According to Wikipedia, Pele’s Curse is the belief that anything natively Hawaiian, such as sand, rock, or pumice, will effect bad luck on whoever takes it away from Hawaii.

So how come I pissed here off?  I had an impossible run of bad luck while I was in Hawaii, and I swear I never even picked up so much as a grain of sand with the intention of taking it with me.

Here’s the major bouts of bad luck thrown at me…

My cell phone quit working the second day in Maui.  Initially, I thought that it had got wet, and that was the problem.  It would ring, it would show new text messages, it would power off and on, and it would tell me the time when I flipped it open.  But nothing else.  None of the keys worked.  Couldn’t call anyone, take photos, or answer a phone call.

I was told if you put it in a bag of rice, it would absorb any moisture and all would be good.  My cell phone travelled in a bag of rice for two days.  And was dried several times with a hair blower.  And sat in the sun.  Nothing.

The hotel shower quit working. That was fixed within the day, but annoying first thing in the morning.  I had a bath instead, but there was no hot water. That was repaired when the worked on the shower.

The batteries on my waterproof camera failed. Not entirely.  But only on the day I really wanted it to work when we went snorkeling.  It took about 40 photos and quit.  Just when the dolphins appeared.  I recharged it, and it’s still working now.  Go figure.

My digital SLR camera bag fell off the truck. For some crazy reason (Pele’s curse no doubt) the back door to Audie’s rented SUV popped open while we were driving and it fell out.  The only article of all the things packed in the back.

I checked it later, and the camera and original lens were okay.  Whew!  I grabbed the telephoto lens and it looked alright, but as soon as I took off the lens cover a rainbow of broken glass and circuit board tinkled onto the floor.  The day before the wedding.  Crap!

Don’t get me wrong.  I did enjoy my vacation in Maui.  But I sure wish Pele would have picked on someone else.