VOG FREE DAYS AND BEAUTIFUL NIGHTS

Kona sunset

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. The winds have granted us a great Christmas present by giving us a couple of vog-free days here in Kona. Here's the sunset from Friday evening. Notice you can see the horizon, which is very rare here nowadays. Today is another clear day. We are heading up to A-Bay later today for an outing so I'll post some more photos later.

Below are some night shots around the Queen's Market place and Kings shops in Waikoloa and one of Rachael vegging out. All of these photos were taken with only the ambient light around the scene. No flash for me. For most of the night shots I placed the camera on the ground or on some other steady object. No tripod either.
Happy New Year.

Storm over Maui seen from North Kona. Maui is lost in the clouds but we could see lightning every so often.

Karen taking a picture of palm trees with Christmas lights on them.

The courtyard at the Queen's Marketplace.

A giant pineapple tree.So that's how they are grown ...

A tree at night. What else can I say?

The Wrighthouse Five ...

Rachael relaxing before the trip up north.

Karen taking pictures at the King's Shops.

This was a mistake photo, but I liked how it turned out. Sometimes incorrect exposures look cool.

Caught! Karen snapped this photo of me. The photo above of the one I said was incorrect exposure is the one I'm taking here.

Rebecca being Rebecca just before leaving for Waikoloa.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas everyone. We finally finished our house. not much more aded since the last photos but here it is.

This is our "Booby Bear" just because of the placement of the lights inside it.

That's me taking a picture of a huge Booby Bear.

At least all the lights are working — for now.

Booby Bear

CHRISTMAS TIME IN KONA

(Our house, but not finished yet)

Today was spent in the land of Christmas. We put up the Christmas lights, Went to the Kona Christmas parade and put up more lights. Somewhere in between all that Karen and I also went swimming in the warm Pacific ocean and did some weight training.

I also got quite a workout going up and down the ladder for a few hours.

Kona Christmas parade

(I thought this was the coolest float in the parade — A Christmas train chugging down Alii Drive.)

(The true gift of Christmas)

(Karen, Aaron and Rebecca during the rainy parade. Where else do they hand out popsicles during a Christmas parade.)

Putting up Christmas lights

(Buildinhg up the quads by going up and down the ladder.)

(Karen hard at work holding the ladder. I hate heights and that's higher up than it looks.)

Nice composition. Karen should be a photog.)

(Rebecca helping from the ground.)

I'll post a finished shot of the house when we get done.

TEN THINGS PEOPLE DON'T KNOW ABOUT ME

1) THE BIGGEST LOSER: I once lost 40 pounds in 30 days eating nothing but Frosted Flakes once a day and lifting lots of weights. (Don't try it though, very unsafe)

2) THE REV: I almost became a minister (finished most of the schooling), but decided not to after my mother passed away.

3) MY VICE: I recorded every episode of the original Miami Vice TV show and had them on VHS for years until they were ruined in storage.

4) CRYBABY: Touched By An Angel episodes always make me cry

5) CHOCOLATE: I love chocolate and I love ice cream, just not chocolate ice cream

6) RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH: I once wrote a story that was so traumatizing for me that I gave it to Karen to put up and have never read it in the more than 10 years since I wrote it.

7) FISHERMAN: A full-page picture of me fishing appeared in Field & Stream magazine. I didn't even know it until I was in a doctor's office and someone who I didn't know said they saw my photo in the magazine. (The kicker was I was just fishing out a dead fish that was floating next to my boat ... but don't tell them that)

8) TOONS: I used to be a cartoonist for a magazine, but the skill has long since left me. If you don't use it you lose it. I also illustrated Shakespeare's "The Taming of The Shrew" in high school just so I wouldn't have to write a report on it. The teacher like it so much he kept it ... Wish I had it now.

9) RING, RING: I have a phobia about talking on the phone.

10) MY GIRL: I still suck in my stomach, stick out my chest and flex my muscles whenever Karen is around. (I still try to impress my girl even after nearly 30 years of marriage.)

RAINY DAY BLUES

Tonight we are under a flash flood watch. It's been raining cats and dogs pretty much all day today. Rebecca and I went to the store to pick up a Christmas present for Karen and we got absolutely soaked, even with an umbrella. When it rains here it really pours and it is pouring.



The rain is supposed to continue until sometime tomorrow. Well at least tomorrow is only swim practice and then running on the treadmill. Do they cancel swim practice because of rain??? Probably not.

IT'S ALMOST CHRISTMAS!

Karen, Rebecca and I went driving around tonight looking at Christmas lights. Not a whole lot up yet, we haven't even put up ours yet, but we are working on it. Here's the most impressive house we saw. Merry Christmas everyone!

A FRESH START — GASPING ALLOWED

"When a person trains once, nothing happens. When a person forces himself to do a thing a hundred or a thousand times, then he certainly has developed in more ways than physical. Is it raining? That doesn't matter. Am I tired? That doesn't matter, either. Then willpower will be no problem." — Emil Zatopek

Monday marked the start of my second season of triathlon. Last season was all about survival. Don't drown, don't crash and don't blow out the knee. This season is going to be different. I'm a veteran now. Experienced. Seasoned. Time to get serious.

Last season, at Lavaman and at Honu, I felt like I needed another month's worth of training to be ready for each of those races. This season I want to be prepared. To do that I'm going to have to face a couple of deep-seated fears that I have been avoiding.

First, I'm afraid of over-training. So much so that last year I undertrained. Lesson learned. This year I'm pushing my body to the limit. Train until it hurts then push through it. That's easily said I know. I'll see how hard it will be to actually do.

My second fear, which I just recently realized is going to be hard to overcome. I have a very real fear of water. More to the point, drowning. I'm not sure if I had a near-drowning experience when I was little or what, but while learning to swim over the past year I have come face to face with terror in the water.

The first time I experienced this was during Masters 101 when coach Steve had us swim a couple of lengths doing the back stroke. The moment I flipped over onto my back and pushed off the wall, my heart began to race. By the time I was halfway across the pool, I was nearly panicking and I didn't even know why. I had never been afraid of the water before but for some reason I was certain I was drowning. It was like an old memory was surfacing, warning me to get out of the water.

When I find something I'm afraid of I usually stare it down and work through it, which is what I did with swimming on my back. after a few dozen laps I finally accepted the fact that I was not drowning, repressed whatever memory was lurking and have since incorporated the backstroke into my training.

So I thought that had ended my fear of water, but last weekend's Peaman 1.2 mile swim opened my eyes to another part of that same fear. As I was swimming along, I was really trying to push myself to go hard verses just grabbing onto someone's feet who was going at a comfortable pace for me (something that I did all last season). I kept catching myself slowing down, conserving energy. So I would speed up. Then it hit me. That same sick, panicky feeling I had felt in the pool. I realized that I'm afraid that if I get too tired while swimming I'll drown, so I shut down.

I'm going to face that fear: My mission for now is to get tired in the pool. I've seen other swimmers end an interval and come up gasping for air because they pushed themselves so hard. I want to be able to push myself that hard in water. Just like I do on the bike. And like I hope I will on the run.

I want to hit that wall gasping, chest heaving, lungs burning, muscles screaming and be at peace with it. So here's to gasping, not because you're drowning, but because you are digging deep and making it hurt. Like someone once said, "It's a dream until you write it down, then it's a goal." So that's my goal.