Strange sightings on a Saturday

We decided that today was Project Van day. Our van was so filthy you couldn't tell what color the carpet was and the back of it was black. I usually don't let it get this dirty, but it is hard to keep the thing clean when you don't have a fully enclosed garage. Our garage is rather weird. The so-called walls only go up about 3/4 of the way and they don't even start at the bottom. Furthermore, they aren't complete walls. They are wood slats that are at a 45 degree angle. When it rains and the trade winds start blowing, leaves and miscellaneous stuff ends up in our garage. Once a week a group of four guys come to the house to mow, even though I'm not exactly sure why. Our grass is putting-green short. When they are here, they use one of those obnoxiously loud blowers and stir up the black soil. Of course, the black dirt makes its way over and under our garage "walls". And whose car does it end up on? Yep, mine.

I was finished cleaning the outside of the van when Noah pointed down the slope of the side of our yard and said, "Mom! The roosters are here!" Next thing I knew, they were in our next-door neighbors yard, all 7 of them. Tom wanted to know what you call of group of roosters & hens. I told him I didn't know, but I call them a gang. I ran inside to get the camera so I could take a picture of all of them together, but when I came out they got scared and went berserk. Five of them scurried into our neighbor's backyard and two (Rudy being one of them) stayed in the front and hid behind some bushes. I think they were plotting their escape plan because shortly after this I saw them fly on the roof of the neighbor's house and walk over it into the backside. It would have made a funny picture, but those darn things move too fast.

EARLIER PICTURE OF RUDY AND THE GANG IN OUR DRIVEWAY...



Later I was thinking about how none of the locals pay any attention to the chickens around here. I think it's kind of odd that no one thinks to capture one. A few eggs for a week's worth of breakfast. Fried chicken for Sunday dinner. And Hawaiians really love to eat chicken. Maybe it's that they have some kind of a reverence for chickens, kind of like the people of India do for cows. I don't know. It seems like there's so many of them roaming the island, no one would notice if one went missing. Hmmm.....

After we spiffed up the van, we decided we would treat ourselves to a nice hearty meal. We were thinking of going to the Macaroni Grill, which is in the biggest mall in Hawaii. I looked for it in the white pages, but couldn't find it. But I did find a pretty funny name...Celso Macadangdang. And no, I am not making this up!!

We ended up going to a different part of the island, sort of near Pearl Harbor. We went to a place called Anna Miller's. We had read that it served what most people refer to as stick-to-your-ribs food. We were so excited to finally find a local restaurant that serves the kind of food we like. I had to smirk when I saw Spam and rice on their list of side orders for breakfast.

Heading home we saw another humorous, yet very Hawaiian site. We were going down the Kamahemaha highway following a local moving truck that had the back door open. Three guys were standing on the lowered platform. One was sitting on a piece of weight lifting equipment, hugging the padded arms as if it were a teddy bear. In the left lane right next to it was a pimped out blue pickup with a guy in a beach chair sitting in the back and a full-size Hawaiian flag propped into the tailgate. There was another tricked out white pickup in front of it with a guy sitting in the back. Which leads me to the next topic...

HAWAIIANS IN THE BACK OF PICKUPS

Apparently, there is no state law that prohibits people from riding in the back of pickups around here. Drive for more than five minutes in any direction and you are bound to see a loaded pickup truck. I don't know why, but Tom and I find it rather amusing. There's just something about the sight of six Hawaiians sitting in the back of a pickup. Last month we went into Honolulu to watch the Thunderbirds fly over Waikiki. We got stuck in a traffic jam after the show and in the lane next to us we saw a bunch of cops in the back of a pickup. Now that was funny, but it would have been even funnier if they had been eating donuts. As Noah would say, "What the ?"

Tonight we went into town for Kailua's Treat Street Halloween party. As we were were getting ready to go home, a pickup with two guys in the back drove by. But these two knew how to ride in style. They had a couch in the back to sit on. What's next? A flat-screen, high-definition tv?