Musings

In the middle of watching another wonderful documentary, totally different from “Chasing Coral“—watch it if you haven’t already.

Today’s is “Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin.” I remember the covers of her novels from the early Earthsea titles, the Hainish Cycle titles, and more, but I don’t remember reading a single one. Embarrassing. Time to track down several and inhale-read.

UKL had something in common with President Obama—both had one parent who was an anthropologist. Not too smug, am I? 😀

Posted at 9:41 PM | 1 Comment »

Castle building, now part of the Bishop Museum complex. Condemned due to termite damage, so closed. Perhaps work has begun to renovate it?

I picked one artifact from this huge museum, of Hawaii, of the Pacific, of life in Polynesia: a wooden Duke Paoa Kahinu Mokoe Hulikohola Kahanamoku surf board. Duke lived from 1890 to 1968 and was a fast swimmer as well as surfer. May his waves ever curl perfectly. Duke was named after his dad, who was named in honor of the Duke of Edinburgh. Duke seems like a perfect surfer name.

Fascinating garden on the grounds, with coast plants in one area, another zone of highland plants, and a third of canoe plants, that is, the ones the Polynesians brought to feed themselves. They brought food plants, and plants that they grew with the food plants to make mini-ecosystems that worked. These are breadfruit. Polynesians needed nutrients and carbohydrates from plant sources—they got a lot of protein from fish; this dietary situation is similar to what other traditional peoples living by rich coastal waters have had to contend with.

Chinatown. Way cool; and hot/sticky where it wasn’t air-conditioned. Like this market. A few others had AC. I’d try to shop here for fruits/veg at least sometimes if I lived here.

Loved this sign in the restaurant where we ate: Only Good Vibes, and the two gals playing pattycake while waiting for their food.

We did not have dessert, so I never found out what magic crack is.

Wending our way back to the rental, we went by the Aloha Tower. Majestic. It opened in 1926 and is a lighthouse. After the bombing at Pearl Harbor it was painted to disappear in night-darkness.

This restaurant is gone, but its historic sign has carefully been kept. The restaurant was open over seven decades, if I have it right. The building had degraded and “had to” be demolished.

I’d say building preservationists so far have been more successful with the Castle than the restaurant.

Posted at 12:43 AM | 1 Comment »

We stayed up late (as in: after dark) last night chatting on the lanai/patio. At least three of these little lizards showed up to hunt bugs around one especially bright light. I hadn’t seen these pale ones before. This one has a shortened tail.

This morning I felt like I needed fluids. I doubled up with coffee and kombucha. After two portions of each, I felt not-quite-so-dry.

Our big expedition was to the Pearl Harbor Memorial. They’ve been fixing the landing dock for over a year, and we could not land, so we motored by, with first one side of our boat facing the memorial and then the other side, as passengers were required to stay seated at all times. The flag pole is attached to an original part of the Arizona‘s mast. The white float far right is above the bow. It was a solemn visit. The 20+-minute video before we boarded the boat was excellent; visitors were instructed not to talk during it and indeed (surprise), people were quiet.

Mid-afternoon, the Guru and I entered Puowaina, more commonly known as Punchbowl Crater. More military dead are interred here, in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. I believe the current tally of dead exceeds 53K; markers are all flat, which contrasts with Arlington National, for example. We were surprised that the floor of the crater is so high.

Then, we went to the core of the civic-ceremonial and governmental section of Honolulu. This is the ‘Iolani Palace; construction began in 1879. It replaced an earlier building that dated to the early 1840s (if I have it right), built during the reign of Kamehameha III (born 1814; died 1854; reign 1825–1854). This building dates to the reign of King Kalākaua (born 1836; died 1891; reign 1874–1891). TMI?

This fenced area is on the palace grounds; it is a burial mound and super kapu (forbidden—because of its extreme sacredness). The lands around the palace, including other city blocks, was part of a royal sacred area prior to the arrival of foreigners. Behind the fence on the back side, I saw a guy shooting up and that was during an idle glance; that was not something I wanted to see (and have seared into my memory). Elsewhere people were sleeping on sidewalks and on the grass. Homeless problem here, too, in that end-of-the-road way….

Posted at 12:32 AM | Comments Off on Sacred places

This bridge crosses the Kaukonahua River, which is dammed to be a reservoir now.

This bridge crosses the ‘Anahulu River. I think of this as a Hawaiian-style double Germfask Bridge, but there’s no reason that makes sense to anyone else, and anyway the Germfask Bridge I’m thinking of has been replaced with a normal flat bridge with no concrete arches (boring, but ¿progressive?).

Love the shape of the canopy of this big tree and of the branches….

Posted at 8:43 PM | Comments Off on Bridges plus

“Chasing Coral” is the best documentary you will see in years. On Netflix now. Do it. I’ll wait.

Coral is a living animal creature. The whole thing is one creature. The small polyps and mouths are body parts of a living creature, not separate creatures.

This is Hanauma Bay. We went snorkeling there and saw lots of dead coral. When it’s only bleached, it is still alive—barely; it is white because the flesh that covers the white skeleton has died and broken away from the skeleton, but the inside portion is hanging on. If the coral becomes florescent, it is making one last chemical stand at staying alive. If it is covered in wispy algal strands it is dead dead. We saw plenty of the latter, one magnificent (in a bad way) bright purple coral, and many damaged corals, broken by careless tourists. I am trying to be upbeat….

Coral reefs are dying because the oceans are warming past their capacity to cope with the temperature change. Most of the warming of our atmosphere from burning fossil fuels…that heat “goes into” the ocean, and so elsewhere is being buffered by the temperature rises in the ocean waters.

Stab at upbeat. The shapes look like stone spear points to me, as well as surfboard outlines.

Pleasure to have the sun drop behind the ridge and the temperatures begin to drop.

Think about temperature change now. And check your calendar for a time window to watch “Chasing Coral.” Then watch it.

End of preaching. Thank you for your patience.

Posted at 3:46 AM | Comments Off on Watch “Chasing Coral”

Elevated commuter train construction underway. The current discussion is about what amount the fare should be.

Crossed the old wall of an ancient volcanic crater, pierced by a pair of tunnels. This is the view out the other side from the second one.

We stopped at a small, out-of-the-way, neighborhood park. The young man in the red shirt is shooting hoops while wearing shower shoes. Tough!

It is customary for large groups relocate to the park for the day on this island. Many have large, elaborate tent and chair and table and more set-ups. Note the kiddie pool under the tent-roof included in these peoples’ Saturday temporary village.

Meanwhile…on the other side of the park we spotted this colorful bird on the ?little-used? pitcher’s mound.

And behind the backstop on one side was the ocean, and the other a fence of spent surf boards. With a coconut palm overseeing all.

Later, we found mister surfer-biker. Livin’ the good life.

Posted at 3:26 AM | Comments Off on Odd bits

There’s the ocean; there’s the infrastructure (foreground).

Banana orchard. Wind farm infrastructure, far distance.

I relent. Ocean, no infrastructure.

No ocean; repurposed sugar mill/factory, now a mini-mall.

Dive boat returning to dock; fisherfolk; distant wind farm.

Ocean, left; infrastructure mending, right.

Ocean! Offshore islands! Minimal infrastructure.

No ocean. Language lesson: cone as a verb. We documented multiple usages, and all to do with orange ones, not ice cream ones.

Posted at 1:48 AM | Comments Off on Ocean views and infrastructure, usually together

I zipped over to the PO this afternoon to mail one of the few bills we can’t pay online. That’s a route I don’t usually take. And on the way back, I found this laggard. Must be in a heavy metal band?

And at the corner gas station, are they replacing the tanks or removing them? Time will tell (since I don’t have the plans).

Oh, and the crape myrtles are blooming.

Posted at 8:21 PM | Comments Off on No lies, big or little

I found a milkweed just beginning to bloom, a plant in the vanguard of the blooming, and covered up with skippers.

I found this vetch with plenty of skipper-attention.

Something aka some critters/insects have been eating my basil. This skipper is the only visitor I’ve spotted; however, I don’t think of skippers as basil-eaters. Mystery….

Tar-gravel fixing of holes in the perpetually patched blacktop through the swamp. It’s a bumpy ride.

Posted at 9:39 PM | Comments Off on Skippers everywhere (exaggeration)

On our last half-day with our houseguest, KB of Minneapolis, we visited the locks and the metro lock area. In the locks visitors’ center, we perused a display that asked people to write about what they liked most about their locks viewing. This writer liked the ACTION, and I concur; it’s wonderful to watch when “the boat gos out.”

Here, however, the car ferry goes out. Right at the Clyde’s lunch stop. Over to Sugar Island; sometime I will take that ferry.

Then we waved bye-bye to KB and dropped in on KW and GG and P___ and M___ at their windy Gitchee Gummee beach. We opted to stay indoors safe from the breeze and the biters, and whiled away the afternoon with non-stop laughs and great stories. Such fun fun fun. 🤭

Posted at 8:51 PM | Comments Off on the boat gos out