The water takers

 I listed 20 things last night and did some practice. That's all I can do is practice, practice, practice. I watched a fair amount of shakuhachi videos last night too, including an interesting run-down on a number of different shakuhachi made out of different materials from the humble Yuu to the Aireed "Katana" which is made of aluminum. The most intriguing was the Ellis Flutes one made out of ebonite which Ellis isn't selling right now but may in the future. 

The situation in Maui continues... even incidental videos where the camera is panning around a scene will show shapes in the rubble that look exactly like a pair of charred and ash-covered legs... on the radio it was mentioned how people coming in for medical care were all grey, covered in ash, except for their mouths which were red from being burned. 

How the town of Lahaina became such a tinderbox is being much discussed, and it seems that when the Hawaiians were running things, it was lush and green with taro ponds and lots of trees. 

So I propose that the name Haole for white people, these days considered to mean "without breath" but actually meant "of iron" or "who brought iron", go out of fashion and "water takers" come into fashion. They take the water. 

The town I lived in when little, Hawaii Kai, was once also lush and green and is very desert-y now. The large lagoon there, Kuapa "pond" was once a colossal fish pond, and when I was little Portlock Road was positively jungle-y in places. 

I got up in time for coffee and nuts,  and to pack all the things - all small ones. They all went to the post office and I wen to 99 Ranch where I got some wheat gluten loaf and some jalapeno peppers. Then over to Sprouts for pumpkin seeds. 

I ended up in line for a while behind an older Black guy and two little kids, his grand-kids maybe. The kids were acting up a bit, and the guy said he was "Teaching them how to shop. I've been shopping since I was 8 years old". I said I'd been shopping earlier than that, and that when I was five, my older brother, six, had stolen a little package of salted peanuts that was ten cents, and my mother made him go back and pay for it. He looked at the kids and said "See?" and then told me that of course the homeless can steal 900 and something dollars and walk right out etc. 

I replied that what places like Target will do, though, is they've got really good cameras and they'll track you, and once you steal more than that amount, now it's a felony and they'll get you. He said that as ex-military he knew it was a lot deeper than that, that it was a plan to get rid of the homeless people ... I asked what branch and he said Marines and we did the fist bump thing as he headed off to the self-checkout where a lady working there had called out to him to help him out. He might be a known character there. 

Then to Home Goods for some olives, and back to H Mart where I'd locked the bike for some macadamia nuts. Then rode back here not finding anything in the way of packing material but there never is on a Monday.

I fried up a couple of eggs and slices of a poblano pepper I'd just gotten from the veggie dumpster, and then some slices of the wheat gluten I'd just got from 99 Ranch. It's a different brand than the first time I got it there and I like the other brand better as it's got a lovely "wheaty" taste. 

I got a long email from my friend on the big island, showing his replies to a long rant sent to him from our friend on Oahu. The Oahu guy, Dave, is hopeless. For starters he's got conservative brain-rot, and that's almost impossible to reverse. His last couple of emails to me were pretty loony tunes, so I answered back with sarcasm, and that's exactly what Pat, the big island guy, did also. 

I replied to Pat that Dave's not going to change. Honestly, Dave apparently knew everyone in both the electronics and the "pro audio" field in Hawaii and he must have alienated everyone. If he weren't a complete jerk he'd have friends making sure he's taken care of, but he's trying to live the conservative ideal, lone wolf, no help from anyone and he turns down help from anyone who offers it. 

Pat's just as bad in his own way, though. Like he managed to lose a big house on the North Shore of Oahu that he had all paid off. Now he lives in a cheap barely legal ... structure ... and on the kind of budget I'll be on, about a thousand a month and food stamps. But somehow he just has to have a car. And while he's so doctrinaire a vegetarian that my even mentioning fishing offends him, it's just fine for him to have a car and he also keep 5 cats so not only is he doing his part to trash the environment and kill off native birds, but some quick Googling shows me that my meat/protein consumption is about the same as that of two cats. This means meat, cheese, fish, that sort of thing. So he's in effect supporting something like two meat-eating people by keeping five cats.