Pump versus Man – Rod's Alter Ego

We didn’t sleep last night. Night is when we prefer to sleep. There was a loud — like GE Turbofan loud — pump running outside our bedroom window continuously from about, oh, 10:30 pm to 6:00 am this morning. Pumping what you ask? Water, supposedly — “It’s been raining quite a lot you know,” said the woman who picked up when we called security (3 times) late last night. Never before has “DUH” seemed more appropriate.

Anyhoo, this morning, a somnolent Happy Wife was at the front desk at 8:00 am sharp to complain that our complaint went unheeded last night. The woman said our call to security was not forwarded to the maintenance crew as it was supposed to be. Ah, I see, the chain of custody of the problem was broken, thank you for that, but you see ma’am what we really want from you is assurance — nay, an effin’ GUARANTEE — that this will not occur again tonight, or, for that matter, any night before the Sun goes supernova and deletes us all! An equally somnolent Australian man staying in the unit next to us was also at the front desk and amplified this demand.

“Stan is working on it,” the woman grumbled.

Stan The Maintenance Man? No, seriously?

Earlier last night, before the Fun breaker tripped, we — Self, Big Sister & Happy Wife — tootled up the hill into the lower reach of Maui’s high country to a palatial house belonging to an Anchorage MD and his wife for drinks ‘n goodies. Other Anchorites were also present, plus an assortment of island friends of the doctor and his wife. Fun group of people — MDs, scuba divers, an ex-physicist, Telecom Co folks, property managers, spouses thereof, and us. Wine flowed easily and plates of finger foods were enjoyed as people segregated into small groups of aligned interest, all of us held rapt by the breathtaking view of the shrouded isle of Lanai (“Lah-nigh-ee”) resting quietly in the blue Pacific: