I have taken on way too much work recently, so my only workout opportunities lie in the early morning. It has been great seeing the island and ocean in a different light.
I was surprised by how easily these two guys were able to move a very heavy outrigger canoe using two soft boat bumpers. Ingenious.
In never before seen footage (ok, not video, so not really footage) Brian is spit from the Slosh. Nice ride, Brian!
A younger group has begun dominating the Sunday ocean swims, and that is a very, very good thing. Energy, excitement and enthusiasm abound - something which has been lacking since Christine stopped swimming as much. It is amazing what a difference one person can make. Noticeable this weekend was the absence of Janet and Patti and socializing rest stops.
Doug arrived on the Alabama gulf coast on Thursday and said the beaches were as pristine and sugar white as always.
Yesterday was a whole different story as small blobs of sticky oil began washing ashore. Yes, I know, the photo just looks like dirt on snow, but those bits of tar stick to everything and do not come off (easily).
I was down there in 1979 after a big spill and found that once the oil got on fabric, the only thing to do was throw it away. Everyone carried little squirt bottles of kerosene which quickly rinsed oil off the body. So things aren't hopeless. Just go nude and bathe regularly in kerosene. No problem.
What is this idiot photographer doing wrong? No, I'm not talking about angle of flash or f-stop.
He is kneeling on the reef. Coral is fragile and easily broken, but takes a long time to grow back. So don't use the coral to brace yourself.
Also, he is feeding the fish. Definitely a no-no. Besides upsetting the ecosystem, it teaches the fish that where there are people, there is food. Fish bites were becoming common at popular snorkeling spots until tours stopped offering fish food.
I only hope that he didn't become food for the fishes as well. Just after I left, I saw this shark heading his way to check out the commotion...
The best conditions for photographing flowers and waterfalls are overcast skies. Since this morning started out cloudy, I thought I'd visit a few more of my neighborhood waterfalls. Considering that I live in a desert clime, there are a surprisingly large number of streams and waterfalls! Enjoy
After dinner in Paia on Monday, I noticed the stupa at the Maui Dharma Center was all lit up like a Christmas tree. It seems that Monday was the Buddha's birthday and crowds of people were gathered. They were chanting for things like Whirled Peas and Llama Dolls and such. I will never truly understand religious practices.
There are human corpses buried in my yard.
The story I've been told is:
As ancient human remains were discovered on the Hawaiian islands, they were shipped off to the Bishop Museum on Oahu where they were stored in boxes and drawers. Native Hawaiians were not happy with this treatment of their ancestors, so the remains began to be repatriated to their original islands.
A certain property developer made a deal where he would inter numerous skeletons in a beautiful ocean-front location in exchange for the right to build houses on the shore.
The bones of the Hawaiians are in the square stone structure and the other rocks are supposed to be the remains of a Canoe Hale.
In the ten years I've lived here I have never seen any Night Marchers (Hawaiian warrior ghosts) so I'm assuming that our bodies all died peacefully. Then again, I sleep so soundly that the apocalypse could happen and I would never know.
