Hawai'i, week 1

Aloha all.

Today completes my (Charlie's) first week in Pearl Harbor. Everything is going pretty well. I'm employed at the shipyard where they currently have a few submarine projects going on. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to take any pictures of the subs or of any of the other navy ships around here, but I'm sure you can picture what they look like. I also got to go aboard a real deal submarine on Friday. It was pretty cool. Maybe next time they'll let me drive it.

I had big plans for Saturday including driving to Waikiki, checking out the beach and surrounding area, maybe giving the surfing a try, watching an airshow, and a few other things. Instead I was awakened at 3:00am feeling like crap and having my big toe feel like it was shattered. Being in too much pain to sleep, I ended up wallowing in my pain for the next five hours until the navy medical clinic opened up. I headed over there fully expecting them to tell me I had a fractured foot or something, but after looking at my blood test and x-rays, the doc told me I had gout, and not just any gout, but The Gout! I know my 29th birthday's coming up next Sunday, but I didn't realize I was old until that diagnosis. I also had no idea The Gout was that painful; I could barely walk and dreaded every time I had to get off the bed. So after a few hours at the clinic, they sent me home telling me to take Motrin (of course*) for the next few days and it should go away. So I bought some Advil PM and slept until Sunday morning, decalring Saturday a wash.

(*For those of you who have not served in the military recently, Motrin is the prescription for everything that ails you from compound fractures to bullet wounds to poison ivy.)


Sunday morning I decided to head out to check out the spots I planned for Saturday. Unfortunately my Sebring convertible had other ideas. Since it was a beautiful day (as usual), I decided to cruise around with the top down. It got stuck about half way down and I had to get Thrifty to come out with a new car for me- I now have a Mustang convertible. So after about three hours of that nonsense I finally got on the road. I made it around most of the east side of the island and it was beautitul. I'm sure once Jaime gets here, we'll get some much better photos to share. This will occur on Wednesday afternoon, and I can't wait!