Waikiki 'Snow Day'

"The line separating good & evil passes not through states, not between classes, nor between political parties either - but right through every human heart."
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

(click on photos to enlarge!)

"Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it."

- Thoreau

"I've had mine, now go get yours, Honey."

- Betty Grable to a young Marilyn Monroe

Hawaiian Royals, Bruddah Iz & Hula

Having traveled around the Bahamas, Caribbean, Jamaica and Cozumel by boat, I KNOW that Hawaii, particularly Honolulu, is far from third world conditions. Nevertheless, a bit of winter rain with high winds does throw us into a "snow day" tizzy. Power lines come down (termites!) small streams flood, and choppy waves wash over the sweet little two-lane highway that is STILL the lifeline of Rural Oahu. Road closed! Turn around and go the other way around the island to work! Here aboard our 50+ year old boat in Waikiki, waking up to howling wind, drumming rain, and yanking, rocking, creaking all around at 3am is a magical and primitive-ly scary experience. I TOLD Miss Kitty at bed time that she wouldn't be happy out in the open for long. Sure enough I woke to find her meowing with relief on a pile of formerly dry clothes inside the wheel house. . . Power remains on: light, coffee, Internet & morning TV as the Favourite Husband heroically girds to brave the Pali Highway over the Ko`olau Mountains. . . . The Brothers Cazimero, those living treasures of Hawaiian Music, are singing live on the morning show as I write to you, and I remember happily that Saturday Night will find me at their Hawaii Theatre Christmas Show! Like to join me? I'll have my camera, notepad, and a trilling heart - be here at Comfort Spiral on Sunday for some inside pics. . . The Kailua High School baseball team is hosting a community IMU for a fundraiser! The traditional Polynesian cooking pit, complete with glowing hot Pohaku (stones) will be available on December 29th to recieve disposable aluminium trays containing such things as seasoned meats (turkeys, pork) sweet potatoes, taro and lu`au leaf, all swathed in tin foil, (up to 25 pounds) to steam overnight. Should be a nice "house party" complement to the lucky red Ahi tuna that EVERYONE in the islands eats at New Years time for good luck. . . . then REAL New Year: Chinese (lunar) New Year will convulse this town with lion dances, fire crackers, Chinatown street festivals and parades on weekend nights. In the neighborhoods the distinctive backyard "Thwak!" of mallets pounding Mochi rice in the Usu will be heard. Clans will gather to make chewy mochi for everyone to eat. Kupuna (elders) will teach the keiki (kids) that families should stick together like the gelatinous, pounded rice . . . .

Rain is regarded as a blessing in the Hawiian culture. "Liquid sunshine" we call it. At least it's warm! And tomorrow (or da nex` day) brilliant sun will blue the sky again. Impossibly white clouds will billow over the horizon and scrape their lazy bottoms over the suddenly green and sharp mountains . . .

"Here we know that Christmas will be clear & bright; The sun will shine by day and all the stars at night! Mele Kalikimaka is Hawaii's way to say 'Merry Christmas' to YOU!"

A L O H A! Cloudia