Rain, prime time football and Thanksgiving

It's 55 degrees and raining right now.  A far cry from 85 and sunny in Pearl City.  Oh well.  I am comfortably cuddled up on the couch with a cup of hot chocolate watching football, so I'm not complaining too much.  We've had a couple of rainy days since we've been here and I've forgotten how much the grayness of those days sucks the vitality out of you.  I guess I'll have to get back into the habit of paying attention to weather forecasts now that I'm experiencing weather again.  (Hawaii has very little weather - it is 85 and mostly sunny 99% of the time.)

Another big difference between Hawaii and California is driving.  Hawaii drivers (for the most part) are slow as molasses.  They're in no hurry to get anywhere.  Side streets, the highway, it doesn't matter.  They're on island time and are in no rush.  I think the highest speed limit I saw on Oahu was 55, maybe 60 for a small stretch of H-1.  Yesterday I was driving on a road near my house where the posted speed limit was 65.  I was in the right-most lane, going 72 and getting passed by everyone.  Just getting blown off the road.  It's definitely a different pace out here.  As a matter of fact, our gas mileage in our Ford Escape Hybrid has decreased by almost 2.5 gallons/mile due to the increased need to accelerate quickly.  Despite the warp speeds people drive at, I'm enjoying having multiple interstates, highways and freeways to get around town.  If there's an accident on one, there's always two or three other ways to get to the same location.  On Oahu, if H-1 is backed up, you're just out of luck.

We went and looked at houses for a few hours yesterday.  We saw a couple that we liked, but I think we're going to keep on looking for awhile.  I'm still feeling a little overwhelmed by the process and the concept of purchasing a house.  I thought my student loans were a lot of money - we're looking at houses that are four times as much as those!  I'm a little surprised at how much location really does matter when it comes to what your dollars will buy you.  $300K in one neighborhood gets you a run-down home in need of major repairs but in another neighborhood (less than five miles away) you can get a beautifully renovated home that has more square feet.  It's all a learning process for me.  I know Zac would like to get into a house before he has to leave for six weeks in January, so there is a little bit of pressure to find something, but I'm not freaking out quite yet.  


We're going to be going to be celebrating Thanksgiving with one of Zac's friends this year.  This guy and Zac went to gunnersmate school together when they both first joined the Navy.  Now, 12 years later, they're stationed in the same metropolitan area and they've decided to catch up.  When I asked Zac what we were supposed to bring to dinner, he said that his friend asked us to bring some wine.  Hooray for easy contributions!  Zac has been coming home talking about old and new friends that he's encountering each day, and it's a little confusing keeping it all straight right now.  It doesn't help that 75% of the guys he knows are named 'Chris'.  It also doesn't help that almost all of them are gunnersmates as well.  (That's Zac's role/job in the Navy - gunnersmate, or GM.)  As long as I've been with Zac he's worked with all sorts of sailors, but rarely other GMs.  Now I can swing a stick and hit a half dozen of them.  They're an odd bunch, but they're hard not to like.  Hopefully while we're here we'll be able to expand our circle of friends, and maintain the awesome friendships we've already established.