People

It was so nice to be out on the land by myself today. I got some painting done on boards we'll be putting up to make the cabin Bodhi safe. It was very meditative moving the roller up and down the boards and transforming them by my movements.

Kim took Bodhi to the Imiloa Astronomy Museum this morning. It was really wonderful for Bodhi to hang out with one of his friends from Honolulu, Samba. Samba and her mom and dad, Jen and Renato moved from O‘ahu like us and are settling into life here on the Big Island as well. Samba and Bodhi are friends from Honolulu Waldorf School. They squealed with excitement when they saw each other. It was nice for Bodhi to hang out with a friend.

I stopped in at the Home Depot today for some paint, and although I'm not a big fan of Corporate America, the staff at the Hilo Home Depot have been incredibly helpful. Yesterday, I needed to buy some pieces of ply board to put up on the cabin to make it Bodhi safe. After I got the right boards and paid for them I tried to put them into my Volvo station wagon. No luck, they were too long. Fortunately, I have surf racks on the Volvo so I could just mount them on top. I did not, however, have any thing to strap the boards down. One of the helpful clerks, Regan, came up to me and asked if I needed help. I told him my situation and he told me he had some string I could use to tie down the boards. I asked if it would be safe to drive away only with the string. He asked how far I was driving and I told him 10 miles up the road to Kurtistown. He said that if I were just driving around Hilo it would be o.k. but to Kurtistown, I should buy some straps. He took me back in the store and showed me the straps I should get and said he would help me strap the boards on the Volvo. I get to the car and Regan gives me instructions on how to strap down the boards and then gets called away to help another customer. Try as I might to follow his instructions, I end up getting the straps into a huge tangled knot. Regan comes back over to see how I'm doing and sees the unruly ball of strap hanging from the side of the car. Without even flinching, he patiently starts to try and unravel my knot. I can hear his staff walkie talkie squelching requesting customer help somewhere else. He ignores them and continues to look for the beginning of the tangle. Several more calls for customer help come in and Regan is starting to sweat in the humid Hilo morning. I'm feeling bad as more customers need Regan's help and I am monopolizing his time with my tangle. Finally, another clerk comes out and sees the situation, she goes back in the store and gives me a whole new set of straps. I guess they decided to untangle my mess later. Regan and I took the new straps, got them on the car, and secured the boards down. I made it to the land with no boards flying in the wind. I love my straps. It was perhaps the best $15 I've spent in a while. They're bright orange and sturdy. They came to me with a great story and a reminder that despite some of my feelings that corporations have taken over the country, corporations are simply made up of people and people are good. Also, as far as knots, rather than trying to unravel them and follow them to where they began, it's far better most times to just let them go and get a fresh start.