Today was pretty much a “normal” day. We were at the Visitors’ Center this morning from 9 until 2:30 pm. There were quite a few workmen out in the courtyard chiseling out tiles for some reason. While it threatened rain all day, the humidity was above 90% the entire day, and there was quite a bit of thunder over the mountains, no rain fell at the Center. The pool level has gone down somewhat so the fountains look more like they should as they aren’t having to push through so much water above the nozzles. The most distant visitors were from Rotterdam, Netherlands.
This afternoon we dropped of quite a bit of excess stuff from sister missionary apartments at Give and Take. This is a recycle operation run by BYU-Hawaii for the students. People can drop off whatever they don’t need. Students can “shop” there after performing some service, such as helping to sort through donations and put them away. There are a LOT of clothes and kitchen stuff available. It’s a nice service.
I’ve been doing some ham radio stuff over here. I’ve now got a couple of VHF (very high frequency) antennas up and working. I’ve been able to check into several ham radio networks active on the islands. Since severe weather is a constant potential, a couple of these nets are specifically oriented around emergency services and weather spotting and reporting. This afternoon I finished putting up a station that is connected through the Internet with other ham radio stations around the world. Ham radio operators local to the Laie area can now communicate with other ham radio operators around the world through this station. It’s been interesting to get the station up and operational. Every Sunday evening at 5pm Hawaii time is a ham radio net on this system for LDS ham radio operators in Hawaii and the mainland. Some thirty or forty ham radio operators check in each week on the net to report on what’s going on in their area. I find it very interesting. Now I just need to recruit someone to take over this station in eighteen months when we go home!
We’ve gone another day with no bedbug reports. I’m almost ready to declare the war as being won!
Tomorrow is our Preparation Day for the week. We don’t have anything special planned and will be staying right around here. We’ve got enough things to do here in the house that will keep us busy enough.
Hurricane Ignacio is the next weather event on the horizon. Right now conditions are such that the storm is strengthening as it moves towards the islands. The forecast is for the storm to make landfall on the Big Island mid-week next week (50% probability). It’s equally as likely that the storm will turn more northerly and pass east of the islands. I’m voting for the northerly turn. By Sunday we should know better what this storm will do. There’s a pretty strong El Niño in the Pacific (that’s a weather situation where the water along the equator is warmer than normal by a couple of degrees) which helps fuel these storms. There are usually fairly strong upper atmosphere winds that tend to shear off these hurricanes, but this year the winds aren’t as strong as usual. A weather person at NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration) says this kind of double whammy comes along every ten years or so and makes for a “more active” hurricane season. Where there are normally five or six named hurricanes in the central Pacific, so far this year there have been fourteen named storms. We’ve dodged all of them, so far. The odds aren’t totally in our favor of dodging the rest of them!
My favorite brother Perry had his right knee sliced and diced today and is now partially bionic. He was feeling no pain a few hours ago. Hopefully the nursing staff is staying right on top of his medication schedule. We’re praying for you, bro. Have a good recovery and an excellent outcome!
“Stuff” must be my new favorite word as I re-read what I’ve written.
Life remains sultry and mellow….