The Sand is back at Kahalu'u!

Patrick Lange on Alii Drive  8:01.40  Ausgezeichnet!

    There has once again been an unforgivable hiatus between blogs, but not without good reason.  Sandra and I both took part in the Ironman, as volunteers and spectators not as actual competitors.  On the other hand, procuring a parking spot at Lanihau center in the shade by Infamous Footwear constituted a competitive victory of sorts and enabled us to get down to the finish line on that hot afternoon to watch the first  man break the tape in course record time.  Just a shade over 8 hours, if you can imagine.  While we  were standing there in a patch of blessed shade, I made friends with a a pleasant lady in a little black dress.  my new friend lives part time in Miami and, when not dodging tropical depressions,  in the Big Apple.  She was waiting for her husband, who had just finished the bicycle leg of the race and was now out on the course.  She had a few more hours to wait, but I suppose she was glad that she was standing there in the shade as opposed to running out on the Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway.

    To further occupy our time, this week I presented a course at the library.  I believe it was titled,  "How to make paper mache fish in your copious free time."  Obviously I didn't have any free time or I would have got my lazy you know what down to the beach and whipped up a blog.  In truth, many hours of preparation went into that lecture and the community response was remarkably

Professor Hill demonstrates the technique.

underwhelming.  By my calculations, if you take the number of hours I put in to preparing models representing the various stages of paper mache fish manufacture (the better to teach my eager students) and divided it by the total number of students themselves, you will come up with a number greater than 2.  In the text I have left over from Statistics 101, this is known as the Apathy Coefficient.

   We will try again in Waimea in February with a whole new set of models.  With any luck, one or two will be wearing little black dresses.

    In case you haven't noticed, that sort of porcine remark is in vogue under the current regime.  Me and the Donald, were like two pigs in a pen.

   Last, but not least, just a couple days ago Sandra and I went to big, bad Honolulu where she had a cataract removed and an intraocular lens placed in its stead.   This afforded us a night in the luxurious Kaiser Permanente Suite on the 27th floor of the Ala Moana Hotel.  As the picture I took out the

Glittering Honolulu as seen from the Kaiser Permanente Suite

window at night is playing to rave reviews on Sandra's facebook page, I thought I would let you enjoy it as well.  By the way, my beaming bride is seeing much better, thank you.  This should come in handy in the future for watching fish.  Among other things.

     However, the recent eye surgery makes her a non-swimmer for a couple of weeks.  So today, when we finally got back to the beach, Sandra was left in the shade of the shelter, perched daintily atop a picnic table, while I braved the tranquil waters of K Bay.

     The first thing I noticed, and this may be the only important thing related into today's blog, is that the sand channel now extends all the way from the beach into the bay.  I cannot recall the last time

Miniature Flounder Awaits the Tartar Sauce and Chips

 that this was the case, but my guess is that its been greater than two years.  Until the first big winter storm (God willing this will be at least two months hence ...rhymes with Mike Pence) the would be bather, his or her feet in particular, can enjoy this replenished carpet of happiness.

    As I strode bravely down the aforementioned sandy walkway, I encountered a lady of a certain age, probably not too different from my age, who was walking toward the shore and holding an Olympus camera just like mine.  As I watched, she bent over and stuck her camera in the water.  I asked he what the hell she thought she was doing (not really)

Freckle Face Hawkfish juv.  Kahalu'u October 2017

and she told me that there was a miniature flounder at her feet.  She had spotted the little dear when it moved.  She took her picture and stepped away and I attempted to duplicate her effort.  Suffice it to say, it was  a bit odd holding the camera under the water, operating it from above.  Anyway, the focus isn't perfect but you can tell by comparing the fish to the grains of salt and pepper sand that this was indeed a very small flounder.  Were you to catch it, you would probably need a laser to cut the potatoes and then you could have fish and chips for General Tom Thumb. 

    Out in the bay there were plenty of people but not a huge number of fish.  I did find a juvenile freckle faced hawkfish, he of the chartreuse beanie. 

    On the way in I had a delightful encounter with a small stripe belly puffer.  Usually stripe belly puffers don't like to have their picture taken, but this little fella came over and smiled for the camera.  How accommodating. 

   What I didn't see was a single rockmover.  In the cellars of Moet Chandon the guys who turn those bottles one quarter turn each day are called riddlers.  Here at Kahalu'u the riddling is done by

rockmovers, who are continually turning over the stones.  They turn the stones as there are relatively few bottles of maturing champagne on the floor of the bay.  And in the same vein as the scorpion crossing the stream, its in their nature.  I'm hopeful that the rockmovers will return.  In the meantime, try not to be too busy to go snorkeling. 

jeff