Relax to the Max

Kate and I finished our jobs on the Big Island today. A standard 13 week contract for each of us that flew by in no time. This is typically the time that we start packing bags for a sunrise flight to visit family on the east coast or throw all the bags in the car for a couple-thousand-mile road trip. This is typically hustle-time. But it’s different this time. As I relax and enjoy my pau hana (after work) drink, the bags are already packed and traveling the brief 120 miles to our next assignment. When we get to Moloka’i in 10 days, our car will already be there with a few weeks worth of Costco supplies packed in the rear. What to do in the meantime? Vacation!

We are spoiled rotten. We get to drive all over the country every year. Usually we travel by car and see some awesome sights along the way. Last spring we drove from Colorado to Maine by way of Key West (Get a Haircut and Get a Real Job! 10/6/13), the year before, we drove from Colorado to Alaska and returned on 10 day ferry trip down the North Pacific Coast (Alaskan Ferry Trip 12/17/12). These trips are always cool and create awesome memories, but they aren’t relaxing. The road trips are many great things, but they are not a break. Logistics, highway food, cheapo hotel beds, and an occasional call to AAA are the common obstacles. In the next 10 days, we will deal with none of that. We will just RELAX. (don’t do it)

A song about relaxing by a band with a travel-themed name. Really the perfect vacation song.

I haven’t written on here much at all about our next assignment, which, by the way, is going to be fantastic. I’ve been keeping a journal on the side. I’m not sure if it will become some sort of blog entry on here in the future, but for now, I’ll offer this brief summary of what we’ve gotten ourselves into: Kate and I will be the two Physical Therapists for the island of Moloka’i when the current PT goes on maternity leave. The only hospital on the island of 8,000 people typically needs one traveler following the recent retirement of one of their two PTs, but with the pending maternity, they will need two travelers. Kate and I will run the show for three months while hopefully grabbing a chance to explore one of the lesser known of the Hawaiian Islands. Moloka’i is less than 10 miles from Maui, but much, much, MUCH more rural and quiet. Moloka’i is one of the last unspoiled areas of Hawai’i and will be quite the isolationist’s travel assignment. A huge majority of people who live in Hawai’i have never been to Moloka’i, but many of the ones who have visited have shared their stories with me over the last few weeks. From tales of hunting wild African antelopes left over from a now closed safari park, to being trapped on a remote deserted beach for days, to the incredible kindness of (most of) the locals – everyone who has been to Moloka’i has a tall tale to tell. Perhaps in the future I’ll share some of the other stuff I’ve written about preparing for our trip to Moloka’i. To be honest, I started out quite skeptical and thought Moloka’i might be TOO rural, but I’ve come around and am crazy-excited for the next 3 months.

People do love their canoes on Moloka'i. Unspoiled beauty.

People do love their canoes on Moloka’i. Unspoiled beauty.

But, work in Moloka’i is 10 days away. The work of planning, and scheduling, and packing is done. We’ll wrap up our time on the Big Island over the next two days with some serious beaching. Then, we take a TSA-free puddle hopper over to Maui for 5 days of camping, hiking, and relaxation. Saturday morning, we’ll take the <10 mile ferry ride over to Moloka’i to let the real adventure begin. My biggest worry over the week will be preparing for a fantasy football draft on Skype with a bunch of buddies from school back in Boston (oh those goons). I promise many pictures over the next week and some unique tales from the upcoming assignment.

I have to run, the sun has set on the last day of Big Island work and I have to get to cooking this steak. 🙂 Aloha!

Mother Nature

An earthquake woke me up this morning.

I was pretty sure the ground was shaking, which was unusual since all that is under the house is hard, steady lava rock that doesn’t even budge when large vehicles drive by on the road. Kate was already out running, I quickly made a mental note that I needed to ask her if she felt an earthquake, and I was back asleep within 20 seconds. Sometime later, I found I had been laying semi-awake in bed for a while listening to the voices from the TV in the next room go on-and-on about the approaching hurricane. I sprung to my feet when the TV conversation shifted to the 4.5 earthquake that had struck this morning. I was a little surprised to find out it really was an earthquake and excited that I had finally felt one. We were in Anchorage 2 summers ago, where the earthquakes seemed weekly, and I never felt a single one. The news has been so inundated with Hawaiian hurricane histories and storm prepping tips, that I’m still not sure if any damage was done by the quake – it hit a fairly remote part of the island, so I suspect everyone is OK.

At the time of this posting (9 PM Eastern, 3 PM Hawaiian) we're about 5 hours from Hurricane Iselle making landfall here on the Big Island.

At the time of this posting (9 PM Eastern, 3 PM Hawaiian) we’re about 5 hours from Hurricane Iselle making landfall here on the Big Island.

Every single patient I have seen over the last 3 days has had an opinion about hurricane Iselle and the toll she’ll take on the Big Island, but the bottom line is we’ll just have to prepare for the worst, hope for the best, and wait. This storm is approaching from the East, the Hilo Side of the island, we are over on the West side in Kona. The Kona side of the island has sustained damage from hurricanes in the past, but these were storms that wrapped around from the South. This storm coming from the East will have to plow past two 13,000 ft volcanoes and a smaller 8,000 ft peak. These mountains may stall the storm and will likely take a lot of its force before it gets to our area…. but no one really knows.

In the meantime, we continue to wait. Kate and I both work for clinics that are closed this afternoon and tomorrow, hopefully we’ll scoot by with some wind, rain, and an otherwise relaxing long weekend. We should return to work on Monday for our last five days of work before heading off to Maui for a week’s vacation and then to the island of Molokai for the next 13 weeks… but that’s a story for another time.

Don’t worry about us, we’re prepared and we’ll be fine, but do keep Hilo in your thoughts and prayers, and hope they don’t get hammered too hard by the storm. Personally, after the earthquake this morning, I’m keeping a watchful eye uphill towards the volcano rather than downhill towards the sea. That Mother Nature, she’s a powerful one.

Just Go With It

I’ve returned to my natural state. Everything I own is in a bag. The rear-end of the car is dragging on the tires from the weight of stuff that will ultimately end up in a storage container. Kate just got home from her last day of work with a bottle of wine. The corkscrew is packed away at the bottom of a box, but at least my camping gear is coming on the trip, so my Swiss Army knife is available. We’re each wearing different white Red Sox shirts as I twist the corkscrew portion of the Swiss Army knife into the cork and pull like hell while hoping not to splash red wine on either of us. Success! It’s going to be a good week off.

Map of lava flow hazard zones for Island of Hawai`i

The USGS’ Lava-flow Hazard Zone Map. I guess we’re supposed consider this when looking for housing? It’s going to be an adventure.

It’s been a wild ride to get this next assignment’s contracts in place. Actually, they aren’t really in place, I’m just going in on blind faith with fingers crossed. Kate got an assignment set in Kona, HI through a recruiter. We thought long and hard about whether Kona was where we wanted to go and what our other options were. When it became apparent that there were some more jobs around Kona and a couple opportunities for independent contracts presented themselves, we committed to Hawaii.

People ask me about independent contracts a lot. Let’s be clear, I am no expert on independent contracts, but I do have a little experience. Whatever I’ve done this time around is not the way independent contracts should be done. I’ve verbally accepted two PRN jobs with no idea what the pay is.

It all started well. I have had two different interviews at places that would like me to work for them. Seems simple enough from there, right? Let’s sign the contracts and get started with work. Unfortunately, neither of the jobs has 40 hours for me, but they both say they have 20-30 hours for me. We have talked pay, but I have no commitment from either job on exactly what the pay will be. I supposedly have a job offer in the mail from the private practice, and the hospital I have spoken with has cautioned me that they are run by the state, so “it can be quite a process to set-up a contract.” I’m antsy to have a contract in hand, but Kate keeps reminding me about “Aloha time.” Aloha time is the Hawaiian equivalent of “Don’t worry, be happy.”

The start of the Ironman Kona swim is right around the corner from my job. The locals call it “The Pier,” and I cannot wait to go get some open water swimming in.

Kate’s right, things are going to go fine, we always land on our feet. I have two places in Kona that want me to work for them and want me to start in under 10 days – that’s a pretty good situation. It’s Hawaii, they’re relaxed, and I should be too. No one else is worried, they expect me to show up on the 19th and start work. Nothing left to do but knock on wood, hop on the plane, and hope someone has scheduled me some patients when I get out there.

Remember, don’t do this. Be more business savvy than I have been. When talking finances of a contract, be clear, be confident. Because I have not been clear or confident when talking about the business parts of my independent contracts, there’s nothing left for me to do but wait and start working on my transition into Aloha time. Patience is a virtue, don’t worry brah.

To Be Continued...

Island Dreaming

Just a quick entry for you folks today. Thought I would give an update on my current job search and some of the obstacles I’m running into.

Regular readers know my wife, Kate, and I are both PTs who travel together and know that this sometimes presents some unique challenges. Mainly, we need two PT jobs when we travel instead of just one.

Island of Hawai‘i, Hawaii

Kona coffee every morning.

Our hope this summer is to return to Hawaii. We worked in Waikiki a few years back and after a couple consecutive years of assignments in the more Northern reaches of our country, we’re ready for some sun and water. This time, we’d like to try to avoid the city and check out an island other than Oahu.

I try not to rant on here too much, but I really wish we could have some more reciprocity between states with our licenses, like the nurses do. It took almost three months to reinstate our Hawaii licenses – a process which should have been easy, but dragged on mostly because of mistakes by state board staff in several different states. Anyhow, we now have our Hawaii licenses current and even have a possible job on the big island (Hawaii).

Normally, we would be psyched to have a lead on a job in Hawaii this far out from our start date (4 weeks), but our situation got a little bit spicier this week. Two jobs on Nantucket materialized and got us thinking a bit more Easterly.

Nantucket, MA

Nantucket – 30 miles off the coast of Cape Cod. Very expensive.

Nantucket sounds like a great time – but, it comes with a few challenges: 1. We’d really like to be in Hawaii. 2. Housing prices are ridiculous. The only Nantucket posting on airbnb.com right now is a house available for rent at $40,000 per month! There’s no camping on Nantucket, so a trailer or RV are out. I’m trying to wrap my head around how living in a house boat for 3 months would go. (I think it would go pretty awesome!) If these Nantucket gigs work out, I think we’re going to have to ask for higher pay to help buffer the cost of living.

That’s all for now, just a quick update and I hope to have more to share soon.