It’rt s been a few days since I’ve tried to get something posted on the blog. I’ve finally figured out how to become completely busy with not much spare time. Now it’s necessary to start prioritizing!
One big event was that last Thursday the work crew filled the pool with water and turned on the fountains! It sure is great to have the orange barriers gone and the fountains operating. Over the past few days they’ve been adjusting the fountain flow and how the water is being modulated.
As I was getting ready to take this picture, one of the military transports flew by. It’s just above the center to the right of the bigger cloud. These flights are usually in groups of three. I tried to get the others as they passed the cloud, but the all went over too high, so it didn’t work as well as I had hoped. These are huge planes and I think they’re coming from Schofield Barracks to the west of us. Someone will correct me if I’m wrong, I’m sure!
I’ve been busy getting my ham radio systems back in operation. I’ve got a J-pole up in front of the house and the VHF repeaters on this side of the island are coming in loud and clear. That has proven interesting as the past few days Hurricane Guillermo has been headed toward Hawaii. As it got closer, however, the storm began weakening and was downgraded this morning to a tropical storm. By this afternoon all the watches were cancelled and the storm is now a tropical depression. I’ve had the radio on during the day listening to the Skywarn network.
Skywarn is a group of radio amateurs who have been trained as storm spotters and weather observers. I’m a Skywarn participant (id BA-126) for Idaho. I think this is valid everywhere, but need to check. However, there was nothing to observe, so I had no reason to try and check into the net.
Today was our Preparation Day. This is also the last week of the transfer, so starting next week our Preparation Day will be on Thursday for the next six weeks. One highlight for the past several weeks has been a Skype call with Jared and Tania in Seattle. We sure enjoy that chat! A couple of days ago Heather went up to Soda Springs and we had a Facetime conversation with her and mother. That was absolutely delightful! Mother looked great and they seemed to be having a fun time together.
Over the past few days I’ve been thinking about all the different roles that the Visitors’ Center plays. I’ve got a blog post draft underway that I’ll hopefully get posted in a day or so. I keep thinking of new things to put in the post!
Meanwhile, life continues to be delightful here in Laie!