Thinking Out Loud

It’s another sunny, hot day in Wialea today.

As expected, my few hours in the sun erupted into a sunburn. It’ s not painful, except for the top of my feet, but I know I’m gonna lose some skin in a few days.  But I ain’t gonna let that bother me.

According to Google Earth, it’s only a couple of kilometres (or about 160000 inches) to the Palms at Wailea from my hotel.  I checked the map so I knew where I was going and off I went for a walk.  Chelsea and Jonathan were supposed to be here already, and if they were at home I was hoping for a short visit.  Audie and Lois and family were going to arrive sometime today too.

I got to the Palms a lot sooner than I expected.  I arrived at an intersection I wasn’t really expecting, and my first thought was “Now where the hell am I?”  I looked for a street sign (as if that was going to help) and there it was!  The Palms at Wailea.  Just across the street.

I called Jonathan’s cell, and demanded a beer.  More importantly, I wanted to know how to find them.  A few minutes later I was sitting on their deck.

Audie and Lois were already in town.  They had gone to the airport to pick up more people, and would be back later.  I finished my beer, and as nice as the grounds at the Palms were, I wanted to move on.  I’m not much for hanging around hotels or wasting time at a pool when there’s an ocean a few blocks away.

I got directions to the beach (I could see I needed a car soon) and headed out.

Maui is a little island, and I knew it couldn’t be too far to the ocean.  I could smell the sea from the Hotel Wailea’s lobby, and when I was on the upper deck of the lobby I could see the water over the top of the trees.

I asked the guy at the front how far to a beach, and he said he would give me ride in the shuttle.  I asked if I could walk there, and he told me it was about a fifteen minute walk.  Read the rest of this entry »

I’m back-dating some posts to the blog for my trip to Hawaii to the actual dates I was there…

I guess if I FaceBooked regularly, I could have put stuff there day by day. I could have done that here too, but really – I’m in Hawaii! I had things I wanted to do with higher priority than to sit in front of a laptop. Checked email in the morning, and that was about it.

I got into Maui at about 11:00 pm on Wednesday April 28. I had been in either an airport or a plane for 16 or 17 hours. I wanted a smoke and a cup of coffee more than anything, but knew I should try and get a cab to my hotel. I had budgeted about forty dollars.  I didn’t want to rent a car and drive the 35 kilometres or so at night in a strange location.

I found a taxi, and decided I could wait for my cigarette until I got to the hotel.

I had no idea the speed limit was so slow. And, being Canadian, when I saw the speed limit signs saying 35 and 40 max, I naturally thought km per hour not miles. It took about 45 minutes to get to the hotel. The driver didn’t know exactly where my hotel was, but he called his wife and she googled it, and sent him instructions on his iPhone.

Now, to tell the truth, I didn’t really see the fancy entrance to the hotel.  I  was mesmerized and horrified by the meter on the dashboard.  My only hope was that it hit 100 dollars, because I could see there wasn’t a space for 3 digits in the dollar counter. Therefore, it should roll over to zero, and there was the possibility that the driver wouldn’t realize how long he had been driving and the fare would be closer to my estimate. Read the rest of this entry »

A long time ago, I posted a photo of Audie and Tash. I re-discovered it, and decided to try and paint it. The original photo is here and this is my version of it below…

A couple of weeks ago I was in Calgary. It was a sunny, warm day, and even though there was lots of snow still on the ground, Natasha and one of her friends were outside, doing typical kids in the summertime stuff.

A digital painting of the activities…

The world is just getting too small. And maybe a little scary.

Google Earth has street views of a bunch of Canadian cities, and I wondered if I would actually be able to see my street.  After all, it’s a pretty insignificant gravel road in Moose Jaw (Where the hell is that)

But it’s there. If this works you should be able to scroll around and see my street and eventually my house… You can click on the little arrows (or cameras, depending on if you are using the full version of Google Earth) to move down the street. Mine’s the one with the Canadian flag blowing in the background behind the tree. And they certainly guessed wrong on the address – that’s about two blocks away. But that’s my house, and my little junk trailer out front.

View Larger Map

Also, there’s one for Amy and Bert’s house from Oxford St:

View Larger Map

(you can actually zoom around and move down 3rd Ave to get a view of their house from the front – click (or right click if full version) on the little cameras or arrows

and Sherry and Herb’s house. 

View Larger Map

If you need (or want) Google Earth, you can get it at Google Earth and I’ve included the files you can load into it to get the full meal deal…

My House Amy and Bert’s House Sherry and Herb’s House

and you can remove the appliance curse at any time.  I will never, ever, bring up your new microwave.  In fact I wish I had one like it.  I want one just like yours.  You are so intelligent in your choice of microwaves.  Did I mention I love you and admire you and you are my hero?

There.  Remove the curse.  Please.  Over the last two months here is what has happened… I’ve probably missed a couple… Read the rest of this entry »

You need to be a Beatles fan to read this post.  Simple as that.  It will not likely make sense or be appreciated by anyone else…

I usually avoid re-mastered oldie CD’s.  Especially favourites like the Beatles.  The “Love” collection re-mastered CD was not the Beatles. And to tell the truth, the CD’s I have of the Beatles just ain’t the same as the original vinyl.  Good sound, but missing something.  I could never put my finger (ear??) on it, but it’s more than the snap crackle pop that goes with those big old fashioned antique analogue disks (notice the “k” – that’s how we spelled “disc” back then)

I was browsing through the CD’s at Wal-Mart today. I picked up and put down and walked around and came back and picked up and put back and pondered some more about a hundred times before I finally decided I would get the remastered Sgt Pepper CD.   Honestly, I’ve bought cars with less consideration.  Oh well, if nothing else, it came with a T-shirt.

And to be really daring, I grabbed the remastered “Let It Be” CD. The one without the T-shirt.  I wasn’t convinced that these new versions would really be better than the ones I already had at home, so a second free collectors t-shirt (for an additional 10 dollars) didn’t seem necessary.

My old records are back!  At least the way I remember them… Read the rest of this entry »

I’m at work today.  I just got in from a smoke break (my second for the day, and it’s almost 2:oo pm. – that’s pretty good for me) and I saw something I had to write down here.

The smoking area is in the back parking lot, and you can see the street where a lot of the people park to go to the casino.  I watched a couple of older couples (does that make sense) walking to their car.  In typical senior fashion, the two men were walking side by side, and the two women trailed along three or four steps behind.  When they got to their car, the two ladies jumped into the back seat, and the two men got in the front.

It’s not their fault, because the snow removal plan is a little lacking, but it was soon obvious they were stuck.  The guys got out to push, and one of the ladies got in the front to drive.  Unfortunately, co-ordination seemed to be a stumbling block.  One of the gents went to the back of the car, the other went to the front.  And they both started to push.  Despite this marvelous effort, the car was still not moving.

In a couple of minutes, the lady wound down the window, and I imagine she told them they should both push from the same end.  The men accepted this idea, and both of them walked to the other end.  The key word is BOTH. Not one.  BOTH of them walked to the other end.

They were once again pushing against each other with all their might. and the car still wasn’t going anywhere.  I could see the woman waving her arms at the one at the front, and I’m just thinking here, telling him he should go to the back where his helper is.  I’m pretty sure there was a remark about lack of intelligence I could hear even from my viewpoint, but I’m not positive.

I was just about to walk across the street to help out (after all, there was still two free sides to the car that I could push against) when a group of teenagers came along and basically lifted the car out of the ruts.

Aw well, back to work.

When the kids were living in this house, the old toilet “pooped out”  and went into continuous flush mode and needed some attention.  We bought several of the “universal fit” repair kits, but none of them actually fit, probably because the old fixture was a prototype for the new concept of indoor plumbing.

Anyway, we bought a new lo-water, lo-profile model and all should have been good.  Except for the fact that it actually flushed “#1″ sort of haphazardly, and any deposit you could actually be proud of was at least a double flusher.  All of that made the lo-water, environmentally friendly feature redundant.  The only solution was a “How to Use the Plunger” poster displayed prominently on the bathroom wall.

The fact still remains, it’s a good looking, futuristic toilet. I’m sure if I could hook it up to the internet, or use a USB plug and connect it to my computer, I could download an important update that would actually make it functional.  But alas, www. toilets-R-us.com seems to be down for the moment, so I need to revert to the old fashioned plunger and sewer snake method.  Or perhaps a sledge hammer.

I’m leaning toward the sledge hammer at the moment…