Hawaii Cools, Redmond Snows

As any hot idea goes, it always goes through a cooling period and it seems that this Hawaii thing is cooling down quite a bit. I guess it started when my wife suddenly got very worried about not being to see her mother and her two grown daughters for long stretches of time. I mean, it's not like we see them much now, but it doesn't take 2 grand and a week off to do that. I was also quite concerned that my mom won't get any assistance if she needed it. She claims she can take the bus or taxi to her appointments, but I know it's not going to be easy. On top of that, lurking through some of the Hawaii related forums have been a little too informative. Some native Hawaiians tend to have a rather strong feeling against Haoles who come from the mainland and compete for jobs, and turn their homeland into a commercialized tourist hole. I might sympathize with their concerns, but some of their prejudices run pretty deep, and much more so in the school system. Google "Kill Haole Day" and you'll just get more than one account of how deep rooted the disdain can be. Now granted this may be a harmless tradition that doesn't usually end in death, there are accounts of beatings and whatnot, and it's not uncommon from what it sounds like. I do not like to entertain the idea of having my son, whose skin color would be a giveaway, get lynched and having the institution blow it off as nothing more than a tradition.

I know, what I'm reading may very well be far from the truth. The mainlanders and Cauasian community may have factions saying Hawaii's racist, and a faction from the Hawaiian community saying it's not - but you know, it sounds very much like the kind of stuff we're trying to move away from. We have racism everywhere, true, I got my fair share to racism in high school, but I knew at least if I went to the school about it, there would be action taken. I dunno. Racism anywhere can be a sour note for me, and though I can't stop it from happening to the kids, I can avoid the obvious circumstances.

Anway, what we've decided is sort of a consolation prize of sorts. We think we'll plan to go on the trip in December, and if we decide we'd like to hang out a little more, we'll move there temporarily for six months, and then come back to Washington or somewhere else and find a house to move into, a neighborhood for the kids. I figured since Dansen went to Japan for a year (and then returned, and then went back to Japan), and so did Trench and Syrinx, we could do it too, and then chalk it up to a life experience. We'd have a six month lease in a furnished apartment, work, and just enjoy the new environment. Sounds like a safe plan.

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It decided to snow in Redmond again, blanketing the neighborhood all over again. The forecast is saying that it'll melt away in the next few days, when the temps go back up to the 40s. We'll see. I'll try to post some snow pics and whatnot.