Skip to main content

Observations from the road


Hopps and Crawford say Alo-o-o-ha!

People are really into bumper stickers and decals for cars here on the Big Island. I saw another funny one today. It said, "Horn broken. Watch for finger."
On the mainland bumper stickers are popular too. The messages run the gamut, to be sure. But here, drivers sport memorial decals. I've never seen them before. I will admit that I've lived life a bit sheltered from big city trends for the past several years. Still, if these were a hot new thing in Colorado, I'm sure I'd have seen at least one car wearing one as it passed through Gunnison. Anyway, these tributes to a lost loved one are usually white, in the back windshield and say something like "In loving memory of James Keoki Chang" in flowery lettering. There's usually a cross or angel to complete the presentation. It seems a bit morbid to carry around the sadness of loss everywhere you go. Maybe its a cultural thing and I just don't get it. That's probably the case.
I've finally completed my first podcast! If you are painfully bored and need to fill about 18 minutes of your time, check it out. You can access it through iTunes. Just click on the podcast directory, then enter Hawaiian Rainforest in the search window. You can subscribe if you'd like. If you don't have iTunes loaded onto your computer, go to www.podcast.net and enter Hawaiian Rainforest in the title search. Both methods are free! And worth every penny if I don't say so myself. It's my first episode and maybe a bit dull. The music's good, though and I hope, with practice, the episodes will get more funny and entertaining. I'm going to try to produce one every week or two.
It's been raining so incessantly that I decided its time to join the gym. Spencer's in downtown Hilo is a pretty big place, with tons of cardio machines, lots of cool weight machines, free weights and best of all, great people watching. There are definitely some buff boys and girls in there, for sure. There are also plenty of people like me; average joes and josephines just trying to stay one step (instead of a thousand steps) behind the effects of gravity with age. I must say that, working out in the warm, humidity of Hilo feels so easy compared to the dry, cold air of Gunnison. No real warm up is required here. The muscles are already loose and ready to go. Lots of water is important, however, as the sweat begins to pour immediately.
I see that my old hometown, Los Angeles, got some snow yesterday! Wow! That is an anomaly. It happened once in the 10 years I lived there, the year I graduated from CSUN, 1989. It just lasted one day but it had the city in a tizzy to say the least. The palm trees were not happy but they were pretty. It was cool to see kids on the news, sliding down hillsides on platters, having a ball. Some forms of fun are universal.
Well, I'm off to gather more fodder for my next posting here, and my next podcast. Until next time, aloha!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mom

This is my beautiful mom. She died last Sunday. For those who knew her, my heart breaks with you. For those who did not, here's an introduction to the best confidante, role model and mother a girl could hope for in life. This is the obituary I'd planned to submit to the local paper, but have opted instead to publish here. Obituary: Beverly Todd Bev -- my mom -- was a longtime caregiver, advocate, and dear friend to countless elderly in South Salem. Hers was a kind and generous spirit. She devoted much of her life to the welfare of others, giving wholly of herself and doing so always with great affection and humor. She was born Beverly Marie Steinberger in Silverton, July 23, 1938, the first child and only daughter of Art and Marie Steinberger. Her brothers called her Bevvy Buns, a nickname she grew fond of and wore proudly within the family circle as an adult. Bev attended St. Paul’s Elementary School in Silverton, Silverton High School and Marylhurst Co...
2 comments
Read more

Back at it

It's been some time since I've written. My mom died in February, and I haven't had the gumption to write much, other than a couple of feature stories for the paper and the occasional pithy email to a friend. Tonight, sitting in my favorite burger joint with a pile of fries in front of me, I dunk them into a deep pool of ketchup mixed with a hot sauce. That's how Mom liked 'em. My burger? The Spicy Hawaiian, a nod to my 808 connections. It's a brilliant combination of peppers and pineapple, a favorite on the Power Stop menu. I'm sure she'd have loved it, too. There's a bubbly beer with a lime in it. That's not a homage to anything. I just like beer. These past months, I've done little but work, search and apply for jobs. Two rejection letters have landed in my email this week. Search-and-apply has become a futile obsession. It's time for a break, at least until I hear back from all those applications still floating around out there. I am...
Post a Comment
Read more

Goodbye Dan Fogelberg

Saturday started out as just another day to clean the house. Within a short time, however, I found myself on a mission; a mission of arachnid eradication. The spiders, for all their great bug-eating prowess, have a tendency to get a bit out of control in a place where there's no real winter. They're not only everywhere outside, but inside, too. I found webs with giant eight-leggers in corners, on the ceiling, hiding under window shades....everywhere! They were in places I vacuumed just two days before. Since the invasion of the beetles, the spiders have grown enormously fat and happy. So I sucked 'em all up. EEEEEEEEWWWWWW! I was none too keen on removing the vacuum bag. In addition to spider sucking, there was fun with fungi. What did the girl mushroom say to the boy mushroom? Gee your a fun-gi! Unfortunately, the prevailing fungus amongus was not shitakes or portabellos, but mold and mildew. Again.... eeeeeeeeewwwwww! I cleaned the top of the fridge, which was home to a n...
4 comments
Read more