Aloha '22, Aloha '23?

[Note: This is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland.]

12/31/22

Aloha Everyone, and Happy NewYear (Hau'oli Makahiki Hou)!!

This has been a mixed year for me and I'm ambivalent about seeing it end.  On the one hand Karen and I had some very good travel experiences, I learned some new things, like how to hit a small white ball, and we continued to live in Hawai'i, land of lava and great weather.  On the other, the world seems to be coming apart at the seams physically, politically and socially, and some very crazy people gained power and influence during the year.  In keeping with my ambivalence, I've decided not to do my usual fireworks "extravaganza" again this year, and just let '22 end quietly and without much fuss.  How about you?

This past week was pretty good.  The Christmas dinner party we went to on Sunday was a nice way to celebrate. There were about 20 people, and the menu was traditional turkey etc.  Some of the guests were other neighbors, like a very interesting guy who lives down the street and who used to work for Disney as an "Imagineer," and others who were local friends of our host whom we didn't know but from whom it was stimulating to get fresh perspectives on things.  On Friday some old friends from Ohio joined us for dinner, along with their daughter who teaches in Waimea. Tomorrow we will share New Year's dinner with a woman in Karen's quilting group and her husband.  Like I said last week, this holiday season has involved a LOT of socializing for us, but we've certainly enjoyed it. My presents for Karen were pretty well-received, much to my relief of course: a lightweight garden hose she has been wanting, and a new rain jacket for golf. Mine included an Aloha shirt and a device to help me with my breathing exercises. How's that for being romantic!  All in all, it was a good Christmas.

Swimming Lesson

Despite all the socializing this was a fairly physical week for us.  On Tuesday we went to Planet Fitness for our 13-machine muscle-mangling session, and then on Thursday we played golf at Makalei.  The golf went very well, considering we hadn't played in over a month.  I got a couple of bogies and only lost two balls.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day.  We saw around 30 Nenes, including one family with three babies who were taking advantage of one of the course lakes.  The Peacocks are nearing their full mating plumage and we were treated to a couple of displays.  We only saw one white one this time, and we think it was the young male.  We can hardly wait for him to be mature enough to do the fan dance.  A problem with being a very mediocre golfer is that it takes so many strokes during a round that I'm really tired at the end.  We opted to skip the last two holes, which aren't all that interesting anyway, and I was perfectly fine with that.

In addition to the gym and golf course, this week I was on a campaign to chop back some bushes and tree limbs that have gotten out of bounds.  This is the best time of the year to do this, because the slower growing season means that your efforts will last a little longer. Much of what I'm doing involves using a pole trimmer, a strenuous workout for the core muscles which are also used in swinging a golf club. Needless to say, I'm sore.

The only medical news of the week is that we both got our teeth cleaned on Wednesday.  Anywhere on the mainland this would be trivial, but here we are experiencing a severe shortage of hygienists.  This means scheduling is 6-8 months out.  We ran into a problem earlier this year because our spring travel plans changed and we tried to reschedule our April cleaning.  Nope.  We already had this December appointment so we gave up and just brushed extra well.  Our insurance will cover 3 cleanings per year -- if we can find someone to do it.  We tried to get appointments for next spring but no luck -- our next visit will now be August.  We also made appointments for December and again for April, '24.  That will get us back on track, but if we have to change any of these we'll be out of luck.  By the way, if you need to see an actual dentist there isn't a problem.  If you know anyone who is a dental hygienist and wants to spend some time in Hawai'i, let them know that they would be hired instantly.

Oh, I forgot to report that the two Covid tests I took last Saturday and yesterday were both negative.  Yippee.  

Ok, that's it.  Christmas decorations will come down starting tomorrow.  Hope you are staying warm and shoveled.  

Lava Changing to Snow, Ho, Ho, Ho

[Note: This is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland.]

12/24/22

Aloha to All!  --

How's that snow shovel holding up?  Back ok?  Any frostbite?  Heh, heh.  Actually, the weather reports from the mainland look rather dire, and I shouldn't  joke too much.  Any complaints I make about the weather here are pretty pathetic compared to conditions in many parts of the country.  "Bomb Cyclone" is a new term for my vocabulary. But of course everyone focuses on their own particular circumstance and I'm no exception, so here goes my whimpering anyway.

Last weekend we had a dandy of a weather front come through, with rain and wind continuing on Sunday

Yes, that's a volcano

and Monday.  This was the storm that caused an Hawaiian Airlines flight coming into Honolulu to have such a hard time, with people bouncing off the ceiling and a number of serious injuries.  The storm came in from the west -- a Kona (leeward) front -- so our side of the island took the brunt.  Here at our house we had some rather scary wind gusts and even some lightning and thunder, a rare thing for us.  It dumped a total of 5" of rain according to our garden rain gauge.  All that moisture fell as snow on our two 13k foot-tall volcanoes, and we have been treated to the sight of both of them with snow caps this week.  Yes, it will be a white Christmas in Kona (sort of).  Note, a couple of weeks ago lava was flowing down the side of Mauna Loa, and this week it was dusted with snow!

My eye exam last Saturday went fine and I skipped having an injection.  I'll take that as a nice Christmas present.  I'll return in 6 weeks, sooner if things go south, but for now both my eyeball and I are happy. 

This week has been high-level socializing for us.  Thursday we had our neighbors over for barbecued ribs, just to contrast with all the usual Christmas fare.  Yesterday we went to an annual get-together sponsored by a women's organization Karen belongs to -- the first time since BC (Before Covid) that it has actually happened. And tomorrow we're going for Christmas dinner at another neighbor's house.  Whew! I'm going to do a covid test today and another one around Tuesday or Wednesday just to see if all that close contact hasn't spread more than Christmas cheer. By the way, the test I did last Saturday was negative, which means covid didn't hitchhike back home from the mainland with us.

We went to Planet Fitness *twice* this week, Sunday and Wednesday. This is partially in lieu of playing golf, which we hope to get back to next week. It didn't seem any more agreeable to my muscles the second time than the first. 

Ok, got to get ready for Santa.  We'll do a day-before-Christmas beach breakfast picnic and then "chill" (pardon the expression) out for the rest of the day.  Take care.  Stay safe. Merry Christmas!!!

In From The Cold, Lava Pau for Now

[Note: This is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland.]

12/15/22

Aloha Everybody  --

We got home on Tuesday from our quick California trip.  Later today I'm going to take a Covid test, but so far I think we're going to be ok, even though we were around a lot of unmasked people.  It was a fun trip, except that for us it was c-o-l-d (highs in the low 60's). Most of the time it was sunny, which helped, but when we went to Santa Barbara it rained 3 inches and turned even colder.  There were "sun breaks" and during those we enjoyed the very pretty area around Santa Barbara, including our friends' house, which sits above the city and has a great view when it's clear.  We really enjoyed staying in downtown LA, which we found safe, clean, and architecturally dazzling, particularly the Biltmore Hotel, where we stayed, the Broad Museum, the new Disney Concert Hall, and many old Art Deco and Art Nouveau buildings built during LA's heyday. We spent one night in nearby Pasadena and toured the historic Gamble House (as in Proctor & Gamble), a 1908 gem of Craftsman style.  As much as we enjoyed the trip, it is very good to be home and get warm again.

Now

While we were gone our two erupting volcanoes also decided to take a vacation and have now shut off completely.  Kilauea's lava lake crusted over just a few days after the fissure eruption of Mauna Loa suddenly stopped.  Volcanologists aren't detecting any seismic activity under either one that would indicate a resumption of activity, so for now we're a lava-free zone.  The two volcanoes tap into the same deep magma source, but they have separate plumbing.  The best guess of the volcanologists is that Mauna Loa's

Then

expansion during its eruption somehow pinched off the route of magma rising to the summit of Kilauea.  The good news is that the side vent lava from Mauna Loa stopped about 1.7 miles from Saddle Road, so the commuters and truck traffic can continue.  A nice Christmas present from Pele.

 We're now a little behind in our holiday prep.  Hopefully we'll get some cards and letters out this weekend, and we'd like to put up a few more decorations. Busy, busy, busy.

Last week while we were in Santa Barbara we got some bad news from Ohio. A very good friend died suddenly and unexpectedly.  He was recovering from some minor surgery and had an infection that may have contributed, but no one knows for sure at this time.  His wife died from cancer about a year ago, and although he was devastated from that, he seemed to be upbeat and looking forward to a January trip to Israel.  He had just finished rebuilding his greenhouse and was doing other projects that kept him active and involved.  A real shame, and he will be sorely missed.

Later this morning I will be seeing my eye doctor.  I'm not sure how this will go.  My eyesight in both eyes went downhill while we were on the mainland, which I think is due to the cold weather.  As soon as the temperature drops to about 65d my eyes start watering and my nose runs -- constantly.  It could be that my eyes got really dried out from all that crying.  I'll let you know next week.

Ok, off the market and to our beach breakfast picnic.  Take care.  Stay warm and be good so Santa will be generous.

Living with Lava, Tired of Turkey

[Note: This is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland.]

12/3/22

Aloha All  -- 

Who's Got the Marshmallows?

Well, the big news here this week, of course, has been the eruption of Mauna Loa that began last Sunday night and has continued all week, with some interesting developments along the way.  Another of our volcanoes, Kilauea, has continued its 14-month summit lava lake activity, so at the moment we have the distinction of being an island with two simultaneous eruptions going on. Lotsa lava!  Now, if we can just get Hualalai  to go off also, we'll have a trifecta!  (I shouldn't say that -- it's the volcano we live on and overdue for an eruption...)

Mauna Loa had been rumbling since September, when the usual 10-15 earthquakes per day increased to 40-50.  Even so, the volcanologists didn't think it was about to erupt.  Here's the official update the morning of the eruption last Sunday: "Mauna Loa is not erupting and there are no signs of an imminent eruption at this time. Monitoring data show no significant changes within the past 24 hours. Mauna Loa continues to be in a state of heightened unrest as indicated by increased earthquake activity and inflation of the summit. The current unrest is most likely being driven by renewed input of magma 2–5 miles (3–8 km) beneath Mauna Loa’s summit."  

They were likely embarassed, then, when lava started spewing in the summit caldera about 11:30 p.m, that night. Oops.  However, Mauna Loa is a very active volcano that has erupted over 30 times since 1843, the first well-documented eruption (that's an average of once every 5 years), so nobody was surprised that it did so again.  In fact, the last time was in 1984, so we were kind of overdue.  I'm sure the volcanologists are carefully looking at how they misjudged the timing and what signs they missed.

Pretty Awesome!

The action at the summit was over in just a couple of days, and the eruption has continued from fissures further down slope, along what's called the Northeast Rift Zone. This shift has been common to about half of Mauna Loa's eruptions. Rift zones are a common feature of shield volcanoes and are natural lines of weakness that form as the volcano grows and settles.  The fissure eruptions have produced some spectacular fountains of lava, sometimes reaching 200 ft. They are in a rather remote area, however, and the best views have come from helicopter flyovers and from a web cam the volcanologists quickly set up.  The lava is flowing to the northeast, away from us, and there is almost no chance it will directly impact us.  Nor are there any communities in the path of the lava, unlike when Kilauea's rift zone eruption of a few years ago took out quite a few houses down south. However, it is looking increasingly likely that lava will cut Saddle Road, a major highway connecting Hilo and Kona.  This will be a major disruption, because many people live on the Hilo side and commute to the Kona side.  Also, a unique problem is that the only landfill on our island is on the Kona side, so trucks have been using the Saddle Road to haul all of the Hilo side trash to the landfill.  Commuters and truck traffic will have to use longer and more difficult routes.  The lava is currently about 4 miles from the highway and has slowed as it reached a more level area.  It could take a week before it cuts the road, but it seems inevitable if the eruption keeps going.

Being the lava enthusiasts that we are, on Thursday night we drove up north and went along Saddle Road to several spots where you could see the lava pretty clearly.  With binoculars we could even see lava fountaining from the most active fissure.  Pretty impressive, and we can add to our life achievement lists two firsts: seeing in person an eruption from Mauna Loa, and seeing lava fountaining in person.

Living with lava for the past 20+ years has taught us to take the dire, shrill, and hey-look-at-this -we're-all-going-to-die-isn't-this-terrible news reporting with a very large dose of "ho-hum."  We'll see what the reality is and deal with it -- yes, there will be vog (but none now), and yes, there will be destruction and disruption (but likely less than Kilauea's last rift eruption).  In the meantime, it seems best to just enjoy the educational entertainment it is providing, the recreational opportunities (lava tube hiking), and the money it's bringing to the island (thousands of tourists spending lots of it). 

In non-volcano news, Karen and I worked out at Planet Fitness on Sunday, trying to do penance for our Thanksgiving over-indulgence.  We had planned to also play golf on Thursday, but the course had to close for the day because their new liability insurance hadn't become effective.  They thought the change would be seamless, but some unexpected legal snafu came up that couldn't be quickly fixed.  Since we're leaving for CA next week, it may be awhile before I can chase a little white ball again. Darn.  We may miss the Nene babies when they make their debut.  We could have played somewhere else, but I'm kind of committed to Makalei and other courses don't interest me much. (Note, that should make clear my lack of seriousness about the game.)

We also managed to finally finish off our turkey.  Even though we bought a small 13-pounder, it has taken a week of lunches and dinners, plus a plate to take to our bachelor next door neighbor, plus freezing a fair amount, to do it justice.  Talk about bang for your buck!  I confess that about mid-week we took a break and barbecued a steak.  I think I've had enough turkey to last another year.  Not sure about steak, however,

We managed to get up more Christmas decorations than I thought we would before our trip, including setting up our (artificial) Christmas tree.  I have a few lights on the outside, and all in all it looks credibly festive.  

Ok, off one more time before our trip to run some errands and to enjoy our beach picnic breakfast.  Bundle up, keep smiling, stay healthy.