This one is going to require more than a little explanation... I alluded to it in my previous post to Steve, who knows what happened from a PM exchange we had last week.
While my husband Kenny and I were on a three week vacation on the Big Island recently (celebrating our 20th anniversary), we chartered a fishing boat, along with his sister, brother-in-law, and some friends, and we had some other friends who stayed on shore as well. While we were on the boat, Kenny suffered an accident that amputated his left ring finger -- his ring caught on an edge of a stanchion as he was climbing down the ladder from the flying bridge to get into the fighting chair. The boat pitched, his foot slipped, and his finger was ripped off.
Fortunately his sister had been a volunteer EMT, so she knew what to do to keep him from going into shock, etc. and we weren't very far from the harbor, so the ambulance was waiting when we pulled in. Unfortunately there was no way for the finger to be saved, but we were very grateful that it wasn't any worse. And I can't tell you how much it meant to have the support of family and friends with us at such a difficult time. They all left within the next few days, but we stayed for another week as planned, mostly relaxing at our resort (we stayed at Paniolo Greens the first week, the Bay Club the second, and Wyndham Kona Hawaiian Village the third).
Which leads me to this photo. As it so happened, two of my colleagues from work arrived on the island two days after Kenny's accident. They had wanted to take the sunset/stargazing tour to the top of Mauna Kea, but we found that all the tour companies were fully booked for the nights that my colleagues were free. So Kenny and I told them if they wanted to, we could just rent a 4WD vehicle and drive up there ourselves -- we could guide them. Having done the tour with one of the companies ourselves the first week we were on the island (and having several guide books), we assured them it was definitely doable. My colleagues said they never would have had the courage to do it on their own, so they were glad that we were willing to do this, especially under the circumstances with Kenny's injury and everything. (I told him he didn't have to go, we gals could manage just fine without him, but Kenny said all he had to do was take his Percocet and relax in the back seat, so he didn't see what the big deal was, LOL!
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So my one colleague drove, while my other colleague just kept exclaiming how extraordinary it all was. We brought a nice picnic dinner to eat at the Ellison Onizuka Visitor Center, where we acclimatized to the higher elevation, then we ascended to the summit of Mauna Kea. Kenny would get out of the truck for a few minutes and walk around, then get back in and rest... So I set up my tripod and took this photo of the four of us (Kenny & I are in the middle). I was struck by the fact that even though my husband had lost his finger five days earlier, we had not let it stop us from doing such an extraordinary thing...
Thanks for sharing them with us.
