December 5, 2008: 'Tis the Season . . . .

Okay, I agree, not all that exciting, considering Larry just got back from Dublin, Ireland, and he didn't even take me -- but to entertain myself while he was gone, I went down to golf's office to cavort with her Christmas girls. Actually, that could be more fun than hanging out with Larry, but, then, he WAS in Dublin, where I've never been. Maybe next time . . . .

Merry Christmas!!

(Am glad that's fake snow I'm standing on, or it could get a tad chilly on bare feet. But -- been there, done that! Remember the snowman pictures from last year?)

November 14, 2008 -- Interesting Juxtaposition

Recently golf was given a picture of herself that her sister had (for some unknown reason!). Can you guess the date of it by the hair style, clothes, cars, etc.? Good thing golf never ran into Ted Bundy during those days -- she looks like his typical victim!

Saturday, November 8

This may be the one time of the year when I don't mind not being in Hawaii.

Autumn in north Georgia can be gorgeous.

And this is only golf's rather boring neighborhood subdivision.

Wednesday, September 17 -- Last Day :-(

It is a very sad thing to wake up one morning and realize it is your last day in paradise. The flight golf and Larry needed to catch left at 1:10 p.m., so they didn't have a lot of time to do much this morning. Fortunately golf had done most of the packing up the night before, because she wanted to make one more pilgramage to the tidal pool this morning, and Larry agreed to go with her because they could snorkel at the beach a little northwest of the tidal pool, where they had briefly snorkeled before. So they gathered their gear and headed toward south Waimanalo Beach.

When they arrived and parked, they walked down to the beach to check out the conditions. There was a local fisherman there, pulling on his wading boots. When he found out they were planning on going in the water, he advised that they might want to reconsider or be very careful because a 15-foot tiger shark had been spotted off Waimanalo Beach on Tuesday (the day before). Since golf had not be able to snorkel the day before at Pupukea Beach, she still wanted to go snorkeling today in spite of the cautionary reminder. She went back to the car to get her equipment.

When she got back to the beach, Larry was nowhere to be seen! Frankly, golf had gotten the impression from him that he wasn't the least bit interested in seeing the tidal pool, but there was nowhere else from him to have gone, so she traipsed around the wall, wading a bit (it wasn't full low tide) and found him there. "This place is a dump!" He was appalled at the condition that the estate was in. Nevertheless, when golf pulled out the video camera, he said he wanted to shoot the movies, so she turned the camera over to him.

The Tidal Pool

While Larry filmed, golf started gathering up little broken pieces of dead coral that were lying around on the beach. Larry stopped filming and asked what in the world she was doing. She told him that she was collecting pieces of coral to take back and offer to the folks on Magnum Mania (magnum-mania.com). If SHE couldn't have gotten there herself, she would still love to have a piece of broken and worn coral actually FROM there. Larry did his usual eye-roll at golf's antics and continued to film what he could, which wasn't much -- too much foliage to protect Ms. Anderson's privacy. Can't fault her too much, there are many Magnum fans who could present a bit of a problem for her, but for us respectful ones, it's rather sad.

The Boathouse/Guesthouse

Back over at the beach where they parked, golf decided to go in the water to snorkel in spite of the shark warning. Larry said he would watch. golf had a high ole time snorkeling in what she thought was about 3-4 feet of water, not worrying about the shark, because a 15-foot shark couldn't fit into water that shallow without being spotted before he got too close for comfort. However, after she came out and mentioned that to Larry, he told her the water was closer to 15-20 feet deep, not as shallow as she thought, and the shark, if it had still been around, could have very well swum under her before she realized it was there. At that point, golf decided maybe she was glad she was safely out of the water. (But she really didn't think the shark was hanging around just waiting for her -- it was long gone -- well, that's what she convinced herself of).

Back at the ranch, final packing up and heading to the airport. Michael called to check in and see what their schedule was because it was possible that, flying standby, they might not have been able to get on the 1:10 direct flight from Honolulu to Atlanta. Michael told golf to call him from the airport and let him know if they were able to get on the flight. golf agreed to do so, because if they hadn't made that flight, they would have to wait until 10:30 that night for the next flight, and they might have needed a little "entertainment" instead of waiting for 9 hours at the airport. Michael didn't SAY he was willing to come pick them up and take them driving around to MPI filming locations, but golf considered making the request, if they were not able to get on the flight.

However, when they got to the airport, they were able to get on the flight home. golf was rather ambivalent about making the flight. Who wants to leave Hawaii?

So . . . . aloha till the next time! In the meantime, golf intends to expose Larry to a lot more MPI episodes so maybe for the next trip, he may be willing to "explore" and find other filming locations. There are SO many they didn't get to! If you would like to see them on Google Earth, leave me a Comment, and golf can provide the Google Earth "map" that rubberchicken on Magnum Mania created that shows over 300 filming locations from the show.

Life back here on the mainland isn't nearly so entertaining. But I'll try to keep busy with . . . . something or other.

Tuesday, September 16: Finally A Gorgeous Day!

And, of course, it doesn’t come until our next-to-last day here. No vog, no rain, no drizzle, not a cloud in the sky. Larry and golf were still determined to snorkel, and now that they know where the Shark’s Cove is, they decided to head that way again, even if it was about an hour and a half drive. Quite a difference in number of people at the beaches from Saturday when they drove there. A weekday is apparently the correct time to go to the beaches. And for this trip, Larry stopped and let golf take pictures of the sugar mill ruins at Kualoa Ranch:

and the abandoned hospital (or whatever it is, they never found out -- if anyone knows, please add a comment and tell me).



The pretty weather resulted apparently from the winds driving the vog away, but it also resulted in a much rougher surf on the north shore. golf stood and looked at Shark’s Cove a long time before deciding it was simply too rough for her to go into the water and plan to survive. Even Larry agreed it was a little iffy.

So they repaired to Pupukea Beach, where I finally got to explore. However, the surf here was pretty strong too. Larry went in swimming and recommended that golf not do so.

Below is Larry standing on the shore on the right in the picture. You can see the surf breaking over the reefs further out, somewhat protecting the beach from the worst waves.

So she and I stayed on the beach where she took pictures of me. I was a little cautious at first,

but soon the sound of the surf was too much of a draw, and I finally got my feet sandy and wet!

Oops! Washed away! Water sneaked up and grabbed me before golf could rescue me!

After golf and I played with the pictures, she went back and sat on the beach towel and was just enjoying the view. It dawned on her that her phone might work and she could call her office and instill a little envy in those stuck in an office. So she called one of her bosses. When he answered his phone, she just started laughing because she hadn't really expected her cell phone to work there on the beach. She then talked to a couple of her co-workers, who were sufficiently annoyed at her to make the call worthwhile. She then decided to send them a picture; however, she wasn't very familiar with her own cell phone usage, and while she was trying to figure it out, the phone rang! It was Michael, just calling to see how she and Larry were doing and what they were up to.

Larry and golf wrapped it up here and headed south to change clothes and go play golf for the afternoon. Today they played at Hawaii Kai. At least their game there was better than at Ko'olau, and the weather was much nicer! But at the last green, Larry got a little silly.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Well, here I am at Ko’olau Golf Course.

This was NOT a fun day for golf and Larry. It was dreary, foggy, gray – and though they didn’t get rained on, it wasn’t the best “paradise” day. It was so bad, if they didn’t have pictures of golf at Ko’olau, they don’t even remember what they did this day. Unusual for them, they believe they just stayed at the horse ranch this morning and played on the internet, caught up on email, etc. golf remembers that Michael called to check in and see how they were doing, and she told him they were going to Ko’olau this afternoon.

golf was really looking forward to playing Ko’olau because of what she had read about it, and her game is so pitiful, it couldn’t get much worse. Unfortunately, her one strong point – her drive – did her no good here, because on this course, a good drive (on any other course) got her in trouble here because the fairways don’t “go” where you expect them to go – there are chasms of bushes and trees that will eat up your golf ball and not even burp to give you a hint as to where it got swallowed! And they found it frustrating that they would hit a good shot and see where it landed – they thought! – but when they got to where they had seen the ball land, it couldn’t be found. Both of them lost at least ten of the dozen balls they had bought with Michael at K-Mart on Sunday.

Note Larry's cheerful expression after this tee shot (no, that's not his ball just over his left shoulder or he would be walking in that direction to hit it again -- I think that's a flower petal or a piece of trash).

The arrow below points to a HUGE chasm that you really can't even see from this vantage point, so you think you can drive up close and then hit over it -- maybe it was closer than golf could tell or she had a longer drive than she normally does. Whatever the case, her ball disappeared into it. :-(

Frankly, I think a sunnier, prettier day made have made them more cheerful about the difficulty of this course, but the dreariness of the day just wore them down. For example, this is supposed to be a glorious view. Not on this day . . . .

golf did find some interesting flowers that she couldn’t identify, but she picked some and stuck them in an empty Diet Coke can to bring home and put on the coffee table in the apartment – after she knocked all the ants off them!
But . . . for a day in “paradise,” this was not the best one, okay? So I’m wrapping the report for this day up now. It’s too depressing to continue to contemplate.

More cheerful reports for the next day in Hawaii (Tuesday, September 16), I promise!

Interruption! A Bit of Catch-up . . . .

After my last post, there were a couple of questions, so I'm interrupting the chronological sequence of the Oahu report to stand here at my laptop and clarify a bit about the tape Michael showed us at K-Mart.

When Larry and golf had picked out their golf balls and found Michael in the electronics section, showing the Frank Sinatra tape, they were really surprised. golf told me later that she had no idea Michael had even brought the tape along (she was sitting in the back seat in the car, so she didn't see that he was holding it). Michael had actually taken the tape to the restaurant in the hope that it had a VCR, but it didn't, so he took it along when he led Larry and golf to K-Mart. He said he was lucky there was that combination TV/VCR/DVD where he could play it -- and I think he was probably very brave to try it in the first place! The tape could have or been defective after not being played for 20 years and could possibly have jammed and gotten stuck in the player! But it didn't -- whew!! -- so they were able to view it safely and see an example the kind of "home movies" Michael has.

And they certainly enjoyed seeing it! (golf didn't notice any customers paying any attention to them or the video that was showing, but then with three people grouped around the TV watching it, there wasn't much room for anyone else to see anything!)

The tape showed, basically, some "behind the scenes" shots of the crew and the actors setting up different scenes. The ones with Frank Sinatra showed him setting up with lighting and sets to do the scene where he punches the mirror with his fist. He was chatting with the crew and helping get things set up. There were a couple of test shots where he was working on getting the movement correct and then he does the punch and shakes his fist in pain from "hitting" the mirror. It seemed rather chaotic and crowded, but I guess that's what it looks like on a real filming set (as I don't personally know anything about this, unfortunately). Then there were some videos of the setting up for the still picture of TS and FS for the cover of TV Guide -- you remember that cover picture, don't you? In Michael's video, Tom and Frank were moving around in different positions for different shots, one right, one left, one high, one low, etc. So it left the impression that the guys posed for a lot of shots and then one was later chosen to be the cover picture. At one point in their moving around to try different angles, it looked as though Tom, who was sitting at a higher level than Frank right then, leaned over and kissed Frank on the top of his head! What a disarmingly sincere way to show his admiration and respect!

In addition, there were some scenes with Carol Burnett where she was in the set for Magnum's guesthouse apartment. She was moving around and chatting with people, then she got up in what looked like a tall director's chair and sat there, while, we guess, they were checking the lighting on what she was wearing and so on.

That's about it for this post. More later.