Audio Blog Post - Countdown to 2005

Bye-Bye 2004, Hola 2005

What do you need to start New Year's Eve? A Bubba Boiler of Kona Brew with s shot of Patron and a few packs of fireworks.


Brian wards-off evil spirts with a blast. Click on the image above for a QuickTime movie.


More photos, click on the image above.

Asian tsunami link

A clearinghouse of recent links, photos and video on the tsunami.

Rolling down the highway

Heading back to Kona Thursday afternoon, Mauna Loa on the left, Mt. Hualalai on the right.

"nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." -- Anne Frank

Click on the logo above to donate to the Sarvodaya Organization. They are an organization in Sri Lanka that is in need of funds to cope with the tsunami that devestated the area.

Mauka Kona for gardens, talk-story and omiyage

Spent the afternoon with Sunao Kadooka and his wife who took the above photo of us. The Kadookas live in Kainaliu, the mauka (mountain) part of Kona. Sunao is a veteran of WWII and was a member of the 100th Battalion, I think he was in the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) and he is a member of the Disabled American Veterans.

Sunao also has a very green thumb. I've been to his place a number of times to photograph banana bunches with over 20 hands growing, taro the size of children, strange potatoes with angular shapes growing above ground and a variety of things. In fact a TV crew recently had gotten wind of his gardening talents and taped in his garden with some of his giant squash and other things, the show should air in January on HGTV.

As usual after being invited over I left with a bounty of goodies, giant squash, Jabone (or Chinese Pummelo I think), Tangerines, Tomatillos and pumpkins. I also, as usual, got a tour and update of what he has growing in his yard. He's a very generous person and always has an open invitation to show-off what he's growing, just give him a call or you can usually find him at demonstrations and the like during the Kona Coffee Festival.

After a nice tour I got to talk-story with the Kadookas, have some pie, Kona Coffee (in typical local-style food is always presented for guests) and omiyage to take home.

Omiyage are gifts from a place travelled to taken back to others (and yourself) when you get back home. It's a Japanese tradition that all locals in Hawaii are into. When locals visit a neighbor island they bring back the prized goods from that island. Here's a partial list of things to get if you visit the Big Island: Big Island Candies chocolate-dipped shortbread cookies, Kona Coffee, Mac Pie pies, Anthuriums, Mountain View Stone Cookies, Holy's Bakery pies, Donna's Cookies, Furukawa Potato Chips (formerly Deguchi), Kogen's takuan, Keaau Kim Chee, Hawaiian Vanilla Company products and much more. You could write a short book on what to buy on each island and where to get it.

I did eat some of the jabone when I got home along with some Tangerine before I cooked up some of the pumpkin. I'm not big on pumpkin seeds so those were tossed but I cooked a traditional local-style Japanese farm dish, Pumpkin with chicken. Sometimes it's cooked with pork but I had chicken in the freezer which was easily cooked. I've also made the dish with tofu for a vegetarian version or just used the pumpkin alone with is just as good. You'll see it in the photo gallery, just click on the image above. This turned out to be a kind of long post, just when I thought I might let the blog R.I.P. I get an invite to the Kadooka garden that begs to be photographed.

LA Times earthquake gallery

A gallery of images from the LA Times on the earthquake destruction.

No POTD

No POTD

Too busy for a POTD. Had to cover a terrible accident this morning, four vehicles, one critical injury. This post is actually being made on Wed, I'm trying to catch-up.

The cold still lingers, it's mostly over but still have a nasty cough which is tough to beat. I found out this past weekend that Michael's got it along with someone in composing dept so there's a good chance I didn't give it to Abbie as it just seems to be going around. Abbie said she knows of folks in North Hawaii that also have this nasty cold.

Power woes

Once again power problems at my apartment. The power, and my TV shown above, blinking on and off. An electrician is supposed to drop by sometime to see what the source of the problem is as this same circuit goes upstairs and affects some of the outlets in my neighbor's apartment. It's getting overloaded somehow and tripping the circuit breaker. Other than my TV and VCR I hardly have anything going on that circuit, I pulled the plugs out and turned-off power to most other things and my neighbors weren't home so they weren't using any heavy duty appliances. I think I'll put-off buying a new TV until power stabilizes as this can't be good for a TV set.

Tsunami hits Asia yesterday

One of the BBC reports on the tsunami give a good first hand account.

A NOAA annimation of how the waves progressed from the epicenter of the earthquake.

They say it's your birthday, We're gonna have a good time - The Beatles

This morning it's the Peaman Birthday Biathlon at Kailua Pier. Peaman was decked-out with his birthday hat and participated in the biathlon despite having a broken arm. This is the last Peaman event of the year and not bad of a a turnout on the day after Christmas.


The morning sunrise over Mauna Loa at Kaiakeokua Beach (aka, Dig Me Beach) next to the pier. The Peaman events are free, there are categories for relay teams, finned swimmers and if you can't make the event on that day you can do the course on your own a week before or after the actual event and report your time on the honor system to Peaman, so long as you get the info in before he offically records it all.


After the Peaman Birthday Biathlon Simmy McMichael, left in the red hat, joined the kupuna at the pier playing the ukulele for visitors from the cruiseship in the bay. Simmy is mom to triathlete/model/TV host Lokelani who participated in the biathlon.


After the biathlon the group headed over to Cafe Fit at The Club in Kona where awards for the year were given out, the perpetual pea trophy and birthday cake for Peaman. Usually the group ends the year with an all-you-can-eat bash at Bianelli's Pizza but the resturant has closed.

Mele Kalikimaka "Merry Christmas"

It was dark by the time I finished work on Christmas Day, I finally got to the Post Office after a few days of neglect due to having my cold and working in North Hawaii. My drive through an empty Lanihau Center was dark except for their Christmas Tree which was still lit-up at night.

I want to wish you a Merry Christmas.

Spreading Holiday Cheer Virus

Today I found out Abbie has caught a cold and the symptoms sound familiar: sore throat, congestion, can't clear her ears when changing elevations. She might have caught my cold though we didn't even have as much as a handshake between us. No handshake, hug or any contact at all. Though we did hang in the same office together and exchange gifts and had lunch at the same table in Honokaa.

This virus must really be easy to transmit, Glennon and I got it from Travis which took about 4-5 days to affect us, it only took Abbie one day from me, if she did get it from me. Maybe it's just something going around town.

Symptoms:
Week One: Congestion, sore throat, plugged ear passages, later a headache, runny nose, then the cough and fatigue. Slight fever.
Week Two: Sneezing, more of the above minus the plugged ears and headache. Then things get better with the cough being one of the last things to kick.

Treatment:
Robitussin DM for congestion and cough during the day, a hot toddy at night to sleep. Either take over the counter cold medicine or see the Doc if things get worse for prescription meds like I did. And needless to say get rest. Plenty of fluids. Hot showers with the steam are great. All food will taste bland for the first week or so due to the congestion. Soups and tea are good, I had chili one night with Tabasco sauce splashed onto it so I could taste something.

I took zinc supplements via Cold-Eze and Zicam but they didn't seem to help as I'm still shaking the bug at 2 weeks + 2 days so far. Cepastat and similar sore throat drops worked well when my throat was sore and I gave Abbie what I had left.

So how about it Max? You still healthy? Never got close enough to me in Ba-Le? I think I'll stay away until I'm fully recovered. I've been washing my hands often too and using either hand wipes or hand sanitizer in my car too before I step out.

They say you catch each cold virus only once in your life. Once you catch a specific virus you build up immunity to it and you never catch it again, but with hundreds if not thousands of different cold virii around we'll always be catching colds.

Honokaa Xmas

Got to hang with Matt, Sophie, Johnnie and Abbie today for lunch after a little computer work at their place where I shot this snap.


Another snap of Sophie who gave me a candy cane for my computer efforts.

Lunch was at Cafe Il Mondo in Honokaa, a great place to eat. And the owners Sergio and Dena are related to fellow SportsShooter.com member Rich Walker, Dena's his sister. A great place for food and don't forget the cappuccino.

Water update

According to the Civil Defense website Due to pump breakdowns at the Hualalai and Kalaoa Wells, consumers in the North Kona District, from Kaloko Drive, north to Pu'ukala Loop Road, are asked to conserve water. The Department of Water Supply expects the pump repairs to be completed in approximately 3 months.

For all those buying up property and homes in Kona, now you know why residents who already live here are worried about how the existing infrastructure is be being stretched past its limit. Too much development, too fast. Three months without a good water supply? Maybe stop watering the golf courses for those three months.

Where's the water?

I knew I was in trouble this morning when I flushed the john and it flushed fine but I didn't hear the tank filling back up. So I turned on the water faucet and only a trickle came out. The above photo is the max water pressure coming out of my kitchen faucet.

From past experience with water problems this either meant:

• A water line to the house was broken
  
• Someone didn't pay the water bill and it was shut-off
  
• A water main or worse was busted and our whole neighborhood was without water
  

I walked outside, looked at the water meter, it seemed okay, I talked to my upstairs neighbor and she had the same problem after checking, very, very low water pressure. Then I saw neighbors across the street so I asked them if they had water. They gave me the bad news.

They called the Department of Water Supply and after many busy signals got through. The DWS said two of the three wells supplying the area with water were broken. It might take TWO WEEKS to get fixed. And just because we have some water, very, very little coming out, we may have none later. Some areas already had no water and they would be driving water tankers to these areas for people to fill-up containers. These neighbors were already busy filling up whatever containers they had with water via the low pressure supply.

Holy crap, what a way to spend the holidays without water.


I got out my hurricane preparedness water containers out and slowly filled-up 20 gallons worth of water in case our supply goes down to zero. Hey, you gotta flush a toilet or take a shower somehow. Lucky for me I just happened to buy two cases of drinking water from Costco last night.

I guess as more people in the neighborhood went to work and were not at home the water pressure increased just a little, enough to me to take a shower but who knows how long that will last. I'm sure after 4:30pm when people start coming home water use will skyrocket and there will be zero pressure in the taps.

I shot some photos of my neighbors and asked them to call Carolyn at the paper for an interview, hopefully they follow through as they were busy headed to friends houses with plants that will need water along with a trip to Costco themselves for drinking water.

If water pressure stays the way it is now it's somewhat tolerable, if it drops to zero then I may find a place to stay elsewhere. This bites.

Dec. 19-21 no POTD

Back to work again for these days but no time for personal photos as I was busy and still recovering from the cold. I have to keep telling people I have a cold as they approach me to shake my hand or try to hug me. This is one cold you don't want to catch.

I saw Glennon yesterday and he got the cold about the same time as me but his turned into pneumonia. So he had it worse than me. Seems everyone who has gotten it has been sidelined by it for about two weeks. Seems about right to me as it was the worst about a week into it.

Not cats, sheep

A pair of sheep go grazing above the Konawaena Wildcasts sign as they are oblivious to a big soccer game going on below. Finally back to work after taking three days off due to the bad cold. I've still got the cold but feeling better, I think the antibiotics and extra sleep is helping to knock the virus down.

No POTD, still under the weather

All The Drugs by C. Love

Went to the doc today and got a real prescription for some real controlled substances. Antiboitics and some codine type cough medicine that should knock me out at night as I had hard time getting to sleep the past few nights. Hopefully this will all kill the cold bug. And no, I'm not sharing.

No POTD, still under the weather

Rx from Dr. Max

Still have a wicked cold, those who have had it said it lasts a couple of weeks with a cough that goes beyond that. The way I see it I'm at the end of week one so I'm at the bottom of the curve hopeing to work my way back up. So I dropped by Ba-Le sandwich shop to pick-up my prescription from Dr. Max a bowl of Pho.


Here's my dinner, the pho comes in four different packages. Noodles with meat and veggies on left, soup stock in back, bean sprouts, basil, peppers and lime on the right and plum sauce in the front. Just what the doctor ordered. The peppers were especially good for the sinuses.

Being from a resturant family we usually prescribe saimin from Sekiya's but that doesn't have the peppers the pho did.

If you're ailing I'd recommend a nice bowl of pho or saimin from Ba-Le in Kona. You'll find it in the Kona Coast Shopping Center.

For you GPS geeks, or if you get a nice shiny GPS for Christmas, out there here are the coordinates to get there:
N 19º 38.693'
W 155º 59.713'

Thanks Max.

No POTD

Hot Toddy Tonight

Still suffering from my cold/flu with congestion and the like making it hard to sleep. My solution, a Hot Toddy before going to bed. This Hawaiian style version has herbal tea, some honey for sweetener and a shot of Okolehao (70 proof). Much more tasty than NyQuil. It gets my recommendation if you can't get to sleep. Did this last night and it worked like a charm.

Which reminds me of the wicked chicken soup my mom used to make when we were really, really sick with the cold or flu. It was made with fresh chicken parts, usually cut-up leg and wing pieces and some celery I think it was a pretty clear soup, maybe some salt. Then she added a liberal amount of booze, Seagram's VO or Wild Turkey or something similarly vile. Let me tell you, as a little kid drinking that thing it cleared you straight-up and made you possibly wish you were better and back to school. I guess it did work its magic though, industrial-strength chicken soup.

A Bug's Life

What happens when you leave part of a sugar cookie on a desk for two days? You make a lot of friends that bug you. Found this on the desk in the Waimea office Sunday morning, our open house with cookies and goodies was Friday so that was about two full days. This piece must have fallen off a tray at the end of the day. Reminds me of Uncle Milton's Ant Farm that I had as a kid.


Thousands of ants carrying away cookie crumbs and specks of sugar across the desk, down the desk leg and across the floor to somewhere I'm not sure. Spent some time cleaning it all up, or as much as I could, to make the area relatively ant-free. Might be time for some ant bait traps.

Like I always say, if you can't stand bugs you can't live in Hawaii. Roaches the size of matchbox cars, gekos like little dinosaurs, moths like bats flying around, etc. As Axel Rose said, "you're in the jungle baby."

Chuggin' and coughin'

Covered the annual Kailua-Kona Christmas Parade tonight and at the very back of the parade, even past Santa, was the Hawaii Electric Light Company train that is used to promote Toys for Tots. Must be one of those smoke machines that gives the effect coming out of the smokestack and like steam out the sides.

I'm going downhill with this cold/flu. I've talked to several folks who have had it and they all said it lasts at least two weeks or longer. Got the coughs today and Travis, who also had this same flu, was also coughing in the office as he said he's still not over it yet. But I'm still working, though I'm avoiding shaking anyone's hands or doing anything to spread the virus. It sucks to be sick.

Sunset dinner

Stopped in Waikoloa, near the Hilton, to have the lunch I packed for the road and as I was leaving the sun was setting so I hopped out to get this photo for a POTD. Very windy in Waikoloa today and my cold isn't helping much, it might be the flu.

Shot with my little Canon Powershot s500 camera on the somewhat manual setting with controls tweaked to get the rich colors and dark fronds.

Still sick

Still have a cold, bought some Cold-Eeze yesterday I'll have to see if that helps. Unless I have the flu which means that it won't help at all. Blahh

Turkey X-ing, Sun Worship, I'm a sickie

Came to a dead stop on my street as it was filled with turkeys. No doubt without fear now that Thanksgiving is over they were getting a free meal from a lady that put something out for them. What could that be? Stuffing? Click on the image for a larger view of this photo.


Made a quick trip into town and found this guy looking up into the clear sky on the First Hawaiian Bank building. Guess he was done with his job up there and was enjoying the view.


The reason my trip to town was quick is because I've caught a cold (hopefully not the flu). Been drinking some of this Airborne stuff that I bought for my flights to/from the mainland as it's also supposed to be good for colds. Started feeling something was going downhill yesterday before the workshop and last night I knew I had caught a cold or something. A nice headache and some sinus problems.

I had stopped taking my echinacia/goldenseal about a week or so ago to give my system a rest, I should have kept taking it as I never get a cold while on it. Damn, too late.

Today another headache and made chicken soup for lunch, maybe I should have had fresh turkey soup. And now starting congestion and a sore throat so I switched to herbal tea. It's 10:35pm and I'm going to sleep, which means I'm going to sleep early. g'nite.

Happy Hannukah

For those lighting the menorah tonight Happy Hannukah with this Adam Sandler's tune.

da workshops

Headed to Waikoloa today to help PF with his photo workshop and deliver a printer cable. Thick clouds over Waikoloa but nice and cool. You can somewhat see Mauna Kea off in the distance.


The master at work.

To Hilo and Back

A long day going over to Hilo and back for work. Here's the grey view coming into Waimea town from Hilo side. It's been rainy, windy and cold lately and today was no exception. Hilo was nice, a little bit of rain while there but for the most part overcast.


Farther along on my drive this time heading between Waimea and Waikoloa on the Mamalahoa Hwy. going towards Kona. Sunshine in sight with an outline of Mt. Hualalai on the left. A nice view after the mostly grey drive back.

Workin'

Shooting and souping

Mike shoots a freelance gig at the Kings' Shops in Waikoloa where a cultural festival had Bon dancers circling the stage, as Taiko drummers kept the beat.

After recovering from from a few shots the night before Mike was there covering it all Saturday afternoon on this blustery day.


Intrepid reporter Kim has a taste test of some mystery soup at the festival.

High wind warnings for the Big Island all weekend. Though the winds were strong in Puako and Kawaihae it's not that unusual to find that kind of wind there. Over the ocean I could see choppy seas and the strong winds were actually picking up the seawater and carrying it into the air in sheets and wind devils like an upside-down rainstorm, the water was going up instead of down. It was too far out to photograph, more of a video moment anyway as any still image would look just hazy. Might have to start carrying a video camera around.

Holualoa Xmas

Christmas party at Brian's in Holualoa in conjunction with the Holualoa Light and Music Festival. Click on the image to see the gallery.


Not exactlly Xmas music, John Denver's Country Boy was popular. Who would have thought everyone knew the words?


More soothing holiday music as Brandon finishes his Metallica set.

Waimea Clear

A clear day in Waimea today with a good view of the summit of Mauna Kea. It was windy though with more wind predicted for the rest of the week.

No POTD