Emergency

Aloha Welcome Friend!

 

 When you live on a boat as we do

there are many Ups

& Downs.

 Sometimes the glass is half full-

Sometimes it is OVERFLOWING!

 

Sometimes, It looks like it's ALL going

down the tubes.

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It was three in the morning.

Laying awake in uncharacteristic fretting,

I heard a strange noise.

Then the unmistakable sound of water;

water rushing.

Rushing IN!

I sprinted to the dock and shut off the water line

coming aboard.

Then I listened.

What I heard chilled my bones;

The sound of 

water!

My problem was my hull, not plumbing.

By this time (blog invisible) husband was plugging in a pump.

I tore a new (emergency backup) pump out of its box.

As the incoming water rushed in triumphantly

the watery tide turned against us.

"This is it. This is it,"  I chanted,

rushing around gathering

everything of value

everything of daily utility:

clothes, grandpa's watch, medication. . .

What would YOU be grabbing?

As I loaded my car, Kitty watched safely from her accustomed place on deck -

no worries a foot from the dock.

Hubby had called HFD

and the giant yellow truck with the matching official surfboard on the side

was tearing up the night and spilling red wails everywhere.

There they were HERE;

Fire Fighters.  Hawaiian Demi-Gods. 

Six feet tall and very calm.

They regularly climb on roofs in high winds

to save people's homes.

You know about the helicopter rescues,

and of course the fire fighting.

They had a pump

a pump that saved us from going down

in an estimated 30 minutes.

So as water rushed and sang triumphantly

through a seam in my hull,

two small, and one BIG pumps tried to over-sing the water.

The two small guys ran non-stop.

Eventually, the big pump could be shut off for 20 minutes at a time.

Without it we would have been homeless.

The Coast Guard was very  nice but mostly interested in ocean hygiene.

They brought no diver, just papers to sign.

I began to calculate the cost of properly disposing of an old 47 foot cement & steel boat.

The pumps and rushing water were like a  never-ending drum roll, teasing me to jump out of my skin.

I haven't been that stressed in some time.

I didn't make it to the inauguration (see post above).

I did watch in (Bizarrely) on TV: using electricity while water sang its

bloodthirsty victory song. 

(without power: NO PUMPS!)

I began to feel guilty

about the confession I MADE in that post just above;

YOU now know that I'm a hateful scoundrel 

(now you GOTTA see that post! :)

and my 'fall from grace' was being extravagantly punished

with a dazzling immediacy!

Or maybe not.

Emergencies can bring out some weird stuff

along with the "best in us," eh?

And there are no atheists on sinking boats.

Hubby's diver who knows our boat eventually showed up.

His mom has cancer and needed something;

Everybody's got a story.  No?

Eventually the river stopped, leaving a lake to dry.

The sea had lost this one. 

For now.

We worked and carried all day.

I cried a little.

I thought of blogger buddy  Travis 

who lost his home in a fire

and blogged about it.

Hubby, Kitty and I

started talking about moving on

after 18 years afloat.

I cried a little more.

But we slept in our own bed,

wearing slippahs (Slippers - the rest of the world calls them: flip flops)

to walk the damp carpet.

My clothes and etc. are in a tangled pile. 

But Hubby made it in to work today.

I even got my modems and internet hooked back up

(look at ME!).

So that's why:

this late post NOT about:

today's Pearl Harbor ceremonies

and the dwindling number of aging veteran/survivors.

That's why no post today about the new Governor's 

surprisingly spiritual speech

about Joy, Gratitude, and Hawaii

that quoted the Dalai Lama and Dietrich Bonhoeffer .

But I gotta blog.

   Gotta touch thoughts and hearts with

YOU.

Emergencies put things in perspective.

I'm grateful for all the little things we take for granted,

like the phone or pen we reach out and grasp 

without having to search for it.

I'm deeply grateful to the Pawaa Station Fire Fighters,

my neighbors,

the voters,

my new Governor

and my old husband.

I'm grateful for new beginnings,

just a BIT more planned

than grabbing and running

into the night. . .

What are YOU Grateful or Fretful about today?

"This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival...
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond."
~ Rumi

Wonderful New Day

Aloha

Welcome to a New Day for Hawaii!

"I absolutely believe in revenge.

A dish best served cold?

I say: get it any way you can."

Fran Lebowitz

 

"Smiles

are the soul's

party dresses."

Cloudia

 

"Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane. . . "

John Denver

"Be to her virtues very kind,
Be to her faults a little blind."

Matthew Prior

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Today, the team I have supported

is being sworn in as Governor

and lieutenant Governor

of the State of Hawaii.

 

 

A ticket to the proceedings

sits right here beside my keyboard.

 

There is a concept in the Hawaiian Culture:

PONO.

According to the authoritative 

Pukui/Elbert Hawaiian Dictionary,

Pono means:  goodness, uprightness, morality, moral qualities, correct or proper procedure, excellence, well-being, prosperity, welfare, benefit, behalf, equity, proper, righteous, right, upright, just, virtuous, fair, beneficial, successful...and so much more.

Things in our islands

have been in disharmony

for eight years.

With all the problems we face today

a new, inclusive, regime is needed.

By all appearances,

that new regime is now come.

Humans will never be perfect

and I don't expect to agree

with every move "my" guys make.

But that longed-for inclusiveness is afoot,

as seen in the recent proposed appointments

of good people.

I have a confession to make.

A very rude and inflexible person

has been in charge of the State Department

that over-sees the State Harbors.

As residents of a State Harbor,

my neighbors and I have been under assault

by an antagonistic, pre-determined process

that has made us unwelcome

in our own beloved neighborhood.

The other day,

I saw that rude woman,

who had hurt so many peoples' feelings

(and made some boaters homeless)

crying before the TV News cameras.

Bullies always cry 

when they finally get the punch in the nose

that they have courted.

I felt a satisfaction,

an ancient one.

It's good to see those

who have made themselves 

you enemies

CRY.

Even better:

We welcome Pono Hawaiian Gentleman,

William Aila

Waianae Boat Harbor Master,

Hawaiian Activist,

& gadfly for what is right,

as our NEW 

DIRECTOR, Dept. Of Land & Natural Resources.

He is expected to be confirmed easily.

The war is over.

Now there's LOTS to be done.

But we the people of Hawaii

will do it together.

It's a wonderful day.

             What is pleasing YOU today? cloudia

BONUS:

Stroll around Honolulu @ Christmas Time!

Ford Deluxe

"A L O H A !

click on the photos

We are all together in the canoe.

To move forward,

 we must work

together.

"A business that makes nothing but money

 is a poor business."

 Henry Ford 

"Whither goest thou, America,

 in thy shiny car in the night?"

Jack Kerouac

"Coming together is a beginning;

 keeping together is progress;

 working together is success."

Henry Ford 

"Don't find fault,

 find a remedy."

Henry Ford

"If there is any one secret of success,
 it lies in the ability
 to get the other person's point of view
 and see things
 from that person's angle
 as well as from your own."
Henry Ford 

If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability."
Henry Ford

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Been thinking about my dad.

He's been gone over a year now.

"Iron sharpens iron,

 and one person sharpens the wits of another."

Proverbs 27:17

He always seemed to be trying to 'teach me a lesson'

and I guess he did.

Intentional ones, but mostly unintentional lessons.

One day, he was driving Carl & I home from high school.

We passed through North Philadelphia

a tough, threadbare neighborhood.

As we passed a corner

Dad pointed out a derelict and asked:

"Friend of yours, Cloudia?"

Carl never forgot that.

It was clear evidence

of the divide

between my father

and

I.

Thinking on it the other day

I realized that my father

had defined me.

That story is part of my identity.

Yes, 

that is my friend.

Always.

But rather than seeing my Dad as an

adversary in this episode

as I always have

I realized that he helped me

to understand who I am.

Sometimes it was in

contrast to him-

-  but not always.

Thanks for the gift

of struggling together,

Dad.

You made me who I

Am.

"When you have brought up kids,

 there are memories

 you store directly in your tear ducts."

  Robert Brault

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