Dinner Conversation

After telling Jake and Lily about my day I said

"You know when I was your age I thought I was gonna grow up and be a paleontogist and go all over and look for fossils. Wonder what you guys are gonna do when you grow up"

Lily: I'm gonna be a farmer cuz I like chicks.
(INSERT OBVIOUS ONE LINER HERE)

Jake: I'm gonna make syrup !

Dad: I thought you were gonna be a pilot.

Jake: I am. A pilot who makes syrup.

"One hour before..."

Kim and I have become major addicts of the new Battlestar Galactica. We went through three and a half seasons of episodes in the last 6 months and email each other with plot predictions, philosophical questions, and wondering when we won't have to suffer through YET ANOTHER "does Starbuck love Apollo/Apollo love Starbuck" episode again.

One of their favorite devices is to end an episode or season with (duh) a cliffhanger. More than a few times you get to the end of an episode and there's been some INSANE plot twist in the last five minutes. Their favorite method of getting out of the tight spot is to begin the following episode with the briefest of recaps then a "ONE HOUR BEFORE" subtitle that shows you why everything you know is wrong.

So I'll try a little BSG-style non-linear narrative.

DINNER TABLE - PRESENT
Brad, at home drinking a glass of fine single malt scotch at the dining room table. He's lost in thought. A thin smile on his face, he shakes his head and has another sip. Kim is watching tv...

Kim: You're home early...

DOCTOR'S OFFICE - TWO MONTHS EARLIER
Doctor: So what brings you in today?
Brad: Well, I had my 40th birthday a few months ago..don't I have to do regular checkups and stuff?
Doc: Well, not really. Those usually start a little later - 50 usually for the prostate and colon exams...
Brad (THINKING): SWEET ! See you in ten years man !
Doc: We can run some regular blood tests...I see you could use a tetanus shot....been ten years....blood pressure seems fine....you get exercise?
Brad: Sure. I go surfing. Well, that's pretty much my only exercise...
Doc: Do you drink?
Brad: Yeah...
Doc: How much...one drink a week? Every day?
Brad: Pretty much everyday..usually two beers.
Doc (SIGNIFICANT LOOK): Hmmm...
Brad (THINKING): And maybe more on Friday or Saturday....I'll just keep that to myself. Was that a significant look he just gave me?

DINNER TABLE - PRESENT
Brad (THINKING): Well I'm drinking tonight. I'm celebrating...I don't care if it's Wednesday...

Brad: Remember last week? It was all rainy and cold and I had woken up after I'd had a dream that I been bitten by a shark...?

Kim: Yeah. And I told you you weren't allowed to surf. Yes.

Brad: And I didn't....well, today was perfect!

KITCHEN - FIVE DAYS EARLIER
Brad is making dinner for the kids. Open refrigerator and see at least five..six bottles of Newcastle Brown Ale. Mmmmmmmm.....
Brad (THINKING): You know what? No beer tonight. No alcohol for a week. Not as a diet, not as anything more than an experiment. Damn that doctor with his pregnant pauses....just see what it's like. Maybe I HAVE been drinking to much....well not like two beers is TOO much. Nevertheless - nothing for a week.

DINNER TABLE - PRESENT
Brad (THINKING): OK. Failed experiment. And everything was going so well...it was all so perfect.

Kim: So you didn't want to go hang out at Burke's house?

Brad: Nope. Wanted to come home.

WARD AVENUE NEAR KEWALO BASIN - TWO HOURS EARLIER
"Timed the lights perfectly! The museum to the parking lot in less than 15 minutes. Dave told me that the waves were great this morning and the onshore winds haven't materialized....There's gonna be such a crowd...No way I'm getting a parking spot."

Turn off of Ala Moana and into the harbor access road.

"I should just grab a spot here and take the walk...ahhh what the hell. See if I can get lucky. NO WAY. Not just any spot. The closest one! I haven't gotten to park here in years since people learned about this spot. COOL!"

The paddle out is heartening...glassy waves...barely a breath of wind. And good size waves. Looks like a summer style swell at least a month early. Short waits between sets. Five to ten foot faces. Plenty of waves in each set. ALRIGHT!

DINNER TABLE - PRESENT
"Man it's only just getting too dark to surf NOW. I should be paddling in now...instead here I am breaking my promise to myself. I should still be out there...." Another sip of whiskey. *SNORT* "Yeah, right"

KEWALO'S - STRAIGHT OUTS - ONE HOUR EARLIER <---See there it is !
"Cool. The crowd's thinning. I've still got nearly an hour left out here before it get's too dark to see. How many waves have I gotten? There was the was the one where I made that section..the one where the boogie boarder went right....the one where I caught the one after the guy with the purple board....the other one.."

Movement on my right and a splash. Stand up paddle surfer heads out past to get the first shot at the next big wave.

"Stand up paddling. God that looks weird. Must be tiring to always be stand....what the hell?"

Near the paddle surfer, black shapes slowly move across the face of a small waves.

"Plastic?"

The shapes move in synch. Slowly. Fifty feet away. Moving parallel to shore.

"Triangle..."

Shapes are not shapes. Shapes are parts. Parts of a whole.

DINNER TABLE - PRESENT
Kim: So how big?
Brad: You know I was thinking about that. I was thinking that surfers are probably good at estimating sizes in the water cuz we're always looking at 9' surfboards, 10' surfboards, 7' surfboards as we paddle around. You just know that even when you're fifty feet away, that one over there is a 9' longboard..."

KEWALO'S - 55 MINUTES AGO
"HOLY SHIT. That's a shark. That's a big shark. Dorsal to tail..at least 6-8 feet...that's means...like what? 9-12 feet...I'm getting the hell out of here."

The paddle in is unlike any I've ever had. The stand up guy is MOVING - getting inside as fast as he can.

Usually surfers arrive and leave spots in a slow dribble. Rarely is there a mass entrance or exodus. Today. Within 60 seconds two surf spots with glassy swell waves, formerly host of more than 30 people, riding and laughing, now has a population of one.

DINNER TABLE - PRESENT
"You know, that was the first shark that I ever saw surfing. That baby hammerhead from way back didn't count - he was actually kind of cute. This was scary...glad to be home safe and sound.....I'll drink to that."

Experiment over.

The dangers of googling your own name

Reminders of mortality

Spring Break 08

Had a great Spring Break.

Went to Kaua‘i where we attended a baby 1st lū‘au on a part of a 600 acre ranch and came back the next day for the paniolo style Easter Egg Hunt. Lotsa denim, barbed wire, ranch hands on atv's, and such.

We got a cabin up in Kōke‘e where the kids got a chance to do their first multi-mile hike and see some of the rare native birds. No new ones for my life list but over the course of ten days of hikes and camping on two islands the kids got off to a good start on theirs:

• ‘amakihi


• ‘elepaio


• ‘apapane


• pueo


• Laysan Albatross


• Wandering Tattler


• And, well, chickens...lots and lots of chickens..I mean Jungle Fowl

I got a chance to surf a windy Poipu while the kids explored tidal pools and looked for crabs. Kim and I went out one night up in the forest and saw the brightest satellite that I've ever seen. I was sure it had to be the International Space Station and when I got home I double checked. Here's a useful resource if you want to know which satellite that you saw the other night, or if you are planning a trip out to the country where you'll have a nice view of the sky, which ones might be visible for your trip. NASA's Skywatch Page.

Spent nights in the cabin playing Go Fish and teaching Jake The Awful Green Things From Outer Space Maybe too well since he pwned me - quick learner that guy.

By the end of the trip the kids asked if we could move to Kaua‘i, or failing that, go camping every weekend.