Category Archives: Scenes

The Numbers Game #21

Sunken roads at South Point Hawaii
Sometimes, the way to move forward is unclear, as when navigating these roads at South Point.

The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 142. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.

Also posted for Becky’s Squares: Move Forward, Reconstruct, Renew, and/or are Burgeoning. See more responses here.

Acute Halfbeaks swim in the waters off Hawaii
Acute Halfbeaks swim just below the surface in the waters off the Kohala coast.

They walk the line

Workers examine an area burned by fire near Spencer Beach Park, Hawaii

Recently, I went down to Spencer Beach Park for a morning walk. The area south of the park was torched by a wildfire back in August of 2023, which I wrote about here. Since then the power lines have been restored and a good deal of clearing has been going on.

In that previous post, many burned trees are visible, but these have now been removed, as has most everything else. It looks like the area is getting a new start, but what that start is, I don’t know.

On this day, what captured my attention was this group of workers on the project. I first saw them heading south along the coast, then picked them up again on their return journey. Much of that time, they moved forward steadily, and evenly spaced. It was a Monday, so maybe they were walking through the areas they’d be working on, and discussing what they’d be doing.

Posted for Becky’s Squares: Move Forward, Reconstruct, Renew, and/or are Burgeoning. See more responses here.

An area burned by fire near Spencer Beach Park, Hawaii

Muddy waters

Muddy waters, from flash flooding, advance into the blue Pacific Ocean

Sunday Stills Monthly Color Challenge is ‘Cobalt Blue.’ See more responses here.

I had a post all lined up, until I was called into work yesterday to do some clean up after flash floods swept through several places, including where I work. On the drive down, I came on this scene.

The cobalt blue waters of the Pacific were being overrun by muddy waters swept into the sea by flooding. I’ve never seen such a sharp line before and, as I watched, I could see it moving forward, to the north. On that coast, the current generally runs in that direction, and a swell from the south was probably helping it along too.

The muddy waters entered the sea down by Kawaihae and when I first saw them, they’d almost reached Lapakahi, a distance of around 12 miles. When I returned home, about three hours later, the brown water had moved up off Kapaa Park, another two and a half miles north.

It will take a day or two for the ocean to clear again, as the waters mingle or are eased away by offshore currents. In the meantime, Kawaihae is digging itself out from the copious amounts of mud left behind by the floodwaters.

Also posted for Becky’s Squares: Move Forward, Reconstruct, Renew, and/or are Burgeoning. See more responses here.

Muddy waters, from flash flooding, advance into the blue Pacific Ocean

Renewing renewable energy

Wind turbines at Hawi Wind Farm, Hawaii, together with new blades waiting to be installed

Wind turbines are a good source of renewable energy around here, given how much the wind blows. But sometimes those turbines wear out and need renewing. Here, new blades lie next to a couple of turbines, waiting for installation.

This is part of a recent burst of repair and improvements going on at the Hawi Wind Farm, I think because of an extension to its power purchase agreement with Hawaiian Electric Co..

Posted for Becky’s Squares: Move Forward, Reconstruct, Renew, and/or are Burgeoning. See more responses here.

The Numbers Game #20

Moving forward. Having second thoughts!

The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 141. Captions are on the photos.

You can see more responses here.

Also posted for Becky’s Squares: Move Forward, Reconstruct, Renew, and/or are Burgeoning. See more responses here.

An Hawaii Amakihi in a Mamane tree.
A Katydid says hi.

Not moving forward

Cars wait on the road into Kawaihae Hawaii as a traffic accident is cleared

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Groups of Any Kind.’ See more responses here.

One day last week, late in the afternoon, the driver of a dump truck carrying asphalt, lost control of his vehicle on the road into Kawaihae. He careened across the road, into a guard rail, and overturned, spilling the asphalt onto the highway.

No one was hurt, but the highway was closed in both directions. This is the highway I take to go to and from work. I’d heard about the accident before I set off for home, but there were conflicting versions about whether one lane was closed or both.

Cars wait on the road into Kawaihae Hawaii as a traffic accident is cleared

It wasn’t long before I was in a line of backed up traffic, but even then it wasn’t clear whether the highway was closed or not, since a fair number of vehicles kept coming from the opposite direction. However, the longer I was in the line, the more clear it became that these vehicles were driven by people turning around and getting out of the jam. Some of these were likely people who were headed to Kawaihae for some reason that wasn’t urgent. Others were surely those who lived up where I do who figured it would be quicker to take the long way home. I’ve done that before (here) for a brush fire, and once stuck it out for an overturned semi (here).

This time, I decided to wait it out with my group of fellow delayed travelers. It was interesting to watch what people did. Some got out of their cars and chatted. Others took the exit to Spencer Beach Park for a more relaxing wait. Still others waited, gave up, and turned around to seek alternatives. A few cars did just that only a few minutes before a retrieval vehicle with the damaged dump truck aboard, passed by. Shortly thereafter, traffic started moving through from the other side of the holdup. Then it was our turn.

Cars wait on the road into Kawaihae Hawaii as a traffic accident is cleared

The backups were quickly cleared and I got home two hours after I left work. Had I turned around as soon as I saw the backup, I might have been home in 90 minutes. My normal commute is about 30 minutes. But I wasn’t too put out. Back home, I was still able to relax with a nice glass of wine. The dump truck driver, who caused the delay, probably wishes he’d done that too. He was arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence of an intoxicant!

Also posted for Becky’s Squares: Move Forward, Reconstruct, Renew, and/or are Burgeoning. See more responses here.

All the tired horses

An old car is overgrown by grasses in Hawaii

Bushboy has popped up with a second Weekend Puzzler (here) asking us to supply the obscurest photo to match the title or lyrics of the song All The Tired Horses.

This car used to have a good deal of horsepower, but they got tired right out, fell into a deep sleep, and have yet to wake up again.

Also posted for Becky’s Squares: Move Forward, Reconstruct, Renew, and/or are Burgeoning (more responses here), because this car’s going to need a lot of renewing before moving forward again!