Mountains and Islands

Today was the big day; The Law School Admissions Test. I don't feel particularly good about it. It was intense. And when I finally returned home from my day in the exam room, I was thoroughly exhausted. Immediately after the test, I bopped on down to the Hilo Farmers' Market for some sustenance ; namely, two musubis and a Thai noodle bento . There are no picnic tables at the Hilo Market, so I perched my okole atop a very low, rock wall facing the bayfront sidewalk. There, I munched, sipped lilikoi -aide and watched people as they strolled by. It occurred to me then that there are lots of people on earth (or at least strolling through downtown Hilo ) who have very ugly feet. I must say that there are times when a stroll through Hilo Town makes Venice Beach in California seem like a bastion of normalcy. I saw one chubby young tattooed woman in a spaghetti strapped sundress wearing Uggs . Uggs are tall, fur-lined snow boots worn mostly as apres ski apparel. But there ...

I've been picking up shifts at the winery this week. One of my co-workers was, as they say, "let go." I actually feel pretty bad about it. I liked this co-worker, although it was clear that she had an awful lot going on in her life that was stressing her out, along with some health issues. With luck, she'll get well, resolve her issues and land on her feet. I really do hope so. Like I said, I like her. It's been good working, especially since it's been raining almost constantly all week. Yesterday, we had two young men visiting from Switzerland. Today, we had two young women. When I met the latter, I told them of the former. "We just had two gentlemen from your country visiting us yesterday," I commented to the women. "We know," said one of them. "We just met them last night." So two pairs of people, both from Switzerland, just met one another for the first time in Hawaii. Yes, it's a tiny, tiny world. The ukulele lessons are ...

Tuesday night was ukulele lesson night! Woo- hoo ! Am I a party animal or what? It really is pretty fun. The instructor, Wes Awana , is teaching us all the basic vamps. Those are three-chord intros common in Hawaiian music. We then apply them to songs. It's all I can do to make the chord changes at the proper time, let alone try to read the lyrics (which are mostly in Hawaiian) and sing along. It's a good challenge. The lessons are taught at the Old Japanese Schoolhouse in Volcano. I find I meet the coolest people when I'm out and about. The girl who sits next to me in class has an old koa wood Kamaka ukulele. Kamaka is a premier name in ukes . I know this because I aspire to become a good enough player to justify buying myself a Kamaka one day. The girl's dad gave it to her when she was six years old. She never learned to play. In fact, she never touched the thing. So, he took it back when he moved to the mainland. When he heard she was finally going to take lessons...

There are days here when I feel like I'm really growing to love this place. The greenery is lovely. The people are friendly. The food is good. The tradewinds refreshing and sweet. Then there are days when all I really want to do is go home. Today was one of the latter. I went to the University campus to scope out the classroom where my LSAT exam will be held. According to my instructions, I'm to go to Building K, room 122. Seemed easy enough. I checked it out on a map beforehand. There it was, Building K. Piece of cake. Not so. When I got there, I found that all the buildings look pretty much the same there. I also noticed the conspicuous absence of any signs outside or on the side of any buildings. Hmmmm ...... I finally asked. A nice professor-type pointed and told me, "Go to that plain, gray building just down those steps. There's no way you could know that," she smiled. Yes, at least people are friendly. When I found the building, I came immediately upon room...

Last week when my mom was visiting, I took her to the gym. I plopped her on the treadmill and made her sweat. While we were there, we encountered a tall, blonde haole girl, slender, cute, young and very stinky . Whew! This attractive young woman was rank. Mom noticed her first. She very subtly waved her hand in front of her nose and made a pee- eeew face when the girl wasn't looking. Then it was my turn. Yikes! Just being on the machine next to her made my eyes water. It was enough to take your breath away. Or at least enough to make you want to hold your breath. It must have something to do with her diet. Maybe she eats curried Limburger with garlic and anchovies on a regular basis or something. I've been in lots of gyms in my day, and ridden plenty of public busses , too. This girl is the hands-down winner for stinkiest human I've ever encountered. She wins for sharpest, most pungent, and the coveting title of worst stench EVER. She made giving a ride to One-Lung-Smel...

Mom flew the coop today. I think she had fun here at the hovel. She saw the local sights, did dishes and laundry and was darn good company. I love it when mom visits. Here she is on the lanai of our hotel room at Waikiki. Out of respect for the fact that she now abstains from drinking, I too spent the last 16 days on the wagon. You'd think I'd have lost a little weight doing that, but no-o-o-o-o-o-o. So tonight, I cracked open a bottle of dry rose from Spain, chilled to perfection. Very nice. Ron and I had big plans for the day after dropping mom off at the airport. We were going to come home, mow the lawn, wash the cars, power wash the driveway of tractor mud and finish the driveway gates I started building several months ago. But by the time we got home from Hilo Town, it was raining. Pouring, actually. So, we took a three hour nap. Again, very nice. About the only ambitious activity we could muster was to replace a bad light fixture on the lanai. Oh, and I wiped the floss f...

Tonight, it was cutthroat scrabble at it's scrappiest! With mom here, it's more fun and interesting. When Ron and I play, it's also fun, but we somehow seem limited to words like "cat" and "zoo." Of course, zoo is used a lot, since nobody seems to be able to come up with any other 'z' words. Except, of course, those brainiac kids in the National Spelling Bee. I hate those kids. Tonights word of entertainment turned out to be smeet . After our match, we were scrambling to spell out names to call each other. I found "loon" and "dud." Mom found "smeet." As in, "It's not vegetables, it'smeet!" Or something like that. On Tuesday, she tried to get away with ovu . She claimed it was singular for ovum. NOT! I do not have one ovu, nor do I have two. Ron is usually the one with the creative spelling. He, however, had the audacity to challenge one of my words the other night. I had spelled out coven , as in, ...

I picked all these flowers in the yard. Not bad, eh? It's been a nice week with mom here. Friday night, we went to see Hapa. They were, as always, fantastic. The warm up act, Keawe Trio, was also excellent. Skylark Rosetti, local famous DJ, was there to MC the event, which was a charity fundraiser for a local rural medical organization. Keawe Trio's lead singer had a very versatile voice, singing baritone cowboy songs and Hawaiian falsetto. He was also an accomplished guitarist. Sunday, we attended Malama Punalu'u, a ho'oloule'a, or festival, held to raise awareness and help save the area around Punalu'u Black Sand Beach in Ka'u, near South Point. The fest was held in Na'alehu, one of my favorite little towns here on the island. Skylark was there again, along with Kahikina, a.k.a. Tommy Ching, another famous DJ. There was food, music and crafts, including an authentic sailing canoe on display. My old acquaintance Keoni, the canoe builder, was there. He a...