The recovery from pneumonia continues, slowly. I expect I’m about 60% right now. The antibiotic I’ve been taking has been pretty wicked and I’m glad to be done with it (I hope). I’ll see the doctor tomorrow to determine what the next course of action is. It almost feels like I’ve gotten to the point that the antibiotic has been making sicker that the pneumonia has been. We’ll see.
Last Saturday was the big parade in Laie celebrating the 150th anniversary of the founding of the town. The parade included an Army marching band from Schofield Barracks, the local Kohoku High School marching band, the BYU-Hawaii brass ensemble, and a community marching band. Plenty of great parade music! All of the sister missionaries on shift at the Center came out to watch the parade all dressed in their colorful muu muus. They should have been in the parade as well! I suspect this’ll be the first and last parade we’ll see while we’re here in Laie. I would have liked to have felt better, but it was still quite enjoyable.
There aren’t many businesses in Laie or along the north shore at all, including no dry cleaners. There are a couple of options … we can go west about an hour or we can go south for about an hour. Both my suits needed cleaning, so I elected to go west. On the way back we stopped for a few minutes at Sunset Beach to grab a few rays and do some people watching. This Asian trio definitely fell into the “interesting” category! I’ve never seen a bonnet like the blue one and it had to have been hot inside. On the other hand, the light skirt offered plenty of opportunity for bugs to strike, and that’s where most of them bite over here in this little piece of paradise.
Yesterday we had our weekly assignment at the Polynesian Cultural Center guarding the exit to the Ohana Aloha Luau. Steve Cheny plays the steel guitar for this luau and is one of the premier steel guitarists in Hawaii (his son Dan also plays the steel guitar at the Ohana Luau). Steve’s wife had a severe stroke a few years ago and has serious muscle control issues. But, she is just absolutely delightful! Steve plays the steel guitar six nights a week from about 4:45pm to about 6:30pm and brings his wife along. She sits at the exit in her wheel chair and when we’re assigned to that spot, we enjoy visiting with her. If we’re not there, other senior missionaries are assigned to this spot, giving Steve the comfort of knowing his wife is being watched over while he performs on stage.
Of course, we all go over to Prime Dining for a meal afterwards. That’s our “compensation”, as it were. We both like being at the Aloha exit as we can see the entire show from where we are sitting. This is the only venue were we can see the show as well as do our job. It’s the same show every day, with the same music, in the same order. We practically have it memorized! One of the performances is the search for the pig to be roasted for tomorrow’s luau. I recorded one of these performances and put it up on YouTube:
Life is slowly returning to normal. Ta ta for now!