So a young woman, born and raised in Kailua is walking along the beach with her dog, and a pigmentally challenged individual says, “Hey, what are you doing here? Locals aren’t allowed here!”
. o O ???
Monthly Archive for July, 2010
With the air asset rotations out of MCBH diminishing as RimPac winds down, Windward residents may have noticed that bright light has replaced jet sound at night out over the bay. No, those alien abduction lights aren’t some black project: They’re illumination for night shooting of the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie at He’e’ia Kea pier. The Black Pearl is tied up along the North side of the pier, off the tips of the slips. There is also some stuff staged at the old ‘Ulu Mau village site, and further down the road before the straightaway ends. When I detoured by tonight on the way home, they had four or five light booms shining full blast, and billowing clouds of Hollywood smoke flowing across the water and onto the shore. You can sort-of make out the masts of the ship in the center of this grainy spy picture.
The third Coedo beer available here is this Kyara. Pours a medium light amber with a small head and moderate carbonation that lasts. My nose is still messed up, but some smell is returning. There’s an aroma I have a hard time placing, I think if I had to say, I’d say grainy. Initially there’s a bit of that malt liquory taste and tongue feel, but it fades quickly away. There’s some of that sweetness too, but its nicely moderated and balanced by the bitter. A nice beer, I just wish it didn’t command such a premium price.I’d give it a solid 3 out 4 monkeys.
Chris finds interesting stuff while browsing in unexpected places. He alerted me that he found some Purell in foliage green bottles at the Downtown Fisher Hawaii. I stopped by the Kaka’ako location and found some on a mid-aisle end cap after wandering the aisles of office supplies for a couple of minutes. The 89ml (3 fl. oz.) extra durable foliage green MDPE bottle has finger-grooved sides and is marked NSN 6508-01-535-5409. They were priced at $2.69, so after local sales tax, it was $2.82 – much less than the MSRP! The bottle is about the same size as a 20-round 5.56 NATO magazine (12cm tall x 6cm wide x 3cm thick), so it will fit in a strobe/compass pouch (empirically tested in the Blackhawk STRIKE version of this size pouch) or other similarly sized pouches. Good to have on the trail to clean the grubby hands before digging into the snacks or performing first aid.
Highly recommended
Four out of four alcohol-vapor-buzzed gear monkeys
Although the weather was looking good at the tail end of the week, we didn’t want to fully jinx it by getting all worked up for a Sunday ride, so we played it low key. The weather was clear and hot all Saturday, so the Sunday ride was on. Chris had last minute babysitting duties, Root had plans with relatives, and Ckucke was MIA. Jeff, Sara, JT, Dr. Paul, and Danny were at the trailhead when I arrived. I was feeling a little hung over from wine with osso buco the night before, so I was off the back from the start. My legs were burning at the first left turn after the gate! JT was hanging too, having survived a fried food and beer fest on Saturday, so he was my compatriot in suffering. After climbing up Government road to the side loop entrance, I aired down the new Rubber Queens, but ended up dropping them too much, as the ride felt like dual flats after that, and I heard a couple of bottom-out bumps on roots as the underaired tires pinched flat. Before the drop, I pumped them back up, maybe too much, as they were squirrely loose on the way down. I backed them off a little to about where they were when I started (40 psi front/50 psi rear) and all was good from then on. Continue reading ‘Hanging Sunny’
Friday looked good on the internet cameras, but when I got home, it was somewhat overcast. Since I was talking to Chris about riding, I felt it was almost my duty to get out on the bike. It was too hot at home to stay inside, so the decision to go out was an easy one to make. Being a furlough Friday during summer, the traffic was fairly light. I did see Blockman, but he didn’t get in my way this time.
D = 12.86 km (7.99-miles), Vavr = 18.3 km/h (11.4-mph), Vmax = 36.7 km/h (22.8-mph), T = 42-minutes
A third variety recently available at Marukai, Japan brewery Coedos Ruri. Pours a clear gold, weak head that quickly dissappeared. Carbonation persists as opposed to their previous brew I had. I’m wondering if they suffer from ill handling in the supply chain. Notable hoppy note, fairly bitter and dry, persists for a bit, but quite drinkable. Looking into it, the Ruri is a pils, and I do see the style. As it warms up, there’s a little astringent and touch of sour on the sides of the tongue. Perhaps I’m developing a taste for pils? I find this Ruri pleasant and drinkable, and I had a Wernesgruner earlier with dinner too! But I’m not sure if I’d say its worth the premium price commanded at the store for it. One and a half bottles of these Ruri would pay for the sixer of Wernesgruner, and honestly I think the Wernesgruner has a more complex flavor. So I guess I’d give it three out of four hoppy monkeys, except value wise it looses out. It’s good, but not good enough to make me want to seek it out at the cost in money and time to find it.
After getting rained out on riding this weekend, we deferred to an attempt at a St. Louis run this afternoon. Although it had rained all night, the morning was clear. Things were looking good. Then around 09:00, the clouds gathered and the rain came dumping down. The whole Town side was socked in grey. Oh well – nothing ventured, nothing lost. Just before noon, the skies cleared and the ground started drying out. Just so long as it stayed sunny and it didn’t rain anymore, we were good. As pau hana time rolled around, the sky was bright and the air was hot. It was a “go”. Kevyn met Ckucke, JT, and I at Kanewai, and we shuttled up to the top. Root was stuck in Waikiki at a job site, so he missed the start. After we had dropped the mainline through taco jumps then straight through to the rock drop and the switchback trail to agave. Root called us at this point to say he was at Kanewai, and would ride up to meet us. We climbed back up to the first junction to take the burnout trail to the concrete road where we met Root. In hindsight, we should have told him to drive up to the top and bomb down and meet us. Dinner was at the new Teddy’s Bigger Burgers in Mo’ili’ili.
Pictures here
D = 4.28 km (2.66-miles), Vavr = 13.0 km/h (8.1-mph), Vmax = 38.9 km/h (24.2-mph), T = 20-minutes
Former O’ahu MTB-er and surfer Vince “Akron” Labbe was in town last week for the Hawaii premiere of the film, Out of Place, in which he is a featured athlete for the Honolulu Academy of Arts Third Annual Surf Film Festival. He gave a Q&A session after the film and handed out some tee shirts. Chris and the Missus, Ckucke, and I made it down for the premiere showing. The film was well-done, from both the documentary and sports film standpoints. I came away with that awestruck, inspired feeling that I had as a teen after seeing Endless Summer. It will be showing again on Wednesday, 21 July 2010 at the Doris Duke Theater at 13:00, 16:00, and 19:30. I definitely recommend you go and check it out! For more info, go by the Honolulu Academy of Arts website.
Overheard at potentially the best hotel/restaurant in Majuro:
Guy A: Did you get that rat yet?
Guy B: Which rat?
Guy A: The one running around the kitchen.
Hmm, this cant be good. Then I heard rumours of the staff getting a $5 bonus for each rat dispatched after hours.