Saturday in the Park (but definitely not the 4th of July)

"A Bronx man still can
    tell stories his own way"

Excerpt from "Saturday in the Park," (Chicago) by Robert Lamm

          What is the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday called? If you guessed "Holy Saturday" you know at least one thing more than I just did. Seeing as everyone I asked knew, I don't think it is a big secret. Still, Googling it (ask Google if I am allowed to use that as verb, or if it is a violation of their trademark) I could not get beyond a few letters after "Saturday" without my phone's auto-suggest completing the question for me. "S a t u r d a y  b e t" -> "Do you mean 'What is the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday called?'" Then "S a t u r d a y  b e" -> "Do you mean 'Saturday before Easter?'" It would seem that either Google can now read minds or a lot of people were asking that question today.

          I was thinking before I knew again the answer to that question (I did attend parochial school for awhile so I must have known it once upon a time), I was thinking if it did not have a name, it should be called "Take It Easy Saturday," at least if I had a vote I would nominate that name. But no, they have already named it. Take it easy, enjoy the rest, you have a busy afterlife ahead of you.

          But since I had Friday off, I decided to take my own advice and just take it easy, and enjoy the middle day of the three day weekend, which even if you were raised Catholic as I was you may be unsure of what you are supposed to do special for that day, religious-wise, or even what the day is called. I remember on Ash Wednesday I often had ashes on my forehead, though not really sure of why. I know that on Easter, Church-going types usually go to church, and even non-Church going types often put in an appearance. I am in the occasionally, but only on Christmas or Easter category. 

          When I had a software company, or at least one that supported me, I loved to go outside for just about any reason: drive; ride a bike; walk; etc. Working long hours typing basically doing math problems over and over all day long often long into the night, and it would be eventually overwhelming. And if I can attempt to describe the feeling it would go something like "Numbers... numbers... numbers.... AAAAAAHHH," or something to that effect.

          So any reason to go outside, to the store, take a drive, ride my bike, it was great. I would put the top down on my car and just drive along the coast, or go exploring with my car or by bike to places I had never been before. Whether here in Hawaii, on the East Coast, or the West Coast, (Pacific Coast Highway was great) to just get in my car and drive for hours. Stress therapy.

          But now it seems everything is done only for a reason. With gasoline near $5 a gallon, driving is limited to need-based only, never for fun. Even bicycle riding lately has been only for transportation, commuting, or shopping, and not for enjoyment purposes. I do of course try to enjoy it, but doing it just for pleasure is never the main reason anymore. 

          Part of the reason is time. Working on programs after-hours of my day job and on weekends means using up what time I might have had for recreation, (though I am still pretty lazy and do not accomplish as much as I used to), and is spent working. Or if not working on programs, spent feeling guilty about not working on programs.

          But today, I just decided to do nothing, as I often do, but also THIS time to also not feel guilty about not doing much. I rode my bike, just for fun, and sat on the beach eating chocolate. Usually I might take a picture of the ocean for my desktop wallpaper, or to use in a program, or for Polsci.com as a background. Today I decided to instead try to take a video of the beach, which has a name, and it called Kalama Park in Kihei. After searching the web for instructions on how to do that, it turned out it wasn't that hard. See below...


          Really, I think I should do that more often. Not much of a point to living on Maui as opposed to living anywhere else less scenic or nice if one never goes out to enjoy it, unless on the way to and from work, and that seems not enough now. So for my "Take It Easy Saturday" resolution, if one gets to do that on that day, I have decided to make at least one Saturday a month a "Take It Easy Saturday."

          It was amazing the beach was that deserted with all the tourists out and about on the roads here these days. More typical posts may follow now that programming is winding down for awhile. But for now, I will just sign off with the immortal words, bammp bammp baamp-baamp, bamp ba dammp bammp-bammp....