I started the day with the last newspaper folding party. Newspaper what?!? We are blessed with an actual weekly print newspaper, the Hāmākua Times. It’s totally cool. It’s also a labor of love by its three talented and dedicated editor/owners. Some months ago, they lost their printer and the new printer they found couldn’t handle tabloid size, so they reformatted the paper to half-tab. When they took it to the post office, though, they were told that it really couldn’t be delivered unless it was folded in half again, something the printers weren’t able to do. The editors put out a call for volunteers to fold the paper. I went, as I really value the paper and they even publish my stuff from time to time. It seemed a small price to pay. The surprise was that it wasn’t a price at all. The first “folding party” was a lot of fun. I got to meet many people from my community, there was fabulous talk story, and as one participant said “it’s a volunteer activity you can go to and not risk leaving with a committee assignment.” Subsequent parties got even better.
Yesterday, we received word that today would be the last folding party. I was afraid to read the email, fearing something like…
We have come to the difficult decision to change the Hāmākua Times to an AI-first, all digital publication.
But no! The former printer who did the Times is now back in business and will be printing it in its former tabloid format, properly folded and distributed to the USPS. Huzzah! It was sad and nostalgic to give up this monthly ritual that had become so meaningful to us all, but we’re all glad that the Times is continuing on.
Also today was Luna the Big Dog™‘s appointment with a groomer. Luna is a high-maintenance girl, and HA has had to take on the job of groomer as Luna has a breed characteristic of being very stubborn. As she weighs over one hundred pounds, she has some force behind her stubborness and she does not like her paws touched. Luna has been banned by every groomer that has ever worked with her. This groomer is known to have worked with malamutes in the past. Luna spent four hours with the groomer, who afterwards said she just cannot accommodate Luna. Sigh. Luna is so good-natured that it’s hard to think she could be that much of a problem, but since we’ve been doing her paw and nail trimming I can attest to the fact that she can be impressively willful.
HA and I went to the beach while Luna was at the groomer. It’s raining again/still on the windward coast of the island, but the beach was warm, dry, and beautiful. Waimea — where the groomer is — is sort of in the middle between the two coasts and the town was half sunny and half rainy, giving rise to the low, broad afternoon ānuenue (rainbow) above as we drove to the groomers. Too bad the pot-o-gold wasn’t a good long-term big dog/groomer relationship.
—2p