There are not forty days left before we depart Hawaii for the mainland, but there were when I first tried to write this post. For some reason, the Google Analytics plugin for WordPress failed and locked up my website for a couple of days until I figured out what was the matter and deactivated the plugin. All is now working….

In Biblical times, the Hebrew / Aramaic phrase “forty days and forty nights” could be the actual time measurement or it could be their idiom meaning “a really long time”. And, it isn’t always clear from the text whether the actual time period is meant or the idiom is meant. Most scholars believe, for instance, that Jesus’ sojourn in the desert following his baptism was not specifically “forty days and forty nights” but instead, a really long time which could mean anything from a week or so to a month or so.

So what does that have to do with us? Well, we now have less than forty days and forty nights on our mission assignment in Hawaii. We literally have fewer than forty days, and we figuratively have less than a “really long time”. In fact, if I’ve counted correctly, we’re down to 36 days remaining. And that doesn’t seem like very much time at all. You see, it feels like we just got here!

Today was our Preparation Day. We finally got most of the Christmas cards mailed. We did some Christmas shopping in Kaneohe at the Windward Mall and a couple of stores across the street. Then this evening we gathered with all of the Visitors’ Center missionaries, both sister missionaries and senior couples, to take the Polynesian Cultural Center Christmas Canoe Tour.

The normal ticket price for the canoe tour is $5.00 or an empty Pepsi product (such as a can of Mountain Dew or such). Pepsi is underwriting the event which is a nighttime canoe ride along the canal through the PCC with beautiful Christmas lighting, live scenes, and live music. Progressive scenes open as the canoe makes it way up the canal and comes back to the starting point. Phone cameras cannot do any kind of justice to the beautiful lights and the dimly lit scenes with shepherds, sheep, goats, wise men, and the live Nativity. The music was inspiring and the entire canoe (we had 35 people on our canoe) was reverently quiet as the story of that first Christmas unfolded during the ride.

This has been a Christmas tradition at the PCC for many years and thousands of people from all over Hawaii make time to come to the PCC to take the tour. The guests from the rest of the world probably didn’t know about this capability before they arrived, but definitely took advantage while they were at the PCC. The long lines kept the tour going boat after boat until well after nine pm each evening. Tonight wrapped up the event for this year. We were so very blessed to be able to take the tour as a group.

The Visitors’ Center is closed on Christmas each year. All of the sister missionaries have the opportunity during Christmas Eve or Christmas Day to make a Skype call to their family and spend about 45 minutes online with them. Nina and I will spend the day after Church on Christmas at the Center providing technical support (and emotional support) to the sisters as they have that opportunity to interact with their families. It’s a lot of fun for us and a very good thing for the sister missionaries and, in particular, for their mothers!

The airplanes were quite full, only a few open middle seats from Atlanta to Honolulu. They operated on time … in fact both of them arrived a bit early. We found our car, the parking lot ticket to get out of the lot, and made it home without incident.

The only real issue, and I think it was a pretty big issue, was the airplane from Atlanta to Honolulu was freezing cold. Everyone was wrapped up in blankets and, if they had them, were wearing winter coats. The flight from Honolulu going to Atlanta last week was freezing cold as well. This was the same airplane, so it obviously has a problem. I will definitely be registering a formal complaint with Delta. If I hear anything back, I’ll be sure to post it.

The trip met all our objectives and fulfilled a couple of other wishes. We got to Nina’s sister Marsha’s house before she passed away and Nina was able to spend a nice afternoon visiting with her sister before she took a major turn for the worse Thursday evening. Her health went steadily downhill on Friday, so Nina and her sister Pamela spent Friday night with Marsha helping to take care of her during the night so Marsha’s daughter Robin could get a few hours of sleep. Marsha was generally unresponsive during the day on Saturday and passed away early Saturday evening.

We were also able to do a bit of shopping for some things that are difficult if not impossible to find in Hawaii. I got some electronic parts at Radio Shack for a small ham radio project I have in mind. I did some browsing at Harbor Freight and spent six dollars on some little tools. Nina found several very nice looking tops to bring back with her. I was able to order a new pair of SAS shoes (I’ve worn the current pair literally to the ground). The few extras were very nice.

We’re now home and I’ll crash in another ten minutes or so for the night. We’re both very tired. Based on the amount of water I’ve guzzled since getting home, I was also a bit dehydrated (it was too cold to be drinking much on the airplane!). I’m sure I’ll be revisiting all of that water during the night….

We’re on shift at the Visitors’ Center at 2:30pm tomorrow afternoon. It’s nice to be back home and back to work.

Ta ta for now!

This afternoon I got a text message from my favorite brother saying that Elder Rasband, from the Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, had tweeted a picture featuring our daughter Heather who is currently living in Mumbai, India. So, I went to Twitter and there it was! I’ve no idea if she knows that she’s gotten world-wide exposure or not as it’s just getting daylight in Mumbai as I write this. She has been very active in charity / NGO work the past couple of years she’s in India. She’s worked with the migrant children on a weekly basis. She’s helped with teaching the blind boys how to swim. She’s helped distribute sanitary hygiene products to rural women in India. And those are just the things that come immediately to mind. Thanks, Heather, and congratulations for your great work in India. She’s returning to the US in early December, somewhat reluctantly.

We’ve checked out of our hotel in Greenwood, South Carolina and checked into our hotel in Greenville, South Carolina, up close to the Greenville – Spartanburg Airport (GSP) where we will board an airplane to fly to Atlanta tomorrow morning. The flight leaves at 7:44am, so we need to be at the airport by about 5:45am to drop off the rental car and check in for our flight. It’s a short flight to Atlanta followed by about a three-hour layover. Then we’re off to Honolulu on a ten-hour flight. That’s about two hours longer than the flight from Honolulu to Atlanta, probably because we’re flying against the jet stream and prevailing winds. As evidenced by the picture to the right, the weather has been spectacular for this time of the year. It’s been cold in the mornings, warming up comfortably by late morning, and then cooling of at night.

Nina and I got together with Marsha’s children, daughter Robin and son Brett, along with Nina’s (and Marsha’s) sister Pam and Marsha’s husband Billy for dinner before driving to Greenville. Robin, Brett, and Billy are in the throes of figuring out the obituary, mortuary and crematorium services, the life celebration, handling all of the governmental paperwork, and everything else that has to be done when someone dies. Some of this can become quite overwhelming for Billy and the others. Our prayers are with them. The hour or so we were at dinner seemed to provide a nice respite from all of that stuff.

So, in the morning we go back to our real world, get back to work on our Visitors’ Center schedule (and our diets … I’m sure I’ve gained five pounds in the five days we’ve been here), and concentrate on finishing up the last two months of our mission. ‘Til next time, ta ta for now!

Nina’s older sister succumbed to terminal cancer Saturday evening, November 26, 2016. Her husband, daughter, and son were at her side as she quietly passed. Nina and I flew into Greenville, South Carolina arriving Thursday morning, November 24th (Thanksgiving Day), so Nina had a couple of days to spend visiting with Marsha, her family, along with the other remaining sibling Pamela.

We’ll fly back to Honolulu on Tuesday and will be back to work at the Visitors’ Center on Wednesday. This has been a quick trip but well worth the time and money to spend a final few minutes with Marsha. She’s now in a better place … and pain free. We shall miss you, Marsha, but we’ll be reunited again in not so many years.

The weather here in South Carolina has been quite spectacular. Beautiful clear skies with calm winds. It is rather chilly, though! When I went through my suitcases that we’d put away when we arrived in Hawaii twenty-one months ago, I was delighted to find a jacket and six long-sleeved casual shirts! That’s been a real blessing.

We finished our shift at the Visitors’ Center at 2:30pm on Wednesday, November 23rd and drove directly to the Honolulu Airport. Ticketing and security went quickly. Since we both have replacement knees, we were sent through the full-body scanner which quickly cleared both of us through security. Thanks to Delta’s pre-check system we didn’t have to take off shoes or pull stuff out of our bags (like laptop computers). The flight boarded on time, departed on time, and arrived in Atlanta about fifteen minutes ahead of schedule. I had one of the best economy class meals on an airplane that I’ve had in many years. The downsides: (1) I can never sleep on an airplane or anywhere else without my CPAP mask and machine, so the eight-hour flight was long (it’ll be almost two hours longer on the return flight). (2) The airplane was very cold … I mean REALLY cold. The little thin blanket was barely sufficient. Nina, thinking ahead, packed a fleece throw in her bag and had a better time with the temperature than I did. (3) My in-seat entertainment system didn’t work. The fellow in the window seat next to me as well as the two people in front of me all had to have their systems re-booted. Mine obviously needed it as well, but as I had other entertainment on my computer and iPad, I didn’t bother. We had aisle seats, a definite benefit given how late we booked the flights. Fortunately we have aisle seats going back home. The flight from Honolulu was completely full and the return flight is nearly full. There are a few middle seats left, but that’s it.

We’re staying at the Hampton Inn in Greenwood, South Carolina. It’s a very normal Hampton Inn. We’ve done a bit of shopping at Hobby Lobby, I picked up a couple of things I wanted from Harbor Freight. We’ll probably do a bit more shopping tomorrow. We’re checking out of this Hampton Inn tomorrow morning and spending tomorrow night in a Hampton Inn in Greenville nearer the airport as our flight from Greenville to Atlanta leaves at 6:44am on Wednesday morning.

It’s been a quick trip, plenty of jet lag with much more to come, but successful. You’ve lived a good life, Marsha. ‘Til we meet again!

We’re taking a brief leave-of-absence from our mission from Thanksgiving, November 24 through Tuesday, November 29th to fly to South Carolina. Nina’s older sister has terminal cancer and we’d like to spend a little time with her before she passes away and while she’s able to handle the company. So, we’re looking at two weeks of jetlagged, zombie existence. It’ll be nice to see her and her family, though.

Our return to the mainland for release from our mission has been set at January 28th. That’s a Saturday morning. Our replacements arrive on the previous Wednesday evening so we’ll have two days overlap with them. We had twenty minutes overlap with the folks we were replacing, so this will be very nice. We’ll arrive in Salt Lake about 8pm on January 28th and will be crashing at our daughter Heather’s home in North Salt Lake. No further plans have been made, but will be Real Soon Now!

That little thing in the title bar came through my email today and brought a smile. I’ve been working on losing weight the whole twenty months of this missionary assignment. It’s working … but very slowly. I’ve gotten rid of just over fifty pounds and have been stuck around that number for the last three months. One week loose about three pounds. Next week gain three or maybe four pounds, then take off four pounds. That seemingly constant yo-yo is getting quite tiresome. I’m pretty sure what that means is that I’ve got to step down the calorie intake once again, never a fun nor interesting thing to do. But, no matter how I grimace about it, I’m still fifty pounds lighter and six inches narrower! I can probably fit into a rollercoaster seat once again! In a few months I’ll even give that a try.

Nina’s older sister was diagnosed with a somewhat large sarcoma in her leg a few weeks ago. Following some tests the doctors determined that the cancer, which is not curable, can only be cut out if small enough, had spread with spots on her liver and lungs. There is little good news in this situation. Nina’s kid brother died from multiple cancers earlier this year so losing a sister is quite devastating. That’ll only leave one sibling, a younger sister. So, we’ve decided to take a very short leave-of-absence and make a flying trip into South Carolina for a few days so Nina and spend some time with both her  sisters. As currently scheduled, we’ll leave next Wednesday evening and arrive in South Carolina on Thanksgiving morning. We’ll fly back on Tuesday, the 29th. Ten days or more of solid jetlag awaits. Her sister is definitely worth it. Her whole family plus Nina’s sister, Nina, and i will be together for Thanksgiving. The cancer is progressing fairly rapidly, so our prayer is that she’ll hang tough for a couple more weeks.

Last night, despite almost every pollster’s opinion, Donald Trump was elected as the next president of the United States. Almost every polling organization and every poll got it wrong. With that much (false) information, all of the media climbed onto the same wagon and are now are stunned at the outcome. This outcome was almost guaranteed from the beginning. This is my opinion why “they” all got it so wrong, and what lessons the Republican Party must learn from it.

Donald Trump didn’t win the election. The Democratic Party lost the election and even the mainstream Republicans did everything wrong to almost lose the election as well.

The Middle and Lower Class Voted Against Hillary Clinton And the Democratic Party

They were casting their votes against the people who were costing them their jobs, putting family members out of work, allowing jobs to go overseas, and then not doing anything to replace those jobs. Hulking, rusting, ex-factories dot the landscape geographically and symbolically across middle and lower class America. They remember the days when there were good jobs paying good wages. Donald Trump said he was going to change that and “make America great again.” If he had stayed specifically on that theme and shut up about everything else, he would have won the election in an unprecedented landslide. He didn’t, allowed the Republican mainstream to distract him, and that’s how the pollster’s were seriously misled.

Middle and Lower Class Voted Against People Getting Paid to Not Work

The working classes, that is, the laborers, the craftsmen, the journeymen, truck drivers, and such are very angry about what’s happening to their paycheck. Medical care is too expensive and now they have to pay a penalty for not being able to afford medical insurance. Other taxes and fees are eating up way too much of the paycheck to begin with and then watching all that money go to people who do absolutely nothing except have babies makes these workers livid. The money should be going to build better roads, schools (that teach something useful), and infrastructure. They feel that this welfare state must stop. It must stop now. Anyone who will shut down that gravy train for able-bodied non-workers will get their vote. There are far more hourly-wage workers than upper class voters, so when these workers get angry enough, they’ll vote. Yesterday they did.

Middle and Lower Class Voted Against Our Education System

The schools no longer teach kids how to do anything. Kids don’t even learn how to make a birdhouse, an apron, or boil water anymore. When they “graduate”, they can’t spell, can’t read, can’t write. The arithmetic they’re being taught doesn’t make sense to their parents. The parents know (and have been carefully taught) that the only way out of hourly minimum wage labor is education. Washington has systematically destroyed that education system and has taken control away from the local community and sent it to Washington D.C. They voted against that system yesterday.

Middle and Lower Class Voted For the Constitution

They believe … strongly believe … in the rule of law. They know that guns aren’t the problem, but feel that Washington D.C. is the problem. They genuinely don’t like people with penises peeing in their daughter’s bathrooms at the store and at school. They are very concerned about the erosion of religious freedom. They believe in the Ten Commandments and that America is a god-fearing Christian country. They voted against those who think they can ignore the law of the land and take away our inalienable rights at will.  The so-called Clinton Foundation, the classified email being carelessly handled, standing by and doing nothing when Americans are being slaughtered and then lying about it, followed by one sordid revelation after another got to be too much. While Donald Trump is far from any kind of a paragon of virtue and truth, they could still vote for him because he at least sounded like he believed in the rule of law and the Constitution. Further, just about every vice Mr. Trump has was tolerated by Ms. Clinton in her husband.  They feel the Supreme Court has too much power and too many justices are going to need to be replaced in the next four to eight years. They want people on the Court who will uphold the Constitution as they swear to do when they take the oath of office.

The Pollsters Asked the Wrong Question

The pollsters and media seemed to concentrate on “who are you going to vote for?” rather than “what are you going to vote against?” A significant number of people who voted for Donald Trump yesterday didn’t make up their mind to do so until they actually walked into the voting booth and had to make a decision. While they wouldn’t say before the election that they would vote for Hillary Clinton, they also wouldn’t say that they were going to vote for Donald Trump. Most of the pollsters seemed to have classified these folks not as being “undecided” but as “non-voters.” A big mistake.

My Last Rant On This Topic

All of the above is my opinion as to what happened, but doesn’t necessarily reflect my own personal beliefs. While I could not bring myself to vote for either of the two candidates, I did vote. But, I live right now in a state that votes overwhelmingly Democratic, so my vote for anyone other than Hillary Clinton wasn’t going to make any difference in this election.

Comments are open on this blog, but all will be moderated. Useful and interesting comments will be approved. All others will just be ignored. This blog also gets cross-posted to Twitter and Facebook. I’ll probably ignore most of the comments (if any) posted there.

Twenty months ago today Nina and I checked into the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah to begin our twenty-three-month missionary service. That means we’ve somewhere around 90 days left before we leave this little corner of paradise behind. In the next couple of weeks we’ll learn our final completion date and get our travel schedule. It’s starting to feel real!

We voted today, although it wouldn’t have made any difference how we voted and whether or not we voted. Hawaii is a very blue state and has belonged to the Democratic Party since forever. There are a few local races of some interest, but it’s quite likely that it’ll be another Democratic sweep across the state.

We’ve got the TV on, kind of paying attention to the election returns. It looks like it’ll be several hours more before this thing is settled. Then somehow, we’ve got, as a country, figure out how to do a whole bunch better in the next presidential election. We can do far better than what these two parties came up with this time.

Start the countdown clock!