Is it possible to do about 3 days (2 nights) cheap in HNL?

Yes, especially if you are willing to stay off the beach. How cheap is cheap?

about $130/night

What month?

I wonder if the c-17 crash rumor....was just someone not used to them flying at treetop level?

I have c130s and C17s fly over just above the level of my house the C130s make a bit of vibration but the c17s shake the place so bad it is like an earthquake.

Next week. I'm seeing a bunch of sub $100 hotels about a block from the beach but I can't tell what's what not knowing the area. I can veg on a beach for a couple of days to do a MR w/o guilt.

Those are probably in the uber-touristy area in/around Waikiki. They would be fine for a two-day stay on the cheap; just expect some tacky touristyness. I will look up the name of the traditional Hawaiian restaurant that was featured on Bourdain's show where I had one of the best pork meals of my life and post it.

I paid less than half of that for a place on the far end of Waikiki Beach, the Park Shore Waikiki, An Aqua Hotel. I bid $60 for a 2.5 star on PL and got it. I think I should've been able to do even better but I thought I was bidding on 3* for some reason.

It was nothing special, but easy on the bus line from the airport and at thhe end of the beach, out of the way. There is beach right across the street, just bast the *bux downstairs and free WiFi in the lobby and on the pool deck. I'd repeat that in a heartbeat, should I ever find myself with a reason to return to HNL.

Assuming you are looking at places off the beach in Waikiki, be careful how many blocks you go inland as the area can get a little seedy.

I'm not familiar with your city's EMS protocols but I'd imagine one was a transporting unit and one was an "ALS fly car" (which can be an ambulance). Because not every emergency requires advanced life support (ALS) and your system probably isn't busy enough to warrant having every transporting unit equipped with ALS provisions. Due to the nature of the emergency they sent a transport unit (BLS) + ALS - hence, two ambulances.

Sometimes police are tied up with something else (perhaps napping) and EMS beats them to the scene. If it's an elderly lady with fluid in her lungs, EMS will proceed into the scene if determined safe (although, officially, they aren't supposed to). In our system, if EMS enters prior to PD arrival we'll simply give dispatch a head's up and dispatch will then only send one police car (in most non-urban areas of NY and NJ police only ride one per car, but all 9-1-1 calls generate a two car response).

EMS is, by far, the most mis-understood of all emergency services. Everyone, more or less, knows what the FD and PD does and how they do it. EMS is completely different, which is compounded by every region structuring their EMS response differently and all of the non-911 ambulance transport agencies that are out there.

By the way - regarding the "very late" comment, it's amazing how people's perceptions vary based on reality. We send out "patient satisfaction surveys" and ask people how long it took for the ambulance to arrive after calling 9-1-1 (we know the answer to this question based on documentation). It's amazing how people's perceptions of time get very skewed during moments of high stress. Patient perception is that we arrive either within 1 minute (which happens less than 1% of the time) or in more than 15 minutes (which happens less than 6% of the time). Reality is we arrive in 6 - 9 minutes, 90% of the time.

True.

I did 5 nights in an 800 sq. ft. condo just one block from the beach in Kihei (Maui) for $125/night just a few years back. If you're willing to get away from the major chain hotels in Hawaii, there are stellar deals to be had.

The Ilikai is pretty nice, and relatively inexpensive. Not sure how much it is on your dates, though.

http://www.ilikaihotel.com/about/index.html

The beachfront condos in Kahala in which I stay every year run about $1200-$1300/week for a two-bedroom, but I do not think you can book for less than five nights.

I haven't done Hawaii since my 2007 Study Holiday there over Thanksgiving. I'd really like to see the Big Island at some point.