Hangning around Lihue

So far being back in Lihue has been great.

The first night here, I didn't go anywhere. This worked out nicely as I was able to stay up as late as I could (one am), then crash without being woken up. The next day, I was taking a nap and had been asleep maybe five minutes when I got a call to start early. An easy Barking Sands run, it allowed me the chance to see most of the south-west and west sides of the islands on the flight over.

After the drop in Honolulu I got to do my first actual night flying in the islands. That's a whole different experience unto itself: the only lights (from cities) are far and few in between. The rest of the view is nothing but darkness. Not like it's a little dark, we're talking absolute, total, inky blackness. An all enveloping shroud, not unlike standing in a cave, in the middle of the night, with a blind fold on. It's so dark (and clear), you can see the lights of Lihue all the way from Honolulu (roughly ninety miles).

Once back, that turned out to be it for the night, and I started checking out a few more websites. While watching a video on failblog, something landed on my hand, and when I moved to look at it, it jumped. Luckily it landed right in front of me, and I was able to take a pic of it. I don't know what the name of it is, but it's small; maybe a quarter-inch long. If my camera didn't have a macro mode I could have never shot it with any detail. After that I wound up crashing around three am and that was the end of the night for me.

I have no idea what this is, other than small.

At nine am, I got a call from one of the pilots to go to the beach. Of course I accepted the offer of a ride since A) I hadn't been to any beaches in Kauai yet, and B) I'm pretty sure in Hawaii, no matter the island, if someone offers you a ride to the beach it is illegal to say no.

A few minutes later we were at Shipwreck beach, where the waves weren't perfect, but they were boogie boardable. We wound up in the water for about an hour, but it only took about ten minutes to remind me that it's been roughly fifteen years since the last time I was on a boogie board, and just how much decent surf beats the hell out of you.

At one point, I caught a good wave, got a good ride, and then ate shit. I don't know how long I was under the surface, but I know I hit the bottom a few times. Everything felt fine, so I went back out. A short time later, I went to scratch my face and noticed my hand was covered in blood.

Owned by some rocks on the bottom.

The board I was using took a few hits too, and the side rail came mostly off. The regulars out there thought it hilarious that some haole with a beat up board was out there. They got a kick out of "da board I could use for da bottom turns and da kine. "

I think I'm going to trademark this as a "speed whisker".

luckily my hand wasn't too bad off, just a few cuts, and only one was decently deep. Definitely not enough to cause me to stay out when it happened. What finally found me on the beach was the Velcro on the leash let go, and my board disappeared, and I wasn't gonna just leave a board out there to get in someones way or get smashed on the rocks. So I went in to find it, and once on the beach, I realized how wiped I was, and that it had been an hour already since we arrived.

When we got back the crew house, I showered and ran to the grocery store. I needed (another) pineapple, and I also picked up some smoked marlin. I was a little bummed, as I wanted to get some more adobo pork and some rice. Apparently that stuff gets dropped off and the guy that drops it off either didn't come that day, or hadn't gotten there yet - honestly as soon as I found it it was a no-go I kinda stopped listening. On the plus side, that smoked marlin is freaking awesome, and I'll be buying some more of that for sure.

It's kinda like a smoky, salty, terriyaki, soft jerky. And it's delicious!

I think after the store I fell asleep for about three-and-a-half hours. I'm not entirely sure, as I don't know when I fell asleep - I just sat down and next thing I know my phone alarm was going off to remind me to check into work. When I went to wash some clothes, something on the wall in the garage caught my attention. Unlike the gecko in Kona, I had no problem seeing what it was.

Surprise, motherf---er!

It's a cane spider, and they're fairly common. They're not really aggressive, but they are venomous, and freaky looking, so I went ahead and hosed it down with some Ortho Home Defense. Word of caution: when sprayed with poison, cane spiders get pretty pissed and despite their size (this one was about four inches), can haul ass, even with only six legs.

Imagine this, hauling ass towards you, to spider rape your face in your sleep. When you're done crying you can write your thanks for my killing it in the comments.

So far it's been a slow night, we'll see how long that lasts. Tomorrow I might go for a drive to get a better feel of where everything is for when Stacey comes out in a couple days.