The sky was thick with stars, two of them falling, when Koko and I went walking this morning, my eyes trained upwards, feet left to find their own way along the street. Makalii was preparing to set, the Big Dipper dominated the north and Triangle pointed the way to Waialeale, [...]
The sky was smudged burnt orange when Koko and I went out walking this morning, the third in our new/old neighborhood. It felt so good to see the peaceful pasture, feel the slosh of wet grass beneath my feet, smell the slightly medicinal scent of camphor, the muskiness of hinano [...]
The sweet crescent moon was the highlight of last night’s sky, where I saw rising in the east the constellations that this morning were setting in the west when Koko and I went walking for the last time in this neighborhood.
Koko and I almost saw the sun rise when we went walking this morning. It’s not that we haven’t been out lately, it’s just that we haven’t been out that late, what with the sun waiting until a leisurely 6:44 a.m. to climb above the horizon.
The stars, brilliant last night, remained so this morning when Koko and I went walking a good two hours before dawn. Orion, Makalii and Triangle sparkled in the western sky, which was rimmed around its edges by a band of clouds that promised rain.
The rain fell with an intensity yesterday that I have rarely seen, and regular calls exchanged with a friend in Hanalei confirmed that conditions up there were even more dramatic, though not in any way unwelcome.
“We love the rain,” was the message we shared each time we talked, [...]
It wasn’t a night conducive to sleeping, especially since a trembling Koko spent much of it panting in my ear. Outside, the rain fell in torrents, near-constant flashes of lightening illuminated the sky and the thunder cracked, rumbled and boomed at a volume and intensity that can only be described [...]
The roar of the surf woke me in the night, and again this morning, and it accompanied us a far ways mauka when Koko and I went walking, skirting puddles and gazing upon Orion, Triangle and Makalii, all lined up on a diagonal.
The rain came in the night, several times, and drummed on the roof and poured from the eaves, but it was gone — although promising to return — by the time Koko and I went out walking in the light of early dawn.
Interesting, how tens of thousands of people can gather for a protest in Okinawa against the expansion of the American military presence there, generating international coverage, but it doesn’t even make the Honolulu newspapers.
Check out the picture of the protesters in the link above. These ain’t [...]
The dog that lives across the street from me spends much of its life in a squealing, yipping, futile pursuit of attention. When its master, or anyone, turns into the driveway, the dog begins yipping — loudly, frantically, desperately. But they pay it no heed and go inside, without a [...]
Sitting down at the beach late yesterday afternoon, dampened by a fine misting rain that felt colder than it really was because it was delivered by a stiff wind, debating whether I should jump in the water, and knowing that I must, because it was so beautifully gray and blue [...]
The moon began wearing a halo when the sky turned from black to blue as Koko and I went walking this morning. Peachy puffs floated past on their way to join the steel-gray clouds huddled atop Makaleha and Waialeale, while over the sea, salmon-pink streaks turned first hot pink, and [...]
I'll be on KKCR from 4 to 6 pm today with Jimmy Trujillo and my friend Ka`imi Hermosura, discussing a wide range of issues. It's the semi-annual fund drive, too, so please pledge some money and make me look good. [...]
The stars were bright, and so was the moon, when Koko and I went walking in a morning that was delightfully crisp and fresh and cool — weather that is very welcome and long overdue.
In a major victory for Hawaiians that is long overdue, the Circuit Court [...]
Koko and I were just about to head out into the darkness when a big rain came, so she went back to bed and I drank tea and worked until it stopped. The moon — super bright last night, and adorned with intricate cloud patterns — was struggling to be [...]
The moon, just hours from fullness, fell into a puffy black pile atop Makaleha and was lost, a silvery gilting the only trace of her presence, when Koko and I went out walking this morning. Orion and the Big Dipper squared off in the south and north, respectively, as golden [...]
Halloween — repackaged by one local pre-school as “career day” in deference to the religious views of some parents, who apparently are not disturbed by the prospect of little kids growing up to become pirates, princesses, vampires and Hulk — came and went once again with nary a trick-or-treater, although [...]
I’ve been buried in work this past week, and upon surfacing briefly, find that many of the same old issues are being revisited, albeit with a slightly different twist. It made me think of a conversation I had yesterday with Jan TenBruggencate about incremental change: it’s maddeningly frustrating to [...]
Thin quiltings of clouds raced across a growing white moon last night, and had totally consumed the sky by the time Koko and I went walking this morning. The streets were wet from a welcome rain and light sprinkles caused me to grab my umbrella just in case it turned [...]
When Koko and I went out into the night, the white half moon was high in the sky, and close to sparkling Jupiter, but by the time we got up, both had set and Venus was just a soft glow low on the eastern horizon.
Mist was creeping around the edges of the pasture and the sky was mostly dark when I pulled up at my former neighbor Andy’s house for our weekly walk this morning. Koko ran toward Andy with a wiggling, whining outpouring of affection, while his dog, Momi, greeted me with her [...]
It was so wonderful to wake in the night and hear the leaves fluttering in the trade winds that have been too long absent, but were back in sufficient force to cool the humid air, free Orion and his celestial pals from their cottony blanket and shake down a snowy [...]
My topic on today's Out of the Box radio program will be Furlough Fridays — the issues, options and opinions. I have several guests lined up, so please listen in and call with your questions and comments. We'll be primarily focusing on the school closures, but we can easily expand [...]
I’m a bit under the weather, so Koko and I had only a brief encounter with the natural world this morning. Still, we were out there long enough to watch the sky shift from starry black to violet, make eye contact with a pueo that landed on a telephone wire [...]
As the Associated Press reported yesterday, the Justice Department has released a memo that advises federal prosecutors not to go after people who use or dispense medical marijuana in conformance with state law.
The policy represents a sharp departure from the Bush era, but still falls [...]
Koko and I went walking with my former neighbor Andy this morning, along the mountain trail made slicker than snot by the same light rain that drifted through the pastures and turned the mountains into ghost peaks and got Koko dirty enough that a bath was the first order of [...]
Koko and I encountered a joy-infusing landscape when we went out walking in the brisk coolness this morning. For starters, Venus was glowing in a purple sky just above a fingernail moon that starts fresh again tomorrow. Beneath them, a band of red smoldered above the ocean, then turned orange, [...]
A thin sliver of moon in a star-dotted sky greeted Koko and me when we went walking this morning. The ground was wet from a passing shower in the night, and the air was clean and refreshingly cool. It seems that summer is at long last behind us.
The moon was a melon wedge encircled by a halo, adrift in a quilted swirl, when Koko and I went walking this morning. In a patch of clear sky to the east, I saw Venus with a much fainter sidekick that I later identified as Mercury on the handy-dandy [...]
The drive into Lihue during rush hour traffic was made a bit more pleasant this morning because of the reduced speed limit along “blood alley” -- that deadly stretch of Kuhio Highway between the Wailua Bridge and the junction with Hanamaulu. I saw no law enforcement, but folks seemed to [...]
The white moon was bigger than half and ringed with a golden halo, thanks to the wisps and swirls of clouds that surrounded it, when Koko and I went walking this morning. The mountains were hulking masses, visible, but not sharply distinct in the hazy air, and when the sun [...]
The world started out black and hazy and dense with stars when Koko and I went walking this morning. And then the sun began to nose up over the horizon, and suddenly everything from mauka to makai was enveloped in a rosy shimmer.
Venus was glowing, looking twice her usual size in the moist air of a dew-drenched dawn, when Koko and I went walking this morning. Both Waialeale and Makaleha were totally clear, allowing me to gaze upon all the many bumps and knobs and notches that characterize their summits, as a [...]
Flashes of lightning lit the sky as I was driving home from the beach last evening in light sprinkles that shortly turned into big rain, the kind that really nourishes the soil. About midnight, the lightning was joined by rolling, clapping thunder, and when it finally departed, and Koko stopped [...]
We’re just a few days into October and it’s feeling fully fall-like, a condition I noticed late yesterday afternoon, driving to the beach with Koko beneath mottled gray skies and waning light, the water still warm, but whipped by the trades. Offshore, I heard a loud slapping sound, and looked [...]
Clouds shaped like oversized squeeze toys skedaddled west and a growing, lopsided moon continued to dance with Jupiter, though not so closely as the evening before, when Koko and I went walking last night. The air was balmy, cooled to perfection by a wind brisk enough to ruffle clothes and [...]
Now that we’ve moved fully into fall, it’s dark most mornings when Koko and I go out walking. Not that either of us mind. I like the stars, and it provides her with cover to surreptitiously snack on things that she otherwise wouldn’t be allowed. Because I can’t tell, when [...]
A star fell as Koko and I stepped out the door this morning, reminding me of the old saying that where a star falls, the fish are biting, so today, it seems, that would be in the east. The stars that stayed put gave way to clouds as we walked, [...]
The rain had just passed, but white clouds were still clinging to dark green mountains, where a squall released the last of its moisture, when Koko and I headed to the beach this morning.
The sun beat us there, but we were otherwise alone, unless, of course, you count [...]
Creativity and time evade me this morning, so let’s skip the intro and get down to business.
That seems appropriate in light of what I see as the most pressing story: scientists are saying the impacts of climate change are happening far faster and sooner than they expected even [...]
I was talking with one of my sisters last night and she mentioned reading a piece by author and food ethicist Michael Pollan, who sees an interesting twist to the health insurance reform debate.
As Pollan notes, many of our health problems, and so many of the high [...]
Makalii, Triangle, Orion and the rest of the stars, two of them falling, blanketed the heavens when Koko and I went walking this morning in air that had a slight — and welcome — chill. I like watching the sky turn from black to various shades of blue as dawn [...]
It was a splendid evening, so Koko and I went walking beneath a golden wedge floating on a bit of fluff in a navy blue polka dot sky. As it got darker, and the moon sank lower, the polka dots got bigger and started to twinkle.
I'll be interviewing Caren Diamond, a coastal and community advocate akamai about a wide range of issues, from 5 to 6 p.m. today on KKCR's Monday Mixed Plate Show.
And on Thursday, I'll be interviewing Police Chief Darryl Perry from 4 to 5:30 p.m. -- a time slot' [...]
The crescent moon set shortly after sunset, so the sky was full of dark, and stars, that stubbornly persisted, even as the day brightened, when Koko and I went walking this morning. Waialeale was topped with just a wisp of white, although the gray shimmer of a shower could be [...]
The night was filled with dreams so detailed and vivid that I was tempted, upon awakening, to slip back into that place, but I’ve learned from experience that my acupuncturist was right when he said that if you sleep too long, you actually feel more tired, because your body’s not [...]
It was already full light, and wet from the night’s rain, when Koko and I went out walking a bit later than usual this morning, seeing as how it’s Friday and a low-energy new moon and I’ve had a busy week. The visual interest wasn’t in the colors of the [...]
The sky was packed with brilliant, glittery stars last night, but only a few were still visible, struggling to shine through a dense layer of clouds, when Koko and I went walking this morning.
The only sounds were the roaring surf and the muffled thump-thump-thump of roosters flapping their [...]
I'll be on KKCR from 4 to 6 pm today with Jimmy Trujillo and my friend Ka`imi Hermosura, discussing a wide range of issues. It's the semi-annual fund drive, too, so please pledge some money and make me look good. [...] 
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