Sunday, April 6, 2014

The Maui Saga ... Do You Know What Time It Is???

I'm a little "rummy" today, so if something doesn't make sense, hopefully it will be better tomorrow!! Before leaving home, my Direct TV quit entirely, having been shot at by the neighborhood brats, causing me to pay for another dish.  I suppose there's good in this as I now have the all magical Genie and can record things I never wanted to record in the first place!!  I was rather shocked however, to see the repair guy standing on TOP of this rather flimsy ladder to make the repairs!!  Holy fall-and-break-your-head, Batman!!!
Then he had to update this spaghetti wire mess since the Magical Genie required different wiring.  I was a little nervous when he hit it with side cutters, snapping several of the black ones in half and leaving them dangling.  In the end, the system will work for my puppies and house sitter but of course is costing me double what the last system did!!
It's funny ... it doesn't seem to matter how many alarms I set or how many Advil PM I take ... when an early rise is in the schedule, I wake up at 1:00, 1:30, 2:10, 2:30 ... until I finally just get up.  THIS time I woke up the DOGS!!!  Weren't they surprised ... and very questionable about why I was feeding them at 3:30 in the morning!!  On the road by 4:15 a.m. it was a pretty breezy drive to the Sacramento International Airport because no one in their right mind is up and driving this early on a Saturday morning.  
After sluggishly making it through half of the eighteen switchbacks for the security check, I was picked to walk right up to the TSA precheck line.  Usually this is an honor bestowed by some computer ghost who types TSA check on your ticket, allowing you to NOT unpack or take off anything!!  It was so nice, that when I found out you can actually pay $89 to register with TSA and ALWAYS get in this line ... that I'm signing up!!!

Thirty minutes later, my friend Cyndae showed up to join me for a few days.  Miss Cyndae gets to fly free on the family plan ... her dad is a retired Hawaiian Airlines pilot and her brother is a pilot on the inter-island flights.  Due to a cancellation, she even got to sit in first class with me.  WOWZA ... if I knew what first class was getting all this time, I certainly would have put more effort into flying this comfortable route.  REAL silverware ... cloth napkins, yummy blueberry muffin with fresh fruit ...
Followed by an omelet with portuguese sausage and fried potatoes!!!  When breakfast was done we had hot towels to wash our hands.  Now THAT'S service I could get used to!!!
By now I'm exhausted but still can't sleep.  I had a 76-game run going on my Soduku App that ended abruptly when I made three very dumb mistakes because I just couldn't think straight.  Maybe a 5-Hour Energy drink will help!!!  After landing in Honolulu and having a three hour layover (not sure how that happened ... I'm guessing it's because I'm cheap, even though the ride was free, and the later time sported a lower fee).  I was up in the air again just in time to head back down and land in Maui on a 15 minutes inter-island flight.  Here's Honolulu bay from the window, leaning over an 8-yr old flying to visit her relatives.  We had quite a talk as she explained everything about ALL her flights to Maui!!
Of course the car rental didn't go so well because I was tired and just wanted to go lay down somewhere ... the place was packed to the brim as 4 plane-loads of people were trying to find transportation.  Note to self ... next year, go for the more expensive car rental dealer ... they will be less crowded.  This Thrifty-Dollar place doesn't have enough people or enough cars!!  One full hour later, I drove off in a Ford Escape junker car that I'm embarrassed to drive and embarrassed to tell you cost me $900 for two weeks!!!!!  I suppose it's good to have a badly dinged up vehicle ... makes you look like a native so you are less likely to have stuff stolen ... but really, the seats are so dirty I didn't want to sit down.  I wanted to go back and complain, but knew it would be another hour and my temper wouldn't hold long enough!!

There is a three hour time difference here ... which pretty much means you have to stay up another three hours, waiting for everyone else to go home so quiet can be attained.  Twenty hours later, I was finally in bed.  That didn't last long however, as the dive shop employees up the hill don't know how to handle air tanks ... and the clanging began at the usual 4:00 a.m.  On another note ... at least I had all my belongings.  Miss Cyndae actually left her wallet on the plane.  Thanks to her quick thinking (and airline pilot) brother, they returned to the Honolulu airport to find it in the security office.  Whew ... that was a close one!! 

Today I start the adventure ... slowly, with lots of cups of coffee.  I think I'll just hang out at the pool for awhile ... and sleep!!!





2 comments:

  1. I tried your credit card trick. I put all my bills on the card and I was able to buy the plane. I just need to charge a few more things and I can get a pilot. I know you will, but have a great time don't get too sunburned.
    Joe Green

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