Another day..

Just another day in paradise. Weather’s holding out (perfect every day, even if it rains), work’s as good as I can expect, ankle’s not too terribly sore, and I still don’t know if my moped is done. I’m kind of thinking (since I got home at a relatively reasonable time) about going to McDonald’s and curing my french fry craving. Just eat like 5 large fries. Then going over to Star Markets next door to them and getting crackers and maybe some instant mashed potatoes! And gravy of some kind..

I should take advantage of low calorie days like today.. I’m up to 223#.. and that’s not real good. I mean sure, it’s all muscle, but even so

Here’s a picture of my snack for today. Got it at the extremely colorful Puuhale Market near work. You like authentic? Get your ass over to Puuhale Market It’s authentic something or other, that’s for sure. Good shrimp in their plate lunch though.

Drat! I sprained my ankle.

But that’s alright. Those of you who’ve known me a long time know that my ankle is already so loose and floppy from previous sprains, etc. that it can’t break and I can walk on it (if I ignore the pain) immediately after a crippling fall. I choose to ignore the pain. Might have to sleep with it up a bit and everything will be fine. Stupid ankle.

Here’s a pretty flower from our site at the blood drive today.

And here’s the view over the town and bay. I don’t know what the name for this part of town is. It’s east of Diamond Head (just a touch).

We were at a community college. Nice kids. Lots of mopeds. Good day all told. Til the Ankle Incident, anyway.

Oh yeah, Kat made frozen pizza and let me have a few slices! Glorious. I might have gone native too fast. I find myself craving french fries and pizza and crap like that. The other day after the zoo we went ot a buffet with roast beef and mashed potatoes and I ate it like someone was going to steal it from me. When I finally get back to the mainland I’m going to be eating Mom’s cooking by the bucketful!

SnorkelFest

I finally was able to test the Two Condom Technique for waterproofing a camera to use while snorkeling. It works great for waterproofing, but the camera has a hell of a time shooting through 2 layers of condom rubber.. Here’s the best shot I got today.

All those bright blobs are fish, and beautiful, fascinating critters. You can’t really tell through all that rubber rubber though.

So back to the drawing board I guess. I’ll come up with something that works.

We were going to check out Ko Olina resort’s sheltered lagoons, but were turned away at the gate to the complex. Seemed sort of shady, like they didnt want the undesirables coming into their nice little community. Weak.

Anyway, we went to a spot very near where the fishing trip of a couple weekends ago took place. By the Waianae power plant. Scuba tours take off from here regularly and scuba boats drop their steaming loads of scuba divers over “The Pipes.” Which I was assured were the home of many a fish and even an adrenaline charged swim through their outflow. I found the pipes, swam through some nice gentle bubbles, and was not stoked. Saw tons of fish there, but more elsewhere. Swam god only knows how many miles today. 3 hours in the water. I should have taken some shots of the reefs, but I was in too big a hurry to try the underwater camera.

Anyway, I love snorkeling. It’s all the fun I need to recharge for another brutally long and irritating work week. On top of that I sort of figured out how to body surf today. Might get a boogie board and play that a little, too.

Moped wasn’t done on Saturday, they’re closed on Sunday, so hopefully next week. Then I’ll be able to cruise the ‘ped and swim and shave a couple hours off my damn commute, hopefully. I’ll keep you posted on the ongoing moped drama.

Hope everyone had a good weekend.

Honolulu Zoo – a Picture Blog

Had a fine time with the Samoan Family™ today walking through the Honolulu Zoo. This in contrast to news I got today that will sever me from one of my best friends.. So heavy of heart and cell phone in hand I experienced the Zoo.

(I forgot my real camera because I was really excited to go downtown and pick up my moped.. It wasn’t ready yet. *sigh*)

The following are all cell phone pics from my trusty but broken LG VX9800.

I love these trees. They’re just amazing.

They’re almost creepy in their urge to grow and spread their tendrils about.

I don’t know what any of these flowers are, but there are tons of amazing flowers at the Zoo. I spent more time looking at flora than fauna.

They grow a lot of cactus on the grounds there, some fairly exotic.

Obligatory hibiscus, this time in white.

I love these trees. The geometrical progression of the stalks at the base is just cool as hell.

I’m going to take a guess at the name of this tree. Red-trunk palm?

Finally, we saw a couple of these:

pulled up to the dock downtown. Apparently your cruise ship drops you off right in the heart of downtown. This one’s sort of a baby compared to the other one we saw, and especially some of the Princess ships.. Mind bogglingly huge, and mind bogglingly deep harbors right off of downtown.

So another day like all my days seem to be since moving here. Loss, sadness, beauty and joy all wrapped into one day. No wonder I’m always exhausted.

Thanks to those of you who texted me today. It makes me feel much better to know someone’s out there thinking of me.

Garage days re-re-re-revisited

Got home from work and started laundry. Because that’s the fabulous Island lifestyle I lead. Since waiting for laundry sort of sucks I broke open a forty I’d been saving for the weekend and went out to the garage with my cell phone and my laptop (because ballers like myself have technologicable gadgets like that) and started drinking and listening to reggae.

Tomorrow is supposed to be Honolulu zoo day, and I’m thinking I’m going to try to talk John into dropping me off to pick up the moped, too. I hope like hell that I didn’t just piss all that money down my leg, but if I did I’d just as soon make the moped run with a vehicle nearby to pick up my dead moped and drive me home, you know?

Got paid today. It’s amazing how many hours a day I devote to making that little money. I’d spend every last cent of my income from BBH paying rent if I tried to live here alone. Every single cent. How do single moms working at Wendy’s pay their bills?

So like all hard-working Americans I gotta knuckle down and struggle my way through. My joy comes in small bytes of information over the Cellular network and I dream of a day when I can shave a couple hours off my commute with a goddamn moped. But that’s life all over. I heard Wendy’s riding her motorccle instead of her Durango, and I applaud her. I would have stolen her motorcycle if it wouldn’t have been illegal and if it wouldn’t have caused family trouble. I should trade her jackets, but she’s too small for me. My leather motorcycle jacket is pointless here.

As always, thanks to everyone who reads this thing. It’s a pretty good reason to wake up in the morning, and I hope not entirely unsatisfying to read. Stay in touch. I really appreciate that.

Good morning, mainland readers! I’m still in the garage, and I was able to stay up until almost 2200 (10 p.m.) local time despite my 0330 wake up! Endurance. Bred into Minnesotans since 1844.

EDIT: I wound up staying out in the garage drinking incredibly warm Natural Ice until 0200 the next morning and talking to Pomerenke on the phone. It was great.

Missed a day

Worked a long day at Castle High School yesterday and when I got home I just zonked out. Things are going ok though. Just super pooped out. I’m going to go by Quik Fix and pick up my moped on Saturday I believe. Samoan family is going to Honolulu Zoo and stuff so I’m going to tag along on that trip and do some touristing finally. Definitely getting homesick. I keep having these heartbreaking dreams of people and places I left behind.. It’ll get better eventually, but I just want you all to know that I miss you. The blog is great for keeping you posted, but not as good as a hug..

Fun downtown tourist pics coming in a couple days. Today should be shorter and easier and hopefully I’ll think of something to blog about that isn’t horribly depressing by then.

Oh yeah, yesterday’s blood drive was in Kaneohe (remember the mountain pics from the car a month ago or so?) and those mountains are still just amazing. Gonna have to get over there more often. hey have a huge sheltered bay as well, but according to Tara it’s shark infested. Trying to decide if that worries me or interests me more! Never seen a shark, after all..

Another day downtown

So I ran around taking pics again after work. Enjoy!

Falls of Clyde (I think that’s it’s name) at Honolulu Maritime Center. Lots of fish here as well. Couldn’t get a good cell pic of them though.

And of course, obligatory flowers.

I’ve been a little homesick lately so I stole a copy of Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon Days from a Starbucks and am reading it again. Seems to be helping, and if nothing else it’s a darn fine book. Starbucks books are just there for decor. Fuck that. Books are for reading. So I am. I might even put it back when I’m done. But then again I might not.

Frank at Quik Fix said my ‘ped’s gonna run me just $275! I’m totally tipping the bejesus out of those guys. Also, in the spirit of Dan and my idea of a Datsun rally, I’m thinking a 1st Annual Oahu Moped Rally is in order. Just start it small and grassroots and let it explode. There’s millions of them on the island and it’d be fun as hell. Until it turned into a 50cc Sturgis, then it’d be a lot of work for other people to have fun. But fair enough. Think I’m bored enough to organize something like that? Any suggestions? Leave a comment.

Downtown Donor Center

Worked at the BBH Downtown Donor Center today, and afterwards I went wandering around Bishop/Queen area.. Took a lot of pictures, so let’s just get right to them.

This old stone 2 story building next to a bigass (20-30 story) office/apartment bldg.. neat.

Some teensy flowers that I quite liked.

A ratty old pigeon that wouldn’t leave me alone but wouldn’t face the camera, either.

A beautiful flower but not a very good picture. Some type of palm flower.

After I got tired of that I jumped on a bus that was, alas, heading the wrong way. So I went full circle fom Ewa Beach to work, then all the way to Waikiki Beach and back to Ewa Beach after work. 3 hour bus ride for the lose!

Oh well. All in good fun, and texting kept me busy

Hope everyone is well. Let me know if there’s anything you’d especially like to see on the blog. I’ll maybe someday get around to posting it.

No moped yet, but getting closer.

So instead I converted this pic of some bamboo into greyscale to make it look all old and interesting. It’s actually pretty cool, but I doubt most people share my fascination with bamboo.

I think bamboo did the best acting in House of Flying Daggers. Even in the action sequences it held its own. And it’s immobile.

Heh.

Ok. That’s all I got. Work early as hell again tomorrow so off to bed. Thanks for all the comments!

Lazy day and tough week

Sunday was a lazy day. We were planning on going to the beach, but an emergency trip to Chuckie Cheese for the boy put an end to that. So I hung around the house watching movies and accomplishing nothing. Sort of nice actually.

I occasionally have weak moments where I worry that this was a bad idea – moving out here and all that. I miss everyone so much, and hope things are good for you all back on the mainland.

This week’s going to be a tough one. early starts (I’m typing this at 0322) late end times, all around a brutal schedule. Got a couple mobiles at the end of the week, and I’m thinking I should be done with phlebotomy training by tomorrow. The steps are different here but my hands remember..

As always I’ll keep an eye open for more neat stuff to post up on here. And I should have the moped back sometime this week! So even if I am a little down today it’ll get better. Thanks to everyone. this blog is good for me, and I appreciate you all taking the time to read it