partscounterman
Member
Greetings and "Aloha" as we enter the New Year. I wish my whole AW family much good health and happiness in this next year. I don't always have a lot to say, I don't chime in on every thread and every topic, but I am here most every day and I do love you all here.
Since our vacation back to Minnesota at the end of last summer, there have been a number of changes and signs to us that our time here on Maui has come to an end. We just both came to feel this at more or less the same time.(My friend Martha says that we are too sensitive) Things have changed both here on Maui and back in Minnesota. Things have changed about how we feel about living in Hawai'i. We have decided to return to Saint Paul, Minnesota.
I think one of the big things in our reaching this decision is the cost of living here. We were under no illusion that it would be cheap to live here, but it has gotton much more expensive in the four and a half years we have been here. We thought by living modestly we could live within our means here, but we are both weary of feeling like poor college students at the end of every month. Financially our move here has been a disaster. It's not that we were rich on the mainland, but I did not have to worry about money the way I do here. EVERYONE we know here is really poor, when you get right down to it. We are ALL a paycheck away from living at the beach. Even the Hospital here is understaffed as Doctors and Nurses do not want to deal with the cost of living here. Dennis and I decided the we love Hawai'i, but do not love it enough to work two and three jobs to stay here. My job here has become less satisfying than I had hoped and Dennis feels very trapped at the Tita farm he works at (the office is referred to as PFS for Patient Financial Services and lately he has been saying "PMS"). One of the things that we have found difficult about working here is that...well, uhmm...it's not nice to say but ah, people here aren't all that bright. At first it seems cool because you come in and you get to be the smart one but after a while you see that the whole organization is affected and it brings you down with it.
Of course there are things we will miss-we are moving to what has been called Siberia with family restaurants. Maui of course has nearly perfect weather, but that is the only thing that IS perfect. The island is quite dirty, the roads and buildings are crumbling. medical care is barely adequate. As lovely as it is here, I do now have "rock fever" real bad and am tired of seeing the same thing everyday and not being able to easily go somewhere else. Dennis says he really misses the whole estate sale thing and I die a little inside every time one of you mainland folks drags home another mint Kenmore Roto-Rack or vintage Dormeyer Mixer.
Anyway our landing in St. Paul should be fairly smooth as I already will be return to to the employ of the family at Plaza TV & Appliance, this time as a Service Technician (thanks to classes I took here on Maui). I am really excited to be going back to a group of people that I love to work with, back in the appliance industry. Just think of all the goodies I will be able to snag from the scrap heap! I will also be making MORE money in a place that is cheaper to live; what's wrong with that?
Anyway, my apologies to those who had been planning on maybe coming out to see me (waves to Airway Charlie!) but I guess this all came up quick. The good thing is I will be much more able to participate in "real-time" club activities; I won't have the ordeal of an eight hour flight to join in. Maui has been fun and there are many things here I wish I could have shared with all of you.
We will be having our moving sale here on weekend of Feb. 9/10. We will fly out of Maui on 2/11, spend a couple of days in Phoenix shopping for warmer clothes, then on to Minnesota on 2/15.
I look forward to seeing more of all you folks in the future and I expect some good natured ribbing about previous comments I made about this being paradise. While it is lovely here and I'm glad we tried our dream, the vacation is over and it is time to go to a place that is more normal than this is.
Since our vacation back to Minnesota at the end of last summer, there have been a number of changes and signs to us that our time here on Maui has come to an end. We just both came to feel this at more or less the same time.(My friend Martha says that we are too sensitive) Things have changed both here on Maui and back in Minnesota. Things have changed about how we feel about living in Hawai'i. We have decided to return to Saint Paul, Minnesota.
I think one of the big things in our reaching this decision is the cost of living here. We were under no illusion that it would be cheap to live here, but it has gotton much more expensive in the four and a half years we have been here. We thought by living modestly we could live within our means here, but we are both weary of feeling like poor college students at the end of every month. Financially our move here has been a disaster. It's not that we were rich on the mainland, but I did not have to worry about money the way I do here. EVERYONE we know here is really poor, when you get right down to it. We are ALL a paycheck away from living at the beach. Even the Hospital here is understaffed as Doctors and Nurses do not want to deal with the cost of living here. Dennis and I decided the we love Hawai'i, but do not love it enough to work two and three jobs to stay here. My job here has become less satisfying than I had hoped and Dennis feels very trapped at the Tita farm he works at (the office is referred to as PFS for Patient Financial Services and lately he has been saying "PMS"). One of the things that we have found difficult about working here is that...well, uhmm...it's not nice to say but ah, people here aren't all that bright. At first it seems cool because you come in and you get to be the smart one but after a while you see that the whole organization is affected and it brings you down with it.
Of course there are things we will miss-we are moving to what has been called Siberia with family restaurants. Maui of course has nearly perfect weather, but that is the only thing that IS perfect. The island is quite dirty, the roads and buildings are crumbling. medical care is barely adequate. As lovely as it is here, I do now have "rock fever" real bad and am tired of seeing the same thing everyday and not being able to easily go somewhere else. Dennis says he really misses the whole estate sale thing and I die a little inside every time one of you mainland folks drags home another mint Kenmore Roto-Rack or vintage Dormeyer Mixer.
Anyway our landing in St. Paul should be fairly smooth as I already will be return to to the employ of the family at Plaza TV & Appliance, this time as a Service Technician (thanks to classes I took here on Maui). I am really excited to be going back to a group of people that I love to work with, back in the appliance industry. Just think of all the goodies I will be able to snag from the scrap heap! I will also be making MORE money in a place that is cheaper to live; what's wrong with that?
Anyway, my apologies to those who had been planning on maybe coming out to see me (waves to Airway Charlie!) but I guess this all came up quick. The good thing is I will be much more able to participate in "real-time" club activities; I won't have the ordeal of an eight hour flight to join in. Maui has been fun and there are many things here I wish I could have shared with all of you.
We will be having our moving sale here on weekend of Feb. 9/10. We will fly out of Maui on 2/11, spend a couple of days in Phoenix shopping for warmer clothes, then on to Minnesota on 2/15.
I look forward to seeing more of all you folks in the future and I expect some good natured ribbing about previous comments I made about this being paradise. While it is lovely here and I'm glad we tried our dream, the vacation is over and it is time to go to a place that is more normal than this is.
