Sorry so long!

Hey All,
Sorry this has taken so long to get back to this blog. So much has been happening and I have been drained at the end of the day and need to be somewhat inspired to do this blog. I have been trying to keep the other one updated with general events etc. Some relevant photos appear also at the bottom of this page.

So, here are some interesting things that have happened. The other day, I was walking along the beach and ran into an old V-ball buddy named Susie. She mentioned that there was a "reunion" of sorts at the Hilton beach where I used to play. I brought the whole family down there to see if a few of the people I know showed up and It was more than I had hoped for. It was actually the first time in 14 years that most of those people were there and not only did I have an opportunity to connect with people that I knew well, but also to have fun with people I didn't know too well. Also ran into Jeff Rodgers, who I didn't know from Hawaii, but he was one of my good friend, Brian Gatzke's partner on the AVP tour back in the early 90's. I never knew he went to UH. Bri, we missed you bro. We had an absolute blast...played until we couldn't see the ball anymore.

One other thing that was particularly poignant was that there was a tribute and brief vigil for a friend of ours that passed away in 2005, RD Gray. Brian P is a shop teacher in high school, and created a beautiful wooden cross and Danny A drilled it into a tree overlooking the court area and the beach. RD lived for playing ball, and many of his best times, i'm sure, were right there on that court. So it is fitting that there is something there to remember him by. One thing that I saw, and almost could not believe was while we were there waiting to have a toast to RD, the cops showed up and told Brian to dump his beer. While it was a routine thing, I think it was RD's spirit sitting up there going, "Bra, you gotta give me a taste of that beer", so down it went to the roots, and up to him. Cheers RD.

Another thing that has happened...Back in December I was communicating with someone who had a house for rent and for sale on Kauai. It is a beautiful 6 bedroom property on 5 acres close to nice protected beaches, etc. Well, I exchanged several emails with the owner who seemed like a very nice person, but nothing seemed to work out. Flash forward a few weeks.
I'm standing on the beach, Shebly calls out to see if I saw how great her last cast was, and a random guy walking by makes a comment about how cool it is to catch a glimpse of that little "father daughter moment." We got to talking a bit and he mentioned a few items about investment real estate, etc. I've heard a few things about the Makaha area as a one with potential, and he is on his way to stay over there for a few weeks. The guy is staying here close by our place selling a condo and is on his way over there to sell another one.

So, later, I get an email saying...hey bill...we have already been communicating..and he forwarded me an email from earlier talking about his Kauai property. Also, earlier that day, Heidi asked me if I found a "healer" for her yet (sorta joking, sorta not.) Well it turns out that not only is he the guy, he's only on this shore for a few days, he has not really been walking the beach very much, and rarely is he making comments to people on the beach...oh, and did I mention that he knows a healer on Kauai? Yes he does.

All my life interesting things like this have happened to me. I don't really believe in fate, more like divine intervention, but it never ceases to amaze me when events like this occur.

Other little stuff...we have been wanting to do a surfing lesson for Shelby. Well, guess what, we had lunch with another old v-ball buddy, Gabi, who is now into surfing and willing to take us out at her fav. spot, and she's got extra boards.

Well that's it for now. Tomorrow am i'm going fishing offshore w/ Harrison of Hidden Hawaii, Inc. Should be a fun day! I have to get up at 4:30, so will be off to bed here shortly.
Peace, B.

PS: Apparently from my previous post "here they come to snuff the rooster" some people (well, maybe just one, who knows) thought that I actually killed a rooster. I did NOT kill a rooster. I METAPHORICALLY snuffed a rooster, because I beat Marcus at pool and he was strutting around LIKE a rooster before he lost. HA! I'll also have you know that I bought some earplugs for the whole family today at Ace hardware in Haleiwa town.

quick notes

Hi all,
On our trip downtown today I ran into one of my old beach volleyball buddies, Suzy, at Derussy Beach and I found out that there's a "mini-reunion" this weekend of some of my old crew at the Hilton beach, so we'll go see who's there. I'm sure they have all aged gracefully.

Peace out,
Bill

Here they come to snuff the ROOSTER.

Hi Everybody,
I would just like to say that yesterday I had my chance to snuff the rooster and depose the "King of Manoa" at the same time! If you don't know my friend Marcus, let's just say that as an ex Jar-head, he can talk smack with the best of them. So, yesterday after we went to "mud fest 2008" aka the Punahou carnival, we went over to his place where he proceeded to claim to be the "King of Manoa" and strutted around like a rooster (all of this about his prowess at billiards.)
Heidi actually encouraged this behavior as she knows how annoyed i've been with the roosters around here.

So, in order to take my revenge on the roosters of the world, I decided to take on the King. Well, I won the first two games and graciously decided to give him an opportunity to play 3 out of 5. Well, since the humiliation was getting to him, I gave up the next two games and we were on for game 5, the "Rubber Match." After missing a couple of easy shots, I was behind in the game and Marcus was on the eight ball to win. I warned him after all his rooster strutting around that he better watch the scratch ball...well, cocky rooster that he is, he declined to observe the required patience and promply lost the match to me by sinking the eightball and the cueball at the same time...YES, the King and Rooster were snuffed on the same day! LOL.
Later, B.

Big Day on the High Seas

Yea bra, the seas were big, the boat was small, and the fish were biting.

Well sorta. I went out with my new fishing buddy Tony and we got off to a bit of a slow start. These things are to be expected when you are fishing with someone for the first time, the boat is old, and he has not used it in a while. No biggie, we got it going and got out there. The wind and surf were up, I'd guess the swell was in the 5 ft. range with a few 8 footers here and there. It was pretty choppy so we staying in fairly close to shore. This time of year there is not a whole lot happening but given the conditions I felt pretty good about the trip. All in all, we had a great time. Tony is a good dude and clearly loves to fish, so we share that gene, apparently.

We did not get any hits trolling (at least none that we saw, but one of Tony's lures looked like my prom date's dress after midnight.) Well, not really, but I was trying to be descriptive and most of you can probalby relate. I actually didn't go to prom, but that's a whole nother story and i'm still looking over my shoulder to see if my girlfriend from my senior year is behind me. DOH!

WHAT??? I was saving money for my Eurail trip and was, even then, not much into "conventional thinking." I guess what I'm saying is I couldn't give a shit about Prom, then or now. Somehow my girlfriend at the time understood me. Maybe it was the fact that I didn't call her after I left for Europe that really pissed her off. I mean I know she was pissed because I saw her at buffs game my Sophomore year at State (I guess she went to CU) and she didn't want to talk to me...But I digress... I guess I could have just said that one of Tony's lures looked like a "rumpled mess" and then I wouldn't have had to confess about my Prom situation.

So we went inshore (not that we were that far offshore to begin with) and tried some bottom fishing. Not too much luck at first but Tony got the skunk out of the boat and then we picked up a nice little papio (small jack) and a really nice Weke, both of which are very good eating. We got a few oama after that, but nothing of much size. I tried to live bait one of the little Oama, but never got a strike on him, so let him go with a "go get bigga bra." At least we'll have fish for dinner tomorrow night!

I'm sore and a little sunburned and very tired. I will say that I had an advantage on the bloody roosters this am. I was up at 4 waiting for the birds to start. I guess I should have yelled out the window this am "Hey you lazy ass roosters, get your asses up and wake up your cockfighting a-hole owners while you are at it." But then, I suppose all the neighbors would be plotting to kill me in tandem with my own sinister plots on their birds (though I doubt they'd be blogging about it.)

Now that I think about it, Maybe coororoodle dooo (which is ACTUALLY more like what they "say", now that i'm an expert, vs. cocka dooodle doo) means "get your ass up and fish."

Oh, and I feel a bit self actualized this night. After I picked up the ice, I was making my way over to the harbor and a nice, gaggleheaded, fully bloomed rooster literally strutted right in front of my car. I felt like it was God testing me, and I chose not run over that rooster; however, since I'm in a confessional mood, I will confess that the thought crossed my mind, which I suppose is a sin too, especially if I were catholic or something. (no offense to all my catholic homeys out there, you should be way madder at Jay Leno than me...)
[touches heart...kisses two fingers...points to the sky]
Peace out. B.
PS, scroll to bottom for one more photo.

reposting for George (Keoki)

I enjoyed this so much I thought I'd throw it on my blog with some translations.
It was posted to my original post with all the other comments and a couple days late, so it might not have gotten the attention it deserves...here's what it is.

Aloha kakahiaka on this, Po’alua (poh ah-loo-ah), in Iaunuali (ee-ya-oo new-ahlee) to the Sedgwick Ohana.Dempsey and JK are hapai ... I mean hohono.Remember the best medicine is ... aka`aka.A hui hou kakou.Have fun looking these words up.Keoki

My translation:
Aloha on this Tuesday in February to the Sedgwick Family. Dempey and JK are pregnant and I'm jealous... I mean stinky. Remember, the best medicine is laughter. A hui hou (Later) kakou (written carelessly)

peaceout! B.

Zippys plate lunch

Hey All,
Well since it's Hawaii, we had to go to Zippys. If you are not familiar with Zippy's it's like Village Inn but for Locals. The plate lunch phenomenon is basically a mixed plate of rice, veggies and whatever food you get. I ordered the Yushan Curry Chicken. Talk about a heart attack on a plate. Breaded chicken, thick curry sauce, white rice and mixed veggies. I forgot that the chicken was breaded in that dish so was surprised. Man, no wonder you see so many overweight locals. If you ate that food all the time you would have to either run a marathon once a day or succumb to a life of largeness.

Not much else happening. We went to the beach at Haleiwa today for a bit and a nice dude let us try out his paddle board. Will post some photos on the other blog from that. Tomorrow we are going back to Town. There's an ALS TDI meeting at one of the hospitals down there so we are going to check it out. Before that, I think we will go to Autie Pastos, which is our old fave Italian place from back in the day. Still there and has not changed a bit, which is cool because so much has...

Right now fishing is scheduled for Friday if they call off the small craft warning. I didn't get a chance to go spearfishing yet, so will have to post on that later.

Peace, B.

I didn't do it.

Well, there's lots of things I did, but I saw a dead rooster on the road yesterday and I want to go on the record to say that it was already dead when I went over it. Seriously. I do not want to get a bad rap for being on the "hunt" for roosters when I have not started yet. Besides, clearly, I would have started much more near my house than 6 or 7 blocks down the road that the poor dead fowl lay (my earlier comments about the hen notwithstanding.)

Now one thing I DID do was catch my first fish of the trip. Let me set the stage. It was yesterday afternoon and I had the Penn International 975 out ready to rage and epic battle with a worthy adversary. I had the week old squid sliced into srips and my semi-circle hooks ready to go. I have been snokeling in the "backyard" and pulled out many a piece of lead left by other local fisherman so was sporting the actual hardware used by more experienced surf fishermen than I. Yes my friends, all of the preparations had been made. Week old squid stinks by the way and the smell likes to linker post several washings. Just thought you would like to know that little tidbit for future reference. OK, back to the battle. I cast my line out with a skill that belies my relative inexperience with surf fishing and set it up in my "stake" (the beach rod holder.) Within seconds I felt the familiar tap tap tap of a fish on the other end and set the hook.

Within seconds, the fish was on the beach and i'll have you know that it was a very colorful, not very big, but potentially very lucrative in a sushi restaurant ..wait for it...blowfish. So, there it was a rare sukiyami blowfish. (I totally made the "sukiyami" thing up but it added authenticity until I clued you in, ya?) It was croaking at me with big cow eyes saying "let me go let me go." Sort of like that fish in the kids tale..."let me go and I'll make it worth your while." (or whatever it actually said in that tale that was more descriptive and relevant) Well, as much as I wanted to fillet that little blowfish and take my chances with the toxic sac that will send 99.9% of the public into instantanious convulsions and the throes of agonizing death, I decided to let him go and hope for him to deliver on his telepathic promise (imagined or not.)

I was supposed to go fishing tomorrow with my new fishing buddy Tony, but alas the weather is not cooperating. Small craft warnings persist here on the north shore with surf coming in the 15ft range and trades blowing 15-25 and gusting much higher. Hopfully this trend will die down and we'll be able to go out soon. Now we are shooting for Friday.

What else. Oh, I purchased a dive float for some offshore freediving. I used to do this alot when I lived here before. I'm not in shape to do the same stuff I used to, but will hit the reef tomorrow and see if I can spear some eating fish. So, we'll see how THAT goes...swimming on the reef by myself with 15 ft. surf...sweet. The way that works is that you trail a float behind you on a nylon cord with a bag on it, so if you spear something or catch a lobster you put it in the bag. That way, if a shark comes along because it smells the blood in the water it goes for the bag instead of you. Clever strategy, really. Did I ever tell you the story of my buddy who was diving and spearing in scuba gear (very unsporting) and had his bag strapped to his side instead of on a float while my dad and I were freediving above? This was off of Makaha, where about 3 years ago a surfer was killed by a 20 ft tiger shark. Well, ask me about it sometime. Its an interesting story.

Peace out.
b.