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.