Category Archives: Better Days

It’s coming to get you

The former Sonny's Restaurant building being torn down in Hawi, Hawaii

Sonny’s Place was a long-established restaurant in downtown Hawi. It was still in business when I first moved here, though it looked worse for wear even then. I was advised not to eat there. Within a couple of years it appeared to be shut down, though the difference was marginal at best.

Recently, someone bought the place and I wondered what they would do with it. Then this excavator appeared and I thought I should get photos before the building disappeared. I finally did a couple of Sundays ago. The next day the lot was cleared.

The Numbers Game #44

Billowy clouds over the Alenuihāhā Channel between Maui and the Big Island, Hawaii
Clouds pile up over the ʻAlenuihāhā Channel.

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 165. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.

A rainy day at Upolu Airport, Hawaii
A plane parked at Upolu under ominous skies.
A giant trevally in the waters off Hawaii
A Giant Trevally.
A broken window in Hawaii
Broken glass in a nearby house.
A black saddlebags dragonfly
A Black Saddlebags Dragonfly.
The remains of a building at Kiholo, Hawaii
An old building at Kiholo.
A green turtle swims in Kiholo Bay, Hawaii
A Green Turtle swims in Kiholo Lagoon.

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!

In need of repair

A damaged chainlink fence around Upolu Airport in Hawaii

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Fences.’ See more responses here.

Here on the Big Island, fences tend to be of two kinds – chainlink and painted wood. Walls and hedges are possibly more popular. Walls don’t need as much maintenance and hedges fill in easily all by themselves, though they do require trimming if they’re not to take over.

These fences are ones that have seen hard times. The top photo is the chainlink fence around Upolu Airport. Someone managed to take out a section of this recently. Not sure whether they got distracted or were going too fast and lost control, but several sections of fence got destroyed. Judging from the trail of damage, the vehicle can’t have fared well either.

Damaged fences around Kohala Ranch, on the Big Island Hawaii, following a brush fire

The other two photos are of fences around Kohala Ranch, a subdivision in Kawaihae. These photos were taken after August’s big brush fire. The tidy white fences surrounding the property have been rather battered. Fixing the damage will be a significant task, though I think most of the folks living there were probably happy to have been spared more than this largely aesthetical issue.

Damaged fences around Kohala Ranch, on the Big Island Hawaii, following a brush fire

Better Days: Shade tree and bench

A tree blown over by high winds in Hawaii

The high winds of a few weeks ago caused a fair amount of damage around the island. At Lapakahi State Historical Park, this tree was toppled and took out a bench that had been set up in its shade. The bench will have to be fixed and set up somewhere else because that shade isn’t coming back anytime soon.