They don't make'em like they used to.

Spending the weekend with my mother, we talked about her keeping the place up, winter coming on, etc. She stays pretty active with a fairly large place to keep up. Her complaints usually include keeping the battery up on the pick-up truck and how the grass grows so quickly.

She had a man come by to cut some wood for her early so it could dry a bit before winter. Although he split much of it, there were some pieces she felt was too large for the fireplace, so she set out to split it on her own.

One log in particular wouldn't seem to split so she inserted a wedge in the crack of it and began to hammer it down with the butt end of a single bit axe. After a few mighty swats, the axe broke. I guess they don't make them like they used to.

In defense of the axe, it was an axe that my grandfather had and probably well over a hundred years old. Mama is only 87.

Nope, they just don't make'em like they used to.

Whoops!

OK, OK, I know. I've been hiding for a year on this blog. Maybe I've been in a funk, a mental block or whatever. One thing may be that I destroyed my 'good' camera and haven't had the drive to send out photos and tales. The last time I posted, Darlene and I were still in the 'Maui' mode.

For a while, I thought I had some kind of entitlement to states with palm tree in them.

Also, I've been in a new phase at work, flitting from one short term location to another. Over the past year, I've been in Arkansas, Kansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Connecticut, Florida, a couple of shots at Texas and a couple more in Louisiana. My bags are worn out.

I promise to be much better in the future.

Magnum P.I. I'm not

Feeling like Magnum P.I......not really...but hey, it's a theme. We've been here on Maui for a couple of weeks already, in the home of friends who are off gallivanting somewhere in Indonesia. When they left, they tossed us the keys to the truck, house and gave us the run of everything. So in a sense, I feel like Tom Selleck's Magnum P.I. from the television series 25 years ago, only this time instead of a really handsome hunk, you get me. Actually, I have more in common with the likes of Higgins than Magnum but we're digressing here.

Instead of an exotic sports car, Rachel handed over the keys to her Yamaha V Star. So after several days of diving, I took her motorcycle for a partial tour of Maui. I'm sure all the motorcycle gurus would absolutely freak out that I wore no helmet, gloves, leather jacket or steel toed boots but instead, sneakers, baseball cap and T shirt. A couple of the pictures were taken while on the move. Honest, officer. I wasn't texting.

It's been several years since I've owned a smaller motorcycle but the 650 cc engine did just fine with me. It took a little while to get used to not having that low end torque my Harley has and the Yamaha's ever so quite mufflers felt a little strange but it truly was a fun ride.

I'm a bit lazy, so all these pictures were taken with my Instinct cell phone camera and were uploaded to Photobucket as I rode around. Here are a few pictures on the south side of the island so they are not the quality I might have from my digital SLR.

Panoramic Upcountry view looking west toward Lanai.

The rest are on the road to Makena Landing and La Perouse Bay.

Okay, I realize I haven't added any pictures of Darlene, fish, bikinis or various serpents, but the soul intent of this post was for my third passion....motorcycles. SCUBA and photography being the other two.

After my ride, I came home and waited for Darlene to return from her favorite beach. When she arrived, she jumped on the back and we rode double down the beach road and around town for a spell. Ah, to be 21 again.
Out near Ahihi Preserve.

OK, that's about it for the motorcycle stuff. I'll post some diving and fish stuff in a later post.
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C R Albritton

Hurricanes: Same song, second verse

Three years ago, when hurricanes Katrina and Rita ripped into Louisiana and neighboring states, it was bad. This year seems to be just a new verse to a tired old song. Shortly after Hurricane Gustav knocked us senseless in Baton Rouge and southeast Louisiana, Hurricane Ike did it's thing much like Rita did when she came ashore following Katrina in 2005 and devestated southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana. At this writing, the storm related death toll is 13 for Ike.

Darlene's uncle, aunt and cousins in the Lake Charles and Hackberry areas suffered extreme damage in Hurricane Rita and just three years later, we find her uncle and aunt watching the encroaching flood waters come within 2 feet of their door step.

Even worse was the fate of her cousin in Hackberry who had just rebuilt after the last hurricane and now found their new home with 5 feet of water in it.

There are cousins just west of Houston without power but are not severely damaged. I too, have cousins and an aunt in Houston that I have not heard from yet.

We are so sorry for everyone's trials and loss.