Wasting water

An 8" water main broke in Kawaihae and poured hundreds, if not thousands, of gallons of fresh water onto the street. The water made its way across the Kawaihae Harbor parking lot and spilled into the ocean next to the dock. I tried to send this cellphone photo to the newspaper for a heads-up but Verizon's system didn't want to work for some reason. When I came back a couple of hours later much of the area was already dried-up from the hot Kawaihae sun. You can see the hole in the foreground where the water forces sand and rubble out onto the street as it bored a hole.

No POTD

Funeral for a Friend

Today was the service for Sherwood Greenwell who died recently at the age of 85. Hundreds made their way to Christ Church in Kalukalu just up the street from the old Greenwell Store which is now the Kona Historical Society.


There were so many people standing in line that they had to just have folks take their seats and start the service. I was asked to shoot some photos for friends that could not attend the service, I also had to shoot video which turned out to be quite a task as my video camera batteries kept dying. Though charged-up they couldn't keep up with the taxing drain of a videocamera, for still photos they do okay. Went through about five batteries.


Billy Paris provided song, kind words and some funny stories about life with Sherwood in the old days.


The crowd filled the tent set-up for the service, this many people would have overwhelmed the church itself had it been held indoors.


John Olson provided the eulogy for the service.


Folks viewed photographs with Sherwood in earlier years with politicians and other notable people. Sherwood was elected to the Big Island's Board of Supervisors which later became the county council. You can still see his name on a plaque on the inside of Afook-Chinen Auditorium (the last time I looked years ago).


We will miss Sherwood.

I used to be on the board of directors for the Kona Historical Society and worked with Sherwood on several projects including oral histories of ranches and ranching. It was amazing the knowledge he had and the details he would remember from days gone. It was always a pleasure to be in his company to hear what he had to say and his candid opinion. In line with how Sherwood liked to talk-story and share information the Society has a very open policy for access to information, researchers have always praised how helpful the Society is. If you ever have a chance to go through Kealakekua stop by the Kona Historical Society, its forté is its photo collection and that's what drew me to the organization.

In my family funeral services are like reunions, it's the only time all of the busy relatives take time to come together. And because food is catered for the service family members always complains about the food. This doesn't taste right, or that isn't as good as the way the family resturant makes it. They actually prepared the food once for one of the services for our relatives, that's the only time they didn't complain, it was a hassle to do but I guess it was worth it.

Book 'em Dano

Just got this book in the mail today, I figured if Hollywood Animal was a good read American Rhapsody should be too.

Pretty lazy with posts today, doing these last few posts at a spot near Jamba Juice on the free Wi-Fi.

Covered an accident on the highway today. A Toyota 4-Runner plowed into the side-saddle diesel fuel tank of a semi-tractor crushing it like an egg and spewing fuel all over the highway. Of course people being the way they are just drove over the fuel and spread it over a few hundred feet down the road which needed to be sopped-up by state crews. You can probably read about it in West Hawaii Today tomorrow morning about how the road was closed for hours.

Got Poke?

Today it's Poke Contest time. Click on the above image for a short movie of some of the many incredible poke dishes entered. Someone there said I was the perfect photographer for this contest since I don't eat raw fish and wouldn't be neglecting my job by eating. Enjoy the view.

No POTD

Food and fumigation

Photographed a contestant that's entering the Poke Contest on Sunday at the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel. Her ahi poke recipe has ahi, maui onions, kim chee sauce, green onions, shoyu, sesame oil and roasted sesame seeds. She mixed it all up for the photos and for lunch. I had mentioned before that I don't eat raw fish so she tossed a bit in a frying pan, spread some Best Foods mayonaise on a flour tortilla and dished it up for me and her family. It was excellent, good flavor and tender. She said even she prefers eating the poke cooked instead of raw sometimes and everyone enjoyed these wraps.


Not exactlly a welcome mat, this sign greeted me on one of my doors when I got back to my apartment. Another sign said I could enter at 4p.m., I got there at 5:30p.m. and it still smelled of gas (I assume the smell was the gas). So I opened all the windows and doors to air the place out and started to rearrange stuff in the apartment. After about 30 minutes my eye were burning a little so I got out of there leaving the windows open to air it out and go to town for dinner. Not good. After a few hours I returned and the gas smell was gone and everything seemed okay.

In at Kamuela Inn

Got out of my apartment before the termite killers arrived and headed for Waimea in the morning. I can't get back into the apartment until 5p.m. Friday due to the poison gas. How reassuring. My neighbors couldn't stay at the King Kamehameha hotel after all, it was booked-up, they're at the Kona Seaside. Had to turn-off the propane gas before I left. Guess it wouldn't be good if the tented house filled with propane...oh the humanity....


A view of Mauna Kea summit from Waimea, looks like another nice day up there. When it's daylight you can view webcam images from the summit here.


On Kawaihae road before you get to Waimea Park and the center of town you'll see this roadsign, turn here of course.


A short drive up the way is the entrance to Kamuela Inn. An old but well kept wooden building which houses an art gallery where they serve a continental breakfast in the morning and the different rooms.

Okay, I had to throw a couple of room photos on here for my mom who always asks me about the hotel rooms I stay in.


Room to the left with cable TV, padded rocking chair, a little refrigerator (it's empty, you put your own stuff in there), and bathroom sink, I'll spare your bandwidth and leave out the bathroom shots.


To the right is the bed and on the far wall is a little, and I mean little, nook to do writing, makeup or for me my laptop to update this blog. Plenty of wall outlets for electronic gizmos like computers and local phone calls are free, just dial 9 to get an outside line. So you can go online as much as you like if you so choose.


Above the nook is a shelf with various books either left by management or travellers.


If you're hungry you're in luck. Across the street is a gas/mini-mart, just down the road is Merriman's and Aoli's, across the street is Edelweiss and just up the road is Hawaiian Style Cafe and a little more is Tako Taco. How can you go wrong here?

The gas chamber

One more day and the house gets tented for termites. Apparently the company uses something called Vikane gas. This is a bag of stuff in the freezer, apparently the gas can even get into the refrigerator.


More stuff in bags. Some of it is triple bagged for leakage, one of the bags had some sesame seed oil leak in it, that'll be a clean-up project when I open the bags back up.

What a hassle.

Adventure Tuesday - Mauna Kea

Today was Adventure Tuesday with Carly and Renata and the objective was Mauna Kea summit.


Here some birds hang-out at the Ellison Onizuka Visitor's Center at about 9,800' elevation. You're supposed to stop to acclimate here at least 30 minutes before heading to the top. We were running late so we stayed about 15 minutes and headed up to get there before sunset. One hint, go early enough so you're not driving with the sun low in the sky, it's blinding when driving up the summit road.


Renata and Carly head up the summit trail. Like a fool I ran up the trail so I could get ahead to take their photo coming up the trail, this knocked the wind out of me.


We didn't make it up to the summit before the actual sunset, we did see it set beneath the clouds on the way up. But the afterglow was nice.


Here's Renata in the afterglow of sunset.


Carly and Renata on the summit in front of the lele (altar). Hey, who's taller? The little pole on the right side has the USGS benchmark for the summit.

Beautiful on the summit. Clear skies, a brisk cold breeze (musta been freezing with the wind chill). Doesn't seem like the Hawaii of palm trees and warm sand.


After the summit trek we headed back down to the visitor's center for some star-gazing via the various telescopes they have set-up there. An interpretive guide Eric pointed out planets, galaxies, stars and gave us a lesson in Hawaiian star names. He also took this snap of us in front of one of their telescopes. The visitor's center is open 365 days a year and it's free to visit and look through telescopes, they also have a video about Mauna Kea and astronomy in the center. Eric said during the summer months they may have 200 visitors crammed there at night. You don't need a 4x4 to get here, an ordinary car will make it to the visitor's center, I've even gotten here with my Geo Metro XFi that had a 3 cylinder engine without problems.

Mouse in da house & Mr. Freeze

My cat is a good mouser, but why does she have to bring them into the house alive? I subdued the mouse and it met a spiral watery death.

I've developed a technique when rodents like this, or wasps or nasty lizards get in the house that needs to be eliminated or taken outside. I don't use bug spray, too messy. Wasps flying around in nooks and crannies of the windows are impossible to hit with a swatter or Thwacker™ which can cause damage to the house. What I use is a can of Dust-Off.

If you hold the Dust-Off can upside-down it shoots super-duper cold propellent out of the nozzle that freezes stuff on contact. So I used that on the mouse to freeze it and have done the same to wasps and lizards. Actually I usually toss the lizard outside where it warms-up, comes back to life and runs somewhere else if you don't freeze it too much. I mean, do you really want to be spraying Raid™ in your kitchen where you cook? Better to use the Dust-Off. It's like being Mr. Freeze in Batman! Buy the Dust-Off in three packs at Costco and you're all set.

Guilt by association

Before stopping by Ba-Le for lunch today I glanced at the WHT paper box and this is what I saw (camera phone photo). It was a bunch of flyers someone stuck in front of our paper that said "DO YOU REALLY WANT THIS MAN *MAN'S NAME* COACHING YOUR CHILDREN? I KNOW I DON'T ANY LONGER." It has the guy's name on there (I've blurred it out) along with some kind of law enforcement printout of the charges against the guy. Something about promoting detrimental drugs in the 3rd degree and other stuff including a photo of the guy.

I called the circulation manager and he asked me to get it out of there, so I bought a paper and found that there were about 20 of these flyers in there. I mean WTF? If someone really wanted to let people see it why not just leave it out somewhere for folks to take for free? People often misuse our delivery systems to leech onto for distribution. They put stuff in the newsstands, they put stuff in residence paper boxes. We have to watch for this kind of stuff. What if this guy is innocent and he thinks we put it in there? Sue job.

We did an internet search and found out he is indeed a coach in town, or was at the time the info was posted on a website. I ain't saying who it is but I did show a copy of the flyer to someone who visits this blog.

Vote early, and vote often.

I was the 46th person to vote at my polling place, it said so on the ballot reader. This flag was hanging in Waimea at another polling station. A rather placid day at the polls. I took photos at this polling place in Waimea and I think folks were getting bored since business was so slow. 5p.m. and about 40% of the registered voters for that poll had voted by then.

When I worked at the Rehab hospital on Oahu it was great on election days. If you brought in your voting stub into the cafeteria they'd give you free ice cream as a reward.

As an employee at that hospital I remember having all kinds of health benefits for free... cancer insurance, full health and dental, emergency room, death and dismemberment. We figured that to really collect you'd need to lose a hand or something, it just didn't pay in the dismemberment plan to loose just a finger. It was a great learning experience to work there and I will always remember the good folks i worked with and my patients.

A quick one at Cassandra's

Andrea and Renata go geek by text messaging folks at Cassandra's. A somewhat quiet night at Cassandra's but there were two very good karaoke singers there that night, none at our table.


Ron and Katie buddy up and share a chair.


Carly gets Juni to put a tune on the karaoke machine long enough to free him up for some dancing.

I had one, okay two, drinks and left for home due to morning assignments the next day. The others headed for Durty Jakes.

No POTD

No POTD, digital books

It was my Sunday today, the last day of my middle of the week weekend on my new schedule. It's hard to get used to, I keep thinking it's Friday (my old 2nd day off of the week). Ran a bunch of errands, didn't take time to shoot a POTD but I did finish listening to one of my audio books.

Just finished listening to audiobook Prey by Michael Crichton. I'd give it three out of five stars, parts of it had my full interest, other parts seemed weak. I listen to audiobooks via download from Audible.com which is quite a deal at $15/month for any audio book and one periodical. If you do a lot of driving, walking or exercising this is a great way to go through books.

Before Prey I listened to Hollywood Animal: A Memoir by Joe Eszterhas which was a long book but great if you're interested in the film industry. Eszterhas names names and has led quite the life in this non-fiction piece. He goes over everything from his childhood, where he almost killed another kid by bashing him in the head with a baseball bat, to his encounters smoking pot on Maui with Sharon Stone who starred in his film Basic Instinct and coming to grips with throat cancer from his cigarette (and no doubt pot) smoking habits. I liked the audiobook so much I bought the hard copy, it's a big book but only cost me $5 including shipping via Amazon.com used books. Sending that one to Maile since she's interested in the film industry.

And since it's the 15th of the month it means I get to choose a new book. I was thinking about buying the hard cover book Shadow Divers and was surprised to see it on Audible so I bought it. Though I have to listen to another book I bought on Audible first. Maybe I'll save it for my flight to the mainland in November.

As for periodicals my top recommendations are: Car Talk (these two jokers usally take summer off so don't subscribe then), To The Best Of Our Knowledge (which you can actually listen to for free at the link on the left), and In Bed With Susie Bright (Topics on sex and the sex industry) which can be pretty entertaining. Bright also is the author of the annual book Best of American Erotica and has had audio versions of some of those stories in her weekly periodical download. My favorite? Courtney Cox's Asshole by Jill Soloway. Click on the link to read it, I think it's much better in audio book, great narration. Max, I'll have to drop it off for you. ha

My mom wants me to get Kitty Kelley's book The Family about the Bush clan, but it was too late, I already got the Shadow Divers book. Maybe next month.

If you're looking for Samuel B-Day photos click on the link below

Click here to link to Samuel's birthday party photos

Had to put this link up so folks coming over from Samuel's Blog go to the right place to view his photos. Not bad, one year-old and he already has his own blog.

Bagging it

Saw my neighbor today and she had something for me, a bunch of plastic bags and instructions. The house I'm living in will be tented for termites soon and the Terminex company gave us these bags to store food, eating utensils or whatever inside to protect against the poisonous fumes. I'll have to read the instructions and figure it out. Do I put my cat in this thing too?

The property management company wanted to put me and my neighbors in the Kona Seaside Hotel during the tenting. My neighbor said 'no way' and told them either the Hilton or the King Kam hotel. Of course they said they'd put them in the King Kam. I also asked for a change but this would be cheaper for them. I asked to stay in the Kamuela Inn. I'm working up north anyway on those days so why drive back to town, plus it will keep me out of trouble. If I were to say in town I'll probably spend the night out having too much fun knowing I could just sleep it off in town.

More brushfire stuff

Here I am near the spot where the brush fire started which burned over 1,500 acres and was still burning in some areas when I shot this. The roads were all open this time and I had access to talk to a D9 bulldozer operator who had been cutting firebreaks the past 18 hours and some firefighters watching for flare ups of the fire on the perimeter. With unexploded ordnance in the area from WWII most personnel stayed out of the fire area. This spot is also downwind from a egg farm that has lots of chickens, you can imagine the scent.


Later at the paper Renata and Andrea tried to coax me into going to dinner. They almost had me but since I had such a late lunch I didn't feel like eating again.

Too busy workin'

Too busy for a POTD, I was out shooting photos this afternoon of a brushfire in South Kohala. Even though it threatened homes, evacuated residents and closed a road it wasn't much to shoot.

A cop wouldn't let me down the road closer to the fire, he told me 'they' said not to let anyone down the road. So I shot some photos from the fire dept command post. The fire officials in charge said I should go down the road to get photos, and that I should tell the cop that they said it's okay. So I tried that and the cop got pissed like I was making it all up. Then I saw the fire officials in charge again and they wanted to drive me down themselves and weren't happy that the cop didn't let me down there. At this point I passed, no need to get between a pissing match between fire fighters and cops who want to show who's in control with me as a pawn.

I've been covering fires (brushfires, structure fires, lava fires, wildfires) for about 20 years now. I've never been hurt, never got in the way of firefighters and I ain't ready to start causing trouble now. Why not just let me down there? In the end it was just as well because you probably couldn't see the homes being threatened by the fires anyway. From another spot I got a photo of the smoke rising and the homes that were evacuated (click on this link to see the photo on the newspaper's website). Not great but had I gone down the road I probably would have just gotten the smoke and no homes since the fire was in a gulch.

Back to work and the brushfire that wasn't

Worked in Waikoloa Village where it was hot (remember my air conditioner is still busted) then worked in Waimea where it was a little cooler. Then later I heard about a brushfire near Honokaa so I headed out of Waimea to photograph it. On the way to the brushfire it got dark, foggy and finally rain. Needless to say the brushfire was put out by mother nature.

Wiki Wiki Waikiki

Finally got some wheels to get around on Oahu. I didn't drive, I got to spend time with a high school buddy Perry. And we headed for Waikiki to catch up on old times and play tourist strolling around, but first we got into the usual Kalakaua Avenue traffic.


The Hyatt Waikiki (is it still a Hyatt?) built by Chris Hemmeter on Kalakaua Ave. along with other grand scale resorts in Hawaii. Hemmeter was like a Donald Trump in Hawaii, a golden boy of big resorts and grand plans. He built the Hyatt Waikoloa on the Big Island which later ended up selling for pennies on the dollar to the Hilton chain. Hemmeter's big thinking caught up with him in New Orleans with a casino that left him and his company bankrupt. He died last year without too much fanfare.


And farther down our Waikiki walk was the Pink Palace, the Royal Hawaii Hotel sandwiched between normal looking hotels.


Tourists getting their photos taken with Duke Kahanamoku's statue at Waikiki beach. Originally there was controversy as to which way Duke should face. Facing the ocean like a real surfer watching the waves, or okole to the ocean welcoming visitors to it. Well, you can see what won out. I guess the choice was right. Why get a photo next to Duke with a bunch of street traffic behind him.


Some store in town had a walk-thru fishtank around its stairway. The fishtank was okay, but the air conditioning was great. Honolulu is just as I remember it, hot and humid. Maybe hotter than I remember it.


Out of Waikiki and back in Honolulu (I guess technically Waikiki is in Honolulu) to Perry's place with his daughter Starla. I'll have to tell her wacky stories about her dad one of these days. I've known Perry since the 6th grade at Kuhio Elementary School so I know a lot, ha. Plus not seeing him in such a long time there are no new memories to clutter things up. Thanks for taking the time to get together on Oahu Perry and thanks for the memories.

Taurus at Toyota

So here's my dad somewhat nostalgically patting his 1993 Ford Taurus that he cleaned out of all kind of stuff as he planned on trading it in and driving away with a new Toyota Camry. There was a sales ad in the newspaper for the last of the 2004 models and it seemed to have everything he wanted. Incredibly the Taurus has only 32K miles on it. My folks don't drive much anymore.

We went into Toyota and asked about the 2004 Camrys they had for sale. Good news and bad news. They did have several 2004 models for sale, the bad news is that none in the color he wanted, white. The only ones left were dark blue, black and dark brown. So we took a spin in the blue model, which wasn't as dark colored as the sample swatches in the dealer's book. I told my dad to take the wheel, after all he would be the one driving it the most, my mom in the front seat, me in the back with the sales guy.

Off we went, sort of. My dad had to adjust to having the shifter on the floor instead of on the column, is that why the windshield wipers kept going on? After maneuvering out of the tight parking lot, to the sales guy's relief, we headed out on the road. I could sense the guy tensing every time my dad put the pedal down testing out the V6 engine and driving past residents swinging open car doors into our lane, city buses roaring past and pedestrians crossing the road every which way. The salesman must take a few days if not months off his life every time someone takes one of these new cars out for a test drive. The car is pretty comfortable, has a tons of storage compartments inside the car, has lots of power, a cavernous trunk and looks pretty good.

Back in the dealer's office the salesman found that for a little more my folks could get a 2005 model in white. They've got lots of them since it's the new model. So we went outside and found a 2005 Camry LE with a V6 engine. My dad refuses to get a 4 cylinder engine, I would guess that if he could get a Camry with a V8 he would.


There it is, the car he wants in the color he wants. We take a look inside and it all looks good. My folks are ready to buy it and drive home leaving the Ford Taurus behind. My mom whips out the checkbook, ready to make the purchase, my dad is looking forward to this spankin' new car. The salesman tells us, "That car is already sold, you can't have it. We have a more cars at our Sand Island lot and we'll have to bring one over." My folks look a bit stunned, all ready to drive home in a new car, all ready to ditch the old car. The salesman tells us it would take one week to prep the car and be ready to be picked up.

Back in the dealership the salesman and finance guy try to convince my folks to get undercoating and other nonsense, they reject all that extra crap. My mom writes a check for the car, no financing needed, and tells the salesman to stamp the payee section with the dealership. He says okay and tells us to wait and disappears...for a long time. Our minds wander and we speculate that he's written his name in the blank space and is heading for the airport for Las Vegas. Or he's made the sale for less money and pocketed the difference. At this point I'm surprised that my mom hasn't seen the movie Fargo where William H. Macy does all kinds of shenanigans as a car dealer. My mom also laughs and says maybe he split the money with the finance guy and both are going to Las Vegas. Then she laughs and said I watch too many movies.

After finally signing all the paperwork they exit the dealership, by this time I'm roaming around the lot looking at cars and making phone calls. We get back into the old car and head off for some shopping with my folks nostalgically talking about another car they had traded-in like it was a pet horse turned in to a glue factory. People get attached to their cars, my folks are no exception.

Flying to family, and driven to frustration

Today I flew out of Kona bound for Honolulu for a three day visit. The flight was uneventful with nice views of Maui, Kahoolawe, Lanai and Molokai. My folks picked me up at the airport and the traffic was heavy as usual getting into town. While stuck in traffic I could smell something like burning brake pads coming from my dad's car. Funny that his car's air-conditioner is busted too just like mine so the windows are all open. His a/c repair was quoted to cost $2K to fix, thus it isn't being fixed.

But I digress, the burning smell continued through town. We pulled into Zippy's for some food and I checked both wheel wells in the high noon sun, I couldn't see anything but a faint smell of burning brake pads was there. So we continued to drive home, then about a block from home smoke started coming from the right front wheel area and we finally made it home (we also probably hit every red light possible on the way back).

Here's what I found after taking the wheel off the car.


The CV Joint boot was shredded and was probably throwing grease and rubber parts onto the brake system. The CV joint itself was probably not lubricated by now and getting super-heated by the friction which probably set the grease on fire. All the wheel parts, rim and lug nuts, were super-heated by the friction and burning which made it interesting for me to remove the stuff. I let everything cool before I shot these photos.

So now my folks are in a jam. A busted air-conditioner, both CV joint boots are broken open (on the other side too), the driver's door lock doesn't work and there's a tiny crack on the front windshield. So the decision was made, not a single penny more will be spent to fix this car. Time to buy a new car.

So tomorrow we're going over to a dealer, hopefully not too far away, to trade-in the old Ford Taurus and buy a new Toyota Camry. As for me, I don't have a car to drive while here, I could drive the Taurus but not anywhere far.

I also spent a good deal of time working on my mom's iMac. Updating the operating system, adding applications, setting it up so I can operate it via remote from Kona and I also gave my folks my Nikon CoolPix 4500. A very good 4MP camera that can also shoot videos with audio. Now if I can just convince them to get a cable modem.

"They say it's your birthdayWe're gonna have a good time"--The Beatles

It was Sam's first birthday at Ba-Le and a crowd was there enjoying the day. Click on the photo above for the group photo being taken.


Click on the above link for a few photos I shot along with Dora and Leon at my table at the party, thanks kids for the photo assist. Lots of food, hey it was at Ba-Le so you know it's gotta be good, and finished it off with strawberry and mango ice cream. Also had some great cake that Max said came from a place in Honolulu called Ruby's. Max said it's on Hotel Street in the red-light district sandwiched between a couple of bars. The cake isn't the super-sweet type you'd find in most stores, it was good.

Thanks for the invite Max!

Ron's Cook-In

Andrea relaxing Sunday at Ron and Jim's BBQ. It wasn't really a cook-out since they had the grill on the lanai under the eaves. But there was lots of food, drinks and other pupu.


Travis and Ron earlier in the evening.


Travis a little later in the evening.


Carolyn and Ron transmogrify, was it mad cow?

Sushi Saturday

Sushi at Izakaya-Kai in Kona. This is my maki sushi pieces that I couldn't finish, eel, shrimp, egg and other stuff that I'm not sure what it was. Though tasty Renata, Andrea and myself had already had a tofu dish that had shaved bonita fish on it that was wiggling around like a heap of worms...yummy. I think it was the heat that made the pieces move. Also a few more other sushi dishes along with some sake.


Andrea slows down after having salad, tofu, sushi and sake.


Yet another fuzzy cameraphone image of Renata, Carolyn and Andrea this time at Ocean's Bar. The place was packed.

No POTD

Press Drive mystery solved

More Press Drive signs in Waimea this time. Also saw these signs in Waikoloa. Reed enlightened us as to what they probably were. When a car maker has a new car they invite members of the press, mostly car magazines like Road & Track, Car & Driver, etc., to drive the new model cars around so they can do a write-up. This was pretty much confirmed as there was a sign up in Holualoa that said something about 2005 Lexus on the Press Drive route. And later on Sunday I saw a Lexus sign, a crowd, cranes, scaffolding and Lexus cars up on a stage at the Kiholo Bay lookout on the Queen Kaahumanu Hwy. Must be nice to be flown to Hawaii to drive a Lexus around for a write-up. Would the Yugo have fared better had they done the same?

Some like it hot, we like it cold

On the way to a department lunch today I saw smoke in the sky so I decided to drive to it and this is what I found. A bystander said the truck, which was stopped in traffic on Palani Road headed up to the Queen Kaahumanu Hwy, was smoking in traffic. The driver refused to get out of his truck, seems he didn't believe it was a big deal despite smoke coming from under the hood and going into the cab. Finally firefighters had to haul the guy out then the truck burst into flames. By the time I got there the firefighters had just about finished hosing the thing down.

Whenever you see a fire like this it's best to not rubber-neck or get too close of a look because super-heated tires tend to explode and take with them any loose bits of fender as shrapnel. I've seen it happen before.


Here's dessert from our lunch at Huggos on the Rocks, the Hualalai Mud Pie. Some kind of mac nut/oreo type crust, coffee ice cream, fudge, chocolate, whipped cream and 1M calories. Ron digs into it as we shared it.


Another view of the deconstruction of the mud pie by Andrea and that's Travis' fork on the right. I got my digs in too and it was very yummy.