sunday night was the supposed peak of the perseids meteor shower.  don’t ask me, because i didn’t see much.  a friend of mine and i walked to the top of makapuu point, away from the lights of honolulu, in order to get a clear view of a show so many expected to be spectacular.  it wasn’t.  i saw two shooting stars over the course of a few hours, as did my friend.  aside from the disappointing shortage of shooting stars, the sky itself was certainly a sight to behold.  away from the city lights, in the pitch darkness of night, we could see literally thousands of stars, not to mention the milky way itself.  it was just so clear and the sky was so beautiful that, by the time we started back down the hill, i barely minded not seeing the show i had been expecting.  i saw one that was just as spectacular.

also, last night the big island was hit with a 5.4 earthquake south of hilo.  yes, i slept through this one too, but in my defense, it was smaller than the one last fall, not to mention further away and a huge mountain was between me and the epicenter.  in itself, i’m not sure that this would be worth mentioning, except that it happened to occur on the same day that hurricane flossie is scheduled to brush over the big island with up to 10 in inches of rain and tropical storm force winds.  nope, not the best week to be visiting the big island of hawaii.

flossie (who comes up with these names?) is on track to barely miss the rest of the islands, but here in honolulu, we do expect heavier than normal winds, rain, and surf as the hurricane (by tomorrow, maybe a category 1?) moves northwest parallel to the island chain.  on the one hand, i’m glad we won’t be hit directly by a this storm for the sake of safety.  still, on the other hand, part of me would really like to see/experience a hurricane (i’m not asking for a category 5, i think a 2 or maybe 3 would be sufficient).

i’ve now lived in places on earth that produce two of the most powerful, destructive, and cool (yes, i said cool) type of storms in the world and i’ve seen nor experienced either.  i’m lucky and annoyed all at the same time!