IASA #3-39

Had Motek's Uncle Yosef breakfast special on deck with Barb.

 

Breakfast with Barb

Barb & her family arrived last night & are staying in timeshare condos at Waikōloa Beach. This morning she met me at Motek Bakery for their Uncle Yosef breakfast special. She also bought a loaf of ʻUlu ʻŌlena Sourdough Bread; I got an Almond Bostock to try. We took everything back to the house & ate on the deck. Later we walked around the yard so she could see all the fruiting plants.

We also had dragonfruit with the Uncle Yosef.

Motek Bakery has updated their outside sign. It looks very festive now!

Mom would have loved the sunflowers on their sign!

At sunrise it looked a little overcast but it cleared up & was mainly sunny for most of the day. The Tesla power generation graphic concurred. Today is the end of Daylight Savings Time on the continent; there is now only a 2 hour time difference.

One minute before sunrise.

Hedge Woman was out again today. She did not get as close to the hedge as she usually does. She seemed like it was making her anxious to be too close to the hedge today.

The cats blocked the gate again this evening. It's a good thing the floor is so smooth! I can easily nudge them along with my foot & slide them out of the way.

Today was the Duolingo league promotion day which ends at 5 pm. I checked in about 3 pm & found I was still in 1st place. But when I checked an hour or so later, I had been overtaken by 9 XP & was in 2nd place. I spent the next half hour or so doing more lessons & moved back up to 1st place with a 100+XP lead hoping that would thwart another takeover. With about 15 minutes left, the person in 2nd place was actively trying to overtake me so I started doing more lessons. I managed to keep ahead & retain 1st place, I have now been promoted to the next league up. 

... Pearl League!

The next episode of the eruption at Kīlauea is still predicted to begin some time soon with November 5th through 7th being the most likely time period. I checked the V1 cam live feed this evening & saw the glow of the magma as it neared the top of the north vent. 

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Thi! 

Just One Myna Problem

Moʻo caught another bird; a Common Myna fledgling (Acridotheres tristis). It sort of does this hopping flapping thing but can't get itself off the ground. While Moʻo seems to "catch" a lot of birds, I think what's really happening is that she is finding them on the ground since only 1 of them has been an adult. (She tried to get an adult chicken but it was fortunate enough to be able to get under the house where Moʻo couldn't get her.)

I dropped the Myna off at Trudy's house. Already this year I have also given her a Northern Cardinal & a House Sparrow that Moʻo caught. Though for those 2 it was not that hard; they did not have any flight feathers. Trudy is tentatively calling the young Myna "Mozart"; their old Myna is Beethoven. But I have created a small problem for Trudy; she has run out of space on the window counter for bird cages!

Beethoven (L) & Mozart.

At sunrise it was a little hazy but that soon burned off & it was a sunny, pleasant day with a light breeze. There was only a short shower late last night but no drizzle this morning. The solar energy graph on the Tesla app seemed to reflect that. 

One minute before sunrise.

Jeremiah came by later in the day with a big Penske moving truck rental; Moʻo barked ferociously at it as he was coming down the driveway. After he got out of the truck & came to say Hi!, she calmed down. Until he brought his pet piglet out; then she started barking again! But this time it was her Pig! bark, not her Intruder! bark.

The next episode of the eruption at Kīlauea is predicted to occur some time between the 4th & the 8th with the 5th through 7th being the most probable.  

A glow could be seen last night around 7:30.

IASA #3-38

Uncle Jeff did a Talk Story from his book Outhouse Mentality about life in Kohala in sugar plantation days.

 

Jachnun

The Friday night email from Motek Bakery said, "Aloha Bread Lovers – This Sunday Motek will be serving Jachnun! You remember Jachnun…right? It originated in northern Yemen and consists of a dough that takes a bath over night in oil. It is then spread out thinly, slathered with butter and rolled up into tight rolls that are then placed in a pot with eggs, covered with date syrup (silan) and slow-cooked overnight. It tastes…amazing. It is served with one of the eggs from the pot and a spicy “zchug” hot sauce (a Yemenite hot sauce that we make).  It is a real treat. AND, we will again have our favorite Uke Jammers on Motek’s lanai making music and keeping things fun." I was looking forward to the breakfast as well as the Uke Jammers, several of them were at Uncle Jeff's book signing event at the Kohala Heritage Center last night. In particular, I was hoping to see Kim & Marcie, whom I had never met before Uncle Jeff's event. But only Kim was there playing long with Kije, Gordon, & Carlos; I left before Marcie arrived.

When I woke up there was a light drizzle; it was gray all morning as I started my day. It sprinkled on & off throughout the morning; it was a little drier than yesterday. In the afternoon it started to rain a little more but still not as much as yesterday. It is drizzling tonight as I write this. I have included the graph of the power generation by the solar panels; normally it is a fairly bell-shaped curve when the sun is shining. Not today.

Eight minutes after sunrise.

At 7:02 am.

At 1:22 pm.

Lots of gaps when it was raining. Blue is power sent to house, green is to battery storage.

 

On the way to Motek this morning, I made a quick stop on the side of the road to take a photo of one of the few Halloween decorations along the main road. I've seen a couple of smaller displays along Kynnersley. Don't know whatever else there might be around since I don't go looking for these types of things.

Around 4 pm on Sundays I try to check on my status on Duolingo. If I am close, I work to keep my self out of the Demotion Zone. If I am high enough on the leaderboard, I try to get in to the Promotion Zone. If I am really up there with my points, I try to finish in the top 3. Today I started at #4 with about 450 XP, I decided to go for the top spot since it was less than 100 XP away. About 14 minutes later I was in the top spot! I had not seen any of the 4 other people doing anything so I decided I could just wait them out for the last 12 minutes.

With 26 minutes left, I decided to add more XP to stay ahead.

Since I saw no others gaining XP, I figured 70 XP lead would hold.

When I checked later in the evening, I saw that my strategy worked, no one else tried to bump me out of the top spot. I earned 100 gems for it! And I got promoted to the next level up, I am now in the Amethyst League. I now have to work on my strategy as to when to join the leaderboard so that I can stay in the Promotion Zone.

Today Realtor.com sent me 3 emails. To be fair to them, perhaps these were before the 24 hour cut-off. I can't remember exactly when I submitted the 'Unsubscribe' request.

Nope. Not what I told them I was looking for.

The window for the start of the next episode of the eruption at Kīlauea has narrowed. It is now most probable that it will begin some time between the 6th & the 9th. Hopefully it will erupt while Barb & her family are here so they can witness this amazing natural phenomenon. 

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Christian, Chris, & Kai! 

Outhouse Mentality

This evening Uncle Jeff had a book reading at the Kohala Heritage Center; it was jointly sponsored along with the Kohala Culture & History Advisory Group. Uncle Jeff's book, Outhouse Mentality: Kohala, Rural Lifestyle, is his recounting of the moʻolelo of Kohala told to him by Kohala kūpuna as well as experiences he had. I had heard some of the moʻolelo he shares in his book from my grandparents. The title of Uncle Jeff's book is taken from an epithet directed at the Kohala community for not backing a plan to designate Kohala as a historical district in order to develop the area for tourists; the speaker suggesting the community members were, "stuck in the uneducated past of plantation life with houses without indoor toilets." For Uncle Jeff, he sees it as, "being grounded in what truly matters: your relationship with the land, with each other, and with God." A copy of his book can be purchased on Amazon.

 A decent size audience in spite of continuing rain showers & World Series game.

Uncle Mark (L) & Uncle Jeff share manaʻo.

One of the drier moments of the evening.

At sunrise it was gray & drizzly. About a half hour later it began to rain in earnest; showers such as this continued throughout the day. I saw the chickens heroically searching for food in Jessie's back yard in spite of the rain; the roosters' tail feathers were soaked & limply dragging behind them.

Six minutes after sunrise.

About half hour after sunrise.

Sugar & Spice doing their best on this wet day.

There were rain showers all day, with intermittent drizzles in between. It has now rained every night except one over the last week; the wet season is here! Hūlō! 

Around 9:45.

All the cats chose to sleep indoors today.

 

There was a break in the rain around mid-morning so I headed to the transfer station to dump my rubbish. A lot of other people had the same idea so there was a short line but it went by fairly quickly.

Silver truck backs in while red truck unloads; 2 vehicles are usually at drop off area.

Today was Josie & Camillo's grandson Gaige's 1st birthday. So in the local tradition there was a 1st birthday paʻina with lots of ʻono food! FYI Gaige's nickname is ʻOpihi.

My pupu plate.

My lunch plate; I ate too much pupu! I forgot to take photo before I started.

My dessert plate; I ate too much! But it was all so ʻono it was hard to stop.

 

There was a flyer at the post office about a plant giveaway at the upcoming Kohala Night Market. I was unable to get the QR code to open so I am not sure what is available for the giveaway. I am assuming it is food plants.

Duo says that I am doing well. But Duo also says that I have so much more to learn on Duolingo! I am finding some parts easier, like trying to figure out what the new words mean. But other parts are more difficult, like how to construct a more complex sentence in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi! It would be really nice to have a fluent speaker to practice on. 

 

While looking at places for Kai, I made the mistake of trying to get in to the Realtor.com page. I am now getting a ton of emails from them that do not fit the criteria I entered to access the page. Today I got 6 different emails before 5 am! Unacceptable. I unsubscribed but they say it will take 24 hours for my request to be processed. We shall see.

 

Because of the Red Flag warning & high wind alert, the Powerall system is in standby mode. During this period the Powerwall battery is held at 100% even in the evening & power to run the house is drawn from the grid. This way, if the grid goes down, I still have power available.

Here is the official Red Flag warning from the Hawaiʻi County Civil Defense. The Powerwall system uses the warnings issued by the National Weather Service. (I think the NWS cancelled the Red Flag Warning because of all the rain. Red Flag means the winds are hot & dry.)

 

The start of Episode 36 of the eruption at Kīlauea remains likely some time between the 6th & the 12th.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Diane & Rei!