Nothing is Easy

A L O H A

Today's song

 was my "theme-song" for so long.

NOTHING is easy.

Micronesian Ladies Wait for the Bus.

Scooter girl takes this shot.

She her reflection?

"The detached observer's view

 is one window on the world."

Kenneth L. Pike 

"Character is what you are in the dark."

-Dwight L. Moody

Riding Along With Dad

"He opened the jar of pickles when no one else could.

 He was the only one in the house who wasn't afraid to into the basement by himself.

 He cut himself shaving, but no one kissed it or got excited about it.

 It was understood when it rained, he got the car and brought it around to the door. 

When anyone was sick, he went out to get the prescription filled. He took lots of pictures ...

 but he was never in them."

-- Erma Bombeck 

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Hannukah

is a holiday of LIGHT

like Diwali.

Tonight is the second night.

The war was over:

the Earthly Power

had won.

Yet

a dark lamp

remained in the

defiled

temple.

Rebels lit that lamp,

the light that should never

go out.

And though it

"shouldn't have"

it shined

eight days

and eight

crazy nights.

Let's celebrate

the improbable 

victory

of delight

just when

grim problems

seem to have

"won."

Miracles can happen.

You are one.

I am another.

Tomorrow

is

another.

From one miracle to another:

Don't give up the faith,

your faith

that the 

BEST

can happen.

It often does.

Celebrate!

Believe

that all can be

easy,

dare to believe it,

and it will be

so!

Thanks for coming by,

and please leave the gift

of your "hello"

       in comments.  cloudia

November Skies, Waikiki

ALOHA

 

Today is World Aids Day.

Here's to friends not present.

"What a privilege to be here on the planet

to contribute your unique donation to humankind.

Each face in the rainbow of colors that populate our world

is precious and special."

Amber Simmons
                                                            



                                                                                      ><}}(°>

“No man is rich enough to buy back his past.”
 Oscar Wilde 

Here is the song. . .

. . . And here is the show:

Big Buddha

Aloha & Thanks for Visiting Today!

First Hawaiian Bank Headquarters, Honolulu

There are many kinds of idols

On Saturday

 I went to visit what some might call an idol.

"Better than a thousand hollow words,

 is one word that brings peace."

Buddha 

The Jade Buddha for Universal Peace & Happiness

 was visiting Honolulu for two days this past weekend.

 The giant bodhisattva (Sanskrit: बोधिसत्त्व)

 stands at almost 9 feet tall and weighs around 4 tons.

  It was carved from the world's largest jade gemstone known as the "Polar Jade" and  is valued at $5 million.

"Just as treasures are uncovered

 from the earth,

 so virtue appears from good deeds,

 and wisdom appears

 from a pure and peaceful mind."

Buddha

I felt very polite and respectful.

 This was a religious experience for some, after all.

"The way is not in the sky.

 The way is in the heart."
Buddha 

But it was far from solemn.

  It was more like a family reunion, said to bring

 spiritual riches

for believer and non-believer alike

 who came into the presence.

"Thousands of candles can be lit

from a single candle,

and the life of the candle will not be shortened.

Happiness never decreases by being shared."

Buddha

I came to see the Buddha,

but found myself EXPERIENCING something

on an energetic level.

These photos don't convey

 the amazing scale of the object.

I felt very touched and uplifted.

A female Buddhist monk

came up to me and gave me the photo

I have reproduced above.

The orbs appearing around the statue

are said to be angels and such

celebrating

Universal Peace & Happiness!

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       Wishing you all the best, cloudia

The China Clipper

STAR-ADVERTISER FILE PHOTO / NOV. 22, 1955

The 75th anniversary of the first commercial flight across the Pacific Ocean was commemorated last week. Last Monday the Alameda Naval Air Museum re-enacted radio broadcasts for the send-off of Pan American Airways' China Clipper.

Courtesy: Honolulu Star Advertiser. Nov.26 2010

"ALAMEDA, Calif. » Historians and aviation enthusiasts commemorated this week the 75th anniversary of the first commercial flight across the Pacific Ocean.

The China Clipper seaplane took off on Nov. 22, 1935, from San Francisco. (Honolulu was on the route.)

Fifty-nine hours and four stops later, the Pan American Airways aircraft landed in Manila, carrying 1,800 pounds of mail -- a delivery that would have taken 15 to 16 days by steamship.

The Alameda Naval Air Museum re-enacted Monday radio broadcasts for the flight's bon voyage, which drew more than 25,000 spectators to Alameda at the time. San Francisco International Airport also is hosting an exhibit on the famed China Clipper, and the Alameda post office provided a special postmark for its mail.

"It was an audacious gamble and a great leap forward," said John Hill, an assistant director at SFO and curator of the exhibit there. "Every airplane that crosses the ocean even now is flying in the wake of the China Clipper."

The four-engine Martin M-130 narrowly got off the ground. The aircraft was so heavily loaded that Capt. Edwin Musick could not clear the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, which was still under construction.

With thousands watching, Musick flew under the span's cables -- dodging some construction material -- then gained altitude over the Golden Gate. The plane had overnight stops in Honolulu, Midway Island, Wake Island and Guam before reaching its final destination.

The successful voyage sparked public excitement over the China Clipper, inspiring postage stamps, toys, souvenirs, a beer brand and a Hollywood film starring Pat O'Brien and Humphrey Bogart. Musick also made the cover of Time magazine.

"This event occurred right in the heart of the Great Depression," said Ed Schneider, of the Alameda museum, who directed Monday's radio re-enactment based on the old transcripts. "To watch this big silver seaplane lift itself out of the bay and fly off to these exotic places must have been a thrill."

A year later Pan Am began offering passenger service on its trans-Pacific planes, and it was not until 1939 that the airline would offer commercial service across the Atlantic.

The Martin seaplanes were later replaced with the Boeing B319, which could carry more passengers, and aviation advances eventually ended the era of flying boats after World War II.

Coffee Down Please

ALOHA 

Sunday Loungers, Lazers,

and Sippers of Coffee!

What's your choice:

Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee?

  Brazil?

  Sumatra?

Kona?

Don't Be A "Danny Thomas." 

Put down your cup before scrolling to see

the monster that is

T  E  R  R  O  R  I  Z  I  N  G

Kona Coffee Country

  Coffee borer beetle

"El barrenador del café"

Discovered in Kona last September!

From West Hawaii Today 

 Kona coffee quarantined

Processors approve, farmers upset

by Erin Miller
West Hawaii Today
emiller@westhawaiitoday.com
Thursday, November 25, 2010 7:09 AM HST

New, interim quarantine rules approved by the Hawaii Board of Agriculture Tuesday are getting a thumbs up from some of the state's largest coffee processors, but some Big Island farmers are upset about the process and are hoping the state's new governor will intervene.

The long-term impacts of the quarantine, which requires all green coffee beans leaving infested areas on the Big Island to be fumigated or be subjected to a six-step protocol, is still uncertain, growers and processors said.

Bruce Corker, of the Kona Coffee Farmers Association, said he plans to ask Gov.-elect Neil Abercrombie and Abercrombie's new Agriculture Department chairman to reconsider or even rescind the rules.

"If an association develops between Kona coffee and pesticide fumigant, we run a risk of losing (the gourmet) market," Corker said.


Tom Greenwell, of Greenwell Farms, was wary of the fumigant-free procedures for other reasons. He said he doesn't think the double-bagging procedure of infected coffee beans is enough of a safeguard.

"Within Kona, infested is infested," Greenwell said. "What's the difference? We need to be assured that coffee berry borer does not get to the other islands."

The impact of the borer may cause the price of coffee to go up slightly, Greenwell said, but strong markets will bear that.

"The demand, when times are good, is extremely high," he said.

He said he isn't paying farmers less for infected cherry, and he is working with farmers with higher infestation levels to pick coffee from unaffected areas now to sell.

Jim Wayman, who buys coffee from about 400 farmers on the Big Island, isn't paying any less for the infected cherry, either, he said. His workers are routinely collecting samples, from each bag of cherry they purchase, and testing for the berry borer. So far, about 25 percent of farms show signs of the beetle, with about one-third of those showing heavy infestation of 80 percent or more of the crop having the beetle. Another one-third has a light infestation and the final third of infected farms has moderate infestation, he said.

Wayman, president of Oahu-based Hawaii Coffee Co., said the protocol represents a good process for organic farmers, and it's a procedure he intends to follow with coffee beans he buys on the Big Island.



Once the pest is established in a coffee-growing region, it can't be eradicated, Wayman said. But farmers do have options to prevent the spread, he added. He pointed to Colombia, where farmers report about 2 percent of crop is affected by the beetle annually.

University of Hawaii professor emeritus Norman Bezona recently returned from Haiti, where coffee farmers have been battling the beetle for about eight years. Farmers there are limiting the beetle's spread, he said, by consistently implementing sanitation measures that include picking all the coffee from the tree each season, boiling beans that show signs of the beetle, to kill the bug and its larvae inside, and cleaning up fallen fruit.

"They're very careful about cleaning, so they don't reinfest their farms," Bezona said.

---

Copyright © 2010 West Hawaii Today

Smile

Aloha Friend!

The Lovely Voice of Robert Cazimero

Go ahead: Click on the song, the pictures - all for you :)

 

"But what is happiness

except the simple harmony

between a man

and the life he leads?"

Albert Camus

 

“Life is like a mirror, 

we get the best results 

when we smile at it.”

 

Unknown

“If I could reach up and hold a star

for every time you've made me smile,

the entire evening sky

would be in the palm of my hand.”

 

Unknown 

 

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Thank you for visiting today. . .

 

              . . . .Leave a comment!   cloudia

Honolulu Landing

Aloha!

Today We Have a Guest Poetess-

My Science Report, by Shay Caroline

Her Site Here

Clouds do not have bones,
And so live in the sky.

If they fall,
They will not break anything,
And when they fall we call it
Rain.

After The Rain,
They cannot find their bodies again,
And so they
Disappear.

Blue skies do not have clouds.
Clouds do not have bones.
That is all I have to say.

Now place your tray tables in closed and upright position. We will be landing in Honolulu momentarily.

  (Around 57 seconds in, you can see the harbor where I am writing this. Wave!)