My Hilo day

Enjoyed Chris Hayes subbing for Rachel Maddow this eve. I  am feeling a little blue about not going on the Nation Cruise, which he is attending. Ah well. But there is plenty going on around here.  Mary literally bumped into me at the grocery. She snuck up on me at the checkout and gave me a good shove. I turned around and said, "You bitch!" in a friendly way, of course!  Lucky she showed up, because I'd forgotten my wallet and she paid for my groceries. I paid her back right away. I'm no fool! She was selling ceramics at the Wednesday Market, so I hung around and helped her pack up later. What else? There's a demonstration tomorrow for clean elections. Fred the cat keeps me on my toes! And am looking forward to R &R in Kona at the Sheraton Keahou Bay Resort, after Terry gets back. Oh, poor poor me!

So I went up to Rainbow Falls today. Due to drought, no rainbow and no falls.As you see, kind of icky looking.

This happens from time to time, like if we don't get any rain for a couple of weeks. That is a drought around here.  This falls is on the Wailuku River, which isn't a real river.  There are no real rivers on  the Big Island. This so-called river is just where rainwater comes down from between the two mountains, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.  There is no water shed, either. There is a freshwater lens under the island, which is where we get our drinking water. A lot of people here have catchments and depend on rainwater, which is usually abundant enough.

Farther up the way, this little trickle of water was coming down.

And driving out to the senior center I noted that our favorite ranting nutjob is still at his post.

He keeps changing his signs to stay up to date with current events. Couldn't get the whole thing on the bottom sign about cockroach turds on Oahu, since I was in traffic.

I'm just about finished with Stone and Kusznick's Untold History of the United States. The news is not good. They bring it right up to the present. I've written a lot about it but will save that post for another day.

Going to watch The Queen of Versailles, now, on my Kindle Fire. It's about the real estate meltdown and other things.

Comments

[Henry Kilkenny Chapin]

Your reasons for not going on the Nation Cruise seemed to be unrelated to the fact that you love the cruise. Maybe next year.

For me, I have been just too tired and have too many things going on to countenance a long flight to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

[Hattie]

In my case wanting to go on it but wanting to do other things more. As you say maybe next year.

[Joared]

Does the Big Island have desalinization plant for water in case you get a longer drought? Or is that freshwater lens sufficient?

[Hattie]

Joared: We don't have a a desalilnization plant. Believe it or not, we are in a drought situation now, with parts of the island having received no significant rainfall for months or even years. But there seems to be ample water under the island. I had never heard of an island wide drought. Maybe Brandon can answer that question.

[Hattie]

Oh, I should explain that rainfalls varies greatly in various parts of the island. It's about 120 inches a year where we live, but some areas get only 5 inches a year!

[Brandon]

I don't know if there has ever been an island-wide drought on the Big Island, partly because the island is so large and partly because Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa act as barriers between the eastern and western halves of the island, keeping moisture on our side. According to this, though:

"The most severe drought on record came in 1953-54, when for 17 consecutive months it did not rain at Kawaihae Bay on the island of Hawaii (U.S. Dept. Interior, 1960b, p. 3)."

Geological Survey water-supply paper, Volume 1800

http://books.google.com/books?id=GYDcRfUjTbgC&pg=PA273&dq=Stearns+Geology+Hawaii+drought&hl=en&sa=X&ei=70vCUJCoDIrniALYgIHICQ&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Stearns%20Geology%20Hawaii%20drought&f=false
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You also might find this useful:
http://pubs.usgs.gov/misc/stearns/

Specifically, http://pubs.usgs.gov/misc/stearns/Hawaii.pdf
(although a PDF search for the word "drought" turned up nothing, it has excellent information on the watershed of this island).

There might be more information in Stearns's Geology of the Hawaiian Islands, but it's not fully searchable in Google Books.

[naomi dagen bloom]

Your "icky," my "that's something I'd like to see, take pictures." Whatever.

Today caught up on recent copies of The Nation. Read about Oliver Stone's new writing and thought, "Perhaps Marianna was right in what she wrote--and I thought was off the rails." See: some of us need a "higher" authority. Or additional input.

[Hattie]

Noami: Well, it looks much better with the water cascading down.
And I'm working on a fuller review of the Stone/Kuznick book, which is a cognitive strain. Just for one example, I have to acknowledge that Obama is a weak president. At the same time, I'm thinking better a weak president than a strong one. Yikes. It's difficult to think these things out.