Lazy and busy

I haven't posted in like eleven days now.

I'd like to say I've been busy the whole time, but honestly, I've been more lazy that busy, and I've been a little sick too with something sinusy.

I left Kauai at like six-thirty am on the twentieth. I was bummed to go, as I hadn't really spent a whole lot of time in Lihue, but that was ok, as it meant I got to go to another island. This was turning into a multi-island tour my first trip!

Before I departed, my flight nurse was awesome enough to take me on a little tour around Lihue before I left. First stop was Lyndgate Beach to try and catch the sunrise, but it was overcast so that wasn't gonna happen.

As good as the sunrise got.

Next stop after that was a couple of waterfalls.

First to Opekaa Falls...

...Then to the Wailua Falls.

Then it was onto a Hawaiian 717 with an excellent view of the nacelle. At least on the connecting flight in HNL I got an exit row.

It's like right there.

I arrived in Hilo and was picked up by another one of our pilots, his wife, and their dog.

Lilly, the gremlin dog.

I then got the ten-cent tour of Hilo. The farmers market there is awesome. It was here I found that I love green papaya salads, sweet strawberry papayas and pumpkin curry. It is also where I found out I do not like soursops. Here I happened upon what I think is the best coconut shrimp with mango-pineapple dipping sauce I have ever had.

What sixteen dollars gets you at the Hilo Farmers market (clockwise from upper left): Green papaya salad, sweet strawberry papayas, pineapple, apple bananas, a soursop, and pumpkin curry.

Seriously, I could eat there everyday (note the huge ass avocados in the background).

Another thing about Hilo not really widely advertised I guess is the massive hippie population. Seriously, they're everywhere. Also, it rains in Hilo. A lot. Apparently Hilo is the wettest city in the US. Go figure. I think between the hippies, rain, and lack of beaches (mostly rocky coastline), I would not want to live in Hilo, though it is a fun place to visit, especially if one doesn't get drug tested.

It's a religion here. No, seriously.

I spent a total of about eight days in Hilo. I got to try laulau (kalua pork wrapped in ti leaves - it's f'ing delicious), a multitude of poke (of the twenty or so varieties at the store, I think I liked sesame-kukui-marlin the best), and apple-cinnamon-macadamia nut bread.

Sesame-Kukui-Marlin poke.

I also found an awesome place to get pho, and I tried loco moco for the first time at K-hop (I had the sumo moco with mahimahi and eggs over easy, it was fantastic). It was outside I saw a highway sign that is distinctly Hawaiian.

How you know you're in Hawaii (in case the six hour flight didn't tip you off)

I didn't really do a whole lot of flying while in Hilo, I actaully sat around doing a bunch of nothing for five of the eight days I was there. I totally could have posted then, but it's Hawaii, and I just couldn't get motivated enough to do it.

I did have a couple of flights while I was in Hilo, the last two starting with a phone call to head down to the airport to airline over to HNL. I don't mind, as the Hilo passenger waiting area is pretty damn awesome.

I love this lounge, just add me and a muay thai.

I was able to get a decent couple of pics over those two days.

Departing Honolulu (airport far left, Pearl Harbor almost middle-upper left, downtown on right).

Hilo bay (dead center).

Mauna Loa (left) and Mauna Kea (right) on departure.

Yesterday morning I drove to Kailua-Kona on the saddle road. It was interesting: Mauna Kea to the right and Mauna Loa to the left, I saw Hawaiian turkeys, and I saw some Hawaiian geese (nene) wich I guess are a bit rare.

Mauna Kea...

...and Mauna Loa.

Hawaiian turkey hens.

Kona has been nice so far. It was busy yesterday, but so far today, not a whole lot has happened, save for the announcement that we purchased/merged with our rival out here, Air Med (we only have their Hawaii operation).

The view from the Kona crew house deck is nice as well.

You can see all the way to the beach...

...and the airport.

Tonight I think I will maybe head out to the store to get groceries and maybe dinner as well. Other than that I'll probably just be biding my time in Kona till I head to Kauai and my days off , looking forward to when Stacey will be able to join me in Lihue.

Days one and two

Days one and two have been fairly busy for me here in Hawaii.

Picture unrelated (Hibiscus from next door)

Yesterday, my first full day, started at six am. I woke up and just could not sleep anymore. I don't know if it was the time change, or the chickens (more on that later) or what. So, I did the most logical thing: Took a shower, got dressed, and looked for a coffee place. Of course, since they're everywhere, kind of like a plague, I found a Starbucks pretty close (two minutes driving time).

The only place to get a coconut mocha frappuccino...

While there, I relaized (mostly cause I heard it) there was a chicken in the parking lot. This chicken looked exactly like the ones I had seen on the side of the road near the airport. So I took pictures.

Seriuously, they're everywhere. At Starbucks...

...The Taco Bell drive through...

...Office parking lots...

...And even at the crew house.

When they see a car pull up, I guess they expect food, because everytime I stopped to take a picture of one, it would walk up to the car and watch me for a moment or two before resuming it's chicken activities.

Apparently these chickens are a state protected species. They have no idea that crowing is for sunrise, as they do it constantly. They also seem to get confused by full moons, which is actually kinda damn funny. Apparently there's a phrase that utilizes them too - "Shit a Kauai chicken", used in the same context as "Shit a brick". (for more info check out http://www.kauaicountryinn.com/Pages-1/Kauaian.html)

Once my med crew was up (We're all staying in the same crew house), we decided to hit a local beach that was only ten minutes from the airport. However, as we left the crew house the day pilot arrived, so we instead went to the airport where I got my orientation. There were many items of interest, like: numbered/stored flight plans, only a few destinations to have to worry about, not being authorized to use the fuel truck, etc.

Once that was done, we decided to once again hit the beach. So, off we went down the road. We were a minute from the beach (maybe five minutes from the airport), when my flight nurse got a call for a flight. So we turned around, and I got to make my first flight in Hawaii.

I tried to get a few pics of Pearl Harbor and HNL in general while on approach. They aren't the best, but I suppose they'll do. For now.

Pearl Harbor is towards the left, the airport straight ahead (Runway 8L)

While in HNL we headed out for lunch, and I think I found my new favorite sushi place: Ninja Sushi. It's good, cheap, and accessible. It meets all the important criteria.

Taste so awesome, it will kill you silently.

Once all the sushi was nommed, we headed back to LIH, where my flight nurse and I, in our "spidey suits" took a pic. We had our pic of the newer "Smurf suits" (all blue), but we liked the two toned ones so we grabbed those.

Me and my flight nurse, post-mission

Then, once the plane was secured, we went for a drive. We weren't gone long, but we were able to see quite a bit, including the only rummery in Hawaii, the old sugar cane mill, and some awesome interior of the island. We also hit up the ABC store before heading back to the crew house for a bit before heading out to dinner at Kauai Pasta. It's a damn good pasta place, and while I did buy some tiramisu to go, I have not eaten it yet and therefore reserve my judgement on their dessert menu.

A panorama from the Rice memorial (the only panorama I can get to post)

A Kauai sunset

When we got back, I had a couple of rum-and-pineapple-orange-mango-nectars. I bought a six-pack of them for like four dollars earlier when I picked up the best rum ever: Sailor Jerry. While I was picking them up I noticed that there were a few other things I hadn't seen before.

I so wanted to a buy a bottle of each.

I haven't tried them yet, but I'm assuming they're awesome.

And that was the end of day number one.

Day number two started with my flight nurse and I getting up early to try and go get a picture or ten of the sunrise at a beach nearby. We got maybe a quarter of the way there before realizing the overcast and light rain wasn't going to work for us, so we headed to Starbucks to get coffee before we had to head over to HNL for safety stand down day (SSD).

While on approach to HNL, my flight nurse decided to try and take some pics of me flying in Hawaii. It was interesting to see them, as I've never really seen pics of me flying.

Appraoching HNL (Pearl Harbor in the windshield)

In HNL the day started with a blessing of the aircraft, crews, and administration. It was pretty cool to see and be a part of: It was a Catholic blessing, but done in Hawaiian, with Hawaiian customs and objects (ie to spread the holy water they used a local leaf and a bowl made from local wood, etc).

Just before the blessing (notice the leaf lei on the nose of the plane)

With that done it was down to the days lectures and such. One activity we did was to draw a slip of paper that had the name of an animal on it (I had "pig"). Then we were blindfolded and had to find the other person who had drawn the same animal. I found my counterpart quickly by staying quiet till I heard it quiet down, then loudly announcing "OINK!" to my surprise the person was near, and when we met I was even more surprised to see that it was the flight nurse that is one of my roommates here.

While in the hangar at HNL, I was able to take a few pictures of planes.

An old cargo DC3

A Beech 18

A lovely radial, the sexiest of all the recips.

A G-I

And Hawaiian Airlines first aircraft.

After SSD was over I grabbed a bunch of Hawaii Air Ambulance/Hawaii Life Flight stuff, then we returned here to Lihue, and then to the crew house. Right now we are napping till I'm no longer on call (another hour) before heading out for the night. Because of SSD, we are all going on mandatory rest for ten hours, so we're going to probably have a few drinks and have a good time tonight before our pre-scheduled six am flight to HNL in the morning.

Island Bound

The last couple of days have almost really been on long day.

I left Blanding on the sixteenth at six pm. I wanted to spend as much time as possible at home before heading out to Hawaii. So, I stayed, we enjoyed the time together, and I left.

Whilst driving, I think it might have been between Tuba City and Flagstaff, I picked up an FM station that seemed to be Native-run. I have listened to the AM Navajo station (660am), but this was new so I figured I'd listen to it. After a short while I started hearing these commercials that went something like:

"Imagine you're locked outside in the freezing cold, with only a thin coat to keep you warm.
You call out to your family, but they ignore you. You shiver and do the best to keep warm as frost bite sets in..."

At this point I'm thinking it's going to be a PSA about elder-neglect, or homelessness, etc. Nope. It's a PETA add reminding people to bring their pets in when it gets cold outside. This sounds like something one would do anyways, but what made me laugh is that this PSA was targeted at Native Americans (since it was on a Native-run station). For those not in the know, many tribes, especially the Navajo, don't bring their animals in. Ever. it's just a thing, no animals in the house. I don't care if it's ten below freezing outside and snowing like a bitch, you'll still see the dogs roaming about; the cats hiding; donkeys, horses, and cows playing on the highway just begging to be run over.

Anyhoo, I knew when I hit Phoenix proper because not only had I been driving for six hours, but the ghetto bird was there to greet me, overhead and circling while looking for who-knows-what.


I found my hotel easily enough, it was right of the freeway. After checking in, I headed upstairs, where I found a fairly uncomfortably-heated (seventy-eight effing degrees!) and overly-scented room. Apparently, no one has ever told Raddison that A) A hotel room in Phoenix should never (with nary an exception) be warmer than the temperature outside, and B) A little baby powder goes a long way, a shit-ton is stifling. After setting the thermostat for sixty-two, and airing out the room, I pulled out only what I would need for the next morning, gawked at the price of a bottle of water, and realized I left something in my car. So I headed back downstairs to my car, retrieved the forgotten item, and returned inside to wait for the elevator to take me to my floor (the fifth).

There are good wines cheaper than this bottle of water.

When it arrived, I stepped into the car along with a gentleman and what I think were his two children. They went up to the second floor and got out. The doors closed and...nothing. The buttons for the requested floors were pressed again. Nothing. Then the buttons for the unrequested floors. Nothing. Then the door-close button, followed by the door-open button. Nothing. Then, maybe two minutes after this started, a buzzer started going off. A loud, annoying, shrill buzzer. Finally, after eight more minutes of being trapped in an elevator for the first time, and just as I was starting to entertain thoughts of being stuck in an elevator all night, the car jolted, the buzzer stopped, and normal elevator service resumed.

When I (finally) got back to my room, I set my blackberry to a new time zone, since Arizona is one hour behind Utah right now. This caused an issue. My Blackberry, and I think all Blackberries in general, do not reset the clock display to whatever the local time is, it just stays on the time zone you set it at. I changed the time on my BB, but didn't change the time zone. At some point, the internal software said, "No dumbass, that's not the right time for that zone!" and reset itself. I figured this out when I got to the airport and realized that my BB was exactly an hour ahead of the time on the monitors. Oh well, what's an hour of sleep? After all, I have a six hour flight to Honolulu, I could sleep then. Onwards and upwards.On the plus side, I got a killer spot in the economy parking lot.

Here's a fun little ditty I just learned about Sky Harbor terminal number three: If you want a decent cup of coffee or decent food, you had better get it before you go through TSA, as the only thing on the "secure" side (think of those quotations as me doing air-quotations with my fingers) of the terminal is some independent, over-priced, nasty food making "Cafe". (again, air-quotations).

I was standing in line at this little slice of heaven in PHX when I saw an elderly lady behind the counter grab a milk carton full of "egg product" (not air-quotations, that's literally what it said), pour it on a griddle, and make "scrambled eggs" (ok, air quotations again). Once she had compiled a heap of these alleged scrambled eggs, she looks at the cashier and says with all the pride of a four year old in an inappropriately loud voice, "LOOK! I DID GOOD! I DID GOOD!!" Hand to God, I am not making this up.

So, one crappy cup of coffee and side-show later, I was off to my terminal to sit, sip some seriously suboptimal coffee, watch all the Amflight planes depart, and wait for my ride to Hawaii to arrive; a Hawaiian Airlines Boeing 767-300ER, named "'Akekeke". "'Akekeke" is a bird apparently, a Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres).

Neither ruddy, nor small.

Once aboard I was happy to find that my aisle seat had a bulkhead behind it so I didn't have to worry about anyone kicking my seat. I have never flown Hawaiian Airlines before, and found it quite a pleasant experience. There was an actual meal served (breakfast burritos with a muffin), snacks, and several rounds of soft drinks. Of course they still work you over for checking a bag ($25), buying alcohol ($6.50/drink), etc, etc. Oh, also of note, HAL is cashless - if you want to buy something it's got to be done with a credit or debit/ATM card.

Something else I noticed while waiting to board, and while boarding as well: Something like 90-95% of the passengers were old people. Is Hawaii the new Florida or something? Was there a retirement home discount day? I'm not complaining, as it might actually mean I have work to do while in the islands, but I can't help but wonder.

six hours after departing, we landed in HNL. My first impression upon exiting the aircraft/entering the jet way is that it smells not unlike Long Beach: slightly musty and fairly salty. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I don't think it was that. I also got my first look at one of the islands (I had an aisle seat in the middle row, so I didn't get a whole lot of window time).

My first view of Honolulu

Once on the ground, I found my self starving and realized it have been like four hours since I ate anything, and closer to 14 since I ate an actual meal. Don't get me wrong, the complimentary meal on-board the plane was cool, but it was still an airplane portion of airplane food. One of the options in the terminal was Chinese, so I hit it up. Turned out to be a good choice, so good in fact that in hour six of my seven-hour layover, I ate it again. I tired something new as well, call chow fun. Its not unlike chow mein, though it doesn't seem fried, and the noodles are about an inch wide. It's pretty damn good, I recommend it.

Clockwise from the eggroll: Chinese pork, chow mein, chow fun, mushroom chicken.

Here's another fun little fact I learned: Hawaii apparently has their own brand of bottled water.

Seriously, this stuff is everywhere.

I'm gonna go all Seinfeld for a minute here: What is the deal with airport restaurants? Why can't they look at a damned departure/arrival schedule, and figure out when to expect crowds? It seems like everytime I'm at an airport restaurant the staff is either overwhelmed due to not enough people being scheduled, or they're mostly standing around waiting to leave since nothing is going on. OK, done.

While waiting, I saw a gentleman who was distinctly Polynesian: He was wearing what appeared to be a grass skirt over a pin-striped sarong with a matching jacket.

Hardcore Hawaiian.

After about seven hours in HNL, my connecting flight to Lihue (pronounced "le-huey") departed. This gave me a new view of the mountains, as the angle was different as well as the position of the sun.

My second view of Honolulu.

It only took about thirty minutes total to get to LIH, and that was spent mostly climbing and descending. I finally got a good look at what I was about to flying from.

My first look at Kaua'i

This time when I walked of the plane, I was greeted by a far better smell: Jasmine, a lot of it too. I think it may have been air freshener though, as when I got outside I could no longer smell it and I never did see huge hedges of Jasmine that would be needed to make that strong of an odor,

HAL is efficient: my luggage was waiting for me on the carousel when I got to the baggage claim. Not bad considering it took me maybe a whole of five minutes to traverse the terminal.

The drive to the crew house was short, and the crew house is quite comfortable.

My home and car for the next three days.

Though it does pale a bit in comparison to the property owners' house.

The property owners house.

I'm hoping to get quite a few more pictures today. My flight nurse was telling me there's a lot of stuff within twenty minutes of the airport, so I may go take pictures of some stuff.

Honey Do's

The last few days have been tiring to say the least.

Monday was actually not too bad, mostly running errands and spending money at True Value. We picked up a bunch of potting soil, a couple of hand tools for the garden, a hedge trimmer, some seeds (they got some more in stock), and I got to pick up what I think is my new favorite tool.

Meet Ol' Painless.

We also got some paint samples and started playing around with those in the bedrooms. I think we have settled on what colors we want, so now it's just waiting for all the logistics to come together to get it done.

By noon the wind had kicked up pretty bad. I don't know what the deal was, but the winds were worse than Santa Ana's, though not as bad as the Fontana winds. But, weather be damned, we needed to get the gardening beds groomed and ready for planting. So, we all chipped in and got them done in pretty short order.

All ready for planting.

A nice surprise was found in the beds: one of them has several bunches of green onions...

I think it's time for baked potatoes.

...and there's even a few asparagus shoots that have come up.

Too bad there's only like four.

Monday wrapped up with Stacey and I talking about getting a wire fence up around the north and west side of the property.

Tuesday was a different story altogether. It started by Stacey leaving for Cortez with RJ, and my taking doughnuts to the mechanics and marketing people at work. From the marketing people I got a snazzy new hat (you'll see pics at some point I'm sure). From the maintenance guys I A) found out that one of the mechanics had left way sooner than I thought they would be, and B) got the hook up on a fence post driver, which saved me sixty-five dollars at True Value.

The next stop was San Juan Building Supply to get fence posts. Apparently sixteen six-foot fence posts are about all that will easily fit into my Yaris, so that's the number I brought home. And the fun began.

First I demolished an old, dilapidated wooden fence on the corner of our property: a ten-foot section, six feet high, already falling apart. It took me and O'l Painless about five minutes to knock off all the pickets and stringers. The posts were half rotted in the ground and I just pulled them straight up and out of the ground.

Then I, again with the help of old painless, demolished part of what we have come to call "The Fort". Apparently the previous owners built their kids a fort out of what I think might have been material from what was previously a fence, not unlike the one I demolished.

Ol' Painless: Destroyer of fences and childhood fun.

Whatever it was/is made of, it was in the way of my fence line, and was no match for eight pounds of steel on a fiberglass handle. With the demolition complete, it was time to move on the real work; driving fence posts.

Once I get the line set and the lilacs trimmed it was on. sixteen posts, sunk two feet into the ground, every seven feet apart, each post taking about twenty hits. After three straight hours of setting posts I finally got a break. Stacey came home with RJ - RJ had to get some cancerous growths removed. It was found he also has a thyroid problem, which is why he had gained so much weight to begin with and why he actually has mange.

A post-op, mangy, sad RJ.

Seriously, I told everyone he had mange. No one believed me. There it is, in a doctors report, diagnosed and everything: mangy beast. Anyhoo, with Stacey home I had a vehicle that I could get the rest of the fence materials - eight more posts and a few rolls of welded wire fencing. With those procured, it was back to the task. By days end I had driven twenty-four fence posts, hung fifty feet of wire, and set fifty more feet in place to be secured in the morning.

The next morning, Wednesday, I woke up in pain. In a loooooooooot of pain. I think I'm going to rename the fence post driver to "the torturer". The good news is that the hard part was done. The bad news is that we still had wire to hang on the posts. This went easy enough, and with Stacey's help it was a fairly quick job.

After the fencing was done, Stacey decided that we needed to border the planters with some rocks that were laying around the property. Luckily by now I had been up and moving about and was a bit less sore. Also, we had the help of a trusty old friend for moving the rocks.

Vintage Radio Flyer, hauling everything from children to rocks for 30 years.

I gotta say, the planters look nice with the rocks. And we found a couple of surprises: one rick has some flakes of iron pyrite in it, and we found a couple pieces of sandstone the red and yellow streaks.

This morning I still woke up sore, but no where near as bad as the morning before. It was an easy morning too, starting with sanitizing my new wine bottles so I could rack my mead later. After that it was time to stain the rose arbor out front.

Keira wanted to help, of course.

Stacey told me she wanted a dark stain when we were at True Value a few days prior, so I got her the second darkest stain on the shelf, "Jacobean".

It's a little darker than we expected, but it's too late now.

While Stacey and K finished the arbor, I got to work on the roof. On Monday, the wind had managed to remove a few shingles from the roof. So I climbed on the roof with a few spare shingles, some roofing nails, and a hammer, and got to work replacing shingles before the rain in the forecast arrives. Luckily San Juan Bulding Supply had a bundle of asphalt, three-tab shingles that almost matched the color that we have. Oddly enough, they aren't a prefect match for size, because for some reason shingle manufacturers have decided to go to metric sizes, and we have standard. And here I thought the Stonecutters were keeping that sort of thing down.

After all the house chores and such, it was time for a hike. There's a loop trail about a ninety-second drive from the house that provides some nice views. So, I took out the camera and decided to try the panorama assist mode. I was able to get a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view from atop a lookout tower. Unfortunately the panorama pictures are too big to post on here. On the way back around I got a good shot of Abajo from the trail.

Abajo, still covered in snow.

When we got back home we finished our indoor starter pots for the garden.

They're mostly carrots, thanks to Stacey.

Then I racked my mead...

Real racking action!

...Into my new wine bottles.

All corked and everything.

Today finds me once again busy, as I have to do laundry, get packed for Hawaii, hit up the dinosaur museum after Cassie gets out of school, and drive to Phoenix. I'll spend the night there tonight, any my flight to Lihue via Honolulu departs at eight am. The next pictures I post on here should be of Hawaii.