It is 87°F (nearly 31°C) at my desk as I type this. It’s been hot and dry lately in purportedly rainy East Hawaii, with road dust thick in the air and grass crunching underfoot. The entire Big Island has been in a state of drought all year. (An aside: U.S. Drought Monitor is a great resource for checking local data, but cross your fingers that the dumbasses—and in early 2025, you know which ones I mean—don’t find its plug and either pull it or trip over it.) You may recall that, like most of our district, our house is on Read more…

Happy New Year! I can still say that, right? Aspiring to appear here at the blog more in 2025 is my version of losing twenty extra pounds. But a writer can dream. Something else that always cycles back around like clockwork… the rats in East Hawaii. We’ve seen rats intermittently since the one-year anniversary of our great Ninja Kitty’s death. (It’s not surprising that Ninja’s bad-ass spirit—or at least his reputation—outlasted his physical form.) But there appears to be a seasonal aspect to the rodent infestations, by which I mean the times they stick around and set up camp. This Read more…