Services for Hire

As I'm sure you all have heard by now, the island has officially "dodged a bullet" and all is well on the Big Island.

I went down the hill a little way, and the anti-climactic nature of it all was staggering. Not only did I not get a Pulitzer Prize winning photo, nor did I have a chance to witness the sheer awe-inspiring natural force of a tidal wave, but I also didn't get to rescue any beautiful women from harm's way, which of course would have led to a really great weekend. :) On the other hand, no one died and no property was damaged, so I guess we'll have to call this one a wash.

Still, this whole fiasco has started me thinking. This is the second "sure thing" natural disaster that has turned out to be nothing at all. Today it was the tsunami. Previously it was Hurricane Felicia, which, if you don't recall, was a class 4 hurricane on the warpath for Hilo. All projections showed it gathering strength and tearing the town apart. As it happened, though, all that really happened were 30mph winds, and (oddly enough) it actually rained less than normal.

As I see it, there's a common thread tying these two near-miss disasters together:
I blogged about them.

Now I'm thinking, why should I use all of this aversion power just for the people of Hilo? There are plenty of times when we're not under a threat here.

So I'm officially offering my services to the world. For the very reasonable sum of $1,000,000 US, a place to stay, and Internet access, I'll travel anywhere and blog about your impending disaster, thus causing it to diminish to the point of just looking silly. Of course, I'll need the money up front, just in case. And in the interest of being fair, if for some unforeseen reason the disaster isn't averted, I'll gladly have my next of kin refund half of my fee to help with disaster relief or whatnot.

Trust me. This sounds like a good deal because it IS a good deal.

Operators are currently standing by.

(disclaimer: countries offering all-I-can-drink Guinness will have first priority)

Sent from my iPod

Felicia: Part 2

What a complete and total let down of a storm.

I was planning on writing more last night, but as nothing was happening, I fell asleep instead. Sorry about that.

Anyway, we got a grand whopping total of 0.60" of rain from the storm. That's only 0.1" more than we've normally been getting every night for the last three weeks. So....yeah. Not much to report at all.

On the upside, the storm did make for some great waves at the beach. Kalewa and I took the camera out in hopes of catching some video. We really didn't get any good action shots (still learning on that one) and we only took a couple of still shots, which I'm including. There's one video, though, that I really want to post, but every time I try, the DSL modem here wigs out, and cuts off all internet connection. So I guess I'll see if Kalewa can throw it on youtube for me tomorrow.

So that's about it. Wish I had more for you this evening, but......I don't. :)

Felicia the Dud (for here, anyway): Part 1

In an effort to keep friends and family back home updated with the storm (as I've heard that since it's been downgraded to a tropical storm, there's almost no coverage anywhere, news websites included), I'm going to be dishing out some info tonight and tomorrow.

As you all may or may not know, Felicia was at one time a Category 4 hurricane, aimed directly for me. Everyone figured it'd die down, and it has, but it also changed direction and has headed off to the north to mess with other people. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little disappointed. That kind of weather is something I've never even come close to experiencing, and the prospect was a little exciting. But now I'm just hanging out in the yurt, drinking a diet Hansen's soda (kiwi strawberry), wondering what movie I'm going to watch online through Netflix (I'm leaning towards "Chocolate," not to be confused with "Chocolat.")

Anyway, current wind speeds are low...perhaps enough to be considered a light breeze. Current rainfall is zero. In fact, because of the light but constant breeze, we've had better weather today than we've had in weeks. That means, of course, a good day to go to the beach. Which I did. Which will be a post later tonight (after dinner and Chocolate, not Chocolat).

In fact, the only really remarkable thing so far was this amazing rainbow that popped up just before sunset. There are rainbows here quite a lot, but this was the first I'd seen that did the full arc, from the horizon and back again. And it was bright too.

My piece of junk camera couldn't do it justice, but I took some photos anyway.

Ok. The rain is starting to come down now (still just a sprinkle), so at least I'll have some totals to report after dinner.