Some underwater pics, email me with phone #s please

As you might have read in yesterday’s post I lost my phone somehow yesterday.. So if you want to get in my phone book email waesa1@gmail.com with your number(s). Irritating. No one has emailed me yet, so I can only assume that despite my readership no one actually wants me to talk to them?..

Self-pity aside, please hit me up. Don’t post ‘em in my comments, though. Data miners love that, phone owners hate it.

So as promised yesterday, here are some underwater photos. I need to become a more stalwart diver (or buy a better camera) before you can really see the fishies.. I’ll show you what I got, though.

I think this may very well be the first ever posted shirtless pic of me on the web.. Umm.. Enjoy?

Reef pic with Moorish Idol.. No doubt there’s other fishies in the pic if you look closely. This damn camera shoots too wide..

Waves piling into the beach entry at Kahe Beach Park (a.k.a. The Spot).

Not being a real maritime sort of guy, I’m just gonna fart in the wind and guess that this thing is some kind of anchor cable.. The regularly spaced rings around the cable seem designed to catch in the reef.. It appears to run all the way to shore, not sure how far out it goes yet.. Gonna swim it one of these days.

I’m standing in the splash zone of this crushing shorebreak, which also functions as my approach to my Turtle Spot south of Kahe beach access (2 above).

You don’t go in on the splashy side

Behind those black rocks is a deep, relatively calm pool that lends itself to turtle access. The trees in the background are (I believe) Paradise Cove Luau park near Ko Olina. Ko Olina pisses me off. They don’t allow mopeds in their compound. Like I’d be there long enough to significantly reduce their precious property values. Dickheads.

Sploosh!

Anyway, a great day of swimming. I saw several turtles, but have already taken enough mediocre pics of them so I withheld from photographing them while waiting for a great shot. I never really got it. But one of these days..

Fishies. >oO0),o.

That’s about all I got. Pics just didnt turn out that great. But rest assured that if you were here you’d have seen many fishies and they would have made you happy. They sure did it for me. Until I lost my phone. THen I was a little less happy.

Send me your phone numbers, please.

Good day, bad day.

Had a good day asnorkel today. Went to Kahe Beach Park, swam for hours, found an access to the turtle spot, shot a roll of film in another $6.00 underwater cam, etc.. Great time. I’ll get the film developed tomorrow and post up pics if any of them are worth a damn. Saw lots of turtles, but didnt get any pics of them this time.

Bad thing is, I think I might have gone into the ocean with my phone in my pocket. My phone is most definitely gone, at any rate. I’d think stolen, but my wallet was still there (with money in it) as was all my other stuff. I traced back all my stops but no joy.. So I went and bought a new phone. Just when I was starting to get some cash saved up.. I guess that’s what saving cash is for though.. stuff like that. Damnit.

So. I have no contact info for anyone anymore. If you read this and you want me to have your number, send it to waesa1@gmail.com. I’ll add ya and then I can text you again

I = a fuckup.

http://www.rifftrax.com/

That’s all I really did today. Downloaded the Rifftrax for all three Star Wars “prequels”, The Matrix Reloaded, and Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark. Watched em all, took huge naps, drank “Bohemian Highway” Merlot (fantastic!), and never really left my room all day except to lay around in the back yard for a while and pee on the neighbor’s hibiscus.

http://www.rifftrax.com/

http://www.rifftrax.com/

Check them out. It’s Mike Nelson from Mystery Science Theater and his buddies making downloadable audio tracks to listen to over big name movie releases. Fucking awesome. Many a laugh out loud, some prolonged, and in lieu of actual people to hang out with, a great surcease to my loneliness

Another big day on the moped

If you read the comment I left at the end of yesterday’s post, you’ll know that I lost my headlamp on the moped yesterday. So, before I did anything else today I got on the ‘ped and went looking for parts. Napa, no good. Xtreme Scooter WorX, no good. (In fact they never really opened that I could see. Is unreliability a hallmark of the scooter repair industry?) some Harley shop, no good.

By then I was totally annoyed so I gave up, went home and got my new swim fins

and went to Kahe Beach Park to test ‘em out. They’re primo. Fast as hell, comfy (even though I forgot my fin socks), give great control.. Definitely a wise investment. Swam around til my juvie turtle found me again, we swam around a while, then I carried on south along the coastline cliffs for quite a ways.. Lots of fishies and awesomeness. Heavy surf and even a little current which the fins made short work of. Tires your legs out a little if you’re not used to ‘em.

Here I am enjoying a Backwoods apres snorkel.. Note my awesome new chinese shirt!

Great time, totally pleased with my fins. I swam well past the two black rock outcrops in the pic above, from about the same distance the other way.. 1/2 mile or so I’ll guess.

I’m not real sure if these mean someone died on the rocks, out to sea, or had their ashes sprinkled there or what..

So I cruised the ‘ped back into Kapolei to catch “Wanted.” Awesome movie. Very gory, fun action, reasonably good plot.. Ate lots of popcorn.

On my way home I decided to take one more shot at getting the headlamp I so desired. Pfleuger Honda came through for me (again! they were the ones that fixed my flat back a while ago, too). Fixed my moped on the side of the road and voila! I can see again. 100% success.

Rode it home and now I’m watching “Big Trouble in Little China.” Thinking about stealing the “Porkchop Express” logo to paint on my moped

Anyway.. Hope everyone’s well. Leave a comment

Here’s a flower.

What I did today..

Last night as I was mopeding home some dude on a sport bike came roaring up beside me and yelled something like “blahBlahBLAH BLAH AIGHT!” I thought nothing of it for a while, until I realized that he could have been yelling at me that I didn’t have a back light. “That’s not good!” I thought to myself, but as it was quite late and I had no tools or nearby parts stores I just carried on my merry way.

When I got home I checked and sure as hell I had no back light, nor brake light. What I did have was a project for today.

So I got up early (since Carmen texted me at 0200) took off my tail light cover and found

this.

There’s a NAPA right near the house in Ewa Beach so I went to McDonald’s to await their opening. When they opened I handed the guy my bulb, he turned it around slowly in his hand, stood up and went in the back of the shop and returned immediately with another bulb. No words had been exchanged at this point.

I asked if it was alright if I tried it in the moped, he nodded, and I went outside. Bingo! Perfect match. I went back in, leaving the bulb in the moped, paid the man 1.25, and left much safer than I was last night

After that excitement I had to rest for a while. So I took a short nap.

Then I went to Ewa Beach Park (Yes, Ewa Beach has a beach. Two in fact. Medical Waste Beach
and Ewa Beach Park) which is said to be home of the boat or beach dive site “Pearl Harbor Wall.” Pearl Harbor wall is supposed to have many fish and whitetip reef sharks and interesting coral, so I figured it’d be cool to check out. Besides, it’s a few miles from home so no sweat. When I got there, the waves were huge, the visibility was shite, and so I just went swimming a little. Didn’t see anything at all. Found some sponges though.

So that’s been my day so far. Pretty big stuff, non?

Back from Maui

I didn’t take many pictures while I was out there.. Worked waaay too many hours a day to get out playing. Now I’m home and sore as hell, tired and up early. But I have 3 days off! Hooray!

The patio off the lobby at Maui Beach Hotel..

The bay outside the hotel.. Sunrise. Disappointing cell phone pic.. You know.

So yeah. Maui’s pretty awesome. The flight out last night was great. Sun was still up, and we saw the island from the air, and a couple other islands out there.. Alas, no cell phones in the plane so no pics.

I dunno. I’m shot and don’t have all that much to say, really.. If I can work up the energy today I’ll get some pics of stuff for ya. Way I feel right now I might not get out of bed, and that doesn’t make for very great blog fodder..

BBQ!

Saturday I had to work in the Dillingham center so it was up super early to catch a bus and all that stuff.. worked all day and caught the bus back home, making sure to catch a bit of a nap. Because we were having a BBQ, and I wanted to be able to stay awake long enough to eat.

John’s folks brought a significant percentage of a cow’s worth of beef from South Dakota and so we got it on the grill and commenced to eating. Flo surprised us all (including John!) by picking up John’s $8.00 ukulele and playing a couple songs on it.. Awesome! Lots of good talk and hanging out time with John’s folks, tons of meat, and maybe one more beer than I strictly needed made it perfect. Got rained on a little. Played with the neighbor’s dogs. Good times!

Haven’t had one of these in a while.. Flower post!

Had today off so I took the moped out on a morning excursion. Bought a beautiful Reyn Spooner aloha shirt

at goodwill, a couple pair of board shorts, had breakfast at the Kapiolani Coffee House in the Waimalu shopping center (where Chun Wah Kam is located), talked to the guy at the bike shop there (super nice), wandered around Best Buy, and rode out to the Spot..

Not the usual; Kahe Beach Park spot, this is farther down the shoreline a bit. There were probably 10 turtles swimming around in there, but the pic is so bad all you can see is reef and white sand under the ocean. Still darn pretty.

While I was watching the turtles, I saw some long black things churning up the water out a bit farther. “Scubas,” I thought, “But no, it can’t be scubas. They’re too far away from their boats and stuff.” So I watched for a bit and saw a dolphin break the surface, just a quick gliding fin and disappeared. Dolphins! So I sat on the edge of the cliff that drops to the water there and watched. Before you know it they were leaping out of the water, spinning and flipping and jumping over each other.. I’d seen that stuff at Seaworld, but seeing them doing it spontaneously in the Ocean Deep is altogether different. Amazing!

Anyway, I was looking for access to where all these turtles were, but as mentioned there’s a bigass cliff there and the water’s maybe a foot deep (no jumping!), and all the access points I found had homeless guys set up in the caves that pock the cliff face. I felt weird about jumping off from someone’s living room, so I went to the usua; access and started swimming. My plan was to swim until I ran into some turtles. It also gave me a chance to check out parts of the reef I hadn’t seen yet.

Tide was super low and waves were super big, but I got myself out a ways from the breaks and headed south toward Ko Olina. Swam about 1/4 mile down the cliff face (up current as it turned out) until I ran into the nicest little juvenile Honu you could hope to meet. We swam around each other for a while (he seemed even more curious than they usually are.. kept swimming by my legs for some reason) while he checked me out with his big eyes wide open.. I’m telling you, turtles are magical. I don’t know what their powers are, but they’re just amazing.

After he got tired of me I started swimming back to the beachhead, making MUCH better time now that I was swimming with the currents, bodysurfed my way back up the beach, and threw away my underwater camera improvisation. The mod that I installed to allow me to turn on the camera also breached the waterproof seal, so I had a camera in sea water. useless. I think I might just have to buy a real one.

Moped ride home was uneventful and fun, got home just in time for John’s folks to finish making lunch so I got to eat me some home-cookin’, Samoan style.

Which brings us to the present.

But enough! I promised flowers.

These trees are heavy with flowers right now. They line many of the streets here.

Blurry, but you get the idea..

This guy was cool. Some sort of succulent looks like. Only one bloom in a patch about 4′ x 10′

These flowers are teensy.. about the size of a 16d nail head.

All spotted on the Goodwill block of Kamehameha Highway across the street from Waimalu Shopping Center.

Now I just need to think of something equally fun to fill the last half of my big day off!

Sorry. I must have blacked out.

Yeah, I missed a day again. Sorry. I just couldn’t stay awake long enough to get the job done. So today I have a picture of my lunch!

Completely fugging delicious. Lo Mein noodles with chicken, roast pork, and kalbi beef. Fantastic.

Otherwise, life goes on much as it has this last age.. full of it’s own comings and goings.. They scarce remember the existence of hobbits.

Yesterday (two days ago to those of you reading from the mainland, unless you’re up really late) I had to be at work at 0500. So I was up at 0230, got cleaned up, gassed up the moped and got to work too early, as is my wont. Worked. Got done about 1230, got on the moped, came home, met John’s family (more on them later), and went upstairs. Was going to read but kept falling asleep so I just gave up and slept. For about 12 hours.

Got up this morning, got on the bus, went to work, ate the lunch you see above, got on the bus, came home from work, ate with John’s folks, spent some good times visiting with the new Samoan Family™ and went upstairs to type this. I have tomorrow off, work Saturday, have Sunday off, then go to Maui for yet another Neighbor Island blood drive.

I may have solved the power-off problem on my underwater digicam, so I’ll try it out tomorrow when I go swimming. I really ought to just break down and buy body surfing gear too. Seriously.

I hope everyone’s doing well. I think of you all often. Sorry for flagging in my duty to keep you abreast of my doings

Wet. Just unbearably damp.

Mopeded (not a word) home in the rain today. Made me super chilly. Sort of hurt my face slapping into raindrops at mach one (ok, 35 mph). But damn fun. Stopped to wait it out at the Poke (POH-kay) stop. Yummy!

Gotta be to work tomorrow at 0500 (a little earlier is always good) so I’m going to bed. Goodnight everyone. You’re all in my thoughts