stormy weather

I hope our scheduled trip to O'ahu is well-timed,

and the current storm will blow over.

Aloha.

This is my photograph.

I took it with my Sony DSLR from the porch of our house

on January 25, 2009.

the quiksilver

The North Shore of Oahu is getting hammered by 30' to 50' waves today through Thursday or Friday, which means The Quiksilver In Memory Of Eddie Aikau is on! It doesn't happen every year, actually rarely, and only when the monster waves are thundering in. Today's sets seem very promising (can you say HUGE?), and the judge will likely call it a "go". Thirty of the world's best big wave riders are ready and waiting at Waimea. Unfortunately, we won't be at Sunset until 1/15/10. Just as well... the house is full of judges for the Triple Crown, and the waves will be threatening the porch. Yikes! But as the surf rats say, "Eddie would go!"

eugenics

Bo and The Godfather

One of the reasons I like having Obama in the White House is that I don't have to worry. I know I probably should, but what counts is that I don't feel like I have to. Maybe it's just the contrast; Bush scared the bejeezus out of me. I do keep my ear to the rail, but I haven't heard anything alarming thus far. Good reason, I guess, to pay attention, especially when the water is flat calm. Like, just before a squall hits.

Oh dear. Storm warnings. Right when I was having myself a sigh of relief, the Easter Bunny showed up with a purebred Portuguese Water Dog named Bo for Sasha and Malia Obama (beware the ironclad campaign promise). Being people of conscience, their parents had been looking forward to rescuing a shelter dog. In addition, the First Lady has planted an organic vegie patch out by The Rose Garden. That's what I mean; you can trust that they're good people. Anyway, before they could do the decent thing for some needy hound, Teddy Kennedy stepped in and offered a puppy from some eugenic breeder (probably one of those kajillion Kennedy cousins). Obama is wise enough not to mess with the double karmic load of Teddy being genuine American royalty plus a cancer patient. If you're the new President, you probably ought not to mess with that old political icon for any reason anyway. So the result is, even in this 21st Century, there's still a Kennedy in the White House.

The First Daughters looked at what the breeder had to offer and of course chose the dog who most resembled a stuffed animal. Eugenics gave the sweet little thing adorable curly hair, cleverness and a bouncy personality. Totally irresistible to the two girls, but just wait until the family, not to mention the whole White House staff, get a load of what "bouncy" means in Portuguese. A PWD is one of those kinds of dogs you should never let be in charge. As if there's a choice. I wonder if any human can truly outsmart a clever dog.

Then there's that pesky word "water". It's the PWD's middle name, for dog's sake. They have to have water and lots of it. They were bred for water sports. Last time I checked, there's no sizable lake, let alone the preferred ocean, at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. I can see how this is going to turn out; that clever dog will wind up living out his days surfing the sunny beaches of Oahu. By the way, I have no doubt that PWDs can learn to surf.

switcheroo yahoo!

It's now 10 days into 2009. I'm still on my old iBook G4. There's a new MacBook Pro in it's box on the floor across the room. It's waiting to step into the fray; it'll have to keep on waiting. I'm handing it over to a MacPro to transfer all my files, etc., while I'm gone. More on that later... Meanwhile, in yet another attempt to 'spress maseff in this blog without assist (clearly, I'm cyber-masochistic-stubborn), I've switched browsers from Safari to Firefox. Safari is definitely not copasetic with Blogger. Like a really bad blind date. I'm hoping Firefox can dance. So please forgive all typos and squashed toes.

While I'm gone where? Back to the North Shore of Oahu. Sunset Beach. Where the waves are huge, the surfers are beyond fear, there are no restaurants or hotels, and tourists last for maybe an hour and are gone. Hoodies and flipflops are de rigueur. Definitely my kind of place.
Aaahhhhh.....

I'll now attempt to attach a picture from last year to this bad boy. It was the first one taken on the very first morning from our porch. Something told us we were in the right place. We're going back next week.

P.S. OMG! IT WORKED!!! Woo-hoo!