A man stopped us as we walked along a stretch of Kamehameha Highway in Kaaawa early yesterday morning.

“I see you every morning. You walk every day?” he asked.

Easy answer. “Yes.”

“Every day?” Repeated for emphasis.

Answer, again, “yes”.

Well, truth it, every day with qualifications. Exceptions are when we’re traveling, sick, or it’s seriously raining. The normal rain doesn’t slow us down much, but the serious rain makes for an unpleasant hour of walking.

And today we’re somewhere at or just past the 12th anniversary of these daily walks at dawn. We started off slower, walking several times a week and for a shorter distance, talked into it by neighbors who were ahead of us at the time. Sometime in early 1996, by mid-March, we had regularized it into daily walks of about 3 miles, from one end of Kaaawa to the other. For a while, we stayed mostly on Kaaawa’s back roads, but quickly discovered the benefits of the beach.

And here we are, twelve years and thousands of miles later, still enjoying every day as if it’s the first time the sun has made its appearance. What a gift!

I would have completed today’s entry except for the 6 a.m discovery of a large wounded rat in my shower. This one over my “just grab it and let it go outside” size limit, so I had to find a suitable container to transport the critter back into the wild. That took a while, then cleaning the shower took a bit more time. And then it was time to walk. So the whole morning has been rolled back a bit.

More problems at Gannett’s fancy printing plant. According to a “breaking news” report in today’s Honolulu Advertiser, about half of today’s run will not have the classified ads section due to a printing problem. It’s not the first time the high tech plant has had difficulties in recent months.

If you’ve been wondering what’s going on with the Times strike, here’s a missive from the local Teamsters:

FRIENDS OF LABOR – well here is a chance to be physical in the support of the meatcutters – meet in front of Times Kahala this Saturday at noon – until 3 pm – its an informational picket – and we need you!

THIS SATURDAY – 12 – 3 PM – KAHALA TIMES MARKET
STAND WITH THE MEATCUTTERS – SHOW WE HAVE A BOYCOTT OF TIMES MARKET IN THE GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD!!!

A bit of additional info on the outstanding issues and status of the strike would certainly be useful in addition to this call to action.

Note to candidates and elected officials–use extreme caution when tempted to dip into those campaign funds. The NY Times reports today that federal investigators are looking into whether Elliott Spitzer’s extracurricular affairs were aided in part by campaign money, as some coincided with campaign events.

Hey, what happened to the Mayor Mufi repackaging? The mayor with a prior reputation as kind of a bully has been giving himself a softer, more friendly image.

Then I caught this at the end of a Star-Bulletin story yesterday about a meeting at which Hannemann and others objected to an EPA determination that Honolulu should have to upgrade its waste treatment systems.

Mike Simpson, one of the few who supported the EPA, said he does not want to swim in a place where there is waste contaminating the waters.

Simpson received several boos from the audience, including Hannemann. “Give us the Hawaii that we want,” Simpson said.

What’s that! The mayor joining in booing a citizen who simply stepped forward to support clean water? Since the booing crowd was mostly packed with city employees, and according to the story overseen by department heads, it all reflects doubly poorly on the mayor. If he had a real opponent in the upcoming election, the mayor’s bad behavior would come back to haunt him. Too bad that appears unlikely.

Ooops. Despite it being Feline Friday, I haven’t gotten any new cat photos this week. Apparently I’ve been busy attending to other things. So I have to offer a raincheck and chase cats for a while tomorrow to correct this deficit.