Aloha!

Okay, I'm posting now from the lodge we're staying at in Kona. Internet is not actually free here, so I'm not sure I'll be on every day to post, but I'll do my best. I did write a couple posts yesterday while travelling, here's the first:

A few quick thoughts while I write, but not post, from my layover at SFO airport.

• 2:45 is an entirely inappropriate time to have to wake up in the morning, I don't really care what the hell the reason is.

• It's good to know that American driving standards have fallen to the point that I will get tailgated at 3:05 AM in the right lane of a 65 mph highway, at least until I slow down to 45 to convince them that they really want to be in front of me.

• One upside of the whole 'I got hit by a car' thing was being able to beg myself an Economy Plus seat on the Denver-to-San Fran leg of the trip. For the San Fran-Kona leg, the very nice but not very helpful gentleman told me that I could also have an Economy Plus seat for the low-low price of $54, or $10.80 per inch of legroom. I decided to pass, since I currently have my own two-seat row to myself, although I might try the old 'wait until everyone else has gotten on the flight and take the best seat left' trick.

• The only upside that I can see of taking a 6 AM flight is a phenomenon that I remember from my childhood, but had pretty much forgotten about, kind of like Fraggle Rock: the empty middle seat in a 3-seat row. Good stuff, legroom.

• Being in San Fran, I am viscerally reminded of the existence of Asian people. This is probably no surprise to any of my faithful readers who, for instance, live in Asia. But living in the metro Denver area, it's easy to forget that the world isn't just a whole bunch of white people, with a few token blacks and hispanics thrown in for diversity's sake.

• Okay, they're starting to board the plane, so more later.