Poetry Bus (the End), The Bears, and More Hawai'i News

And so it goes.....

Exhausted this morning from staying up and watching the end of the Bears-Cardinals game last night. One of the most exciting NFL endings in recent memory. Do yourself a favor and watch the Sports news today to catch highlights.

I have posted the seventh and final installment of the Poetry Bus Hitting Manhattan here.

I've been inundated with readers lamenting the lack of recent poetry reading play-by-play summaries. I apologize, but you can scroll down to September 30, or use the links in the sidebar to relive the whole experience.

There's breaking news on The Honolulu Star-Bulletin website here. What's up? More aftershocks? Nah, just Pearl Jam announcing they're closing their U.S. tour in Honolulu, a week before the play with U2 at Aloha Stadium. Kings of Leon is the opening band. We were planning on going but the New York State Lottery Commission is not cooperating.

Here's a close-up of that highway damage from yesterday's post:


Kind of inconvenient for the folks along that stretch of road (BillyBlogMom's route to Hilo), but no one was hurt seriously, so Hawai'i had that blessing. All's well back at the ranch!

Monday Morning Quarterbacking

Hi All . . .

Of course the big news Sunday, at least for me, was the 6.6 quake in Hawai'i. At 5:45 AM EST this morning, there was still a mention of it on the New York Times website's front page. By 7:15, it was gone, buried beneath other important stories like "Unplug the Amps, CBGB is History," documenting the club's last show.

Here's a funny item from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin's initial article on the quakes (there was a 5.8 temblor shortly after the 6.6):

The quakes generated a 1-inch tsunami that came ahsore on the west side of the Big Island, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

No, that's not a misprint. That did say 1-inch tsunami. Now, tsunamis are no laughing matter, but I still found that bit of information amusing.

Nonetheless, all is well with the BillyBlogMom on the Big Island. The quake was close. The epicenter as you can see was between Kona and Waimea. Between Waimea and Hilo, but closer to Waimea, near Honoka'a, is the small town of Pa'auilo, location of Pihanakalani Ranch, home to Mom, "Poppa" John Ferriera, and the "AFoJaS" (Animal Friends of Jolee and Shayna). Everyone is all right. No significant damage to the house, just some busted dishes, glasses, tchotchkes, and spoiled food. Maybe some minor repair needed on the fireplace.

The biggest thing appears to be this:

A lane that collapsed at the 35-mile marker at Pa'auilo, along the Hamakua Coast, severed the major route between the east and west sides of the island. State officials will have to assess the damage before it can be repaired and reopened.

That's Mom's neck of the woods, that is, on a road they take whenever they go to Hilo.

Amazingly, no fatalities reported, thanks in part to the time of the quakes (early Sunday norning) and the remoteness (relative to say, Southern Califonria) of the location.

In happier news, the Tigers are going to the World Series! They swept the Oakland A's, finishing them off Saturday night in dramatic fashion, when Magglio Ordonez crushed a walk-off, three-run homer, in the bottom of the 9th inning.



As Borat would say, "Ni-i-ice!"