Paradise Driver

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

VERNAL EQUINOX OCCURS TODAY

AT UTC (GMT, ZULU) 0007 HRS, MARCH 21, 2007
(ADJUST FOR YOUR TIME ZONE)

For Hawai'i, that will be 2:07pm this afternoon.

Yup. Depending on where you live, today is either the first day of Spring (north of the equator) or Fall (south of the equator).

***

This is Robin. She is always our server when we go to Aroma d'Italia Ristorante, which is where I took Judy to dinner last night.

Robin has a very outgoing and pleasant nature. She is the one I said was the most intelligent server we have ever met on this island. I overheard her tonight give the chef a heads-up about an order coming in shortly that would require special treatment, she remembered Judy's seafood problem. Like I said, she is smart. Oh, and pretty too, as you can see.

So, if you ever get to Mau'i, make sure you go to Aroma d'Italia and if Robin is working, ask for her station. And remember to tip her no less than 20% of the tab, more if possible. She deserves it.

***

They never did find the missing swimmer. All search efforts ended at 5:45pm, local, on Thursday. Here's the last news article.

***

Sometimes when I read the statistics on my counters, I get curious about ones that I don't recognize as regular visitors. Occasionally, someone arrives here via one of the search engines. What were they looking for? Well recently a visitor from the Russian Federation dropped by looking for pictures of "little boys in underwear".

First thought was: "sick".

Second thought was: "what have I ever posted that would bring PARADISE DRIVER's url up in such a search?".

***

I want to thank Cathy of Cathy's Rants and Ramblin's for bestowing on me the Thinking Blogger Award

Gold Version

Silver Version

I am going to have to forego one the the rule's stipulations. I will not be nominating 5 people, because that makes it a "meme" or "tag" and I don't do those. Call it a weird personality trait, but I never have, nor will I ever.

Cathy wrote this to describe this blog:

Paradise Driver....His posts and pictures always have alot of thought put into them. How can one even think of so many beautiful posts and pictures?

Again, mahalo Cathy. I deeply appreciate the nice words and the honor you have given me.

***

Today's 'THE PICTURE GALLERY concludes the travelog of the islands that I have presented over the last couple of months. I hope you have enjoyed it. I thought it would be nice for you to see the islands as they truly are. Starting tomorrow, its back to the "glamour" shots.

***

I very sincerely appreciate your dropping in.

See you tomorrow.

Aloha!

THE PICTURE GALLERY

MOLOKA'I

St. Joseph's Church
Built By Father Damien In 1876
Kamalo

Statue Of Father Damien
St. Joseph's Church

Altar
St. Joseph's Church

Graveyard
St. Joseph's Church

Our Lady Of Sorrows Church
Built By Father Damien In 1874
Kalua'aha

Ni'aupala Fishpond
Across From
Our Lady Ff Sorrows Church

Papohaku Beach

***

"Let's all be careful out there!"

Monday, March 19, 2007

CELTIC WOMAN

A NEW JOURNEY
(click post title to visit their site)

I am a devoted fan of Celtic music. Last night I was able to catch a PBS special featuring this wonderful group of lasses. It was their second concert on our viewer supported public broadcast TV network.

There is something about this genre that really appeals to me. A resonance within my soul. Intellectually, I can see/hear where the roots of early American country & western music derives from it. The American clog dancing is similar to the Irish step dance. The style of playing a fiddle has direct ties back to Eire.

But the Irish form of all this is the parent and is distinctively different, and better, from it's American counterpart.

These beautiful ladies are touring the States right now and if you can wrangle a way to attend one of their shows, you will not be disappointed.

US TOUR DATES

***

Other than that, I didn't do much else but sleep and surf the web for more images for THE PICTURE GALLERY.

I am sorry that I really have nothing of interest to post today. Maybe tomorrow will produce something of interest.

Thanks for coming by.

ALOHA!

THE PICTURE GALLERY

MOLOKA'I

Old Gate
Pu'u o Hoku Ranch

Horses
Near
Puko'o Lagoon

Murphy's Beach
Or
Jaycees Park

Ancient Hawa'ian Fishpond

Entrance
Puko'o Lagoon

Walkway On The West Side Of Puko'o Lagoon

Channel On The West Side Of The Puko'o Lagoon

Kanaha Rock And Moku+Ho'oniki Bird Sanctuary

Moloka'i Coastline

Honouli Malo'o Bay

Kamehameha V Highway
(SR 450)
Pohakuloa (Rock) Point

Kamehameha V Highway
(SR 450)
East Of Sandy Beach

Northwest Maui
From
Kamehameha V Highway

Looking West From
West Rock Wall At Puko'o

Pohakuloa Point
(Rock Point)

Rocky Roadside
Kamehameha V Highway
Mile Marker 20

Maui
In The Distance

Sandy Beach

***

"Let's all be careful out there!"

Sunday, March 18, 2007

THANK YOU ST. PADDY

FOR ALL THE GREEN

Like all the other cabbies who have posted about last night, it was very active.

Both Images From The "Triangle"

The night started rather rough, with 5 10-13's (no load - no show) in a row. 2 of them wasted 30 minutes of my time, each, since they were from The Grand. On The Grand time calls, we are dispatched 15 minutes prior to the scheduled pickup (in case they come out early) and have to wait until 15 minutes past the scheduled pickup before we can call 10-13. So that was one hour of the night wasted.

The "professor" was dispatching and it was obvious that he was way out of his league. Over 100 times he told us to hold our radio traffic because he couldn't listen to the phone and the radio at the same time. I noticed that a lot of my 10-13's were given when he was next up and then he would get a great run. I called him out about it over the radio. It wasn't going to happen. This was about 9:00pm when all the cabs were still on, Art was monitoring and not one person corrected me. Because everyone knows about his shenanigans. I later told him that he was the most incompetent dispatcher of the fleet. He thinks I am picking on him. Actually, I am being gentle. About a 3 on a harshness scale of 1-10.

One of our "regulars" was in Lahaina last night. He rides with all of us but prefers it when I can pick him up. He called dispatch and asked for me to come to Lahaina and return a female friend to Kihei. Of course, the "Professor" tried to dissuade him from requesting me and offered his service instead. It didn't work, the "regular" wanted me. Found out about this when I made the pickup.

~ Amy ~
My Lahaina Trip

As might be expected, the fights at the "Triangle" started in earnest after midnight. And not just brief scuffles but brawls involving between 10-50 people at once. Somewhere between 4 to 6 people were Tazered during the night. Saw one of them occur. I like Tazers. Kewl! Oh, if you should ever be unfortunate enough to be with someone who gets Tazered, don't reach out and try pulling him away. Unless you really, really want to know what he is going through at that moment.

Drove 160 miles and had 19 runs. I haven't totaled my trip sheet yet, but I know I made money.

I end this week more exhausted than usual but also more satisfied than I have been in a long time.

See y'all tomorrow.

Mahalo

Aloha!

THE PICTURE GALLERY

MOLOKA'I

Map Of The East End Of The Island Of Moloka'I
(Part Of Maui County)