Still in Colorado. Got a pile of applications out, but no one’s tripping over themselves getting back to me.. Keeping myself busy doing projects around my brother’s house. Went mountain biking with Dan and Paul on Sunday.. I’m apparently in the worst shape of my life. Did an awful lot of walking.. Oh well. Perfect day and I could use the exercise. I still get out of breath very quickly – got a ways to go before I’m completely acclimated to the altitude.. Going from sea level to front range Colorado is a bitch. Not having too much trouble with the cold yet..

So I’m still in Colorado. Just been bumming it for the last week or so, but I probably ought to get off my ass and get employed. Cut and split wood for Dan and cleaned/organized his garage workshop, worked on his busted chimney, stuff like that. Nota total waste, but not the motivated self-starter you all know and love.

I really need to shake the shit out of my head and get on some kind of path.. a path to succss might be nice, or to love or to something. Moving here was supposed to make my life easier..

Not much to say.. Just coasting.

Howdy. I’m back in Colorado.

Spent the last couple days sleeping and adjusting to the altitude.. Did surgery on the Gateway laptop (unsuccessful so far) and going to chop some wood for my brother. Haven’t really made any progress at much of anything since I got here.

Flight was awesome. Had 2 seats to myself on the HNL-LAX leg of the trip, and 3 seats to myself on the LAX-DEN leg. Stretching out and relaxing.. It was nice. Still exhausting, but nice anyway.

Otherwise I’m more or less adrift. Gotta make some decisions and start moving again. I’m open to suggestions.

Well, it’s getting late and I have to be up early for the flight tomorrow so I’m going to tear down my computer.

This is the last blog update from Hawaii, but keep checking back. I’ll be continuing here (or maybe making another page) to tell you about my move to Colorado, or wherever the hell I actually wind up.

It’s a sad thing to leave a place that you’ve grown to love.. I love Colorado as well, but I had so many trials overcome (and some that I failed to overcome), loneliness, joy, awe, sadness, fun, fear, learned a lot about myself, my fellow man, and so many other things.. An absolutely amazing experience. I wish I could say it like I feel it..

Anyway, keep checking back for updates. I’ll be posting the link to m new Colorado page here if I ever bother to make one. Otherwise I’ll just keep it right here if my readers can overlook the incongruity of the title

Thanks a million for reading. It has often kept me going here when I was feeling like the only person in the world. Best wishes to everyone, and I’ll get back online when I get to Dan’s house.

Before I left for Hawaii, my brother told me that if I wasn’t out “looking at interesting orchids and shit” I was wasting the whole trip.. Well my stop at Wahiawa Botanical Garden probably made the whole trip worthwhile by those standards..

Free admission, beatuiful grounds.. Very natural seeming in plant distribution and such, but amazing specimens abound. If you’re on Oahu you owe it to yourself to make the mauka drive and check this place out. Here’s more.

Arty flash shot..

Some sort of strange growth on this tree.. None of its other branchings showed this growth.

Giant Orchid. First the flowers..

Now the whole plant. The gum tree behind it is something like 2′ in diameter (for size comparison)

And another orchid. “Orchids and shit” indeed!

This palm tree is without a doubt the tallest of its kind I’ve ever seen. I was astounded by it.

Beautiful flower of some kind..

and another kind

Overview of a small part of the Gardens..

Big flower/dangly thing

And that’s just a sampling of the wonders available to behold at the Garden.. Amazing place and totally worth the cost of gas to get there

Some other things my readers will appreciate:

Links to local kine radio stations (webcasts)

AM 940 from the big island.. Traditional Hawaiian. I love this station.

http://am940hawaii.com/

KCCN FM 100.3 – Hawaiian reggae. Small playlist, good music

http://kccnfm100.com/listen/

KDNN FM 98.5 “The Island” Hawaiian style and reggae

http://www.island985.com/main.html

Listen and enjoy

So many things that I’m sure I’m forgetting to get on this blog.. I need to get on moving and packing and all that stuff.. Thanks a million to the locals that took me into their hearts and all my love to the Islands and the people that make them what they are. God I’m going to miss this place..

Jamie came down for her long-planned visit on Wednesday night. We rented a car and have been exploring the island, hitting all the spots I’ve missed out on in the last 6 months. They were having a special on convertibles, too. Makes gawking like tourists way easier. Let’s see.. Big happenings in the last few days:

A gecko fell (jumed?) off of a tree and landed on my head while I was driving Jamie back from the airport. Tried to get pics, but failed. He clambered around in my hair for a while before finally scampering off

Unable to find a place to parkthe rental car I parallel parked it in the driveway in front of my garage. Apparently that’s against the rules. Towed the car and cost us 167 bucks to get it out.

Jamie went for her first swim in the ocean. Swam bravely, but didn’t take to the snorkel gear very well.

Drove into town without getting lost or freaking out.

That’s about it. I’ll see about getting some pictures to post up here. I keep forgetting that I won’t be seeing this stuff every day after the 16th!

Not much to add.. Preparing for my move back and for Jamie’s visit. Trying not to spend any more money than necessary. Prioritizing my stuff so the things I leave here are things I won’t miss too badly (Except my moped. I’m going to miss that thing like crazy. If for no other reason that used mopeds are selling for 1200+ in Denver.. which if I did the math probably would make it at least break even to ship it home. But then I’d be broke when I got there and I don’t need that..)

Done some good bodyboarding and some less successful body boarding.. Coule days ago waves were 6′+ and moving slowly enough for me to catch em.. great time. Had an impromptu domino party in the garage Saturday night and spent most of Sunday recovering from it. Otherwise not too much to report. Hope everyone is happy and well. 8 more days and I get on a plane..

Did some preliminary packing for my move back to the mainland today, and started getting freaked out so I decided to hit the beach and forget my woes. Surf was supposed to be really good on the south shores, but sucked. Again. Just like the last few days. Forecasts are near peak (8′) and reality is about 2′ and mushy. Booo!

So I went on a moped tour of the southwest corner of Oahu. Here are a few pics.

Barber’s Point beach park. A lovely chunk of sand and rock and surf surrounding by revolting feedlots and junkyards.

Pretty if you look at the ocean, though

And I took the moped off road for excitement at White Plains. Beautiful trees here.

Back home now. My going away party is tomorrow at 2000 at Chez Monique. If you’re in the area, drop by. We’re going to be doing karaoke!

Mostly just lazing around the house enjoying not having to go to work. Went on a long moped cruise into the mountains yesterday.. Gold winging the moped while I still have it..

Here’s a cool old building on old Fort Weaver Road.

Tourist trap ca. 1970

Here’s the Waianae side mountains as seen from Kunia road. Stupid cell phone pics just don’t do ‘em justice.

And a darn pretty tree I saw.

Went down to Medical Waste Beach yesterday, too. Waves were 0-1′ high so I just turned around and came back. Worked on my tan. Not much going on here these days. Love it. 14 days til I return.. I better get busy.

I spent the last couple of days napping and :sleeping in..” (Due to the early morning fetish of BBH Sleeping in means sleeping til 0530 or 0600, even today. In fact, today I woke up at 0300 which was pretty normal when I was working. But failing to fall back to sleep I decided to transcribe my Peace Corps Samoan language cucciculum and write a new post.) (Dang. That was a long parenthesis)

SO I haven’t really done anything all that blog worthy. We had a fun BBQ on Saturday night, I got a pile of groceries that can be prepared by adding boiling water, and an electric kettle to boil water in, packed my stuff just a little, cleaned my room, and tanned. Big doins.

Today is Labor Day and my desire to get out and about is tempered by the knowledge that everyone else will be out too. Was thinking of making a trip out to Kahe for some snorkeling. We’ll see how excited I get about that prospect by the time the sun comes up..

So nothing to report, just keeping you all posted. Maybe I’ll have done something worthy by this evening?