My Macbook has been fixed and is back home. The new keyboard and top case make it look like it’s almost new! The dining table is about the only place to set up our computers and they usually stay set up on the very small table all the time, even when we’re eating. I’m going to have to get a lot more coordinated or start moving my computer off the table when it’s mealtime! I don’t need to go through this problem again.

We drove down to Honolulu on Wednesday to do some shopping and picked up the Macbook on the way followed by a stop at Costco, Walmart, and Radio Shack. Yup, there are still some Radio Shack stores open, although I read yesterday that someone has offered to buy the “Radio Shack” name. I wonder if the remaining stores go with it? I needed a specific, not generally stocked USB cable to go between my Nikon Point-n-Shoot and the computer. I apparently left the cable back in the US. I haven’t been able to find it anywhere until I went into the Radio Shack store at the (very upscale) Ala Moana Mall in Waikiki. I’m certain I paid twice the regular price (1) because we’re in Hawaii and everything (except pineapples and papaya) is more expensive and (2) this is a mall that caters to folks with LOTS and OODLES of money. The cable works, it’s (hopefully) a one-time purchase, so life continues.

One the way to Honolulu we stopped at the Kualoa Regional Park, a large, beautiful park on the ocean, so that Nina could pick up a piece of coral to send to daughter-in-law Maureen back in Connecticut. While there I noticed the trees along the beach and the steep mountains behind and took the picture (top right). It’s clear that this is the “windward” side of the island! I don’t remember ever seeing the wind blowing to the east. It’s always coming from somewhere in the east, some days much stronger than others.

There is a steep mountain range that essentially bisects the island of Oahu from south to north. For many years the only way out of Honolulu to the north shore were a couple of arduous roads up and over mountain passes. Then in the 1960’s plans were made to build three tunnels and associated highways through the mountains. The plans met with every obstacle and protest imaginable, with the H-3 Interstate not completed until 1997 after the Hawaiian Senator Inouye got the highway exempted from environmental laws as a rider to a Department of Defense funding bill.

This picture was taken just before entering the almost-mile-long tunnel through the mountain. I love the mountains around here. They are sharp, steep, high, jagged, and delightful. As an aside, it kind of seems that every project to build anything around here meets significant opposition and protest. Construction of a thirty-meter telescope is the current target. A news report is here and a discussion of the project is here.

Our shift at the Visitors’ Center for today and the next six days is the morning shift. Missionary transfers are next Tuesday so we swap work schedules with Elder and Sister Jensen, the other senior missionary couple serving with us. Transfers happen every six weeks and that’s when we swap schedules. On the new schedule we’ll be on the morning shift Monday through Wednesday, have Thursday off, and the afternoon shift on Friday and Saturday. Our Sunday schedule (9:00 – 11:30 am) will not change for the remainder of this year. We had a large tour group from mainland China (mostly from the Shanghai area) at the Center this morning. These are days when I wish I remembered more Chinese, although the Chinese visitors always seem to be surprised that I know even a few words. I’m agan in several more Chinese photo galleries….

Life is pleasantly tired….