Makawao forest loop

More to come on this subject later, but I am working on my "long runs". To help build endurance, you are running slow pace long distance runs. I am nowadays hovering in the 7-8 miles range, and hit the nearby famous hike that took us several hours to walk a couple of month ago. 

Here you go

I was fearing a debilitating experience, and took my phone just in case I had to call an rescue helicopter or something.

Ended up to be a relatively easy 1:17 run through the woods. Nice and easy.

It is amazing when you realize that eight months before I could not walk into town. The body is an amazing mechanic.

Feeling some soreness though. And some light groin pain. But, well, if that was easy, it won't be fun.

South swell

The huge swell that hit Tahiti a few days ago came to our south shores this weekend.
First swell of the season, no winds and a week-end day... It will be crowded (and it was).
Anyway, we went with my buddy John get a taste of the brown water of Maalaea.
We got up at 5AM...

Makawao by night. Exciting....

The Harbor jetty... Nothing exciting. 

the Light House. A nice right.

Artistic view

Freight Train...

.. is the fastest right in the world. No Kidding ;)

Maalea reef. Some crowd.  But manageable.

It was not my best surf experience ever, but discovering a new spot, the heat of the south shore, the light winds or offshore breeze, the quick rights, all this contributed for a exciting experience. 

Reef was shallow and tricky. The waves were closing out most of the time. Some bigger sets were washing everybody. Overall, a casual spot, way better for spongers than surfers. Locals were in force there too.

I prefer the North shore, and its messier, bigger waves, but this first swell was worth the drive.
And, in fact, we went again today, this time with the family.

You have to love Maui.

Bipolar world

Last week, we were discussing with my wife how this society goes on and off. 

Yes, we have kind of serious discussion walking the dog. I guess that's a a sign of an healthy couple ;) ...Or maybe, I am just relentless on those topics.

Anyway, this society is fragmenting more and more.

You have the rich and the poor (choose you side..), the healthy and the fat, the yogi and the hard-drinker,...

It goes on and on. Don't forget the Facebook Illuminati and the actual Buddhists.

Inside, I am gloating about my renewed healthy high performance long runner superior trainer high protein low sugar diet ... profile (As ex-alcoholic and workholic, I could indulge myself).

I was ready to put me on the "other side". Until ...

Recently, I have been reading ...

Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

from Dean Karnaze.

First, this is a good book. Really, he knows how to write. And this is rare in this kind of books. I mean, Relatively, good book. And the guy has some stories to tell, not only counting the miles he ran. 

Anyway, I realized where is lying the other side. And how big was the gap between the casual runner and the "real" runner. You are not talking about 5 or 10 miles anymore. You are talking about 50, 100, or 200 miles. 

A big gap. A long run.

Told you... The Rich and the poor. The runner and the impotent. Nothing in the middle.

My guess, it is: "Bad Water" ultra marathon, 130 miles in the desert.

And yes, you can die.

To give you an idea, some of my highlights (they are usually different from typical kindle highlights - don't know why - I am must have a weird sense of humor).

A classic:

Like most others at the party, I was a recreational drinker with a running problem.

Who said running was fun ?

If it comes easy, if it doesn’t require extraordinary effort, you’re not pushing hard enough: It’s supposed to hurt like hell.

It remind me Rich Roll who was an ex-alcoholic too:

Exercise is for people who can’t handle drugs and alcohol.

I like this one, as it put back everything into perspective:

Pushing myself to the brink of obliteration tore down the hierarchy of needs.

And the sherry on the cake.. the training program:

Beyond running 80 to 120 miles per week, along with mountain biking, surfing, and windsurfing regularly, my routine consists of 200 push-ups, 50 pull-ups, and 400 sit-ups—twice a day.

5% Fat Alien Poser

Told you. There is Us and there is Them.

You can do it .. But should you ?

Following a comment from a friend who looked surprised I am not eating meat anymore (or barely).

It seems to be that our modern western society has brought us an incredible easy lifestyle, and obviously doomed us at the same time. Meat consumption was a luxury twenty or forty years ago. Mass producing meat for "everyone", proof of the "capitalism" success. Democratization of restaurants, through the junk food industry, who leave people incapacitated in cooking their own food. Examples goes on and on.

I really like the idea of being able to achieve what you are thriving for. If you read this blog, you know that this fundamental concept helps me to go through my small day-to-day issues and problems.

I do believe that "you can do it". Loose weight. Eat better. Do sports. Discover the world. Quit the rat race. Spend more time with your family. You name it.

How ever, this is not because you can do it, that you should. Not always. This were education, intelligence or just common sense come into play. I think the society we are living right now would be alright .... If people were smart and educated, or capable of self restraint.

Now that everything has become easy, the hard part is to control yourself. Which is an exciting time, as it gives back to people the power to thrive or despair. Unfortunately, the former are fewer and fewer, the latter more and more. What can you do ? it is up to the people.

Funny part is people seems to be still happy in third world countries.
Maybe it is just because they CANNOT do it. Yet.

Housing adventures

Getting closer.
Deal has been accepted, papers have been signed, money will start to flow one way or the other.

This may be our backyard next summer

Still a lot of things could happen, we may even be able to sell the boat (in fact we had an offer that went as far as two back and forth, a first). Goal for tomorrow is to
  - find the cesspool
  - not to fall into it

What is a cesspool ? The Hawaiian variation of a septic tank, i.e. a hole in the ground.

dirty hole. No, this is not dirt.

Exciting times  ... 

Countdown to extinction

Finally watched ( I think it was in fact the second time ) Idiocraty again. Very dumb, relatively funny, but the fundamental idea is genius. The rich and wealthy are diminishing in numbers, formal education is always more expensive, now mostly private, it is likely that intelligence will disappear as will the middle class.

Sounds familiar ...

Something you can see already everywhere in US.

As we made the choice to have only one child, I can relate to that. 

Living right now in "local" neighborhood on Maui, I can relate to that.

Interesting.

Anyway, yesterday, watching another movie, at least the first half (that s a story for later), "The ledge" ...

(Thanks to my random clicks on Netflix we get to see a little bit of everything, and this one starts a good surprise -We will tonight if the end is to disappointing, as usually it is in Hollywood movies).

Anyway....

The main character got this interesting idea of forbidding the heterosexual marriage while authorizing the gay one, with the pretext of limiting the world overpopulation (heteros breed, gay adopts, +3 vs -1, math does not lie). 
The obvious struck me, the catholic precept of the "multiplication" fits so well the capitalism model based on the continual growth (and the hope of a better life later - the american dream, heaven and hell).

The inconvenient truth is that heterosexuals are breeding us to extinction

Found this interesting and polemical article on the web. 
I found all this very actual (article is from 2010 in US) when in France, people are burning cars and chasing gays to protest against the "marriage for everybody" that the government is struggling  to validate, even approved by the majority of the electors. (Lobbys, anyone ?).
I would like to point (again) the correlation between expansionism and capitalism and the fact that all of this is go hand by hand, and is built deeply into our actual society model. 

Remove one brick and the wall will fall. 
Stop growth, expansion, new markets and the model will fall.
Right now, the wall is still there and we are heading right into it, head first.

Who said you cannot be Anarchist and to be living in Hawaii ;)

You Can't have it all...

But maybe you can have a small part of the cake.
Just kidding.
A half-million dollars slice of cake.

Not a lot of news, swamp at work (already did this joke, did I ?), Spring is here, Wind is back and waves are gone.

Oh, yeah, we got an offer on the boat. And it started it all ... again.
here is our slice of the cake

And this time, we offered Market price.
Really. Not a french market price. The actual market price at the bottom of a climbing mountain.
Answer Saturday afternoon. Or before. But not after.

And no worries, I already found Mobylette-2, way cheaper but ready to go ;)

25K, 70's. And still sailing....

I know, I know. But we can dream, alright ?