Lala

As luck would have it, I was on O’ahu visiting my son and family when Lala hit.  One of my friends reached out beforehand and asked if we were all “strapped in” and added, “I’m sure you are.  You’re pretty good at disasters”

That made me laugh.

I think that might have a bit of truth to it.  I might have been on O’ahu but I wasn’t worried.  I knew Erin (my daughter in Hilo) knew what to do, how to prepare and how to handle anything that came her way.

On O’ahu, my son was uber prepared - that’s his nature.

We lost power for most of the day where I was on O’ahu and the winds and sheets of rain were crazy . . . nothing a riotous game of Monopoly with my grandson couldn’t cure.

Our house in Hilo lost power for a lot longer but it finally came back on after about a day and a half; once all the meat in the freezer had been bar-b-qued.  We count ourselves lucky, there’s a big swath of the big island that won’t have power until Sept. 1st by the electric company's estimation.

There’s a gap in the trees behind our house were a couple came down - completely uprooted and lying on their sides.  Thankfully they fell into our yard but didn’t hit our house.  They were the trees I wanted to take down anyway so “thank you mother nature” for hurrying that particular timeline along. Now I get a better view of the sunrise.

Also, the chickens made it. Yay!

We were afraid those trees took out part of the fence of our neighbors behind us.  So I went over there yesterday and talked to them.  They were REALLY nice!  They were afraid their trees had fallen in our yard and were planning on coming over to talk to me.  All in all, we devised a plan between us to clear the area.

Looking at videos of waterfalls,swollen rivers,houses that lost roofs and devastation just south of us made me appreciate just how lucky we all are.

So that is my long winded, not too informative diatribe on our “Lala” experience.