People are strange

I wish I had the balls to take some pictures of the people I come across while riding on the bus or walking on the streets of this fine city.

There are some def crazies... frenetic discombobulated movements of ataxic like proportions mark some of the mental illness and drug abusers.

I know every city has this. It is not much different except here they use the bus as a social activity, but I mean who wouldn't.

I thoroughly enjoy outbursts such as "GET. OFFFH!" GET OFFFH! instead of pressing the lever to request a stop just yell it out like your were the most intelligent zombie on the planet. I was so daydreaming that this voice shook me a bit, cuz I'm just waiting for the great zombie war to break out, and I'll be ready.

Seriously some have the strangest tics and movements and nervous jerks. It's really a freak show. Then the people of all different types. Usually Lower working class, but thats not what I make fun of...no it is the strange combinations.

I have come across some truly beautiful, gorgeous mixed race women and men, I mean white filipino, hawaiian japanese, japanese white, black filipino, Hawaiian black, white chinese, all sorts of combinations.

But then on the bus, it's like breeding the dark side, I swear there have been like 4 persons that I could clearly make out like how she is blah blah and so and so and been awfully not attractive I mean it's gone all wrong. I know again, large scary looking hoale on the bus isn't exactly being nice, but it's funny how u see combinations that just didn't work. But I have seen some wierd cases of facial features that should never have been made to go together.

I still have no scooter, it's been 9 days, they tell me as I show up there unannounced that tomorrow guaranteed it will be ready, I have heard this for four days.

Walking is cool around the city, especially at dusk when the final fades of the sun blast orange onto the peaks and valleys in the distance as I walk so comfortably in the shade after a long day.

had an Eye irritation all weekend, went to work and to one eye doctor who took a look and said you have a piece of metal that is imbedded and in fact rusting in your eye, you might want that removed, so I go to the eye surgeon or optalmologist and he scraps and cuts that thing right out of the center of my eye directly in front of my innocent pupil. Let me tell you about the clamp over the eye and then someone scraping and pinning and poking your eye, it's awesome, love it when my whole body shakes because I cannot defend my eye.

Anyways hopefully it's not infected, I think a few of you know how that feels, gotta go take some antibiotic drops.

I have half of thursday and friday off, I think, but because I had to reschedule some of my patients today, I may have to add some in on thursday or saturday, yucks.

Working too much.

eating lots of spinach

saw Harold and Kumar escape from G-Bay, pretty awful but funny, first 10 minutes like 6 people left theatre because of innappropriate scene....


some kind of meat sandwich.

shootz

ladah's

by the way the people who are fixing my scooter, only speak pidgin..so it's a quarter californian surfer, a quarter hawaiian, a quarter jamaican and a quarter red neck. it is tough to decipher.

Verbal Vomit

words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup
they slither while they pass they slip away across the universe
pools of sorrow waves of joy are drifting through my open mind
possessing and caressing me.....nothing gonna change my world.....nothing's gonna change my world. nothings gonna change my world

images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes they call all along across the universe.

Gotta love the Beatles.



SO ever have one of those moments, that turns into one of those minutes, eventually becoming an hour quickly moving to a sequence clearly becoming one of those days

I'm having one.

Or I guess by the time you read this, it's over of I've had one, or perhaps worse stuck in one of those weeks.

I'm keeping up with the cliched speeches to myself.

I've righting myself a few times

Figured the triggers which cause the mood

Identified factors of anxiety,

Unveiled some hidden emotions

Addressed some personal responsibilities

attempted to set my self up for success.

but the days seem long

the Hours mesh

my body

my mind

they don't cooperate

I accelerate

I'm going too fast

I get sick

I get off

My body strobes, pulses with waves of crooked energy, angst...caffeine in the system- boy have I learned it doesn't help me.

Restlessness, excitement, melancholy mobilizations of self doubt

Followed by barrages of affirmations.

I doubt my two feet are firmly safely upon the ground at the moment

Not lost, just not sure.

Controlling what I can control...ah such a life saver, because nothing else really matters they make for frustrating thoughts.


Then I remember I had Kentucky Fried Chicken this evening...following it up with a chocolate covered macadamia nut bar, followed by a pretty strong ass cup of Joe....

my belly distended, too weak to move, my hands hurt from massaging my patients, my wrist on my left hand is still on fire from all of the special ointment I use to treat muscle but leave on my forearm like paint on a painter's pallette for easy use, instead it leaves it cold tingly and numb.

2 rolaids, 2 advils, 1 shower, 1 beatles album....

I should just vomit. how the mind swirls when I feel like this. it's like a baby bellyache, the poor thing doesn't know any better and doesn't know how to interrpret the feelings going on....I cry silent tears.

I pull a hair out from my nose, fearing bats in the cave. I sneeze big big big time...

the sneeze feels great somehow and I actually enjoy the strange aftershock and the smell of the sneeze.

Not sure I welcome the sleep....craziest of dreams await me....trying to figure out what they all mean....

Woke up got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head
Made my way downstairs and drank a cup
and looking up I noticed I was late.....I read the news today oh boy.

Puu Ohia Trial or How I Shit my pants

So this is a story about the past.

This is like about a week before I returned home, something I haven't told many.

But it's too good to be kept quiet.

So i find this trail atop Tantulus.

pretty cool, but I was suddenly exhausted by like a half mile in. It was steep and fun but it killed me and my back wasn't holding up, probably could have used a little stretch and warm up before I ascending but I didn't think it would be that tough.

with my hiking poles at my side and way way way too much clothing on for my own good, I was a sweaty sore mess by the time I got to a point where the trail bled in many directions....

I chose a less traveled path....but then i chickened out because after a while I got that feeling like I was being watched and it felt just like when I first encountered the bore, a clearing then downed trees into a thatcher of little fortresses for them to hide out in...I was not going that way any more.

I backtracked and ended up on a not so glorious service road of paved concrete. so much for the jungle, but to be honest my body welcomed a normal path.

some dude was on another trail playing like the jazz flute or something, I laughed out loud and had gotten my second wind.

I was rewarded for my efforts with nice unexpected view of Nuuanu Valley, just outside of a big tree on a hill and an opening in the tree line suddenly green strolling valleys- I soaked it in for a bit.

Then I got stomach pains. Why Had I strayed so far off course.
Why had I went so far feeling so bad. What was i to do. I needed to crap something Fierce. Step by step I traveled.

it's coming out oh no.

back in

it's coming out oh no.

squeeze.

back in.

every agonizing step.

a battle with the turtle trying to poke his head out of the shell

a battle with the smooth visceral muscle

a battle with breakfast, now lunch, now dinner.

a battle with no end in site, like the Iraqi occupation

Sweat poured from my face

Deep intense heat built around my thighs.

It was like an orgasm my whole body felt it but imagine exactly the opposite... no euphoria just terror- my war on terror.

Jesus, I should just go on this Trail.

No I can make it. (make it where, I'm miles from anything anyways')

I go back down the large steps and basically climb that it took to get me up...

I stop and clench my entire body every few moments, I keep composure, but now I'm nauseous.

I pass a few others on the trail, and every time I stop and stiffen they look at me.

I place hands on hips and take a deep approving breath of my surroundings like I'm just savoring every ounce of it, like I'm licking my plate clean after some dam good pancakes.

They nod back like.... cheez "i wish I appreciated the earth as much as that man, oh peaceful he is, how at one with nature"

internal combustion, my stomach continues to turn food into waste, my miles of canals are still pushing but there is a clog in the system.

So I race past these last few treacherous drops, I the weary traveler make it back to the rest area and the very uninviting seat of my scooter.

(scooter 101 there is a large crown or hump on the bike, which is about where I position my ass as I sit and ride)

"there is no way I can sit on that now." "who the fuck am I kidding there is no way I'm sitting on and riding all the way back down this mountain and making it back home."

A small clearing in the back of the rest area....somewhat sheltered by the trees, but anyone walking by or in the house next door and I'm a flasher...

I rip all my gear off, I drop my poles, I barely am able to walk and take off my jacket my shirt and even my bottom shirt....Yeah I know I know, I'm in Hawaii with like fifty layers on....

I have a plastic bag at the ready to clean up my own mess and my Tommy jeans shirt, my favorite grey that I have had for like 10 years, has holes but fits me the best is going to be sacrificed today...

a moment of silence for the Tommy jeans shirt.

been worn in at least 11 states

in 8 countries

2 first dates

Saratoga Race track

one birth


of this large alien that is mounting an attack from deep inside me.


Relief.

no one sees me,

there is no way I'm picking that up with this plastic bag.

Tommy Shirt has served me well.

Good bye Slave Labor Tommy shirt Good bye.... I will miss you.


Somewhere my mother rejoices, her clutches always near to my dear shirt, I'll sow it. I'll throw it away, I'll use it has a rag....she has finally won and the shirt is gone.

No longer Grey anymore...

I think for one more second, maybe I could wash it...

It's still up on Tantalus Drive


PU U O HI A TRAIL RIP

Tranquility

I finally found the subject of much curiosity. If I choose to return home via the Pali highway I always see the very tip of what looks like some sort of temple, but I could never find it even though it appears it is very close to my home?

well I found it, part of a large Japanese cemetery, nice temples however some are broken down and you can no longer enter.

another picture is the Thai Hindu Buddhist temple (sorry I forget which one) which is also hidden near my house.

I have seen in the 3-5 mile radius of my home, every every denomination of religion, I'm seriously in a religious hot spot.

Some look like strange compound of future ritualistic suicide others are humble, some are fortresses, some are welcoming.

Jewish
Seventh day adventus
jesus christ and the Latter day saints
Christian
Jehovah's witness
Hari Krishna
Hindu
Buddhist
Muslim
Episcopal
Baptiste
Satan is my friend


Alright so some of those are not there. but a majority are really close to me...the Baptiste is a lot further away, I'm not sure of the Jehovah but I fear they are close somehow, one street seriously has 5 different centers on it.

Say Anything

So I watched a bit of the classic Say Anything John Cusack vehicle. Funny cuz me and a few friends were just discussing it.

The Tank, hopefully you know him from previous blogs, well he met this chick and called her for like a week, No calls back, I'm like "why are you keeping calling" He's like it's out of principle now I'm pissed off, Testosterone flows deep in The Tank. So he texts her something like so listen I've been calling all week if your not gonna call me back just let me know.

She texts back, (insulted) My god who says that, I've just been busy.

Apparenlty there are really solid communicators here in paradise. LOL.

So we start brainstorming and goofing on things to do, I tell him he should show up with the boom box raised over his head and play "in your eyes-the light the heat your eyes I am complete"

and also to wear this horrific scary witch mask at the same time...don't worry you won't look like a crazy stalker or anything.

Awa

So this is a nice bowl of fresh chilled Awa...Hawaiian A VAH. meaning for those of you out there Kava....it is a natural stimulant supposedly producing a mild mellow feeling and a small high more of a numbness and tingling will be in your mouth, you will be relaxed and more inclined for social interaction.

I don't think it did all that for me.

But my mouth did feel Novocaine like numbness from this bitter almost grassy green tea flavored drink. Not too bad, a little mellow. Not really worth the 4 bucks or so I paid for it....kinda cool served in a hollowed out coconut shell and this beaded necklace goes underneath to form a coaster that doesn't let it tip over.

Most people in this natural cafe, which is a big hit above Waikiki beaches, near Kapliolani Park and on the way to Diamond Head, were having Acai bowls or smoothes of some sort...It is the meal, drink, berry of choice around here...it's like 8 bucks for this huge bowl of frozen Acai concentrate mush bananas and granola...it is really tasty though and depending upon the hype you read it is either just another blueberry or pomengranate or this is quite simply the holy grail.

choose, but choose wisely.

This pic and adventure is from a while ago,

I continue being a hermit over the weekend, stuck without vehicle but I'm enjoying it and I still feel like shit, I actually think the sickness has morphed into more of a coughing sore throat bullshit sorta thing....

such is life.

It is quite a striking day here in Hawaii.

but there are many rain clouds up on the heights today.

a fine stinging mist floats around the house, directionless part of the atmosphere, every wind gust dictates it's direction.

UN productive Mass of good feeling

So I have been a bit under the weather this past week...

I fear I treated a few patients poorly during my sickness

I fear I gave a gift that is unintentional to a few of my patients

in deepest recesses I worry tremendously about two small children of one of my patients....

his name RK-Pleasure at least that is what it sounded like.

Him and his brother came in but with all sorts of pock marks on thier faces like hey look at us happy children with the pox...

Oddly enough that night was the night I first felt being sick.

But tis just a summer cold...of course it's kinda always summer here.

Purposely leaving out the bender of a weekend I had involving copious amounts of evil malted barley and other elixirs of joy..or the fact I celebrated with a few friends namely Patron and his twin brother Patron after the Celtics blew the shit out of the lakers in game six to earn a much deserved number 17 from the rafters.

yes I did jump on the celtics bandwagon, but at least I did it after game one of the season and not game one of the finals.

anyways, some often used Riccola cough drops some day quil, lots of blowing and coughing of expactorent I made it through the few long days.

NO shark cage for me....

I have been a bit of a couch potato for the last two days, feeling better but I have no vehicle for the moment.

Yeah great morning on friday, pouring rain, a fair bit of the sniffles and then my scooter up and leaves me- right from underneath me she just stopped her moaning she stopped buzzing like an angry bee...and that moment of engine click and cough- perhaps I had given my cold to my scooter....but it died, I figure since I just checked the oil and it needed like a full quart and then some that I may have been a bit negligent and partially if not fully to blame for her demise....

I left her standing there on what is known as North School street in a section near my home known as Kalihi..pronounced KAH LEE HE....sort of the ghetto where lots of locals and low income special project type housing exist.....I wondered if i should see her again.

Well to my delight after a nice refreshing change that was the Honolulu public transit system known as The Bus, I found my little friend still intact standing on the corner where I left her....there was no passionate embrace no fond touching- she failed to start...figured so.

Well a friend showed up to rescue me- lets just call him the Tank. an eastern Cat, kinda crazy a friend that is both good and bad to have if you know what I mean.

We managed to throw ol betsy in the trunk of his dodge intrepid and smell the gas from the leaking corpse of my former ride as we strolled up Alewa Hts and headed to Makanani to drop it off.

I enjoyed friday and saturday as My roomates are now both on the mainland...giving me a little TV time and some Movie time and some Nintendo Wii time.....Tennis and Boxing have made me feel I have at least done something today.

Waited for the Scooter repair guys to show, like I was waiting for the cable repair man....watched my scooter get taken away on the back of a pickup as she screamed for me to no let her die....

Don't know when I'll get her back, don't know how much it will cost, but ah such is life sometimes...i figure as long as it's under like 250-300 then it is ok.

I'm stranded sort of.... and I kinda liked it...of course until I became obsessed with the square box and lost my mind to it for a little while...so now I'm like chilling out to loud music a mix of cold play and portishead to assist the creative juices.

Doing some laundry, cooking, and cleaning, and running the dishwasher.

Oh... the most important chore I accomplished was the delightful experience of watering and talking to the plants in the yard....


the yield today.

8 tangerines.... 4 for breakfast and 4 sit in front of me
3 bright red tomatoes....for pizza perhaps?
a nice handful of Cilantro
a few sprigs of Mint
a nice helping of fresh pungent Basil
a bunch of curly parsley
and a few conversations asking plants to be happy and grow big and strong like good little children. Hey I saw the Happening so I'm being nice to the plants man.

Movie score for the week.

The Happening
Super High Me
Lars and the Real Girl
the 11th Hour
The Darjeeling Limited and the Hotel Chevalier
Planet of the Apes (Marky Mark version)


Some good stuff but you'd be better off if you left the Happening and The Darjeeling Limited far back in your collective natural cues.

Kauai Revisited YEAH

Alright so I have to give a little more on my Kauai visit from April...

You've seen the grand canyon (aka Waimea canyon)

Venturing further along I came across the Kalalau Lookout at an elevation of 4000ft, supposedly some of the most impressive views of the Na Pali coast which can really only be admired from boat, air or this lookout.

The jagged coastline is green massive and awe inspiring, like fuzzy mossy green fingers reaching out towards the ocean ( I had the priviledge of flying over on a small plane like glider called a micro light which some of you had the pleasure of watching except for all those haters out there....I"m talking to you Ron....LOL )

So here are some pics from the lookout which was covered in dense cloud cover, I took a pic of a pic that gives you the idea of what it should or could have looked like, instead I saw an impressive yet hidden visage of the coastline...very cold and wet up here, this is actually one of the few places in all of hawaii that can have a frost...I saw a picture of frost on shed and someone had written with their finger 29* for the temperature.

overall it was still very much worth the ride, I have heard that conditions can change very quickly up here, that is why I recieved many a warning regarding hiking in these parts and was told that you could visit this spot three times in a day and get an entirely different vantage....my one visit yielded heavy cloud cover, but I escaped before the rains came.....and as they do in hawaii...when the rains come you drive to the leeward coast of any island and sure enough it will be dry......

those pics are next....

Run from the Rain

Here is a pick of Waimea road, after seeing the lookout I escaped the rain and went down this georgious winding road embossed with tremendous views and dropoffs.

So I have left KOKEE state park, where the Waimea Canyon rest and then up ahead to the other lookouts....just a great trek.

And I'm heading to another State Park...Polihale state park, which rest just beyond the Pacific Rim Missile Range Facility of death...or something like that.

More on that later...

of interest at the lookout was this NENE crossing sign.....kinda funny, the ducks or NENE were everywhere...the amount of dung they laid could probably power a small fleet of vehicles.


Also a little hang loose as I look out onto a beach on the Windward side.

PoliHale State Park

So you travel back towards the Leeward coast....becoming a very uninviting dirt road which takes you past various fields of some sort of farm land and of course all sorts of signs in reference to the missile defense base which is tucked away deep in the corner of this island, this is the place that the Satellite was shot down from....interesting.

Anywhoo

Eventually I find my way despite no trespassing signs, hidden cameras and strange service roads finally figuring out my way.....which I actually have to admit, I came her before and couldn't find the right road.....so I turned back and went to a bar, had a couple brews talked to some folks who told me that "oh yeah it is a horrible horrible dirt road you have to go down, yeah it's the one you would never think to go down especially with a rental car"

with those words of wisdom I was off....with the rental car....F it...I heard this is one of the cooler places on the island....and it delievered...of course my car did bottom out every few feet and it took forever to get down this two mile road....but then i'm up to my neck in sand and careful not to ditch my car I parked quite a distance away from the beach....past the sand dunes.

Holy cow.....on the Right the Na Pali coast...and the cliffs and the beauty that is those mountains....on the Left miles of beach...huge sprawling sand dunes like Cape Cod...all sorts of all terrain vehicles littered the beach.....

I chilled out grabbed a couple of Rolling Rocks, gave a thought to the old man and poured one out for him and really enjoyed the surf....

Later I would fly over this beach and see "big fish" a large group of hump back whales having family time together.

Great spot...a must find if you ever get the chance on Kauai.

PoliHale MORE PICS

PoliHale STILL MORE PICS

These are more pics...just amazing place...fun huge waves...had a cooler full of rocks....and a crotch full of dirt.....

Also a couple pics of the MicroLyte flying machine that I flew in to see the Na Pali coast

Back in the USSR

Hello everyone,

the blog is back up and running.

the film festival was enjoyable over the final weekend in NYC great company and catching up with great friends...got to spend time with Dean's daughter Alexa, (pictured below)...just couldn't resist posting a picture of the little cutie, she is funny and quite the stairs climber.

went on the Staten island ferry for the first time, a super cool free ride taking one from the bowels of lower Manhattan to the beautiful trash landscape that is Staten island....seriously the only side of the island I was privy to was very much a ghetto eye sore.

Nevertheless the trip was nice, it was also a quick jaunt to the Newark International Airport..... then it was 11 hours sitting in a plane.....next to a Russian Gymnist/Coach.

We tried to communicate a few times, it was difficult. My Russian being absolutely non-existent and her English like a stereotypical cold war movie depicting horrible Russian bad guys....or just the new Indiana Jones film.

Anyways.....decent selection of flicks....Spiderwick chronicles (I didn't hear much about this movie but it was pretty fricking cool, who knew tomato sauce killed goblins?) Fools Gold....blah blah....Penelope (cute movie with a good tandem of stars I really dig Christina Ricci and it had the Hollywood heartthrob from Atonement whatever his name is....but nice movie, about a girl born horribly disfigured like a grotesque pig, actually she looks better as the pig, but that is my own fetish I have to pleasure to deal with)

Watched a little House, which I think was the same episodes from the last time I flew....blah blah blah

Started reading the Life of Pi which seems like a pretty good read, I'm enjoying some witty arguments on the state of Zoo's which offers a different perspective.


Back to work, full schedule...of course two cancellations....one no show....

but most of the patients I know~ so it is less of a transition...the clinic looks better, she has cleared out the main room a bit, we hope to do some classes in the gym during our early or later hours, I want to teach one on the magnificent foam roller which is essentially like turning your body into a dough ball and rolling it out with the rolling pin - the foam roller.

The weather is so comfortable and breezy with lots of sunshine, the scooter- damned if it didn't just start right up and give me a little jolt of ebullience during a merry ride through the back streets of Alewa Hts...sounding like an angry bee of course.

The water looks beautiful, the mountains and the valleys are very green....

June 24th I'm going into the shark cage....

bye, I'll add a few picutures of the Kauaii adventure Next