09-11-2009, 02:48 PM
I have so far sat this one out, but the last set of posts about insects finally got me. But after reading someone living in Washington basically berating someone who lives on Island because her answers don't match his version of reality I have to speak up. I have a friend who has lived in Wa'a Wa'a for over 30 years and we had several long conversations about life in Wa'a Wa'a before we bought our current home, because we really liked the area and considered buying there. I still hope to retire there someday, but I don't want to make the commute daily.
This is what I was told by this long term resident: sometimes the roads are pretty good, and sometimes they are virtually impassable in a passenger car due to flooded potholes, the county lets it get pretty bad before grading because they want to pave it and the residents don't want the paving. Mosquitoes, flies, cockroaches, centipedes, ants and all the other assorted tropical insects are a problem if you (and your neighbors) don't keep your place very clean and free of standing water. When he was replacing his windows he had to sleep inside a netting canopy to avoid getting eaten alive at night, his neighbors who built an imported bali pavilion style house had to put in screens because of the mosquitoes, flies, and cockroaches. Fruit flies are ever present, and house flies showed up the day after he got a dog, because they love the poop. Termites are a bigger problem than most of Puna but not as big a problem as in Hilo.
Some of his neighbors are friendly, some are stand offish, and some are down right hostile, but if your place is on fire they will all show up to help you put it out. He has been robbed 3 times in 30+ years, once at gunpoint by masked intruders who were looking for money and guns (he had neither). He has an internet set up and cell phone reception most of the time. He also said that whenever people have moved into the neighborhood full of big ideas for how to "improve" things, that is usually a sign they won't fit in and will sell out within a few years. It is a live and let live neighborhood of people who don't want it to change much and resent those who come in and want to make big changes. I asked him about the "security" ideas floated here of locked gates on the private roads and high tech security cameras and he just laughed.
Carol
This is what I was told by this long term resident: sometimes the roads are pretty good, and sometimes they are virtually impassable in a passenger car due to flooded potholes, the county lets it get pretty bad before grading because they want to pave it and the residents don't want the paving. Mosquitoes, flies, cockroaches, centipedes, ants and all the other assorted tropical insects are a problem if you (and your neighbors) don't keep your place very clean and free of standing water. When he was replacing his windows he had to sleep inside a netting canopy to avoid getting eaten alive at night, his neighbors who built an imported bali pavilion style house had to put in screens because of the mosquitoes, flies, and cockroaches. Fruit flies are ever present, and house flies showed up the day after he got a dog, because they love the poop. Termites are a bigger problem than most of Puna but not as big a problem as in Hilo.
Some of his neighbors are friendly, some are stand offish, and some are down right hostile, but if your place is on fire they will all show up to help you put it out. He has been robbed 3 times in 30+ years, once at gunpoint by masked intruders who were looking for money and guns (he had neither). He has an internet set up and cell phone reception most of the time. He also said that whenever people have moved into the neighborhood full of big ideas for how to "improve" things, that is usually a sign they won't fit in and will sell out within a few years. It is a live and let live neighborhood of people who don't want it to change much and resent those who come in and want to make big changes. I asked him about the "security" ideas floated here of locked gates on the private roads and high tech security cameras and he just laughed.
Carol
Carol
Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb
Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb