Playing twister

I have come to feel that the arrangement of these blogs is not working. I can do what I did yesterday and post a blog that leads you to the other blog and back again. But, it feels like I am - yes - playing twister. I am getting all knotted up and it will just get more complicated in the future. So, I am hereby abandoning all blogs but this one. Meet me there.

Two things from my brothers

For those who want to know how to be notified when I post a blog as it happens, Russ has offered various ways to do it here. Thanks, Russ!

And, returning to my so-called political blog (I had intended it to be about a wide range of things but, so far, it has been mostly political), Ken took me up on my offer to have a dialogue about Proposition 8. You can find it here. (It really isn't too much about Prop 8 and way more about me and Ken.) Thanks, Ken!

Hey, Kevin, want to guest blog, too? Then all my brothers are represented. Whatever is on your mind....!

Fun with shadows

So, now that I am convinced that my readership can be measured in the half-dozen, I feel obligated to put something. Anything. The problem is that when it is sunny out, I feel I should be working because most of the work that needs to be done is outside. Right now, there is mostly sun. If I am working (or drinking or eating or studying French), I can't be doing this blog. So, therein lies the dilemma. I am sure the rain will come. This is Hilo, after all, the rainiest city in America! But, just so you will have something to look at, I give you these three shadow pictures....

The joy of name-dropping

I have always liked to name-drop whenever I can do it. I have also long appreciated the Kevin Bacon game (the six degrees of separation concept) and variations on it. The two are obviously related. How far removed are you from, say, the future President of the United States? Well, you can see below that I am just one person removed! If case you don't recognize my name drop - the woman pictured is Obama's very charming sister, Maya. We had a lovely talk and she shared many details about her big brother. She claims for example that while Barack is a good dancer, she is much better. I believe it.

In some ways, this post probably belongs in the "Whatever is On My Mind" blog but Maya is Hawaiian so it works here, too.

Now, many of you may know that I am writing a book about Wagner. It will be a very quirky book. One of the questions I do answer is how far separated are Kevin Bacon and Wagner (using film, opera and a paternal link to make the connection). The answer, surprisingly, is 4! Kevin Bacon was in a film with Kenneth Tobey who was in a film with Lauritz Melchior who was in an opera conducted by Seigfried Wagner, the son of Richard.

Now, a more pleasing route from Bacon to Wagner is through a 5 person connection with Peter Lawford (and Erik Estrada) that links through a film called Where is Parisfal?

Ok, this last bit really has nothing to do with Hawaii.

Kevin is officially aggrieved, too

Now my brother, Kevin, claims that he, too, is a regular reader (and aggrieved)! So, I have updated For Lauras' and Russ' and Kevin's eyes only

If there is anyone out there who is checking my blog regularly (and disappointed when I haven't posted to it), do out yourself now. Otherwise, I officially close that post above from future updates.

The back yard

Leslie and I have both turned our attention to the back yard. Leslie has been clearing and planting. She put in two lipstick palms (no Sarah Palin reference intended), two bottle palms and two alexander palms. She also put in two banana trees and a couple of plumerias.

While she does this work, I am making a fence to screen out our next-door neighbor's house. He is a HVAC guy (Mel the HVAC guy) and uses his backyard as a corp yard. He is a nice guy but we just don't care for the view.

When we arrived, the back corner of the house looked like this:
We didn't like the tree as it is a fast-growing and destructive tree. It was quickly heading into our electrical wires so the electrical company, Helco, removed it for free. (I figure whoever named the company had a sense of humor. The very high electrical rates make the name honest.) Impressively, we fit the whole tree into the car to take it to the dump.

Anyway, the back corner now looks like this


The two palms on the right are the bottle palms - they will grow to be about 15 feet with - yes - bottle shaped trucks. The lipstick palm to the left of the power pole will grow to be about 20-25 feet with a cool red trunk. I think my fence screen looks pretty good if I do say so myself.

Russ is aggrieved

My brother, Russ, is not only a regular reader of the blog but he has some magic way to get notified whenever I post one. I think it has something to do with a RSS feed, whatever that is. He will correct me if I am wrong. And, he promised to send instructions. (You can tell that I am not exactly a tech wizard....) Anyway, I have updated this to correct the wrong I inflicted on my wonderful brother.

Oh, and another thing. Do you remember the photo/ commentary about my cheap-ass compost bin? Well, it has been updated with information that my buddy Brian supplied about why food waste is so darn bad. Please review here if you don't know this information. And start composting!

I'm back...

And I have gotten so far behind! So, some photos to catch you up on what has been going on.

Leslie, Ken and Smiley took a trip to the Halemaumau crater that is active on Kilaeau. Here is a good shot of the crater and the plume of smoke from the lava lake that formed this year.

On another day, we went down to Kaimu to water our palm grove. This was an area that used to be in the ocean, but the land was extended during the 1990 lava flow. This was somewhat heartbreaking because it covered one of the most beautiful beaches - and surf breaks - on the island. But, people have planted thousands of palms to help bring it back. The Karst Klan has planted a small grove of nine since 1992. Here we are tending our palms. In the background is a guy bringing fertilizer to a palm he planted two years ago.
Here are the remains of the containers we used to water by a palm (not ours). Rosie was confused by this outing.

After the work was complete, Rosie relaxed on the new Kaimu beach by our grove.
Here is a view of some palms planted by others. The smoke plume in the background is where lava is entering the ocean a couple of miles away. Between the smoke from the crater and the smoke from the ocean entry, the bad news is that the vog (volcanic smoke) has because absolutely horrible. The good news is that it blows to the Kona side. Don't visit the Kona side now. You will be really disappointed. It looks a lot like California looked during the fires this summer. Not pretty and it smells. Bad for your health. Come to Hilo. Clear and fresh!

As for what work I have been doing at the house, we bought a lot of furniture that needed to be refinished. Two large tables (thanks Yami and Phil!), a coffee table, three end tables and five chairs. All this furniture cost us less than $100. So, here I am with all the tables that have to be done.

And here is one of the tables finished. It is our puzzle table. (A Karst family tradition is to always have a puzzle in process.) For larger puzzles, we can bring up a flap.

While I was working on this stuff, Leslie and Smiley were putting things on the wall and began working on the garden. Here is our "aquarium" in the dining room.

More soon. I just wanted to put something on for my (two) fans to look at!

Back after the election

You will not find me here until after the election....I will be at my other blog, Whatever is on my mind. And, as should be quite clear, the election is the thing on my mind.

For Lauras' and Russ' and Kevin's eyes only

(updated Nov 13 and 14th)

Hi Laura and Laura! And Russ! And Kevin! My four fans! Or, at least the only ones I know about since you four have told me on different occasions that you are following, and enjoying, the blog. (I may have other regular blog checkers, but I don't know who they are.) I want you to know that when I am thinking about what I am going to put on it, I always ask myself " is this something Laura or Laura or Russ or Kevin would like to see?" So, I just want to thank you for your various messages of support. You four inspire me!

To the new bathroom! (video)

The project is finished. A short video to show you the room follows:

The closet-turned-bathroom

My project right now is converting a small closet to a sink and a toilet for the master bedroom. I started the day with the toilet drain completed. So, my task for today was to run the water lines for the sink and toilet and the drain lines for the sink. And, then, of course install the vanity and toilet. A short photo gallery of the job follows.

The drain for the toilet. Notice that is is not centered. There was a beam right in the middle of the floor, so I had to push the toilet to the left of the room.

What you are seeing is the water pipes and drain for the bathtub on the other side of this wall. My job was to change those tub pipes to also supply water for the sink and toilet and to run a new drain up for the sink.

And now, the same wall with the new pipes before I put the wall back on. I had to bring the hot water pipe over to the left side so it would be in the correct place.

One is really not suppose to work with bare feet - but it was so useful! I love that my foot looks normal but that my hand looks like it belongs to an alien.

The new vanity installed.

Happy sitting on the new toilet.

To finish the project, I now have to put in an electric outlet, a mirror, a towel rack and toilet roll dispenser. Then, on to the next project.... Total cost of all materials for the bathroom: $617.90.

October 25th pictures

I am getting sort of sick of putting on a couple of pictures a day. I have a lot of work to do here and the pressure is just too great! How can I spend 6 hours every day reading about the election, do my house projects and post to this blog? Well, as you can imagine - it is tough. I am just going to have to revert to random posts whenever I damn well feel like it. But, here is my last regular two photo day. (Also, I updated my last post to put today's sunrise on "Sunrise, Sunset).

As for the work, I am in the process of converting a 3' by 7' closet into a bathroom (toilet and sink). We had two closets in the master bathroom and a lot of built-in drawers, so this extra closet wasn't needed. Leslie's folks arrive next week and I need to have it done by then. Yesterday, I put in the toilet drain. We were so lucky! The main sewer line just happened to pass right by the closet. I only needed 4' of pipe. The odd expression on my face is happiness that I got the thing done. I will be doing the water pipes and the sink drain tomorrow.


And, here is Mauna Kea with the first snow of the season. Hilo is less than an 1 1/2 hour to the peak. I love sitting in a tank top and shorts looking at the snow and being real glad I am not there.

Sunrise, Sunset

Our front porch, living room and kitchen all face east - towards the sunrise. So, as I do the dinner dishes in the morning, I usually get a nice sunrise view. Like this one. (Update from October 25th - the morning sunrise through our kitchen window screen. If I like a sunrise or sunset better, I will replace the photo...Speaking of screens, French folks should get some. See my thoughts here.)


But, the really cool thing is that even though the sunset is behind us and we have no comfortable view of it - we almost always get the sunset colors in the east. Like this one.


This really pleases me. I like my cocktail hour with palms, clouds and color.

October 23nd photos

My first house project was to build this cheap-ass compost bin. Very important to compost! Food in the landfill is really bad. If you want to know why, I can get you in touch with my friend Brian. I don't remember the exact figures - but food waste is really, really bad for the environment. Don't throw away food!!

Updated. Brian wrote the following after reading the post: Just in case people cannot find me (although I have no idea why they wouldn't), food in the landfill decomposes WITHOUT oxygen. That means it will decompose anaerobically and will produce a toxic sludge and methane gas. Methane is 62 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas, so the real priority in recycling is with organic recycling.


Our single car garage is very tiny. To get the car in properly, one must use is guide. Here is my guide.

October 22nd photos

We brought home our first palms to plant - Alexander palms, to be exact. Leslie is going to be putting them into the ground really soon. They will grow to be really tall - 90'.

A very tan beachcomber at Hapuna. I particularly like his diaper-like swim trunks.

October 21st photos

Leslie took this as I was making Obama calls. Just two more weeks! If you haven't done anything for the campaign (and you support him, of course), do it now! Be a part of history.

But, then, I recommend a nice drink after your Obama work is complete for the day.

DJ wants more information

My friend DJ wrote and asked:

But I really wanted to see OUTSIDE your house—where is the ocean?! What does the backyard look like? Where does Rosie play (I saw her in the video and it made me very happy!).

So to answer her questions, here is a video of the outside:


And here is an answer about Rosie:



And here is our view of the ocean from the front porch. It is much more than a peek-a-boo view but much less than a full view. Nonetheless, we really like it. We get to watch boats come and go, plus I just like to see the blue of the ocean along with the ubiquitous ever-changing clouds.

A video tour

Today, instead of the usual one work and one leisure photo, I thought you all might like a little house tour. This was taken a few weeks ago and we have gotten a little more furniture - but it will give you the idea of the upstairs.

October 18th pictures

Leslie continues to recover from her back and knee injury. She gets better every day but hasn't resumed exercise or hard manual labor. She thinks she will return to both really soon. In the meantime, she is working on a mystery novel. Here she does research.


From our porch at cocktail hour(s) - a view of the moon through two posts.

October 17th pictures

Hey, it is 19 years today since the Loma Prieta earthquake in Santa Cruz County. Just thought I should acknowledge that. For about 4 weeks the only conversations in Santa Cruz were about the earthquake. Nothing else existed. Yet, on the scale of disasters, it was minor. And, I am very thankful for that. Santa Cruz is now totally back and, I think, better than before. So, even though in Santa Cruz time, it is past the official minute of the earthquake, but Leslie and I are going to toast our fair city at 5:04 - right as I post this.

Leslie's work (the picture is screwed up but I will miss 5:04 if I fix it)
(update 4/18 - I turned the picture but I really did post this exactly at 5:04 yesterday)


Leslie relaxing after her work is done

October 16 photos

The hard work (shaking cocktails):

The pleasing result (ah, life in Hilo):

October 15th pictures

Hanging mirror above our "monkey bar". Check tomorrow for why we call it that.

A weird anthurium at the Manago Hotel in Captain Cook

October 14th pictures

Robert gave us this table with a black center base. But, it was just too wobbly. So, I added some more legs. Eventually, this table will go outside when we find something better for our dining area. But, it works for now.

I love to boogie-board. The waves weren't exactly awesome, but truth be told, I am not really good on "real waves". I hope to improve over the years.

Ironman and the Finegolds

Leslie and I thought it would be fun to go see the Kona Ironman contest. It is the big granddaddy of the modern long-distance triathlon, started 30 years ago with this as its tagline: Swim 2.4 miles! Bike 112 miles! Run 26.2 miles! Brag for the rest of your life!

Twelve guys completed the race that first year. This year, the competition drew 1800 very fit and, from my perspective, crazy men and women. Everybody earns his or her place through qualifying at one of 27 races throughout the globe. We figured it would be a visual feast just being around so many folks with bulging muscles. And, indeed, the contrast with our usual Kona experience was striking.

For instance, we always like to snorkel at Kahalu’u in Kona, which we affectionately call the “ugly-people” beach. This is opposed to the beautiful-people beaches up the coast in Kohala where the rich work on their tans. At Kahalu’u the too-fat mingle with the too-white (later in the day, too-red). Believe me, one rarely sees a well-defined muscle on this beach. I consider myself a proud part of the ugly folks! And, of course, I don't really mean that they/we are really ugly. Just not exactly model-types. Here are a couple of typical beachgoers:

But, the place took on a whole new look the day before Ironman! For instance, coming out of the water was this guy:

As I looked around, I realized sprinkled between the usual riff-raff of the beach were these completely out-of-place fit people. For these folk, a little leisure today. Tomorrow would come self-torture.

As I was ogling the triathletes in my midst, and readying myself for snorkeling, a girl of about 4 came within inches and demanded:

What are you doing? Putting on my reef-walkers
What are they for? So, I don’t hurt myself when I walk on the rocks.
Do you need help? No, I can do it. Thanks.
Where are you from? Hilo – on the other side of the island.

And so forth

But I am no slouch in the interrogation department, so I began my interview:

Where are your folks? There (Pointing behind I saw her mom and dad. Yes, they were keeping a steady eye on their sociable daughter and gave me the do-you-want-rescue look. Like a major league baseball pitcher, I shook off their signal.)
What is your mom’s name? Lynda
What is your dad’s name? Ted
Where do you live? I don’t know. (Later she dashed back and forth to her parents and came back with the report: Washington)
What is your name? Ba-rock-ley. Barockley? NO!! BA ROCK LEY. (I couldn’t repeat it to her satisfaction.) The second part of my name is Rose Finegold.

Leslie had joined us for the interrogation and we were firing questions back and forth. She often said of my answers: You’re funny. Yes, my repertoire with Barockley Rose Finegold was quite witty, I thought.

The most important information we gleaned was that her mom was in the triathlon. A backward glance and, yes, Lynda was quite buff (and Ted looked pretty damn fit himself). Barockley told us she was also a runner and even faster than her mom, but only on grass. I nodded indulgently.

Ted came to take his daughter (he shared her name with us: Berkeley) for a swim. After she came out of the water, she all but ignored us. Our moment in the spotlight was over. We were in the past, thrown away like yesterday's paper. Our beach neighbors were next in line for the Berkeley treatment. And, so it went in a series of meet-and-greets with various strangers.

Here is a picture of Berkeley having a heart-to-heart with another stranger in the ocean. At least, I think she was a stranger.

And here she is being her inquisitive self:

I tell you – this kid is going to be a great success. I watched her parents watching her almost as much as I watched her. And, you can tell they are great parents. They gave her a lot of room to be her irrepressible self, while always ready to intervene. (Ted asked several times if we wanted “rescue”.) They also have a much quieter son, who spent time amusing himself playing in the sand while his sister gathered up people like they were shells on the beach. A really cool family. We chatted a bit with Lynda who encouraged us to cheer her on the next day. We said we would. I am sure she didn't take our pledge too seriously.

Anyway, race day we were down at the Kailua pier at dawn to watch the frenetic swim event. Here is a photo of the start of the amateur group. (The pros start 15 minutes earlier)

The photo reminds me of the scene in Titanic with all the bodies flailing in the ocean. But, of course, they aren’t dying here. But, by the end of the day, I am sure more than a few thought they might just die.

After the swim, they jump on their bikes and go up the coast and back. Anyone who has ever spent time on that coast knows how windy it is. Brutal for bicyclists. Leslie – who does ride – really felt sorry for them. I can’t even imagine it.

Around noon, the first of the cyclists returned. We planted ourselves at the “hot corner” where you could see the cyclists come in and then transition to the marathon and run out. Before heading up the coast, they run up Alii drive and back to the hot corner – about 10 miles. So, after a little bit, it was a three-ring circus – bicyclist coming in, marathoners heading out, tired marathoners coming back (with 16 miles to go). And, then, another ring is added: the marathoners coming to the finish. Here is a picture of the corner:

It isn’t a great picture but if you click on it to enlarge you can see a bicylist coming in on the right, several marathoners heading out in the back (two to the left of the blue M sign, and one at the far right), and another marathoner on the left rounding the corner for the next 16 miles.

We had initially planned to leave after watching at the hot corner for a short time, but now we had a horse in the race: Lynda Finegold. We wanted to see Berkeley’s mom in action. (We bought a program so we could scan through the 1800 names to find her number. She was #1347.) Of course, we had no idea if she totally sucked. She could have dropped out; she could just be really, really slow. But we watched closely as the bicyclists streamed by. And, there she was – coming in pretty early for an amateur woman! We screamed for her as loud as we could, but rock music was playing from the announcer booth, so we doubted she could hear us.

She started on the marathon course a little bit before 2:00 pm. We had planned to leave by 3:00 at the latest as we had a date for cocktails with Bud at 5:00 in Hilo. It is a 2-hour drive home. Unless Lynda was some sort of amateur running phenom, she wouldn’t be back until around 3:30. But I really wanted her to know we were out there rooting her on. We decided to hang in there and hoped that she was a decent marathoner.

We walked to a spot closer to our car on Palani, the grueling hill that the runners must climb at the “hot corner.” Many, many marathoners walked up that hill. And, Lynda was not an exception – she looked really beat. It was around 3:20. I think she was a little startled and confused to hear us yelling: “Go, Lynda!! You can do it!” To give her some context, we also yelled: “We met at the beach!” At that point – knowing she had fans – she started running again with a pretty good smile on her face. We felt confident that her time was going to be at least 10 seconds faster because of our effort. Here she is back on the run:

After she passed, we jumped in the car and hightailed it to Hilo.

The next day we anxiously checked the results to see how our girl did. We were thrilled to discover that she made the leaderboard (the top ten) for her age group. The official results below:

Women 35 - 39 Leaders
Place Numb Lname Fname Age City Pro Cnt Rep Swim Tr1 Bike Tr2 Run Time

1 1386 Mader, Wendy 35 Fort Collins CO USA 55:15 2:46 5:36:16 2:17 3:17:19 9:53:51
2 1373 Lear-Kaul, Kelly 36 Littleton CO USA 1:03:46 3:04 5:40:12 3:00 3:27:23 10:17:24
3 1351 Lie, Kristin 37 Oslo NOR 1:18:45 3:14 5:39:12 3:00 3:21:18 10:25:26
4 1377 Rudolf, Michaela 36 Pyhra AUT 1:17:06 3:19 5:40:04 2:56 3:30:45 10:34:07
5 1328 Steigerwald, Chrissy 39 Colorado Spr CO USA 1:04:03 3:45 5:48:52 5:15 3:38:33 10:40:26
6 1336 Ciaverella, Ann 38 Happy Valley OR USA 1:08:20 2:50 5:57:34 2:32 3:32:05 10:43:19
7 1375 Morris, Maggs 36 Kailua HI USA 1:04:59 2:41 5:47:07 3:22 3:46:39 10:44:47
8 1372 Kunze, Anja 36 Frankfurt GER 1:06:50 3:12 5:42:25 3:38 3:56:45 10:52:49
9 1347 Finegold, Lynda 37 Wenatchee WA USA 1:09:43 3:37 5:38:21 6:46 3:57:27 10:55:52
10 1358 Schmidt, Betina 37 Viborg DNK 1:09:07 3:59 6:02:54 4:28 3:36:45 10:57:11

We are so proud of her! Way to go Lynda! (Considering that I don't even know the woman, my sense of pride in her accomplishment is a bit odd - but really heartfelt!) I fully expect Berkeley will be out there in about 20 years. Maybe we will come back and root her on.