Aloha Kugs Goes to Washington: Day one

Aloha from the East Coast. Here's the latest story:

As it happened, the flights to get to DC were fine, however, in the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that I have one phobia of note as relates to our journey.

I get claustrophobic to the point of panic attacks with the mere thought of sitting anywhere other than the aisle on an airplane. I’m not really certain why. It seems that it’s always been that way, at least as an adult. With the exception of the one time I got to fly first class back in 2007 on the way to Vegas for a wedding, I’ve always felt uncomfortable on planes in general, but I’ve always managed to get an aisle seat.

Fast forward to our flight here, which was arranged for us by the nice people at the home office, and at first, the wife and I weren’t even sitting together, and they had us both in middle seats. We tried to adjust online, but were unable, so it was with some serious trepidation that we arrived at the airport the other night for an 11pm red-eye flight to Denver and then DC, I was somewhat irritated until we got it all hammered out, and we fixed the seating there. There was a flat tire on the bridge thingy that we use to walk onto the plane, so that delayed us almost an hour, although they made up the time in the air, and the delay turned out to be good overall as they had serious fog as we were landing in Colorado, so we ended up landing only about 30 minutes after we were scheduled to have done so anyway.

I do wonder sometimes, if they are so easily able to "make up time" in the air, why aren't all flights just shorter? Perhaps they pad the times? Perhaps its a fuel efficiency thingy? I don't know, but I'll be glad when they invent the teleporter. Although, as comedian bill Burr once said, which I paraphrase here, "If you're in a plane, in the air, doing anything at all, be it drinking a diet coke or drooling on yourself, the first thing you should think is-wow-I'm flying through the air, doing ___________!" Bill always knows how to bring it home...flight is amazing, truly, but jeez, it is uncomfortable, especially for the rather tall, like me. I digress.

We flew over the Rocky Mountains as the sun was coming up. I’ve never seen them before, and as most of the plane was asleep as they became visible, and I wasn’t sure that I was really seeing them, I crept to the back and asked one of the flight attendants, who confirmed that they were the Rockies. So, ok, Holy crap what a sight! I mean, Mauna Kea on the Big Island is big, but it’s one major formation. It seemed like we were flying over the Rockies for an hour, although I’m pretty sure it wasn’t that long. It was amazing, and I’ll admit I totally marked out for them. I was blown away by how gigantic and impressive they were, even from the air, and I leaned over the wife looking out the window that I can’t sit near, enjoying every minute.

We got into DC with little ado, and got our car and settled into the hotel. Watched the Oscars, lamenting somewhat how few of the movies we’d actually seen. I’ve seen “Inglorious Bastards” (Well done to Christoph Waltz-he was amazing in the film) and “Up,” but outside of that, we are well behind the curve in terms of these films. It was fun to watch, though we were researching real estate and such as well as watching, to be honest. Don’t know much more about the movies nominated, but we will catch up at some point.

We started our house search with our VA realtor today, who is indeed a force of nature. I can say categorically that while we may not have found the new “Kugs Homestead” today, we learned a ton, got a few possibilities, and had more fun with less stress than we have ever had looking for a house, and as you may know, this is not Ma Kugs and I’s first rodeo… It was a good day, and I feel like I know a lot more than I did yesterday. We looked at Alexandria today, and will do Springfield tomorrow. That’s the plan, and then I imagine, barring finding something offer-worthy, we will regroup on Wednesday. We saw two good ones today, but they will both need something to make them better to be right for us long term, and a few things short term. Such is life in this market...

On another note, I have to speak on this point. We saw seven properties today, but there was one that was so awful that I have to complain. Don’t get me wrong-the house structurally was likely very good, but this was clearly a family that was not interested in really selling. The house smelled of mildew and cat, the beds were as made as a bedspread thrown on the floor can be. While the fireplace was nice, the couch with the dirty sheet and pillow on it that shared the room was somewhat not genuinely indicative of a desire to impress. The dirty dishes in the sink, the burnt pot with food in it (also burnt) on the ancient stove, the basketball rim in the middle of the back porch, the garbage in the driveway, and of course, the broken sliding door to the muddy and Mordor-like backyard, really did give me the indication that this person wanted to sell and do so now. Ok, I’m being sarcastic, but this house was an abject mess and an example of how not to present your home for sale. HGTV should do a show on this place, honestly. “How NOT to sell.” I’d watch, at least once. The house has been on the market for a long time, they had over 5 hours notice we were coming, and the place was an offensive mess. And, they are asking top dollar. Go figure.

Outside of that, it was a good day in that regard. After the search, we went to dinner at Murphy’s Irish Pub on King Street. Food and beverage were great, and who should we end up next to in the “seat yourself” pub? A Buckeyes fan from Columbus, Ohio, and a retired Marine Officer from Kaneohe, Hawaii. Only in an Irish Bar. Much fun had by all.

The kids are doing well at home with their grandparents, who graciously agreed to come to Oahu and take care of them, school and all, while the wife and I do this search. I find that I miss them more than I thought I would, as I always do. I get so used to being with them almost all the time, and now being apart from them, I do find that it gets to me a bit. But, we will be home soon, and we are after all, trying to find that “forever” house for our family. Motivation is high.

Tomorrow we see Springfield, and my cousins for dinner. Looking forward to that.

We are also looking forward to moving back to the mainland, but already see that we are going to need to work very hard to hang on to our Aloha here. The pace is definitely faster and the weather and seasons far more variable than we are used to. There have been moments that I’ve felt like I’m moving in slow motion compared to people I’ve had to deal with here so far, and I can live with that…just gotta maintain the speed, I think. I can afford to take my time, now. Especially now.

Stay tuned for more, you know, if you want to.