Flim-flam

Aloha: Something has been bothering me for a while now. I have tried to write about it before but ended up just erasing what I wrote, then writing nothing. The United States of America has the absolute best, barring none, health care system in the world! People of means and leaders of many nations come to the USA to get medical treatment that is not available in their own country. Every single person living in the USA has health care. The con men in congress and in the oval office have done a great job of convincing the people that "health care" and "health insurance" are the same thing. They are NOT!!!! You may have to wait up at the ER to get your cold taken care of but you will get it taken care of. Even if you have a regular doctor and two insurance carriers if you get sick on a weekend or a holiday you will have to go to the ER. We all have health care. Could this country have better health care? Of course. But not with insurance but with making more care available through things like more clinics. Here is the rub. No matter what is done there is a shortage of doctors and nurses and follow up health care is now, and will be, into the 23 century, rationed. Believe it or not the fact is that medical care is rationed in Canada, Britain and the rest of the world, including the good old USA.

Hell, my blood pressure is going through the roof. God bless.

Allergy eyes

Aloha: There is something in the air that is really bugging me these last few weeks. I have the sneezes and itchy eyes. It is driving me nuts!!!!! My daughter's big dog is "blasting". I learned that term from watching a dog show about a year ago. It is like when a dog sheds, but last a lot longer and is much heaver. He has been "blasting" now for about 8 months. Where in the world he is getting all that hair from is beyond me. No matter how much you brush him there is more hair coming out. I would think he would be bald by now. It was suggested that my allergy could be from the doggy dander, but why now and not months ago? As a side note the dog is about 13 years old and is really showing his age. We also have a litter mate who is quite gray in the face.

The weather is quite "iffy". I hope to be able to go to the PO at noon today. Yesterday I "rescued" another Jackson's chameleon. They walk so slow that they get run over on the road. When I go to the PO, if I see one trying to cross the road, I pick it up and put it in a tree. Yesterday it was a small female, about 5 inches long. The largest I have seen up here was about 10 inches and was also a female.

The volcano is not doing much of anything. Earthquakes, tephra, tremor and SO2 are all at the low end.

God's love to all or you and take care.

Another day

Aloha: From what I hear the weather in volcano on the day I was in Hilo was very, very wet. Booms and flashes and a lot of rain. Yesterday and today were/is great. I think that Anakam starts her new jog on Monday. Maybe I will have the honor of playing with my mo'opuna next week.

Today the minimum wage (Federal) went up. That does not effect Hawaii as the minimum in Hawaii is greater that the national wage. I have for years thought that the raising of the minimum was not really fair to the lower middle class. Those making $10 to $15 an hour just lose purchasing power as the products and services of those making the new minimum rise in price.

The volcano is doing its thing. All is SOS. Take care, be good and may God bless.

In Hilo

Aloha: This is going to be short. I am in Hilo today. Anakam had a job interview this morning and Topher had a doctor's appointment. Good news for both of them so they decided to go to the movies.

The weather in volcano was nice when we left this morning. Hilo is wet, wet, wet.

The update for our volcano is SOS. That's it for today. God bless and take care.

Here I am again.

Aloha: I am back in Hilo again today. Anakam got sick on the camping trip they went on last week. Well, whatever she had CJ got and was running a high fever yesterday. Topher took they to the ER yesterday (twice) and it seem they both have pneumonia. The magic potions work very well on CJ, not so good on Anakam. I have not been asked to come down tomorrow but we shall see.

I saw on the Internet that some car dealers in Kansas and Missouri are giving away American made AK-47 with the purchase of an American made truck. The dealer gives you a voucher that you take to the gun dealer and "presto" you are a real live red-neck.

This morning when I was taking the "old man" for a walk, a guy stopped me and it seemed that he was staying at the B&B on our road, went for an early walk and could not find his way back to the B&B. If he had walked about 50 more feet he would have seen it. When the County first put in the law to allow B&Bs , we would have quite a few people get lost at all times of the day and night. At one time we had a car drive in our road at 2a, the dogs go crazy, the driver had too much to drink and did not know where his B&B was. I told him to go to the store and call the owner on the pay phone and have them lead him to the rental. I had the chance to talk to the house owner a few months later and it seems that he had rented the house out and the renter was renting it out as a B&B. FYI; Your insurance does not cover third party rentals. If the third party burned the house down you are out of luck.

Volcano is as yesterday. The weather was wet when we left this morning. It is warn in Hilo. CJ is feeling a lot better and wants me to play "crash the cars" with him, I will close. God bless and be good.

Try, try again

Aloha: I have been feeling down in the dumps for a while now. I see things happening that I do not like and feel quite helpless to do anything about them. I now honestly believe that my mother, who was born in 1913 and died in 2006, lived in the best of times for this country. I am afraid that from now on it is going to be down hill and the United States will just be an experiment in the history of the world. Do not forget that it is the victor who writes the history so we just might only be a footnote.

The weather is wet at volcano today; just a guess as I am in Hilo today. It was wet when my wife and I left this morning, wet all the way to Hilo and looks like it will be wet when we go home tonight. My wife has been teaching a class for the Red Cross the last 2 evenings and all day today and will be again all day tomorrow. She is training instructors to teach first aid and CPR and AED and what not. The RC has changed how they do things and I, for one, do not think it is for the better. Now you do not have to be certified in CPR to teach CPR. Question. How do you teach somebody to do something if you do not do it yourself?

Volcano report: There were no significant changes. That is straight from the "horses mouth". I just might be able to go on Crater Rim Drive again in my lifetime. That's it for this week. Be good to each other and may God bless.

Credit Cards

Aloha: I got a call from a guy I used to work for a million years ago, ("Tony"). It seems he just got burned, or should I say, his credit card got burned. Background: A few years ago I bought a pair of boots, via the Internet, from Bass Pro Shops. When I got the credit card bill there was also a charge from Wal-Mart online for about $300. After a long process the charge was removed and I got a new card. I had told "Tony" about it and warned him to be careful. Well, it seems that last month he bought some stuff from Bass Pro Shops online with his bank credit card and the bank called him because a bunch of charges at restaurants on the Mainland had been made on his card. Now he will have the same kind of fun I had, I think that Bass Pro Shops has a problem and I, for one, am not going to get anything from them online.

Anakam, Topher and CJ went camping early yesterday. They came by the house to "borrow" one of the dogs. It seems that a good time was had by all yesterday, but Anakam was not feeling well when she got up this morning so the trip was cut short. I hope she is not coming down with the flu as she has a meeting for a possible new job with the State next week.

The weather is beautiful. It started out a bit wet this morning but it is so nice now, I think I will be going for a walk to the PO when I finish this. The volcano report is SOS.

God bless and be good to each other.

Happy Monday

Aloha: It seems that life has gotten into a rut. The volcano and the weather is SOS. I do not have to sit this week. Maybe I can get Anakam and Topher to go to the movies or shopping or something. (Hint, hint). The cable is acting up and since I have roadrunner I hope nothing happens to the computer. I have the computer on an "APS" so the worst that can happen is a "connectivity problem". I think I have to increase the memory as this thing slows down to a crawl every once in a while. Those without cable know how it is: turn computer on, take a shower, hope you are connected when you get back. I think one of the problems is that the cable company does not have enough "band width" in the volcano area.

Take care and be good to each other. May God bless each and every one of you and may God bless America.

Short note.

Aloha: Just a short post today. The weather today is, at this time, very nice. Earlier it was not so nice. I was able to walk to the PO at about noon.

The volcano is at the "new and improved" SOS. The SO2 from Pu'u 'O'o is below background levels. The background level is about 1700 tonnes a day and it is now at 1200 tonnes.

That is about it. May God bless and keep all of you. Take care and be good.

The new SOS

Aloha: I have had to lower the levels in my volcano report to the "new and improved" SOS. Everything is running at a lower level so that will be the new SOS. The only interesting event has been a 3.3 earthquake on Mauna Loa.

We went for dinner for my eldest's birthday last night. The restaurant in Pahoa, for reasons unknown to us, does not sell spirits. Both of my daughters and their significant others were really bummed out. This restaurant is supposed to have the best "Margaritas" on this side of the island. It may be too early to tell but I could not eat all of my food and I do not seem to be eating as much today so maybe the "spell" I went under yesterday is working. I hope so. I do need to lose 50/60 pounds.

The weather today is a mixed bag. It was wet this morning then about 10a the sun came out. 15 minutes later it was wet again. Now it is sunny, but cloudy. Don't like the weather, stick around, it will change.

That's it for today. God bless and do be good to each other.

Less than SOS (part 2)

Aloha: The volcano report is less than SOS again. No glow, SO2 at the lowest level since this event started, tephra just rock dust; it looks like this event just might be fading away, or not.

Weather is cloudy, with mizzle. (Mizzle - between mist and drizzle.) Dogs are still too pooped to do much, not even eat. The older we get the longer it takes to recover.

Tomorrow I go to try to get some will power to lose weight. I hope it works. It looks like I will have to get a new phone as the screen on my phone has gone out. I will have to get a new fan for my dry room. I have a room in the house with a dehumidifier and a fan to move the air. The fan no longer works, so I need to get a new one. Looks like I will have a real "fun" day tomorrow.

God bless and be good to each other.

PS: I just did a spell check and am told that the work "dehumidifier" is misspelled. But that is the spelling that the spell checker inserted. Strange, the spell checker does not like its own spelling.

Less than SOS?

Aloha: Can something be less than SOS? If so, than the volcano report is less than SOS. I was going to copy the report and paste it here, but when I was doing that some readers complained that it was "boring". I guess the collapse about a week ago did more then I thought.

When the wife got home from camping yesterday she brought me a bag of fish to clean. I tried to give it away to her brother and/or my daughters, but no takers. I guess I will have to clean them this afternoon. Can not let them go to waste! The truck came back a different color then it was when it went to South Point. It was dry and windy at SP so the truck came back a red, dust color. The girls had fun drawing pictures on the windows and sides. My wife took the big dogs and those old guys are still sleeping. Once they get home they curl up and sleep for a day or two. I think they were born in 1997 and are showing their age.

The weather today is great. There is no better place to live then Volcano.

I wonder if the PO found my package? I think I told about the PO lost it. They were going to call everyone who picked up a package last week to see if anybody got it. I was not expecting anything so maybe the mistake was in giving me the notice, and that there is no package for me. We shall see.

May God bless you all and may God bless America!

Day late and a dollar short.

Aloha: Happy 4th of July, a day late. I was surprised to see I had not posted anything since the 1st. The wife and my oldest, her other half. Burida. and a bunch of others went to South Point for a camping and fishing trip. Anakam, Topher, CJ and I went to Manuels house to watch the fireworks. Kohala sister and her husband were there, but did not stay for the fireworks as they do not like to drive after dark. Topher deserves a special "thank you" for doing all the BBQing, with help from Anakam. I do appreciate his work. And as always too much food.

I do not know what is happening with our volcano. Things are slowing down. Is it the calm before the storm, or the end? Or is Pele just resting for the long run? The hole in the crater in the caldera just keeps getting larger.

The weather has been back and forth, rain and sun, but overall rather pleasant.

Manuel has done quite a bit of work on his house. He had a porch on the windward side of his house that is now enclosed with sliding windows. The porch was built on that side to take advantage of the great, great view, which we took advantage of last night.

Time for my Woody Woodpecker thing, "That's all folks". God bless and take care.

Rumble, rumble.

Aloha: The volcano report is NOT SOS!!! This is from the HVO website (in red).

Past 24 hours at Kilauea summit: At 1:38 PM (Hawaiian Standard Time) Tuesday afternoon, a large collapse within the summit vent occurred, resulting in a loud booming sound heard across the caldera area, shaking that could be felt at the Jaggar Museum, generation of a dark brown plume, ejection of ash and lapilli, a very-long-period seismic signal, and an inflationary tilt offset. The initial collapse destabilized the vent, and for the next 3 hours numerous additional collapse signals were recorded by seismometers, some of which resulted in shaking that was again noted at the Jaggar Museum. Between 2:30 PM and 3:30 PM, a portion of the floor of Halemaumau Crater collapsed, enlarging the west rim of the summit vent. Earthquakes are up, RB2S2BL quakes are 6 times higher then before the collapse. Yesterday the earthquake map had 24 quakes on it. Today there are 44. I think that the vent has filled with rubble so there was no glow last night from either of the webcams.

The weather today is great. I got a notice from the PO to pick up a package, went to the PO and they could not find the package. They now have to call all the people who got packages this week to see if any of them got it.

I got a letter from Sears this week. (Very interesting week) It seems that they found a check made out to me for $56. The check is "stale dated" and asked if I wanted them to reissue the check. They had no idea what the check was for, but I do. Several years ago I bought a refrigerator from Sears that had free delivery. I had to prepay the delivery and was to be reimbursed. I never got my money. Somebody just put the check in a drawer and forgot about it. I called and my daughter called till I just got so mad I put their charge card in the shredder. I just mailed Sears back and told them to "send me the money!".

I guess that will do it for today. God bless and take care.