TERRIFIC THURSDAY

AND ITS ALOHA FRIDAY

Started the shift with 3 night cabs and 3 day cabs. The other scheduled night driver is Tina (#05), who is on vacation this week.. 2 of the day drivers were gone by 9:00pm. The third left about 11:00pm. One night cab also threw in the towel just after 11:00pm. That left just myself and Alex TMR (#27) and the two of us never stopped moving the remainder of the shift. The tips ranged from minus 10-cents to $15. Most were about 50% of the meter.

Just before 1:00am I get a dispatch to the Dolphin Plaza area for a MPD call. Picked up a mildly intoxicated young lady from Canada. The police had stopped her vehicle for probable cause and arrested her boyfriend for DUI. She was polite, well mannered and quietly flabbergasted. She needed to go to an ATM and get $1,000, in cash, to bail her amore out of the gaol. There is an outside ATM at the 76 station next to the "Triangle" and just 1-1/2 blocks from the MPD-Kihei District Station. After a few minutes of frustration she asked me to help her. The operation of an ATM was just a wee bit too complex at her current level of sobriety. The machine had a maximum extraction limit of $200 per transaction. After 15 attempts, 4 of which were successful, and two credit cards and one ATM card, she managed to obtain $800, She had over $200 in cash on her so the boyfriend was getting a "Get Out Of Jail" card and the conjugal part of the evening was still on her agenda for the night.

Returned to MPD at 1:45am and made the run from there to their hotel. By his own admission, he was stopped for erratic driving caused by her fondling him. After he told me that she said, "If that made you excited, wait until I get you to the room. It gets waaaay better."

As I dropped them off, my chuckle was silent and my smirk was completely concealed. "Y'all have a nice morning" was my parting comment. All "bar closes" are different and interesting. Some are fun.

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A locally popular song is played multiple times throughout the day on every radio station, regardless of format, in Hawai'i on Fridays. Click the title link to hear a snippet and you can find the complete lyrics here

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THE PICTURE GALLERY

Haleiwa Ali'i Beach Park
North Shore, Oahu

Ho'okipa Beach Park
Maui

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"Let's all be careful out there!"

WACKED WEDNESDAY

MURPHY IS AN OPTIMIST

My final run of the night, to OGG from Wailea, doubled my meter for the shift. Yeah, it was that bad.

Made contact with a valet's leg during a drop at one of the hotels. He said he was okay but was limping. He did finish his shift.

Hapa's is supposedly going to reopen in Ma'alaea. This story is funny-odd in that I just heard this last night and today someone has already googled "hapa's maalaea" and were directed to my blog. Thats about 7 miles north of its prior location, in the isolated Ma'alaea harbor area. Any fares from there are going to be very good. But the Wailuku/Kahului cabs are just as far away and thus we will be competing with cabs from a different part of the island. Lahaina cabs will probably cover it also, since itnow will be only 20 minutes from Front St. They are going to need to keep at least three cop cars in the area for the fights. Even rolling "EMERGENCY" from town would still take 10 minutes to get there.

I had a scheduled 4:30am to OGG from Wailea and a scheduled 5:00am from a different Wailea hotel to OGG. No problem about covering them, I called Flor (#27) but, naturally, the phone rings just before 4:00am. A guy at the MPD Kihei District Station wanting to go way "up country". A good $75-$100 trip. He didn't want to wait for a "day-driver" to check-in. I don't know how he made it but, while I could've used the funds, he didn't know the address or even the street name he wanted to be taken to. Just that it was the home of a prominent businessman, whose name I didn't recognize and definitely had no idea where he lived. It would have been my fault that I couldn't find the black cat in the coal bin on a moonless night, that wasn't there.

Lets hope that tonights shift is better. I should be picking up this morning's OGG drop around 8:00pm and returning her to Wailea. That would be a good start to the night.

I probably just jinxed it by mentioning it

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THE PICTURE GALLERY

Zodiac Speeding Along The Na Pali Coast Of Kaua'i

Fog Enshrouded Coast Of The Kalalau Valley

HighCliffs Bordering Beach Area
Along The Na Pali Coast

Kayaker Along The Na Pali Coast

Lunch Pavillion
At The Secluded Beach Near Nualolo Kai

Monk Seal Lounging On The Beach

Multi-Colored Na Pali Coast Of Kaua'i

Na Pali Coast Of Kaua'i

Old Hawaiian Fishing Village Named Nualolo Kai
InThe Na Pali Coast State Park On Kaua'i

Path From The Old Hawaiian Fishing Village To The Beach

Polihale Beach
The Longest In Hawai'i At 17 Miles

Rocky Coast Near The Ancient Fishing Village

Sea Cliffs Bordering The long And Beautiful Polihale Beach

Sea Cliffs Towering Over The Nualolo Kai Area

Taking A Swim
In The Open Ceiling Cave
On The Na Pali Coast

The Southern End Of Kaua'i's Na Pali Coast

This Sea Cave
On The Na Pali Coast
Has Been Featured In Several Hollywood Films

View From The Inside Of A Sea Cave

Waterfall Along The Na Pali Coast

Waterfall Inside A Sea Cave
On tThe Na Pali Coast

Zodiacs And Kayaks Anchored At A Secluded Beach
On The Na Pali Coast

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"Let's all be careful out there!"

TEPID TUESDAY

ABOUT AS BORING AS IT CAN GET

I made my usual average income, so I did okay, but this is January and we are supposed to be awash with tourists. And I guess we are. Every condo and timeshare is sold out. The hotels are sold out but the people aren't going anywhere. One of my longest runs of the shift was taking people from a condo in Wailea to FoodLand, so they could buy needed provisions. Didn't even get the return trip.

The dullest fare of the night was a couple from southwest Nebraska. Talk about stoic. I tried my best to engage them in some form of small talk but the best I got was one word answers to any question I asked. Usually it was just dead silence for my reply.

By contrast, I did have one young lady who would/could only say "yippie" as I drove her from one apartment complex to another in south Kihei. Every time we passed people on the street or a dog or an intersection, it was "yippie". She may have been under the influence of something but I couldn't detect it. When she got out of the cab, I silently said "yippie" to myself.

The bar crowd was virtually non-existent all night.

Tips ran the gamut from "zero" to 150%. Unfortunately it was the longer trips that generated the smaller percentages. Feces occurs.

Talking to a hotel employee at one of the "Big Box" hotels in Wailea and he told me that the groups they've had recently are not only not leaving campus but are also not using room service. They have taken the definition of "frugal" to a new level. Their banquet department says that after evry meal service that all the salt & pepper shakers are missing, along with any other condiments that were available during the breakfast/lunch/dinner service.

Hopefully these cheap-ass s.o.b.s will find my blog someday and realize how much they have missed.

Oh, it was cold this morning as I arrived home about 5:25am. Don't laugh too hard but it was 60^of (15.6^oc), which is cold here along the edge of the ocean. Remember, our homes have no insulation in the walls or roof. No heating systems and our clothing is strictly for the tropics. Okay, everything is relative to what your body is accustomed to and mine doesn't like it when we go below 65^of (18.3^oc).

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THE SPANISH COMPUTER

A Spanish teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.

"House" for instance, is feminine: "la casa."

"Pencil," however, is masculine: "el lapiz."

A student asked, "What gender is 'computer'?"

Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether "computer" should be a masculine or a feminine noun.

Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.

The men's group decided that "computer" should definitely be of the feminine gender ("la computadora"), because:

• 1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;


• 2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;


• 3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval; and


• 4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.

THIS GETS GOOD

The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be Masculine ("el computador"), because:

• 1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;


• 2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves;


• 3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem; and


• 4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.

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THE PICTURE GALLERY

When Our Waves Get Big
They Get BIG!

A Sleek Dolphin In Warm Hawai'ian Waters

Demonstrating How To Open A Coconut

Hawai'ian Beach Fashion Statement

Isolated Beach On The Island Of Moloka'i

One Of Our Black Sand Beaches
Here In The Islands

Showers

The Kona Coast On The Big Island

The Sea Cliffs On Kaua'i

Thunderstorms In Hawai'i

Waikiki At Night

Winter Surf In The Islands

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"Let's all be careful out there!"