January 15, 2004

• Six hours without power... BORING!!!

  
  

  We're having some high winds today. These are causing some trees to snap, taking power lines with them. I don't know how extensive it's been, but heard on the radio before I lost power that there were multiple outages in Hilo & Puna Districts. I live in Puna. My power went out about 12:20, coming back on at 6:30 PM. Before it went out, I was watching my battery back-up blink at me & beep when there would be a power surge. There was a brief outage as well, late morning, followed by a 'whomp' from a few blocks away. The definitive sound of a tree smacking the ground!

  
  

  I left a tad early to pick up my son from school so I could cruise a few neighboring streets to see if I could find any downed trees. Nothing much along the roadways other than small twigs & branches. I never did find the tree that I heard go down. Probably didn't go far enough or down the right cross street. Mostly, I didn't want to venture too close to the known dangerous trees. I don't need one going down on me!

  
  

  On the way to my son's school, it was more of the same... leaves, twigs & small branches. A few weeks back, a neighbor outside of my subdivision lost a eucalyptus robusta, also called 'swamp mahogany' because of it's beautiful mahogany-colored wood. This is the type of eucalyptus that provides us with eucalyptus oil from its leaves... menthol! The way his tree fell, its top blocked his neighbor's driveway. I think this one fell because of the heavy rains we were having at the time. When one other along his 'windbreak' along the road fell, I stopped by later to see if I could get some of the pieces of wood. When I introduced myself, I learned that this man used to work for my dad at my father's lumber mill & hardwood furniture & lathed bowls business in the 1960's! Cool! He now operates heavy equipment in his own business, hauling & spreading landfill materials.

  
  

  Now, he has more heavy wood to get rid of! The main trunk still lies parallel with his fence. I wish I had access to a band-saw.

  
  

  When in Pahoa town, I learned that the school had lost power during the last recess... at the end of the day. I figured it'd be awhile before we got power back, considering that they'd be working first on those who lost power earlier in the day, depending on how many crews they were running. No cooking, I thought. So we went on into town, found power at the local grocery store, but he wanted Chinese. I drop him off for that & drive back to the grocery store, park, get out, only to find that they just had lost power & weren't letting anyone in! I drive back to the 7-11, where my son was going to pick up his drink to find out they locked everyone out too, just as my son got there! I opted for another restaurant for my food... Black Rock Cafe, hoping they cooked with gas. I got a mushroom Swiss gravy burger to go. Yummm!!

  
  

  On our way back through town, I noticed that they were letting people in to the grocery store again. We stopped to get some beverages. My son said they had power to their register, but that's all. I'm guessing they had battery back-ups on them. They only let people in as they could escort them, afraid of shoplifting. Sad.

  
  

  At home, my son goofed around on his skateboard out front for awhile. When he came in, we played cards for the first time together in years. We played 'Go Fish' until he got bored with that, saying it wasn't aggressive enough. Then we played checkers. At first, I was stomping him (except for kinging). Suddenly, he saw a move I missed noticing & slammed me, taking out 4 of my men (including kings)! I had one checker left, which was cornered. He won! We then played Chinese Checkers, which he also beat me at. Then it was back to the cards... but poker this time. Penny-ante. He wasn't thrilled with his luck on 5-card draw, so we switched to black-jack. At first, I was slamming him on that, playing Vegas Rules, switching the dealer only when the dealer threw a black-jack to the opponent. I stayed dealer most of the time. But as time wore on, he suddenly started winning. We had started out with 30 pennies each, which ended up all in my pot at one point, causing him to drag out more. He bet heavier than I did & suddenly the cards went in his favor, so he won it all back.

  
  

  Now, we're back to our separate corners, doing our own things, with the power restored. TVs & computers focused on our particular preferences. It was nice.

  • 12:34 am
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