Mountains and Islands

It was a beautiful day today.  Perfect.  One in a million.  Literally.  So I jumped into the convertible for a joyride.  OK the convertible is a tractor and the joyride is mowing the lawn, but still, it was a fantastic day.  There I was, cutting around the old tangerine tree,  hitting old, moldy fruits that had fallen to the ground, hearing the thud as the blades whacked the dense blobs hiding in the grass.  Fuzzy and nasty as they are, they smell great when you whir over them.  So great, it inspired me to sing, and of course, what else would I croon but that age old masterpiece from the 60s, Hey Mister Tangerine Man.   "Hey mister tangerine man, make some juice for me.  I'm not normal and, there ain't no place I'm going to (except the assylum).... Hey mister tangerine man, splat some fruit for me, in the jingle jangle morning I'll be co-mitted soon."  Yes, it's a classic.   So there I was, mowing away, cutting grass, grinding up sticks and anything in my ...

I picked up a few items at the Hilo Farmers' Market this morning.  The place was bustling, but the merchants were complaining to one another about how slow it was.  There were lots of lookers and few buyers.  Everyone, however, was happy to see the sunshine, so despite the heat and mugginess, nobody was complaining.  "At least it's not raining," said one man, a merchant powering down an enormous cheeseburger like he hadn't eaten in a week.  "I hear that," I said. "One think about Hilo though," he said.  "When it rains, it's a warm rain, you know?  So it's really nice for just walking around.  Really comfortable." "True," I said.  "Especially if you have one of those giant, Hilo umbrellas."  He liked that, smiled and nodded. I wanted to add that 72 degrees, dry and sunny are also nice conditions for walking around too and don't require an umbrella, but I didn't want to burst the guy's bubb...

King Kameha was looking particularly regal today, don't you think? I saw a great bumper sticker out and about this morning.  It said, "Don't believe everything you think." Something to ponder, eh? Hoppsy and I returned to the vet for some X-rays and hope for some definitive answers to why she is walking so oddly.  Her gait is all out 'o wack .  It's as though her back legs have only one slow, stiff speed and her front legs must stutter to maintain the pace.  It also seems that her hips or lower back are sore, since she now hates when I try to feel anything back there or massage her.  X-rays were, unfortunately, inconclusive.  She has an arthritic spur on one of her vertebrae which could be the cause, but only slight signs of any arthritis anywhere else.  So, we're trying some prednisone (yuck!) for a few days to see if she responds.  It's a powerful drug, not to be taken lightly with nasty side effects if taken long term.  I took it for four days to...

Today was positively spectacular.  It was just how paradise is suppose to be.  I got up early to shop the Volcano Village farmers' market. If you don't get there by 7:30 or 8:00, a lot of the most ono grinds are sold out.  On my way, I stopped to drop off some trash and recycling at the transfer station.  That's how we do it here.  No garbage service.  Just chuck your smelly bags into the trunk of your car and off to the dump.  It's not bad really.  Regardless of which way you're headed, there's a transfer station on your way.  When I arrived at the Volcano station, I backed up to the dumpster as usual.  When I got out to open the back of the truck, I noticed a mommy kitty and two babies curled up on a rock nearby.  "Ah," I heard myself say out loud .  No matter.  They were the only ones who could hear me.  Mommy looked asleep, but I think she was watching me through squinted eyes, the way cats do.  I lifted two bags out of the truck and flung them in...

Hilo now has what may be the weirdest radio station in the known universe. KHBC is actually a pretty old station, but was previously broadcast only on the AM dial. Now, it's comes into my car via FM signal. Better yet, Kahikina and Lyman, two of my faves from KAPA (and two of the most well known radio personalities on the island), recently defected from their old digs and are now part of the evening drive time, Pau Hana Party show on KHBC . They share the mics with a gal named Pohai . Initially, I wasn't too keen on Pohai , thinking Lyman (formerly one of the boloheads on KAPA) and Kahikina (aka Tommy Ching , the Polynesian Pirate) could handle the show quite nicely on their own. Now, however, I see that she really adds zaniness. In fact, she's hilarious. Pohai has the perfect female radio voice, deep, a little raspy yet uniquely feminine. I like her. KHBC is strange because the station's musical offerings are all over the map. They might play a classi...

The Volcano Farmers' Market has become, as they say here, "choke." That means it's really busy and packed with people. I think it would be safe to say that the little venue has been discovered. It's always been a hoppin' place, a great community gathering of locals and the occasional visitor on Sunday mornings. This past weekend, there wasn't a parking spot anywhere near the Cooper Center where the market is held. I had to park about 1/4 mile up the road. And that was at 7:30 a.m! There are more vendors now than ever. The Volcano Farmers' Market has become popular, I think, because word has spread that it's a really great place to buy some beautiful produce and delicious prepared foods. It's really different than the bigger markets. It's 100% local. Really local. It's not just stuff grown or made in Hawaii or even on the Big Island. Most of the goods sold there are made or grown either in Volcano or within a few miles of the village. I...

You see some interesting people at the Hilo Farmers' Market. This morning I spotted a flaming gay black man strolling toward me with an adorably cute and perfectly quaffed Jack Russell Terrier. How do I know he was gay? Well, I'm pretty sure the Jack Russell was straight. But the 30-something human was definitely light in the loafers. Not that there's anything wrong with that. He was wearing one of those wide necked, horizontally striped sailor's shirts, yellow and blue. His pants were white pedal pusher, tight at the knees. On his feet, canvas boat shoes with no socks. His outfit looked a little like the one Kirk Douglas wore is Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Only instead of dancing with a seal, this guy was prancing with his dog. To top it off (the outfit, that is), the man wore a boat captain's cap, the kind that sits not quite flat on your head with a small brim. It was tilted just so. The flaming sailor tip-toe-trotted across the road, elbows in, ha...