Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Hawaii Five Oh What a Time (part 5)
So after coffee and fruit we start off for Diamondhead. Robert is keeping the top up today as yesterday he used only 15 sunscreen. We call him Toast for the rest of our stay here. Diamondhead is visible from all over the coast from Hawaii Kai to Barbers Point. It's not as tall as the mountains behind it but it sticks out there. It's a crater about 150,000 years old. So you start by driving through a tunnel into the floor of this crater and then taking a long hike up to the highest point overlooking the sea.
The guide book keeps us from looking as idiotic as the tourists trying to go native in their shower thongs and sandals. That worked okay for about the first 300 yard on pavement but then it becomes a rough trail cut through lava and ashrock. We even saw a chick trying this in heels. One could make a nice profit running a bandaide or Dr. Scholls concession here. But we were properly shod in thick socks and sneakers as the trail got steeper and led to steps and through tunnels so dark I had to remove my sunglasses to keep from continuously slamming into the sides. About a hundred and seventy steps and two tunnels before you reach the summit. Amazing view all around. It's heavy competition with the many Japanese tourists for photo-op positions.
Once again I'm fascinated by that culture. Being an obsessive person myself, I find many obsessions quite useful. I understand obsessions. They seem to have an obsessive need to capture every memory and moment in photos. I do it with notes in my little book. They seem highly prone to fads: the young ladies in their tight jeans ( I appreciate that) even in tropical Hawaii and their lightened hair making them look alluringly exotic. Then there are the always-in-use cellphones, the ever popular karaoke joints, video games, animi, and I learned recently that there are more salsa dancing joints in Tokyo than Latin America. I like salsa dancing. The travel and photography thing, of course is huge with them. These are good things. useful things. Well, okay the video game thing I could do without. They seem to be a very successful culture even if you just look at the business side. I'm eager to learn more.
The climb down Marblehead is effortless except for the footing. I don't see anybody in bad footwear making their way off the top. Maybe medics have carted off the ones who broke down on the way up. We have a late breakfast at Waikiki Cheeseburger. Fun place, retro music. Great burgers. They also do French toast well. Cathy is wearing the cool T-shirt we bought there of a Hula girl raising a cheeseburger to the heavens like a host.Cheeseburgerus vobiscum. I worry that somebody will send Cathy to fetch them coffee. The waitress is thrilled she's got it on. We kept her in her seat, though.
Back at the Ihilani by the lagoon, I watch too impossibly drunk ladies stumble down to the edge, tear off their cover-ups like artless strippers and fall into the water. I'm startled at how wasted they are. One seems to favor lying in the water and I'm sure she'll pass out and drown. Her sandals keep floating away and people retrieve them for her. I'm getting ready to run and pull her face out of the water when she wakes up and stumbles onto a chaise. She falls off of it several times and her sandals float away again. I'm sure she fell asleep there, after I was summoned to dinner. I'm equally sure she didn't have adequate sun protection. We never saw them again. I should have checked the burn unit at he hospital. Robert told me later that they got flagged at the bar after way too many MaiTais. And stumbled away angry. One had a black eye.
And you know this became a lyric. And Alas, the lagoon rhyme actually works here.
Her Life's a Mess
Bud Buckley Copyright 2005
Fifty-ish. No more nifty-ish
Falling down drunk in the lagoon
Sunscreen misses frame seared flesh
She's a living breathing cartoon
And her life's a mess
Her life's a mess today
She can't even guess the rest
Head collapsed on her folded fists
Baby wave wakes her, moves like a starfish
She studies the inviting veins in her wrists
Coated now with the day's sandy harshness
And her life's a mess
Her life's a mess today
She can't even guess the rest
Drifting sandals, She couldn't care less
Shades almost hide the bruise on her face
But not that what she can't confess
Not what she can't replace
And her life's a mess
Her life's a mess today
She can't even guess the rest
Well that could use some more work but I thought it was interesting that this one just spilled out of me like too many MaiTais.
posted by Bud @ 7:27 PM
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