When the temblor first hit I thought is was a large truck going by on the highway just behind my house. The rumble kept building and building and then my desk started to tremble. My poor cat, Bear, headed for the safety of the space under my bed. The quake lasted about 30-seconds at my location. Just about the moment it stopped is when the power failed. Every island in the State lost power. Each island has their own generators.

The biggest problem on Maui was total loss of information. It seems that none of our radio stations have emergency generators for their studios or transmitters. The only info we could get was from KSSK radio (590 AM) out of Honolulu and, naturally, their main focus was Honolulu. What limited info they received about the neighbor islands was immediately shared though. For which I was thankful.

I was in the Bay Area when the Loma Prieta quake hit. (October 17, 1989 - The “World Series” quake). I was also in El Lay when the Northridge quake occured (January 17, 1994).

This one didn’t hold a candle to those two.

This one would have caught the attention of most Californians but would, at most, have been just interesting conversation at Starbucks on the way into work.

Our Governor, Linda Lingle (R), was in Kona-Kailua, about 14 miles from the epicenter, when the earth started moving beneath her feet. She is now back in Honolulu, the State Capitol.

Luckily, there have been no reported deaths.

One home caught fire in O’ahu when someone lit some candles, not knowing that the propane line to their oven had been pulled loose. That is just plain stupidity. A definate candidate for a Darwin Award.

On Maui, the town of Hana is isolated. They have power, phones, cable, etc but both the main road and the back road are blocked.

You folks outside of Hawai’i probably know more about today that we do.

We lucked out. This apparently was caused by a submerged landslide rather that being associated with any magma movement. Geologist know that there have been landslides in Hawai’i, circa 100,000 years ago, that generated a tsunami over 1,000 feet (305 meters) high. This will eventually happen again. When it does, ever city on the Pacific Rim will disappear from the face of the earth.

A tsunami that large will erase most of LA County. There would be a wave taller than the Golden Gate Bridge enetring the Bay Area.

The way these waves propagate will cause a wave up the Hudson rRiver in New York over 300 feet high. London would see a wave at least 50 feet high coming up the Thames.

The Straits of Gilbralter would get a wave about 200 high enetring the Mediterranian.

Florida would disappear as would New Orleans.

Rio De Janerio would have a lot of dead bodies off of Ipanema.

Like I said, we were ALL lucky today.

Sleep well.

Enjoy!

Well, October is here and at the end of the month one of the biggest non-holiday events in the western world occurs.

HALLOWEEN

The thing I like about Halloween is that it comes with no stress. No big build-up of anticipation and subsequent let-down in disappointment.

Halloween is just Halloween and every year is as different and as fun as the years before.

The two best places, as an adult, to celebrate Halloween are Key West, Florida and Lahaina, Hawai’i..

Last year I picked up a couple from one of the hotels in Ka’anapali and took them to Front St., where all the activity is. He was dressed like an “Alley Oop” cave man. She had on a white bustier, white garter belt, white nylons, white heels, white frilly panties and a white bridal veil. The sexy, virginal bride. The entire ride to Front St. she worried aloud about how skimpy her costume was.

Almost 10 minutes of “I am so embarrassed .”

As I made the drop near Front St. the taxi-van in front of us disgourged 5 beautiful young ladies wearing only thong bikini bottoms and leis. That was their entire costume. My lady passenger saw them and in the same breathe went from “I am so embarrassed ” to “I may be overdressed.”

Every year the local cable TV public access channel, AKAKU TV, has a crew videotaping the night’s activities. Usually after the first of the year they have finally editted it down to a one-hour show. It airs randomly throughout the year.

The following is a brief, and sanitized, snippet of last year’s fun.

BTW - People fly in from all over the world to be in Lahaina on Halloween. Kahului Airport will have twenty or thirty private jets parked near the general aviation side of the property. These planes have identification markers from all over the world.

Oh, the daylight hours of the event are targeted at keikis (kids) and only shifts towards adult participation after sunset. Officially, everything is over by 11:00pm but really doesn’t grind to a halt until “bar close” at 2:00am.

Drop by this year and join the 40,000+ other revelers.

This afternoon/evening we start our annual Mau’i County Fair.

The rides and attractions in the midway are, as usual, from E.K. Fernandez Shows.

Festivities start with a parade to the fairgrounds along Ka’ahumanu Avenue, from the community college in Kahului.

I attended one year. Lots of fun for wide-eyed keiki’s but I personally found the entire affair rather trite and boring.

Teens and “tweens” find it a great place for our society’s courtship rituals. Just like every other place in the USA.

The weather should be pretty pleasant tonight and Friday. Saturday and Sunday are still in doubt but will probably be okay.

It runs through Sunday, for those who are interested.

More on page #2

Have a great day/week/month/year/life!

I had these three people in my cab on two successive nights. They are happy, boisterous.
Steve ~ Terra ~ Mike
Steve and Mike are from New Jersey. Terra is from California. They are on Mau’i for a wedding that occurred on Thursday.

The ride with them last night was about 20-minutes long. This is a 3-minute segment of that journey. While this is technically a video, it was dark in the cab, so just listen to the audio.

I would call this a “typical” cab ride at night.

RSS readers click here to listen

Summer offically ends and we all know that ghosts & goblins, turkeys, Saint Nick and Father Time are rapidly approaching.

Here on Mau’i, we are in the September doldrums. Very few tourists. Its a well kept secret that this month has the best weather of the year, hotels and condos are offering discounts and the various activity businesses have cut their fees to the absolute minimum. Anything to draw people in.

Newcomers to the tourist indrustry are now learning why all of us old-timers stash money away during the busy times. You have to if you plan on paying your bills and eating during the lean times.

My good buddy, Tammy, the bartender at Neptune’s

Business is so slow at the moment that I only had 7 fares during my 10-hour shift Tuesday night and 4 fares during the 10-hours on Wednesday night.

Feces occurs.

The new Mau’i County Police cars are sporting a new striping scheme. If you click the above picture you’ll get a better view. The old style is on the left and the new is on the right.

Its too funny not to be shared.