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Saturday, July 29, 2006

RULE OF LIFE:

NEVER SLAP A WOMAN

ESPECIALLTY IF SHE HAS A 6' 4", 240# HUSBAND STANDING RIGHT BEHIND YOUR SCRAWNY 5' 8" ASS.

I was tired yesterday and actually slept til the alarm got me up on the wrong side of the bed. Which can be a real bitch when you sleep next to an open 3rd floor window. I struggled out to the kitchen, got a glass of iced tea and said good "morning" to my cat.

"Hello, Bear. You pretty little baby boy."

What came out was :

"Hello, Bear. You pretty little baby boy."

Absolutely minimum voice audability.

When I logged on at 7:00pm, instead of the normal

"ONE-NINE 10-1"

All that was heard was:

"one-nine 10-1"

And that was with a lot of added static from the "graveliness" of my voice.

The owner responded by asking if I was okay and I told him I was, just didn't have any voice left. He asked for someone else to take the phone and was met with absolute radio silence. Nobody wanted it. I don't blame them.

A few radio transmissions later and Mexican Mary said she would take the phone and dispatch. I was too hard to hear, speaking in my rasping whisper. Gracias, mi amiga.

Of all the nights she could've chosen to dispatch, she was blessed with the slowest night I have experienced all year. From 7:00pm until 9:30pm the phone never rang. 8 cabs sitting in Wailea, doing absolutely nuttin'. #17, #22 and #25 (all day drivers) fled the sinking ship by 8:00pm. #5 and #18 stayed around til midnight. After midnight we just had #15, #21, #27 and ONE-NINE.

The bar close went pretty smoothly for us and tonights trouble spot was LAB (Life's A Beach), at the "Triangle". They had a major brawl inside and outside of the club. Every police car in Kihei responded to the incident. Of course, every police car in Kihei will also respond to a barking dog complaint. It is usually a pretty quiet place.

2:00am rolled past and I was resigned to it being a really shitty night. I had only had 4 runs for less than $53 on the meter. Tips were sparse, since I couldn't smooze with my guests.

No "talk story" = no $$$$.

Oh, all 4 runs tipped me, but less than I normally get. To add insult to injury, I also had 2 "10-13"s (No show/No load).

From 2:00am until 5:00am the fates were a bit kinder. First, the voice was finally becoming understandable and I had another 4 runs for nearly $70, so I was able to meter a bit over $120. Better than I thought it was going to be but still nearly 50% less than what I consider normal.

One of those late night fares was the band that had played at LAB.
They had watched the fight start and end.. Apparently some guy had been hitting on a pretty girl and she had always rejected his advances. As bar close neared, he pressed his efforts beyond decency and she offered him a physically impossible task. His response was to slap her as hard as he could. Bad move (see opening comment). I think he has fewer teeth left this morning than I do. The escalation was caused by his friends joining in the fight and then everyone, male and female, leaping in. I thought I was looking at Billy Bob's in Texas. About 70 or so people involved, which is more than the two floor hosts (aka: bouncers) could contend with. When it was all over and done, all the police did was to take names for their reports. No one was immediately arrested, no one went to the hospital and the most seriously injured was toothless Joe Schmoe, the guy who had started the melee.



SHARKS


We have had a lot of shark sightings, just a few yards off Sugar Beach, this week . Some say they are "white tips", others say they are "black tips" and a few say "hammerheads". I know what a "hammerhead" is but have no knowledge of the others. If you want to know more, just use the Wikipedia link on the sidebar.

Its more fun to swim with the dolphins



TODAYS PICS

The Road To Hana
If you have seen any Jurasic Park movie, the latest release of King Kong or the TV show Lost, then this should look familiar.
The north coast of Moloka'i
A beach in south Mau'i
Hana, Mau'i
The "Big Island" of Hawai'i in the distance
Deep inside the I'ao Valley

Part of the rain forest along the Road To Hana
Sunsets










Later.....

Wil
=8^))
"Let's all be careful out there!"