parent's visit

So, one of the intentions of this blog is to help keep a record of interesting (to me) things I do and see (You, dear reader, are in large part a motivational tool for me to actually keep this record). This record is really a necessity, given the impressive fallibility of my memory.
It's been about a week since my folks left Hawaii, and of course, I got busy with other things immediately after their departure, like more adventures, but we did a lot of fun stuff. I'm trying to think of highlights 'n such to write about here, but while I continue to process their visit, here is a link to Beth's Picassa album of some photo highlights.
Check it out!
Here's on of my favorite photos from the visit. That's all of us, Beth is the shadow there on the right side. We're up near the visitor center on Mauna Kea, getting ready to watch a spectacular sunset. The light was amazing. Check out Beth's album.
It was chilly, even for the Minnesotans.

wintery mix in Kona

Wintery mix? OK, not sleet and blowing snow. But it is cloudy and cool this morning. Sweatpants weather around the house. And my parents left last night after their weeklong stay! It made me a little melancholy this morning. We had a full week of good big island adventures. It was nice to spend time with them, nice to hear impressions of the big island from commentators I know so well, nice to experience again all the peculiarities that make my folks so great-- good things, like my dad sitting at the kitchen table mounting centipedes and cockroaches onto cardboard with dress pins to satisfy his recent interest in insects... or my mom's masterful deployment of a couple pidgin phrases after only a few days on the island...
It was a good week. I'll post some pictures soon. Now, though, I've got some laundry and other cleanup to do. In the meantime, have a look at this great graphical wave height forecaster. I'm going to be leading some kayaking and snorkeling trips here, as means of making the big bucks, and my new boss sent me the link.



We've got some big waves coming in later this week! High surf is not so good for a novice surfer or kayakers. It does make for a mesmerizing shoreline and good wave sounds at our house. Also, good surfer watching. My folks and I had a great time at Kiholo Bay yesterday, spent in large part watching surfers. The bay must be just the right depth to make these big waves break, because the surf was abundant and gentle looking for such (locally) uncommonly large waves. The shore was packed, but there was so much surf, I think all of kona could have been out in the water with room to spare.
Google "Kiholo Bay" to see just another boring old hawaii blue lagoon with palm trees, black sand, lava cliffs and mansions...
I'll put some photos up soon.

keepin on...

Hello cyberspace!
No news is good news from kona? Beth and I are pluggin along out here. I, job searching, she, working hard. We filled our after work hours tonight with Bikram Yoga.We've been three times now, and I like it. It makes my back feel good. Kind of like streaching in a sauna for 90 minutes. A little pricey though, especially on my budget.
I have some appreciated, but financially unrewarding work building up bikes for the local shop here. I am happy to go in and work, but I'm not a very fast bike assembler, so it doesn't make much dough for me. However, I have a good time, and I'm happy to do it. And I build up a good bike, no matter what they pay me. It's a good shop and I like the employees.
Currently, I'm hoping to get some work down in the National Energy Lab area, as it's called, the industrial park where Beth's company is. The companies down there utilize a huge volume of sea water pumped up from 3000' under the ocean surface. At one point, someone thought the difference in temperature between the deep sea water and surface sea water could be used to drive turbines to produce electricity. It didn't work as well as they had hoped, and I'm not entirely sure of the specifics, but now that the infrastructure is there, they keep the pumps on and distribute the water to a variety of users. Most of them use the mineral-rich water to grow algae, then feed it to some type of shellfish they are raising for food. So I guess I'm hoping I can follow in Beth's footsteps and become and algae farmer! I like that I would learn a bit about marine science, and that it would be a making something. We'll see. If I spent as much time applying for jobs as I do talking about applying, I'd have a job by now!

Excitement on the horizon: my folks are arriving on Saturday! We are looking forward to exploring Hawaii with them, and their visit will certainly provide some more exciting pictures for the blog! Have you checked out the Picassa album yet? There is some good stuff from December in there.


Here are some favorites:
They are all from our trip to Volcanoes National Park. The top two are at Kilauea Iki crater, reshaped by an eruption in 1959. Beth is standing on rocks younger than her parents!

The bottom two photos are looking at Kilauea Caldera from the Jagger Museum visitor's center. You can see a big plume of gas billowing out in the daytime, and the reflection of lava in the crater onto the plume at night!

Happy New Year!

Hey Hey!
I'm back up and running! A computer problem kept me out of the internet for most of December.  But it has been running without a hitch for the last few days, so it is high time to get some material back on the blog.  So much happened in December!  I figure the best way to share the highlights with you is through the photos we took.  Here is a link to my brand-new Picassa album, with about 50 pictures from December.
http://picasaweb.google.com/bevisma/DecemberPhotos#
I think Beth also has an album up from November, in addition to all the photos I've posted here.

Most of the photos are from a weekend we spent in Volcanoes National Park and vicinity.
We also had Christmas, which was great.  Thanks to everyone who sent us the great presents.
It was my birthday just yesterday!  Also the end of 2010.  Hawaii loves fireworks.  For two days, we've been hearing random fireworks explosions all over the city.  One common firework sounds a lot like someone ripping a hole in their pants, amplified.  So that's kind of funny. 
 
I went surfing on my birthday!  It was awesome.  I used this huge 9' foam board that practically caught the waves for me.  It was super fun.  I had four or five nice long rides in Kahalu'u bay, a nice gentle beginner spot.  I'll be out there again.  Watch out!
Have you written the date today?  I wrote 1.1.11-- and was excited about the simplicity of the statement.
OK, check back again, I'll getcha satisfied!

Bike gang

Here are some photos from the ride to work today.  I bought the camera to try to take a picture of snow on Mauna Loa, but that's right where the sun rises!  no good for photo.  too cloudy later in the day!

 hmm.

 isn't it crazy how the ocean doesn't drain down to antarctica?  look at that slope!  good work gravity.

dirt biking on the Cellana Road.  This is the end of my commute. No Tresspassing!

clear skies

Clear skies in Kona.
I wish I had brought my camera with on the bike ride to Cellana today. Thursday is the first time I remember (or maybe noticed?) being able to see Mauna Loa from the road by Cellana.  You can't see it in town, because the slopes of Hualalai are too close.  Out by Cellana, the visibility was never high enough to have a good look.  Well it's been so clear here that I have had some peeks at it lately.  It is cool to see lurking behind Hualalai.  It is much less steep that Hualalai, but five some thousand feet taller.  Today, after the big storm yesterday, there was snow on a lot of it!  I always think it is cool to see the line where the snow abruptly ends in the mountains. Maybe I can get a picture for you tomorrow.

Rain in Kona!

Ok, it's been a couple of days.
I have:
-fretted over and finally submitted my best job application yet
-received my truck
-gone ocean canoeing
-witnessed a tropical rain shower in kona
-begun to wade through the process of registering the truck in Hawaii

The highlight is a toss up between canoing and receiving the truck.  This is the most excited I've ever been about having a car.  Absence makes the heart grow fonder?  Our legs are pretty worked after biking (almost) everywhere the last two weeks.  Thanks to our friends who have given us rides.  The hills here take more out of you than expected.  They don't look like much, compared to the mountain behind us.  But they are enough to tire a cyclist out. 

It is raining like crazy right now.  I would say that visibility from my window is about a quarter mile.  It is even raining hard enough to drown out the shrieks and cackles of what are starting out as very noisy neighbors.  It's nuts here, though.  They said flash flood warnings and 2-3 inches of rain-- I bet one has come down in the last 15 minutes.  This is all very weird for the side of the island that is normally so dry that there isn't even a stream on it!  The weather, as I think it is prone to do in the winter, is coming from the west, and the radar right now shows it is clear in Hilo. A total role reversal.

It has been spectacularly clear for the four days leading up to this.  That is also thanks to the winter weather pattern, I hear.  The vog, or volcano smog (more of which has been seeping out of Hualalai than usual for the last two years or so) is blown away from kona by these winds from the West (this is all speculation based on my limited observations. I should find some sources on this info).

click here for a bigger version of this cool photo looking east at Hualalai and the vog over kona from Mauna Kea observatory.  This guy also has a pretty blog about working at the observatory with lots of awesome sunset photos.



Beth and I went to Keahou Canoe Club Tuesday morning, her Sunday.  I didn't get any pictures, but there are lots of good ones here.  Also, if you are a lakes and rivers paddler, you might like this discussion of outrigger paddling technique.

The paddling felt really good.  With so many people in a canoe (we got in the idiot-proof canoe, as we were nubes, and had 10 people in the double hull) it is way more aerobic than the canoeing I'm used to in Minnesota, after which I inevitably had worked my shoulders really hard.   Also, the technique is such that I got a better back and core workout.
It was super fun to be on the water.  We paddled out for 20 minutes or so, then jumped into the super warm and clear water for a little "midlake swim"  then headed back.  We were with the retirees and other  people with nothing to do at 8 o'clock on Tuesday morning.  It will be fun to try paddling with the really strong paddlers sometime.

What can be said about the Hawaii "Safety" Check aspect to getting a vehicle registered here?  It is ridiculous.  $20 every year to have someone tell you that your lights work.  check.  At least it's not any more expensive.  And, I'm pretty happy with the folks down at Dixson Service. So it could be worse.
Here are some cool photos.