Homespun Honolulu

While listening to the tsunami warnings this morning and the boat harbors asking boat owners to move their vessels out into deeper water, I couldn’t help but think about “my boat.”  What happens to the Falls of Clyde when a threat like this one comes over the Civil Defense and other warning systems?

Relatively recently I received an email message about the Falls of Clyde with this YouTube video.  I cried.  Of course.  I almost started again while making sure this link worked.  The video kind of shows what many people wanted to have happen to the Falls before the Friends of the Falls of Clyde stepped up to stop it.

I’ve been thinking about sharing this here but there is nothing like the threat of a tidal wave to get someone to their keyboard.  Still listening to the news and all of the closed City parks, shopping malls, and golf courses, etc., I’m more worried about the sea vessels getting bashed.

Hmmm… a tsunami moves at the speed of a jet.  It’s scheduled to hit the Big Island of Hawai’i at about 11:05 this morning, February 27, 2010, and the rest of the islands in succession after that.  Hilo Bay is going to be the lucky recipient of this “event.”

Standing by and worrying about how it will all pan out.

Updated 03/01/2010 - No impact.  Civil Defense did a good job.  Local media stayed on top of the crisis and kept us informed from start to finish.  No panic.  There was just a lot of people doing what they felt needed to be done.

Now that Hawai’i is in the clear, I can’t help but think about poor Chile.  Google offers some ways to help if you can.

I can’t help but be confused when I listen to and watch some of the strange things that our Country’s administrators, or potential administrators, are doing and saying.  Forgive me but I just have to shake my head at some of this stuff.

Who Makes These Rules? 

My indignation all started just before New Years when a potential walking disaster boarded an airplane on one of our airlines.  It’s safe to say that many of us were left wondering how that happened.

Howard Dicus has always seemed to have a great amount of aloha for airplanes and the airlines.  I love his ability to always put an intelligent yet un-lofty spin on things.  This article about Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (the aforementioned walking disaster) was no exception.

I wrote this post a couple of years ago and at the end of it you can see that I really do have a great respect and admiration for our Department of Homeland Security but, who is this woman?!? Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, said,

“…putting him on the list required specific derogatory information that was not available.”

What the *BLEEP*?!?  Hello?!?  Woman, information like you received has got to be enough to issue at least a warning and put this person on the watch list, or something!  Were you on vacation in September, 2001?  One would like to think that it is a better thing to er on the side of security overkill!  Don’t ya think? We can stop Joan Rivers from boarding a plane, but not a potential loose cannon?  Oh, wait, that was a Costa Rican airport.  Sigh.

Oh well, I guess that the Department of Homeland Security will not be hiring me anytime soon — scratch that Federal job!

This next news story made me wonder.  Sarah Palin must like the camera.  Instead of running for office, she is moving from politics to the media.  I’m sure she’ll be very good at this job with Fox and I’m actually looking forward to seeing what she does with it!  I guess that takes her out of the Presidential pool.  Doesn’t it?

It was not my intention to give so much link love to Yahoo! but they just happened to have some good write-ups that helped me make my points. Thanks, Yahoo!, for the good content.

Things are equally foggy voggy here at home.  On Sunday we couldn’t really tell if we had rain clouds, vog, or a little bit of both.  It has been that way for quite a while as you will see below.

Last, and probably the least of my cloudy curiosity, I have to share this picture and warn readers that what follows is purely speculation on my part.  Hey, I’m a blogger who must have pictures and this one was worth a thousand words!  (Okay, so maybe it only gets about a hundred words.)

Keep in mind that my paranoid brain was working overtime.  Taken on the west side of O’ahu, this picture shows some rather strange behavior going on several days before the First Family even arrived in Honolulu (yes, that thought did cross my mind).  It just seemed odd to me that a helicopter would hover so low to the ground (I was sitting in my car when I took this).  Looking for hit men?  Snipers?  Escapees?  Drug dealers?  The area was curiously void of homeless people so it got me thinking that maybe they cleared the area.  I don’t even know if that was a military ‘copter, there was too much vog as you can see.  It was just weird.

Maybe I need Sudafed to uncloud my brain.

This post has been pending for a while now.  It was put it on the back burner for a variety of reasons but this past Monday (I think it was Monday) one more fatality brought it right back up, front and center!

A couple of Sundays ago, a young woman riding a motorcycle in Waialua lost control of the bike, hit the guardrail, and was pronounced dead at the scene.  She was only 27 years old!  Her passenger was 23 and, while injured, survived the crash.  Apparently it’s not uncommon for a passenger to be thrown clear and suffer little or no injury.

People who have cruised through this blog from time to time know that I am a big proponent of motorcycle safety.   The media reports on the fatality rates on our roadways.  I have seen a variety of numbers reported but one of the reports said that this was already the 7th one this year, on Oahu, which matches the total of all of those that happened in 2008.  HPD said that the motorcycle accident at the end of February was the 17th but that may have been traffic fatalities in total, not just motorcycle-related accidents.   No matter how you look at it, it’s just way too many!

If you’re a biker, I know you guys want to just brush me off but, guess what?  I’m not the only one!  Listen to the words from some of your own!  Am I wrong?  Still think I’m over-reacting?

I’ve been telling myself that I’m becoming my mother — I worry too much about people’s safety.  With no biological children of my own, I guess I have a deep-seated, maternal need to adopt all of our Oahu ohana who constantly put themselves at risk.  I worry about all of the things that any good mother would worry about — the risks involved with dangerous locations, dangerous equipment with sharp blades, and all dangerously fast-moving vehicles with a bad rap.

The fear of accidents and the heavy grief over the loss of a friend or loved one would be unbearable.  It doesn’t happen often but when it’s someone you know, once is already too much.  The lu’ulu’u (heavy grief) caused by a tragedy like this lingers over the community for several days and is hard to shake off, especially when you have friends and family who share the same hobby.  The danger is something that mothers and spouses have to deal with and/or shake off every time their loved ones step outside the door.

Another one that is not usually on my radar of concern, is another favorite pastime that I had forgotten about. Factor in another relatively-recent incident and this particular activity moves right back to the forefront.  Granted, this was a truly unfortunate case of po’ino (hard luck or peril) that caused this tragedy.  I guess technology makes things more dangerous now.  Mahalo to KITV4 for keeping that link active for us.

We have several hunters on the island (responsible ones who don’t kill other people’s pets; don’t even let me get started on that one again) who hunt pigs, goats, deer (on the Big Island), etc. using a variety of techniques.  I’ve lost friends because of accidents in the mountain so I can speak with a little bit of authority on this.

Yes, I do worry about animal rights and , were it not for the destruction done to the environment by these non-indigenous characters, I would be screaming about their slaughter.  Don’t worry, the photo of this charming little guy was actually borrowed from a photographer who took this in India.  It’s illegal to kill the pigs there.  They are necessary to that ecosystem (destructive of ours).

To avoid sharing a bloody photo, I got permission from Flickr.com member, zedaxis22, to borrow this wonderful photo of this wild boar.  If I had not told you this photo was taken in India, you never would have known the difference.  I didn’t! Thank you, zedaxis22, I’m glad that this little guy is in India because I would hate to see anything happen to a fine creature like that.

With the exception of the wild animals and the choice of equipment, this past time would be no more dangerous than hiking, right?  Wrong.  The problem is, there are so many other factors to consider.  Hunters consistently step off any paths or trails created for hikers.  They need to go where their targets go, which is usually anywhere but the marked trails.

In short, I’m sending strong urgings to friends and family who are passionate about their favorite pastimes:  please use caution, please make good decisions, and please remember your loved ones before you take those dangerous steps.

Strong urgings to drivers:  “Look Twice, Save a Life.  Motorcycles are Everywhere.”  This is especially true now that gas prices have made us think about our methods of transportation.

Drive smart, ride smart, and play smart!