Maui Thus Far

There is a man who is overweight. He owns a bicycle and three pairs of shorts. And also a parrot who sits on his shoulder. When we first arrived we saw him circling at night, the parrot riding along, the two of them on the man's beach cruiser. Then, when I got a job, I'd pass him on my way to it. He'd be sitting with the parrot, no shirt, the newspaper and coffee on the stone benches that cozy up to the break wall on Front Street. He sits there every morning from 7-9 and watches the heat build, drinks coffee and reads the newspaper.

I have never seen him wear a shirt. He has, what looks to be, all of his teeth, and the bird isn't unkempt. I doubt he has real sleeping quarters, but he doesn't seem to mind. I would like to know his name.

He does what he does for free. The coffee and paper, I am almost certain, are donated by some local denizen with a shop who wishes for him to remain shirtless and continue to be "tourist flavor" much the same way a 35 foot masted single hull boat teeters over the rocks, water washing up and over it at high tide.

"Someone better get out there and rescue that boat," people say.

We said it too. A month ago. It's still half underwater, and people take pictures of it, thinking that they've captured a rarity. A moment in nautical time where something is amiss out there in Paradise. But even paradise can be helped along if not even a little manufactured. As the man with the parrot knows, manufactured paradise or no, it doesn't have to cost a thing.

Introductory

It has been said by several that the need for this medium should fall into my lap. okay. fine. here we go kids, on to the wonderful world of blogging. Let me see if I can't find something worth posting on here and I'll go ahead and post it. In the mean time, you keep thinking about what is going on in this world and we'll see if we can't discuss it over waffles in the next five months.