"New" Car

I still don't have a camera, but now I have a car. I bought a sweet ride. It's a 1994 Toyota Carib. For anyone who isn't familiar with the models sold on Japan, it is a station wagon. A compact station wagon. I really have to fold myself to get in and out. The steering wheel doesn't adjust up or down and nine times out of ten I hit my knee on the shifter as I pack my six-and-a-half foot frame into the cozy driver's seat. I need to put my left leg in the car on the far side of the steering wheel and simultaneously drop my body and pivot right while doing a sort of sideways backing-in to the vehicle. In the end, I got a reliable car for $800, so as long as I don't end up on fire or covered in flesh eating insects, I am really in no position to complain.

Speaking of insects, the cockroaches aren't getting any better around here. The last few mornings I have sacrificed precious breakfast time trying to kill the cockroaches coming out of my clothes. This morning was especially nice. The cockroach was inside my t-shirt. When I put on my shirt, the large and smooth bug climbed up my back, across my neck, and started it's way down my arm before I was able to swat it. For anyone who isn't familiar with cockroaches (I have never seen any in Wisconsin, so maybe some of you haven't seen any there either?), let me enlighten you: those things are tough. Even though I smacked it, the only damage it sustained was a broken wing. It fell onto my bed and made it's way into the covers. Perhaps there is something to be said for making your bed in the morning, which is something I don't do. There would be fewer places for roaches to hide, at least. Of course, you don't want to smash a cockroach in the place that you sleep, so I spent ten minutes trying to rid my bed of the intruder. I am convinced that that cockroach was a magician. It just plain disappeared. Somehow even after shaking out every sheet, blanket, pillow case, and comforter, I couldn't flush him out. In the end, my room still has too many cockroaches and they probably mock me when I'm not there. I haven't had success in killing any of them. Seemingly old age is the only thing that kills them. I will have to wait them out.

In other news, now that I have a car, I am able to get around. Last weekend I met up with some old friends from college. I hadn't seen them in four years. It's crazy how quickly the time goes by. I was also able to make it to the northern part of the island. Okinawa is a beautiful place. Unfortunately, there are huge power lines ruining almost every view, but I think I can look past/through/around that. I didn't get to do anything outdoors, but we drove around lost for a while and ended up at a nice, small restaurant. The menu was in Japanese and they had pictures of a lot of the food. One thing I learned this week was that having a menu in English isn't really a benefit for me. Danny and I went to a restaurant Sunday night and I had no characters to reference anything off of. I just pointed to a random dish that started with an 'M'. It ended up being slightly hairy pig feet. There was no meat, just skin, fat, and bone. It reminded me of my first meal in Hong Kong. Sheng ordered a "beef" dish for me. It was beef alright: beef intestine, stomach, and other ingredients that are best eaten when disguised in the form of a hot dog.

This coming weekend I am signed up for some softball. I don't have a glove, but I will make do. Even though I'm not a huge fan of diving, I think I will schedule a dive soon. Everyone tells me that Okinawa has the best scuba diving in the world. There are some underwater ruins around here somewhere that should be interesting.

Hopefully my (different) camera arrives soon. The one I originally ordered was on back order, so I canceled the shipment. I changed to a Canon SD800 IS. It still has the two must haves: wide angle lens (28mm) and image stabilization. I traded the 280mm zoom in the Panasonic for supposed better image quality. Hopefully I made the right choice.

After the Typhoon

I didn't get any pictures of the typhoon because I still don't have a camera. The storm was a pretty awesome display of power on behalf of Mother Nature, though. The winds were blowing at 110mph and the eye of the storm was only 4 miles away. The speed with which the sheets of rain blew across the fields and parking lots was almost hypnotizing. When I stared long enough (it's easy to do when you have nothing but time), my mind would make images of giant ghosts running down and enveloping buildings and trees. At times the rain was so thick you couldn't see 100m in front of you. The parking lot in front of our building would flood, with some of the water coming into the first floor of the building (I'm on the 2d floor). When the rain retreated, so did the water. The whole process happened two or three times. As far as I could tell, there was no real damage from the storm besides some downed trees and signs. Like I mentioned in the last post, the buildings here are designed to withstand the frequent storms.

Overall, the typhoon was a really good time. The whole ordeal was a lot like the time we had the big earthquake in Hawaii. Something I took away from being forced to stay inside is how rare it is to have a day of doing absolutely nothing. There were no appointments or deadlines from anyone. Even if there were, we wouldn't know about them because we had no communications and couldn't leave the building. With the power out, we had no computers, video games, TV, movies, or other distractions. We couldn't go outside and all we had to entertain ourselves were books, a deck of cards, a homemade chess set, and... get this: talking.

There is something to be said for being constantly connected to the outside world, but there is even more to be said for the isolation from the world at large that we so rarely get to experience. Danny is my roommate from Hawaii, but he has been living in Japan for the past 9 months. I hadn't talked to him in quite some time. It was good to be able to catch up.

Playing chess was also fun. The last time I played was in Physics class in high school with Mike (made famous in thehalblog). Neither Danny nor I remembered if the Rooks (aka castles) or Bishops were on the outside of the board, so we just switched their position every game. We also focused on horseys making the L. Yeah, we're that good.

In the end, the storm passed and it has been raining every day since. To be honest, I preferred the storm to the constant rain. At least we didn't have to go to work.

I did purchase a camera as well. I went with the Panasonic DMC TZ3K. The two "must haves" for the purchase were 1. wide angle lens, and 2. image stabilization. This one had both, plus a lot of other cool features. I have no idea how long it will take for it to reach me here in Japan, but I ordered it yesterday (the price dropped $50 today for some reason. Maybe because I bought mine yesterday.). Hopefully I will be posting pictures of Japan soon.

Konnichi Wa

Still no new camera.

Japan has been ok so far. I haven't really had much of a chance to go out and do anything. The weather here is unbelievably hot. The humidity is enough that I have a dehumidifier in my room with a 1.5 gallon tank and I have to empty it twice a day. My room isn't even that big and I have central air conditioning taking out some of the moisture already.

My roommate from Hawaii picked my up at the airport on Saturday. As we were driving back there was a strange explosion/thud in the van, followed by a lot of lights on the instrument panel lighting up. We pressed on, hoping we could make it home before the van died, but we only made it another ten minutes before the van gave up on itself. The headlights got very dim and eventually went out. We pulled over on an exit ramp and called a tow truck. After about two hours of waiting the tow truck showed up and took the vehicle away. Sayonara, van. It was nice knowing you, even if it was only for an incomplete drive.

I was looking forward to getting out and about this weekend, but there is a typhoon coming our way. It is expected to hit on Friday and last for three days. Talk about a ruined weekend. Hopefully I will have a camera by then so that I can get some sweet pictures. Rumor has it that the people here in Japan build their structures to withstand the frequent storms. The people of Florida should take note. I'm sure it would save a lot on insurance costs, even if the buildings aren't quite as visually appealing.

One really nice thing about Japan is that their "kanji" (system of writing, taken from the Chinese) is mostly readable to me. Even if I don't understand what people are saying, I can understand the signs and it is much easier for me to find my way around due to the Chinese. My education is no longer going to waste! I am actually pretty excited to brush up on my Chinese and maybe take some Japanese classes. About an hour ago I bumped into an old classmate and he was saying that some guys are planning on taking a trip to Taiwan over the Labor Day holiday. I promptly invited myself along and shamelessly threw my Chinese experience on the table. I'm in.

Go to Japan

It was good to make it back to Wisconsin. I saw my family for the first time in over a year, I met up with a lot of old friends, I relaxed and actually read a book, and I bought a condo in Madison. The only stressful part of the trip was that I didn't end up finding a renter for the condo before I left, despite my efforts. My parents were good enough to help me out with that and shortly after I left they got someone to sign on the dotted line (thanks Mom and Dad!), so I have a tenant for the next year and am officially a landlord.

(Me, lording over my land.)

(Miller Park)
(What relaxing/reading looked like for a few days)

(Eating raspberries and mulberries.)

Soon I will leave beautiful Hawaii for Japan. I am glad that I got a chance to go home first and I am also glad that I had some time back in Hawaii before my departure. Yesterday, for the 4th of July, we made one last trip out to the Sand Bar. The weather was a bit cloudy, but it was a good time despite that. No more sailing trips for me for a while. I did leave my boat with some friends, though, so hopefully I still get to hear all of the sailing stories.

I will do my best to continue to update the blog, although titling it "Come to Hawaii" may have been a bit short-sighted. Ah, well.

I am looking forward to my time in Japan. First things first, I need to start looking for a new camera. Originally I was planning on getting a Nikon, but they have very slow processors. I think I may go with a Canon instead. Does anyone have an opinions on cameras? I won't get a Kodak or Casio seeing as both of those brands were bad for me (the Casio broke in less than two months and they didn't even attempt to pretend to honor their warranty). Right now I am leaning towards Canon or Nikon. Maybe Olympus... I like the waterproof option.

At any rate, I should be back to Hawaii before Christmas. Until then, this will be less about sailing and more about... Asia.

(Wisconsin sunset.)

Come to Wisconsin

I have been back in Wisconsin since Tuesday morning. It has been fairly slow going these past few days, which is nice. Besides being home to see family and friends, I am closing on a condo in Madison, so that has been taking up some of my time as well.

While Wisconsin is no Hawaii, it is a nice place in its own right. I have been riding (and crashing… more on that in a bit) my brother’s motorcycle for the past few days. I have been trying to take the country roads as much as possible (the bumpy, uneven, and narrow-shouldered roads). Wisconsin is a beautiful and still fairly unpopulated place. The majority of the land around here is varied shades of green. The skies are blue and the clouds white. While it may not have the beaches and ocean, spending an afternoon walking around alone through the fields and woods, eating your fill of mulberries and raspberries, is just as pleasant.

The unfortunate excitement is that I crashed my brother’s motorcycle. This is less than ideal for a few reasons:

1. It’s not my bike. It’s one thing to ruin your own things, but it is especially bad when you borrow something and can’t return it in the same condition. On the somewhat bright side (in a weird way), my brother got his leg crushed by a semi-truck a couple of months ago so he wouldn’t be able to ride it too much anyway. Like I said, that’s not exactly good news, but at least I am not single-handedly killing his summer riding season.

2. It will cost a lot. The only big mechanical problem that I can see is the smashed radiator. I have to figure out how to get it to Madison and get some estimates on how much it will cost to fix. The radiator should only be a few hundred; however, all of the cracks and scratches on the body of the motorcycle are costly. I’m guessing this will be around $2000 for everything. So much for buying that dishwasher for the condo.

3. It’s the least important, and a bit selfish, but now I don’t have a ride for the next week. I think I may have to rent a car. Hopefully I don’t crash that, but if I did, at least the rental insurance would cover that cost.

On the bright side, I am not hurt. I got a couple of scratches on my legs from when I got tossed over the handle bars, but I did a nice front flip and landed on my helmet and riding jacket and safely slid into some shrubs. Luckily, I was wearing full riding gear: helmet, padded motorcycle jacket, leather gloves, long pants, and leather shoes. I may not have fared so well without that. The reason for the crash can be attributed to a multitude of factors. The first being driver error. I was on the very far right side of the road, staring at my surroundings. I was going too fast for that corner, although I wasn't really going all that fast (40mph?). The road was bumpy, uneven, and had some grass clippings on it. The bike's tires were bald and it is not a bike that I am accustomed to. All of these things added up to my having a bad day.

Something really interesting is how clear everything was heading into the crash. As soon as I lost control it was like I had hyper-clarity on what was going to happen and how I needed to react. When I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to recover in time to avoid crashing into the ditch, I slammed on the brakes until I started to slide, then I let off the brakes and steered into the ditch. When the bike dumped over and threw me, I tucked my chin and put my hands at my side at a forty-five degree angle. I did a front flip over the bike, spotted my landing, landed, slid, stood up, and was on my merry way. I scraped my shin, have a small gash on my ankle, and dirty clothes. The worst part of it all is how much it is going to cost to fix the bike. In the end, I am still alive and well, so I can’t complain too much.

Obviously, I wish none of this happened. Since I can’t change that, I have to accept it and deal with the consequences. I am glad it is only bad for the bike, and not my body. After all, it’s just money.

The Big Island Explained

We decided to go to the Big Island one evening over drinks at Jenna and Dani's place. We were talking about how we weren't taking advantage of the fact that we were at a time in our lives when we really didn't have any big commitments and that we live so close to so many cool things. We came to a group decision that we had all gone too long in our lives without seeing lava. We decided that it was high time to visit the Big Island.

We rented our mini-van (6 people... it made sense at the time), bought our tickets, and booked our hotel. That was all the planning we needed. We all got on the plane Saturday morning without any idea of what we would really do or where we would go. In fact, when we got to the airport, we didn't even know the exact time of our flight or the name of our hotel. In Hawaii, that's what we call "havin' the aloha spirit."

We got to Hilo, picked up the van and made our way to the hotel. I'm not very picky when it comes to living conditions (ask me the story about the "hotel" in China where they were "remodeling" the bathroom... aka no running water, just a big barrel against the wall, and piles of human waste covering the floor of what used to be the bathroom; a clean path to the water source made only by walking across bricks set on the piles of feces. Separately, the time in Cambodia when Sheng and I got more-or-less robbed by a driver who told us he would show us his gun if we didn't pay him even more money than we already did for a ride he ended up not giving us. We slept in a "guesthouse" in the middle of no where which was actually a barn with cardboard walls set up to block your view of the family. Safety first.)

I digress... Where was I? Ah, yes, Uncle Billy's Hotel. I'm not sure why I had such a low opinion of the place. Part of it was the excessive amount of urine in the elevator (still wet!). Part of it was the fact that I spent $24 on internet connections, printing, and faxing of documents (I might buy a condo!) only to have the receiving end tell me that they couldn't use them because they were too dark. (I still paid for it all, though!) Or my problem with the place could have been the cracked tile, running toilet, no parking lot, and smokey rooms. Who's to say what it was. All I know is that I wasn't digging it. The only reason I feel I can complain here is because it was $120/night and not $1.20 like in Asia. That was the point of these past two paragraphs. Back on topic.

We were very excited to see a Wal-Mart in Hilo. I'm not sure why, but Wal-Mart has such a strong attraction. In Hawaii, it's like an oasis of affordable everything. Milk is only $4/gallon, not $8. Parking is plentiful and the selection seemingly unlimited. We ended up buying a bunch of drinks and snacks there and went to Volcanoes National Park. Once we got there we say the steam vents, the lava tube, the old lava flows, blah, blah, blah. We all knew that we were there for one thing and one thing only: See the lava.

We started the hike at 5:15pm. It was much further than we expected, but we were surprisingly well prepared. We all had tennis shoes and enough water between us to hike there and back (or for two of us to stay overnight, but Dan and I got overruled). We shuffled along with the excited crowd and happily watched everyone thin out as the miles added up. Some people out there were pretty crazy. A Swedish couple actually passed us wearing swimwear and 'slippahs' (flip-flops). On the way home, about 6 hours later, we saw some 100 year old Japanese tourists shuffling by 4" at a time. I'm not sure they made it to the actual flows. To be honest, I'm not even sure how they overcame the smallest incline.

We reached the lava just as the last bit of sun drained from the sky. It was perfect; the glowing orange/red guided our last few hundred feet. From there we broke out the marshmallows and roasted away. You would think that lava would be unbearably hot, but it really wasn't. It was like being next to a big camp fire. You could even stir it with a stick (it was like putting a stick into dry wall mud or wet clay). I also learned, just today, that it is really rude to poke lava with a stick. Apparently the fire god Pele takes offense to things like that. In our defense, we didn't know any better and we poked only out of respect and admiration. We did know that we weren't supposed to take any lava rock, and we respected that rule, so hopefully bad luck doesn't follow us for our indiscretions.

After that section, we went on a bit further (which took a lot of coaxing) to where the lava was actually flowing into the ocean. We couldn't see too much, but what we could see was impressive: liquid rock hitting water, making an explosion of rock and steam. Of course, we ended up standing exactly where we weren't supposed to in order to get a good look. I think the reward may have been worth the risk. We saw the earth spewing it's fiery guts into an angry ocean, violently expanding itself into the unwilling sea.

The walk home was long. The hardened lava has a reflective, silvery tint to it. We were able to use the light from the moon shining off of that to guide our way home. No flashlights needed. It was a surreal, dream like experience. We were all tired and hungry, it was nearly midnight, and we were walking across a completely barren landscape which was glowing, yet dark at the same time.

We made it back to Hilo at 12:01am. Why is the time important? Everything closed at midnight. The only saving grace: Ken's Diner. Open 24/7. We all had some pancakes, lots of water, and were ready to pass out before we laid our heads down on our smokey pillows.

The rest of the weekend was pretty fun, but not as fun as the volcano. Other highlights include: breathing the worlds cleanest air off of Kapoho Kumakahi point, playing barefoot in a giant banyan tree, relaxing in lava tube heated pools (almost one-hundred degrees), Akaka Falls, demolishing a Sumo Burger at Ken's, and having two drinks and promptly falling asleep at 11:00pm on our crazy night out Sunday evening.

Next destination: Kauai.

Playing with Fire (Real Live Lava!)

I will write a bit later, but I just wanted to post some pictures from the lava flows on the Big Island. Five of us from work went over Memorial Day weekend and it was a good time. Lava is so cool. Marshmallows roasted over molten rock are way more delicious than the ones cooked over burning wood.



In case you are curious, the answer is, "yes, I am redirecting the flow of lava with a stick we carried 6 miles across a volcano floor just to roast marshmallows." Lava is awesome. End of story.

Mainland

I spent the past three weeks on the West and East coasts of the US Mainland. I love Hawaii and wouldn't trade my time here for the world, but sometimes it is nice to get away, especially when the get-away includes a week of learning how to live in the woods with nothing more than a poncho and knife.

Despite my love of the woods, I have never had the opportunity to actually learn how to "survive" in them. My time always included more than enough supplies to get me through. This time around I was out there for 6 days and didn't bring any food. The only thing given to us was a rabbit, which we had to split between 10 people. Happily I was not the one to kill and clean it, but I have killed a fish, so I don't think I would have been completely incapable. The nutrients I got, besides the rabbit broth (they ran out of meat before they got to me) came from the plants around me: raw acorns for protein (luckily my stomach is pretty strong- the tannic acid can pose problems for some people), Sugar Bush for vitamins (although just thinking about it causes me to gag. That was the worst tasting plant I have ever eaten.), and cactus when I was bored (the pricklies make it too much work for the return). In the end I didn't come out much worse for wear and I had a great time. Hopefully I can demonstrate some skills the next time we go to Lake Superior.

On a side note, I will admit without shame, that as soon as I got home I went to McDonalds for the first time in years. I destroyed the dollar menu. Even now I get a little emotional when I think of how happy those McChicken sandwiches made me.

After my time living outside, I met up with some old friends from college, Ross and Erin. I rowed with Ross (we were often in the same boat and he was my navigator on many many road trips; however, our roles were reversed in the picture below. Interesting, sort of.) and Erin played on the volleyball team. Erin is now playing professionally. On Saturday, Ross and I spent the day at the beach watching Erin and Paige win a local tournament. You can't argue with a day at the beach, especially when the people you at the beach to cheer on end up winning the tournament. It was great catching up with those guys. We even planned a whitewater rafting trip in Colorado in June. Hopefully we can make everything come together for that.

On the down side, about halfway through the day on the beach, I started shivering and got really tired. I came down with some sickness and a week later I am just starting to get over it. Not eating for six days could have been a contributing factor.

After that I made my way to Baltimore for some meetings. The meetings were actually pretty productive and there was very little PowerPoint. In the weakened condition I was in, I think PowerPoint may have killed me, so hooray for speaking directly face-to-face. While there I was able to spend some time in downtown Baltimore. Overall, the city is a bit old and tattered, but in a good way. If I ever move out to the DC area, I could definitely see myself living in Baltimore (I would never live in DC). I guess the old cliche about a rough place having "character" applies to Baltimore. There were some spots where I felt I could be jumped at any second, but I got over it.

At any rate, I am back in beautiful Hawaii and good news abounds. My friend Derek, who fell into the coma two months ago, began speaking again. Before he left Hawaii, the doctors gave a very grim outlook. His family has been at his side this whole time and has been so positive. It has been so amazing to see their strength throughout this whole ordeal. I will be able to make my way out there in June and can't wait to talk with Derek and see the progress!

No Work on Monday

This is what the Sand Bar looks like when you take a Monday off of work and it isn't a public holiday. I know I've said it before, but it bears repeating: I love Hawaii.

Kokua Festival

Today I went to the Kokua Festival with my temporary roommate, Henry. The concert is put on by Jack Johnson in support of conservation and being green. Ironically, they made me dump out my Nalgene bottle of water before letting me in. Apparently being able to charge me $3 for a bottle of water is more important than not generating plastic waste. Not to mention all of the plastic cups used for beer, the paper plates used for all of the food... basically it was a concert about Reducing, Reusing, and Recycling, but it looked just like any other concert when it came to concessions. The only difference was that they had recycling bags all over the place to make you feel better about it. I have a sneaking suspicion that they just threw that all away as well. There were three openings in order to sort your stuff on each container, but only one bag in the bottom. It was a bit suspect.

The show itself was amazing. I mean, the lead singer of Pearl Jam, Eddie Vedder, was there along with some other good artists and Jack Johnson himself. How could you go wrong? They all sounded great and performed well. It was a great evening. The whole scene was very Hawaii. The beautiful weather, palm trees swaying in the light breeze, and the stars shining. The music, as I said, was beautiful, and the sound itself was perfect. I usually don't like concerts because they are so loud that my ears want to bleed. At this concert, you could actually hold a conversation with the person next to you. The music was very crisp and near-sounding, but not loud. Perfect.

Tomorrow we have off work, so it will be another day on the Sand Bar. This life Hawaiian.

Over a Month

It has been quite a while since I have last written.

Since my last post, a close friend of mine, Derek (refer to any of my posts where I get injured... he was always there with me), has fallen into a coma. It came to such a shock to everyone. When it first happened, I thought that it would last a few days and he would snap out of it. It has been a month and progress has been very slow. He is currently in California, nearer to his family and his wife, Nicola.

Today we cleaned out his apartment. Since Nicola said she didn't want it shipped to California, and because it is so much fun, I took Derek's inflatable kayak. He and I had planned so many times to kayak out to Monkey Island, just on the ocean side of the Sand Bar in Kaneohe Bay. On Monday I hope to finally get out there to see what we have been missing. The actual island is a bird sanctuary, so we can't walk around, but I hope to at least take a lap in the kayak.

I have been doing a lot of sailing these last few weekends and some friends stayed with me this past week. I will write more on that tomorrow.

Magnum PI & Da Big Island

The Friday before last I was at a Magnum PI themed birthday party. It was a really good time. People turned 30, we drank some home brew, and dressed up like we were rockin' the 80s. When I found out about the party my only answer was, "I'm in: all in."

Note the mullet, painted mustache, pink shirt (tucked in, buttons half-way down), tight pants, and a brown belt. After a couple of home brews, Tara called me from Colorado and told me that I should visit her on the Big Island the following weekend. Great idea! She was my first roommate out here and we had a lot of fun.







This past weekend I flew to the Big Island to hang out with Tara and some of her family (Ohana to us Hawaiians) and old friends from work. We had some good times. We stayed in Kona the whole time. It just so happened to be Kona Brewing Company's Beer Festival that Saturday. The tickets were sold out, but we took the tour instead. Free mini beers. Can't go wrong.

It turns out that the Big Island has a huge Crytsal Meth problem. Add that to the beer festival, and you will have some issues. We actually go attacked by a skinhead girl named Beau. She was crazy. And hateful.

All in all it was a good weekend. Nothing too crazy happened (no blood from the ice-head), but there was a lot of eating, talking, and just bumming around. Sometimes, that's all a weekend should be.

By the way, the picture below is of my old roommate Tara and the 5 year old son of one of her friends. His name was Brennan and he loved turtles. Despite our efforts, we were not able to locate any turtles. We did find some geckos though. Those are fun as well.

Before They Are Gone

This is an example of three completely unrelated events being a "coincidence" because my brain skipped around a bit in the last few minutes.

Event 1: A few weeks ago I rode my motorcycle to a party on a beach front property on the North Shore.
Event 2: I have been thinking about buying waterfront property.
Event 3: "An Inconvenient Truth" won the Oscar for the best documentary today.

Here's how they are all related: I have been thinking about buying some waterfront property lately, especially after the great party on the beach a few weekends ago, and the fact that Mike's family cabin on Lake Superior is one of the greatest places I know.

I rode my motorcycle (the red one) to that party because I had been having some problems, but I made the decision to spend $800 to fix it rather than call it a lost cause. It still isn't fixed properly. The idling varies between 2 to 4 times faster than in the past. At any rate, I'm thinking that I may sell my motorcycle before I leave for Australia in June, so I want to use it as much as possible. However, it is the rainy season and I rarely ride anymore.

It may or may not be true, but after seeing "An Inconvenient Truth," I believe that water levels will rise and possibly inundate any waterfront property that I may buy, which would make it a big waste of money (not to mention all of the environmental issues, et cetera). Perhaps I should buy something a few meters above the current water level and just wait for it to become waterfront property. It would be cheaper...

Back on the Water

Today was a good day. I finally made it back on the water. I went to the Sand Bar (should that be capitalized? It's a place name, but also very general... Where are the English teachers out there? Mrs. Halberg?) with some family friends. A guy I rowed with in college used to live in Hawaii and his older brother is still out here. His dad has been out here visiting for the past week and a half and we were able to take out a still bruised, but functional, Madeline & Nine today. He told me that the last time he was sailing was when he was helping a friend sail a boat from through the Mediterranean from Greece to Turkey. They arrived to port on September 11th, 2001 and weren't allowed to leave for over a week. There were no major mishaps today except for the boom episode (next paragraph) and a near miss (definitely less than a foot) on a reef.

As for the condition of Madeline, she took a fair beating in the wind storm we had a few weeks ago. I kept forgetting to bring my camera during the storm, so I can't really prove it, but you'll just have to trust me when I say that the waves were over 4' at times and the winds howled up to 72 mph, averaging about 40 mph, for almost a full week, day and night. There was some damage all around. Note the concrete and wood dock in the picture. The entire marina looked like that. The above picture was taken after three weeks of ongoing repairs. The day after the storm subsided, it looked like a demolition crew had been through there.

I thought that I had fixed, or at least covered, the problems with my boat yesterday. I spent 9 hours fixing her, but as we were sailing back today, the boom (the long bar where the base (aka the foot) of the main sail slides into) fell off. That was just one of many injuries. I'm not sure if I already wrote about it, but the storm caused my tiller to break off, but not before it rubbed through about a quarter inch of fiberglass in all directions. The wind raised my front hatch from it's base and tore off the arm holding it in place, then snapped the frame and plexiglass into two pieces. It even caused half of the metal surface on one of the hinges to come off, somehow. Luckily the hatch was still attached by a screw when I went out to replace the mooring lines half-way through the storm. My chaffing gear in the front actually chaffed a hole through the fiberglass. Three of my mast stays came off, with one of them starting to fray (nothing a little duct tape won't hide). Everything on the inside made it's way to the floor and the six inches of standing water. Note the broken handle on my grill from when it fell to the floor. Also note the sweet U-bolts now holding it firmly in place (never-mind the peeling walls in the background. They are supposed to look like that, I swear.). No more flaming cheddar-wursts flying through the cabin. Bonus.

All in all, I'm glad to have a more-or-less functional boat again. The weekend was spent entirely on the boat, but it was not wasted. Fixing things is pretty fun, especially when you don't make it worse than when you started, which is what I usually do. Now that she is in 'ship shape' (but not really), I would really like to get back out in the ocean. Mike and Sheila, I hope Claire likes the water.

Lastly, on a completely separate note, you really need to see the picture from our last viewing of Arrested Development a week ago. All in all, it is probably the worst picture I have ever seen. That in itself makes it awesome.

Xin Nian Kuai Le?

"Happy New Year" is the title of this post; however, there wasn't really anything going on in Chinatown today. I was a bit disappointed. I was expecting to see the dragon rolling up and down the streets with fireworks, drums, and gongs. Nothing. It was a ghost town. So much for that idea. Maybe the big celebration won't start until this evening.

At any rate, we did get some dim sum, which is always good. And the restaurant FINALLY started making my favorite Chinese desert, dan ta, which is an egg custard in a flaky crust. As Derek described it, it's like flan inside of baklava, only less sweet.

Another fun part was that Dani came with us. She had never eaten dim sum before, so we had fun explaining all of the different dishes and how to order. For anyone who has never had dim sum, I would say that the best part is the wide variety of dishes. People just walk around with carts full of different foods. Some are steamed, some are pastries, some are roasted meats, many are wrapped in noodles or breads. All you have to do is point to what you want, they put it on your table, and they put a tic mark on your bill. All dishes cost the same, or different colored plates represent different prices. It keeps things simple.

In the end, our day of celebration consisted of dim sum in Chinatown and about an hour of walking around. The Year of the Boar did not start of so exciting. Fittingly, we did eat quite a bit though.

Check it out! Former Chinese President Jiang Ze Min got his green card! It must have been after his term ended in 2003.

Free & Clear

I am happy to report that after 2 years of forking out 8.5% interest, I now own my land in Upstate New York outright. If anyone is in the area of Wolf Lake State Park (north west Adirondacks) and wants a place to camp with plenty of space and firewood (but no shelter or water), look no further.

My grand plan is to build a cabin out there some day. Either that or possibly sell the land in order to buy something on the water. The more I think about it, the more I realize how crucial (albeit expensive) water is to a property. I do like the location, though. It is within a couple of miles from multiple state forests (Wolf Lake, Fire-Fall, and Trout Lake) totalling over 7,000 acres. Not only that, but the 31 acres I have is bordered on two sides by road, one side by private land, and the fourth side is adjoining county land, which makes it seem larger than it is. It is only 30 miles to Canada, 80 miles to Ottawa, 130 miles to Montreal, and less than 60 miles to Lake Ontario. The nearest lake is one mile away, but the property itself has nothing more than a trickling stream. It may not have any fish, but I'm sure it is well stocked with Giardia and Cryptosporidium.

After looking at the stats for the area on the Census Bureau's website, it doesn't seem to be a very happening place to live. I definitely don't see myself ever living there year-round. It would be a nice place to visit. Sadly, if I stay in my career field, I will have no choice but to eventually live in Washington, DC. The 500 mile drive isn't very feasible for a weekend, but it is definitely more feasible than the commute I have right now.

Pictures are on the way...

A Chicken in Every Pot (but not literally)

I'm not exactly sure why, but I have been baking and making home made stews a lot lately. I think it may have something to do with the cold weather (in the morning it gets cold). At any rate, in the past few weeks I have made vegetable-rice stew in a beef broth twice, a few loaves of honey wheat oatmeal bread, chili, and a pizza from scratch. One of the things I go for is to avoid getting anything out of a can or pre-made. If it comes fresh, I get it that way, within reason. I soaked dried kidney beans for a full day in order to use them in the chili, but I bought the wheat flour already ground.

The most surprising thing to me is how quick and easy it is to make things from scratch. I guess I haven't tried anything difficult, but even so it still tastes pretty good. It's also fun throwing things into a pot and seeing how it ends up tasting. When everyone comes over on Wednesday for our weekly TV-on-DVD night (Arrested Development, season 2, disk 2 this week, if you are interested) I will spring another stew on them.

Maui Christmas & a Very Happy New Year

It has been quite a while. I think the reason that I haven’t posted in so long is twofold: 1. I have been pretty busy and 2. I usually don’t bring my camera with me when I go places. I mean, who wants to read a post without a few pictures as visual aids?

I have been busy with work, but my new job is more enjoyable than my last one. Being busy is much better than not having anything to do. Also, I now have a 15’ high by 15’ wide bay door right next to my office. The only artificial light I have to see is what radiates from my computer screen. It’s pretty nice.

The holidays have once again come and gone. For Christmas this year I wasn’t able to make it home, but I was able to make it to Maui for 4 days. It was a pretty good trip. I like to look at all short trips as rehearsals for longer trips. On this trip I figured out that I could go camping with only a mid-sized pack. I fit my tent, sleeping bag, clothes, food, and books into my green backpack. It was only 4 days worth of stuff, but I could have attached the sleeping bag and tent to the outside, if I wanted to. I think I could use that pack to camp for up to a week or so. That is something that I have never done, but the possibility is there, especially if I could drink treated water along the way.

Maui was good for a few reasons. For one, I made some decision about what I don’t want to be when I grow up. I picked up some hitchhikers on the road to Hana, on the way to Haleakala National Park. They were friendly enough, but after talking with them for about 2 hours, I decided that being a hippie wasn’t something that I wanted to be. I had considered it before, but the conversation illuminated the fact that I hadn't really thought that through. They lived on a communal farm/ranch and grew organic food (and weed, by the smell of it). They had no plans for what they would be doing in a year and didn’t know what they wanted to do in the future. I suppose there is nothing wrong with living in the here and now, but I didn’t get the impression that they had reached any advanced stages of enlightenment or happiness. At any rate, between meeting them and another group of shirtless beatniks with dreadlocks and bushy beards on a commune with waterfalls, I know that I don’t want to be a hippie.

Haleakala National Park was beautiful. Haleakala is Hawaiian for “House of the Sun.” As the story goes, the mischievous god Maui captured the sun and held it at Haleakala because his mother didn’t have enough time in the day to dry out some sort of cloth. The sun pleaded to be set free. Maui told the sun that he would release him only if the sun agreed to increase the amount of daylight for Maui‘s mother. The two agreed and BAM! the sun was back in the sky. The top of Haleakala (10,030 ft.) has 15 minutes more daylight than at sea level.

While at the park I did some hiking, sleeping outside, a lot of staring, and was even able to catch the sunrise at the peak on Christmas Day. I have some pictures in my Flikr badge (top right of this page). One thing that makes the mountain so interesting is that it is volcanic rock with less and less vegetation as you ascend. At the top, the only plants are something called Silversword, which are literally silver and shiny. Also, the surface looks like Mars. NASA actually tested some rovers there to see how they would fare.

If you ever have the chance to make it to Maui, be sure to catch a sunrise at Haleakala. Mark Twain described it as, “the surrealist thing I have ever seen.” The best part, in my opinion, wasn’t the actual sunrise, but the lead up to it. On Christmas Eve, I staked out where I would go to watch the sunrise. After talking to a park ranger and walking around a bit, I decided on taking a half-mile trail that led to a ridge above the visitor’s center. I arrived the next morning at 5:15 and crawled into my sleeping bag when I got to the top. The sky was bluish-black and the stars were bright and clear. As the sun slowly worked its way to the horizon, shades of red, orange, and yellow turned the black into a deep blue, purple. The clouds below gained features and color until the sun peaked, erased the remaining stars and illuminated the volcanic crater below. See the pictures in the Flikr badge for a visual representation.

That was my Christmas. For New Years, we went to a friend’s place right off of Kailua beach. Get this: the person renting the house next to her was none other than William Shatner. We never actually saw him, but rumor has it he was there. The cost of his rental, by the way was $8,000 per night. Ouch. New Year’s Eve was a lot of fun, but I definitely paid for it the next day. Don’t start with beer if you are going to move onto champagne and liquor. Lesson learned, for the hundredth time.

Other than that, life has been going on like normal. Some sailing, some TV on DVD nights at my place, and a lot of hanging out. Despite the recent cool weather, tonight we are going night snorkeling at Hanama Bay. Hopefully I can get some pictures and post those in the near future.

Golf Anyone?

On Wednesday we had a golf tournament. I am not much of a golfer, but when the boss says to take a half day off and swing some golf bats at the rocks, it's hard to say no. The golf course here is beautiful. So was my hat.

I also walked away with a CD/MP3 player after the raffle. All in all, I was a real winner.

No Love from Mother Ocean

I love the ocean. Every day here in Hawaii I have the opportunity to see it, be around it, and be in it. It is always the sign of good things to come when I am lucky enough to watch the wispy clouds move along the trade winds as the rising sun slowly transforms the entire sky from blackness into a deep blue to a gentle purple. Then in a matter of minutes everything changes to pink and orange just before the sun appears over the edge of the ocean and turns the clouds into a brilliant white.

In the evening, swimming in Kailua Bay, it is the same procession, only in reverse. The clouds, now full of moisture, rise so high that a single cloud may be three different colors. The top catching the last of the setting sun while the base is already a dark shade of gray. Depending on the wind, the ocean can look like a vast liquid mirror or like countless shards of glass reflecting all colors in all directions.

Every day I am left in awe of the ocean. It's days like today that I realize the Ocean's feelings towards me may not be mutual. I get hurt a lot when I'm in the water. The only somewhat major mishap was the whole neck/back injury, but it seems that every time I am out there something happens to me.

Three weeks ago we went sailing. There were six of us on board and in the seven hours we were out there, every single person ended up giving up some blood. The worst was Tabitha. She caught the boom right at the start of her hairline. The blood poured over her face as if someone poured it out of a glass. No worries, we had a doctor on board... it just so happened to be her. Self aid!

Two weeks ago we were sailing once again. More blood, bruises and stepping on sharp things. I probably had it the worst. When I was climbing on board my foot slipped and caught some of the disgusting growth on the side of the boat. I didn't notice that I was even cut until I saw the pool of blood and seawater gathering at my feet. Barnacles are sharp as razors, no joke. Hopefully my new ladder will help us avoid that in the future.

Last week I decided to admire the ocean from afar. I walked to the old pill boxes just above Lanikai. It made for some great sitting and watching and no blood was involved.

Today Derek and I took his new inflatable kayak into Kailua Bay. Lately it has been very windy (from the hurricane that hit the Philippines and Thailand?) and the waves were big for Kailua Bay. We have also been having cold weather. Of course, it sounds a little ridiculous to call 78 degrees cold, but once you are used to perfect weather, anything below 75 requires a sweatshirt. Any lower than 70 and you are looking at a sweatshirt and long pants. At any rate, we were thinking it may be too cold to go out, but we decided that since we spent all the time inflating the kayak and portaging it to the beach, we may as well use it.

The waves were fun. We got bounced and thrown in a variety of ways. Sometimes the wave would throw you in one direction and end up taking the kayak in another. Other times you would get so jumbled that you wouldn't know which way was up until you spread your extremities in all directions searching for sand or air. We did end up getting into deeper water by dragging the kayak past the shore break and only jumping in after we were in the rollers, not the breakers.

Once in the deeper water we paddled towards Flat Island for about 30 minutes, but weren't doing much besides fighting the waves. We stopped paddling and just floated for a while. I hung my legs and arms over the side. Usually I wouldn't do that. It's hard for me to shake the idea that a shark could come out of no where and take off a limb. It is extremely rare, but it does happen. In hindsight, I should have been more afraid of the Portuguese Man-O-War (which I just found out get blown into the bays when there is a lot of heavy wind).

As we for floating along I started yelling out obscenities for no apparent reason. Once my body caught up with my mouth I realized I had a mass of blue string wrapped around my left ankle. I grabbed the paddle and pushed it off, but it had long tentacles and they continued to drag along my leg for a bit. It felt like a bee sting. We paddled for home and got tossed a couple of more times on the way.

I got back to my apartment and as my leg dried it became more painful. I'm not sure if it was my imagination or not, but the pain seemed to be spreading all the way up my leg and into my abdomen and I started feeling slightly nauseous. I put some vinegar on it (and then drank some for good measure), but it didn't help. According to Claus, my scuba instructor from when I was in Thailand, all poisons originating from ocean plants and animals are destroyed by heat. I took a wicked hot shower and an hour later, I feel fine.

In the end I still argue that my relationship with the ocean is a very healthy and non-abusive one. The only reason Ocean hurts me is because she loves me so much.