All the Cool Things

     The best thing about driving the Chevy Nova in the rain was that the downpour made so much noise on the metal roof that you couldn’t hear the inferior slant six motor laboring and leaking fuel.  Forgive the tired cliché but it was a dark and stormy night. I was driving on the Hana Highway in Kahului.  I was holding the wheel tightly and wishing the window defogger worked.  The driver’s side window was down to keep the windshield clear.  But still, streetlights headlights and taillights all blurred though the feeble wipers.  I could also see ahead and off to my left the approach lights of The Kahului Airport.  The old car barely had any headliner between the metal roof and the passengers.  The rain was so loud I couldn’t hear the radio.

     Suddenly for just an instant the noise of the rain stopped and then started again.  I would have not believed it unless I was there, but it sounded just like it was just switched off for a second and then back on.  I thought there was only one thing that could have caused that, and looked out the side window.  There was an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 about to touch down at the airport.  It had flown directly over me and for just an instant sheltered the rain from me. 

     I spent the rest of the evening pondering that incident.  It was a wonderful example of being in the right place at the right time.  A few days ago I paused while vacuuming and wrote in my notebook: all the cool things.  I sometimes write things in this notebook because ideas of things to write about can be capricious.  I wanted to remember some of the real cool things I have experienced.    

For example, when I was perhaps in 6^th grade my dad performed a wedding for the daughter of a Navy Officer who captained a nuclear submarine.  The captain invited our family aboard the next day.  I got a guided tour of The Hawkbill.  I looked through the periscope and saw torpedoes.

     Another time when I was working for KNUI radio there was a restaurant going bankrupt that owed the radio station a considerable amount of money for advertising.  They worked out a deal where anyone from KNUI could go eat for free with as many guests as they wanted.  It was a somewhat fancy restaurant too.  We ate there only three times because it was a bit of a drive.  But it was still free dinner.  Among other things I had escargot and we didn’t bother to share deserts.  Mud pie for everyone.

     And right up there with these times is something that happened less than 10 years ago at church one Sunday morning.  Someone got stuck in a storage closet.  The door was completely jammed and there was no way to get it open.  There are times that someone who wears big heavy boots every day can only dream of.  And this was one of those times that everyone realized there was only one way to get the door open.   With the blessing of the pastor, I kicked the door open.  I felt high the rest of the day.

     Those are just a few things that I like to remember.  There were things that I didn’t really cause to happen and I just happened to be in the right time at the right place.  I wanted to write about cool things I got to experience, however, because last Friday made two years that I started this Roadwalker Blog.    I don’t think chance had a whole lot to do with me starting the blog that morning.  I had wanted to do something like it for awhile.  Then that morning the Word of the Day in my inbox was Navel Gazing.  It meant useless or excessive self contemplation.  It became my first blog topic. I thought that is all this blog would be.  Sometimes it is. Over the two years this blog has evolved.  There have been hits and misses. But sometimes, once in a while the self-indulgent rain is eclipsed by a soaring idea for just a moment and I have the chance to try to capture it, and then share it.  Thanks for reading.