We’re hoping for the best, while checking the latest updates on Felicia, the storm that was once a Category 4 hurricane. Yesterday’s news got progressively worse, with the storm experiencing less weakening than initially forecast, and moving to a more northerly course that will potentially bring it much closer to us.

This morning looks very cloudy. I can’t see even a glimmer of pre-dawn light or color yet, at about 5:40 a.m., unlike the view yesterday morning (photo above). However, in the satellite/radar images, Felicia has lost that classic hurricane shape and is becoming a stormy blob heading our way. Still a chance it will be packing tropical storm winds when it gets into our neighborhood. Wait and see is the name of the game.

Our old friend, Mr. Mike, will try to update us as the storm approaches the Big Island. He says his house is (hopefully) safe from flooding. That’s the good news.

Our house sits on the highest
point of our lot, and the street has a good drainage system. Our main concern is that the wind will blast rain onto our porches. We have a lot of files and junk stashed on the makai porch and lots of stuff stored in the car port. We also have that screened porch on the mauka side, where water could blow in.

We have been going through stuff stored on the porches and have recycled a lot of old magazines and files. Yesterday, we made three trips to the recycling center. You could say that the impending storm is having a constructive influence on us.

We’re here in Kaaawa with a house full of windows, none with safety glass, I’m sure. If the wind gets bad, we’re taking all the cats and taking refuge downstairs. About five years ago, we demolished the old garage that was under the house and built a downstairs area, partly below grade, where we now have a spare room, bathroom, laundry room and storeroom, all to modern building standards. I’m pretty we’ll be safe down there, except for potential injuries from confined cats.

Let’s just hope for the best.

The folks at DLNR are attempting to move ahead with their Recreational Rennaisance Plan B, seeking a land board vote to take big steps in that direction despite the legislature’s failure to approve the plans.

Check the agenda for Friday’s land board meeting, with staff submittals and attachments. Jump down to section 5.

Here’s just a taste:

Designation of certain Revenue Generating Properties as income-producing assets and reserve these properties to DLNR for the purpose of generating revenues to fund Plan B of the Recreational Renaissance, and ultimately upon receiving the necessary legislation, to also repay bonds issued for DLNR’s original or any approved Recreational Renaissance plan.

Subject to Federal Aviation Administration prior approval, approve of and recommend to the Governor the issuance of executive orders: (1) withdrawing lands currently set aside to Department of Transportation for airport purposes, identified above as Ualena Street Industrial Properties and Kona Airport Industrial Lands, and resetting aside those lands to DLNR Land Division for income production purposes; and (2) setting aside lands identified above as Kanoelehua Industrial-Commercial Lot to Department of Transportation for airport purposes.

But as I recall, those airport lands are tied up with previously issued airport bonds. Are there provisions of those bonds that rely on these lands to keep the airport thriving and able to replay the bonds? I’m not sure, but I’m certainly not sure that Lingle’s folks have worked all this through.

It looks a lot like they really just want to set an agenda for privatizing and selling off public property. That’s not a new conservative agenda, but it’s not one that has roots here in Hawaii.

Check out this thought provoking interview we heard this week on National Public Radio. On Thursday, Bob Garfield plugged his new book, The Chaos Scenario. His premise–the collapse of traditional media is well under way and there won’t be a revival when the larger economy recovers.

We are not only facing an utter collapse of all of the media infrastructure we’ve so come to love and depend on for going on 350 years, we’re in the middle of it. It is – has long since begun. The newspaper industry in the midst of a precipitous decline. Television is in the midst of a precipitous decline. The record industry’s already almost gone. And, you know, magazines are having the worst year in modern history, after the – a year before that was its previous worst year in modern history, and on and on and on. Because structurally, the media can no longer survive.

He goes on:

And nobody wants this to go away. The media culture is very important to us. It’s very important to our democracy. We depend on it. We believe it’s our birthright, and yet, you know, it’s not a – this yin and yang that has been with us all our lives and for many generations before us is not a Newtonian law of physics. It’s not in the 10 Commandments. There is nothing there – I’ve pored over them – that says thou shalt have new episodes of “Lost” or a profitable New York Times. And it’s a disaster in progress.

It’s not good news for folks still working in newspapers and broadcast media. But it was an interesting enough interview to lead to my first experiment with a Kindle e-book on my iPhone. I’ve only read the intro so far, and it seems to work pretty well. Page turning on the iPhone touch screen is much smoother and more intuitive than with the Kindle itself.

In any case, I guess we’ll all be in stages of storm preparation today.