“Your movie will download in 27 hours 15 minutes,” said iTunes
three seconds after I press yes to approve the $5.99 purchase. Tom has popcorn ready to watch “Star Trek
Into Darkness.” My sci-fi fan of a son
Josh would be proud of our selection. We
usually choose a dark, subtitled French drama guaranteeing an ambiguous ending
so that we may discuss the possibilities for days. This night, four days ago, we'll have to stash the popcorn to wait for the download.
--
It has been seven days since we flew to Maui with one-way
tickets out of San Diego; a very symbolic move.
We’re here. We’re at our new home.
Round trips will now formally originate out of Maui. And, after a summer of chaos checking huge
to-do’s off a life-transition list we weren’t sure we could achieve, we ended
up red-checking each and heading to paradise.
We landed last Sunday at 9:36 a.m. Once off the plane,
Tom and I kiss in front of the terminal and say, “welcome home.” But we ride in the shuttle van across the valley
ignoring Maui’s sugar cane fields waving hello to us. We ride without passion, without the familiar
renovation toilet in the rear of the vehicle.
We just ride.
Tom usually unpacks his suitcase at the same speed as it
takes a rodeo cowboy to: lasso a calf out of the shoot, jump off his horse, throw
the calf on its back, and lash three of the bovine’s four legs together, to
then raise his hand in the air in achievement at 6.7 seconds flat.
Although I have not yet seen Tom raise his hand in the air at the 6.7 seconds flat mark it takes him to successfully unpack, I always watch impressively and
feel guilty over my own negligence in just opening a hotel luggage rack, throwing my
suitcase on top, and calling it good. I once mentioned to Tom as he filled the
hotel dresser drawers and bathroom medicine cabinet that we will be checking
out by ten the next morning. “And?” was
his response.
--
“Your movie will download in 7 hours 45 minutes,” iTunes
informs us three nights ago. “Next time
we recommend you use a lower resolution download,” iTunes admonishes us. We put the popcorn away, again.
--
We moved emotionless that Sunday after arrival. So much so, Tom moved our luggage into the
condo and it sat untouched for 24 hours.
A rodeo calf would find relief in this.
Yet Tom and I in all our lethargy felt like we should “do something.” We felt obligated to enjoy paradise, so we
managed to throw two beach chairs in the car and drive to a familiar shady
beach spot.
After parking, we walk past a buff young man sunning himself,
covered only by a red speedo, or rather, purposefully displaying his libido like a
peacock, a point of purchase display, if you will. Tom and I just walk. We walk past a wedding
celebration overlooking the ocean with big white canopies, palm fronds, and
people dressed in white. And we just
sit. Tom takes a dip in the ocean. I walk up to the aqua blue waves and dip my
feet to at least say I did so on Day One of my new home.
With waves lapping at my shins, I see many people bobbing in
the ocean. On just this beach alone, I
count fifty to my left, and thirty to my right.
My mind is engaged enough to do the numbers. Say, 5,000 tasty morsel-people have bobbed
for a period of time in the waters around Maui today. That calculates to 150,000 tempting nuggets
in a month. In August, tiger sharks tasted four people in Maui’s sea stew of
tourists. That’s a .0026 percent chance
any one person will be attacked in September.
I may try snorkeling this month, I think. I walk back to my chair and just sit.
 |
| Kamaole Beach Chair View, Sunday, September 8 |
---
“Your video will download in 17 hours 3 minutes,” iTunes
notifies us two nights ago. What! The download time increased. Fortunately we did not get the popcorn out
until we checked. We’ll wait. After all, we have all the time in the world
without a departure date from Maui.
--
I could not read my book last Sunday on that beach. I just sat. That’s the best I could do. That same evening, I could not stay awake to enjoy the sunset with Tom. I remember him telling me he’d like to
go. Fortunately, the next day Tom told
me it was only a 6 out of 10 on the Maui sunset beauty scale. We’re getting particular, I tell myself. We did the same in Utah. Living nine miles from world-famous powder snow
ski resorts, we would choose "perfect days" to ski.
It has been one week now and we’re tuned into Maui. My greatest anxiety is leaving my family and
friends, and dog Chester. It is only Tom
and I here, for now. We have friends on
Maui but they cannot replace our other friends.
I call my grandkids as much as I can.
I am getting my family tuned into Skype.
My politically active friends think I will do something
political out here. I’m thinking a
geothermal energy plant or something as a project. I’ll contact Larry Ellison, the billionaire
new owner of the island of Lanai, to get started. I’ll wait a few days to have my people
contact his people.
--
“45 minutes until your download is complete.” Oh, progress last night. “Let’s watch an episode of The Daily Show and
then Star Trek should be ready to view,” Tom says. “Great.”
We watch Jon Stewart and switch back to iTunes for the movie.
“Your movie will download in 6 hours 3 minutes,” it says. We just stare at the
screen. Reacting is futile. It’s okay. We had refused to get the popcorn out anyway. “Maybe we could try to leave the TV power on
through the night, not just the AppleTV,” Tom says. We do.
It simply does not
matter when we watch Star Trek, I think. For starters, we're on Maui, and secondly, time is not of the essence anymore.
We’ve got to remember this after a summer of craziness.
--
This morning I walk into the living room and press “menu” on
the AppleTV.
“You have 45 minutes until your movie downloads,” it
says. I start laughing. “Tom, Tom, look we have 45 more
minutes!” I keep laughing and click the “power
off” button on the remote. We walk to
Stella Blues Café to split a Sunday morning omelet. Life is good.
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