Page 9 - Hawaii Island MidWeek - Sep 15 2021

SEPTEMBER 15, 2021 HAWAI‘I ISLAND MIDWEEK 9
“C
use when we go camping?” my mom asked one evening while were chatting on the phone.
area, kitchen space and food storage. Imagine my surprise when I opened the gate and saw long metal poles and cor- ner pieces strewn about. Not wanting to admit I misunder- stood, I jumped in and started assembling.
too. Time to reassess.
One of the things I respect about my mom, of which there are many, is her ability to solve problems and get things done. As I was stewing in frustra- tion, I saw her looking back and forth from the tent to the side of the house. She locked eyes with me, held her arms out and did a slow little shim- my with her shoulders. I burst
away a handful of times to catch my breath. What felt like days later, the tent was where it needed to be. The hard part was over.
after two hours of tent assem- blage, when my mom replied: “Where you going? We gotta clean up.”
HHH
Sharon W. shared her own rhyme (also to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat) for remembering to chew her food after reading “A Rock-‘salad’ Foundation In A Glass” in our Aug. 11 issue: “Chew, chew, chew your food; always through the meal. The more you chew the less you’ ll eat; and the better you will feel.”
by Nicole Monton
Laughter Reduces The ‘Tent’-sion
an you come help metryputupa tent, the kind we
“Now, we need to get it onto the cinder blocks,” my mom said. “They’re in my car.”
Being the good daughter I am (insert eye roll here), I drove to her house after work to get it done, thinking I could set this thing up no problem.
Putting together the frame and securing the tarp with bungee cords was the easy part. Getting the legs in was slightly more difficult, since there were only two of us and the darn thing is heavy! The hard part was over, or so I thought.
Setting up a large 10-by-12-foot tent is hard work, but can be fun with the right people. NICOLE MONTON PHOTO
lifted. It didn’t budge. We then tried each grabbing a leg and pulling/dragging it across the concrete, but the legs began bending in weird ways. That method was out,
out laughing.
“You can’t be serious,” I
The act of transporting the blocks and getting the tent into said blocks is a story for anoth- er column, but we got it done, thanks to my mom’s neighbor who came home just in time.
Because I’ m guilty of not fully paying attention when she’s talking to me, I misun- derstood. I thought she was talking about those pop-up tents to sleep in. What she re- ally meant by “tent” was the 10-by-12-foot kind that cov- ers the campsite’s common
“Now we need to move it over there,” my mom said, in- dicating a spot 8 feet away near the side of the house.
said between heaving breaths. “That’s going to take forever.” She was serious. We both took a front tent leg and moved it about an inch, then walked to the back legs to move them an inch — the entire time laugh- ing so hard that I had to step
OK, I thought, now it’s surely over. Relief rushed over me, as I grabbed my keys and phone, ready to head home
We took a corner diag- onal from one other and
Is there something you think I should try? Send suggestions to nmonton@midweek.com
@nicmonton
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