We live on the Hamakua coast, a little ways outside of Hilo, and almost every time I drive into town I think about my grandmother, my Tutu, telling me offhandedly once that her great-grandfather had known every twist and turn of that road.
Even when he was in his 80s and 90s and fully blind, she told me, he knew where he was by the turns and feel of the road, and he would call out the name of every small bit of land as they drove by.

In the old times from …

Between everybody being sick recently, and lots of working and starting school and such, there hasn’t been enough playing around here lately.

We have not been taking advantage of living on this beautiful island, and so I hereby declare this The Summer of Exploration.
My 5-year-old told me the other day, “Let’s just go driving and look around and see new things.” If there’s a better attitude toward life than that, or one I’d rather foster in a young child, I truly don’t know what it is.
So even if some are just …

Today is Day 2 of working outside of my home. I got a lot done yesterday, and am working on doing the same today.
I hope that in my last post I didn’t give the impression I have just been waiting for my daughter’s first five years to fly by so she’d be in kindergarten. They have been the best five years of my life, and I have so enjoyed being with her, watching her learn, playing with her.
In fact, I am a little bit mourning the loss of our …

My daughter went to her first-ever day of kindergarten today. It’s actually a sort of kindergarten orientation — two weeks of mandatory summer attendance where the kids get accustomed to their teachers, their classrooms and the routine, before jumping into school when it starts in August.
But it sure felt like real kindergarten this morning, as I walked her into that bright, cheery and busy classroom, and we put her change of clothes and sleeping blanket in her cubby, and learned where her box was for messages from the school. 
“Hi!” said …

Macario will teach a continuing Beginning ‘Ukulele class at the East Hawai‘i Cultural Center starting Saturday, June 6.
The series of 1.5 hour classes, which will meet on five consecutive Saturdays at 10 a.m., cost only $25 total for the public and $20 for EHCC members.

“You don’t have to know anything about the ‘ukulele,” says Macario, who played music professionally in Honolulu and on the mainland for 16 years. “You need to have your own ‘ukulele and bring a pen or pencil, and that’s it.”
He says he will teach some basic theory and chord …