Today we will drive Bob to the airport. He is flying to the east coast to give a lecture at the Gardens, then enjoying a little vacation away from Hawaii. He returns home after an additional stop in Arizona. Tolver is flying out to meet him there for the last couple of days of his trip. They return home the same day, although on separate planes, mid-October. This trip, for Bob, is one of the original reasons that he considered taking us on; back in February he knew that he was going to need someone to look after the farm while he was away. Now that we are tending the farm full-time he has little to worry about.

Tolver is making the great sacrifice of getting on a plane again, in order to meet an artist friend of Bob's. After almost 10 years of consideration and discussion, he has decided to have the peanut butter cup tattooed to his back. Actually instead of a tattoo, it will be laser branded, for a more subtle and less brand logo look. The trip, sponsored by Bob, will be to have the work done by arguably the most well known branding artist in the world, who has done past body modification work on Bob. Tolver sees this as a good bonding opportunity for them; I agree.

At about the same time that this decision was made, we heard that the parties at the House of the Golden Bull (as we knew them) may come to an end after this coming Winter Solstice. This led to the discussion of a plan for Bob and I to have a similar bonding experience with a trip to San Francisco for the party; as I would take him on a whirlwind tour of San Francisco, our past friends and past way of life. However, although we did contact a couple of people concerning the logistics of such a trip, we decided to table the discussion, without having decided yet to go, until after Bob returns from the current traveling nightmare.

As the old adage goes: telegraph, telephone, tell-a-faerie. It seems the not-yet-publicly announced return of the Reese to San Francisco was picked up by the gossip train, and has already made the rounds as a topic of discussion. O well, so much for my showing up incognito! I mean, how many of my friends would actually recognize me with a tan?! Unfortunately I must set the record straight (gayly forward) as the visit is not yet a sure thing. December is a busy time on the farm, and we have been hemorrhaging money all year. Plus traveling so much is quite tiresome for Bob, and I must recognize that he will have already dealt with enough of such financial and physical expense for the year.

There is obviously the option that I might make the trip alone, however not only does that option remove half of the original reason for going (taking Bob), it requires that I come up with the internal motivation to do something entirely for myself (something, many of you know, is not easy for me to do.) The question of whether or not the trip will actually happen has caused within me more sadness than I have felt since we made the move to Hawaii. I miss many of my friends terribly, and I miss the fraternity even more so. Yet I am left feeling that the choice to be made would be between my new way of life here, which I love very much, and old addictions. It has been made clear to me, that my motivations for going could be mis-trusted, and Bob sensing this, is reticent to do anything that might cause conflict between me and Tolver.

Comments are welcome. I will probably not be in a position to make a final decision about this until sometime late October...

link | posted by Reese at 11:01 AM
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Today, I drove Bob in to Kailua-Kona for various errands. The drive into Kailua is about 50 miles, and averages about an hour five, to fifteen; although traffic can make it take MUCH longer, you don't want to do it much faster because there are lots of curves. It is a beautiful drive, with plenty of flora and ocean views along the way.

On the way back home, for a short distance, we were behind a Range Rover SUV (a monsterous thing with a "replacement" bumper, and dirty windows) on the back of which was a bumper sticker. The bumper sticker had faded so that even though I could tell that it was a flag of the United States, all that was visible was the field of blue and the stars. Next to that, in blue letters, was written "These colors don't run!" I couldn't help myself but to think in response "but they do fade, don't they?"

I wondered if there was significance to that it was the red of the bumper sticker that was completely faded away, and not the blue.

While looking for the graphic I used with the post, I found another blog entry almost exactly like mine: http://personaltao.blogspot.com/2006/06/these-colors-dont-run-but-they-sure-do.html I wonder if they saw the same bumper sticker...

link | posted by Reese at 4:48 PM
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When Tolver was a child, his brother rammed a pencil in his ear, splitting the eardrum into 3 pieces. It took a while, but his eardrum healed back together and his hearing was restored. It still always bothered him, flying on leaky planes due to the pressure change, but other than that there was no impact on his life. Yet, Tolver always knew that as he got older, it would be one of the first parts to fail. And now it has.

Yesterday while swimming in the ocean Tolver got water in his ear. At first it was no bother, We came home, had lunch, and then took a shower. After the shower He cleaned out his ears with a q-tip as he normally does. Looking at the brown goo that came out of his right ear he decided that it was time to clean it out with hydrogen peroxide, as he has done many times before. That should have been the end of it. Instead he got a bit ill, had a fever, and lost most of the hearing in his right ear. Being in Hawaii and not having any health insurance there was nothing we could do about it except to go to sleep and hope it took care of itself.

Now its the morning after, and he feels fine but he is just about totally deaf in his right ear. We find it hard to go pay a doctor to tell him that he is deaf in his right ear. We feel as though it may just be 'swimmers ear' and it will correct itself in time, or he may just have to learn to live with no hearing in his right ear.

"If it's a brain thing, then I am dead already, if it's a failure of my eardrum then I am deaf already. I'm not in pain, so why should I go to see a doctor?" he says. "I am visually based, I depend upon my eyesight, not my hearing. I always said that I could cope with going deaf but not with going blind. So now I am going deaf, I can live with it." --Tolver.

link | posted by Reese at 2:52 PM
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Leucospermum Reflexum
We love red "rockets". The leaves are bluish-grey, the stems are lavender, and the flowers fire-engine red. The flower heads 'reflex' back until all of the styles are pointing down, like the flames from a bottle rocket.



The Protea are a long term commitment. These newly planted won't start flowering for about 3 years.



Tolver's secret garden.

Labels: Flowers

link | posted by Reese at 9:48 AM
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Besides the regular Saturday volleyball, for which we compile about five hours of music each week, we have played three other gigs since coming to Big Island.

For the first of the three, we were asked to volunteer our VJing for a benefit for a guy who had fallen out of a tree and broken his back. It seemed like a great way to get us out in the community and show them what we could do, so we didn't mind the idea of working it from 8pm until 4am, for not even so much as a free vegetarian burrito (the proceeds of which were also going to help Jasper, the unfortunate sod.) It wasn't until we found ourselves walking home at 4:30am during one of the largest rainfalls of the year, carrying two suitcases worth of equipment, that we came to realize that it had not been worth it.

The second gig held more promise. First we had been promised pay, second it was being held at the Banana Boys farm, so we wouldn't have to make it home afterward. We were hired just to do VJing again, but when there was no DJ with people starting to arrive, We pulled out the library, and without any sort of prep, we DJed and VJed for the first two hours. Then continued the visualizations for the rest of the DJs for the remaining five hours of the party. Although the gig itself was a disorganized nightmare, and we were paid only $20 plus a couple doses of magic mushrooms, we made a great time for ourselves after the party, so this one doesn't go down as all bad.

Playing the music for Saturday's volleyball, we have to pre-prep the playlist so that it can just run off the car stereo all day. We try to keep it fresh, and non-redundant, with a bit of oldies thrown in for nostalgia. Volleyball kind of requires everything stay up-tempo, but we try to keep away from cliche gay-bar disco. We get lots of compliments, and occasional jeers, about the mix. The eclectic nature of the Saturday mix, led to the third gig: the labor day party being thrown by the local HIV support organization. They asked us to volunteer the Jeep and a playlist for their party. As we would be playing for the potluck crowd, the pool-side crowd, and the volleyball crowd, we tailored the playlist accordingly.

See, this is the tricky part; when creating a 5 to 6 hour playlist we put a lot of effort into thinking about the audience, the event, and how the party will likely progress over time. The limitation of DJing from a car stereo being that changing things on the fly in real time results in stops and starts and awkward pauses. We are lucky that the Jeep has a MP3 capable stereo, so its possible to fit about 10 hours worth of music on a single CD. So, we try to structure a playlist that will fit a party, set it free, and hope for the best.

Well, so, the Labor Day smash didn't go off very well. The volleyball field was set 100 yards away from the party proper, and we got relegated to playing for just the volleyball crowd. The music was a little low key at times, tailored for the pool-side / potluck set (who ended up without any music at all,) and though some of the volleyball set were really grooving on the mix, others thought that the energy dragged, and just wanted the usual disco to play to. Unfortunately, this was communicated to us in a way very unbecoming to those involved. Sigh, do we just attract drama? So, we got our feelings hurt; the one, two punch of finding ourself in a situation very different from what we were asked to prepare for, and then having our effort disparaged by those who's opinions mean so much.

Still, we made the most of it. One friend had shown up with a CD for us to borrow, and we found a couple of CDs in the changer, so the volleyball Disco Duchesses were appeased with boom boom boom (actually, I think the one person probably responsible for all of the bother got up and left as soon as they got their way.) Of course we couldn't satisfy everyone, and those that always complain that the music is too loud, still had to whine about how blown the speakers were.

We roll my eyes at the lot of you. Do better! Bitches.

Actually, we are greatful for any gigs that we get to play here. Our chances for social life are often few and far between; especially when we average $31 for fuel to get across the island to get to them. We are also grateful for all of the thanks that we do get for our contribution. We hope that our friends will continue to expect us, and we are allways open to constructive additions... Bitches... ;-)

Labels: Hawaii

link | posted by Reese at 10:16 AM
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A tractor is a heavy piece of equipment, and it will damage most things that it is inadvertently backed into...

The picture, above, is after a considerable amount of time was spent banging the metal shed back into shape, after said tractor was backed into it accidentally.

link | posted by Reese at 8:27 PM
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