Bluebird Singing in the Dead of Night

I have to come to a simple reality.

I am allergic pretty bad to MSG flavoring.

The restaurants we use at home don’t really use it, but I got knocked down like an undug lead pipe last night (that’s my Dan Rather impersonation) after we went for a big chinese dinner. Everything is still swelled up and sore. I have no idea what this means for the fact Chinese food and Japanese foods, plus Korean, are all my favorites. Crap.

The sicky/sucky part of it is that the best of all those converge in Hawaii. But they are so authentic, they come straight through with MSG.

I brought a bunch of music and movies to Hawaii…but my three best choices (beside what is on my cell phone player) are Sgt. Pepper, Abbey Road and Rubber Soul.

Well deserve more time someday from me…or not…what am I going to add.

But just for pure album construction, wow. Wow!. I have them on vinyl and CD, and not much is lost in the transition.

But here’s what I think…you want a band, find a producer who knows all the latest technology and just wants to be the geek who tags along. Listen to those three albums…these guys were pushing the edge and probably didn’t know it because they let Sir George Martin pull the strings on production.

I just had not sat and listened to hours of The Beatles for a while. I was struck. They were doing musical fiddle faddle that was matching Brian Wilson. (By the way, if you can buy SMile, do it.)

Keys are getting stickey again because of humidity…the price you pay for having to be outside to get a free connection.

Cheers.

I get the reason why my wife and daughter like buying even small stuff there.

It’s like Nordstrom service on steroids. And the little blue bag is cool, and they wrapped it up in a bow.

Sounds girlish, I’m sure. But anything you buy there is so stupid and over the top, it’s kind of the treat “thrill.”

This is going to sound realy dumb. And it might be dumb.

In fact, I am am going to give you the fact I wasted $100 on a completely stupid item.

I bought a single sterling silver golf tee from Tiffany today. It’s the most obnoxious thing that might exist for a liberal guy.

P and Big A have their stuff…now I’m in the club.

P and Big A wanted to cool down and rest a little, so they went to see a movie. “Something Almighty” or something. (Solid B- by both accounts.)

I, on the other hand, spent a great afternoon doing some super tourist sightseeing. Now, if you’ve ever been to Kailua-Kona and not seen the sights downtown, shame, shame, shame.

But the best was lunch. I was genuinely treated like a local when I said I was staying for two weeks at my dad’s place and I wanted to shore fish.

I should have been taking notes, but that seemed too non-local, and I couldn’t spell half the places they named. Hell, I can’t spell any of the places.

But I got descriptions of a whole bunch of stuff off the beaten path. I got fishing, wake boarding, surfing, and wading beaches. Then, I got home, and found all the stuff they were talking about on a map!

Nice caesar salad and a beer.

Today was too windy to fish. In fact, right now, even, it’s too windy to do much of anything. I bet the winds are 50+. Totally clear skies, though. Just the winds coming down off the volcanos are pretty awesome sometimes.

No new nicks in my celeb-sightings. Score reamins the same.

P just came out and yelled at me for the fact I am sleeping on the back porch and I was trying to help not bother her and Big A.

The nuisance, I guess of being married, It’s breezy and awesome out here. Then she ripped into me for not being in the refrigerator. I think we have hormones that I don’t get, going on.

I just got to listen to about 20 gigs of music while I watched the moon though  binocs, with I think (?) venus following close behind.

Now, I’ll give her one thing: It doesn’t look like Pleasantville with me on the back porch. But she is just too worried about what other people might think. The wind is calm, I can hear the ocean, smell it, and I just want to lay down and enjoy it. It’s dumb, I know,

I DON’T CARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Really, if I offend you by sleeping on the back porch, get a life. The fact is the tiles on the porch are warmer than the air and kind of cozy.

So she is rip shit at me because I look like white trash or something…I dunno…staring at stars and the moon through binoculars.

So here is the lesson…let it go.

 She’s stressed with stuff and I am, too.

No biggy, and I am still listening to music and watching Venus. The trick is to not wake up with it mattering.

Actually, that’s not a trick, per se. It means shit. She’s frustrated and I am not. That’s the sassy thing about it all.

Give me about 80 degrees on the back porch with a breeze.

We’re going to have to work this out.

Hot and humid.

It’s just a weird stretch today where the wind never really kicked up to get the humidity out of here. Lots of swimming, but no beach activity today. There is no doubt, and I have visions of two weeks in Singapore to make my case, we’re closer to the equator and it’s not the same sun as when you say “hot and humid” in say, Washington, D.C.

The mini heatwave is being waited out by map exploring and people exploring, too. Just to get our groove right. It’s a very big deal to let people with key info know we don’t plan to be one-time wonders here this summer; I don’t think dad bought this place as a short-term investment.

But as I type this I am drinking a glass of wine and enjoying the midnight breeze outside with a wireless connection. It’s about 80 degrees with a breeze off the ocean that spins into the lahai (?).

I know very little about current events, other than headlines on my cell phone.

The big thing today was calling BS on a store for selling eight-month old beer. Now, I admit, I ignored time stamps on everything, including microbrews, because I don’t tastet it or drink it like wine, or fine Scotch, or whatever. But after some haggling I found local stuff that was only two weeks old.

One other discovery…the resorts HAVE to give you access to their beaches!!!!! I giggled after the first time I said the two magic words: “Public Access.” It’s just like Washington, there is no private beach unless it’s on sacred ground and owned by a tribe.

Up to high tide is owned by the state!

I try to say it with a wink and a nod approach, that is my, “don’t even give me attitude” appraoch. And it works.

For instance, there is an incredible lagoon that I could hit a golf ball into from the end of the condo. But it is on Hilton resort property, “so they make you think.” So they tried to tell me I couldn’t use it. Neiner neiner neiner weiner!!!!!!!!!!! — Yep. “Public Access.” It’s a tidal area of saltwater and it’s public. I smirked when there was no comeback.

But I don’t think most guide books explain that enough. They can’t own the saltwater tidle areas. It doesn’t mean they have to help you get there, but they don’t own it or have exclusive rights to it. If you can get from Point A to Point B below the hisorical “high tide” mark. you are on public property no matter what they say.

 Venus just appeared.

No, really. The planet, not the goddess, she’s in bed.

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She nailed the grocery shopping, and then came home with bonus material that was great and “right on.”

And she doesn’t care about me drinking more than one beer!!!!!!!!!!!!

But she is really the person you want to travel with for long periods. Very appreciated.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sports/2003761271_kelley25.html

Ken Griffey, Jr.

The first time I saw him he was a skinny kid with a big afro almost exactly my same age. He was playing Mario on Nintendo in the clubhouse before a game. He was 19.

Eighteen years later, only 11 of which he spent in Seattle, he is a mature 37 looking down the barrell of the end of a career in the next few years.

 But what’s weird is, he is one of the few athletes to ever play for a Seattle team, that I loved watching when he was here, had no problem with him honestly saying he wanted to leave, and then rooting he would come back again, even if he wasn’t the old Junior.

Yep. He meant that much to baseball in Seattle.

But here is the big difference between him and the other stars.

Junior never lied or misled the us. And we said, “Great knowing you, hope to see you soon.”

So, why am I writing about this…it reminds me so much of why so many people here on The Big Island are from Seattle. This may be the dumbest tangent ever, but I think it’s some weird vibe that we will always see the kid as “our” kid…and he’s my age. He’s one of our own. He is smart, serious, smiles a lot and was AWESOME. But he was stright up, honest, and deciful. It’s kind of a, “No worries, mate, that’s cool,” reaction from the fans.

Most athletes primp and preen, or they just tank, to get out of town if they want — in any city. Junior never did that to us and he said it straight up. He followed up on the field by working hard until the day he left.

A tip of my cap for his two home runs today against the Mariners.