"THAR SHE BLOWS"

THE "WHALES" ARE HERE!

No, not the kind that reside off-shore during the winter but those big spenders that destination resort communities love. Off to luaus, out to party at night. The amount of mandatory time commitment to meetings is kept to the barest minimum. These folks want to GO...DO...PLAY.

Took control at 6p and never had a "line-up" for longer than 2 minutes. People going home, people coming in. Lots of people. It got to the point where I was limiting any pickups to strictly from Wailea. Every Wailea/Makena resort called with last minute requests to OGG. I was totally out of cabs for over an hour. The crew was just doing "round-robins" between Wailea and OGG. I also had 2 that were on runs to the "west-side".

Then we passed 9p and the bottom fell out. Sparsely scattered bar runs. Picked up again just after 1a and everything was closed by 1:45a. Only 152 bits of radio chatter. A lot slower than last week and way slower than July.

Still it does take its mental toll. When I have the phone on Friday, its impossible to write things down while driving. Have to rely on memory and occasional scratches in my notepad for the current lineup and the next day's reservations.

From home on Sunday I log all pertinent traffic, which actually seems harder sometimes.

Since the short-term memory is the first thing to go when you have Alzheimer's, I'll have an "early warning". Mom died of it and so did her Dad. So I might be carrying that gene. Most victims slide gently into it and tell-tale incidents are written of as just a temporary lapse, by both themselves and their family/friends. I have no intention of riding that path.

Enjoy today's bit of humor.

Mahalo

Aloha

***

Broke Back Mountain Lady

A successful rancher died and left everything to his devoted wife. She was determined to keep the ranch, but knew very little about ranching, so she placed an ad in the newspaper for a ranch hand.

Two cowboys applied for the job. One was gay and the other a drunk.

She thought long and hard about it, and when no one else applied she decided to hire the gay guy, figuring it would be safer to have him around the house than the drunk.

He proved to be a hard worker who put in long hours every day and knew a lot about ranching. For weeks the two of them worked hard and the ranch was doing very well.

Then one day, the rancher's widow said.

"You have done a really good job, and the ranch looks great. You should go into town and kick up your heels."

The hired hand readily agreed and went into town on Saturday night.

He returned around 2:30 am , and upon entering the room, he found the rancher's widow sitting by the fireplace with a glass of wine, waiting for him.

She quietly called him over to her.

"Unbutton my blouse and take it off," she said.

Trembling, he did as she directed.

"Now take off my boots."

He did as she asked, ever so slowly.

"Now take off my socks."

He removed each gently and placed them neatly
by her boots.

"Now take off my skirt."

He slowly unbuttoned it, constantly watching her eyes in the fire light.

"Now take off my bra."

Again, with trembling hands did as he was told
and dropped it to the floor.

Then she looked at him and said:

"If you ever wear my clothes into town again, you're fired!"

---

THE PICTURE GALLERY

Lahaina Area
Mau'i

***

"Let's all be careful out there!"