On the night shift

I'm in a small cottage in the middle of a coffee plantation / rainforest on the Big Island of Hawai'i.  It's 9 pm at night.  It's raining (it's a rainforest; it's what they do).

And the chorus is going.

If you've ever listed to one of those "rainforest at night" sleep/white noise tapes, believe me when I say they don't do it justice unless you have the volume turned up loud enough to wake the neighbors.  I've been sleeping extremely well.

My days, not so well.  I mean, my birthday wasn't bad - woke up, spend the morning playing a beta I'm in, then drove across the island to take a lava tour.  That was fun - it's not often you get to have the world's biggest birthday candle.  I didn't try to blow it out though.

But on the way back, I started feeling... off.  Woke up Saturday with a stuffy nose and sore throat.  Sore throat's gone, but still congested, and a 1-mile-each-way walk to a nearby restaurant kicked my ass (whereas I normally walk 4-5 miles for fun).  So, I cancelled my limited plans anyway and just lounged around; tomorrow, I may try driving a bit to see what I can see.  One stop may be the Mauna Kea visitor's center (not going to get to the summit - trouble breathing at sea level doesn't bode well for 15000 feet - but I can at least see the touristy stuff).  I may make it a volcano day and stop at Volcano National Park on the way back (passed it on Friday to/from the lava tour, but didn't have time/energy to stop).  The result would basically be circumnavigating Mauna Loa, but nothing wrong with that.

The place I'm staying at is really a cottage on a coffee plantation.  It's pretty isolated and private; there's a hot tub and lanai where I've been getting some sun (when I'm feeling up to it).  I didn't realize how much of a "rainforest" it was until the first morning I was here, when I realized that the 15 minutes I'd spent outside the night before resulted in quite literally 29 mosquito bites on my legs.  They're mostly healed away now, but I still have the red splotches.

Self-imposed isolation here is actually probably just what I needed.  I mean, Saturday was planned to stay in anyway (the beta I'm in is only open for a couple days a week, and I'm really enjoying it) (hey, it's my vacation, I can spend my time in Hawaii playing video games if I want), but I knew I'd likely have limited socialization while I'm here, and that's fine.  Gives me a recharge after a few months of being emotional support for people.

I'm on this island until Wednesday, anyway, then flying to Maui - where there'll likely be a lot of socializing, or at least the opportunity for it, for four nights.

I think I may have one more trip to the big island, but over to the Hilo side next time.  But that's for later.