Visitors foreign and domestic

Yesterday, I served four Texans and two Russians at my tasting bar. Sounds like the beginning to a joke, doesn't it? Well it kinda is. The Russians were struggling to understand but they seemed to know English, at least a little, so I tried to make them feel more comfortable by asking about their trip to the islands.

"How long was your flight from Moscow to Hawaii?" I asked.

"October twenty-third," he said.

Now, this, I thought, was so damn funny that it was all I could do not to burst with laughter. But I didn't want the guy to feel any more uncomfortable than he already did, so I bit my tongue. Literally. Then the lady standing next to him, a Texan, turned to the man and said, "You should drink more. It will make your English better." She smiled and raised her glass toward him, as if to toast. He raised his back and said, "No good English," and she looked back at me and said, "I'm lost on him. Totally lost." She smiled and made a swiping move with her hand over her head.

Today, a whole family on vacation came in and when I asked them where they were visiting us from, I expected them to say Thailand. Instead, they said, "Texas." They were a blast. The eldest, the grandpa I think, insisted on showing me the photos in his camera of a winery he had visited near his home in Houston. When I asked his granddaughter (or maybe daughter) at the end of the bar if she would like to join in the tasting, she said, "I can't. I have asthma." Now, I have asthma too and I drink wine all the time. So I thought it was comical when the young man who might have been her brother looked at me, leaned over the bar a little and whispered, "It has nothing to do with drinking wine you know. She just always says that."

"I use an inhaler," she added, as though it was a badge of honor.

I took their picture with three different cameras before they left.

I have this old box sitting on the lanai and have considered tossing it into the recycling several times, only to find Mr. Sox enjoying it's cozy environs. What can I do?

The cold (as in virus, not temperature) is slowly making its way out of my system. Now, it's just a rumbling, bronchial hack.

Tomorrow's another day. A hui hou. Aloha!

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Born and bred

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Mountains and Islands

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