I Can't Complain...

...and if I did, who would listen?  This little saying seems to sum up life here so far on Da Big Island, Brah!  Sorry, I'm picking up a bit of the pidgin spoken here.  I'm not bold enough to use it in conversation yet, but one can't help but to listen and try to interpret.
Probably the most popular pidgin saying is, "If can, can.  If no can, no can."  Pretty easy to translate that one.  I take it to mean, "If you can do it, fine.  If you can't do it, still fine."
A few days ago I asked this guy where I could get something good to eat and he said, "Oh brah, go up da hill der.  Dey got da kine grinds."  "Kine grinds" meaning good food.
Or, if you want another beer you might say, "Eh brah, get one nuddah beer."

But as I was saying, I can't complain.  My buddy Jonny, most of you know him, Jonny Lee or Scott Lee or Jonathon depending on which era and where you know him from, sent me a text the other day saying he just got done shoveling snow at midnight and that it showed no signs of letting up.  So I say, how can I complain and why would I when I'm sitting here in shorts and a t-shirt and many people who I know are out there on the other side of the world shoveling snow and trying to stay warm?

No, I can't complain.  I got my open-water scuba diving certificate last weekend.  It was an incredible experience and though I doubt I'll become addicted to it, I definitely loved the experience and feel like I conquered some fears I previously harbored about doing something so completely unnatural feeling as scuba diving.  After spending the first two days dividing time between a classroom and learning basic skills in a pool, we got to go on an open water ocean dive down to about 55 ft.  Some of the skills tests while we were down at 35 feet included:  Flooding our masks and then clearing them, simulating running out of air and then switching to your partner's auxiliary air, and practicing emergency ascents.
I may not become addicted to scuba, but I am quickly becoming addicted to snorkeling, and the scuba class helped my snorkeling technique.  Snorkeling is the easiest way to get out in the ocean and see what's happening underneath the surface without a lot of fuss.  I found a sweet place about 10 minutes away from here today (see pics above and below) and swam around looking at Green Sea Turtles, colorful corals, and amazingly colored tropical fish for over about an hour and a half.  Our bodies are much more buoyant in the ocean, due to the fact that salt/sea water is more dense than fresh water.  This allows you to leisurely float on the surface while looking down through your mask into the crystal clear water while breathing through your snorkel, occasionally diving down to get a little closer to the action or swim with the green sea turtles who don't seem to mind that you're in their space too much.

This is Leleiwi (pronounced Leh-leh-ee-vee) Beach.  I don't know why they call them beaches here because there's no "beach".  There's a lot of rock though.  They should just call them Rocks.  No madda brah, this is where I snorkeled.  It was pretty amazing. 
I can't complain. 

Paddy'O We'll Miss You

Patrick Edward Riney Sr., "Uncle Pat" to me, Paddy'O his pen name, passed away yesterday.  Uncle Pat was a true Patron of the Riney family.  He was the kind of person we all looked to for strength and guidance...even when we didn't know it.  I saw him more than a year ago at Uncle Keith and Aunt Joan DiMaria's wedding anniversary party and I approached him the way I used to approach my dad's brothers when I was younger, with great respect.  He seemed genuinely happy on that day.

Uncle Pat was a great poet.  I remember his book The Equine Me proudly displayed in my parent's living room.  My dad was very close with Uncle Pat.  He treated Pat like a brother and a friend.  Uncle Pat was actually my cousin, but because he was so close in age to my parents we always knew him as "Uncle Pat".

As I run through all the memories I think about my Aunt Patty, Patrick, Shaun, Kelly, Kevin, and their families, and how they must be grieving.  My heart goes out to you.

Cheers, Uncle Pat.  You will be greatly missed.

The New Phone Books Are Here!!

So if you Google my blog name, it now comes up in the search!  Yes, my friend Lee's blog comes up first, but still, mine does come up.  It didn't before, I've been checking.  Other blogs came up like, "We lived on a boat", but not my blog.

Hooray!!  I feel like I am somebody now.  Like Steve Martin's character Navin R. Johnson in the classic comedy The Jerk when he finally gets his name listed in the phone book:

Navin - "The new phone books are here!  The new phone books are here!"
Navin's boss, Harry Hartounian - "Boy, I wish I could get that excited about nothing."
Navin - "Nothing? Are you kidding? Page 73 - Johnson, Navin R.! I'm somebody now! Millions of people look at this book everyday! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity - your name in print - that makes people. I'm in print! Things are going to start happening to me now."
Cut to scene of a sniper in his apartment who opens a phone book and randomly points to a name - "Johnson, Navin R.  Sounds like a typical bastard."

Hilo Rain

It rains a lot in Hilo.  Average rainfall per year here is 140-170 inches.  To put that in perspective, Detroit's (for all you Michiganders) average rainfall/precipitation is roughly 30-35 inches per year and L.A.'s (for all you SoCal'ians) is about 15 inches per year.

I've been lucky so far apparently.  Hilo is in a drought.  Last year it only had 65 inches (still double what Detroit had) and this year's starting out the same way.  But when it does rain here it doesn't mess around.  You've never seen a downpour like a Hilo downpour.  I got soaked walking approximately 7 feet, from my car door to the awning over my apartment door the other day.  Soaked!  I actually stood there at the door for a second in disbelief.  I looked at myself, sopping wet, then I looked at my car 7 feet away and thought, "this is impossible". 
Grammatical Query:  Do quotation marks go around thoughts?  Gia?  Dan?

Anyway, here's a pic from under my umbrella as I walked to my car today.  This was just a sprinkle though.

In contrast, on the other side of the island is Kailua-Kona, or just "Kona" as it's often called.  Kona is more like Southern California, very dry.
Here's me over on that side of the island enjoying the dryness and the sun.

Also, I don't think I've ever been actually woken up by rain before.  Yes, I've been woken up by thunder and lightning, but it was raining so hard the other night, in such massive quantities that the sound of it hitting the roof woke me up and I thought it was Pearl Harbor all over again in Hawaii, but this time in the Hilo Harbor!  I looked out the window and saw no Japanese fighter planes, only water falling from the sky.  An Aircraft Carrier-load of it.  Sometimes it will rain like that for about 30 seconds and then stop completely and the sun will come back out.  So, unlike SoCal where I once watched (Cindy knows the story) crazy, collagen lipped, fake-boobed housewives run for their lives at the site of a few drops of rain (they were probably afraid of melting); here it's just business as usual.  True story about those Cali women though.  One woman backed her Cadillac Escalade up to the grocery store door and blocked the whole door so she could get her groceries in the back without getting wet.  The manager looked at her in disbelief and politely asked her to move as she was causing an incredible safety hazard to all the other customers.  Eh, it's California, not surprising really.

Big Island Pics

On the coast near the Hawaiian Botanical Gardens in Hilo.  I went exploring on the 2nd day in town and found this great little cove.

 This is on the coast near one of the (run down) resorts in the Hilo Bay.

My local surf spot, Honoli'i.  I took this before I even went down there.  I drove over this bridge and looked down and saw this awesome surf spot and later found out it's one of the few good local spots.  Great view from this bridge, probably 150 ft. up.

 Here's the "Palm Tree Alley" I described in an earlier post.  Look how green the palms are and how pastey white I am.  Hey, it was my second day here, pre-Hawaii tan.

 Akaka Falls just outside of town.  Pronounce it like what you see when you open a baby's diaper.

Cool looking island flower.  I have no idea what it is.  Anyone?