Life in Paradise ain't what it's cracked up to be

[voyager]

I'm told some of you folks are wondering about what's going on here.

We never evacuated.
We've almost got the whole subdivision to ourselves.

The lava never came any closer to us than about a mile.
We've not been under any direct threat except for a day or two when the air went stagnant and the SO2 levels near us went quite high.
Normally, we keep all doors open on the house to allow air to move through.
Closing up the house seemed to give us protection from the SO2 build up.

Our subdivision seems to have quieted down.
The activity has moved on past us, for now.
That does not mean that it couldn't come back.
This morning I woke up to the sounds of distant explosions from further up the rift at what is now fissure #18 where the activity is now.

I've been watching a live feed of what's happening on Honolulu Civil Beat's Facebook page.
Not much to see except steam and smoke with occasional lava spattering into the air.
But, if anything of interest happens, we'll know right away.

A few people will not be back.
They swear they have had enough even though thay have not lost anything to the lava.
The threat is more than they can handle.

We chose to buy here with our eyes wide open.
WE knew this was a possibility even though we thought it was not likely to happen within out lifetime.
Only a slight miscalculation.

Property values in the area are nonexistent right now, and will take a while to come back.
But, we are not interested in trying to sell.
We still plan to stay.
In 6 months non residents will begin snapping property up because of the phenomenally low land prices.
The cycle will begin again.

Oh, yeah, the orchids are doing well so far.
Some are in bloom.
The SO2 doesn't seem to have done them any harm, yet.
The cats are OK if not a bit nervous and demanding a lot of attention.

I've just changed the live feed I'm watching.
Now it's Db Photo at Primary Focus's facebook page.

This is probably the most covered event in history.
Everybody is shooting video of the action.
The official outlets are too slow in disseminating information.
By the time they put out information things have moved on to something else.

I could go on forever.
But, that's enough.
All is well so far.
And , life is still interesting.