I rather liked what I did with my Saturday last week, the Saturday after two weeks of frustration and late nights and not enough sleep and not enough production. I really just vegged and slept and got over it, and it’s what I needed.
It looked like this Saturday was headed the same way. I meant to get up early and call my parents, but for reasons I won’t get into, it’s better if I call before late morning. And I didn’t quite get out of bed before mid-morning.
I have to be in Mapunapuna for a little while this coming week, so I figured I’ll refill my drinking water then, but I needed to make sure I had enough to get me there. With nothing on my schedule (now that I was putting off calling my folks), I headed down there with four gallon-jugs and an appetite.
Yes. I had burgers on my mind. I’d looked forward to another shot at King’s Burgers and I was in a burgers kind of mood.
I filled my water and slipped into the food court at 99 Ranch. There weren’t that many people, even at 12:30. It’s an industrial area with a bit of commercial creeping in, so it really exists for the weekdays and the lunch crowd. Saturdays are for retirees (for some reason) and and gymnasts’ families. There’s a gymnastics school in there.
I ordered a teri Swiss burger and bacon cheese fries. The fries last time, just simple crinkle cuts surely out of the freezer, were delightful, and I figured if the burger was a disappointment, I’d be okay with just the fries.
Moved my car to a shady spot on the outer fringe of the parking lot and set up shop on the hood of my vehicle.
The fries were pretty good but they weren’t crinkle cuts! Steak fries. A good second choice, but not the same. The burger was pretty terrible. I mean it didn’t suck, but it just didn’t have much flavor and it was wet as heck. Not teri sauce wet, which you expect, but some other kind of wet.
I finished it all, of course, and was suuuuper full, but dang. What do you do when you try a place once and it’s preeeeetty good and then try it again and it’s terrible? Which is the anomoly, and do you give it another chance?
I asked the always-knowledgeable-about-these-things Jocelyn what she thought, and said hard pass.
Seriously, if the fries had just been crinkle cuts I’d be down to try it again. As it is, I think I’m done with the burgers, anyway. They have grilled steaks on the menu and I guess I’ll try those too before I give up.
I really wanted the burger thing to work out. Darn!
I got home, did some writing, read the news, did the crossword (rather quickly, thank you very much) worked on some Amazon window-shopping, and took a long, comfy nap. Boy was that a good idea. I was rested as heck when I woke up.
It was a lovely day, and there were a couple of hours before sundown, and so at five-thirty I put on some board shorts and hit the beach.
There’d been reports of jellyfish on the windward side, which is slightly unusual. By my calculation (which may have been in error), jellyfish weren’t due on the south shore until Sunday or Monday. Anyway, I didn’t even think about them when I grabbed a B+ parking space on the Kewalo end. There were some people in the shallows but nobody really out deep except the stand-up paddleboarders and a couple of kayakers. The beach was well-populated but not freak-out crowded.
So I went. The water was slightly gross, about the limit of my tolerance for monkey pods, palm fronds, and other vegetation clearly washed down by the recent rains. Another day of no rain and I’m fairly sure it would have been nice, but I didn’t have another day. Jellyfish.
The water was super cold, but the day itself had been pretty cool, so it made sense. After overnight lows around sixty, it was probably close to ice at sunrise.
I went hard for a good while. My first time in the water in two weeks might have been a cruise, yet I felt my body yearning to be strained. It felt good. Swam a distance I call four buoys, when lately I’ve only gone two and a half or three, and as I came back midway through I watched the sun sink into the ocean. It was lovely.
As usual after a good swim, I craved a sandwich. There were some options still open in Kakaako, so I cruised through. If I’d found a parking spot within two trips around the block, I was headed for Earl (of Sandwich). Alas, despite the area being far less busy than I expected, there were no primo parking spots to be had, so I headed back to Kalihi.
Picked up a roast pork plate (despite still really wanting a sandwich) at Pancakes and Waffles because I was running out of options and there was no waiting.
Brought it home and loved every bite as I wrote. I also listened in on a good-night conversation in Clubhouse. The chatter was good background music. I opted not to join in despite repeated invitations from Jocelyn. I hate talking on the phone. Why would I want to talk on the phone with a bunch of strangers? This Clubhouse thing may not be for me, but I admit I liked being there.
Took a very short nap, did some chores, ate some ohagi (picked up while I waited on my crappy burger), and listened to podcasts.
So it was a decent Saturday, and I didn’t feel like I pissed it away, which was a good feeling. Got to bed around 2:00.
Sylvia and I traded some texts about my search for a sandwich. I got a text from the medical supplies company from which I ordered replacement stuff for Darth Vader Friday. Jennifer sent me an article about this cool-looking jigsaw puzzle, which I’ve bookmarked for whenever it’s safe to get back into the office. Crush Girl texted me a response to my happy weekend text from Friday.
It’s Sunday evening as I write this, about a quarter past ten in the evening. I’m going to do a quick run to the supermarket, a booster run, not a full-on run. Shouldn’t take long and I won’t bring home much. I guess this catches me up, so I can post my resolutions in the next post.
Reach out if you need someone to connect with. Pandemic continues so don’t be alone.