Mahalo, Mauna Kea!

Tropical Storm Darby made landfall yesterday on the Big Island near Pahoa; near the same place Hurricane Iselle made landfall in 2014. After plowing through Pahoa (but doing less damage than Iselle) Darby ran in to Mauna Kea; at nearly 14,000 feet tall it took a lot of power out of Darby and deflected its course. (It did the same thing to Iselle.) Earlier forecasts showed Darby hopping from the Big Island to Maui County to Moloka'i to O'ahu to Kaua'i. But after leaving the Big Island, Darby kept heading mainly westerly, and well south of Maui County, Moloka'i, and O'ahu. It has been raining on and off all day, then at around 6:30 pm it began to pour! Nearly 2 hours later it is still raining buckets along with lots of thunder and lightning; won't have to bother with watering the plants tomorrow! Here's the rain coming off the neighbor's roof at about 6 pm, before it really started raining. Note the poor little bird perched on the lights at the far corner taking refuge under the eaves.


I took Fumi-san shopping for groceries so she can cook all kinds of yummy Okinawan dishes for Mom while I am gone. We went to the Marukai Market Place which she prefers over Don Quijote. When we got back from grocery shopping we saw a bird sitting in the garage under the other car. It ignored us as we drove in and looked dazed. I later caught it; it is a spotted dove and is missing the primaries on its right wing. Perhaps it was being chased by something that managed to grab its right wing before it plowed in to the living room window. I dropped it off at the Humane Society. I found out they are an open admission facility and will take any animal, domestic or wild, native or non-native, injured or healthy. And they're open 24-hours a day for admissions; even with an approaching tropical storm! (The Adoptions side was closed due to the approaching storm.)

Injured Spilopelia chinensis

I finally got around to taking a photo of my July calendar. My good intentions to do it earlier in the month got side tracked by the emergency room visit, the trip to the Big Island, and a house full of family. I should be able to do better in August since I will be back from traveling on the 4th and family won't arrive until the 17th.


Happy Birthday to Shirley! And a big congratulations to Darla and Jim on their wedding today! (Sorry I could not make it there.)