A friend is headed for Chicago and then on to St. Louis in the next couple of days. Chicago is below zero with a wind chill that makes it feel like -20, and St. Louis is not much warmer. I’m happy to be hunkering down right here this week and next.

I was surprised to hear that paddlers in the rest of the Pacific are talking about the missing trophy from the Molokai Hoe outrigger canoe race.

Shell Va’a, a team from Tahiti, won the race for the third straight year but went home without being awarded the trophy, according to reports like this one from Pacific Magazine.

Back in October, it was described as simply a paperwork delay.

The only thing missing in the Shell Va’a team’s return to Tahiti was the perpetual trophy for the Molokai Race. Albert Moux, the president of the Shell Va’a Club, said the trophy was in good hands in a safe at the Bank of Hawaii in Honolulu, one of the sponsors of the yearly race. Administrative paper work is being processed to allow the trophy to be shipped to Tahiti, he said.

But now it looks like it could be something else.

According to Kimo at Tikitv.com, directors of the Oahu Hawaiian Canoe Racing Assoc. (OCHRA) recently announced that the trophy is no longer available to be awarded to the race winners.

“We don’t have a trophy, Bank of Hawaii took it back when they declined to sponsor this event, we don’t own the trophy and its not ours to give!”

So BOH, as sponsor, was just loaning the use of the event’s perpetual trophy? Is that the norm with sporting events and their sponsors? Inquiring minds want to know, since this little issue is tarnishing Hawaii canoe racing’s image in the rest of the Pacific.

It seems an unlikely tale, the wife of a Mormon Bishop in Laie who campaigned for Obama and other Democrats, and will soon be on her way to attend the inauguration courtesy of Congresswoman Mazie Hirono’s positive response to a desperate plea.

That (Election) night, with a contagious audacity I had never felt before, I went home and constructed a letter to my Congresswoman, Mazie Hirono. I wrote it right on her website so I didn’t keep a copy of it. But I told her a little bit about myself. I told her that I was LDS, that I live in Laie, that among a primarily Republican population, I was the VP of my precinct, Secretary of my district, and Secretary of my Region for the Democratic Party of Hawaii. I told her that in the larger scheme of the political world, I really had no position of influence or social status. I then told her of my love for this country, my desire for change, and my willingness to help make that change possible within myself, my family, and my community. Then I ended the letter by “pulling an Obama” . . . I asked for the unaskable.

And the next morning’s email held a positive answer–the promise of a ticket.

So I’m off to be a part of history. Aside from the response I wrote to her, there is no possible way I can think of to show her just how grateful I am for providing this amazing opportunity. I doubt she’ll ever read this post, but just in case she does:

Mazie,
From one woman to another, thank you for knowing.

In any case, take a few minutes to read the whole story on her own blog, Forever Ka’ili.

And, finally, this comment from Bob Jones on this Monday before Christmas:

This is so typical of Hawaii roadwork that it shouldn’t go without comment.

Diamond Head Road was closed for rock slide work. But instead of erecting a “Road Closed Except For Local Traffic” sign at the start of that road at the Poni Moi intersection, they put up a Road Closed sign where the road is closed by the lookout.

So all the un-alerted eastbound traffic had to drive all the way to the lookout, turn around and backtrack instead of simply detouring onto Paki and around the back of Diamond Head.

And so it goes, as usual.