Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Quick update: March 26

Hi All,
We are back in CO and I have put a brief post up on the other blog:
http://sedgtrip.blogspot.com

Will get some new photos up ASAP.
Best,
Bill

Friday, March 7, 2008

Photos below

couple of new photos down below as well...

Friday night lights

The lights are the stars...man are they out tonight!

We grilled some teriyaki swordfish the other night on the beach. It was great! I forgot to tell shelby that you REALLY need to keep the spatula out of the sand, and when I let her flip one of the filets, well, let's just say it got a bit gritty. Oh well. It was fun to build the fire on the beach and hang out out there at night.

My surfing yesterday left alot to be desired. The waves did not seem to cooperate and were breaking everywhere I was not, and the wind picked up and kept blowing me down the beach, so I spent most of my time "getting a good shoulder workout." I actually ALMOST caught a wave on my first try and that was as close as I came. It was fun though and made me want to keep trying.

Really looking forward to the next few days. More fishing, waves, bbq's and next Saturday a trip over to Kauai. Peace.
B.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Finally decided to get a golf cart.

All, since the neighborhood golf cart craze had been spreading like a rash, i have finally succumbed since I found a golf cart that is big enough and bad enough to represent.
I found this little beauty on the road between Honoka'a and Wiamea. I am going to name it "Little BigFoot" and will proceed to crush any other golfcart in my path in the 4th of July parade.
Yea! Baby! YEA! B.

Friday, February 29, 2008

The fun stuff!

Hi all.
Well, look out, i'm 6/9ths of a bottle into some '97 Hermitage (Paul Jaboulet La Chapelle, to be specific....anyone .... anyone... Buehler...Buehler) and my newly acquired expertise in 4th grade math tells me that that is also 2/3rds and yes, the rest is in the glass to my left. Nothing in the math book talks about what happens when you blog and drain the bottle at the same time. We shall see! Thanks to Heidi for helping me initialize a dent in the bottle so I can't take "full credit" for it. Good stuff by the way...i'll give it a WS 94 (thats a William Sedgwick 94...not a Wine Spectator 94...oh nevermind.)

I must also give a shout out to my man Arthur Ellison who not only cut us a smokin' deal on our stay here at the Palm Villas at Mauna Lani, but also left for us the aforementioned Hermitage as well as a bottle of 04 Caymus cab, which you may know, is one of my all time favorite houses. Please rent one of his places if you ever come here to the Mauna Lani. He owns three in this building and though we are in the largest of the three, i'm sure they all rock the house like this one does. I have posted a link to his VRBO site before, but his email is palmvillasrental@aol.com if you want to reach out to him. He's working on a new website for them, so i'll post a link when he has it ready.

OK, what else...oh yea the camera..I know I need to post photos but I'm not exactly sure where the camera is and i hear the batteries are dead anyhow. I have to say that that Canon camera, while a great camera from a photo perspective, sucks battery juice like no tomorrow. I think they were in a pact from hell with the energizer bunny to pad the corporate coffers when they came up with this energy pig. Let's just say that the bunny does NOT keep going and going and going. It like goes for a little bit, gets a little pooped out, then it starts flashing a red battery icon with a "NO" line through it and then it shuts down. Nice. The should have called it the Cannon Slurp. Instead it is called the Cannon X blah blah blah..whatever.

ummmm..yummy wine.

Since Heidi has been sneezing like a banshee when she drinks wine, we have not been drinking much on this trip. We think that maybe she's allergic to sulfites, because she IS allergic to sulfa drugs. Does anyone with medical knowledge know if there's a potential connection? I will say that we DEFINITELY have noticed a connection to her sneezing and any wine consumption. Does anyone know of a good wine that does not contain sulfites? That would be good too, sort of slaying the dragon without spilling the blood, IF you know what I mean, and I think you do.

Oh, i'm reading Hawaii (by James Michener.) Wow, what a read. i'm on like page 400 and i'm only about 1/3 (aka 5/15ths, yea boyee) of the way through. Last night, i was getting tired of reading so I was looking at my position in the book relative the end of the missionary section (Oh PLEASE, i'm talking about the god-fearing Christian missionaries that brough Christianity to the heathens, not the a-hem, "Missionary position", gosh you people have such dirty minds) and it looks like it was "doable" then 2 hours later i'm still not even close. I think the type is about 5 pts. They should sell "free lasik surgery" with the purchase of the paperback version of this book.

Anyhow, if you have any interest in these islands and you have not read this book, you should. Clearly it is not an accurate historical account, but consistent with Michener's style, there is much authenticity to it's background info and it obviously leverages reality in it's tales. I'm told there's also a movie based on the novel starring Julie Andrews, which probably does not suck, but also would not be nearly as good. Here's the trailer..., powerful natural forces belch fire from the center of the earth to create a potential paradise far from anywhere, genocide, incest, bloodthirsty brutality, group sex, pestilence, religious fundamentalism (both multi-demigod and missionary style Calvanist Christianity to be specific) red-hot lava, hurricanes, smoking volcanoes, shark attacks, 60 foot waves, warmth, trust, love, belief, faith and more...all in the first two chapters (of yea 400 pages). Really quite amazing. i'm looking forward to the rest of it. But ANYONE who has read this...can I get a ooorah or an amen to what a putz Abner Hale is? AAAAGH! If he was not so brilliant in some ways with balls of pure steel, i'd hate the guy. Actually i still kinda hate him. Sorry, just venting...read the book so we can commisurate.

Well, I just hit the sediment (in my glass) and the clock struck midnight. Well, it didn't really "strike" anything, it just is midnight. OK.
time to call it a night. B.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Attack of the hounds from hell!

Hey guys,
Well, guess what I got another FLAT TIRE today! We went and did the Volcanoes Nat'l park gig and checked out the steam vents and the caldera and all that fun stuff. There was alot of sulfur coming off the volcano and the gas it produces is both noxious and obnoxious (smelling) so we didn't hang around all that long. Also, some of the roads were closed due to the gas, so that was a bit limiting. As it is now, the only flowing lava is in a remote area where there is no access except by air, and no lava is currently flowing into the ocean, so that's not as exciting as it might be.

On the way back home we dediced to drive up Orchidland road and when we got to a place to turn around all of the sudden these two dogs start running across the property towards us. Im thinking OH, nice doggies they must think their master is home and are coming to greet him...NOT! These were hard core attack dogs and looked like about the meanest dogs i've ever seen. We were in the van and had the windows rolled up by the time they got there, but DAMN, they were jumping at Heidi and then started biting the tires of the van! I don't know if it's a coincidence or not, but the same tire that the biggest nastiest dog was biting is the one that got a flat. Heidi was like "be careful" to not hit the dogs as I was doing my 3 point turn to get out of there, and I was like "Hell with that! We outta here!" It would have done those dogs some good to get a little hit from a car. So, when we got back to the gas station after we got MORE icecream for the girls (and us of course) a blg 'ole flat tire. Lucky for me, I'm now an old pro at changing minvan flat tires, so we were out of there in about 10 minutes. Back to the airport to switch out the van again! First I got a mean old local gal named "Pinky" (true story) and she was slamming the pen down, telling me to fill out this and that...eww. I just HATE that treatment. Finally, a nice person at the counter came and took over for her and we were all good after that. I wonder if I'll see any additional charges on my bill from that...who knows.

So, here's another funny story. Over at Kalapana yesterday we ran into an old haole dude selling organic fruit for $.50 a pound which we bought about 10 lbs. of. I asked him about this fruit that I saw some Locals harvesting off a tree and he let me know that it's called Noni fruit and is medicinal, which of course peaked my interest. Apparently Hawaiians have been using it for hundreds of years to cure things ranging from cancer to chronic pain. He showed me how is smells like dirty socks and how a "naturopath" was eating the thing like an apple recently but looked really "healthy." Then he pointed us to a factory nearby and we stopped off and got the speil and I walked out with a 32 oz bottle and some caplets. So, here's the funny part. This stuff is about the nastiest tasting stuff on the planet...sort of a "no pain no gain" thing I guess. I gave Heidi her shot of it this am and she characterized is as "Like drinking a fart." (her exact words, my friends.) I sort of have to agree with her. She looked it up on the web and found that it is sometimes also known as "vomit fruit." LOL. So, i'll be having my second shot of the day here in a bit... hell, it was $8 for that bottle and i'll be darned if I'll let it go to waste! Hopefully it will cure my chronic pain in my hip.

Oh, and did I mention how prophetic Jim Kelley is? Our place here is completely surrounded by Coquee Frogs. Now the rumor has it that the chirping is only done by the males to call out to the females to come "spend a little quality froggy time" with the Mr. The first night I was listening to them (pretty much all night) and it seemed like one by one they "hooked up" and quit chirping kookee kookee. But there was this one dude...man I actually felt bad for him. Like the desperate guy at the bar, holding out for the last available gal and she takes off with someone else...yet he stays, thinking that, against all odds, someone will show up at the last minute to appease his male yearnings. Well, I don't think he did, 'cause it seemed like the chirping never ended until he dragged his sorry ass all the way back to whatever hole he crawled out of in the first place. Now i'm not being mean, I really heard from our waiter the other night that they live in holes in the ground and sleep there during the day. Another thing I noticed is that sometimes they make a different jittery noice, which all I can assume is that the are giggling with the girlie frog that they hooked up with, or they are laughing at all the other males that are still chirping. To me, the untrained ear, though it would seem like all the guys are saying exactly the same thing. Now, most of us would have to harken way back to a different age, but ladies, wouldn't it have been BORING if all the guys that walked up to you in the bar said EXACTLY the same thing, like "Hey Baby, i'm not just hot i'm Kookee Kookee." Jim, did you already know the Coquee Frog had infested the Puna area of the Big Island?
Peace out. B.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Big Island Hijinix.

Wow, lots of fun stuff to post in here tonight...

We arrived on Wednesday and got to the house with no problems. We should have gotten more packing done the night before we left and ran out of time to get the house somewhat in order, left a few things and we were all tired from the travel day, but we made it and here we are. We went out to dinner in Pahoa on Wednesday night and were VERY pleasantly surprised by the restaurant we went to. It easily rivaled if not surpassed many of the fancy restaurants we have visited in Honolulu or here on the big island in some of the Kona side resort communities. I think the place is called Keolos or something like that. The prices were reasonable by resort standards, but probably exorbitant by Pahoa standards...if you were here, you would understand.



The next day we decided to head over to the lava tree state park via lunch in Pahoa. So I stop in the little market/deli in town and order some lunch to go and what a town. The best I could describe it would be something like Boulder meets skid-row. A host of gnarly looking characters wearing shirts like "I don't make enough to kiss your ass" (true story) or just a big Pakalolo leaf and a full head of at least 5 or 6 teeth, but compensating with shoulder blade hair and spider web tatoos. Sweet look bra.

If you read the other blog, you probably know by now that I got a flat tire at. We pull into the "parking lot" of the state park which has moon crater sized potholes and gigantic ruts in the concrete. YET there is a fricking batallion of state maintenance dudes renovating the BATHROOMS! "YO, Keoki...over here bra...fix this fricking volkswagon sized hole in your parking lot, I can pee on the moss rock." Oh well...so I swerve a bit to miss the giant rut and psssssssssssssssst...immediate flat. 2" cut in the sidewall of the tire from a wayward piece of lava. That stuff is SHARP!

So I call the guy at Dollar rent a car and he was USELESS...though he tried not to be and was friendly...but STILL! I barely had any cell service at the location, which causes all kinds of havoc when you are trying to navigate through "press this buttone then that button" hell. But the dude was like "um ok, you need to locate the nut on the floor so you can lower down the spare...It should be between two rear seats. NOPE. Uh, ok, then try in between the two second row seats..." Me: "is it under a panel?" because there is a plastic panel here." Um..yea, maybe. can you Pry off the panel?" Me: "With What?" Him: "um, well, do you have a screwdriver or something" Me: "Dude, I'm in Lava Tree State park, with almost no cell service, a completely flat tire and and I need some critical info here...like where is this "nut" and no I don't have a screwdriver." Him: "um, yea...ok, well does that minivan have stow and go seating, because I can pull up another manual for that...Me: CLICK.

Oh well, i'll call handy dandy Amex...they'll help, right? Last time I got my statement they said on it "Oh, and remember, when you rent a card with "THE CARD" you don't need additional insurance coverage, we've got you covered. And, i've been spending a few hundred grand a month with them in media so, yea...I should be ALL good, right. So...after a couple lost signal bummers, I finally got someone in roadside assist and she said "Great sir, I can help you!" Me: "GREAT! Please write down my number NOW so when we drop you can call me back! I'm in Hawaii at blah blah blah... " "Oh, is that a rental car?" Yea. "oh, well, normally we pay the First $50 of service...but since its a rental car, we don't pay anything. But, I can call you a tow or someone to help you.." Great...I can do that too and I don't have to try and be on hold forever either. um hmmm...yea, thanks um yea...ok buh bye..

I finally figured out where the "nut" was...up between the two front seats. Got the tire changed with the help of a very nice guy named Bill and we were on our way back to Hilo to exchange the car in the matter of about an hour or two.

Lots more fun to write about, but now i'm tired.

more soon,
B.