May.....

4-26-15  Ok so its not quite May.  I woke up this Sunday morning to rain on the roof.  I was soo happy to hear it.  Rain on a Sunday morning to me means rest.  Sunday is our Saturday, the first day to sleep in on a weekend.  I need sleep so bad, partly because of all the activity, and partly because I have been getting up around 3 am and not getting back to sleep.  I had already made plans to go surfing at 8:30 this morning (high tide was shortly after nine), but I was hoping it would continue to rain all day, so when I got back from surfing a big nap would happen.  The sun came out at ten or so and I agreed to go snorkeling with Sean the surfer friend of mine at 2 pm.  I had forgotten that I was scheduled to take the "driving" portion of my boat license at 2pm.  I passed and now have the ability to rent out at will, a boat from the Small boat marina and "get off the rock".

There are some things about the way they run this island that should be copied elsewhere if it were practical.  If you're an idiot you get kicked off the island.  Kind of simple.  The other lab manager out here, the third party tester that was required by the contract, I'll call him Eddie.  Eddie, while a good guy sober, was a bit of a train wreck with alcohol.  He knew his work fairly well, even though he lacked any tact when dealing with the client.  The first weekend he was here, St Paddy's day, he got drunk enough to fall down.   When one of the fireman, Stan, who happens to be around 6'8" tall, went to help Eddie up.  He came up swinging fists, which didn't go over too well.  Two weekends later, at a "cowboys and Indians" themed party, he decides to try and start some shit with one of the cowboys.  He had the blonde guy backed against a wall and was being a jackass to him.  I got in between them and told Eddie if he didn't leave  I would call the police.  He left.  You're not allowed to hit people on this island.  You do, and you go.  So the guy who really wanted to deck Eddie, thanked me, and Eddie thanked me the next day even though he had no recollection of trying to start a fight with anyone. 

This weekend comes, and the "spring break adult pool party" is on the menu.  Eddie shows up, already  stumbling, about an hour after my coworker James and I arrive.  He does some stupid things.  Stupid as in grabbing women he doesn't know and acting like he is going to toss them into the pool.  I watched one girl look at her husband with the "aren't you going to do something about this" look.  He did nothing, not that he really could have, without starting a fight and risk being kicked off the island.  James and I left, not wanting to babysit.   By Wednesday or Thursday following, we hadn't heard anything about Eddie's weekend, and couldn't really believe he didn't get in any trouble.

Eddie is sitting in Guam right now, trying to figure out how to get back to the States.  The flew him out yesterday.  I guess when you do something really stupid they wait to kick you out until the plane is going the "other" way, instead of when its on the way to Honolulu.  One way, if you just make a mistake, it takes 6 hours to get to Hono, the other, if you really screw up, it takes 28 hours to get to Hono (and a bunch more money).  Bye Eddie, hope you get the drinking under control.

4-26-15
Ok, so I'm not quite ready to quit with this yet, and I haven't really added to it much, so here's some thoughts....
Surfing is hard.  Learning to surf is hard, paddling a surfboard is hard, trying to not drown is hard.  I kind of like doing things the hard way apparently.  I went 5 times this week.  The second day (maybe Wednesday?) there were some big sets coming in.  I got rolled a lot that day.  That night I went home all clogged up in the sinuses, wondering where I had caught the cold.  After rolling around most the night, and falling asleep around midnight, I woke up to a very wet pillow and the taste of ocean in my mouth.  I got rolled so much surfing that a few table spoons of salt water got lodged in my sinuses and finally let loose in the middle of the night.  Thursday, there were some big sets too.  I got caught once sitting on my board as a monster rolled in and broke just on top of me.  When I finally got back, Dr Heinz or Julia says to me "I thought we would only see pieces of you after that"  That is kind of how it felt.  I went on to duplicate that scenario several more times that evening, except that I was actually trying to catch the wave instead of getting caught off guard.  

The other part of it is the physical part.  From where we get in the water, its about a quarter of a mile to the break we all use.  So just going out there means paddling a half mile.  Every time you catch a wave and ride it, maybe another eighth of a mile to paddle back to the break.  So, I'd guess, every time I go surfing I paddle about 292 miles.  Ok, that's just what it feels like, its more like 2 or 3 miles.  Its tough on the shoulders, but its even worse on my neck.  Maybe I have a big head, and holding it up for 2 miles while surfing is the problem.  The other problem, and I promise to stop whining soon, is that I am getting older and it wears me the hell out.  THAT has to be why I have sleeping issues.  I'm too tired to sleep. 

I feel so fortunate to have only these complaints.