Aloha No!
First, a little background. Here in the Hawaiian Islands we have experienced a drought that lasted nearly eight years. Something to do with El Nino and the change now to La Nina. It made our winters wetter, more like the way it normally is, but we got so used a true "Endless Summer" that people have become disoriented, confused and downright depressed. The weather broke somewhere around 2004 and that year we had one run of 44 straight days of rain. Folks went buggy. S.A.D.s abounded (Seasonal Affective Disorder). Locals bought down jackets, started sleeping in sweats and wool socks and basically freaked out. As what I will call the "Seattle Syndrome" set in, prescriptions of Atavan, Valium and Prozac were on the rise. Recently, a friend of mine even bought a small electric heater. Our range of weather, at least here on the leward side of Oahu (Waikiki side) ran from gray to cloudy and drizzle to full on tropical downpours to gale-force winds and back to more gray, rain, clouds, wind... well, you get the picture.
Now I can just hear you saying, "Yeah, yeah, poor people had to endure 60 degree weather. What's that? It got down to 58 degrees a couple of times? Wow, call out the sled dogs and rescue teams... and don't forget the rum!" But relativity is on our side and believe me when I say that the past four years have been a flat, friggin' freezin bummer. Not today, however.
The sun actually appeared. The beach was so packed with visitors that the locals couldn't even find a few grains of sand to lie on---and it was toasty warm. Here, see for yourself: http://www.wunderground.com/US/HI and http://www.usatoday.com/weather/forecast/us-states/hawaii-index.htm
Anyhoos, I kinda sorta beleive that there is some cosmic connection between what you do on the first day of a new year and how the rest of the year may (or may not) play itself out.
About a block-and-a-half away from the tiny little sixth-floor box w/ bed that tries to pass itself off as an "apartment" is Kuhio Beach, groud zero for the epicenter that is Waikiki. I made it straight to the public surfboard lockers where my board is stored. It was sunny for reals, albeit windy so I also brough along my wetsuit (that's right, you heard me correctly) that my good buddy Wayne brought me all the way from O'Neils in Santa Cruz, California, the last time he visited. I reacquainted myself with my trusty 11'6" China Surfboards single-fin ripper. It was one of China's old personal boards that somehow I was lucky enough to snag a million years ago. I was ready to paddle out.
As I said earlier, there was nothing but visitors at he beach but I did manage to run into one of my road dogs, Hippy James. I talked him into paddling out wwith me to talk to the turtles. "Going to Church" we call it. The South Shore was basically flat and we got caught in the big lull that happens in the middle of a tide change, but no matter---it was glorious. The water seemed like ice and there was a chill wind blowing out of the North West, somewhere around 9 mph (14 kph).
O.k, o.k.---we are as spoiled as hell---no bout a dout it. But the important lesson here is, as Robert Bly says, "Follow your Bliss." I sincerely hope your day was fantastic too... and that your year turns out the same. Aloha.
Aloha nui loa to you all. Two-Thousand Nine is yours and mine... let's work to make it the paradigm shift that it portends to be and may each and every one of us do his or her part to regain America's honor and respect in the world. We've got a shot. Let's take it.
