a restroom is the head, or right/left starboard/port etc. Most people didn’t really understand what it was like paddling out to your big boat after work, though they had various dreams/fantasies. I remember my first night on my first boat. I reached down to the sole (the floor) and felt for water before I went to sleep.
Just saying that things are wildly different here, like the boat experience is compared to living on land. Ok, I’ll scratch the surface: one of the first things mainland people ask is ‘how much to buy a house? Well, you can’t buy one, you can lease property for up to 55 years per the territorial agreement (and build a house on it, or use one that’s there). This makes sense as the indigenous people’s don’t want every goofball with a trust fund to take the place over. I’ve always been of the spirit like the Diggers, who are still called radical, but, were practical about land use, as everyone is essentially a caretaker. Another comparison is; you need a car here , but, can’t wrack up that many miles since it’s 12×5 miles (however many kilometers), though you do wind around the mountain sometimes. Also I can never be far from the beach, which is my happy place.
The people here are as refreshing as I felt on the mainland when shopping in Mexican markets (which I always preferred) where the people are kind without that sort of psycho vibe you get going into a Trader Joes where I felt like people were on a mission, resenting that anyone else was there and that they had to bother to pick up stuff at all. I think TJ’s went out of their way to hire overly kind checkers to make up for the mild general psychopathy of the average customer, and frankly most of that geography, minus the millions of tourists from all over the world and various artist types.
I don’t know if I want to align more here than I do/will, but, I wouldn’t know until like I’ve said “I have that one year party, and have made it 2 years”, which is statistically how long it takes to know if it’s going to stick, when you’ve made this sort of leap. All the reasons I came are more valid than before I came. The big updates are things that haven’t gone wrong. Nothing has broken, or got stolen, I’m healthy and eat well and not blasting any money other than if I didn’t root around for a car at first and just got a long term lease I would have saved thousands. Still being in a hotel with the deal I struck is one to two thousand dollars a month less than an average apartment on the mainland, in southern California, with water/power/trash and weekly cleaning. Don’t want to future-cast about how I”m increasing long term lease options and locking one down before my last day at the hotel, but the prospects are too numerous and one will strike me.
Here’s to all the people who I still think deserved the F/U’s I’ve thrown down in the last couple years; I’ve not been cross with anyone other than a car salesman here who asked me my name as I was walking out of the showroom, and I said “Bozo”. Actually, he was a clown, but, how would he know that I was a trained experienced salesman for years and have expanded my limit of suffering fools quite a bit, it was just at that moment, I was already close to the end of my being BS’d rope. Wait, one other one here; for the umpteenth time some used car seller wanted to sell me a car, but, didn’t know the mileage. I told them that I don’t talk to people who try to sell me a car but don’t know the mileage. Then they immediately told me the mileage, and that many miles on an island means; they would have to pay me to take it. I just said “we both know that’s junk, call me when you have a reasonable one.”
That’s all for now. Wait, lets future cast a little, to when I’m cruising a tropical island in the coolest little car around (a Nissan Cube premier package/collector car, the cube-uh-nator, called: Entendre Risque Zero) the solar panels are sucking up the rays to the 80 pound (maybe 30 some kilos) lithium battery and my fruits and vegetables are producing, and I’ve made some spearfisher pals and have preferences to which fish are good for the barby and which ones are more delicate or fishy tasting, or harder to get etc. Also I found a new/old dream; remember when I would get off work and hop on a motorcycle and feel that rush of power and wind through the hair thing? You guessed it, on this little island the roads arn’t full of people that are out-ta-lunch (except the trucks). And there is nice jungle trails. Ding ding, yep a brand new dual purpose bike, plus having my car shipped from the mainland is thousands less than a low end, close to end of it’s life/buying someone else’s problems used car on this island.
“When are they going to come arrest me”- Betty White when asked by a talk show host “what’s it like to be Betty White”.
Pic: Mom and cube-uh-nator
