October 23, 2003

  • I spent a week without running water. Why?...


    Our main water source is catchment. This is runoff from our roof. A couple years ago, I had a professional tree-trimmer come & take down one of the trees that sat too close to my roof. He also removed one upright section of another tree at the corner & a few overhanging branches of a third. This reduced the noise from the larger raindrops resulting from gathering on the leaves as well as most of the debris from the trees collecting on my roof & in the gutters. The sarcopia trees on the opposite side of the house were felled by me & a neighbor.


    But this didn't remove all the debris issues. The trees on the front are native ohia, which produce flowers about three times a year. The 'petals' of these flowers are thin & long, like short pieces of red threads. These easily blow far from the source with the breezes, as do the seed pods & seeds. The ohia also drop leaves almost continually, along with small dead branches. They clog up any screen in place, forcing the water out away from the catchment system during good rains, so I had long ago removed my screen. I ran the catchment pipe on top of my catchment cover as a sort of filter instead.



    This meant sweeping off the cover on a daily basis. But even this didn't prevent debris from entering my tank. I fought this problem for years, with frequent replacement of the filter. I also dealt with a liner that had shrunk & shifted when the tank was low so much that it wouldn't fold over the top of the tank anymore in parts. The mud in the bottom caused the water to look like weak tea. Our bath water water was the color of pale beer. I finally decided I'd had it with the muck.


    Tuesday of last week, I dug a hole beneath a part of the tank liner. I then took a broken metal broom handle & punctured the liner, allowing about 1200 gallons of yellowed, murky water to rush out & into the crevasses underground. It vanished nearly as quickly as it flowed from the tank. I was in the tank, using a broom to sweep out the muck, keeping it stirred within the water rushing from the tank. That night, it rained hard but I had no liner to collect the rain.


    The following day, I had an appointment with a cardiologist at the VA clinic. On the way to my appointment, I stopped at a pool & catchment supply place & bought a new, oversized liner for $182. My son & I stretched the liner in place in the galvanized two rung metal ring that formed my catchment tank. My son didn't want to do it then, not wanting to get rained on. I personally welcomed the rain which kept me cool during the task & started to refill my catchment even before the liner was fully in place.  Of the work required to stretch the liner fully into place, my son did about 15% of the work, standing there most of the time like he didn't know what to do to help.


    I had asked 'The One Upstairs' to help refill my tank should I actually begin this process of replacing my liner. That is the one fear I had... not getting the needed rain to put enough water in to utilize it for our needs that had kept me from doing it for about four years.  I thought with the rains falling as we stretched the liner that fear would be unfounded. Not so!


    That evening was the last real rains we got, only bringing the level of water to the base of the curved sides of the pea gravel beneath the liner. I hauled water to the tank, about 24 gallons at a time in 13 bleach bottles & one five & one six gallon water containers. Supposedly, we are only allowed five gallons per day from the subdivision's community center, but I filled all containers several times during the week. Other times, I drove ten miles each way to the nearest public water tap.


    I had years ago cut about a ten foot length of garden hose & installed new connectors to both cut ends to use the short hose to fill containers more easily. It takes alot out of me to try to hold a five or six gallon container in the air to the faucet while filling it. Then carrying it to my car would wipe me out. During this water foray, I occassionally forgot my hose, leaving it beside the tank since I'd also use the hose to transport a small amount of water as well, rather than wasting it on the ground. The height of the faucets were set about three feet off the ground... at hand height while standing.


    I could have done this more often than I did, but it was tiresome. This work, along with a few sprinkles of rain, barely filled the catchment to the top of the curved sides of that pea gravel. I replaced the siphon hose & set about trying to get the pump going again. At one point, I did get the system running... long enough to wash my porch & some dishes to prepare dinner with on Saturday night. But as I finished the dishes, I heard the pump continue to run, so again tried to get the water to properly siphon by bleeding the air out at my pressure sensor line after the pump.


    I would walk between the pump & the temporary electric pole, where the pump was plugged in, starting & stopping the pump to build pressure, then bleeding air. I would do this for about an hour, finally stopping to allow the pump (& me!) to rest & cool off.


    On Sunday, I called the hardware store to ask their advice about getting the siphon line charged, thinking they might have a siphon pump I could use from inside the still uncovered tank. Instead, they recommended installing a tee at the top of the tank in the siphon line where I could pour water in to charge the line. When I went there, I told them the line was one inch diameter. WRONG! It was only 3/4", so what I bought was too big. By the time I had gone home to find that out (after stopping at the Farmers Market to speak to a vendor who hadn't come that time) & went back to town for the right sized parts, the hardware store was closed. So I couldn't do anything more since I cut the line.


    Monday, I got the right sized parts, put them in & filled the line. I again tried to get the pump to pressurize the system, but it would stop sucking water after awhile, before fully pressurizing. I gave up trying this, deciding that there wasn't enough water in the tank to work properly. I gave in & ordered a delivery of water at $75. *Sigh* The hauler held 4000 gallons, but my tank only holds 3300, so the driver dumped the excess water on the road as he drove away. What a waste!


    Staring into the tank, I so longed to crawl in as though it were an above ground swimming pool! I had always wanted my own swimming pool, but didn't dare use this tank for that, since the bacteria & dirt on skin would foul the water unless I heavily chlorinated it. I suppose I could have anyway, but just didn't. Someday... maybe.


    Now, with a full tank, I went back to the work of pressurizing my pump system. As I worked like before, releasing the air through the pressure sensor & the faucet near the pump, I noticed that I hadn't tightened the ferel enough, since it was still bubbling a bit. I gave it another tweak with the wrench, only to hear a CRAAACK & see water spew in a fan shape beneath the brass fitting, where I had PVC fittings! SHIT!!! More work & more money!


    About two years ago, I had replaced that ferel fitting on the copper pressure sensor line. What that involved was cutting my PVC pipe below the elbow that led to the outflow of the pump & pressure sensor line. Here I go again! I again cut that section of plumbing out & unscrewed it from the pressure sensor line & pump. I picked up the identical parts I needed to fix my damage, which was a crack that ran through two fittings that changed the size from the pressure sensor line of 3/8" to the one inch tee as well as the tee itself. I also went ahead & bought a new compression fitting, figuring I had worn the old one out with so many times having to bleed out air when I replaced the filter in front of the pump. I also had to buy new PVC primer & glue, knowing that once opened, the old stuff from last time would no longer be any good. Along with a spool of teflon tape, my hardware store expense totalled about $20 between the multiple trips.


    I also had to cut three sections of pipe to glue between the fittings. I still had plenty of pipe left from my original plumbing installation about six years ago. Each piece, one about 6" & two about 2", had to be scrubbed inside & out from the algae that had grown on it. They also needed to be shaved at the cut ends for burrs & not quite straight cuts. This I did in the evening while watching TV.


    On Wednesday, after dropping my son off at school, I went to work assembling the parts, again watching TV. I got a call just as I finished gluing the pieces together that I would screw into the pump, to later glue the main pipe to my handiwork after I lined it up. The call was the school nurse... my son wasn't feeling good & wanted to come home. Grrrrrr!  He only went to school one day last week, out of the three he was supposed to. They had off two days; one for Founder's Day, the other for Teacher Institute Day. He'd also missed Monday & Tuesday, because neither of us woke to the alarm in time to get him to school. That's partly my fault. I am not a morning person & have been feeling especially tired lately.


    As I was about to leave, a car pulled up, blocking my driveway... Jehova's Witnesses. I'd been able to avoid them for a long time, finding their magazines in my carport. I spoke with the ladies for a few minutes, letting them know I was on my way to pick up my sick son. One of the ladies had known of my bout with breast cancer, & showed concern. She let me know that I appeared more healthy now, having appeared ashen when we first met. After about 15 minutes, they finally left.


    My son was tired, with red eyes & flushed cheeks, but no fever. I personally suspect that his hours in front of his computer, playing Halo online the previous day (about 12 hours almost continually) was the problem. Staring at the flickering light from a computer monitor for long periods of time without giving the eyes much rest is definitely not good. I remember debi having serious issues with her eyes almost two years ago when she was working on graphics for long stretches, especially with reds. She had to avoid using her computer for days until her eyes healed. I've heard others who work intensively with graphics complain about painful eyes. This is easily avoided by limiting the amount of time one focuses on computer screens, doing other things in between. Look away alot as well even when spending time at the computer.


    Once back home, I went right back to work on replacing the missing section. Since I had to glue the assembly to the main pipe, I had to wait at least two hours before attempting to pressurize the system. During that time, I downloaded Critical Updates for my Windows XP Pro OS & played a few games, read some emails or watched TV. About 1:30, I went out to perform the final steps at getting water back to running in my house. I first charged the line a bit with the pump, unplugged it, bled air, then plugged it back to bleed it some more while the pump was running. YIPPPEEE!!! The purge on the filter canister actually worked to release the remainder of the air & the pump shut off on its own! I had running water again!


    As with everything I do, I learned a few new tips. My 'signature' I sometimes add to my emails most definitely was appropriate in this case: The more we confront, the more we learn.


    We're never too old to learn new tricks!  I'll never stop learning!

October 18, 2003

  • Every 12 minutes, a woman dies from breast cancer!*


    October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I know many of you may be tired of hearing about breast cancer, but as a breast cancer survivor of 2 years (& counting!), I feel that the media & your friends & family CANNOT stress this enough... GET YOUR MAMMOGRAM! To the males out there, be sure your significant other & women in your family & your female friends do so!


     

    I've been spending time while online, following links within several health emails I receive daily; especially those related to cancers... breast cancer at the foremost. I have been inundated with information... some very helpful & some I tend to take with a grain of salt, due to earlier research & my own breast cancer experience. Remember this... they don't call it the 'practice' of medicine for nothing.

     

    The statistics say that overall, one of every eight women will get breast cancer by their mid-eighties. The numbers for those getting breast cancer in their forties is one in sixty-six. I am one of those. I was originally diagnosed at age 45. I can testify to how valuable mammograms can be in finding breast cancer; especially in its early stages, when the survivability is much greater. My cancer was listed as DCIS, Stage I, meaning that it was completely encapsulated within the milk duct, without encompassing the walls of the milk duct in any aspect. The size of my tumor was 2mm. It was not able to be felt, even by my highly experienced surgeon. Had I waited any longer, or the radiologist not been able to see the suspicious calcifications amongst my dense breast tissue, I would definitely be one of those who would end up with a much more dangerous stage of the disease, lowering my survivability immensely.

     

    I must also give credit to my radiological technician, Suzi, who has to be one of the best in the nation at spotting the abnormalities herself, resulting in further films when I had my first set done then. The look on her face when she came back after the original films were taken spoke volumes... even before she said the radiologist wanted more specific images. Later, when I had the follow-up mammograms after my simple mastectomy with findings of a fibroid & additional calcifications (both non-cancerous, although the calcs were hyperplasia or pre-cancer), she assisted the clinic director in the double biopsies of my bi-lateral ( opposite) breast. She is one very special lady.

     

    Sure, there are women who are afraid of going in to have a mammogram done. It can be extremely uncomfortable to have one's breasts compressed to a mere 1/4th to 1/2 inch thick... especially those of us with dense breasts! A rule of thumb is to be sure to schedule your mammogram about the middle of the menstrual cycle, when the breasts are less tender or swollen (9-14 days after the start of your period). But the time spent with the breasts compressed is so minimal, when you compare that with the possibility of allowing a tumor to grow to the point where it metastasizes into other parts of the body, making survivability almost hopeless. Our dear friend, Jane, (Windsong87) was one of those whose cancer, when diagnosed, had already metastasized into her lymphatic system. Within the year, she was gone, even though she was staying so positive & doing all the things the doctors said to make herself well again.

     

    In my links tracking, I have found some wonderful articles on WebMD related to breast cancer. I'm still clicking & reading, following article after article, learning as much as I can to arm myself in my ongoing battle against the return of a horribly scary disease... one that takes thousands of women each year & is second only to, depending on what source you are reading, skin cancer (or lung cancer) in women. Cancer in general is the 2nd most prevalent cause of death in women, following heart diseases.

     

    In some of what I read, I learned that breast cancer rates in women has DOUBLED since the 1940s. Some believe this can be accounted for by the presence of better medical screening, especially in the case of mammograms. Personally, I believe it has alot to do with our lifestyles, dietary habits & environment... more specifically the use of chemicals in our foods & the environment. There were no long-term exposure tests done on any of the chemicals that have been labeled 'harmless' by the FDA. Even now, with many chemicals used as pesticides or herbicides that are KNOWN to the FDA to cause cancers & other catastrophic illness, their use continues.

     

    There are even drugs promoted continually that are known to have serious 'side-effects' including cancer which still find their way into our bodies at our physicians' recommendations. One of these is one my own oncologist (cancer specialist) recommended that I take to prevent the recurrence of breast cancer, because mine was the estrogen-receptive type... Tamoxifen (Novaldex). In my research at the manufacturer's website, I found THEIR research study findings. Reading it with a trained eye & a good background in the English language, I learned that it was written in such a way as to make the drug APPEAR to have the results that would make it a viable breast cancer preventative measure.

     

    However, in reality, it CAUSES endometrial cancers in one in four women who take the drug in as little as 2 years & almost assuredly after 5 years! Also part of their findings was that the recurrence rate of breast cancer was actually NO LESS in women who took the drug than those who took the placebo! But the way they stated the findings was very misleading. The statistics were presented in a way that would cause confusion to those who weren't experts in understanding statistics & comparable values, giving the false premise that the drug is good. This is a typical ploy by researchers to prevent the loss of funding for their projects & drug companies in general so they can sell a drug they are manufacturing... at a HUGE profit.

     

    It saddens me greatly that the American Cancer Society, in one of their popular online publications, clearly is pushing the use of that drug. I can only presume that they are receiving a great amount of funding from the drug manufacturer, at the cost of promoting that drug for the money they are providing. Above all, remember this... God has given us everything we need to keep us healthy & to make us well when we are ill. The sources are all around us in the herbs He has graciously given us, no matter where we are! We don't need man-made chemicals to cure ourselves, especially when most have proven to do as much harm, if not more harm than good.

     

    Here is a breast cancer risk assessment questionaire that is very helpful in determining how much at risk you might be:  http://bcra.nci.nih.gov/brc/q1.htm  My personal result is 7, because of several factors including already having had DCIS.

     

    This is the Susan G Komen breast cancer site:  http://www.komen.org/

    The American Cancer Society's statistics for breast cancer in 2003:  http://www.cancer.org/docroot/stt/stt_0.asp

    Various breast cancer websites:  http://www.breastcancer.org/qanda_intro.html




    For some good information with loads of links to other resources of information on breast cancer, start here:  http://my.webmd.com/medical_information/condition_centers/breast_cancer/default.htm


     

    There are oodles of articles at WebMD's website. Each page I've gone to has links to many more. It is well worth the time & effort to follow those links to read the information that just might save your life or that of a friend or family member. Please, guys... urge your loved ones to read about breast cancer & go get a mammogram! Read the information yourself. After all, this disease is not limited to women, because men do get it too, although with much less frequency. Also, you men being aware of what breast cancer is... what effect it has on us women... might be the little push we need as well as support for those of us with positive diagnoses.

    BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL!

September 24, 2003


  • This is a newsletter I recently received from Anonymizer, Inc., who have a browser plugin that allows an individual to surf the web incognito.' It highlights some things I've tried to teach others about emails & Internet surfing. It backs up the need for such as firewalls (hardware firewalls aren't enough!) like ZoneAlarm, BlackIce Defender, etc.; as well as blocking popup ads & implanted ads on websites.

     

    It also defines the problem with unwelcome emails. As I've told people when teaching them the basics of using the Net... DON'T click on links imbedded within your email! Copy/paste the link into a NEW browser window. Otherwise, you've just transmitted your email addy to networks who sell information. As well as your email addy, alot of other data gets transmitted as well! Sometimes, you can right-click on the linked word & select 'copy shortcut,' but this is NOT advisable in certain online email viewing, like Hotmail, which 'shortcuts' through your email addy. If you download your email to your computer, the linked URL can sometimes be viewed by holding the cursor over the linked word. You can then HAND TYPE the URL of the site you want to visit in a new browser window. NEVER click on a link in your email! ALWAYS copy/paste or hand type the URL so your email information is not transmitted!




    When you click an ad or follow a link on the web, you can reasonably expect the website you visit to try to track you. What you may not know is that this tracking takes place on many other, more covert, levels.

    Even though you think you are staying within a site as you navigate through it, many times you are actually surfing on a “partner” site that has been set up to look like part of the original site. Travel sites are notorious for this, but the practice is very widespread. In many cases a technology called “frames” is used, so the top and side of the page continues to be loaded from the original site while the body of the page is actually loaded from a third party site. This third party site is governed by its own privacy policy so it can do whatever it wants without regard to any protections in the original site’s privacy policy.


    One of the most annoying parts of surfing the web are the pop-up ads you see on more and more web sites. These are usually not served from the site that launched them. They are actually served either by the advertiser, or by the servers of an advertising network. Any advertiser can track you on any page where that ad appears, or in the case of the advertising networks any page they have any advertisement on. This tracking is just as powerful and intrusive as if you had visited the advertiser’s web site directly.


    The same is true of banner ads within the pages you visit. Even though they appear within another company’s web site, the banner images are actually loaded from the advertiser’s web site. You don’t even have to click on the link for the advertiser to be able to see who you are and what site you are viewing, just seeing the ad is all it takes from them to latch on to you. Not only can they see you, but they can cookie you, track you, and use active scripts to pull additional information out of your browser as soon as that image loads on the page.


    Worse yet, many people who want to track you don’t appear on the page at all. Using a technology called “web bugs” the snooper places an invisible image on the page that can do all the tracking that a full pop-up or ad could do, but you never even know it is there. You need to actually view the source code for the page, and search through the HTML by hand to see if there is a bug in the page.


    The final straw is “email bugs”. These are like web bugs in that they can be invisible, but they actually load as soon as you view an email from the snooper. It not only tracks who you are, where you are, it reports back your email address and the exact time you viewed the email. If you have your mail client to show emails in a preview area, you may not have time to delete the email before it starts tracking you.


    Finally, all the information gathered by any of the above means, in addition to information gathered directly by web sites, both through tracking and through web forms, contests, and surveys, can be freely sold and traded. This free exchange of information magnifies the amount of information about you in wide circulation.


    It is critical to use tools that allow you to see who is tracking you, not just the sites you intended to visit, and then to take some action to stop the information pillaging.


    Sincerely,
    Lance Cottrell
    President and Founder - Anonymizer, Inc.

September 17, 2003

  • I originally meant to post this three weeks ago, in celebration of my 48th birthday on August 26th. It has been a very busy time for me lately, with runs into Hilo almost every day, either for myself for appointments, my son, or neighbors. That, along with the hurricane & other things popping up & my propensity to procrastinate.... oh, well. I had to dig up EasterEgg's photo album generator. Thank goodness I found the bookmark for it, since he has left Xanga & the site he has contributed some of his scripts to doesn't list that!

     

    It got delayed again when I couldn't get EasterEgg's slideshow to work once pasted into Xanga. I guess I'll have to forgo that idea & end up with a blog that looks long. *Sigh* dan, I wish these changes you made hadn't made scripting so difficult. On to the original blog...




     

    One of my riders is the woman who provided me with transportation which the VA would not two years ago, when I was undergoing my cancer stuff that the VA wasn't covering & my shopping trips. Other than my appointments, I tried to make sure I wasn't making her take me to Hilo when she wasn't already going herself, since she had to come out of her way to get me. It was now my turn to help her out.

     

    Another I've been helping out has been a couple who live in my subdivision. The guy is one I've had help me with my yard on occasion, especially lately, since I've been so ill this summer & the growth of the weeds has gotten out of hand. He also helped straighten out under my house, for pay. This couple make gorgeous gardens from hapuu (treefern) stumps. He plants moss & carves designs into the moss on the sides of the hapuu on some & places plants into the hapuu that tend to stay small & do well indoors with low light. She makes little 'houses' that are then added to these gardens, making some into little living islands. These gardens sell for good money & they've been shown on some of the local TV shows. Guess who gave him the idea to make & sell these creations?

     

    Sometimes, he allows things to get out of control & they end up splitting up & losing everything they have. They both drink, with his drinking being especially bad at times. Recently, I've had the opportunity to speak with both of them, alone & together, carefully pointing out a few things, but mostly listening to them. I'm seeing changes in both of them that hopefully will stick, because they love each other dearly & compliment each other & are truly good people. He has lofty goals, which he could easily attain, once he puts away the beer, or at least cuts it way back!

     

    My driver friend had a freak auto accident late July. A large pickup truck coming at her lost a wheel, which hit her van, totaling it. My friend suffered injuries from the accident, mostly whiplash-type, with nerve pinching in one arm. I had been taking her to chiropractic appointments, which turned out not to be helping, but made her feel worse. It turned out that the doc never got her MRI info from the hospital! I also don't like the fact that he told her NO water therapy & not to use the neck collar, except while sleeping. She's taking care of her 16-month-old grandson, lifting this child often, which is NOT helping her injuries!




    Anyway, for my birthday, I finally went to a sacred spot I found years ago, amongst the new lava flow that devastated several homes during the early stage of the ongoing eruption of Pu'u'o'o crater. I have meant to take Pele, the Hawaiian volcano goddess, her favorite beverage, gin, as an offering in celebration of my birthday, but each year, something happens to stop me. This year, I vowed to myself nothing would stop me again.

     

    This tradition is something I heard as a child that a man used to do who was the grandfather of a classmate of mine, so it is not a myth. On his birthday, Mr Detour would take a gallon bottle of gin & throw it into Halemaumau crater. Each time, there would be an eruption. Mr Detour lived to be 104.





    ** All About Virgo **

    Each Sun sign gets saddled with some cliched quality -- Scorpios are overly sexual, Capricorns are power-hungry, Geminis are talkative, etc. -- but Virgos seem to bear the brunt of the zodiacal backlash. If you're a Virgo, you've likely heard the buzzwords: methodical, detail-oriented, chaste, insecure. With such unglamorous descriptions, it's easy to see why Virgos receive less print than, say, a flashy Leo or an aggressive Aries. But your charms are of the more unassuming variety, your approach subtle and surprisingly tender, your standards high but ultimately pragmatic.

    As an earth sign, you're achievement-oriented and sensible, but you're also of the mutable quality, so you can be a little too keen to bend to the will of others. You're not aiming for the corner office; you just want to do a good job. You may subvert your own needs out of a sense of duty. With this exaggerated sense of responsibility, Virgos walk a fine line between good little worker bee and pack mule, between self-sacrifice and martyrdom.

    Your eyes catch the smallest details of the material world -- from a ragged hem or a missed decimal point to a person in need who's afraid to ask for help. Virgo is the natural sign of the sixth house, house of health and service, so coming to the aid of others is second nature to you. Many natives of the sign grow up to become nurses, doctors or nutritionists or enter into analytical fields like bookkeeping or statistics. You thrive in a position where you can feel immediately necessary and useful, though you're not averse to trudging through a long-term project as long as you know your work will have practical value.

    Beneath that perfectionist exterior lies a generous yet apprehensive soul. You're wary of revealing your true feelings or of being too demonstrative out of a fear of rejection or, more likely, disappointment; your standards in romance are unsurprisingly high. You'd almost rather stay single than lower the bar or settle for less than what's best for you. You just really need some security and trust before you can let go and just love. Once you are in love, you can be overly critical of your mate, picking apart their thoughts and actions with the same degree of precision you apply to your responsibilities. On a positive note, you are utterly, unswervingly devoted to those you love.




    Enjoy the pics from my birthday...

     


    The sacred spot. My son took this picture. I'm in there, barely visible. Can you find me?

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     



     My offering also included a pack of menthol cigarettes, since Pele likes her smoke! I closed the ti leaf wrapping with a scrunchie, pale yellow in color to match her light blonde hair when she sometimes appears as a young blonde woman. Before closing the offering, I shared a toast to her of the gin, a new flavored one... Seagram's Lime Twisted. Not a gin drinker myself, I was surprised at how good it tasted, straight! I NEVER drink hard liquor straight!

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    This is an interesting crack that recently appeared, probably due to shifting of the lava ledge. It's located on the opposite side of the mound behind the tree where I left my offering. The lava flow is actually a shelf in some areas & there are times when large sections crack completely off & fall into the ocean. There are signs warning against venturing out into these known dangerous areas, beyond where we walked.

     

    Mitch... Yes, I know what it looks like!

     


    I had taken my son along, with much argument from him. He left me to my offering time alone as he took a few pictures nearby. He helped me place the closed offering within the base of the young white banyan tree, then we headed for the new Kaimu (Black Sands) Beach. He spent alot of time combing the beach for just the right rocks to make his 'trail marker' tower & having fun throwing rocks into the ocean. As hard of a time as he gave me about going, it was even harder to get him to leave! He thought we had only been there a half hour when it had actually been about two hours!

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    This is the result of his rock hunt. He actually wanted to make it taller, but that would have required larger base rocks he was unable to find. Note the single rock to the left. He thought it looked a bit like a skull. I later noticed another one like it as we were leaving that if he had seen earlier would have taken the place of the roundish one to the right.

     

     

     

     


    The waves were beautiful this day. There are two good reasons for there being no surfers however. First, these waves crest too close to shore for any type of decent ride. Second, there is a very bad undertow/rip current along this shore. Even the most agile & experienced swimmer cannot handle the currents.

     

     

     

     

     

    My son shot this image on the way back to our car, entranced by the effects of the sun's setting rays. What he saw was a red ray & quickly took this picture. I think it turned out wonderfully, although he thought he didn't get it. It's even better than what he was seeing!

     

     

     

     

     

     


    Later that evening, at 8:24 according to official time clocks, the entire island was shaken by an earthquake measuring as much as 5.3 on the Ricter Scale. The oddest thing about this is that it just misses my birth date of 8-26-55 by the time & intensity! Perhaps they are off? Pele was saying 'Mahalo' for the offering! How cool is that?!

August 31, 2003

  • One thing that is so irritating & extremely dangerous about the way the National Weather Service reports an on-coming hurricane is that they only report the distance of the CENTER of the storm! They don't mention the storm's SIZE (diameter) when mentioning how probable it will be in 'hitting' a certain area. Those of you who experienced the various hurricanes in the last 20 years that had such devastating damaging effects should know this error of omission first hand. For example, hurricanes Andrew, Hugo, Iwa, Iniki, etc., each causing millions of dollars in property damage.

     

    Right now, the East Coast has hurricane Grace headed for the Carolinas. We here in Hawaii, especially on the Big Island of Hawaii, have been watching the tracking of hurricane Jimena, as he has made a beeline for Hilo. Only in the last 12 hours has this storm changed from a tracking of WNW to almost due westerly. The Civil Defense warnings issued keep saying that this storm will pass the southern tip of our island. What they're NOT saying is that the EYE of the storm MAY pass the tip, leaving the main brunt of the storm to pass directly over the southern HALF of this island!

     

    They're also NOT saying that hurricanes often spawn tornadoes off its leading edge, or in other words, that part of the storm that WILL pass over the island! There is NO WAY, from what I have been tracking for the past 2 days, that this storm will miss this island, short of suddenly making a dog-leg due south right NOW! Already, we are experiencing the hot mugginess & sporadic rains often generated in front of storms like this. I've been watching the clouds track SOUTHERLY, toward the storm, rather than the normal east to west they follow with the Trades. Our clouds NEVER head south! To me this means those clouds are being sucked into the storm, to add more energy.

     

    Take a look at the image below & let me know what you think. My home is located approximately at the black tip of the pink feather pointer. The hurricane is headed due west. Is it going to hit my area?

     



     

    Updated image from 5:30 HST:

     


     


     

    So if I'm not back online for awhile, you'll know why. No power. Fools. I have my extra drinking water & a catchment tank full at over 3k gallons for bathing (with carrying, with no electricity for the pump to run). As long as my ancient ohia trees don't fall on my house, I'll be okay!




    Update 9:30 HST:

    The rains are now coming down hard. The winds are picking up like crazy. I needed help to get a tarp put up over my southern living room window, which never happened, so now I'm getting mist blowing in on me as I type this. I have no glass on half of that window & my kitties pulled down the screen because they love going in & out there, onto my carport roof. I'm starting to lose my TV satellite signal on occassion because of the heavy rains.

     

    Here's what the image looked like from a half hour ago:

     


     

    It looks like the storm is regaining some of its intensity. Plus, I don't like that multi-cell I see trailing it. That looks especially nasty! If it joins up with Jimena... LOOK OUT! I dread what would happen if this storm decides to take a northerly turn, across ALL of the Island chain! As it is, it appears that all of the islands will see some effect from this storm!

     

    The Honolulu chanel's recent news bite indicates they've started evacuations of beach residents. I'm still not hearing that in the radio updates, which seem to be way behind (typical!).

     

    Also just learned... Charles Bronson died. Sorry, debi, I know he was one of your favorite actors.




    Update 2:00 AM HST 01 Sept:

    So far, so good. I got awakened by vasious noises, like those of my TV, the rain on my roof, my radio & a weird song I left playing on my computer. There seems to now be two bad cells in the hurricane... the eye toward the south & another cell  almost directly east of my location. I just checked the lastest advisory, posted just minutes ago. Here's what it said:


    BULLETIN
    HURRICANE JIMENA INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY NUMBER 18A NWS CENTRAL PACIFIC HURRICANE CENTER HONOLULU HI
    2 AM HST MON SEP 1 2003

    ...JIMENA PASSING SOUTH OF THE BIG ISLAND AND WEAKENING SLIGHTLY...

    A HURRICANE WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR THE BIG ISLAND OF HAWAII. A TROPICAL STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR THE BIG ISLAND OF HAWAII.

    AT 2 AM HST...1200Z...THE CENTER OF HURRICANE JIMENA WAS RELOCATED BY AIR FORCE RESERVE RECONNAISSANCE AND RADAR NEAR LATITUDE 17.5 NORTH...LONGITUDE 154.5 WEST...OR ABOUT 160 MILES SOUTH SOUTHEAST OF HILO...HAWAII.

    JIMENA IS NOW MOVING TOWARD THE WEST-SOUTHWEST NEAR 17 MPH. A MORE WESTWARD MOTION IS EXPECTED TO RESUME LATER TODAY.

    MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 75 MPH WITH HIGHER GUSTS. LITTLE CHANGE IN STRENGTH IS FORECAST DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS.

    HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 30 MILES FROM THE CENTER...AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 115 MILES.

    ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE IS 995 MB...29.38 INCHES.

    HEAVY RAINFALL OF 6 TO 10 INCHES...WITH LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS...CAN BE EXPECTED NEAR THE PATH OF JIMENA. THIS COULD CAUSE FLASH FLOODS AND MUDSLIDES ON THE BIG ISLAND OF HAWAII.

    REPEATING THE 2 AM HST POSITION...17.5N...154.5W. MOVEMENT TOWARD... WEST-SOUTHWEST NEAR 17 MPH. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...75 MPH. MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...995 MB.

    I still don't like what I see behind the storm, which has grown in intensity during all of this!



    Here comes the really nasty stuff!







    Update 9:30 AM HST 01 Sept:


    Hurricane Jimena has been downgraded to a tropical storm. It's eye did track past the southern tip as predicted & what passed over the island had relatively little impact, as far as the winds were concerned. Most of what we have gotten has been the rains. That nasty-looking trailing red cell has also lessened in intensity, but has yet to pass over us.


    I have yet to walk my entire yard to check out any damage, but what areas I did walk I only found some small limbs that were dead anyway from my ohia. I also found one avocado fallen from my tree, although there should be more. A couple of my orchids were knocked off my dead Volvo, parked under my carport, but I figure that may have been one of my kitties that did that.


    It's still very warm & muggy, indicating that we're not out of the storm quite yet. The news says the effects of the storm should end by noon our time (2.5 hours). We will still have more rains from that trailing cell probably later this evening or tonight.


    I haven't heard of any power-outages, so I am presuming no giant albezzias fell or lost huge limbs on power lines. I also haven't heard anything more about beach swells, so am wondering how the beachfront property owners fared.


    Storms like this one is a good reason NOT to own beachfront property! Frankly, the storms don't even need to come near the island to cause damage to beachfront homes, due to elevated surf! They pay premium prices for the beachfront properties & heafty insurance costs... it's not worth it to me, especially considering the fact that the property errodes consistantly, losing as much as a foot each year! Also a fact is that the island is sinking at about that rate as well. Why own property that will end up in the ocean?


    My property is about 8 miles inland, approximately 750 foot elevation. I don't have to worry about those issues for centuries!


    Here's the 9 AM infra red satellite image of the downgraded tropical storm Jimena:


August 21, 2003

  • Just a 'brief' update

        I've not been feeling well for several weeks, almost 2 months now. Hopefully, I've found a solution, which does seem to be helping, even though I held reservations about the recommended therapy when I found it at the time. More about that in an upcoming, LONG blog.

        My son is doing well after his surgery. More about his last visit with the doctor in that same upcoming blog. Quite a story there!

        Some who have read me for a while know that this time of year, things start going bad for me. It usually starts about the middle of August & runs almost through to the end of the year. This year, it started on the 7th, with the loss of my aunt... my mom's oldest sister. She was the last of that family line, as I just confirmed when I talked to my brother last night. There were only girls in that family... 3 of them. My mom was the youngest, yet was the first to die. They died in reverse order. I believe my aunt was 98, although I forgot to ask my brother when I spoke to him. Her birthday was exactly one month before her death.

        A week ago today (Wednesday, August 13th), was the 16th anniversary of my home invasion, which I wrote about in a previous blog. Each year, when August rolls around, I keep positive thoughts that this year will be different. I have been proven wrong again. As with the other stuff, there will be more about this in an upcoming LONG blog.

        I hope I can keep my word. Some of it is already written. But... I have been an emotional & health wreck for the past 2 months, & with the latest disasters just over the weekend... well... it's hard for me not to bust up crying at the least little thing, like today when I finally bought the card I meant to send with a long letter to my aunt. This pic is the same as the card I selected today. I 'heard' my aunt in my Jeep this afternoon when I told my friend about when I originally wanted to buy a card, but not having time to decide which pretty card she'd like, say 'Yes, I like THAT one.' I broke down in tears, much to my friends surprise. My aunt had been a school teacher. Also, except for the bright red cheeks, I looked like the little girl in this beautiful creation. I also loved the forest, spending as much time as I possibly could there... ALONE!

         The link to the site where cards like those I mentioned (& bought many different ones of) is here:  http://www.leanintree.com/ I bought the cards at a local grocery store, sized 8.5" x 11" for $2.95 each... 16 of them! But they're not for mailing... they're for my gazing... my meditation focus mostly. I noticed that the site has many, many more beautiful ones to choose from, at $1.65 each, although smaller.

August 10, 2003

  • Some things that I hadn't thought of in connection with the drug industry that came out recently in the New York Times...


    http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/07/health/07DEPR.html?th



    -GlaxoSmithKline, for instance, has acknowledged that just one of its nine studies of Paxil in children and adolescents has been published — a study that made only passing mention of suicide and concluded that the drug was effective against depression. According to the F.D.A., the combined results of all nine trials show that the drug is not effective against depression in patients under 18. Of the S.S.R.I.'s, only Prozac is approved by the F.D.A. to treat depression in children and teenagers, although doctors also widely prescribe the others.


    -Dr. Graham Emslie, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center who was a researcher in four of GlaxoSmithKline's studies of Paxil, said he suspected that the other studies went unpublished at least in part because the results were unfavorable.


    -"Some of these studies were finished a couple of years ago," Dr. Emslie said. "But negative trials tend not to get published."


    -Dr. Perera, the GlaxoSmithKline official, said that publishing studies "takes time." He declined to say if the company would seek to publish the eight Paxil studies that have not appeared in journals.


    -According to Dr. Emslie, other companies have withheld negative studies of S.S.R.I. 's. "I know of at least a half-dozen other studies of antidepressant treatments in children and adolescents that have been completed but as yet have not been published," he said. "More than enough time has passed for these to be published at least in abstract form." He refused to identify the companies or the drugs involved because he, like other researchers involved in similar research, has signed contracts promising secrecy.


    -With negative results not disclosed, researchers and physicians often believe that drugs are more effective and safer than they actually are, according to Dr. Marcia Angell, a former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine. "It changes the way medicine is practiced," Dr. Angell said.


    -"There is simply no scientific evidence whatsoever, no placebo-controlled double- blind study, that has established a cause-and-effect relationship between antidepressant pharmacotherapy of any class and suicidal acts or ideation," said Dr. Charles B. Nemeroff, a professor of psychiatry at Emory University who worked as a consultant and spoke on behalf of Lilly.


    -In an interview, Dr. Nemeroff said he believed that his statement was accurate then and remains so, since he has not seen any published study to contradict it.


    Not seen any published study which contradicts the drugs efficacy &safety? I wonder why? Could it be that the results of those unpublished studies were so full of detrimental information to the profitability of the drug companies that it benefited them not to publish those; only publishing those which produced favorable results? And my doctor wonders why I stopped all my anti-depressants?!


    Often, public monies pay for the drug research. How about if the data of all studies performed under public research grant funding be released upon completion of the studies?



    Drug price-gouging:  http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/07/business/07DRUG.html&OQ=th



    -But the growing disparity between American and foreign drug prices has led to a surge of sentiment against the industry in Congress — even among Republicans, who have been the recipients of most of the drug makers' campaign contributions. The industry has become the largest contributor to federal political campaigns, donating about $21 million to parties and candidates during the 2002 election, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.



    Fed govt pays lots to pharmaceutical research, so why do drug companies say they need to recoop costs in exhorbitant drug prices with long-term patents they refuse to give up?


    A possible Medicare drug benefit solution would be if pharmaceutical companies charge Medicare 30% above what they'd sell the drug to the wholesalers for. Obviously, if the drugs can be sold by Canada at a profit, buying them from the wholesalers, which still garners the pharmaceutical companies enough profit to pay for their research, etc, where's the problem with selling the drugs here at a reasonable price?


    As I said, much research is funded by public monies:   http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/07/opinion/07THU3.html?th

    -Several years ago Dr. Varmus's group issued an open letter, signed by some 30,000 colleagues, calling on the publishers of scientific journals to make their archived rsearch articles freely available online. Most journals declined, so they would not undercut the profitable business of selling expensive subscriptions to libraries. But there is a basic inequity when much of the research has been financed by public money.

    It's about time!

August 8, 2003


  • I never fail but to start out writing one blog, getting side-tracked/delayed, & something else comes up that takes my focus from what I had started. On this one, it is one I had actually bounced around in my mind some weeks ago, when I first learned that AMC was going to run a wonderful movie this past Sunday that I had watched at least 3 times already, each time ending up in tears.

     

    I meant to introduce you to the idea behind the story. Not the one you see playing out on the screen, which, as wonderfully portrayed as it is, you know deep down inside it's just made up... just Hollywood. What I'd like you to see is what the writer is hoping to promote with this movie.. The same thing that prods me every day in believing that their IS hope for humanity some day. The same thing that whatever Supreme Being you believe in wishes for each & every one of us.

     

    The world continues to become more & more corrupt, especially with faster communications & travel. The greedy eye has become even larger scaled; from the immediate community to the county to the state to the country & now the entire world. In the process, people get stepped on. This sometimes causes those stepped on to want to pass on the hurt to those having nothing to do with their pain. When it was just the community, there were usually enough citizens willing enough to stand up to the bullies to prevent being completely being run ram-shod over. It'll have to go back to that simple measure again.

     

    The movie I'm talking about is 'Pay it Forward.' I've mentioned it once before, I believe. It stars Haley Joel Osment (Treavor), Helen Hunt & Kevin Spacey. Helen's character is a drunken, single parent who left an abusive husband. Kevin Spacey is a teacher at the middle school who tasks the students, including Helen's character's son with trying to come up with a way to improve the world for extra credit in his social studies class, to run for the entire school year.

     

    Treavor (Osment) comes up with the idea of 'Pay it Forward,' meaning to find 3 people who need special help & help them. Instead of them paying you back, they find 3 other people needing help, instructing them to also find 3 others needing special help. Of course, there are always those people who are too selfish to ever repay any help given them. This is the main problem with the world even now. But if even one does& others see the REAL effects that helping another with NO STRINGS other than to help someone else when the opportunity arises, out of the goodness of their hearts, it WILL catch on! What a wonderful world it will be then!

     

    So rent the video or DVD & cry with me toward the end. Also, like me, when you find someone who needs a hand, offer it. Instead of expecting repayment, tell them to 'Pay it Forward" or "Pass it On" & smile. Blessings!

     

    Good news! I just heard an ad on the TV that it will air on TNT this coming Thursday eve at 9, EDT. I will again be watching it, Kleenex™ by my side.

     

    Calling All Angels

    Santa Maria, Santa Teresa, Santa Anna, Santa Susannah
    Santa Cecilia, Santa Copelia, Santa Dominica, Mary Angelica
    Frater Achad, Frater Pietro, Julianus, Petronella
    Santa, Santos, Miroslaw, Vladimir
    and all the rest

     

    a man is placed upon the steps, a baby cries
    and high above him you hear the church bells start to ring
    and the heaviness, the heaviness, ah, it settles in
    oh it settles in
    (somewhere you can hear a mother sing )

     

    then it's one foot then the other
    as you step out on the road, step out on the road
    how much weight? how much weight?
    then it's how long? and how far?
    and how many times, ah, before it's too late?

     

    calling all angels
    calling all angels
    walk me through this one
    don't leave me alone
    calling all angels
    calling all angels
    we're tryin'
    we're hopin'

    but we're not sure how

    ah, and every day you gaze upon the sunset
    with such love and intensity
    why it's...it's almost as if
    if you could only crack the code
    you'd finally understand what this all means

    ah, but if you could...do you think you would
    ah, trade it all
    all the pain and suffering?
    ah, but then you would've missed
    the beauty of the light upon this earth
    and the sweetness of the leaving

     

    calling all angels
    calling all angels
    walk me through this one
    don't leave me alone
    callin' all angels
    callin' all angels
    we're tryin'
    we're hopin'
    but we're not sure
    callin' all angels
    callin' all angels
    callin' all angels
    callin' all angels
    walk me through this one
    walk me through this one
    don't leave me alone
    callin' all angels
    callin' all angels
    we're tryin'
    we're hopin'
    we're hurtin'
    we're lovin'
    we're cryin'
    we're callin'
    'cause we're not sure how this goes

     

    Update:  07 August 03, 1930 HST...

    I am sitting here, watching the encore of 'Pay it Forward.' I hope that you all got the chance to see it. It is a wonderful movie that has gotten marks well below those it deserves, because it's a 'touchy-feely' kind of movie, without all the fast-paced action drama. It's a movie of the heart... of the soul... of HUMANITY.

     

    I caught the tail-end of the previous showing today, & as always, the tears flowed, preventing me from singing along with the song above. I did notice, however, that the lyrics I had copied had errors, so I played the song during commericials & made corrections, replacing the lyrics above. As some of you know, I'm a Virgo, & can't stand being wrong. If I am & don't catch it myself, be sure to let me know, so I can correct it & not perpetuate the error!

July 28, 2003


  • A long time ago, I had a few lines of a song running through my head. a beautiful song from long ago, that drew a special feeling with their words. But I could not come up with a title. Nor could I come up with the artist, nor matter how long or how hard I tried.


    I was in a chat with Moniet later that evening. I knew she was very familiar with many of the older melodies, so thought I'd try this one out on her. She was as stymied as I. I even tried searching using phrases of the wording I remembered in MSN search on the address bar & in the current MP3 download program. No luck.


    Today, I was playing around with my complete & partial files in the MP3 download program I am currently using. I loaded all the files into MusicMatch & scanned through them, noticing a familiar but not so famous band & was a tad unsure of the one song I had, so played it. Here was the one song I was banging my head for days trying to figure out!


    Lady
    ====
    by Graham Goble


    Look around, look up here
    take time to make time, make time to be there
    look around, be a part,
    feel for the winter, but don't have a cold heart


    And I love you best, you're not like the rest
    you're there when I need you
    you're there when I need...
    I'm gonna need ... you.


    A long time ago I had a lady to love
    she made me think of things I never thought of
    now she's gone and I'm on my own
    but a love song has come into my mind
    a love song, it was there all the time


    So lady, let me take a look at you now
    you're there, on the dance floor, making me want you somehow
    oh lady, I think it's only fair I should say to you
    "Don't be thinkin' that I don't want you, 'cos maybe I do."


    Look around, come to me
    I have no answers, but know where I wanna be
    I look around, play a part
    I was born in the winter and cooled by a warm heart


    And I love you best, you're not like the rest
    you're there when I need you
    you're there when I need ...
    I'm gonna need ... you.


    So lady, let me take a look at you now
    you're there, on the dance floor, making me want you somehow
    oh lady, I think it's only fair I should say to you
    "Don't be thinkin' that I don't want you, 'cos maybe I do,
    Don't be thinkin' that I don't want you, lady I ... do..."


    No, there's no special event or anything connected to this song. There's just something about it that connects with me when I hear it. I wish I had a place I could upload & link it to for you to hear it now. It's pretty & sweet. I was surprised today to learn that the band is Aussy! All I knew when the song came out was that it was good.


    "Thanks for the memories!"
    Fond Aloha, Bob Hope!
    29 May 1903 - 27 July 2003
    *Tears*

July 16, 2003

  • Below are some of the pictures I took on the 4th. Yes, they're quite late. Oh, well. enjoy them anyway. (Except that I didn't have my tripod yet, so the fireworks shots are shaky, at best. )






    The items above were raffled off at the VFW 4th of July Steak Fry. I wanted the painting, but it went to one of the bartenders. Oh, well... better luck next time!



    The spread. Guess who's sitting, head down, playing a game on his Game Boy? The VFW's Commander is the one in the green shirt. My former VA Van driver is the one serving, with the blue shirt & ballcap. She also, along with her husband, prepared most of the spread!





    I think the above is the fireworks shot my son took. He thought the palm trees were in the way, but they apparently had no effect. This is also the best shot, since he was sitting in the Jeep when he shot it & had managed to turn off the annoying flash. My 'tripod' was a pokey chain-link fence!











    These next images were some taken by my son... He was playing around with my camera. Other than the last, can you guess what these images are of & why they look like this?







    My son, the goofball!

Pikake

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