Helen Thomas died yesterday. If you were around during her long tenure, you might still hear her voice in the scrum of the White House press room during those things called press conferences that presidents used to have. She was fearless. And in her later years, she lamented the decline of the fourth estate: … Did […]
Yearly Archives: 2013
A Magnificent View
Sun, 14 Jul 2013, 09:22 PM (-06:00)
There was a guy leaning against the stone wall of the Jagger Museum. He was in the shadows sharing miscellaneous facts and telling stories about the Halema‘uma‘u eruption. He talked about the weather. He talked about Rim Road being closed. And at some point, he mentioned Mauna Kea. We mentioned that we had just been there, […]
Kilauea At Night
Sun, 14 Jul 2013, 05:36 PM (-06:00)
Before 2008, there wasn’t much to see here at night. But scientists at the observing station detected sulfur fumes, and then Halema‘uma‘u opened. Today, molten lava from the fire pit flows thru subterranean lava tubes down to the sea. But the best view is here. Well, the best view is here at night. We’ve been here several […]
Hokulani’s Steak House
Sat, 13 Jul 2013, 06:45 AM (-06:00)
1. Finding As we drove thru Kea‘au, we passed a strip mall. There was a gas station, a grocery store, a health food store and a couple restaurants. It was dinner time. We were hungry. The parking lot was full. And a crowd was at Hokulani’s Steak House. So we decided this was the place […]
Malala
Fri, 12 Jul 2013, 08:13 PM (-06:00)
One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world. — Malala Yousafzi at the UN
The Top of Puu Huluhulu
Fri, 12 Jul 2013, 05:26 PM (-06:00)
Sorry, yet another about our hike along the Napau Trail. This should do it, though… Along the way there were deep fissures and gashes green with leafy things clinging precariously to the edge of yawning chasms that disappeared into blackness. There was evidence of trunks burned to vapors by the lava: round gaps […]
Volcanology
Fri, 12 Jul 2013, 06:41 AM (-06:00)
Yes, I’m still still talking about hiking the Napau Trail… We got to marker #10. Trudy sat down to read from the guide. Here, the couple from Arkansas who were ahead of us on the trail turned back when a sign for #16 appeared and confused them. Now, you must understand who it was that […]
The Pioneers of Napau Trail
Thu, 11 Jul 2013, 09:06 PM (-06:00)
And now, we return to the long-neglected telling of our trip to Hawaii more than a year ago… The fair and industrious Trudy began studying the guide before we stepped onto the pahoehoe. We weren’t sure how far we wanted to go, since there was so much to do that day, but we ran into […]
Camping in the Spring
Wed, 10 Jul 2013, 09:24 PM (-06:00)
I have a lot of things to catch up on, a lot of thoughts scribbled on paper that I ought to convert into bits. This is one of them: some scribbled notes from a late March camping trip to Huntsville State Park… 1. The Night Before It rained a little last night. It was barely […]
Perplexion
Tue, 9 Jul 2013, 07:12 AM (-06:00)
Well that’s a bid Mockingbird, I wondered to myself. I was going to the compost pile with some grapes whose time had passed, and on my way there I spotted the grey pile of feathers under a wire fence that had fallen over. I leaned over and picked up the fence, prepared to move the carcass […]