Why does it seem that the rough days are what bring about fun things. This is how it was a few days back. Leif was being unbearable and Gavin was bored and needing to do something. I was frustrated because the car was broken after running over a rock the size of a coconut (still in it’s husk). I hadn’t been out of the house in a few days, the house was a mess and I needed to do something. So I decided to take Gavin and Leif for a walk.

Gavin said that if was going to go for a walk, maybe we could go to the lava tubes. What a great idea. I didn’t know if we could go in them due to lack of funds, but we can certainly walk down there and see where they are and what not. So that is what we did.

What a great idea that was. As it turns out, I had $13 in my wallet for some reason, and it cost us $12.50 for the three of us to go into the caves. We packed our flashlights and helmets (provided by the scrub who took our $12.50) and headed down into the lava tube.

Rock stairs led down the entrance to the tube. When you get to the bottom and look back it is the most beautiful sight. The sun shining in and through the leaves of all the foliage surrounding the entrance stairs. I pulled out my camera to take a picture only to discover that the batteries were dead. Oh well.

Leif, Gavin and I walked our way through 1/2 mile of lava tubes, shining our lights at every nook and cranny. We spotted strange hammer-head worms, cow bones, stalagmites, stalactites, boulders, and even a first aid kit (just next to the bones. hmmm ). It was very fascinating and Gavin and Leif had a great time.

We shall have to go back some time to get some pictures with our good camera and to take Holly with us. I couldn’t believe how that trip to the lava tubes turned the week around. It just seemed to make everything better. And why shouldn’t it? It was quite beautiful and amazing.

My weekend on Oahu quickly came to an end. After Gavin and I hopped off the plane in Kahului, we quickly (as quick as one can with a 6 year old) ran through Wal Mart and Safeway to acquire any groceries we need at home. The drive home was a very long one. Gavin fell asleep quite quickly while listening to his list of songs. I put on some “Three Days Grace” for a bit to clean my mind from “Ben Ten Theme Song”. It was dark and raining and not optimal driving conditions. I slowly passed a cliffside where rocks and tree branches and coconuts covered the road. “I better take it slow” I thought to myself as I passed the rubble. I drove on, Gavin still sleeping.

As though my previous thoughts challenged Hana Hwy, I rounded a dark, wet, cliff to find myself running over a small boulder roughly the size of an oversized coconut. Thinking the rock passed under my car I drove on, until, that is, until I heard the rock scraping along the road as it clung to my oil pan. I stopped and backed up until the boulder rolled back out from under my car.

30 seconds later, my oil light came on accompanied by a beeping sound. This happened over and over all the way home, until the light was on permanently. This was not good.

The following day, I jacked the car and scoped out the damage.

Yup, there is definitely a hole. This was confirmed by both Gavin and Holly.

Having the “Mama Car” in such peril makes me think back to the days of old. Back when I had such an awesome car. So awesome that I would just sit in it and play guitar. It was that awesome.

As well as to the future when I will own another awesome car.

I’m here on Oahu to pick Gavin up from his fall break with granny. Yesterday was a simple day mostly spent sitting around watching TV and talking story whilst drinking a beautiful beer that I brewed a few weeks back. I popped the top on the bottle and was happy to hear the nice sound of Co2 escaping the bottle. As I poured it into the glass, it started building up a beautiful head on it. It filled the glass and breached the rim just slightly so that a few drips of head seeped down the side of the glass. It was like out of a beer commercial. It was beautiful and I think I shed a tear.

Today was a more productive day. That was our plan anyway. I had a few items on my list that I had to buy that we can’t get on Maui, such as Nutella, shiny gold silk-screen paint, and beer supplies. Just before heading out, we got a call from auntie Beth looking to see if Gavin wanted to spend the day over at their place playing with Bakugon toys and swimming in the pool. How could a boy resist? So we head over towards their house, which is conveniently located across the street from a Price Busters and Wal Mart, where we spent our time waiting for auntie Beth to actually get home after inviting us over. While waiting, we picked up our Nutella and some other chocolates and goodies that we wanted and needed. By that time we were able to drop Gavin off at auntie Beth’s house.

We headed back to the previous shopping center to go to the craft store that was there to see if they had gold silk screen paint. They didn’t, but they did have shiny gold fabric paint that would be just as good and in a more reasonable amount. Having picked up all the things I needed already, we thought about the beer store. I would need some sort of cooler to keep the yeast cold while traveling, so we went back in to Price Busters to see if they had any such thing. After going in and out of the store trying to decide if we wanted the not-quite-what-we-were-looking-for items at Price Busters or if we should go to Wal Mart or if we already had one in the car, we ended up walking away with a small cooler and an ice pack from Price Busters.

Getting in the car, I realized that I didn’t bring the iPod Touch which had a list of the items I needed on it to make the beer. I couldn’t very well get the ingredients I needed without knowing what they were. On the way back home to get the list, knowing the beer store closed earlier on Saturdays, Mary asked me what time the beer store closed. I looked at the clock and it was about 3:45pm. “Oh crap” I say. “Crap, crap!” When we arrived home, I checked the store hours and sure enough they closed at 3pm. After deliberating, I decided to call the beer store and double check their hours against what we found online. That was very wise of me because the owner of the beer store told me that they closed at 3pm like the website said, but if I headed over there at that moment, he would wait for me as to not disappoint his home brewers. That was totally awesome and so we did just that.

We arrived at the beer store and I knew just what I needed on account of remembering the iPod this time. I collected my supplies, thanked Mike over and over, and headed out the door. A happy man am I. I sniffed my barley and other such grains contently.

Being completely happy and bliss, I decided to drag Mary to Gordon Biersch for a dinner of hamburger and beer. What better way to celebrate? Our waitress came around to take our drink orders which ended in tasting liter of their new Festbier. Oh it was delicious. And oh was it huge. I love that place.

After Gordon Biersch, we headed back to pick Gavin up from auntie Beth’s house. 45 minutes later and here I am still slightly feeling the effects of that delicious beer and sitting on the couch with leftover cinnamon buns. Mmmmmm. I think I will watch last nights episode of Star Wars with my son before heading off to bed. For tomorrow we head back to Maui.

October is here already. The past few weeks have flown by. I can’t believe that my last post was Labor Day weekend. That seems so far behind already. I was talking to Jeannie the other day and she described her time as moving slowly on a daily basis and before you know it a month has gone by. That feels about right.

Gavin’s fall break has come and is almost over already. Holly took the kids over to Oahu this past weekend to drop off Gavin with granny. That left me home alone for 3 days. Not only did this give me alone time, it gave me the opportunity to do things that needed to get done. This list included, fixing the car window, fixing the car speaker, filling the car steering fluids, investigating the broken A/C, working on some illustrations, cleaning the house, riding the motorcycle, catching up on a few tv shows, making more beer, and relaxing. It was nice to have time alone, but I sure did miss my peoples. I’m glad to have Holly and Leif back. Tomorrow, I head off to Oahu to retrieve Gavin. Then I will have them all back.

I’ve been in contact with the east coast quite a bit lately. My sister recently purchased a new iMac and my grandmother recently purchased a new Dell something-or-other. I’ve been able to video chat with my sister and mother along with my nieces and nephews. It’s been really nice. Hopefully my grandmother will get her webcam operational and I’ll be able to chat her up too. All the recent contact with them recently had added to the feeling of urgency to go visit the east coast. So after months of saying I want to go visit, I’ve finally booked 4 tickets to NY. I will finally get to hug my family and close friends once again.

So I mentioned making more beer this past weekend. I’ve brewed up a batch of IPA from an Australian beer issue of a brewing magazine. This batch should be bottled and ready to drink right around the time that my cherry ale becomes ready to drink. So Halloween ought to be awesome. I’ll have  10 gallons of fresh home-brewed beer. That said, I don’t know now, how I will get some to my mother-in-law. I’ve been packing a few bottles into my suitcase whenever I fly over to Oahu. Unfortunately, all the airlines now, including Hawaiian Airlines, have started charging for any checked luggage. This adds at a minimum of $10 to the also-increasing airfare. This is quite frustrating and is making it harder to justify flying to Oahu for weekends as well as flying beer over. And with shipping via USPS being illegal, I’m not sure how much more beer Mary will be getting. As a trial thing, I’ve decided to mail some beer to the east coast via UPS. It is against their policy to ship beer, but not illegal. It cost me a bit due to the larger than needed box that I stuffed with other items to fill, but the box received it’s destination in one piece. That makes it totally worth it. So who was the lucky recipient? That would be Jeannie. I couldn’t think of a more worthy person to receive the first shipment of beer. Jeannie is awesome.