June is Here but Where is Summer? It Will be Waiting in Hawaii! June 2011 Seattle, Washington

The month I was hoping never to roll around is here. If procrastination was an honorable endeavor, this would be the time to do so. I am embracing more the thought of moving to Hawaii as we get closer to the date we are to move. As I submitted my monthly rent check I accompanied it with intent to vacate notice. I have been living in these spacious condo like apartment for nine years. First two years was in a cozy one-bedroom unit until my daughter decided to move to Seattle, doing what any young person does when graduating from high school. That is to leave a small town and enjoy the activities of a metropolitan city. That forced me to move within the complex to a larger two bedroom unit. It was a corner unit so I only had neighbors below and next to me instead of being sandwiched between two units as well as someone below me. Her brother followed her footsteps six years later when he graduated from high school as well. 

Of course what brought us to Burlington, Washington in 1997 was to do the exact opposite. Leave a large city with all its associated issues and live in a small town with rural surroundings with the cliché that it was a great place to raise kids. There must be some truth to it because I have three wonderful kids. All of them grew up in a small town environment or in “Lv”s case a small village. Prior to Burlington we lived on an isolated Army base in western Utah called Dugway. If you ever drove the stretch of I-80 from Wendover, Nevada to Salt Lake City, Utah you will agree that there are no metropolises until you reach Salt Lake. But Burlington and Skagit County provided us with the rural setting that we envisioned before we left San Diego for Utah in 1991.

Much has changed since I moved into the neighborhood in Edmonds after the divorce. The area became more diverse with additional Korean, Chinese and Russian immigrants arriving and setting up shop. I picked Edmonds because I liked the look of the city from my time I visited it doing sales work trying to promote someone else’s or my business at the time. Despite of that, I never gave it a serious thought of living in Edmonds until I went to work for NOAA and endured long 140 mile roundtrip commutes from Burlington to South Lake Union in 2001 and 2002. One-way from my place to Edmonds was 13 miles.

I was involved with a church in Edmonds at the time that was to my liking. Believe it or not I did have a streak lasting several years of spiritual consciousness, creepy huh? However, that began to fade when I spent much time sailing the high seas, divorce, as well as cohabitating with my future wife whenever I was in the South Sea Isles. I still see the old church whenever I drive by it on my way home from Taki Tiki Bar and Grille but have no desire to go back. In fact my last visit was on Good Friday of 2005. I had my reasons for quitting that church but it is not my intent to spew my opinion about certain religions or denominations. I will miss Edmonds and Seattle and all the places I hung around. In the military it was said that the two best places in the world was the one you just came from and the one you were going to. Living in Seattle area, I was at ease with what I had here.

“Lv” got his Permanent Residence “green card” in the mail. He still misses home and does get homesick quite often. Could I blame him? I figure once we get to Hawaii things will settle and he is near his cousins he knew from Samoa.

I hope after the move “I” will give living in Hawaii a chance before trying other endeavors. He is 19 and longing to be independent while pursuing higher education. The only place I know where he can be taken care of simultaneously while earning a paycheck and having someone else pay for your schooling is the military. That is how I got my start though at a later age of 21. “I” had been talking about the Air Force but not sure how serious he is. In many ways there is resistance inside me of not wanting him to do such a thing. Maybe it’s the “empty nest” syndrome that many parents go through that enhance my resistance or the tiresome wars this country manages to find itself in. I missed nine years of his childhood after his mother and I divorced. But there comes a time that you have to let go and see the results of your influence in child rearing.

I’ve been reading the gloating Oregon press about upcoming opening of Marine Operations Center in Newport. However, I do commend that article written by The Register Guard paper from Eugene that suggested Newport wait as the economic impact may be a ripple instead of a tidal wave as first anticipated. It certainly didn’t happen in real estate. 

The piers at Lake Union in Seattle remain charred from a fire that occurred five years ago. Many say the owners were underinsured while others claim fault lied with NOAA. The truth may never come out. I started my life anew at the Marine Center on Fairview Avenue on South Lake Union a decade ago and many of my mentors started and retired from there.

Month of June consisted of a one-week trip to Hawaii for “L” and I to look for a house. We stayed at the Marine Corps Inn at the Marine base in Kaneohe. The experience had its low and high points as well as promises and disappointments. I made a goal to focus our house hunting in Kaneohe and Kailua area. It’s the high rent areas of Oahu but I wanted to be on the Windward side of the island and it’s cooler temperatures. We were unsuccessful at first as the only things Kaneohe had were high rise apartments that appealed more to beach crowd than something I would consider living in the long term. In addition after tsunami experiences in Samoa and Japan, a house that was “a few blocks from the beach” just was not appealing to us.

After coming up empty in Kaneohe we looked to the Leeward side to Mililani. We did find a house there and the location was grand! Two blocks away from the high school that “Lv” were to attend and across from it was an outdoor shopping mall. However, the house looked like a disaster set from a 1970’s Irwin Allen movie. Apparently there were tenants who didn’t pay the rent for some time and decided as a final act of revenge, trash the place before leaving. Nevertheless because of the location we submitted an application only to be told the next day they went with another applicant. Disappointment set in and time was running short if we were to say that we had found a place to live when returning to Seattle.

Several hours of sinking into disillusionment and it was back to square one of looking up listing on the Internet. A house did come on the market in Kaneohe and the rental rate is what I was expecting. It was Friday morning and last full day in Hawaii before returning to the mainland. I called the number listed, which happened to be the owner and by that afternoon we had signed the lease and a promise to forward first months rent and deposit immediately. The house-hunting trip came down to the wire and it felt as if a heavy burden was lifted off our shoulders.

It was not to be as we returned to the mainland and the heavy burden began to be felt again as we prepared for the move and send off items via small parcels that we will need immediately when arriving in Hawaii. Plans for rental furniture until the household goods arrived and a rental car as well as finding appliances. Asking for revising of rotations in ship schedule so as to be home when the car and house hold goods arrive. The burden is on the shoulders again and eagerly waits for next week when they come packing and we finish by cleaning up the apartment and give the keys back to the landlord after nine years of living here.

I will likely write again once we are in Hawaii on the 4^th of July weekend. Not in the house as that will not happen until ten days after we arrive but in some hotel room waiting again.