Mountains and Islands

Happy New Year! I must say, I kinda like walking the dogs in the morning wearing shorts and a t-shirt during the holidays! I especially appreciate it after seeing the snow storms that have been hammering Denver in recent weeks. I shot these pictures the other day on my visit to Volcanoes National Park. The flag, with Mauna Loa in the background, flies on the beautifully manicured grounds of Kilauea Military Camp. It flies at half staff in honor of Gerald Ford. The little fenced square with smoke coming out of it is a steam vent. I can only assume the fencing is a form of INS for the Park Service. INS, as I understand it, stands for Interfering with Natural Selection. In this case, it's to protect humans too stupid not to know that jumping into a steam vent near active volcanoes is a bad idea. Today, I discovered that our coffee trees have a condition called Cercospora. It's a fungus, common in areas with lots of rain. Looks like we'll have to spring for some copper fungicid...

It's Christmas! Yay ! It's a beautiful, partly sunny day here on the windward side of Hawaii Island. The turkey is cooking and all is right with the world. With our world, anyway. I've seen two of my favorite Christmas movies; It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story. My third favorite is a vintage 1958 version of Dickens' Christmas Carol called Scrooged . Ebineezer is played by fabulous actor named Alistair Sim. He's absolutely the best scrooge ever. George C. Scott runs a close second, but Sim is the winner, hands down. I have a copy of Scrooged on DVD but no longer have a DVD player and left the disks in Colorado anyway. I usually catch it at least once a season on TV. Not this year. Oh well. I'll see it again soon enough. Next week, I will resume my job quest and gym workouts with gusto. Today, I'll just hang and enjoy life. I have prohibited Ron from using any power tools outside today. I'm just sure the neighbors don't want to hear the...

Mele kalikimaka is the thing to say on a bright, Hawaiian Christmas day...... This santa fish is a humuhumunukunukuapua . That's right. It's the state fish of Hawaii. Cool, huh? I stole this image from the net, so it's the least I can do to give credit to it's painter, Debbie Houter . Actually, she gives permission on her site to download the picture, so I'm in the clear. No copywrite infringements on this blog. No siree ! We're loaded down at our house with oodles of Christmas pupus . Ono kine grinds to da max! W got all kine cheeses and salami and crackers and pate'. We also got all kine poke and edamame and mochi . Between our own self indulgences at the market and the stuff coming as gifts in the mail, it will take more will power than I've got - not to mention some serious time on the treadmill - to keep from piling on the pounds. I'm now officially a Friend of KMC (Kilauea Military Camp) . It's pretty easy to become a friend. Just ha...

I discovered these ginger flowers in my very own jungle today. I'm not usually one for cut flowers, but these were just so cool I had to bring them out of the dark forest and into the light to be enjoyed. Mr. Sox brought a baby rat into the house tonight. The poor little creature was still alive but badly wounded. I had planned to take the struggling critter away from the fat cat and gently replace him back outside to either survive miraculously or crawl off to die in peace. I turned to grab a container to put him in and when I turned back, he was gone. Mr. Sox was scurrying out the door. So I hope the cat was scurrying after the rat. If not, the rat is probably hiding somewhere in a nook or cranny inside the house. Great. He'll get along well with the cockroach that escaped from my grocery bag a couple of weeks ago. The pair are probably setting up house behind the fridge as I type this. I finally put up my tiny, fake Christmas tree last night. With lights and decorations,...

Ua mau , ka ea o ka aina i ka pono That is the Hawaii state motto. The official translation is this: The life (sovereignty) of the land is perpetuated in righteousness. While they are definitely referring to the land here ( aina ) the words life and sovereignty are very different. Sovereignty implies independence and strength. That is probably the correct translation and conveys what the Hawaiian's meant with they saying. I'm guessing that to avoid any confusion back in the days of the overthrow and with the coming of statehood some decades later, officials (who were not Hawaiian) opted to used 'life' instead. 'Sovereignty' was likely added back in parentheses to appease the Hawaiians who found the previous translation inaccurate and insulting. But to state officials, to put 'sovereignty' into the state motto might have fueled some flames the officials were still trying to dowse. Of course, this is all really just conjecture on my part. So don...

I'm home! The trip to California was quick but fruitful. My teeth have been repaired beautifully thanks to the amazing Dr. Daniel. I spent short but quality time with friends, including my pal Bailey here. I got a haircut. I got a big-city California fix. I inhaled some smog for old times' sake. I bought some stuff I can't get here, like silicone ice cube trays and Trader Joe's munchies. It was a good trip. When I returned, I learned that our veggie garden, as small as it is, has produced some fine results. The bean plants are flowering. Some are even sporting tiny baby beans. This cabbage is the only one we got, but it's a beauty, don't you think? We're going to cut it up for stir fry tonight. I also bought some kim chee mix. I know it's really not the right kind of cabbage for that, but what the hey. On my way back from the mainland, I picked up a copy of Rolling Stone Magazine and learned why the populace has so little confidence in the current eco...

When I was a young and restless ski bum back in the day, I found myself in a precarious position at a doctor's office. I had had a little accident on the hill. So there I sat, sans shirt, with an excruciatingly stiff neck. I had just been x- rayed . The Doctor had subsequently informed me it was (gulp) broken. Yikes. I think he said something like, "Congratulations. You broke your neck." It was just what my parents said would happen. ("Get down from there! Stop that! You'll break your neck! You'll shoot your eye out!") "That sounds kinda bad," I said. "Let's just say you should avoid diving into any shallow pools for awhile," he said. What a guy. So anyway, there I was, sporting my JC Penney special, when the doctor excused himself from the exam, then returned with a guy wearing a tool belt and carrying a wrench and a screwdriver. He was also holding a metal contraption with straps. "Do you like that bra?" asked the doc...

Right back where I started from.... OK not quite where I started, but almost. Why? Chipped a tooth. I hate it when that happens. So I called my local dentist and busted a move all the way up to Waimea Town where he drills. He said my best option was a crown and he recommended a gold one because they are strong and hold up well. Yikes! Since I have no metal in my mouth at all, the prospect of a gold tooth was devastating to my fragile psyche. I asked about porcelain. He said he could do that too, but would have to file more of my tooth away. I asked about an overlay and he said he didn't think that would work as well, given the nature of the break. He also made no guarantees if I chose to simply fill it. It's just a small chip; one of the corner tips broke off. It's not like I cracked the thing in half or anything. So, I called my old (young actually) trustworthy dentist in Encino . When I told him my story, he said that he was confident he could fix it with an overlay and ...