Progess and Progress?

Okay, this is going to get strange cause I'm writing this today and you, the reader, will be hopefully reading this tomorrow.
Or in your case, today.
See what I mean?
So anyway, today(your yesterday) I spent most of day working on some clay stuff.
If you've been following along at home, you remember that I signed on to do a craft fair in order to fatten up the ole Flat Tire coffers.
Selling out?
I hope so!
The way I figure, I need at least fifty ceramics somethings to make a good go at it.
My friend Kyle hopefully will partner up with me so that we have a greater variety of things.
Kyle does these craft fair all the time so he knows what moves and what he ends up taking home.
Me, I'm just testing out the waters.
I don't have the kiln space for normal craft fair stuff like bowls and platters, so I'm sticking to my normal forms, only smaller:



Bottles and vases baby!
I mean bud vases and vases baby!
I did those yesterday(your day before yesterday or Saturday).
I'll also do some small planter thingys, maybe even put some cactus in them.
Probably make some regular type mugs too, since they're pretty fast and easy to make.
Final tally for the weekend: fourteen stuffs.
Oh and I managed to do these:



Progressing right along!
A couple of weeks ago, I noticed some activity up the street from The Flat Tire Central.
Well, actually more than a couple of weeks.
It seems that a new development is opening up right on the hill above.
Now I vaguely remember that strip of land when we first moved here, like thirty years ago.
Every couple of years, some folks come by and cut some trees and clear some area, but nothing really happened up there since like forever.
Until now:



That area has been a sort of dead end with a stop sign.
Which should have been a sign of things to come.
The stop sign I mean.
The first thing was the prerequisite sign announcing the development and the lots.
Then they started to clear the over growth.
When the fences came up, I can only guess.
I mean I only live like a hundred yards away.
Okay, the fences came up some time last week, about the time they started to move some serious earth:



I had planned to take my bike and check things out, but that was before the fence and the locked gate.
I would think it's a pretty nice view from up on that hill:




You can see in the bottom picture that they are coming right on down the street.
Well, not my street exactly, more across the street, right behind the neighbor's houses.
I feel sort of bad for them, I mean all these years you got nothing behind you then one day, a construction fence comes up and the writings on the wall:



Folks gotta live somewhere.
What with the Target and Whole Foods stores coming up.
I didn't bother to check by I hope that it's at least single family homes and not townhouses or something.
I guess I could call it you know what, but I hesitate to use that word until I see what impact it all brings to the area.
I'm thinking back and Kailua now sort of reminds me of Lahaina or Kailua-Kona way back when and well, we can see what happened in those once small town areas.
No, I won't use the P word just yet.

Kailua Becomes a Target

Big box retailer Target has announced plans to open a Kailua store.
Read about it here.
The site Target has chosen is presently occupied by Don Quixote, formerly Daiei, formerly Holiday Mart(FDFHD). The building is also home to several small businesses and eateries. Although the tenants have changed over the years, the building remains as it has been for as long as I can remember.
Once upon a time, when I resided on the other side of the island, I remember taking the special journey over the Pali to A&W Drive-In to partake in root beer float goodness.
Presently, I do most of my shopping at Don Quixote's(FDFHM); Safeway, which is right next door, serves only to fulfill my blueberry muffin/cheese roll fixes.
Kailua has become a hotbed of controversy recently with the topic of the many bed and breakfasts' the main issue.
Hotbed? Get it? Okay, never mind.
The other issue has been the overall face lift the town is going through.
Yes, time has caught up with Kailua.
Buildings have been undergoing renovations and a couple of new commercial centers have popped up. A cleaner, brighter, more modern look is the common denominator. This has been done, for the most part, to cater to the influx of tourists Kailua has seen recently. Hence the bed and breakfast controversy.
A large stretch of bike lane was repaved recently and for that I am grateful.
I can't really blame the tourists though, Kailua and Lanikai beaches probably rank among the best on the island. If I was visiting here, I'd want to go there.
For the most part though, it has been a change for the positive.
For the most part.
What I like about Kailua, and I've seen this sentiment expressed about other parts of Hawaii, is the small town feel. And the fact that it hasn't really changed much in the last thirty years.
Though time marches on, Kailua has managed to maintain a good ratio of old and new. While new buildings have been built, architects have been able to preserve the character and feeling of old Kailua. The new spaces are occupied by mostly sole proprietor businesses largely keeping signs of large franchises where they belong: in town.
Progress and commerce slowly continue to infiltrate the neighborhood.
We have the fast food places (although for some reason, Burger King is no longer in Kailua proper but nestled in Aikahi), Macy's and Longs, we even got a Pier One and Starbucks(who let them in?). Yet these franchises have managed to keep a low profile and blend in.
Kailua remains a small town.
Target?
Why don't we just pour concrete over the marsh and put a large X on it.
Perhaps Walmart will notice.