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Often during the day I'll think of something totally sweet to post about, but have to back-burner it because I'm busy and don't really have time to post.

And then I get home from work and my mind goes blank. This happened today, in fact—you'll have to believe me when I say that I had a totally fantastic post idea at like 10am.

Maybe I need to carry around a notepad or something.

We have factory-installed tire pressure monitors in the RAV4. I believe these are government mandated after the whole Firestone debacle.

Anyway, these things are probably useful primarily to people who can't recognize low pressure driving dynamics, and who don't check their tire pressure regularly.

But it turns out it's useful for the rest of us, too: the tire pressure monitor flagged low pressure in the Toyota's spare tire, which even I don't check regularly. That's pretty awesome.

The Presidential debate tonight highlights an important (and overdue) point: both Obama and McCain openly support the development of nuclear power as a solution to our energy and pollution woes.

...and the Vice Presidential debate last week highlighted that Palin supports nucular power.

P.S. This is unrelated, but this quote is far too awesome to not post.

America is the greatest force for good in the history of the world.

         ––Sen. John McCain

I opened the hood of the Jeep rental mobile and found ... well, this. It's a good engine, but it's just so V6ish. Eww.

The JK model (serious) is equipped with a Chrysler V6, not an evolution of the venerable (but admittedly ancient) AMC 242.

Damn. I like straight sixes.

Lest you think all is wonderful on the beautiful island of Kauai, here are some shots to remind you that even the garden isle isn't out of reach of nuttiness.

The one on the bottom left is particularly awesome.

I finally watched Eraserhead.

Well, that was ... different.

This chopped 8x8 Tatra T813 was parked right next door to Scotty's. Last I checked, you could get one of these 8x8s trucks (with an 18L V12 diesel engine) for around $20k.

Sweet!

I've never seen anything advertised as "fun for the whole family" to actually be that. "Fun for kids and inoffensive for everyone else," would be more accurate. Or maybe, "not fun for any teenagers because that's just how they are."

After our visit to Waimea Canyon on the west side of the island (and right before our second trip to Kauai Coffee) Layla and I stopped off at Waimea Brewing Co. for a beer and burgers.

Apparently I had been drinking entirely too many fruity drinks while there because I ended up ordering a Lilikoi, which is something like a Hefeweizen. It was good, but a littly girlie.

But whatever. I drank at the westernmost brewpub in the world. Rock on.

P.S. Thanks to Rob for jogging my memory on this. My inability to recall notable happenings after we're back is precisely why I post while I'm on vacation.

Here's a quick guide to all of the posts from our trip to Kauai, since some are already being pushed off the main page. I'm all done with the posts from the trip!

Updated posts transcribed Wednesday evening:

• Varying definition of "security"
  
• Uncharacteristically nicely
  
• Ghost town
  

Updated posts transcribed Wednesday morning:

• X's Drive II+ battery
  
• Rental report: Jeep Wrangler (pt. 3)
  
• Guess what I found
  
• Scotty's
  
• Non-handicapped ramp
  
• Bug in the camera
  

Updated posts transcribed Tuesday evening:

• Beach rash
  
• Coconutty
  
• Got no time
  
• Luau
  
• Lower 48
  
• Rental report: Jeep Wrangler (pt. 2)
  

And the posts transcribed Tuesday afternoon:

• Postonomicon
  
• Sebring Isle
  
• Nihongo (pt. 2)
  
• Contra Flow
  
• Rustastic
  
• Rotary wing
  
• Na Pali
  
• Chorizo, eggs, and Bic #48
  
• Would you like a caffè latte?
  
• Chrome grilles
  
• Unapologetic
  
• Rental report: Jeep Wrangler
  
• Submariney
  
• The lower quarry
  
• Feral...chickens?
  
• Gate 77, 404
  

Phew.

I miss the part of the flight checkin process where the ticketing agent asks me if I have packed my own bag. I would gladly trade all of this shoe removal nonsense for that question.

Rep. Barney Frank (D, MA) is my new favorite legislator. When asked if he thought that twelve of his Republican opponents voted against the bailout bill solely out of spite because their feelings were hurt by a "hyper-partisan" speech, he said that the accusation was ludicrous, and followed approximately with,

Give me the names of those twelve people and I will speak uncharacteristically nicely to them and tell them they are nice people so they will reverse their votes.

He then went on to blast the reporter who asked the question. Awesome.

The local news has been talking a lot lately about how the recession economic slump has had incredible impact on tourism, which is one of the principal components of the Hawaiian economy.

Kauai doesn't seem to be too heavily affected—this is the beginning of the off-season here and the hotel seems reasonably busy. Similarly, local restaurants sport impressive (60+ minute) waits on weekends.

But Waikiki is something of a ghost town and many shops and businesses are being forced to close by the low (and financially restrained) traffic.

Businesses closing or not, there is clearly a huge effort (described all over the news, with tax incentives, etc.) to diversify the local economy (likely with more industry) so it fares better when the tourists dry up.

I didn't bring the charger for the portable hard drive I use to dump photos for my camera's memory card. Although I've got a 60GB drive in this thing, I was only able to dump the 512MB card ~5 times before the battery on the X's Drive died. That's less than 3GB of photos, or 5% of the drive's capacity.

I'll definitely need to bring the charger when I go to Japan.

This is the third of a three-part report. Also see the first and second parts.

It wouldn't be a rental car report if I didn't complain about something.

• The soft top is too cumbersome to work well in most places. It's fine on Hawai'i (and probably most parts of the southwest US) where you can leave the rear windows off for long periods of time, but even with them removed, it still takes 60+ seconds to raise or lower the top. In contrast, I can change the top in the Porsche in about 30 seconds and it feels like an eternity. Adding the rear windows to the Jeep easily doubles the work required. it just don't see this as feasible anyplace where you would have to leave the windows on every time you park the car.
  
• 4^th is geared really tall. Like, SVX, 240-mph-at-the-redline tall. 4th at 60mph only turns 1500rpm at the engine. This is less than useful—especially on an island with a maximum speed limit of 50mph. Kauai is sortof like Canada that way.
  
• The steering. Read the other posts on the Jeep if you missed that part the first time through.
  
• Broken switchwork. The emergency brake light wouldn't turn off, and the driver's side power door lock didn't work. I expect a little more from a car with only 6000 miles on it¹ even if it's a rental.
  

But that's about it. Amazing car for this island, but I'd probably never buy one anywhere with fewer unpaved roads or if the weather wasn't so fantastic.

¹ We dropped the car off with exactly 6,666 miles on the clock.