I've been watching way too much TV. My mind is wandering.

Question: If you are a 'beautiful person' and you want to be famous, where do you go?

Answer: Hollywood - of course!

Question: If you are one of a million beautiful people and you can't get noticed, what do you do?

Answer: You hang on, get a real job, party on and probably marry another beautiful person.

Question: Do two beautiful people produce beautiful children?

Answer: Duh! Ya think so? (Hollywood patois for 'of course!)

Question: When Hollywood is overcrowded with beautiful people hoping for a break, what do they do?

Answer: The live as close to Hollywood as possible.

Question: What is the result of a lot of beautiful people living in the same general location?

Answer: The whole area is full of beautiful people.

Southern California is THE breeding ground for beautiful people. Beautiful, vain, often shallow, desperate people waiting for a break. And other beautiful people from all over the country go there with the hope of getting discovered.

The problem is, they all start looking alike. A blond is a blond. They all have cute little noses, they all have pouty lips, or strong jawlines and cleft chins. And they are all as similar as cookie-cutter gingerbread men and women. Boring. Blah. Beautiful, but if pressed to describe one of them, it would sound like "dyed, streaked hair, big boobs, lots of makeup" or "square jawed, bed-head hair". That about sums them all up.

Here are a few faces I'd prefer to look at. I took these at the 2009 Dickens Faire in San Francisco. Aren't they outrageous?

This is my favorite group of beautiful faces!

The Tsunami That Didn't Happen

There's no such thing as a 'false alarm' with a tsunami. It's coming and you know it thanks to modern communications. The only question is 'how big will it be'? A monster earthquake in Chile triggered a tsunami that moved across the ocean at 600+ miles per hour. How big will the waves be when it gets here? No way to know.

Buoys attached to the ocean floor sense the power of the tsunami and relay that data to NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). They notify areas that may be in danger. Sirens in the danger zones alert the people and it's up to them to evacuate the flood zones.

I heard the first siren at 7:00 and thought 'oh this is NOT good' and 'maybe it's a test'. No such luck. So I threw my computer and external drives (can't loose all the Grandson and Panto Marin footage) into the car and headed out. The gas station was already 6 lanes deep with 20+ cars to a lane. I patiently waited.

Not knowing where else to go, I called my boss to make sure he wasn't still at work. He wasn't and he invited me to come up and wait it out at his house. The roads were full but moving, about the same traffic as a normal commute morning. But the churches were all open and had signs out inviting people to come in and have coffee. People had parked and double parked along every street and had tents up in all the parks. It looked like a city of refugees.

From 8:00 am, when I arrived at my boss, Norman's house until 1:00 pm, we alternately watched the newscasts and view from his deck. The refinery where we work was in the flood zone and running at minimum rates to allow operators, who had refused to leave to shut it down quickly. Then all they had to do was evacuate. We could see the plant from the deck so when we saw the flares go off, we would know they were getting out.

Since the first place to be hit by the tsunami would be Hilo, they would have a bit of warning. How much? Ten minutes. Ten minutes to hit all the 'off' switches, get to a vehicle and drive 5 miles to a safe area. Just ten minutes.

The impact deadline came with a dozen or so surges of water ebbing and flowing into Hilo Harbor. The water may have come up 6+ feet, it was hard to tell from the webcam. It would flow into the bay and just as quickly flow out of the bay. It made about a 10 minute round trip. The water was muddy and there was whitewater around some of the rocks and pilings, but no wall of water to smash things down. Interesting, but not much excitement. And thank heaven!

We all left, thanking our host for giving us refuge, glad we had dodged a bullet and hoped people would not call it a false alarm (see the first paragraph).

Lacking anything better to do, I went to Turtle Cove to see what the water looked like. It was pretty rough. The tide was in but the cove was not murky as I had expected it to be. I picked some limu (seaweed) for the turtles, falling down on the rocks and putting a big bloody gash in my thumb in the process.

I waded into hip-deep water and waited for the turtles to come to me. They always do, the hungry little opportunists. Two young teens who had also gathered some turtle food stood with me feeding them while the waves broke over the rocks at the mouth of the cove. Then the water was waist deep. Then it was above my waist. Then it was chest deep. When it was almost up to my neck I realized none of us had moved and the water was almost 2 feet deeper than it had been moments ago. I said "Hmmm, I thought the tsunami was over!" One of the young men said "Guess not!" and we moved into shallower water leading the munching turtles with us. Within minutes, the water had receded again leaving us knee-deep in the cove.

In any case, the Non-Event was still interesting. But I wouldn't want to do it again.

Cove #4 might be artificial. It's hard to tell. There are built up walls enclosing the cove. A rock shelf just outside of the cove forces the waves to suddenly jump and curl, crashing on the edge of the shelf. It will be a challenge to get outside of the breakers.

Right next door, tankers deliver thousands of gallons of crude oil.

Making Friends in Hawaii

I have a couple of new friends. I shared dinner with one of them last night. He drank some of my carrot juice and nibbled a bit of mango. At least I think he's a 'he'. He could be a she for all I could tell. It's hard to say when you're looking at a 2" gecko. He climbed my leg and sat on my toe for a while. Then he jumped off to explore the vast expanse of the coffee table.

I have another gecko friend tonight. He's on my screen chasing bugs that are attracted to the light. He's missing his left rear foot so he flops around a bit as he scrambles up and down the screen. But he's not missing any bugs. He'll be a fat little lizard soon.

So here's the view from my back door. Yep that's a golf course in the background with resorts on the horizon. It's a nice place to visit and a nice place to live if you can afford it.

Drivin' Hawaiian

'Laid back' doesn't begin to describe this place. The most surprising thing I've seen here are the drivers. In California, it's 85 mph no matter what the posted speed limit is. Drivers routinely weave in and out of traffic, cut everyone off to get one car ahead, drive on the shoulders and then have the nerve to flip you off if you get in the way.

Hawaii? Totally different story. You need to get into the traffic flow? Somebody will slow up and wave you in. Today I saw drivers with the right of way and no stop sign slow, stop and space themselves out to allow a line of cars get in. Incredible!

The speed limit here is 60 in some areas. Usually it's 55 and enthusiastically enforced. There are still the few who just have to get ahead, but 99% of the people here are truly 'laid back' when it comes to driving. I find myself slowing down and relaxing even if I'm in a hurry to get somewhere. I even let people in front of me when I don't really have to.

Just another good reason to be here. I'll bet my blood pressure has dropped 10 points.

Day One, What to Do With My Spare Time

First official day on the job. The first hour was spent in safety orientation (Safety First!). The rest of the day, I tried to be the sponge, soaking up everything I need to know about the entire refinery. I need a bigger sponge - I mean, brain.

I bought a new spear. I went to the local dive shop and they didn't have exactly what I wanted. But the owner directed me to - ya gotta be kidding - Kmart. So I bought an aluminum hawaiian sling. I don't like fiberglass (the slivers take forever to work their way out of your hands) and the graphite ones cost a fortune - relatively speaking. So aluminum it is. And I think the fancy 3-prong head the dive shop has will fit on it. Too many fish get off the average 3 prong.

So now I can go Roi hunting. Who is Roi, you may ask? Not who, but what. Roi are a type of sea bass, non-edible, and terribly invasive. Someone brought them to Hawaii where they are devastating the local fish. They carry a nasty dinoflagellate so you can't eat them. But they are very wary and difficult to spear. GAME ON! I don't like killing things for no reason, even to eat them occasionally, but for some reason I have no qualms about killing Roi. There are two other bad invasives but I'm not sure what they look like. But when I find out..... KaPow!

Just when you think you've got it all together - you don't

The movers came and took everything away. Well, almost everything. I walked by it at least 4 times while they were packing and didn't give it a second thought. Until they were gone. Then I realized I had forgotten the dining room table. I called the movers as soon as I realized they had not taken it but they were already too far away.

What a dunce I can be! The next time I think I've got it all organized, I will remember this moment.

Be Careful What You Wish For

How many times have you heard that advice? I've wanted to live in Hawaii all my life, never seriously thinking it could happen. Hawaii is a place you go for vacation. After 2 weeks, you go home and look at pictures of it. But now?

Now I'm feverishly packing all the things I think I'll need to survive there. Things you don't think about like fingernail clippers and scissors. Sure, I could buy new ones there, but at twice the price if I can find the ones I want.

Money will be tight. Squeaky tight. I'm making the same amount of money I made last year, but the cost of living is 36% higher and housing is 96% higher according to a few websites that compare these things. And those are the LOW figures!

Back to packing. More to come.



The realtor should be here any minute.