A Thanksgiving Story 2015

   We got up bright and early on Thanksgiving morning.  There was no watering to be done, as it had rained for the second night in a row, so at least the mosquitoes were happy.  Our friends the Hillises were coming

Black Durgon with electric blue lines.

for Thanksgiving dinner, so Sandra and Kim stayed home in their respective kitchens preparing the meal while Bob and I slunk off to Kahalu'u for a bit of fish watching.  On the way down the hill the DJ at B93 promised to play Alice's Restaurant at 9 AM.  Many families associate that classic American ballad with Thanksgiving and incorporate it as part of their holiday tradition.  I only think of the Vietnam War, which I was very glad not to be a part of, so the tune, for me at least, doesn't evoke any fond memory of a family celebration oriented around a large turkey dinner.  to me, Arlo Guthrie's ballad  evokes Hueys, rice paddies and tough little men in black pajamas who luckily never got a shot at yours truly.  I honor the guys that served in Vietnam, but man alive am I glad that I wasn't one of them.

    I made it down to K Bay and out to the beach without getting arrested for littering.  The

Why do so many butterflyfish swim in pairs?

local chapter of AA had appropriated the kiosk for the day; they needed the entire facility, but a motherly lady engaged in spreading butcher paper on the tables said that I was welcome to join in if I was in recovery.  God bless ya , ma'am. 

     Soon enough, Bob and I were swimming in the clear cool water under cloudy skies.  Early on I saw some very pretty black durgons, which never seem to photograph as well as I would like.  If you look carefully, you may appreciate the fine electric blue lines covering not only the forehead, but the entire body of this ordinarily satin black triggefish.

     On the back side of Surfer's Rock there was a pair of teardrop butterflyfish.  Sandra is forever saying I should write a blog just about pairs.  What is it about women that they think male butterflyfish should be

Elegant Hermit Crabs, Ca. elegans, Kahalu'u December 2015

monogamous?  Or am I missing something here?  Anyway,  this pair cooperated and I came away with this nice photograph.

    A bit further on,  I came across this pair of elegant hermit crabs (Ca. elegans).  Early in the swim, Bob picked up a the shell of a nicobar triton and we examined it carefully, knowing that this was the favorite haunt of the blood hermit crab, Dar. sanguinocarpus.)  In this case, the nerer elegant is living in the most common shell for the species and the other guy is making do with something else.  They do make a fine pair,though.  Viva la difference.

    On the way in, Bob spotted a small stout moray eel.  This guy was so small that, had the coloration not been distinctive, one might have wondered if he was a dwarf moray.  The photograph leaves no doubt as to the identification.  The camera captured a well focused portrait that displays the  nose tubes.  The better to smell you with my dear.  Over in the cloudy water by the second

Stout Moray Eel  December 2015

kiosk, I found  a Christmas wrasse hunting with a female ember parrotfish.  While Sandra is gaga for pairs, I love symbiotic associations.  It is not uncommon to see the Christmas wrasse hunting with the much larger parrotfish.  If you happen to catch a glimpse of the wrasse working with the extraordinarily handsome male ember, it is a pleasing sight, indeed.  Generally, this combo moves by with such dispatch that I am unable to get a picture.  This time they slowed down and I was able to get this picture.  Even with the miracle of photoshopping, you can still appreciate the turbid water.  Its difficult for me to envision what benefit the parrotfish night get from this relationship, dining as it does on algae and coral.  The wrasses eat invertebrates, which may be disturbed by the parrotfish.  There may be something about this relationship that isn't immediately apparent.

   Ashore, Bob showed me a test of the keeled heart urchin, Brissus latecarinatus, that he had picked up on

Ember Parrot with Christmas Wrasse (in cloudy water)

 the way in.  As you can see from the picture, it is asymmetrical.  This urchin lives in the sand, taking in the substrate through the forward opening mouth and expelling it out the back.  There are two substantial orifices in the test to provide for these functions and no hole on the bottom, as is the case with any sea urchin test that I have previously seen.  I have never seen this urchin in life, however, it tunnels under the sand leaving a raised trail like a mole.  So why don't they call it the mole urchin?  That way, should you encounter it in a Mexican restaurant, it would be covered with that bitter chocolate sauce that tastes faintly of tobacco.  All kidding aside, from the standpoint of his linear alimentary mechanism, this urchin bears a striking resemblance to a sea cucumber.

   Well, Bob and I went home, but soon the whole mob of us convened at Casa Ono for Thanksgiving dinner.  We had a delightful meal with lots of specialty touches and then the four of us hauled ourselves from

The asymmetrical sea urchin test.

 the table to decorate the Christmas tree.  With Christmas in Latte Land playing in the background, our collection of ornaments were placed on the tree.  When the job was done, I noticed to my pronounced chagrin that there was something drastically wrong with my paper mache fish.  Closer examination revealed that many of them had been decimated by wood boring beetles.  Curiously, the fish ornaments actually made of wood were not affected.

    This wood boring beetle is a common pest here on the big island.  It frequently attacks bits of furniture.  The treatment is simple enough:  you put the effected object in the freezer for 48 hours.  This has spawned a curious little industry, where people who own freezers for things like food, will rent space for a table infested with wood boring beetles.  It was easy enough to round up the ornaments and put them in a freezer bag and then into our trusty icebox.  You will note the picture of a hybrid Achille's Tang

Husky Tang Christmas Ornament With Wood Boring Beetles

done in purple and gold with two tiny beetles that popped out when he was removed from the freezer.  The only bad part was that it rendered some of the finer paper mache work friable.  In this case the Husky Tang seems to have lost the tips of his fins.  I'm sure you will note the small holes bored by the beetles.  Bad beetles!

       Bob and Kim had brought us an early Christmas gift (we received a candle that smells for all the world like the cinnamon rolls served by Holiday Inn and the amazing asymmetrical sea urchin test) so we sent them home with a Latte Land disk still in its original cellophane wrapper.  The story of Latte Land, written and
produced by my talented brother Chuck Hill, is a touching tale, with which the Hillis's were regaled at length.  The story is beyond the scope of this blog, but through the miracle of the internet you can click on this link and hear the signature song on YouTube.
 .https://www.youtube.c/watch?v=wCGdgX8Cjh4  

It should make great background music while you read the rest of the blog.

Nanner, nanner, nanner.

    The remainder of the Thanksgiving weekend was a blur of football with our beloved Huskies beating the stuffing (little Thanksgiving dinner joke) out of WSU on a glorious November day hard by the Montlake Cut.  Go Dogs!

   Sandra and I went snorkeling early on Saturday morning (so we would be home in time to watch football on TV.)  It was a gorgeous day and the water at the pier was cool and clear.  On the way out, we came across this juvenile fourspot butterflyfish flitting about in a remnant of Pocillipora coral.  This is one of the best pieces of cauliflower coral left on the Ironman side of the of the pier.  The branches of the Pocilliporas provide an important nursery for many of our fish.  The decimation of this genus by the hot summer water with resultant bleaching is ominous.

      On the way in, we didn't see too much of merit in the fish department, but I did manage this picture of an orangemouth lizardfish.  My colleague Professor Hillis let it slip that he needed a picture of this relatively

The Author and his son  James with the Timbers Army.

 common lizardfish, so this opportunity got my competitve juices flowing.  And just in time, as Stanford defeated Notre Dame by a couple on the last play of the game.  I was pleased, but the producer of Latte Land, an out of the closet Irish-despiser, was beside himself with glee.

     The weekend ended with the Portland Timbers defeating FC Dallas for the the western conference championship in MLS.  This game was shared with my son James, who curtailed his visit to the Outlaws in Roseburg, making it home in tine to watch his beloved eleven from the Rose City.  Rose City, No Pity!  The Timbers won the right to raise a flag in Providence Park and Sandra and I enjoyed several game related conversations on the telephone with James and Tara.  At two months, CJ is too young to talk and Riley is a still dog. 

    And that was the Thanksgiving weekend in Kailua.  Sandra and I hope your holiday was filled with good friends and family, good food and at least one football victory.

jeff

CJ is here to root for the Timbers!