Why am I writing this? I have no idea. Well, I had all of these pictures to start a blog post or two and I just have to talk about things that annoy me. I have to admit, this all took some thinking on my part because the series and sequence of events all blended together at some point. Let’s go back a few weeks and take it from the start. Back on December 26th, Oahu’s power lines were hit by lightening. They say lightening doesn’t strike twice but Hawaiian Electric Company took it in the electrical wires five (5), yes five times that day.
HECO Finds the Cause
I’m glad that Hawaiian Electric Company was able to pinpoint just how this calamity happened. I will agree that nobody likes a company that sends them bills in the mail. But, oddly enough, I’ve felt the need to jump in and back HECO up on this. Mother Nature does what Mother Nature wants and I’m afraid HECO was outflanked this time. Most people were out of power for something over 12 hours — it was 20+ hours for us. I have no problem being without power for a while but I really hate throwing away all of that food. Ugh! In spite of it all, HECO still offered to provide financial restitution to those who apply for it.
Mother Nature the Terrorist
We’ve been through a sufficient amount of natural disasters recently that have left some areas a little shell-shocked. there have been heavy rains causing some very damaging flooding, we’ve had high winds taking the roofs off houses, and there have been combination storms that have kept us in the dark for several hours. Now that these events are over and we’re sufficiently on edge, what happens when the weather service warns of a windy storm on its way? State officials and the Department of Education decide to close all public schools. “They what?!?” They never did that when I was in school! We always braved the wind, rain, waves, mud, etc. It did not take long for the private and charter schools to follow suit. Fine, whatever.
Wait, it gets better. All State and City & County offices are closed! “You have GOT to be kidding me!” Let’s see, Monday is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day so the general consensus was that they all wanted a four-day weekend. Fine, whatever. What happened on that Friday? Nothing. No hurricane. Maybe a drizzle, maybe not. Traffic was a lot lighter.
A Trashy Day Off
Absolutely amazing. Road work? It’s a holiday; what are they talking about? Who put that sign there? I’m nosy, I need to know. I don’t see any road work, they must have forgotten to pick the sign up during the week — maybe they left in there on Friday when they were suddenly closed for the day.
Surprise! They were indeed on the road side, on a holiday, picking up somebody’s opala (trash) that was dumped unceremoniously on the side of the road.
This stuff fries me! It’s bad enough when people dump garbage and abandon vehicles in obscure locations, but when they dump it on the side of the road in a residential area, especially a rural relief area (that’s what I call them) that exists so very close to the city but is still so very peaceful and simple, it absolutely makes my blood boil! Dump it in your own damn yard, you slobs! Grrrr!
When I saw what was going on and successfully checked my temper, I realized that I needed to talk about this. It took me all of about thirty seconds to turn my car around and head back to take these photos. Doing so rattled the City & County workers. Does that make me the terrorist? 🙂 I think I’ve mentioned before that people are afraid of cameras. But, when they heard my snarky reaction to the whole thing, they happily joined my rant and understood the intent.
This is what was left after they filled their trucks the first time. They reassured me they would be back for the rest but this gives you some idea of just what a big pile it was. A comment was also made that citizens like us hire people to do a job, pay to have the trash hauled away, and this is where it ends up. It’s hauled away alright but I’m sure the homeowner did not have this kind of disposal in mind!
You know, if you’re doing a job that requires this kind of heavy hauling and disposal and you do not want to pay the fees at the dump, I suggest that you find some other line of work. Those fees are part of the cost of doing business. They are a legitimate, tax-deductible, business expense. But then again, maybe you don’t pay your taxes either? There was something else that troubled me — there seemed to be more than one line of business here. There was a lot of flooring debris making up this pile but there were also several cans of paint. Those paint cans do look old. Alright, I suppose a homeowner could have done this themselves. Auwe!
The City & County workers were the ones who pointed out that I “should see what’s over the wall.” The river is right below this and we wonder why there are so many signs about dumping and cautions about contaminated water?
For the record, later that same day I saw a State employee leaving the Capitol and I said, “Don’t tell me you guys are working?”
“Yep, only half-day though. Since we had Friday off we came in to work half-day.”
Aha! So they guilted themselves into working on the Monday holiday to make up for what didn’t happen on Friday. Okay, you guys are forgiven.
There may have been a storm but this is where it really went. The only real evidence of any storm that I saw was the kicking shore breaks on the west side of Oahu, a nice 30+ miles away from where the City & County was taking away all of that trash. The water looked so inviting but the warning signs and little orange flags kept everyone out of the water. Just watching the water and smelling the salt air is enough to make us forget the problems and focus on the beauty that is our home. Why did I write this? I don’t remember.
“The Chunky PB ‘n Jamba is blended with soymilk, vanilla yogurt, peanut butter, strawberries, blueberries and organic granola into a thick smoothie and then topped with whole blueberries.”
I love white ginger! It’s such a welcome sight to see these flowers. You just know that when you get close enough, the smell is going to be 0h so sweet! They make leis out of white ginger but they don’t last very long. They’re more expensive than most but they can fill an entire room with their sweet fragrance. White ginger that you see growing and looking so pretty today will be wilted, at best, tomorrow. At least a hint of the scent will still be there. 🙂
Homespun Honolulu is two years old today! I hope that doesn’t mean we’re going to have to deal with the terrible two’s. 🙂
Welcome to the first 
