Andrea and I went to the going away pot luck party for the Paris halau at the Church of the Crossroads on Friday evening, November 1. The
visiting halau had been here for two weeks, involved in a great number of activities.
The sanctuary of the Church of the Crossroads from University Avenue in Mōʻiliʻili.
Another view of the sanctuary. My mom and her husband Mits Aoki were parishioners of Church of the Crossroads and their ashes are stored inside.
View of the sanctuary from the Church of the Crossroads courtyard. Beautiful Hawaiian architecture.
A toast with champagne. From a Kilohana Facebook post.
Eiko examines a rose wine while people get food in the buffet line.
Lots of good food and and conversation.
I showed Lusana my science fiction book on my phone. She bought one on the spot.
We had seating for 32 and every chair was filled.
Andrea and Jo at our table.
Everybody danced.
Kilohana led this hula.
A Maori dance.
We all stood in a circle holding hands and sang "Hawaii Aloha." Then we got on stage for a final group photo. From a Kilohana Facebook post.
Common Grace Vision Dinner
Andrea and I went to the annual Vision Dinner for the mentoring group Common Grace at the Honolulu Country Club in Salt Lake on Saturday night,
November 2.
Saturday morning Andrea cleaned and oiled the large coffee table that Duane and Tina gave us.
When we arrived, we were given a raffle ticket and asked to pose for a photograph.
I also asked a young bystander to take our photo while waiting for the event to begin.
A jazz pianist began to play when the reception formally started.
We were at table 23, a prime number. Attendance was about 300.
Our friend and neighbor Aries gave an inspiring speech about the importance of mentoring of school children.
Kahala Mall
Andrea and I went to Kahala Mall to shop for birthday presents for Malia and Lenora on Sunday morning, November 3.
Andrea photographed our maiapilo blossom on our morning walk.
Shopping at The Refinery.
The mall was quite busy. We also went into Coco Nene and So Ha.
On the way home we drove up to the debris basin to take a look and some photographs.
Metaphotography: Andrea photographing.
Monday morning I photographed my blooming poinciana bonsai-in-training.
Sign Waving for Kamala Harris
Andrea went out the Monday evening before the election to sign wave for Democrats on Kalaniʻanaole Highway at Ainakoa/Waikui. We were joined
by United States Senator Mazie Hirono.
Andrea waves at passing cars.
Getting a selfie with Mazie. I'm at the end. Photo by Andrea.
Security leans against the wall while Mazie and husband wave.
Every smile, wave, and toot back gets a shaka.
There was a great turnout. Photo by Andrea.
Walking back after the time was up (a full hour).
Mazie was interested in Andrea's Kamala shirt spelled with cat outlines.
She graciously offered to pose with Andrea.
Election
Tuesday, November 5: I read three pages today, trying to figure out why a small fraction of people like Ulysses by James Joyce. Now back to
my Azimov's guide to Shakespeare.
Having voted many days ago, we went for a walk before breakfast. Andrea photographed a maiapilo blossom. It was drizzling
so we turned around and went home before getting half way to Hind Iuka. I made coffee, as usual. We both had papaya and
toast as I read the paper and Andrea did the crossword. The Jumble was and easy one today. It was too wet to exercise outdoors.
Bonsai Work
Wednesday, November 6, I worked on my autograph tree forest. I did not take a before shot. I also photographed the juniper that was left over
from the ABCs of Bonsai class that I bought and worked on last week.
I turned the left over juniper (nobody else wanted to buy it) into an informal upright bonsai. Nobefore shot, but it was a stick in a plastic pot.
The autograph tree forest was defoliated and moved from its growing pot into a shallow Japanese forest tray with significant rootage removal.
On Thursday morning I photographed the orchids growing on our macadamia tree.
I downloaded my HiVoted sticker from the government website.
On Friday morning I drove Andrea to Straub Hospital for a routine colonoscopy. Everything fine.
Bonsai Kiawe
Saturday, November 9: I decided on a radical treatment for my kiawe in a growing box. It had grown a long, skinny, serpentine trunk and I wanted
to start fresh utilizing the awesome lower trunk.
This is the before shot. The tree has been growing from seed for many years, several in this box.
I made some major cuts with my large bonsai tool.
I put the tree into a plastic "bonsai" pot. "Bonsai" is in quote marks because a pot is not a bonsai pot unless it is ceramic.
Rainbow Bonsai Club Meeting
Andrea and I went to the monthly meeting of the Rainbow Bonsai Club at the Ahuimanu Homeowners Association clubhouse in Kaneohe.
The clubhouse from the parking lot.
We finalized plans for the show coming up on Decmeber 14, a Saturday, at Koko Head Elementary School. Photo by Andrea.
I came across this from my post on LinkedIn six months ago:
Scientific American has an article about Paul Erdős. Makes me wonder if I have an Erdős (AKA Erdos) number, so I asked Ken Goldberg
for his. He replied:
My Erdős Number = 3. (Source: MathSciNet)
Boris Aronov, Paul Erdoő, et al. Crossing families. Combinatorica v14. no. 2, pp. 127-134. 1994.
Boris Aronov, Mark de Berg, Frank van der Stappen, et al. Motion planning for multiple robots. Discrete Computational Geometry. v22. no. 4,
pp. 505-525. 1999.
R-P. Berretty, Ken Goldberg, Mark Overmars, and Frank van der Stappen. Trap Design for Vibratory Part Feeders. Int'l Jour. of Robotics Research.
v20. no. 11. 2001.
So that makes my Erdős number four because I have co-authored several papers with Ken, and everyone else who has co-authored a paper with me
has an Erdős number of at most five.
Veterans Day
November 11, formerly Armistice Day, fell on a Monday this year. The stock market was open, and the S&P 500 closed above 6,000 for the first time,
in the Biden economy. The bond markets were closed and there was no mail delivery.
Putting out the flag at first light on Veterans Day. Photo by Andrea. My sons Timothy and Rawbert are veterans, too, as were my dad and older
brother John and his son John III, father of Lisa.
The flag at sunrise.
Later I brought together five candidate trees for my demonstration at the Rainbow Bonsai Club show coming up in December. Andrea and I agreed
that the best for the demo would be the fifteen-year-old kiawe from seed by my right knee. Photo by Andrea.
Now that we will have a vaccine denier in the "government," perhaps we should review the global lives saved by vaccines.
Click the image to see the full resolution version. From Scientific American, November 2024. Fair use for educational purposes.
Our macadamia tree had been slowling dying for the last few years and Wednesday morning, November 13,
the larger portion finally fell. No damage done. We will see if Carl or somebody wants firewood. Photo by Andrea.
Al Lagunero at Manoa Heritage Center
Al Lagunero, from Maui, is a grandson of Kaʻahaʻaina and is artist-in-residence at the Manoa Heritage Center. Andrea and I attended a talk
given by him on Thursday evening, the 14th.
After an opening Oli by his friend, Al began to speak about Aloha and how nā kapu were not destroyed, but set aside.
Lisa then formally introduced the artist and teacher. About spirtual teachings, he said it's all aloha.
At the well-attended talk by Manoa Heritage Center artist-in-residence Al Lagunero.
The Cook Island pine Christmas tree is installed at Honolulu Hale, our city hall, on King Street on Friday, November 15. Photo by Andrea.
Mānoa Heritage Center Tour
Andrea and I split a large tour at MHC on Friday afternoon, the 15th.
We formed a circle for a welcome oli and Andrea and I got plumeria lei.
View of the rear of the Cooke house. Photo by Andrea.
Church of the Crossroads Fall Fair
After getting our hair cut in the morning by Janet, Andrea and I attended the fair on Saturday afternoon, the 16th. In the morning I also cut up
the fallen macadamia tree with my electric chainsaw.
Halau members greeted Andrea when we arrived.
All kinds of things for sale. We bought Christmas ornaments, a kitty towel, champagne flutes, lemon marmalade, and a ceramic art object.
Andrea really liked that cloth bag but it was over a hundred dollars.
Roger and I went into the sanctuary to visit our parents' ashes, Watanabe and Aoki. Click the image for the full resolution version.
Before the hula show, posing for photos.
A couple of keiki went up close to watch.
Graceful hula to a beautiful song.
Kumu hula Kilohana danced in this one.
After we got home, and after a nap, Andrea worked on refurbishing our wooden Christmas tree that looks like a radio antenna.
Sunday afternoon, Andrea finsished painting the tree. Gold trim is yet to be done.
Later, Sunday, we had the rapid-growing tree in the front behind the bonsai shelves removed. It was shading the bonsai.
Annual Volunteer Mahalo Lunch
Andrea and I attended the thank you lunch at Mānoa Heritage Center on Monday the 18th.
Monday morning I painted the bonsai benches that were cleared off the evening before for tree removal. Photo by Andrea.
One of my robotics journal papers was read 100 times on Research Gate.
This is the invitation.
We drove separately. There was valet parking. I parked on the street, Andrea got a choice self-park spot on the grass. Margo was there!
Artist Margo Vitarelli trained us both as docents. This is the posed shot.
Margo made this table decoration seven years ago. See the flying pueo?
Kilohana made a special lei with fine ferns and performed a lei giving chant for artist-in-residence Al Lagunero.
Al receiving the lei from Kilohana.
Our neighbor Adele was there. She received an honored docent award for her dedication.
Margo talks with Al on the far side of the room.
Another view with Margo, Al, and Kilohana.
Executive director Lisa thanked and welcomed us.
Then we had a great lunch.
Everybody got a chance to make a woodblock printed tea towel by Margo's direction.
Bonsai Bench Refurbishment
After clearing the bench for removing the tree behind it, I repainted the boards and replaced the bonsai.
Tuesday morning after putting the bonsai back Monday afternoon. Click the image to see the full resolution version.
Photo by Andrea.
Andrea taking the photo above.
Tuesday morning Andrea gold stamped the red-painted tree trunk. Don't tell anyone, but it's really a bipolarized logarithmic-periodic yagi array antenna.
Andrea and I attended, on separate computers, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute's Zoom session of the Writing Circle class, the fourth
on of the semester.
Screen capture of the Zoom session.
Bonsai Work on a Hau Tree
I began bonsai work on a hau tree, about 13 years old, from seed, in a large terra cotta growing pot.
Before. The tree was pruned a month ago and is leafing out again.
After pruning. Next the tree will be put into a bonsai pot.
Mānoa Valley District Park Walkabout
Andrea and I drove separately to Mānoa for the Malama Mānoa walking tour Wednesday morning, the 20th, and afterward she went
to hula while I drove home.
The walking tour focused on the Mānoa stream so we parked on the stream side of the park by the amphitheater.
We waited by the amphitheater in the shade for the rest to arrive for the 9:00 AM guided walkabout.
Some people brought their dogs along.
Glen led the first part of the tour by the stream. Photo by Andrea.
We went makai to where the cleaning work was.
Then we went mauka through the back of the senior residences.
We are where a channel from the Chinese cemetary joins the stream. Photo by Andrea.
Veneeta took over leading and we went through the Mānoa community garden.
At the sitting area in the middle of the garden.
In the garden looking makai. I got a leaf from a Moringa (Moringa oleifera) tree.
We went to Scott's house to look at the stream in his backyard. I got a couple of Java plums (Syzygium cumini) from his tree.
They are very sour, even when fully ripe, but jam can be made from them. Perhaps the seeds will sprout.
Bonsai Work on a Hau Tree
Thursday the 21st, I continued the bonsai work on the hau tree that I began on the 19th. It will leaf out in a couple of months and then
I will post an update.
I pulled the tree out of the terra cotta pot and cut the bottom off the root ball with a bow saw.
I cut the sides of the root ball, too, and used a weeding claw to remove old potting soil.
I let the tree rest for a while soaking in plain water. This is part of my "water method" of repotting.
I cut a high root with my concave cutting tool and reduced the tap root, too.
I placed the tree on a mound of potting soil in a round Japanese bonsai pot.
I worked potting soil around the roots and watered it in.
I covered the potting soil with a layer of wet coral sand. This will keep the organic material in the potting soil from floating away
when the tree is immersed in the next step.
I let the completed bonsai soak in the tub of water while I clean up.
The for-now finished bonsai. Bonsai are always kept and displayed on wood.
Bonsai Hibiscus Maintenance
Friday the 22nd, I pruned and repotted a red hibiscus originally styled by Faye Zasada. This is a demonstration of my water method
of repotting. See my book, Bonsai Hawaiian Style (https://www.amazon.com/Bonsai-Hawaiian-Style-Illustrated-Guide/dp/B0BWP95X4S/)
for additional information.
The bonsai has been doing well in its plastic growing pot. This is the before shot.
Andrea photographed the pair of maiapilo blossoms on our Friday morning walk.
After pruning and removal from the pot. The tree has a nicely developed nebari (rootage).
The roots have been washed and trimmed.
The tree is placed into a cement growing pot that is a little larger than the plastic one it was in. The tree has slight movement
to the left, so it is planted slightly to the right.Potting soil is added and watered in.
A layer of wet coral sand is added on top of the potting soil. This will keep the organic material from washing away during immersion.
The bonsai is immersed in plain water for a few minutes.
The for-now finished bonsai. It will need to be put into a real (Japanese or Chinese) ceramic pot before it can be shown formally.
Later, Friday, in the afternoon, while I still had the blue cloth and dai set up, I photographed the pink trumpet flower tree bonsai.
The leaves are large for the size of the tree, but they will grow back smaller after defoliation, and when it flowers it will be beautiful.
From the Nov. 4, 2024 New Yorker article “The Big Deal,” by Nicholas Lemann. Copyright by the New Yorker. Fair use for educational purposes.
On January 23, 2017, the first full workday of the Trump Administration, Sean McGarvey, the president of North America’s Building Trades Unions—a
muscular, heavily male zone of the labor movement which the Republican Party has been wooing intermittently for decades—stood in front of the White
House, at the head of a platoon of union leaders and members of the construction industry, and made a brief, exuberant public statement: “We just
had probably the most incredible meeting of our careers with the President, and the Vice-President, and the senior staff ... The respect that the
President of the United States showed us—and when he shows it to us he shows it to three million of our members across the United States—was nothing
short of incredible.” Five years later, McGarvey took the podium at a convention of the building-trades unions and offered up half an hour of ardent
love for the Biden Administration. I asked McGarvey what happened. Trump, McGarvey said, “never did anything he said he was going to do. He never did
infrastructure. His National Labor Relations Board was laden with anti-labor ideologues. He never did pensions.
Pretty much you name it. That first meeting was all the things he was going to do. And then we had four years of a knife fight in a phone booth.”
The Biden Administration, by contrast, had “delivered every possible thing we could ever possibly ask for or imagine. There were things they did
for us that we wouldn’t have had the chutzpah to ask for.” Partly because of the Administration’s projects, the building-trades unions have added
fifty thousand new members in the past year—their most significant growth since the fifties.
Carport Trim Repair
The tree pruning last week damaged the trim board on the side of the carport roof, so on Saturday, November 23rd, I began the repair job.
I had to wait for two days without rain so it would be dry enough.
The clouds look painted in on our morning walk before breakfast. Photo by Andrea.
A falling branch made a gouge in the wood trim.
I wrapped two wood blocks with waxed paper so the patching paste won't stick, and then got the C-clamps and putty knife ready.
This is a close-up of the gouge.
I clamped the two wrapped blocks to the wood trim.
I will let the patch harden for at least a day and then remove the clamps and blocks and paint the repair.
While I was doing the trim repair, Andrea was making quiche, one zuchini, and one spinach, for brunch tomorrow at Joyce's house after the five
mile run-walk on the Kai'iwi coast. Andrea has entered and will get up awfully early while I stay home and join them later for brunch.
Andrea spent the rest of the day repairing the decoupage floor in the back bedroom. Parts had come delaminated.
Kaʻiwi Coast Run-Walk
Sunday morning, November 24, Andrea drove Joleen to the Kaʻiwi Coast Run-Walk organized by Hui Nalu o Hawaiʻi. She got up at 4:30 AM while I slept in.
I got up just before six, fed the cats, started coffee, and went for a walk where I photographed clouds.
Andrea, Jo, Juliet, and Jill. Photographer uncertain.
Photo by Juliet.
Selfie by Juliet.
It's perfectly clear over the Koʻolau on my morning walk. We're all meeting at Joyce's house later for brunch.
Red overcast out to sea.
View from the east side of Hind Iuka.
Clear skies beyond my bonsai-watching security camera.
Walking past the gorgeous ocean at Sandy Beach.
At Eternity Beach. Selfie by Joleen.
They had to cross the pedestrian bridge to get back to the Hawaii Kai parking lot. Photo by Andrea.
At the finish line in Hawaii Kai. Photo by Andrea.
We had a lovely brunch at Joyce's house.
Cliff and I talked about going to Mars. He's a retired chemist who once worked at JPL.
Once on this Island
Sunday afternoon Andrea and I went to Mānoa Valley Theater for the musical comedy Once on this Island, set in the French Antilles
a century ago.
We arrived early for the 3:00 PM performance.
We had some pinot noir while waiting.
The theater was set up as a rectangular amphitheater.
The left wall had portraits of the four gods.
Thanksgiving Preparations
Thanksgiving fell on the 28th this year. We started getting ready on Monday, the 25th.
Andrea started making pumpkin pie. Correction: cheese cake.
I put back up our love flag after the tree pruning last week.
I put out the Thanksgiving flag.
Cousin Kim sent us this photo of her reading the book I signed for her at Crystal Cove.
Breakfast at Jack’s
Andrea and I decided to walk down to Jack’s Restaurant in the Aina Haina Shopping Center for breakfast on Tuesday, the 26th.
Walking west on Kalanianaole Highway. That's Diamond Head in the distance.
It's a blue sky day as we enter the shopping center. Jack’s is behind the tree.
Aina Haina Library is behind Andrea. First Hawaiian Bank is on the right.
The Citizen's Patrol is meeting way down at the end in the yellow shirts. We skipped that walk today.
Cutting up my link sausages. Photo by Andrea.
Andrea had kin chee rice with egg and Portugese sausage.
Stocking up at Foodland.
When we got home I painted the repair job on the carport trim. Posed photo with the brush in my left hand. Photo by Andrea.
More realistic posed photo by Andrea.
Sunset Seminar at the Kahala Hotel
Andrea and I attended the seminar on “He Noho Papa; Better Understanding Coral’s Early Life Stages and Their Symbiotic Algae"
by Kamalani Oshiro, Research Technician at The Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology: Coral Resilience lab, on Tuesday evening.
When we arrived at the hotel personnel were decorating the big Christmas tree in the lobby.
The orchid staircase had winter festival decorations. Photo by Andrea.
We had the Hawaiian style nachos. Photo by Andrea.
The projection equipment setup.
On the way out Andrea photographed the decorating progress.
Hawaiian Moon Phases by Sam Gon. Downloaded Wednesday morning from Facebook.
Thanksgiving
Preparations continued on Wednesday.
Andrea doing mysterious things to the turkey. Devilish glee is evident.
Neighborly coworkers arrived and stayed for a short time.
Watching the cheesecake cook.
On Thanksgiving Day, after our morning walk and breakfast, Andrea took a longer walk by herself and got this great photo.
Andrea finished the back bedroom floor and put back the furniture. Looks great!
The turkey is done roasting and is resting.
Dinner is ready!
Pouring the French champagne.
Cheers!
Eating under the lychee tree. Spectacular greenbeans.
Friday morning I put out the Merry Christmas snowflake flag. Advent begins on Sunday.
While Andrea went to docent at Mission Houses on Friday, I completed the base and mounted the antler that Kendrick gave to us.
Friday evening after dinner I tried out the lighted lei, one of two Andrea got for us.
Merry Christmas!
Saturday the 30th I rebuilt the back bonsai table using boards salvaged from the kitchen remodel a year ago. Photo by Andrea.
Andrea has been decorating for Christmas all day. We tested the icicle lights with our two cats. Merry Christmas!
Email Richard dot J dot Wagner at gmail dot com