Since there hasn't been a Feel Good Friday blog for choke long time, I thought I'd put together some random pics I collected. It made me tink dat while da mainland peeps get some wacky and funny pics, we get our fair share and hea are some dat I was lucky enough to randomly capture. If you got some - any kine - pics you like share, no shame send 'em to me fo post if you like and of course, da more pupule or WWD! kine, da mo' bettah.

Enjoy!

Remembah da once in a lifetime astronomical viewing of Venus crossing da Sun? Hea it is. Ok, so it's not even remotely close but someone at work had a tinted viewer and I only had my phone camera. At least I can say I saw it - and I really did see da pinhole dot on da sun - and it won't happen again till the year 2117.







Why did da chicken cross da road?

Cause da drive-thru was so damn long!

No even ask me wat da heck or why da heck............ but it was cool to look at!

Hea's da parking kahuna of da week!

Really? Floor 6.5? I was cracking up dat there was actually a floor numbah by halves! I mean really, is a garage dat confusing? There weren't even stalls on da ".5" floors - WWD!

Da Baby gets all shy wen da camera comes out so wen I took dis pic, I was still surprised to catch her wit her Ms.Diva full on pose kine action still going on. Wat a ham!

Last Thursday on my way home, I approached the intersection of Hoolaulea and Moanalua Rd as I've done thousands of times before and await my turn to make a left down Hoolaulea. It wasn't any different from any other day and there wasn't anything to signal otherwise...... until I got a chill.

As I sat on my motorcycle in the middle of the intersection waiting to turn left, the light turned yellow and three cars gassed it up and sped through as the light turned red. Could they have stopped? No doubt but there must have been some confusion as to which pedal was the brake and pressed the wrong one.

Yeah, dat was said very sarcastically WWD! style.

So I sat there still in the middle of the intersection - yes, smack dab in the MIDDLE........

From WWD!

Now for some of you dat always tink I get my camera ready for everything, dis is NOT a live pic I took while waiting. It's from Google Maps so relax au'ight?

Anyways, at that intersection, the far left lane is a left turn only and the two others are straight through.

*** Drivah's Ed 101: Might I remind some people that the proper way to making a left turn is to approach the intersection and turn only when it's safe. Whoever is next, is supposed to wait at the THICK WHITE PAINTED line and approach once the vehicle ahead has gone through (it's actually a STOP line for those who don't know the difference) so in case the light changes, you're not stuck in the middle of the intersection blocking traffic. Just so happens that the picture above of the exact location is a fine example of how it's "supposed" to look like. ***

Now back to da mo'olelo.

As I sat there watching da three lolo's speed through an already turned red light, I shook my head and muttered things I cannot repeat in print but I just sat there not moving. There was a truck behind me dat was on my okole (remembah da Drivah's Ed 101 tip above? Well da truck drivah needs to reeducate himself.) and gave me a quick toot to go..... but I didn't. I didn't look back nor did I even give a "friendly salute", I just sat there.

Don't ask me why but my spidey-sense was tingling as I stared at a car coming in the opposite direction about 150 meters away. The picture is pretty small but if you're able to see the third car from the left lane is near the second light pole and most light poles are about 150m apart (Google) so it was a considerable distance away.

Could I have turned and made it through? Absolutely no doubt. I probably could have gotten off da bike and walked it across safely and the truck behind would have been just as good. Instead, I just sat there waiting.

Now all this waiting may sound long to you but all this happened in a course of about three seconds. Sure, three seconds isn't long but when you're "waiting", three seconds is like three minutes. Try wait three seconds in traffic or at a light and see what happens - you going be da most popular vehicle on da road.

I just continued to stare at this white car and noticed that the front end wasn't going down. In case you didn't know, the most powerful brakes on a vehicle - and a motorcyle - are the front wheels, not the back hence the rear wheels screech because all the power and weight gets shifted to the front.

The car was approaching at a pretty fast speed and and it was one of those moments that you knew it wasn't slowing down and if it wanted to stop, it would have come to a screeching halt. I just waited and as it zoomed by, I gunned my engine multiple times near redline to catch his attention (my exhaust is loud dat way)..... and I get da stink eye like I'm da lolo.

Wassup Wit Dat!

Did da lolo not even realize he was blatantly speeding through a RED LIGHT??? There were no other cars traveling near him going through the intersection - except da three lolo's dat already blazed through waaaay before him - and it's an obvious intersection with lights. I muttered things again that would make an explicit rap song a nursey rhyme.

As I made my turn aftah da idiot passed by, da car waiting to go up Hoolaulea did a double take as if there were going to be oddah cars zooming by and looked up again to see if she had da green light. At that moment I realized dat if I had gone wen I "should" have gone, there would have been a definite fatality. Da idiot would have definitely plowed into anoddah car either going up or down Hoolaulea and it would have been disastrous for anybody involved.

Wen I shared my mo'olelo wit Da Wife latah dat evening, she said there was a bad accident at da same spot when she came home dat very same night wea had debris all ovah with emergency vehicles at da scene. Dat only happened a couple of hours aftah..... ho, chicken skin moment.

I couldn't help but wondah if it was "supposed" to happen and then I thanked God dat Da Wife didn't come home earlier.

Howzit Howzit!

So sorry for all the breaks in between blogs but I've been swamped (wat's new? ) especially da past couple of weeks with a lot of crazy stuff happening hea, dea, everywea!

Is dat wat happens wen you makule, get keiki, go work, get side jobs, coach baseball, go to meetings and gotta put up one blog? At least das wat I remembah from just yesterday alone.

But nevah fear, I have a "life-saving" blog up latah tonight so check back then please.... and I swear I working on replies tonight too.

No joke.

We got da sun. We got da beach. We got da Aloha. We live in "paradise".

Wat we don't got is kala.

For all da non-speaking Hawaiian/Pidgin peeps out there.... cash, money, moo-lah.

We already spend da most on gas, housing and practically everything else so wen it comes to grindz, I kinda trip out dat it fluctuates just da same for many items.

I was asked to make some kim chee for a "surprise" at work and most times just da won bok cabbage alone hovers between $5-7 for a 10lb batch which is about 50 cents /lb at da Korean market - da cheapest place to get 'em. At times it drops down as low as 39 cents /lb but yesteday it was a whopping 99 cents /lb which is a 100% markup from da "normal" price.

Then there was da Korean radish which normally is about 70 cents /lb but was a whopping $2 /lb!

Wassup Wit Dat!

Well, da radish wasn't at da Korean market cause they ran out (WWD! cause they NEVER run out) so I went to Pearl City Daiei wea I tend to notice dat they really jack up their vegetable prices.

Surah there are many factors considering price for such items but how da heck does it fluctuate like a barrel of oil?

Just like our beloved ahi poke - since wen da heck did it come $15+ /lb for not even Grade A cuts? No even get me started about plate lunches not filling up da box and yet charging da "normal" price of $8+. I swear just yesterday da "normal" plate lunch price was $5.

Ok, more like yester-year but still, it's like da prices go up but our paycheck is still da same so how da heck have we been surviving so far?

I still say da best bang for da buck of plate lunches is at Pearl City L&L - although their prices have been creeping up - wea their mini katsu curry is only $5.50 + tax and they give CHOKE! It could qualify as a regular plate lunch at some oddah places dat would charge $8+.

Even soda prices have gone pupule. Whether it be at a restaurant, take-out or a six pack - not on sale - you might as well have gotten a side order of something to eat instead.

Wat oddah items have you noticed dat has gone up? Wat are your "normal" prices for things dat you buy? Is there anything dat you trip out on cause now da price is outrageous? Wat about your favorite places to grind at - has their prices increased?

Back to da kim chee. I stopped counting aftah only two ingrediments went ovah $20.... and I use about ten.

Anybody like buy? $20 /lb.... you know, with da economy and all.

At a drug testing yesterday, I couldn't help but notice the interaction between a nurse and the patients and it reminded me of my orthopedic.

Back in 2000 when I blew out my knee, I was fortunate enough to have one of the top orthopedics in the state take a look. His waiting room was PACKED wall to wall - with people waiting outside as well - indicating he was in high demand. After waiting more than a few hours - rogah, HOURS - I was called up, sat on the exam table for a few minutes - or more - and when he finally came he asked what happened, took a quick look, put his hands on my knee, popped it out and said, "so when did you want to have surgery?"

Yup, that fast, that quick and that bluntly straightforward. It was a lot for me to process in 7 seconds and basically he said if I was going to stay active that I'd need the surgery. Well, that was a no brainer for me.

After the surgery, there were a ton of follow-ups and the same thing happened everytime with his office. I schedule a morning appointment, wait for hours, get seen in the afternoon - or very late morning - then once called in, sit down for two minutes and I'm done. I thought an "appointment" was to specify an exact time to meet? While I understand it's a doctor's office and there are delays but by da HOURS and then only to get seen for two minutes???

Wassup Wit Dat!

I've never had any kine of surgery before so it was "new" to me and you would think that a surgeon would have a bit more tact in realizing that while it may be a common, normal, everyday thing performing multiple surgeries a day, the people having the surgeries don't know what da heck is going on or what to expect.

One day after da uku-millionth visit, I was talking to anoddah patient who happened to be an ex-coworker:

BL: "So how long you been waiting?"
Oddah Patient: "About two hours. You?"
BL: "About two and a half. I just checked in and went out."
Oddah Patient: "I know. Wat for make appointment?"
BL: "You telling me. And then we wait for hours to see him for two minutes and then he only says, "looking good" and then leaves? And then he not even friendly about it!"
Oddah Patient: "I know! Wat kine dat yeah?"

Needless to say, when I got called into da waiting room that day I let him have it. I told him it was already bad that patients with appointments had to wait hours beyond their appointment time but to only get seen for less than two minutes and then just told it's all good and without even a "how are you doing?" doesn't make a patient feel good or comfortable.

Long story short, the wait time got cut down in a sense that a morning appointment meant you would be seen in da morning and we would be in da exam room for THREE minutes now. While I can't say for certain if he began to be "nicer" to just me, I would like to think dat he is more nice to everyone.

Back to da nurse at my drug testing. She was a real.......... robot - very impersonal, reading off a script tone of voice and sorry to say, a classic city worker who's been there too long - generalizing of course.

Sadly, she didn't look much older than me - which isn't saying much - but does being in a position for an extended period of time turn you into a thick skinned, non-caring, impersonal person? I can gurantee dat she doesn't act li'dat with her friends.... oddahwise she wouldn't have any.

Think about it. When you go anywhere dealing with "customer service", can't you tell da newbies right off the bat? They are the "nice" ones, the cheery ones, the ones who actually smile and willing to help YOU regardless if you're a returning customer or a first timer.

Then an "old-timer" sinks his/her claws and says, "you'll learn".

And so da cycle begins.

Have you experienced any "robots"? Why do "old-timers" - not all of them - turn insensitive? Granted, they have paid their dues but does that allow them to treat the same people that come in for help or service any differently than when they first started? Or is it just a specific profession that generates attitude?

I hope that da WWD! Hui who have been in the same position for many many years no ack li'dat. I've been doing what I've been doing for about 11 years and I too catch myself and then scold myself for being "monotoned" but it all boils down to one thing,

Treat others how you want them to treat the ones you care about....... because how they treat you don't mean sh......