"Home sweet Home..." 'Judith Whitehead' (Inspiration Sunday)

Judith Whitehead lives in Amherst N.Y. and was recently caught in
a snow storm. The above photo is a view from Judith's
 front porch,something we do not need to worry about in Hawaii...
Judy has worked in the ophthalmology field of medicine for almost 35 years.

Home sweet Home

Nothing  more scary than getting caught in a “white out” snow storm.  I knew the weather would be bad coming from work yesterday but had not gotten caught in a storm in several years.

 Having to drive with white out conditions that left you blinded except for the lights from the car in front of you, having your car window freezing up and wipers frozen with ice, crawling along at 10 mph and praying the car behind you pays attention and doesn't hit you.  Not much you can do in that kind of weather…if you pull over and stop, someone will surely hit you…

If you pull into a plaza, the snow will bury the car and you will be stuck there…so you trudge along playing soothing music on the radio and talking to yourself that you can make it home and home never looks so good when that garage door goes up and you are safe.  

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"The Food truck revolution.. 'James "Kimo" Rosen'

Food trucks converted from old step vans have become the fad...
James “Kimo” Rosen is a retired professional photographer living in Kapa'a
with his best friend Obama Da Dog, Rosen also blogs as a hobby
www.dakinetalk.blogspot.com

The Food truck revolution

Imagine wanting to open a business and share your culinary art only to find rents for commercial restaurants on Kaua'i are a hard nut to crack and in many cases cost prohibited without already being wealthy.

The last few years on Kaua'i have brought us an array of all wakes of ethnicity concerning food trucks.There are Mexican, Greek, Italian, Thai, Chinese, American style steak and burgers, crepes,and the all  popular Hawaiian style plate lunch, lau lau,shaved ice and malasadas.

The food trucks have taken over the conventional restaurant  as the number one way to open a restaurant on Kaua'i. Kapa'a town is starting to like a ghetto with all these old step-vans converted to food trucks.. There is a food truck revolution. 

Food trucks originally  were known and famous for large portions of ono grindz (delicious food) at very reasonable prices.  Food trucks do not have all the expenses of traditional restaurants, while some pay a nominal rent, others set up on the side of the highways and roads and pay nothing. Food trucks  plain and simple do not have the overhead of a conventional restaurant.

The food trucks I have witnessed do not even have porta potties or  a place to wash your hands? It makes me wonder where the owners and employees relieve themselves during a shift of work. How can a restaurant pass a board of health inspection without restrooms for their patrons and employees?

Therefore one would think the savings in overhead would be passed onto the consumer, as I have witnessed on O‘ahu and many other places.   But they are not. I often visit a local Mexican restaurant  that has excellent wait staff, awesome food, large portions and restrooms, plus their menu prices are less than the Mexican food trucks I have seen on island.

Every food truck I have visited on Kaua‘i is priced way too high with tiny  humble portions of food.Food Trucks in many instances are charging more than a full fledged sit-down restaurant serving similar food items.

 There’s a relatively new food truck I cruise by every day. However, after looking at the menu, it was the same old story, expensive prices.
The only thing that looked reasonable was the kid’s menu; however, you must be 12 or under. Isn’t that discrimination? 

 I understand being an entrepreneur and wanting to live your dream, and that dream may be to open a restaurant. You may not have the funds to open a  restaurant in a shopping mall, or you may just like the concept of food-trucks. However when a burger plate is $12-15 plus tax served on a paper plate with no waiter or restrooms and with  the audacity to have a  rusted lid mayonnaise jar on the counter in sloppy handwriting that  says “TIPS.” This is just insanity.

 I want these food trucks to stay in business and make money and would like to offer  some solid advise. Here's my tip,please  lower your prices, serve larger portions and think volume and you just might crack the nut. 

Believe it or not the next fad in business is fashion trucks, they are gaining popularity in mainland markets. Who knows before long there will be no need for shopping centers or strip malls in Hawai'i since  every business will be operating form a recycled step van.  Welcome to paradise!

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I will remain awake, waiting for you, you... Obama Da Dog (Source)(From somewhere in cyberspace)

From somewhere in cyberspace the enclosed love story was discovered.

I will remain awake, waiting for you, you 

You laid on my naked body and applied your mouth to me without guilt or humiliation. You drove me near crazy while you drained me. 

Today when I awoke, you were gone. I searched for you but to no avail. Only the sheets bore last night's events. 

My body still bears marks of your ravishing, making it all the more difficult to forget you. Tonight, I will remain awake, waiting for you, you fricking mosquito!!!!!

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"Imagination..." 'Bettejo Dux' (Classic Wednesday)

Bettejo Dux has lived on the cosmic Garden Island of Kaua'i for over 40 years.
Bettejo is a regular columnist in the Garden Island news and is the author of the
famed novella, "The Scam."
www.bettejodux.com

IMAGINATION
Isn’t that a beautiful word?  It rolls tartishly off the tongue. Yes it does, yes it does. Think about it.

It has a sly, sassy happy hooker glance- come on, baby, dance with me- feel about it.

Albert Einstein said, “Imagination…is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”

Ain’t dat’da’trut? You betcha.

It is an absolutely delightful human quality. A grand dimension. It created Alice in Wonderland, the Hobbit, the black stallion and Ricky Ticky Tavi.

It is a fiction writer’s right arm, right  brain, right thinking gift.  It is a very healthy human quality. If other animals  have the ability to imagine we would have to imagine it. I can imagine a horse imagining an endless rolling tasty luscious green pasture. American Indians imagined a happy hunting ground. A place where all the kill came back to life to do it all over again. Maybe this time getting away. Maybe next time sending the hunter off to die and return.

Do you know who are the three best liars in the world? Thespians. What could be a bigger lie than being another person for three whole acts on a

stage? Novelists. Everything in a novel is a lie. It’s made up vividly in the mind. Projected in black and white print on paper or screen. And, last but

not least, politicians. They, poor things, cannot tell the truth. Isn’t that odd?

Creative imagination and artistic expression go hand-in-hand.

Sculptures say they imagine the horse they see in the marble and just chip everything away ’til it’s revealed. Painters see  a starry starry night and

then fill a canvas with the color and shape  it needs to bring it out for other eyes to see. Composers, like Mozart and Beethoven, hear notes in their

heads they jot down and send to musicians to fill the world with glorious music.

Kids imagine all kinds of things. Scary things under the bed. Santa Claus and reindeer. Easter bunnies who lay eggs and angry dragons with

whippity tails and long snappy teeth and flaming fire breath.

While it’s true there are good imaginations and bad imaginations, I think good imaginations prevail. Otherwise we’d all end walking around in

cloud cuckoo land.

A vivid imagination is very different from a cast in concrete belief. Imagination is often playful. A belief is almost always a snarly rigid structure it’s best not to fool around with.Belief is a strait- jacket, imagination is free. Distinction between imagination and belief depends on religion, tradition and culture.

Whatever it is, never step on a kid’s wings, on a child’s imagination. Let them fly. Teach kids it is not true, but teach them to use it creatively. It’s a positive, great human quality. Nothing in life can be created if it is first not imagined in the mind. This is where creation comes from. It involves many different brain functions, emotion, memory, thought. Portions of the brain where multiple functions occur.

Lively diversity always trumps rigor.

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"If the President were gay..." 'James "Kimo" Rosen'

Concerning  gay issues...
To quote Jerry Seinfeld; "Not that there's anything wrong with it!"

If the President were gay

Who would had thought  50 years ago a black man would be president of the United states. It wasn't that long ago that blacks were slaves in America.

Hawai'i has recently  legalized same sex marriage, it is only a matter of time until same sex marriage becomes law in all 50 states. "Not that there's anything wrong with that."

With same sex marriage becoming more and more acceptable will there come a day when we have a same sex couple in the White-house?

Imagine the President of the United states being a gay man and I don't mean happy. If this man was married to another man what would we call his significant other? We call the wife of the President the first lady. If a woman was ever president the husband would be the first man. The question remains what would  the partner of a same sex marriage President be called?

I could make some jokes but know they would be taken out  of context. We could call them the first homosexual, or in the case of a woman president having a woman partner we could call her the first lesbian. How about the first gay?

Personally I still feel marriage is a union between a man and woman, at least that's what my oxford dictionary continues to tell me. I have no objection to gay people. However I still believe the term marriage is not the appropriate word for a life long bond of love between gay couples. I have said in the past to call it a "Garriage." Give the gays a word of their own. When you take the G from gay and delete the M in marriage you have "Garriage." 'Garriage' would have all the same benefits and properties as marriage but would stand on it's own. This way if you ever got an invitation for a garriage you know it would be a garriage and not a marriage.

Getting back to  what you would call the President's  significant partner should a gay man or woman ever become president?   My Hawai'ian friends might say, "the first dakine!" better yet ,clean and simple, just call it the first.

Hana Hou, (encore) shared From Facebook...

The Professor in Africa..." 'Obama da dog) (From somewhere on Facebook)

Obama Da Dog shares another one of her Facebook words of wisdom!

The Professor in Africa

A professor is sent to darkest Africa to live with a primitive tribe. He spends years with them, teaching them reading, writing, math and science.

One day the wife of the tribe's chief gives birth to a white child. The tribe is shocked, and the chief pulls the professor aside and says, "Look here! You're the only white man we've ever seen and this woman gives birth to a white child. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what happened!"

The professor replied, "No, Chief. You're mistaken. What you have here is a natural occurrence, what we in the civilized world call an albino! Look at that field over there. All of the sheep are white except for one black one. Nature does this on occasion."

The chief was silent for a moment, then said, "Tell you what. You don't say anything more about that sheep and I won't say anything more about that white child."

Hana Hou, (Encore) Shared from Facebook...

"The most enjoyable time of the year..." 'Judith Whitehead' (Inspiration Sunday)

Judith Whitehead has worked in the ophthalmology field of medicine
for almost 35 years. She currently resides  in Amherst N.Y.

The most enjoyable time of the year

 December is one of the most enjoyable times of the year; not because it's my birthday or Chanukah or Christmas or New years, although they all keep the spirits bright but because it is the holiday time of giving...sharing...and celebrating the year that has gone by.

  It's the time to reconnect with family and friends that we haven't seen for a  while, show others that we appreciate them and celebrate with good food and conversation. 

This weekend, as last I will connect with friends, eat and be "merry" - thank all those that have inspired me and shared in my year and remember how  lucky I am to have all those people in my life. Here's to good friends, good company and good food to share and here's to a new year 2014 as being a healthy and happy one for all. 

P.S. Check out this YouTube-Huffingtonpost video on opening a can without a can opener; 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/03/open-can-without-can-opener-video_n_4372906.html


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