Friday, September 7, 2007

More Hawaiian Culture?

A couple more things that I don't quite understand...

This may actually be a plot to drive me crazy, though if I say that it definitely is I may be certifiably paranoid. Every weekday, I get home from school...the time varies...the earliest would be 4:30 (on a really good day), but it's usually around 6. It doesn't matter the exact time - within 5 minutes of me coming into the house I hear...uh...I think it's an ice cream truck, but I still haven't seen it.

[My cottage is behind "the main house" so I really can't see the street from where I am...or not enough to see what's coming down the street]

So, it's weird that no matter what time I come home, I hear the music 5 minutes after I get home. And it is that cheesy, loudspeaker, ice cream truck quality sound. But to make it even more weirder is the song is "It's A Small World". Wha? How does that equate with ice cream? You can't tie that into Hawaii. That's just weird.

So I'm serenaded with that cheesy Disney song...every...day...of...my...life. As if they couldn't find an ice cream truck version of "I'm Too Sexy". That would be awesome!

Another thing happened to me tonight. It's pretty much dark here at 7pm every night. Because we're so close to the equator, it's pretty much that way all year 'round. So I went "into town" tonight to run a couple of errands and by the time I was headed home it was dark. Now I'm used to the trusty old Chevy Prism...if I forget to turn on the lights, the car takes care of it. Not my brand new Focus. Roll up windows, each door locks on its own and the lights don't go on unless you turn 'em on.

So I manually unlocked my door, manually rolled down the window and manually forgot to turn on my lights - I even had to manually take care of a wedgie, but that's more information than you need. I pulled out of the parking lot onto the road, got to the intersection I needed to turn to get back to Kihei and got into the left-hand turn lane...

If a poor schmuck forgets to turn on his or her lights, civilized people know what to do...you flash your lights on and off. Lazy, obnoxious conservatives flash their brights, but I'll keep my politics out of this. The jist is, you do the thing that is safe for everyone but with the least amount of human contact possible...civilized.

Not in Maui. As I'm getting ready to turn, I hear someone from a car turning right into the lane opposite of me, "LIGHTS!!!!"

I honestly couldn't tell if the person was really afraid an accident was going to happen, he/she was offended or if I was the 5th person on her trip she had to yell at about lights. Whatever the reason, I was so tightly clenched afterwards, I had no danger of a wedgie the rest of the ride home.

Man...this place is weird.

4 comments:

Chris said...

Well, I can't say much for this other than the fact that those freak ice cream trucks played It's a small world when i used to live up in Utica, NY. Unlike you though, I saw the trucks.... Best of luck, and if you do see the trucks down the road, try not to bomb them:P

Papa said...

There was an ice cream truck around Le Roy... and I swear that whenever he drove past our house, he'd slow down waiting for the T boy to run outside screaming "wait! wait!" Don't think he did it for anyone else on the block.

Anonymous said...

I was struck by your reaction to the person yelling "lights." No matter how I signal with my lights--blinking on and off or in my lazy conservative style of flashing--the other person has NEVER gotten it. I swear it's the truth. Maybe this person has learned that most people need verbal instructions.

Unknown said...

It sounds like you need a vacation. Maybe you should find another tropical vacation spot to visit like Tahiti for a break from "paradise" Good Luck brother.