August is gone, and I've got only five days left.

Hard for me to believe, but August flew by in a blur, and here I am with only a few days left. Luckily, I did most of what I wanted to, and anything I didn't get to, I can do next time.

August...I read a few books, saw a few movies, hung out a lot with friends and family, went to the beach a few times, went hiking a few times...and that's it. Pretty nice, ah? You know, I really got into running as a kind of mediation, a good, healthy way to relieve stress and get some balance, but since I've been here, I've not had much need to do it for that reason...and I bet you can see why.

Still, there were some highlights. First, there was all the shave ice I was eating. (For those of you who may not know, "shave ice" = "snow cone.") Now, of course the most famous place to go in Hawaii is Matsumoto's in Hale`iwa on the North Shore of Oahu, but my personal favorite is a place called Baldwin's in a rundown old shopping plaza in Aiea. Instead of a cone, they give you a cup, so you don't have melted ice and syrup running down your hand, and I just like their consistency the best. A lot of friends like Waiola, in Kapahulu or Mo`ili`ili, but for me, the ice is too slushy. (I know, some of you must be laughing as I'm getting so picky about this, but you'd say the same kinds of things if you were here eating it like I have been.)

Second, and I must say, far better than the shave ice (which didn't help me lose any weight), was the day I saw dolphins at Waimea Bay. I've grown up in Hawaii, and I've been to Waimea a lot, but never have I once seen dolphins anywhere. But two weeks ago, I was at Waimea, sitting on the beach, reading a book, when I heard a girl sitting a few feet away say something like "I wish I could be out there." So I looked up to see why she would say that, and about 80 yards out I saw about five fins crest, breaking the surface in smooth short arcs, the dolphins coming up for air. A few seconds later, a few more fins. There were a few people out in the water, kind of near, so I dropped my book, pulled on my goggles (which I'd luckily brought with me), and ran down to the water. I swam straight out for a minute then stopped to see where they were; when I first saw them, they were heading from right to left across the bay, but now they'd turned back. But to make it that much cooler, right then, at that moment when I'd stopped to see where they were, a dolphin comes flying out of the water, spiraling like a drill. Then another, in the same spiraling flight. Utterly beautiful. I watched for a moment longer, but no more breached the surface, so I started swimming again, catching up to the herd in another minute. The water was pretty clear, but I still had to get about 20 yards away to see them. There were probably about 20, some still young, just lazily swimming across the bottom of the bay, maybe 20 or 30 feet down. Unfortunately, after only a minute or so of this the lifeguards got on the loudspeaker and asked all of us in the water to stay 50 yards from the dolphins, and as that would afford me no view, I swam in. Still, I have had few such moments of amazement as that. Definitely one of the favorite moments of my life.

Finally, there was Kauai. I went there to help my brother and his friends reroof the rental property that my dad and his wife own. Kauai is beautiful. Quiet. Peaceful. Country. Just the kind of place I'd love to live now, but with the expense of property and the poor job market, I couldn't afford it. I mean, the locals say the beaches are "crowded" when there are 20 to 30 people; for me, that's still empty. Everything there just moves at a slower pace, a pace that seems more reasonable for actual living. And we got to do just that. We hung out on Thursday and Friday, just sitting around eating delicious food my dad's wife Lori cooked up, talking story (a.k.a. "chatting" for those of you not familiar with that local term), and laughing. On Saturday we had to work hard. No, work HARD. We started at 7:30, took an hour for lunch at 11:30, then finished up around 4:30. I didn't want to move for the rest of the day, but we did get the whole thing done in a day, which meant Sunday was a day for rest. We hit the beach again, hung out, ate more. On Monday, my flight left at 8:30 PM, while everyone else left at 2, so I decided to use the morning to go kayaking up the Wailua river, at the end of which you get to hike into a valley (with very little elevation gain) to a small water fall and swimming hole. It's a very mellow river (Class 1 for those of you who know what that means), so I didn't have any trouble paddling the "sit-on-top" ocean kayak I had. After that, I decided that if I live in Hawaii later, I'm going to have a kayak.

My niece's big first birthday party is coming up on Saturday, and I even have my aunt and uncle flying down from Reno for it. My brother tells me something like 200 people. It should be a lot of fun.

The only other news I have is about my job. I got to meet some of the people who I'll be working with in Japan, as they are all from Hawaii, as well as the woman whose job (and apartment) I'm taking over. They are all really nice, friendly, down to earth people, and I'm excited about working with them. I think it'll be a lot of fun. I also got my work schedule: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. Yup, three days off, though no two days in a row. I've been told that once a month, though, we'll get a Saturday off, which means that I'll get a three-day weekend...that sounds cool. But hopefully after this term, I'll get two days off in a row...and still have three days off every week (I HOPE!).

That's it for now, I think. I hope you are all in good health. Take care. Aloha.