Thanks!! 
That DOES make me feel a little better…
0826 HST in mid-Oahu (Mililani); quiet with drizzle. Latest weather shows Lane just about stalled (2mph north). Going to drag things out. Big island getting socked with heavy rain though. Flooding and landslides.
We have 4 post-college kids staying with us who MAY fly out today??? If flights canceled, we gonna need more food - the three dudes and one dudette can eat. Also we’re going through three bottles of wine a day:eek: (have to conserve water:D).
Looks like another Costo run is in order.
Island folks - where ever you are - stay safe.
Damn, we just walked around our property and saw a retaining wall next to our culvert collapsed - no doubt pricy to fix. Ugh. Oh well.
smithsb, we are also making serious inroads into our wine stock. Gonna have to switch to whiskey and gin soon.
Sorry to hear about the retaining wall. IMNSHO gin is the superior beverage. You are choosing wisely. 
He can hunker down on the battleship Missouri if nothing else.
Side note: Off in an obscure corner of Pearl Harbor, difficult to see, is some sort of Japanese liaison office. Navy possibly. But they do fly a Japanese flag outside. A little odd to see at Pearl Harbor of all places.
Meanwhile, the wife and I awoke this morning to a whole lot of nuttin’. A little windy, overcast, air feels a bit heavy, but that’s all. Seems Lane is poking along at 5mph. At least it’s been downgraded to a Category 2, and we’re no longer entertaining the possibility of having to remove ourselves to an evacuation shelter. But it’s a-comin’, slowly but surely, and we will get a drenching sometime today.
EDIT: Make that poking along at 2mph. Looks like the Big Island has had 30 inches of rain.
Okay, here’s how Friday went so far. First it got overcast. There was so much wind that it blew a few twigs off the trees and tipped over our garbage can. Then there were little drizzles. Then the drizzles stopped. Then the drizzles started again. Then the drizzles stopped again. The wind lowered to a pleasant breeze. Then a strong breeze. Then a pleasant breeze again. The sun came out for just a tiny bit before it became completely overcast again.
Right now the wind is somewhere between pleasant and strong. And the rain stopped briefly before ramping up another rinky-dink drizzle.
And now I turned on the TV, and after the customary obnoxious overloud screech, it’s now a “tropical storm warning”.
Geez. The news yesterday said “wins of 140mph” and “this is gonna be a big one”, and this whole week could charitably be described as “not good picnic weather”. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fantastic that there isn’t widespread destruction. But drowning is the #1 risk of a hurricane, and this “big one”…which shut down the State government for two days, I remind you…can’t even produce one decent shower? Seriously, I haven’t had to open the umbrella even once.
Dammit, I’m tired of turning on the electric water heater for chickenscratch like this! 
That would take one heckuva storm.
All the webcams I’ve seen show the volcano shrouded in what looks like fog, but is more likely steam.
Hurricanes weaken when they go over land, and weaken further when they go over mountains. I knew about the Big Island having the two 14,000 foot peaks, but I didn’t know that Maui has a 10,000-footer.
Throughout this afternoon, Lane was downgraded to a Category 1 and then finally to a tropical storm. It’s not even a hurricane anymore. And still poking along. May not even hit Oahu now. Tomorrow they’ll start shutting the evacuation shelters and resuming bus service.
The Big Island took the brunt of this one, some areas up to 36 inches of rain in 48 hours. Maui took a hit too.
The hurricane didn’t make landfall on the Big Island, just passed close by. On Maui, that 10,000-footer is Haleakala, 10,023 feet to be exact. People are often surprised how mountainous Hawaii is.
Looks like the lava petered out a little while ago anyway.
Just wanted to say Thank You, everyone - I was freaking and you all helped tremendously with your updates, support, and cookies. 
Hopefully tonight I will finally get a decent night’s sleep. My 6’ 4" little one should be fine. Never thought I’d say GOOD to a tropical storm! Hurricanes (to me, at least) are as scary as tornadoes - and those I DO have experience with, hence my freak out.
And in a cruel twist; while east Maui is getting heavy rains, parts of west Maui are having large grass/brush fires because of dryness. That area is in a rain shadow of the west Maui peaks.
Today’s newspaper headline: “Lane, Lane Gone Away”. This is something an actual person got paid actual money to write. :rolleyes: It was still in tropical storm status today, but the worst, such as it is, is over, and we’re dealing with the lingering aftereffects. By which I mean the wind dying down, so we get to feel the full brunt of the approximately 150% humidity.
Went to Ala Moana today (I had to get out of the house…I’m in bad enough shape as it is, and an exercycle and dumbbells can only do so much). It was a kinda weird, uncertain feeling. There was a big white haze over the sky was still there, and there were still pardon-the-inconvenience signs on a few fronts. There were people walking around, looking, waiting, as if they knew there was a reason they went there but couldn’t remember what. It was almost as if things were supposed to be really bad today, even though there was no chance o fit. I arrived a bit after 10:00 in hopes of getting some Pump It Up time at Lucky Strike Social Club, only to be informed that they were pushing opening time to noon. Most other places did as well or stayed closed. That’s the thing about weather events…even when they don’t do much property damage, we still feel them. (Did I mention that I was sweating like a marathon runner in Texas and smelling absolutely vile by roughly 10:15?)
There were a few places that either had nearly two feet of sandbags in front of the door or had boards covering the windows. That struck me as…well, really excessive. I have to imagine it must’ve inconvenienced more than a few workers, since shopping malls don’t exactly have warehouses full of disaster prevention on hand. I almost want to go up to the owners of these establishments and say, “Listen, you living embodiment of everything that’s wrong with American capitalism…no one forced you to set up shop right next to a completely paved-over walkway with only a few haphazardly scattered dinky little drainage channels under open air. If you are so damn worried about water damage that you need to break out sandbags every time precipitation exceeds what would fill a modest swimming pool, there’s plenty of room in Kapolei.”
Bah. Stupid hurricanes. Give me a good, honest thunderstorm any day.
Well we have a few cases of bottled water, extra beer/wine, a full grill propane tank, and some extra batteries. Might come in handy as the next tropical system is reving up to the east. Sister is still in rant mode over in Hilo about earthquakes, vog, and now tush-high rain. Damn rain/showers expected to hang in for a few days (150% humidity - so right). Could have been much worse in Oahu. Big island and Maui bore the brunt of the flooding and landslides.
Our local paper says there is a new tropical storm, Miriam, brewing. Expected to become a hurricane. Too early to say what will happen with it. 
And there’s one behind it too, isn’t there? Or am I getting ahead of myself?
Nope, they are lining up.
Surely one will be a winner.
It’s possible Hurricane Olivia (now Category 4) will hit next Tuesday or Wednesday:
https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/Olivia-Still-Heading-Toward-Hawaii
Dear Olivia,
Yo, bitch! Come on, let’s see what ya got!
Sister in Hilo is already/still freaked out. Claims they will move to Las Vegas if this crap (earthquakes/lava/vog/50" rain) doesn’t stop soon.
Two reason Hawaiians go to Las Vegas all the time:
- Gambling.
- Get the mold out of their clothes.
Going to just be a tropical storm with a gazillion inches of rain - path uncertain but between big island and Maui for now.
Crap. I have a work trip to Maui scheduled this week. Somehow, I don’t think having a tropical storm going on will be conducive to getting any field work done.