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Catfish and Cosme

We're tucked away in our little hovel tonight, riding out what has turned out to be a very mellow Tropical Depression Cosme. Earlier this evening, we ventured down to Kea'au to check out the catfish and gumbo special at Paradise Bar and Grill. En route, we spotted a large, white pickup truck overturned just off the side of the highway. It was upside down with it's cab, ever-so-luckily poking downward into a fairly wide ditch. The fourth of four passengers was wiggling out of the driver's side window as we pulled up and stopped. When I asked, everyone said that they were OK and had all gotten out of the truck. It was obvious that they had all been wearing seat belts. They were, however, noticeably shaken up. That included a little boy of about four who seemed all but frozen in fear. He just stood there staring blankly. Poor kid. That would scare me too. It was raining pretty hard at the time and the truck just lost its grip on the road, veered and flipped. It happened in an instant. With all victims walking around and insisting they were fine, we proceeded on our way. As we pulled away from the shoulder, two police cars, a fire truck and an ambulance pulled up. They had arrived very quickly. I was impressed.
It continued to rain so hard we had to raise our voices to talk on the outdoor patio where we were seated at the restaurant. That was really only partially due to the rain. The crowd noise, combined with the musical stylings of the Chris Scott Band wafting through the open-air doorways, had us pretty much shouting our conversation. The band covers Jimmy Buffett and John Denver. The baby-boomer crowd seems to appreciate them. The special menu for the night was loaded with typos, so Ron borrowed a pen and we made corrections. According to the menu, they were serving "blackend cod" with "potaots." Yummy! As it turned out, the delivery of catfish never arrived. So they served calamari, mahi-mahi, shrimp, scallops and gumbo instead. That was just fine. On the menu, it was listed as the "captians" plate. The gumbo was actually pretty good. The margaritas were, however, the worst I've ever had. They were served with a lemon wedge, if you can believe that. We switched to beer for the second round. There was no third round. We had to navigate our way home in the downpour.
Right now, the deluge continues. It's loud enough on the roof that extra volume is required to hear the T.V.

The morning started out nice enough. So nice, in fact, that Lucy chose to take her nap on the roof. It's one of her favorite spots. Now she, like all her kitty and doggie siblings, are snoozing away inside the warm, dry house. Soon, I will be too.

A hui hou. Aloha!

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