cute little tangerines

Good heavens.
Ive just spent the last 2 hours preparing my taxes. And the hour before that writing a talk. Needless to say my brain is toast, my eyes are parched, and my hair is in a verticle arrangment. Not much news. Other than the fact that it finally stopped raining. We experienced a sort of pseudo winter maui-style here recently. It got very cold and rained without even a glimpse of the sun for about 3 weeks. I never thought I would actually need a jacket, scarf, hat, and fuzzy slippers here. We even got snow on Haleakela for a few days. It was rather nostalgic of home. And as a result I fulfilled a long over due task of learning to crochet. (no matter how many times i re-type that word, it still doesnt look right)
The island is starting to close in a little lately. Feeling a bit isolated, as Brooke once likened it- 'like trying to fit a square pig in a round hole'. I being the square pig of course. And in addition to feeling as though everyone here is the complete polar opposite of myself- the rain brought all activity to a hault. There's very little one can do while its raining here, especially in the long dark evenings. I can only pace around the appartment about 20 times before I get dizzy, and then continue my search for activities to occupy myself. So far the list of accomplishments forged from the fires of boredom this week were:
* crochetting- 2 hats, 1 sweater
* conquering an entire sudoku book
* read a michael crichton book
* arranged t-shirts by color
* made 11 different lists
* chased grasshopper around room
* broke and then repaired electrical socket
* tried new dance move in over-sized lion face slippers
* watched entire collection of Bill Murray movies

next weeks agenda will be watching cheese mold, counting stripes on the rug, and perfecting gecko call.

Actually it should be a little more exciting now that the weather is back up to par and Brooke's family is here visiting. Ah, and prospects of the car selling have improved greatly. So I may be up to see you all again very soon. I hope.

bed time. goodnight.

Short stuff

I dont have much time for elaborate updates but I felt compelled to ensure you all that I havent fallen off the face of the planet.

* Battling with legal system and insurance company about wrong information to the end that I no longer am driving. Which I hope to rectify fairly soon. Until then, I am 'hoofing it' once more.
* Prospective buyer for my car which would allow me to come back home for a visit hopefully in the next month or two. Here's hoping.
* Very sadly, my grandma passed away Sunday. Right now is harder than ever to be so far away from home.

thats all i can say for now. more another time.
-me

Nutrition Facts

As has become my routine... I have a lot of updating to do. I havent had the opportunity to post anything new for a while.

First of all... my stolen bike was RETURNED! thrown behind a tree next to the dumpster at work. a little scratched up but otherwise in one piece. Im assuming that some juvenile delinquents took off with it to assert their position within their adolescent tribe, only to discover that my bike is a piece of crap. at which point i think they decided it was best off next to a dumpster. (Mind you, i was going to attempt to compose some wild unbelievable story about chasing after the thief and then beating them up in some really cool way.... but who'd believe that anyway?)

I sent Krista on her way back to the mainland yesterday. We had a lovely time, did much exploring and sleeping in. Now its back to reality. Perhaps later I will post some pictures of our 'adventures'.

Our C.O. is visiting next week, whom I have yet to meet. So this is exciting. I am still calling on the gentleman I wrote about previously and he is as responsive as ever.

Hoping to make a visit back to Washington soon, but am short in funds at the moment. I will keep you all posted when I make official plans.

I am starting to get a bit lonesome without a little fuzzy creature pitter-pattering around the apartment. Brooke and I are on the hunt for a bigger place right now, but until then I may have to devise some sneaky way to hide a small rodent or pygmy horse in my room without it being detected. Coco the loudmouth parrot doesnt provide very good company, and Cnube seems to have been reunited with his lost owner. And it seems that the number of dead cats in the area has declined lately so I dont even have that as an option. Maybe i will just have to get myself a big dustbunny or ball of yarn to hold me over.

Well, we're off to Lahaina so I better get going. And thats all I have to say about that.

victim of a heinous crime

Today......... my bicycle... which has endured a long trek all the way from gig harbor, wa..... in which i poured my sweat and tears into repairing and re-assembling......


..... was stolen. In broad daylight..... at my work.

I didnt even get a chance to ride it.

I remember its happy neon yellow glow like it was yesterday.

Today is a grave day indeed.

I do apologize for the delay in updates lately. Its been a fairly chaotic couple of weeks.
Currently I am sitting in my living room safe from the storms outside. It has been raining for the past three or four days... and it lasts all day accompanied by very strong winds and occasional thunder. This was really putting a damper on having to walk to and from work, but as of yesterday I am officially driving my own vehicle again! WOohooo!
Well lets rewind...
Brooke's dad was visiting here for two weeks so the apartment was always full and very cozy. Especially at night considering it meant sharing the pull out bed with Brooke... some of you might know about her sleeping habits. Needless to say I slept very very little. At any rate it was enjoyable to have him along and it resulted in Brooke buying a new car for herself and passing what I now affectionately call 'Black Beauty', down to me.
About two and a half weeks ago (sheesh has it really been that long since I updated this thing!?) I was out in service having a fairly productive morning and called on one door to offer the special awake issue, however things went a different direction when I asked if the man was a bible reader. He told me that it was so odd that I came there to ask him that because yes, he just started to read the bible again, he has been going through a really tough few weeks. His then asked if I had heard about the irrigation accident that was all over the news here a few weeks ago. Two very young girls were swimming in the irrigation system (as kids often do without their parents knowing) and both were sucked under by one of the tunnels that feeds off to some other part of the irrigation system, both drowned and were found dead later the next day. One of those girls was his daughter, she was only 14 years old. He started to get a little teary eyed, and expressed how thankful he would be to hear any sort of scripture we could share with him. After the incident he decided that he should turn to spiritual guidance and had started praying to God for help and looking for answers. So I shared with him the scripture in John 5 and expressed to him that it was something to really look forward to. He told us we must be angels sent to him. I talked to him more about the resurrection hope and why we were in the ministry and he was sooo grateful. He related that he knows a witness couple in the area and is interested in our religion. I've been able to place with him since that visit a bible teach book, a new bible, when someone you love dies brochure, and an invitation to the meetings. He is always so thankful for our visits and expects my return every sunday. Such an upbuilding experience has really reminded me why we're out there doing this. It might have taken me all month to find someone who wanted to learn about Jehovah, but when I did... he didnt just want it ...he needed it. Its amazing how Jehovah searches out the lowly ones and offers them his hand. It feels good to be a part of that.
In other news... I happened to meet a guy who works at Maui dive shop and got to talking only to find out that he has worked on several boats in Lahaina. He gave me all kinds of tips and info on the local boats so I could get on one. So if all works out, now that i have wheels, I might be getting a career change here.
Well my little viking is coming to visit tomorrow, so I am anxious for that. "Reunited.. and it feeels so gooood." I just hope this storm passes before too long so we will have nice weather to play in.
Thats all for now, I have to be getting ready for work.

or ar vuar.

within striking distance..

Good evening. I have been meaning to update this since last weekend but haven't had a chance, so here goes the catch-up.

Last Monday Brooke and I both had the day off again and decided to go on a hike around the lava fields. The weather was perfect, days like this remind me of why I moved here in the first place. We hiked over several miles of lava field along the coast line. Saw the most amazing, and huge, waves out there. Which of course means surfers. They must either be extremely good or just plain stupid because the waves were enormous and the ride shot you right out in front of a lava jetty. Anyhow, as we continued our trek we discovered what I believe to be a homeless fisherman's hide out- about 2 miles from any trails, quite literally in the middle of nothing. Fully equip ed with a small section of junk carpet, fishing lines rigged up on metal tubing that had been planted in crevices around the cliff side, and a small fire pit in the rock. Very bizarre. I kept expecting to find some scruffy bearded old codger chopping up his dinner around the next rock. As we continued we found several tide pools and a big clay plateau that shot out over the ocean. It was really quite incredible. Ive included some pictures below.

After our hike we were very hot and sticky so a jump in the ocean sounded great. We drove to a place called 'Sidewalks' which is a beach in the area with big waves to play in. On this occasion one of many 'Brooke-isms' occurred which as I am finding out from living with her, are more frequent that I could have imagined. We were about to cross a road to get back to our car and Brooke decides to just walk right out in front of an oncoming car, which I thought was a bit bold. So of course the driver of the car was waving his hands at her to wait. And once we crossed the street Brooke said to me, sounding very irritated... "I don't know why that guy was waving his hands at me like that... I'm a Samaritan! I had the right-of-way!! Gees!" A bit confused I just followed behind trying to figure out what in the world she meant by that. When I caught on I asked her if she meant 'Pedestrian'. She agreed and asked what the difference was. Apparently she had always thought the account of the 'Good Samaritan' was referring to a guy who was 'walking down the road' which is what Samaritan means, equivalent to 'Pedestrian'.

Well I'm never short of entertainment that's for sure.

Here are the pictures... click on the pictures to see a larger view.

Here is a look up at the volcano. You cant see it in this picture, but the lava flow left a trail down the hillside so you can see the path the lava took all the way from the top to the ocean.

Some nerd with a big chunk of corral.

The cliffsides. You could feel the waves hit the cliffs below you which was followed by a rather menacing low 'THUD'.

Its never easy to tell the size of waves by the pictures from shore. But these were double overhead. (Or in lamens terms about as high as you and another adult standing on your shoulders) Waves so nice it makes you sick.

Tide pools. There was a strange rust colored substance on the floor of the pools and other odd things about them, which I attribute to the lava's chemical makeup mixing with the standing water.

Here is a guy surfing one of the waves. It looked like a lot of fun... but Im pretty sure I'd be peeing my pants the whole time.

Ah yes, prime example of why I would be peeing my pants... the other half of this board was about 100 ft. away and lodged vertically in the rocks.

Walking the trails. If you look closely you can spot an illusive Brookimusapian in the distance.

We came across a heard of wild goats that live on the beach along side the lava field. They had lots of weee little baby goats, and we nearly got in the middle of a goat brawl by accident. Not to worry I broke it up.

Wild goats sewing wild oats.

And here is a look back towards the way we came along the cliffs. I have heard rumors that dolphins frequent this area in the early mornings. So we intend on returning some morning with PB&J sandwiches to lure in the dolphins. (Im pretty sure they love those)

Post Hollow-weenie update

Its Thursday... or so I have been told.

yesterday was Halloween... in other words Mardi Gras if you live in Hawaii.

Today at work I had two separate Euro-clismic encounters that made me laugh. The first man, I am guessing was from Spain came up to the counter and asked for 'a single american'. I just sort of looked around and told him to have his pick, "there are at least 3 of us behind the counter. "
He didnt get it. So I made him a single shot americano.
European experience number two occurred when taking a lunch order, we like to write the name of the person on their ticket to expedite the delivery process. When I asked what his name was he muttered something that sounded like 'doo doo'. Finding this sort of thing funny, I just grinned and asked him to spell it for me. To which he replied 'D-U-D-U... Dudu.' Upon writing the last 'U' I realised his name really WAS Doodoo and had one of those explosive laughs that comes out very suddenly but you try to hold it back because you didnt want the person to know you were laughing at their expense, resulting in mucous particles shooting forth from your nose. Yeah, it was a good one.

I also had a disturbing experience while walking home from work. I saw in the distance a cute little white kitty cat taking a nap under a small shrub. Of course that made me very happy because I get along great with stray animals. I tried not to be too noisy when I got close because I thought I might startle it awake and it would have reason to run away. But it just lay there sleeping soundly. So I tried coaxing it awake by complementing it on its lovely fur and asking those obligatory questions you ask stray animals- 'where are you from?' 'whats your name?' 'What line of work are you in?' But it wouldn't even budge. I thought to myself... 'Self- either this cat is very rude or something is wrong. You should poke it to wake it up'. And I did, only to find that it was very stiff and bloaty. OOps. Well that put a damper on my walk home. Not only was I sad that the cat I had been conversing with was actually dead. But I had to hold my index finger up in the air the rest of the way home to ensure it didnt make contact with any of the other fingers.
On the bright side... the cat was likely hit by a car which flung it to the side of the road where it landed under a shrub conveniently placed on the perimeter of a graveyard.
...... I guess that should have been my first clue.