BOT:
Alooooha All,
Hope you’ve all been keeping dry out there, we experienced a little flood at the UFO HQ but manage to keep our head above water . . . for now . . . more about that later.
So we’re at the Elks this Friday, at our usual runtime of 7p – 10p. An ono-licious dinner will be provided at a nominal charge. BYOGear, books lights etc and of course your Aloha and Mahalo to share with our favorite Elk Lodge and Elk-ders.
NO SATURDAY KANIKAPILA . . . we’re helping Hula Mai out at a special event this Saturday so you’re on your own. Be good now, be safe and stay dry . . .
Below a little bit about Linda and Del’s flood adventure:
So, on the night of the 10th we had a little band practice session with Hula Mai that ended around 8pm. Everything was fine and as expected they just made it out before the next rain squall. About 15 minutes later a knock cam on the door, “Someone must have forgot their Uke or something,” I thought. Instead there was a Fireman in full rain gear asking, “Is your house flooding?” I replied, “Uh, should it be?” He turn to face the street and sure enough we were beginning to flood! Holy Feces!
As it turns out they got a 911 call from my poor neighbor who already had about a foot of water running through their entire house. Below is the rising flood waters . . . I had moved the cars to higher ground and took the shot below on my way back into the house . . . where we spent the rest of the night moving gear to higher ground and bailing water from the patio out to the front yard. It seems the soccer field behind the house turned into a lake and overflowed the berm and overpowered the storm drains. So we were flooding from the back and the front of the house, “But what about that magnificent pump across the street,” I thought? As expected from the previous 3 floods we had, it was silent, nada, ma-kay-die-dead as we say in pidgin. I could see that the gate to the pump was open but nothing was running. I continued bailing water from our patio to the front yard when a Las Gallinas truck finally appeared. As I was emptying another 10 gallons of water in the pool out front I heard, “Excuse me, sorry to bother you, I know you’re probably busy with the flood in your house,” said the man in his new shiny yellow green rain gear, “but do you know what happened to the generator for our pump?” I couldn’t believe it, then something clicked in my head. “Someone came up in a truck and hauled that away about 2 months ago! I remember telling the guy that we might need it but he just drove away anyway,” I replied, trying not to be annoyed. No wonder the pump was silent! He also mentioned that the pump gate lock was actually cut, which would seem to imply that maybe it was stolen two months ago? Anyway, all I can say is that this is the 4th time the flood could have been avoided if only that damn pump had been running. Thankfully, Wonder Woman Linda went into Flight Attendant Emergency response training mode and she had done a whole site recon of our home and told me where the flood points were so I could ‘mitigate’ the water damage as they say in DPW speak . . .
As you can see above, Lake UFOhana has subsided that next morning, the night before that water was flowing into our patio straight into our amps and other gear. Gary had mentioned seeing ducks out there. However, thanks to Linda’s quick actions and a friend’s Super Power Shop VAC we managed to save the gear and suck and bail 10 gallons at a time out to the front yard, this went on almost all night long. Anyway, except for a soggy section in our bedroom carpet, we’re mostly dry. Thanks to all that offered assistance to us, we are grateful to you all . . .
On a lighter note . . . below are images from another Boring Christmas In Paradise, the annual decorations in front of Honolulu Hale, courtesy of my son, Lucas . . .
Well, at least it was sunny somewhere?
Click below for images from our first Kanikapila at the Campbell.
Click below for our Saturday Kanikapila at the Elks.
UkEkU
tears from the heavens,
a reminder of our place,
a humbling moment.
Sadly, we lost another Hawaiian Pioneer . . . click below . . .
Malama Pono All,
-=SqL+Nohea+Jake=-
:EOT
