A saying attributed to Kermit the Frog: “Time’s fun when you’re having flies!” The past seven days seem to have just flown by. We’re still waiting for summer to give way to fall here in Laie. The evenings are starting to be reasonably cool. It’s time for the daytime to follow suit! (or is that “follow suite?”) It’s too late in the evening for that part of the grammar brain to function.

So, what have we been doing? Nina has been working hard to get the kitchen things, like cutlery, plates, glasses, bowls, and cooking utensils all squared away at the sister missionary apartments. She’s getting really close. One thing they all need is new frying and sauce pans. Costco was running a special on 3-pack saute pans, so yesterday we picked up eight sets. While checking out the cashier wanted to know if we were opening up a cooking school….

I’ve been doing maintenance both on apartments as well as bicycles. For some reason several bikes have decided to shed their chains this past week. My past work to get puncture resistant inner tubes into the heavily-used bikes is paying off. I haven’t had to fix a flat for a while (and have now probably jinxed myself just by talking about it). I’ve also had a doctor’s appointment to have some moles checked.

The air conditioning at the Center hasn’t been working correctly which certainly has been frustrating for the Temple Engineers! Most mornings when we get to the Center at 9am the AC is not working. We call the engineer and he makes the trek down from the Temple to manually start the system. Sometimes it’ll run for the rest of the day, sometimes not. A maintenance man has been there, but the problem isn’t solved. Maybe we need to add the air conditioning unit and the maintenance man to our prayers??

As mentioned several times previously, once a week we volunteer at the Polynesian Cultural Center and are assigned to one of the dinner venues to take tickets, or to count, or to guard the exits. At the entrance, one or two of the cast members from the evening show pose with the guests for the PCC photographer to take a picture. The guest then gets a card with a QR code so they can go online, look at the picture, and buy it if they wish. There are also photo kiosks set up at the PCC where guests can find their pictures. This is quite the business … and it has changed recently.

The previous photo contractor took the pictures, printed them out, and then sold them to the guests as they came out from dinner. Those that weren’t sold were probably trashed. A new vendor took over the operation a few weeks ago. Now they take pictures of guests all around the PCC as well as when they go in for dinner. At each of these, the guest gets a card with a QR code. They can then look later at the pictures and buy the ones the want. Meanwhile, no unwanted pictures get printed and the guests have potentially four or five pictures of them at different places at the PCC to look at and purchase. I’m quite impressed with the new operation. All of the people who worked for the previous vendor are now working for the new vendor and they like this process a whole lot better as well, particularly since they don’t have to “sell” the pictures to the guests when they come out from dinner. I’m sure that was often quite awkward for these young folks to do this sales job.

And, as you might expect, the cast members, both male and female, are quite good looking and most guests want their picture taken with them. Meanwhile, the cast members are being paid by the hour to be there for pictures. It’s a pretty nice gig, in my (humble) opinion.

Life is quite picturesque! Ta ta for now!