Chris was free for a ride on Saturday afternoon, so we planned to ride if the weather wasn’t terrible. Jeff checked the radar in the morning, and it had been rainy all night on the Eastern half of Oahu, so Ditch was out. We met up at Wailuna at 14:30 and rode up the heinous hill of death. If there was one thing I learned biking in Whistler, it was not to fight the hill in mid-ring and to conserve energy in granny. It was sunny and breezy, and I reached the top of the road fairly fresh.  The legs were reasonably OK, but the lungs and heart were feeling it a little, and the ass was feeling it a lot. Continue reading ‘The Return of “Ass-Poppa”’
Author Archive for risu
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How’s this for ergonomics – In the current 1G Chevrolet Cobalt compact sedan, the parking brake lever and the center console armrest are incompatible. If you get the upgrade package that includes the armrest, I take it that the manufacturer assumes you are in a user demographic that doesn’t use/need the brake…
Thanks to Velcro for the photo.
It was a beautifully clear day yesterday, until we met for the ride at 18:00, when the sky turned grey and the rain came down. Since St. Louis was socked in, there was no hope of anything up there other than slippery rocks and roots and panko dirt for the next few hours, so we embarked on an urban assault of the Ala Wai jump. The two coconut trees there had been cut down, and the dirt disturbed. Even after a little shoe-digging and water sprinkling, the jump was weak… Shovel required. Continue reading ‘Sunny, Rainy, Moonlight’
The CSR quit, and the F/O Admin is going on vacation next week for three, so I’m flying the reception desk at work for a while. I’ll miss driving around all day, but especially being able to go to the bank or Lion Coffee Cafe whenever. My body is definitely suffering from its regularly scheduled dosage of caffeine. The order entry part is a fairly understandable task - I just have to get used to the various idiosyncracies of the accounts. Answering the phone and not saying, “Good morning, McBike,” out of habituation is the difficult part… Â
Okay, why is it that in a country as supposedly “culturally polite” as Japan is supposed to be, when teen to twenty-something girls get on a fricking plane, they forget the simple niceties of “sumimasen” or even the common courtesy of just keeping their shit under control. I swear, after I got seated on JO 074 to come back to HNL from NRT on Monday, I got smacked in the arm or head by at least 5 handbags and 2 shopping bags without a single apology. WTF?! Where the heck were you all when they called for the ghetto seats “row 50 and higher”? You rush the gate like lemmings when they call for pre-boarding of the executive club members, and parents with little kids.Â
And what on earth are you doing buying shit from the duty-free store before you go to Hawaii anyway? I can see on your way home, but going? Are you going to use that new Coach handbag, Chanel whatever, or whatever booze in Hawaii?
Dammit! Get away from me… even if you are fricking cute! …and have CT… and VPL… and exposed midriff…  and just smell really nice…
I got back from Japan on Monday morning, but have been too busy to post anything yet – and I still have to post Whistler MTB stuff too! Anyway, here are a few tidbits for the car-fans out there.
The most obviously numerous cars I saw out East were Toyota Vitzs and Suzuki Sprints. The Vitz is known on the USDM as the “Yaris 3-door”, but occurs on the JDM as a 5-door only, and is not available with a M/T. Those up North of the border can get the Yaris in both 3 or 5-door versions (dammit!). The Toyota Belta 4-door sedan was fairly common also. This is available on the USDM as the “Yaris 4-door sedan”. This car replaces the Platz (USDM Echo) on the JDM. Continue reading ‘JDM’
Oh well. I was hoping to maybe change the kokunai leg of my return flight today, but everything is full – so full that they announced it on the radio. Today is a National Day (“take care of old people day” or something), so everyone who came up for the long weekend is going back to wherever this afternoon. My flight out is at 13:00 or so, so I get into NRT at around 14:50.  My flight to HNL isn’t until 21:00! Maybe I’ll try and catch the 18:00 flight and get in earlier – that one shouldn’t be full. I’m sure Ckucke will be surprised if I call him before 07:00 for a pick-up!
Okay, I hope this comes out looking how it’s supposed to, since this is a JIS keyboard and all… Anyway, I just got back into Sapporo after travelling around the Shiretoko-hantou, Abashiri, and Asahikawa for the past few days. Since this has been life out of a minimal kit, this has probably been the dirtiest I’ve felt in Japan ever. I was only able to pack a pair of shorts and some DPM trousers and 2 T-shirts other than the one I was wearing on Wednesday night. It was fairly hot every day, probably around 25C and sunny, so with all the hiking about, in one day a shirt was ruined with funk. Continue reading ‘Oyaji ni Naritakunari’
…well, TMD actually (go wikipedia it!) I ate a Ba-le sandwich for lunch yesterday, and noticed on the drive home that my jaw felt stiff and odd on one side. Dinner and breakfast were difficult to eat – not really from the chewing, but from not being able to open my mouth wide enough. It even hurts a little when I try to talk. Hope this doesn’t cause any great issues on the trip…
I’ll be working half a day today then head to the airport to catch JO 079 HNL-NRT.
Heading out to Japan tomorrow afternoon. Yeah, I know – I haven’t posted stuff about the Whistler MTB trip yet! I got a lot of it done, but I want to put it up all at once so it’s all chronological and not broken up by other posts.Â
I’ll be catching an overnight bus to Utoro a couple of hours after my plane arrives in Chitose, so whatever I have when I get off the plane is what I’ll have to deal with lugging around the woods for the next 4 days! I’ll overnight there then head to Rausu where I’ll overnight. There will be some onsen along the way, I think some unimproved outdoor ones too! Not sure if nay of the overnight places will have onsen though. I’ll head to Abashiri the next day, then head back to Asahikawa for the night. I will return to Sapporo the following evening and fly back here the evening after.
I have a very minimal kit this time, so everything is packed in a small klettersack. I’m hoping the weather is cool so I don’t get all sweaty – I have a pair of BDU shorts in case it gets warm. I won’t have any time to do laundry when I get back to Sapporo, so I will be wearing the least stinky stuff on the plane ride back.  Â