Is this what mid-life crisis feels like? Or is this just what happens when you aren’t wealthy. A vagabond’s options aren’t as vast as someone more conventional…but still there are some options. At least there should be….
Update a few days later: Wow. I’m just flabbergasted by what is happening. I’ve inquired about a dozen properties, most of them with offers over the asking price, most of them from people who have never seen the properties and may never see them. These are people with real excess wealth – so called ‘Giraffe Money’ – as in, “I’ve got so much money I don’t know what to do with it, I guess I’ll buy a giraffe”.
The CEO of Redfin said on an interview the other day that buying a home has become a luxury purchase. That means, essentially, it is a thing only the rich can do. We are quickly entering an even more gross world of extreme wealth disparity where there are wealth-lords and peasants.
Most of us (self included) are delusional in that we think we are just a couple of steps away from financial independence and the joys of wealth. That’s all conditioning to keep people working and being okay with how screwed most of us are. The truth is – and this is a hard thing to admit – most of us have never and will never matter to anyone but a very small group of people who value us personally. Our entire lives could disappear and humanity would never notice. We haven’t made a global difference and we most likely won’t. We don’t matter.
Not only do we not matter to the world – we especially don’t matter to those people who are ‘in it to win it’ which should be read as ‘fuck you, I’m getting mine’. And – at least in America – that’s everyone outside of your small circle of folks who give a shit about you. Your close family, your best friends, maybe customers who rely upon you – but the truth is – if the chips were down – that circle would get much smaller, very quickly. I’ve got about six people in my life that I would make great personal sacrifice for – I feel blessed to have that many. I think around half of those people would do the same for me and again – I count myself lucky. If we all had three people who sincerely care for us as much as they care for themselves – we are beyond fortunate. Especially in this sick society we call America.
We all know the truth – there is no safety net that protects you from falling in America. If you fall, you will probably keep going down unless you are lucky, talented in just the right way, have built your own, or you have someone willing to catch you. From the bottom, you have virtually no chance of getting back up or up at all if that is where you began.
All of this to say that my mission to buy a piece of property or shack or cabin on the Big Island of Hawaii failed. It failed because I don’t have enough money because the trillions of dollars that went out to rescue people during the pandemic largely landed with people who already have everything they need – so they are looking for something to do with that money “Hey let’s buy a giraffe or land in Hawaii”.
So, my family and myself (and millions more like us)are put into the position where we need to continue being renters and being at the mercy of landlords and developers. When I brought us to America (and myself back to America) I was hopeful of opportunities. My time away had convinced me that America really was what it portrays itself to be to the rest of the world – but I fell for the lie – just like all the other hopeful immigrants. We were doing okay out in the big world. We had a comfortable and fun life.
We got here and I quickly realized that in the tech world – at 42, I was already past the expiration date for a new hire without Fortune 500 experience and that living anywhere desirable was out of the question based on our savings. I built a couple of successful small businesses in the small town we moved to because we couldn’t afford Hawaii or San Francisco. Again, we were doing okay. Then, the Racist in Chief created a hostile environment that made racists across America feel comfortable making people of color, non-Christians, and other non-white/non-Christian people feel like their lives were in danger. As the only Muslim family in a town of 3000 where they drove around with confederate flags in the back of trucks and put up at least three chainsaw carved statues of Trump, I really didn’t like to keep my family there. I sold my businesses at a loss and moved my family to Hawaii where we were making things work until the pandemic hit but now with prices going up – any gains we made are worthless. I think most people haven’t realized their savings will now buy about 50% of what it would have six months ago. Not just in real estate but in food and everything else. Wages haven’t gone up, but prices have doubled and tripled.
I’ve gotta be honest – it feels like exactly what it is – we are being squeezed out. The bottom 80% or so of Americans are being turned into serfs who more or less work to pay the company store while the 19% don’t know it but they are next. There is room for lords and serfs in the world America has built – and if you aren’t already a lord, chances are that you can look forward to becoming a serf.
I feel like I’m ready to give up on America again. Sometimes I feel like I’m ready to give up on everything but then I look at my daughter’s face and I know that I have to keep going and I’ll never give up on trying to build a better life for her.
So – here I am. No Vagabond’s House unless you want me to say that I’m in Vagabond’s House right now – and right now I’m in a hotel. I’ll keep looking and I’ll start exploring further options. I’m not ready to give up.
The Hawaii Movie•
2020: Christmas Eve this year was simple. We didn’t make plans to go anywhere and here we are. We hope you and yours are safe and happy this Christmas Eve of a challenging year. Meli Kalikimaka.
We will have Christmas Day off together but during all the other days of our daughter’s school break, one or the other (sometimes both) of us will be working. We’ve enrolled Sophia in a Christmas break day camp, so she will still get to have lots of holiday themed fun – and frankly- that’s the most important thing to us. We’re lucky – actually. This year, there are a lot of workers such as those who work for TSA, Homeland Security, or Border Patrol who won’t be collecting a paycheck. There are many families here on 
So, we are thankful. Hawaii is a strange place for Christmas in any event – we try really hard here with lots and lots of decorations and Christmas music- but if you’ve ever spent time anywhere else for Christmas – it just feels really odd to have perfect weather, warm water to swim in, and everyone wearing shorts and Santa hats. Merry Christmas in Hawaiian is Mele Kalikimaka. The Hawaiians in ancient times didn’t know anything about Christmas. They celebrated a four month period from about November to February called Makahiki when there was generally no work done, lots of games, contests, and all warfare and hostilities were called off. This is just one more way the Hawaiians lived better in the past than we do today.
There was no money, no economy, no imports, no exports, and nearly everyone could take four months of the year off from working or fighting to just enjoy life. When you average it out, the ancient Hawaiian family only needed a total of 4 hours of work per day to provide everything they needed in life. They didn’t need all this stuff we have now. I noticed something odd this year – people were frantic about their Christmas shopping, often neurotic and seemingly in a panic. In Hawaii, it’s not like other places – you’re expected to give good presents to all of your coworkers and friends and family – and that gets expensive fast. Then there’s the Secret Santa tradition – in the jobs I had on the mainland – Secret Santa was a way to ensure that everyone got one nice gift and no one had to spend too much – something like maximum $25 – and no other gifts needed. Not here – my wife’s work laid out the rules $25 minimum! And- they all went ahead and bought gifts for everyone else too…
Growing up, Christmas was never that fantastic for me or my siblings so as an adult, it really took becoming a parent for me to grow to love the holiday. When our daughter was old enough to open presents – I began to spoil her the best I could (okay, from birth, I admit it). I love watching her wake up and look for presents. I love the mystery. I’m going to admit something here though – I’ve always been really honest with her. I’ve never wanted to tell her lies about anything – and frankly – I became terrified that she would discover that I was lying about Santa Claus and feel it as some sort of betrayal of trust. I felt incredibly guilty about it. She had started to ask questions that were leading to the answer and in a moment of what may have been bad judgment – I just told her that Santa isn’t real. After that we worked through the way the whole process works.
When she was a baby, we took her to where the real Santa Claus lived in Demre, Turkey – so I went from there and explained the tradition. As it got closer to Christmas though, we both agreed to suspend reality and believe in Santa together. We have a tiny little tree in our tiny little apartment. I’ve kept all her presents hidden so I can put them out on Christmas morning – and just like last year on the 
Many visitors to Hawaii are curious about the ancient and traditional religion of the Hawaiian people. They want to know where it is practiced, how it was formed, who the gods are, and what the rituals are. The first thing to know is that the ancient religion of Hawaii was overthrown and abandoned by 
The four main gods of Hawaiian religion were Ku – the god of war, Kane – the god of the sky, Lono – the god of peace and fertility, and Kanaloa, the god of the ocean. In addition there were the ‘parent’ or ‘creation’ gods of Papa (Mother Earth) and Waikea (Father Sky) as well as elemental gods and goddesses such as Madam Pele of the volcano and the demi-god Maui. Families, clans, villages,and other groups had protector spirits called ‘aumakua and there were literally hundreds upon hundreds of lessor gods and goddesses.
There’s really no place like Kamuela and Waimea on the Big Island of Hawaii. Once home to the largest cattle ranch in the USA and still the fifth largest – this town is famous for rodeos, tropical fruit, and horseback riding.
My wife and I have stayed in a lot of hotels all over the world. Never in all the years we have travelled together have we ever looked to find the tags on the sheets and pillows – until this trip! These were the most comfortable sheets and pillows either of us had ever slept on and when we found the tags and looked to acquire some for ourselves – we discovered why – the sheets, duvet, and pillows on our king size bed added up to nearly $1000! I’m not talking about the bed here – I’m talking about the sheets, pillows and blankets on the bed.
Our room was outfitted with a kitchenette where we were able to cook for ourselves and the breakfast in the morning was very generous. Due to the pandemic the regular breakfast buffet was shut down but the staff has adapted to the situation by giving guests the chance to order breakfast the night before with generous portions of hot local breakfast (Portuguese sausage, eggs, and rice), cereal, yogurt, bagels, juice, and coffee.
Edlyn, the manager of the Kamuela Inn was an amazing source for information while we were there. She and the staff were incredibly approachable and informative. Since the ranch activities we had been planning on were closed she let us know about some of the locals only deals going on – one of which fulfilled a dream for both my wife and daughter. That was our trip over to Dolphin Quest. Due to the pandemic – there was a significant discount offered to Hawaii residents. It was a great suggestion and since it was on the dry side of the island – it was open even with the hurricane approaching.
So, even though there was a hurricane threatening, a pandemic raging, and 
Our trip this time was super low key – I met with a couple of friends in Waimea, we explored some amazing backroads, and we swam with dolphins. Yes, you read that right! We swam with dolphins. This is usually something that is far outside of our budget but our daughter’s 9th birthday is in a few days and we had a great recommendation from our friends at the 
When I got home, things got more serious with the virus, in fact, it looked like the world was going to crash. My daughter started Spring Break and we were pretty sure she wouldn’t be going back to school in 2020. That’s most likely how it played out. We went into lockdown mode from March through June in our little Honolulu apartment – and after months of the three of us in there – we were feeling stir crazy. When Hawaii opened up the beaches, we began to take some cautious trips to our favorite places. When restaurants re-opened with new limitations in place – we visited two of our favorites Cholos in Haleiwa and Nico’s Pier 38 – granted both experiences were nerve inducing and weird with servers and cooks wearing masks and strange new policies (please wait in your car, we’ll phone you when your table is ready!)
Hawaii has a long history of exploiting labor of the many for the profit of the few. In the days before European contact, the common people, the maka’aina worked the taro patches and fishponds for the chiefly class – the ali’i. And yet, despite the feudal nature of this relationship between worker and master – the labor was not exploited. There was no hunger unless there was famine and no one was left out in the ancient Hawaiian society. The ali’i used their power to take care of the land and provide for the people – it wasn’t perfect but the average Hawaiian needed to work only 4 hours per day to get everything they needed to live and took 4 months off for the festival of makahiki when warfare and work were replaced with celebrations and games.
Workers were brought in for nearly a century – waves of migrant workers brought from places where no language was shared and put against each other – the ruthless exploitation of Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Filipino, Puerto Rican, and other workers was brutal and violent. It was not chattel slavery, but the so called ‘contract labor’ was just a step above it. In some cases wives of some workers were sold to other laborers – stolen from their families and given to others. This was the basis of the vast fortunes of the upper classes in Hawai’i.
It was then that sugar and large agriculture pulled out of Hawaii – they reversed the victories of the workers and left the Hawaiian economy completely. In less than a decade, big agriculture had left the Hawaiian islands and gone to where labor was less powerful and workers could still be exploited for big profits. The Hawaiian economy was left in a shambles.
This is the second part in an ongoing series about how to have the worst time possible during your world travels. Here is the link to part 1.
5) Don’t talk to anyone unless you have to
6) Don’t learn any of the local language
I know that a lot of people don’t travel because of the worries associated with it. Travel can be stressful and the media doesn’t help much by telling us about every travel disaster, terrorist event, or
If money makes you crazy with worry, here is what you can do. Change a little bit of money before you leave your home country for the local currency. You’ll get the worst rate at home most likely, so I wouldn’t change a huge amount. I would say about $200 or the equivalent is enough. This is just in case you can’t find an ATM when you get there. In addition, put $100 in USD, Euro, or Pounds in a couple different spots for emergencies, these are safe currencies that you can use just about anywhere in the world.
If you are going to bring your children bring their birth certificates. If you are traveling in some Arab countries, single women traveling with children need written permission from the children’s father and there are other odd regulations that you should know about before embarking upon your journey. Airlines often have special promotions for kids that are worth finding out about.
While it would be nice to be able to memorize all the essential information about your vacations, this usually isn’t very practical. This is especially true for extended travel.