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At night we park the rental car beneath trees evidently preferred by birds because in the morning the car is covered with pooh. It makes our white car easy to find among all the other white rental cars. Wash it? I don’t think so. Who washes a rental car?

Went for another bike today — Napili to Kihei (blue line B –> A). I took advantage of a sturdy north wind that turned against me when I rounded the southern point. The wind was at my back again once I turned southeast towards Kihei.

Saw a cruise ship offshore, fortunately upright. Tons of whales too. They give birth here and swim to Alaska to feed later in the year. Amazing.

High point of the ride, near the southern terminus of the “Lima Bean”. The island of Lanai looms in the distance.

The happy wife and I rendezvoused in Kihei where we enjoyed lunch at Stella Blues Cafe. Perfect timing to have a flat front tire. Into the car the bike went.

Afterwards, the beach.

Finally, Mai Tais at happy hour in Kaanapali; the Napili Market for shrimp and steak (& a Redbox movie); home to grill dinner & watch the movie; a glass of wine or three. Blog. Bedtime.

Tomorrow, who knows. Whatever moves us. We parked the car in the same place. Should be no problem finding it.

White Wigwam socks on doughy-white legs inside thick black shoes with Velcro closures. Lots of these on Front Street in Lahina, where I cycled for espresso this morning. We’re staying in the Napili area.

Whales galore spouting off, flipping their flukes and even performing a full breech now and then.

Sea Turtles. Lots of Sea Turtles.

A snail. Discovered in the grass not more than two feet off our back porch.

A Happy Wife.

Morning bike ride. Top of the climb (sort of).

Near HonoLua, Maui.

Welcome back to those of you who may have been scared away by Google’s warning that the Alter Ego was an “Attack Site”. This is like flagging Mother Theresa as a terrorist.

I removed various malware, and submitted a formal request to Google for a new review of the site, in order to have it removed from the “no surf” list.

Sheesh.

Meanwhile, we waited in the Anchorage airport for our plane to Maui. The latter being ninety degrees warmer than the former.

Later, free decadence in first class at thirty six thousand feet above the Pacific. “Would you like another Mai Tai Mr. Nibbe?” Yes, plz. Bring one every fifteen minutes until I doze off, then bring one every thirty minutes.

An inconvenient truth.

I want to lose 185 pounds and get back to my original weight. Fat chance. Ha!

When you’re young it’s all about growing up, getting bigger, clean your plate, etc. Somewhere around your thirties the great reversal arrives. Someone notes your Milwaukee tumor – “Dude, you’re getting a paunch.” You resolve to slim down, exercise more, eat less and less often. Beaches and skinny jeans terrify you.

Here in Alaska in winter we battle another urge, the ceaseless voice inside imploring you to eat! eat! eat! Hard times are coming. Time to store fat. Yaddy ya. You feel helpless to resist. A bag of Lays and a pint of French Onion dip disappears in under an hour. Before you realize it you can barely bend over your tumor to tie your shoes.

And it has been cold. And snowy beyond usual. Look.

Ugh. Time for another bag of Lays. Krinkle cut.

I had the perfect email ready to go. No body, merely a subject line: “Say Cheese, Baby!”

The recipients had been carefully selected. Hitting the send key was going to feel like opiates flooding my brain. My pregame giddiness was almost pathological.

No mail was sent. I feel today as if I need a treatment center. There may be nothing so difficult as coming down. Reassurances from loved ones help but do not heal.

What the hell happened? I do not know. Who wants to bear witness to a train wreck. It was like the contradiction of a near death experience: It happened so fast yet seemed to unfold in slow motion.

Tomorrow will come. When it does, I will be here, a Cheesehead for life.

This site is moving to a new server. Don’t worry! I backed up every schnibble and bit in the database in order to preserve and restore, for the sake of posterity, every pioneering and prescient post. Why? Because the newest version of WordPress will not run on the old the server, due to its  underlying software being out of date. Poor old server. It will never experience the revitalizing makeover that comes from a new feature set. Don’t despair; one day the new features will be old features,  the new server the old server, and the circle of freshness will begin anew.

In other words: This Better Be Worth It.

Stand by.

Until then, Happy New Year all.

… from all of us at Rod’s Alter Ego.

For those of you not on the snail-mail recipient list of our annual and ever-so-tacky “Year In Review” newsletter – lucky for you!

For a limited time it is available here (0.5 MB pdf).

Best Wishes in the New Year to all of you.