Call me crazy, but I like paying taxes. I like roads that can be driven, I like schools (hell, I work in one!), I like hospitals, and health care, and the notion that people whose lives take turns for the worse (or just never even get a shot at the better) might be taken care of (at least to some extent). All of these things and more for a small contribution from each of us? Bargooon! But I sure hate filling out the forms, so I'm really glad I've managed to get that over with for another year.

Spent the better part of today (time-wise, not fun-wise) thrashing with my taxes. And, oh joy, I'll be carrying on tomorrow. Hence the return of the Hawaiian dream.

Did I mention I was in a 10k run on Sunday? Of course I did. But, this is how it's really done.

So, in a moment of madness, I signed up a while back for today's Vancouver Sun Run. Great day for it - sunny and cool. Too bad roughly 50,000 people showed up to "run" it. In reality, it was more like an extended exercise in broken field running. Why do people enter things like this, get themselves a number that puts them in the first groups to start (i.e. the hypothetically faster), and then walk at a speed that would embarrass a Pacific Coast banana slug?

Not that I'm a rocket. 57:15 to cover 10k. Still, that's 2 minutes quicker than I did it 11 years ago. Which was the only other time I've done it. Ravages of time - hah!

Damn. And me with a "SMALL CAR", and I took the bus.

I know - I've got to get out more.

My college's graphics arts students have been busy setting up installations around campus. Evidently caffeine plays a big role.

This'll probably make a few people crazy, but, the entire time I was in Hawaii? Didn't swim, didn't snorkel, didn't get any closer to the ocean than this. No pools, either. On purpose.

Come and get it.

I've just finished watching Mike Huckabee on Jon Stewart's show. O.K., American visitors, can any of you explain the fascination of your conservative types for the rules of guys who died a couple of hundred years ago? I mean, sure, they were smart guys and all, and probably had some timeless words of wisdom, but, well, things have changed a bit, you know? Mightn't it be time to move on?

Ah, commuting.

Oh, go ahead, cue the song...

If you get a chance to hear Sarah Chang play her violin, you should take it.

Meanwhile, back in Kihei... Every night this scene was greeted by a bunch of old, white coots (mostly Canadian, oddly enough) blowing conch shells.

My own trivial encounter with the recent tsunami. This really is, believe it or not, part of that hideous event. Probably one of the last of the waves to hit Kihei, in Maui, it's just a tidal ripple at this point.