Friday February 3, 2023 Reno, Sacramento and Seattle

Today is my daughter's 19th birthday. Tegan is a beautiful and kind soul. She inspires me every day to be a better person and mother. She truly has a servant's heart and I'm incredibly proud of the woman she's becoming. We may not be with her but know that she had a perfect day with her sister, good friends and boyfriend. 

Here in Kauai we awoke to blowing wind and rain striking the windows. Clayton was up at 5 am to start his work day in central time. We had left the windows open so there was water on the floor he had to mop up. Reminded us of the year we came and storms raged the entire trip. While he slaved away at the computer and in conference calls Kellan and I lounged about, wrote, read, did homework and took a nap. Later in the afternoon we drove into Kilauea for some shopping. Home again. Kellan and Clayton grilled some steaks in the grill pavillion just outside our building. We had dinner on the lanai and then geared up for the hot tub.

Tonight we met a couple from Reno, a lady from Sacramento and a couple from Seattle. Conversation always starts with "is this your first trip to Kauai?" and goes from there. Both Reno and Sacramento are in the construction business so we learned that most of the construction higher prices are tied to high shipping costs... because they can. Interesting. The builders are sending their own people to get the products to save on cost. He said that a few years ago their cabinets sold for $450/ linear foot and are now $1500! The husband from Reno comes from an Italian family and took over his family's cabinet making business. The wife works for a local pharmacy and said that pharmacies are having a hard time staying in the traditional medical dispensing side of business due to insurance companies not wanting to pay for the cost of the drugs. Insurance companies pretty much got a bashing tonight at the hot tub round table. Also of note were the big construction companies who want to exclusively use these companies at cut rate fees and then dispose of them when done. Monopolies and conglomerates also got a verbal beat down around the steamy cauldron of wisdom and prophetic doom. 

Seattle left their 3 kids at home so were at that "I can't completely unwind" stage of life. We left after dispensing some probably unwanted advice about the upcoming teen years. The lady's 10yo was taking a puberty class. LOL I guess that's a good thing. 

Tomorrow morning we change condo's so will be displaced for most of the day. It's supposed to rain so who knows what we'll find to do. May be the perfect day to check out the library.

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