Lemme catch up. It's been a busy houseguest weekend.
Saturday:
- Surfing all morning. My nephew the Army Ranger and his girlfriend (an Army field medical asst) confirmed that they're both goofy-footed. He's standing up on almost every ride, she's starting to carve.
- Home show at the convention center all afternoon. Photovoltaic microinverters are really starting to take off, which means that 3000-watt inverter prices should be crashing down any day now. Spouse is starting to get interested in building that PV-roofed pergola sooner rather than later. We also noted that for the first time in five years, a huge number of construction companies are now very interested in remodeling our familyroom (after our bunny goes to his great reward). But both projects are still probably 3-4 years away. At the display of a window-supply store we met a neighbor who's been laid off for several months-- he now has a good sales job with them.
- Evening stroll through Waikiki's International Marketplace (Hawaiian for "kitsch" and "schlock") and dinner.
Sunday:
- Morning grocery shopping (food goes very fast with houseguests).
- Afternoon polo at Mokuleia, where rumor is that there were actually two separate matches. I'm not sure what teams were playing (I think the scores were 3-2 & 7-5) but there sure was a lot of drinking & talk story and much fascinating people-watching. Between games, Dillingham Airfield's sport jumpers put on a spectacular show of diving toward the ground as fast as possible and then pulling out at the last moment. (Good thing they were using parachutes, although a couple of jumpers must be pretty bruised up.) After the polo matches, for a $2500 prize, the jumpers competed for best freestyle jump. The winner swooped down to the field to land on the bed of a pickup truck that was racing across the turf at about 20 MPH. Timing was of the essence... but for just $2500?!?
- The polo match was originally scheduled to be Army vs Navy, so many of our houseguest's classmates had made long-term plans to attend. There were a dozen or so junior officers milling around in a mini [-]mutual therapy bitch session[/-] reunion with slabs of BBQ and gallons of frosty beverages. We left around 6 PM but the post-polo parties were just building up a head of steam.
Monday: My nephew and his GF spent the day at Hanauma Bay, Sandy's, and a Waikiki luau. Us geezers took it easy catching up around the house.
Tuesday: Surfing all morning. Now both of them are carving. It occurs to me that the next time they visit the islands it'll be cheaper to buy a couple of 10'0" longboards from Craigslist instead of renting from the surf shack. Errands and final Hawaii-gift shopping that afternoon.
Today is their last day. South shore is 3-5 building to eight...
Waimea Valley's parking lot was disgustingly flat and full of cars.
But I'll test a roll-start some quiet weekday morning when the neighborhood isn't full of traffic.