3/4/10 POST TSUNAMI

                                                    3/4/10 POST TSUNAMI

Some of you have written inquiring about how affected we were by the tsunami.  In fact I’ve not written in so long due to a lack of events worth writing about.  We learned of the approaching tsunami when we were awakened about 5:30 by a call from a charge nurse to Myrna asking about short staffing for the preparations.   It was quickly determined that although neither  our home or the Veterans Home were in danger we were both going to work because some nurses were feeling the need to be with their families and the home had, in fact, the need to have extra staff in case of power outages or other complications.  As it turned out I mostly just watched the ebb and flow around Coconut Island on TV just like the rest of you (except I have had the personal experience of SeaCycling around Coconut Island).  I did work about half an hour filling 5 gallon plastic water bottles.  Interestingly, even though all the boats in the harbor had sailed out to one mile past the breakwater to be safe from possibly being thrown ashore, as we were heading home we still saw whales spouting between the boats.

Meanwhile Myrna has made drapes for the Ohana and I’ve cleared two palms and some brush in order to put in new fencing along the part of our south boundary that is now a dog run and where I want to also build a tilapia pond. The palms were on the fence line only ten or twelve feet from the Ohana.  The first dropped within a foot of where I was aiming for but the second gave a bit of a fright by slapping the end of the gutter and landing on the other side of the dog run fence.  It is nice to finally have a dog fence that our dog can’t break out of!

Although the tsunami didn’t do much, on this past Sunday we had a hard rain (1.3”) for the first time this year.  Along with it we had high surf from winds driving the storm and these two together made for a major change at the mouth of the Hakalau River.  The last big storm, in December, had thrown up a high gravel bar across the mouth of the river.  This is a problem because a couple kinds of fish enter the river to spawn and the backed up water was too “fresh” but green with algae and the fish were beginning to die.  On February 12^th I had joined a work party to dig a channel to open the river.  The hope was that we could dig a 12’ wide channel and the river would eat it out wider.  The mouth of the River is potentially 100 yards wide.  The problem was that it had been so dry that river flow was not strong enough to carry the gravel out beyond where the surf would bring it back in at high tide.  A few days later the gravel wall was back almost as high as when we started.  On the afternoon of the 28^th the rain started and by the morning of March 1 most of the length of the bar was gone.  The rain quit Monday but the high surf continued until Wednesday.  The river is settled down now and the last I looked its mouth was still open.  It looks like the gravel got moved farther out and that should make the surfers happy since it will break the swells giving them a longer ride in a spot that has been very short this past year.

Last night we attended our democratic precinct caucus.  We thought it might be different because it was at the new president of the local ILWW union but only 8 people showed.

The five day forecast here is for lows of 64-68 and highs of 75-80 with an occasional shower.  That is so typical of winter here that you can see why life on Hawaii is more laid back… no strong seasonal pressures!  The past winter lows were only three degrees  colder.  For most things tomorrow will do just as good as today.   May your life also grow more carefree!!!