doodle hates it here

i mean. look how unhappy he is. pore doodle.

so i think i have the internet for a little while and i can fill you in on some of the things you've missed. tomorrow is walkabout day in hilo town and there should be more Scenery posted for you to look at. the weather has been unbeatable these last few days -- sunny and about 80 degrees, dropping to about 70 at night. it is so nice to have walls instead of screens, and get this -- there are no mosquitoes! they were bleeding me dry in the jungle, but now those days are over. i can leave the front and back doors open and the only people that come in are houseflies (i need a swatter) and the little orange homeless kitty that may become doodle's brother if they continue to get along.

yes, things are much more comfortable here. i am a 3 minute walk from downtown, but it is downhill. i rode my bike, a rusty old cruiser, to town today and coming back up that hill almost killed me. i may find a safe place to stash it and walk down the semi-mountain and then tool around in nice flat hilo, then leave the bike for next time. i packed my bike rack and grocery baskets, but the thought of biking up that mountain loaded down with stuff is not really very appealing to me. who knows, though -- maybe i can work on my poor atrophied leg muscles and the incline will be a piece of cake eventually. and maybe monkeys will fly out of my butt.

a lady i didn't rent an apartment from told me, while showing me a house, that if people moved any slower in hilo they'd be going in reverse. she was from honolulu. now, being from new orleans most recently, i figured i'd be ready for the pace of life on the island. but when i called to see about getting internet from the cable company, the soonest they could get here was two weeks out. i also got a recall notice from daimler-chrysler saying the jeep's catalytic converter has been recalled. so i called to get an appointment to fix that and guess what? two weeks. it reminds me of Ulysses Everett McGill in O Brother Where Art Thou -- "Well ain't this place a geographical oddity! Two weeks from everywhere!"

so i guess i shouldn't be too anxious that the job i applied for on Monday hasn't contacted me yet. patience. deep breathing. the newest potential employment is with the Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii, at a national wildlife refuge, closed to the public, where endangered birds roost. it is not far from hilo, and the job is field and labwork, discovering what the birds are eating (caterpillars) and how they are being affected by all the invasive species, especally ants (not well -- ants are vicious predators). to this end i have been reading up on hawaii's unique ecology and insect fauna. did you know there are predaceous caterpillars here? that's right. little inchworms that bend over backwards like a catapult and tense their bodies, then when a fly comes along in the right place, SNAP! flies for dinner. isn't that crazy? some damselfly naiads (babies) here, aquatic in the rest of the world, are terrestrial. okay maybe that isn't so impressive for you non-bug folks. anyway, i found out that i have much to learn about these hawaiian bugs. i haven't even been doing much entomology for a while, so i'm rusty on the general stuff, and then with all this crazy new stuff to learn, well, let's just say i won't be an expert on hawaiian invertebrates for a long time.

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i am continually blown away by all the yummy goodies to eat -- last saturday i happened upon a thai lady who had a table set up and was making green papaya salad to order. i couldn't resist that. i got medium-hot, and while she ground peppers and garlic and peanuts and all the goodies in her mortar, i saw that she had pumpkin curry and taro-tapioca pudding. also sticky rice, summer rolls, and the best thai ice tea i have ever had in my life. i am starting to think i need to go to thailand and do a survey of street food vendors -- i hear they have the best pad thai.

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i've been acquiring a few little trinkets for the casa as well. you saw how empty it is. well my friend al runs a store called "Alan's Art and Collectibles" and he has an amazing, overpriced secondhand shop full of the best hawaiiana and antiques of all flavors. he is also conveniently located next to the salvation army, so between those two stores i have found some things that make me quite happy. it will be a while before i have a lot of stuff, but i am starting to think that this apartment is just about perfect for me. it's not huge, but not as teeny as i thought at first. it is a great location and very comfortable, and of course most importantly, doodle likes it. the only downside is that it is very noisy! the neighbors are all very audible. part of the loudness is that i've been desensitized to human noise from being out in the jungle, i think, and then there's the fact that everyone has their windows open all the time. and of course an empty (okay, semi-empty) apartment with high ceilings and tile floors is basically an ampitheater. acoustically resonant, shall we say. but nobody's yelling at their girlfriend daily like in new orleans, so that's nice. it just doesn't feel very private, especially after my isolation month in the rainforest, like i said.

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okay, that's enough for now. hopefully i will have my own internet soon and can post at will, but until then, it'll be sneak-and-grab postings. i hope you all are well, and if you called me and i haven't called back, i will be doing so real soon. (speaking of which, the new number has taken effect.)

i miss you all! aloha!