i can't believe i haven't posted anything for so long. so much for commitment to write stuff down. i think i've been in constant mourning for friends and colleagues who keep dying on me. it's too sad. on the one hand i feel like crying all the time. on the other, i have to remind myself that death is part of life. so my friend imiola (carl young) passed away on saturday, june 14. his sister, jade, called to tell me while i was on a field trip with students at kahana fishpond. it was such a beautiful day and students worked hard cutting back hau trees and clearing brush. her call made me cry. i think i'm still mourning my friend nalani's death, and my nephew, Lono's death. and kumu lake. and john kaimikaua, and did, who wrote the play, and...and... our other friend gloria passed away a couple of weeks ago. james called to say hello and found out she was in hospice. when he called her at hospice, she said she was about to take a bath and would call him back later, but there was no later. yesterday, her husband, maluhia, called just to "talk story". james later related to me that in all the years that he has known maluhia, he has never called just to "talk story", so james suspects that maluhia is putting his affairs in order, contacting old friends, and saying goodbye in various ways. i hate the idea of death (i mean other people's death) because it's so final. but i don't hate the idea of my own death, as i look forward to (hopefully) a new adventure. i think others will be sad, however--certainly my kids.
today i finished up a report i contracted to write for a friend for the board of water supply's well in haiku. it took forever to write and i had to keep shortening it because there was so much to include. i read numerous docs about the omega station at haiku and its connection to the military's development of new technology during WWII. even though the omega station officially closed down in 1992, the infrastructure laid down in that valley is still there. the haiku stairs was built to allow maintenance men access to the tower at the top of the mountain in haiku, and the stairs later became a popular hiking spot for island residents. when H-3 was built, hiking was cut off. the 'friends of haiku stairs' was formed to urge access be resumed. the state had to insert some protections into the freeway while it was being constructed to neutralize the impact of the signals coming out of the ground to those who traveled on H-3. maybe that's the best reason not to travel on H-3. even though the omega station is officially shut down, i get the sense that the underground complex still exists and is still beaming short pulses to various places in the u.s. and globally. reminds me of a doomsday science fiction movie. there's a web of antennae all around the world, and the omega station at haiku covers the whole pacific like fingers! mahealani cypher ma, from koolaupoko hawaiian civic club and the koolau foundation have requested use of the abandoned omega station building as a museum to house information and artifacts from the koolaupoko moku. maybe not a good idea, if crap is still being broadcast on ultra low frequency from that area. yes! scifi! maybe the aliens from roswell were transferred to the site via (black) helicopter!
i'm obviously losing it. grief rules my life at this moment in time, despite the beauty of nature at kahana and elsewhere.
