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.