Hawaii Five-O Gets Blessed

Each year before filming for the new season begins, the cast and crew of Hawaii Five-O gather for an early-morning blessing. They bless EVERYTHING here - shopping mall openings, ground-breaking ceremonies, and the first day of ANYTHING, even the first day of shooting for a TV show...

On Hawaii Five-O's Blessing Day, this is the number one news story on all the local channels. Cute, huh?

Elaine, Matthew, and Jenny Visit!

As you already knew, Jenny Richardson Bone is here on the island doing a work/study program for the summer. (Re: Megan and Jeff Visit)

Her parents, Elaine and Matthew, came to check up on her and celebrate her 25th birthday... and on Friday night, they all came for dinner!

A good time was had by all -- especially Miss Sophie!

Aloha!

Fun with Fireworks ! NOT !!!

You've heard me talk about how fireworks are legal here - even the big stuff that you'd NEVER see for sale anywhere in California. Here's a perfect example of why there is a push to ban the big stuff here in Hawaii.

Around noon on the 4th of July, I smelled smoke and very soon saw this plume of smoke down the hill from my house. It seemed VERY close, and I now know that it was only half a mile away.

You can hear the honks of the firetrucks in the distance. After a while, helicopters arrived and dumped water continuously until dark. At one point, the wind was blowing the smoke up the hill right into my house. We were choking on the smoke, and Sophie had the good sense to know that smoke = fire = bad. With the smoke enveloping us, it seemed much closer than it was and I was VERY concerned! I calmed down when the wind shifted and the smoke was no longer on top of us. 

About the time that the nerve-wracking noise from the helicopters stopped, the sound of my neighbors' fireworks started. Sophie was a wreck! I spent much of the night with the TV turned up loud and Sophie's head in my lap, with my hands covering and stroking her ears. !!!!!!!!!!! The poor little thing doesn't bark at the noise or overtly freak out. She just starts to shiver like she's freezing. 

When the helicopters left, I hoped that meant they'd put out the fire, but I checked several times in the night and could clearly see the smoke cloud still growing. At dawn on Sunday, the helicopters came back and worked until late in the afternoon.

Fortunately it was "only" a grass fire. My personal forensic investigation tells me that it was "kids" shooting off fireworks in the open field behind their houses. Here's where it was in relation to my house:

I'll end this story on a happy note: no houses were burned and we had a gorgeous sunset on Saturday night. These are smoke clouds coloring the sky:

Happy 4th of July, everyone!