Checking in

It has been a while since my last post and so much has happened; I just wanted to provide a quick update to both my readers to assure them I am still alive.

I retired from the Navy on July 20 (pictures coming soon), headed out to California to live and am waiting on both job interviews and for confirmation from my future landlord that I am not a psychopathic wierdo who will destroy her house during my rental.

I must say that the one thing that has made me happy in the last few weeks of being in CA is the driving. First, I am able to actually drive for an hour and make some good time. Hawaii has the slowest, most inattentive drivers I have ever seen (cleverly disguised as Aloha Spirit) and it is such a thrill to drive with people who know how to merge into highway traffic, understand how to let people in, use thier blinkers to change lanes or turn, and use the lanes properly for the speed they are driving. Some things in paradise just aren't the worth the hassle.

I am digging this retirement thing...

Comments

  1. AnonymousAugust 06, 2007 10:21 AM

    Congrats and good luck to you and yours. Although there are definitely many morons on the road here where you just left, I'm not sure if I could stomach sitting in the middle of rush hour on the I-5 daily. But they do move faster up there don't they? I'd be hard pressed here to explain why I'm doing 75 on the H-1 to the nice HPD officer.

    ReplyDelete
  2. NotClauswitzAugust 08, 2007 12:26 PM

    Congratulations also, but just wait till you try to merge during commute hours, and get an iPod or something because the radio will drive you nuts! ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. OpinionnationAugust 08, 2007 4:24 PM

    congrats

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousAugust 11, 2007 11:34 PM

    Surly there will be alot of that aloha spirit in CA. Lots of folks there will let you merge; and blow your head off right after. What fun. Bet a million miles of freeway makes a big diffrence...in attitudes. Enjoy the retirement, thanks for serving this country.

    ALOHA!

    ReplyDelete
  5. NotClauswitzAugust 16, 2007 2:41 PM

    That only happens on the crackhead freeway to Stockton... IN fact there are a lot of Hawaiians in the Bayh Area, and Samoans too. Three of 'em robbed and shot a guy in Palo Alto a few years back, and not East Palo Alto... :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. ValerieAugust 19, 2007 8:39 AM

    I just love the "California Stereotypes" - kind of like 'we all live on the beach'-

    Funny that I've lived in California for 34 years, traveled on a fair number of the freeways, done my fair share of merging (the busier freeways are actually metered, so merging is controlled a bit), and I've never been a victim of road rage, never been shot at, etc.

    It's nice to have you and your family back in our neck of the woods - it won't be long before you feel that 'small world' aspect of living here.

    Aloha,

    Valerie/Mom

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousAugust 19, 2007 4:42 PM

    dude! I live in Cali too! WHere are you? I am up north by San Fran! We have to get in touch! call me! (808) 372-1787!

    ReplyDelete
  8. bothenookAugust 21, 2007 9:13 PM

    first of all, let me provide a belated congrats on your retirement.
    regarding the driving situation, it is all good for you right now because of the very obvious difference between the "aloha spirit" and cali road warriors. (i spent my time on Oahu and can sympathize). but give it a little time, and you'll be bitching like the rest of us!

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousAugust 26, 2007 10:17 PM

    Yeah, your busy Greg...
    Hopefully it will settle down in a few months. Email me before Xmas. Adios compadre.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Trickish KnaveSeptember 02, 2007 1:43 PM

    Thank you all for the words of encouragement... it is really hectic and I have the pleaure of dealing with one last Navy pay screw up. It is a good thing I am 2600 miles away because I would probably choke my useless retirement clerk.

    Yesterday was my first day as a civilian. Wierd.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Linda Sue O'GradySeptember 16, 2007 11:05 AM

    Miss you!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Commanding Officer sacked

It seems that men in high places still haven't learned to keep their dorks zipped up. Capt. Scott Bawden, Commodore of Submarine Squadron 17 in Bangor, WA, was relieved of commnad after having "lost the confidence" of his boss. If you follow submarine news you will remember that Bawden was the Commodore who axed some of the crew of the USS Columbia after a hazing incident. /hat tip The Stupid Shall be Punished What comes around goes around? It has been quoted by a Chief who knew Bawden that morale will probably get better now that Bawden has been shitcanned. Sounds like a few Commodores I know. But there is more to this story than a guy who perhaps can't do his job anymore. Bawden was busted sleeping with someone elses wife, a Chief's wife, no less, IN HIS OWN command. Will the top brass save a onetime fair-haired boy's career, or will he end up "walking the plank?" What a jackass. It's bad enough that the Officers screw the enlisted, but ...
Read more

wtf, over....

Bernie Mac died at age 50 the other day, Isaac Hayes died today at 65. I guess show business can be rough. Only the good die young. - Billy Joel I didn't listen to Bernie Mac's stand up except for maybe a few minutes as I was channel surfing. He was playing in Vegas a few weeks ago when I went for the weekend with my wife. I have posted about Isaac Hayes when he decided to leave South Park after the creators dogged the stupidity that is Scientology. Hayes didn't seem to have a problem when Matt Stone and Trey Parker made fun of all the other world religions. I didn't read the story about Hayes but I can only guess he didn't die by falling off a suspended bridge while on fire, only to fall off and become impaled on a pointy rock, and then mauled apart by a hungry bear and mountain lion- then ending in a violent release of his bowels. Cosmically ironic if it did though. On top of these weekend deaths, visitors to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing have been murdered. The fa...
Read more

Superstitions

I have been entertaining my parents who flew in from the mainland and I have been extremely busy playing tour guide. I took them to the Big Island for a day trip in hopes to see the lava flow I photographed in July. Note to self: Check with the Volcanoes National Park website to find out if the lava is flowing at the last place you saw it 3 months earlier. That would have saved us a trip to the trail. Madam Pele (the Hawaiian goddess of fire) is very unpredictable. Since I arrived on this island 13 years ago I have heard of superstitions that range from believable (if I had enough shots of Jack Daniels) to downright stupid. AAMOF, at dinner with my parents the day before we left for the Big Island a waitress cautioned my mother against taking some of the sand from Black Sand Beach home with her. The bad luck that would accompany my mother sounded more like factual consequence than a “step-on-a-crack-break-your-mother’s-back” nursery rhyme. I rolled my eyes. In fact, at Volcanoe...
Read more