impressions: hawaii

speed humps and speed tables (longer humps, like a mesa)

speed table and intersection painted "warnings" of jaggedly lines on the ground

wobbly striped roads, lol. so few lane lines and dashes

well paved roads (so few potholes), and quite a few road closures due to either construction, or more often, tree trimming

fewer street lights and sometimes very yellow ones, to create a more dark sky environment

many 2 lane roads with 1 lane bridges

fewer asshole drivers when merging (either ending lane or merging lanes) 

slower speed limits (nothing higher than 55mph!) and people pretty much respecting them. ...also speeding tickets are only like $137, ask me how i know, lol

very few official police cars (most are personal vehicles with a blue light bar on top)

many abandoned cars on the side of the roads

corrugated metal roofs in hilo

so many small churches with very pointy steeples

glass shutters instead of paned windows to help with air circulation during rain

has something like 10 of the world's 14 climate zones (unclear how many climate zones there are, and even less unclear how many hawaii has, lol)

more local ads on tv and radio (fewer "big box" stores, after all)

island music on the radio. many stations.

chickens everywhere, and rooster farms!

affirming signs: smile, enjoy life, you rock

lack of 18 wheelers

trash / transfer stations / stores

bilingual announcements in hawaiian language / most road signs and place names in hawaiian

asian influence - food, snacks, 7/11!, language (auntie / uncle)

lots of thai food. outside hawaiian, american, and japanese food, it seems like the most popular cuisine 

sweeter foods (including bread), plate lunches, heavy, dense food without veggies

roadside fruit / food stands. many of which are outside homes, in little wooden stands, and a lock box for the honor code

ridged aluminum cans (article about why)

screened lanais

kapu signs all over

irregular business hours

lei fridges in almost all big grocery stores

tsunami warning sirens

foot push pedals at some crosswalks

kauai - "try slow" hand-painted road signs

may 2025 donation

this month i'm actually pausing my donation :( life has been very expensive lately: taxes, ER bill, flights to maui and kauai, manta ray snorkeling... it was the nearly $1500 ER bill that really did me in. i got it sort of unexpectedly 3 months after the fact. i was billed for the urgent care visit (to get the stitches removed) about a month after whole thing so when I didn't get anything for the ER visit, I dunno... i thought my insurance would take care of it. ...but it didn't.

at that point, i had already paid my taxes and paid for flights to maui and kauai. and after paying off the bill, i reimbursed t for j and my manta ray snorkeling thing. so it was a lot of money leaving within a month.

i may go back and donate anyway. what's $25 really? i can "afford" it. i'm just feeling a little cash poor right now. 

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i recently got a little cash infusion so am donating to NPR because they do amazing work and recently got their money taken back by the fucking govt who instead of using tax payer money to fund the tax payers and out general well-being, wanted to use it to make our lives demonstrably worse. (7/31)