Cultural Cuisinart

It sounds like a dream vacation to travel to Hawaii for 4 weeks for work. And don't get me wrong, it's awesome being in the islands. But working in Hawaii and vacationing in Hawaii are two very different concepts. Add to that the fact that I have family obligations while here, and well... let's just say I'm not exactly laying around on the beach every day. I'm pretty busy with work during the day, and my family has been taking up my time at night.

I had forgotten how lovely it is here. And I had also forgotten a lot of the things I didn't like about living in Hawaii. One of the worst things here is the traffic. Here are some of the many ways that Hawaii drivers strive to be the WORST DRIVERS in America:

1. They make turns at 3 miles an hour. They do this even when they have a huge dedicated turn lane and a turn light.
2. They make lane shifts without looking (at pedestrians, traffic lights or other cars).
3. They refuse to plan ahead. That means they'll be trolling along in the far left lane, suddenly realize they need to exit in .1 miles, and then slam on their brakes, as they attempt to force their way across 3 lanes of traffic to get to the off ramp.

In addition, the very roads themselves conspire to get you. There are roads about 1.5 cars width across that are somehow 2 lanes (and people park on the street too on these!). The street signs are ill-designed - hard to read, placed in weird locations so you can't see them, etc. When you drive Westbound on H1, the exit for my hotel reads "Kapahulu Ave" and when you travel Eastbound that same exit reads "King Street". It's insane.

Starting next week, I'm going to try to stop at one of the military golf courses on my way home so I can play some twilight golf. This will allow me to skip most of the rush hour hell, which should help me out immensely.

In other news, Obama and Hillary went toe-to-toe tonight. I didn't watch the debate, so someone more informed will have to tell me how it went. I saw that a Pittsburgh paper endorsed Obama today, which is a good sign. That, along with Steelers owner Dan Rooney's endorsement, should help Obama out in that city. However, it remains to be seen how he fares in the more rural areas. I'm still holding out hope that he'll squeak out a win in PA, which should force Clinton to concede.