Tuesday edition.   This morning I’m drinking Farmer’s Choice Kona Coffee.   To be honest, I bought it cause it had a cool bag and I wanted to try something local.  It’s not a light roast…it’s more of a medium-dark.   As such, it’s quite a different flavor, but still gets the job done. Not my usual morning cup, but it’s not bad.   Plus it came in a re-usable canvas sack.   It’s the little things….

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There are great trails near our new house.  I took Pig for a walk yesterday and we explored some of them.  The one we walked is primarily a mountain bike downhill trail, but gets relatively light traffic, and is good for hiking/running.  We turned around after about three miles, but the trail went on, so there’s still plenty more to explore.  There is also a three-peaked ridgeline just south of our place, that apparently has a pretty exposed and technical trail that traverses it.  The terrain is very steep…much moreso than the pictures I had seen led me to believe before coming here.   The foliage and the underbrush is very varied.  Some sections are pine-forest-like, others are thinly scattered trees with scant underbrush, and others are dense jungle.

In CA there were no bird sounds in the woods.  Here the forest is full of all different types of bird songs.

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Had a great time volunteering at an aid station for the HURT 100 trail race on Saturday.  Worked setup and then six hours of aid station support, mostly fetching runners’ drop bags.   Cool event and a really well run aid station (if I may say so myself!).   When things slowed down I hiked a couple miles up the course from the aid station.   What a technical couse….full of roots and mud, and you have to use your hands to negotiate some sections.   I hope I can get healthy this year, and put in for the lottery for next year’s race.

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Our van got broken into on Sunday morning, and a few of my things stolen.   We were back at the aid station, this time with Allie and Finley, just to see the runners come through toward the end of the race.  We were there for only about 90 minutes, but when we got back to the van the passenger rear window was shattered.   The only things taken were my clothes and cinch bag that were sitting in the back seat.  The only thing irreplaceable was my belt buckle from the Bear 100miler.

I suppose it’s good that it happened when it did.  Apparently vehicle break-ins are not uncommon in Hawaii, especially in certain areas.   The cop that I filed the police report with said that the area we were in was particularly bad for it.  It didn’t seem like a bad spot – a road through the forest near a nice neighborhood – but he said folks walk or drive by and if they see something on the seat of a car they break the window, grab it, and go.   I found a few other drop bags in the jungle nearby that had been stolen from other cars.   I told the aid station director, and he said another volunteers car had been broken into earlier that morning.

I say it’s good, because now we will be more vigilant.  Nothing of value was stolen, and now we definitely know not to leave things of value in the car, and not to leave bags in plain view.   It’s still a pain in the ass, cause now our van has no rear window, and it rains a lot here.  And the glass got everywhere…I shop vac’d it out yesterday, but I’m sure I’ll be finding shards here and there for a while.

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I go into my new job today to check in.   I’m kind of free-floating right now in between jobs…..I’ve checked out of my last one but not yet checked into my new one.    I’ll probably get the administrative stuff knocked out over the next few days then take leave again in order to keep getting things settled at the house.  One of the first orders of business (besides getting the van window replaced), is for me to buy a commuter car.  It won’t work for our family to have one vehicle here.  Driving to work is not an option, and Allie and Finley need a car to get around during the day.   I’ve got my eye on a used Honda CRV, I’ll check it out today or tomorrow.