"Tempus fugit" - seems like just yesterday that we were looking toward the
year 2000 (millennium or not millennium, that was the question along with
wondering if we would even be alive to see it!) Now it is receding into the
distant past. Bill even heard someone refer to some out of date technology
as being "so 2000." All in all it was a pretty quiet year. No major events
to report.
2001 ended with Valerie in singing Beethoven's 9th Symphony with the Honolulu
Symphony Chorus last December. That led to her audition and to a place in the Oahu
Choral Society, which is also the Honolulu Symphony Chorus. This year they sang
Mendelssohn's "Elijah" in April, "Turandot" in May, Stravinsky's "Symphony of
Psalms" and Grieg's "Peer Gynt" in September and Durufle's "Requiem" in November.
Practices are weekly for 2 ½ hours and her voice has been improving steadily. She loves
it and it keeps her very busy.
We haven't had as many visitors as we expected nor as many as
we would like! Valerie's good
friend from high school, Kathy O'Connor, was here in February from Oregon and
Wladek and Uta Swiatecki from the Bay Area came for a few days. We were treated to a
wonderful display from the whales while we were out sailing with them.
Valerie's
daughter, Kimmerie, visited in April just before she and her husband, Brian Dunkel,
moved from Ann Arbor, MI to Quincy, MA where they are now settled. Carol and Frank
Plasil were here in September from Tennessee for an exciting visit (more about that
later.) Michael and Noelle Moradzadeh were here from the Bay Area in December and
Peter Moller showed up to spend Christmas here on his way to Japan.
Seeing friends from the "Mainland" makes us feel a little less disconnected and is fun
too! We have heard that more are planning to come this year --- we hope so!
In April we responded to a request from the Symphony Chorus to join a group
who were going to volunteer to answer phones for a Hawaii Public Radio fund raiser.
It was fun and we got to know better some of the other chorus members. In particular
Bill and John Flanigan had a nice chat. John is a math prof and has a very
interesting hobby. Along with a group of other people he has been instrumental in
getting the state to restore a set of 3922 steps that used to be used to provide access
to a military radio installation on the windward side of the island. This isn't
just any set of stairs. They start at the base of the Ko'olaus and
are made of a series of galvanized-steel ship ladders that allow access for hikers
to the top of Puu Keahiakahoe. At an altitude of more than 2800 feet, the top of the
Stairs is some 2200 feet above the main building of the now decomissioned U. S. Coast
Guard OMEGA Station and about 2300 feet above the bottom step.
The ladders are 18 inches wide and altogether about 4000 feet long. The average
slope is about 30 degrees, despite its reputation of being "nearly straight up."
Of course there are some sections that are quite steep, but others much less so.
The steps have been renovated
(at considerable cost) but the state hasn't figured out yet how to make them into a park.
They will need parking, offices, an entrance gate, someone to keep an eye on things,etc.
When we were talking about this John invited us to join a group doing a climb the
following weekend. Bill and a friend Larry took him up on it. What a great experience.
Going up was actually easier than coming down, and the views were fantastic.
We are still taking a basket making class from Gail Toma at the Honolulu Academy of
Arts education annex at Linekona. This has become a serious hobby for us and we have
formed a close-knit group with the others who keep repeating the class as we do.
Most of the Christmas presents this year from Bill were baskets that he made.
Valerie also made several
woven Christmas ornaments out of mizuhiki (colorful paper-covered cord.) Look for
them soon on E-Bay!
One day when we were hiking in the hills above our place we came on an old tunnel hidden
behind a layer of overgrowth. Bill almost fell in when he sat down for a rest and the old
metal door gave way. It was kind of funny because the condition of the tunnel seemed to improve
the farther back you went into it and it was possible to see (as your eyes adapted) even though
there was no obvious light source. Even without going in too far we could see that the tunnel
was getting brighter as we went along, even though the direction was clearly directly back into
the mountain. It was not a natural formation. We turned back when the tunnel started to get really
bright and branch off in different directions. We covered up the
entrance so it would be hard to detect from the trail.
We went back a week later with some friends,
a ball of string, to mark our way, and a notebook, so we could draw a map. Guess what!
We could not find it
again even though we had gone to a lot of trouble to mark the site. Bill thinks it might
have been some kind of Wheeler-wormhole of the kind that is thought to provide an instant link
between remote parts of the universe. The hills above Honolulu seem like a funny place to
find one. On the other hand, that would help to explain why it was getting brighter as we went
deeper. Maybe we were getting close to an opening on some other world. The branching would be
confusing since wormholes are usually thought of as point-to-point singularities. Whatever.
Since it doesn't seem to be there anymore We're glad we got back out while it was still open
on this end.
In the middle of June Valerie needed a "kid fix" and went back to spend ten days with
Kimmerie to help her get settled in the new apartment in Quincy and another ten days
with Nicholas in Phoenix where she was delighted to meet the family of Nic's fiancée (!!)
Sarah Veirs. (We are nuts about Sarah and her family.) Sarah and Nic will marry in
March.
Valerie then went to the Bay Area to get the Pacific Cup 2002 boats started and
to visit with California friends and say "hi" to the cat before flying back to Honolulu.
Bill went back to California in April to sail with some people he was thinking of crewing
with in the 2002 Pacific Cup Race. It didn't work out for a variety of reasons so he had
to content himself with following the race on the Internet. He is toying with the idea of
racing "Cirrus" again in 2004.
On this end of the Pacific Cup (the host end) both Valerie and Bill worked as volunteers
running the race finishes as "staff duty officers" manning (womanning too) the radios
and helping with the awards program at the Kaneohe Yacht Club. Of course the race
brought many of the people we know in the Bay Area sailing community to Hawaii. We
had a great time visiting with them and, once again, felt the conflict about where to call
"home." In addition to other race-related duties, Bill served as an inspector for several
boats. This was to verify that boats from Hawaii met the necessary standards to
participate in the race. Valerie served, again, as a "boat nanny" for a number of racers
including the 140+ foot luxury yacht from New Zealand, "Mari Cha III".
In July we moved from "Cirrus" into a small (500 sq. feet) studio apartment in
anticipation of the boat going into the yard for an extended period to be painted and to
have some minor mechanical work done. The apartment is one of those little box-like
spaces tacked on above the garage. It was almost certainly built without benefit of any
permits. It is attached to a big, old, fairly run-down house that Valerie inherited (along
with its substantial mortgage) from her Aunt. The house is rented to four young people
who are great tenants. We have done some major work since moving in such as
installing 220 volt wiring in the studio (so we can cook on something other than an EZ
Bake oven,) had a large tree, whose roots were encroaching on a neighbor, removed, and
the usual jobs in an old house such as replacing flooring and tiles in a rotting bathroom,
replacing a stove and hood that no longer worked etc. Pretty much a money pit but the
view is fabulous.
The boat painting was an odyssey in itself. The contractor talked us into removing all the
deck hardware to facilitate the deck painting. While sounding simple, this turned out to
be a huge job that we are still recovering from! The painting itself was a nerve-wracking
experience. The yard where the work was done was windy and dirty. Improvised
protection did not work very well. It was a real struggle
and the job that was scheduled to take 15
days was finally finished by the end of August.
A couple of weeks later we went for a beautiful sail with Carol and Frank Plasil aboard. We then anchored just offshore a couple of miles west of our marina to go snorkeling at a wonderful location where there is an outflow of warm water and the colorful fish love to play. When we started the engine afterward there was an awful noise and we discovered that water was coming into the boat at a fearsome rate. The problem was traced to work that had been done in the yard while the boat was being painted. The people responsible agreed to fix it but the process was very stressful and took weeks, leaving the boat in a mess that we are just recovering from. As of now the boat can be sailed but there are still a lot of loose ends. (For more details on this saga, check out the link to "a near disaster" on our web site www.nav.org.) Suffice it to say that we would recommend that you get your boat work done before coming to Hawaii.
Our Christmas was warm and bright - just like the song says. We participated in the
lighted boat parade out of Ko Olina which was beautiful. (You'll have to take our word
for it, the pictures were a big blur.) Christmas Eve dinner with the Hasterts (whom
Valerie has known since birth) was delicious and felt like family. We decorated the
studio with lots of colored balls hanging from the ceiling and a large wreath - it is too
small for a tree!
New Year's Eve in Hawaii has to be seen to be believed. More than 6000 permits were sold for fireworks and the noise, the smoke and the displays were fantastic. No trouble staying awake this year!
We wish you all the fulfillment of your hopes and dreams and look forward to seeing you, if possible, in 2003.
Aloha me ka Hauoli Makahiki Hou! ("Happy New Year" from Hawaii.)
Valerie and Bill
Our current address is:
Valerie Ossipoff and Bill Myers
3771 Lurline Drive, Honolulu, HI 96816
808-735-4311 home
808-294-2670 cell
510-912-8895 cell(for Mainland callers)
vossipoff@yahoo.com
myers@nav.org
www.nav.org