....A Tale of a Fat-Full Trip...

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale
A tale of a fat-filled trip...
That started at a tropic port
In search of a chocolate chip

The Professor & Mary Ann were the only ones on board
As they went in search of treasure inside a cacao gourd
The tastings were long and hard, at the end they were quite spent
The result of ten flights of cacao averaging 70+ percent

Endorphins started to kick in as they began to feel quite mellow
Hugs were eagerly exchanged between more than one gal and fellow
The quest was rewarded at the end of a three-hour tour
As the chocolate overload provided anti-oxidents for a 2 week cure

Once they finished the adventure of the cacao
It was time to press on for a full-body luau
Thrilled by Hawaiian,Tahatian and Maori dance
They ate plenty and left nothing to chance
As they sampled the offerings of pig,fish,and cow


Got a chance to start our day with a chocolate tour in the highlands of Kapaa. With the decline of pineapple and sugar agriculture on the island, business leaders are exploring the potential of niche crops with value added potential and cacao is one such crop. The growing climate of Kauai is well suited to cacao and vanilla, so we got to see efforts at an experimental farm in the hills of the east side about Kapaa. We joined about 2 dozen our intrid souls as we sampled various tropical fruits and honey and then learned of the process of converting raw cacao into familar chocolate servings. Thanks to Ted's expertise and chocolate tastings we've done back in Hillsdale, much of this was familar, but we some some interesting new techniques and equipment, icluding a chocolate grist mill that will grinf cocoa nibs down to a smooth paste after 24 hours of processing. We tasted 10 differnt types of dark chocolate ( containing no milk solids) with cacao concentrations of 60% -78% and rated them. Our tour guide was knowledgable and entertaining so it was definitely time well spent.

We made a Lihue Costco run and availed ourselves of the $3 Costco gourment lunch for 2 and picked up some staples for the week ahead. We got back to the condo by 2:40 and had about 90 minutes before we needed to head out for our Smith Luau. Played some cards and then all five of us headed back east to the Wailua River, the site of Smith's Fern Grotto boat trips and the Tropical Paradise, where the luau and stage show occur 3 times a week. We toured the grounds, saw the unveiling of the Kalua pig and sat done to a boutiful luau. Teriyaki Beeef, Kalua pork, sweet & sour Mahi-Mahi, chicken, and great coconut custard and coconut cake more than satisifed me. We had center seating for the hour long stage show highlighted a variety of ethic dance styles in the Islands, including an enthusiastic fire juggler. Had a perfect evening to enjoy the experience and we all returned home pleased by 10:00 PM. Tomorrow may be a trek to Waimea Canyon..

I'm having difficulty consistently and conveniently posting pictures on the blog, so we'll be mostly text until I figure this out. I have a good backlog of interesting photos to support my documentation...

Happy Birthday to Rick Seifert and Leah Rutz, two bright stars for their respective generations that, among other things, have nutured the success of the Hillsdale Farmers Market! Thanks for being- right here - right now... MTP

It's Always Sunny in Poipu-delphia

Time on the Island moves at a different pace.
The rats here are turtles and there is no race
Everything is magical, filled with surprises
Your only guarantee is that the sun always rises
And provides a fresh day to fully embrace

Schedules fade as an Island rhythm emerges
A laid-back attitude replaces those old needs and urges
Whether by food, music, or soft ocean breezes
fading sunlight or a floral aroma that pleases
Allow ebb & flow like a wave as it surges

I suppose I don't need to give a long list,
as you probably already get the gist
We're having a good time
Even if it doesn't always rhyme
Though certain details are missed.


Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday were filled with those things that we enjoy so much about Hawaii, but probably seem less inspiring from a distance. We've had great sunrises and sunsets, the whale actions has been frequent, and we continue to marvel at the front row seat we have from our lanai. The weather has been about the best I can remember although we are transitioning from perfect to delightful to merely pleasant by weeks end.

Merlin and Mary were able to make it to Lihue to church on Sunday and stock up at the "general store" (Wal-Mart) before returning to lunch, some card playing, and the requisite nap option. Since we had raced around Waimea on Saturday, we figured we'd stay close to home on Sunday.

I was in charge of breakfast on Monday, so we had pancakes and sausage and then made sure we were in position for the Koloa Sunshine Market at noon. This is a cross between a typical Summer Hillsdale Farmers Market and a 5:30 AM post-Thanksgiving "Black Friday" sale with eager buyers awaiting the signal to shop. We rode the surf of shoppers and emerged 15 minutes later with our prizes of papayas, apple bananas, radishes, green beans, avocados, and other tropical bounty. Our Monday night enertainement was E Kanikapila Kakou, the free Feb-Apr music show which means "Let's Strike up the Music", and showcases Hawaiian musical talent. It's these shows in the past that we've seen everyone fro 17 year old to 100 year old ukulele whizzes and learned much about Hawaiian cultural traditions in song and dance. Hula and music from Maui was presented Monday night and was located at a new venue which took away a lot of the intimacy from the old location but made the performace accesible to more people. We didn't get home until after 10:30, so we decided to defer our plans to head up to Waimea Canyon until Thursday and let everyone sleep in.

Tuesday was quiet as we only went out at lunch to get takeout and eat down at Brennakes Beach before3 coming back to enjoy cards and reading. Merlin prepared some of the halibut he caught in Alaska this summer, so the whales weren't the only things that migrated from Alaska to Hawaii for our enjoyment. Played a variety of card games before everyone retired. Dianna & I get to go on a 3 hour tour of a Cacao Farm tomorrow and then we're all attending a Smith Luau in the late afternoon, so we'll have a full enjoyable day. Aloha until tomorrow...

"AS SEEN ON TV"

A mind like mine is a terrible thing to waste
Under the guise of keeping decorum and good taste
But by arousing my muse
I’ll fabricate some news
And endeavor to do so with much haste

This time of year there is little vacillation
As for a fortnight we abandon our vocation
The call of Hawaii does beckon
Its impact is something we reckon
Will lead to a restful vacation

Day One of S.P.A.M. 2010
Always provides things on which we depend
Sunrise, breezes, palms and a whale slap
Laughter, good food, and sunset are fodder for my rap
But will it show up in the words I have penned?...

As I was saying when I last wrote 248 days ago… thank goodness for a metaphysical GPS - the inner nudging that gets you where you need to go despite your best conscious efforts to go in a different direction. Through fits and starts and ups and downs, we have managed to make our way back to Kauai, about 50 yards east of where we started last year for another round of the S.P.A.M. Chronicles. For those who may have slept in the last year, this will be a sporadic recap of our Hawaiian adventures in the areas of Sights, Play, Activities, and Music in a mnemonic tip of the hat to Hawaii’s favorite meat by-product. Pictures and descriptions to follow…

Today’s theme is “As Seen on TV” and In a scene out of National Lampoon’s Vacation , we held our breath and crammed our luggage in the Caddy as we headed out with a new participant to our tropical party, Eula Belle Burks, Dianna’s great-aunt on her dad’s side of the family. We had the good fortune of having her and her son Barry come up from Visalia, CA join us for Thanksgiving in Portland, so we invited her to join us in February. We boarded our plane without incident but then found ourselves somewhere between “Airport 77” and “Airplane” when Eula & Mary had the misfortune of being trapped in the lavatory during a particularly violent and unexpected period of turbulence. Eula wedged herself in and hung on vowing not to get bucked off the toilet as she once was off a horse… The hopper to Lihue was much calmer and we were able to get a car with even bigger trunk and be on our way..

First priority was food, so Hamura’s Saimen Shop filled the bill and our stomachs and we arrived at our new digs just after sunset. We were staying in a different unit which we also got from VRBO.com and in a small world coincidence it was owned by an Aptos acquaintance of my college friends Carolyn & Rich. She ended up selling thee unit in December, but we still felt there was a nice connection. Once we walked in and saw the view from our lanai we knew we were in the right place as we overlook the point where we would hike out each morning of our stay over the last few years to view sunrise. Now we can sit on our deck and watch whales cavorting. Our attention span is now similar to the dogs’ “Squirrel” moments in the Pixar movie “UP”

Our big event for Saturday was the Waimea Town celebration which had ideal weather this year. Merlin has retired from the ukulele competition but we still in our element in the ice cream eating contest. The organizers of the event all recognized and welcomed Merlin back which reminded us again of the benefit of the warmth of communities like Hillsdale & Waimea. We returned home after sampling some of the local wares at the fund raising booths and found an electrician working on a sticky problem regarding lack of power in one of the upstairs bedrooms. When we mentioned we had just come from Waimea, he said he recognized Merlin from the TV as the local channel had been replaying last years Ukulele Contest. When we talked about the Monday night performers we had enjoyed over the years, he said his grandmother had played with Bill Tapia (who is now 102) at the Royal Hawaiian. We had a good chat and a successful outcome as electricity was flowing by dinnertime.

We raced down t o a glorious sunset and then had fish & chicken burritos with the leftovers from lunch. We watched “UP” and everyone retired after a busy day while I swept the cobwebs from my blog and posted one man’s view of Paradise circa Feb 2010…

Degrees of Freedom

On this I think we can all agree
The secret isn’t found in a degree
Embracing challenges each day brings
Provides us with many interesting things
It’s Living while Learning that sets us free

We had an enjoyable weekend motoring south to Corvallis to celebrate Cody’s graduation from OSU on Saturday. We met everyone at The Original Breakfast in Albany at 7:00 AM and beat the graduation rush before consuming a weekend’s worth of calories. We all parked at Cody & Amy’s place and strolled over to Reser Stadium for the ceremony. It had rained on us on the way down and lightly misted for a half hour as we were settling in to our seats, but the weather improved as the morning went on and we were unlayering by the end. The graduation speakers covered the usual turf successfully and succinctly: the student body president open with the Helen Keller quote ”When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us”; the Alumni Association president reminded everyone of the network available as alums, which set the tone for the keynote speaker, Jen-Hsun Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. He offered 3 wishes for the class of 2009 – Love your work, Embrace failure (don’t play safe), and Think like a Child, which echoes Einstein’s quote that “We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

I ‘m proud of Cody’s accomplishments and was glad to be in attendance with family for the celebration. I know he and Amy are entering an amazing phase of life with plenty of possibilities, and I look forward to watching things unfold.

It’s the 34th anniversary of my Stanford graduation and I was reflecting on the differences and similarities of graduations 3 ½ decades apart. Like now, the country was dealing with an ill-advised military entanglement and had just seen an out-of–favor President leave office. The Dow Jones was languishing in a bear market at 858 and inflation was 9.2% Oil had just recently rocketed to $13/ barrel resulting in gas of more than 50 cents/gallon. A stamps was 10 cents, but leaped to 12 cents on New Years Eve 1975. Minimum wage was $2.10/hr and I was soon to start a job @ $1200/month and my rent was $165 for an apartment overlooking Washington Square. Tiger Woods and Angelina Jolie were born during the year and the big inventions were the digital camera, laser printer, and the dueling formats of Betamax & VHS for video recording. This was a time of typewriters, turntables and 8 track tapes. Jobs and Wozniak were stil two years away from introducing the Apple II – the hot technology was calculators from HP and Texas Instruments. My senior project with Vince was working with the first programmable calculator the HP-65 which cost $795 (the average new car cost $4500) so when HP introduced a $150 unit, much of my early paycheck went toward that.

I graduated on a Sunday June 15th, drove to Medford on a Monday, woke up to a phone call inviting me to interview with FMC in Portland on Thursday ( where I was headed to a Gordon Lightfoot concert), and found myself starting my job on Monday June 23rd. I then get a call enticing me to come to Reno to work for Bill Harrah & Bill Lear (of Lear-Jet fame) as a workforce planner for the Casino for 50% more pay. I thought it would be bad form to quit after 3 days and I never could imagine myself as a “casino” guy. This just points out that I had no clue as to the opportunities that would show up once I headed out into the real world, and still don’t have firm control of the steering wheel of life – thank goodness for metaphysical GPS….

C'mon Get Happy!

It’s not caused by McCain or Obama
Nor passed down from Papa & Mama
Connection and fun after a fashion
And a purpose that stirs passion
Yields true happiness, says the Dalai Lama


Our current book reading is based on David Wann’s “Simple Prosperity: Finding Real Wealth in A Sustainable Lifestyle” (http://www.davewann.com/ ) Taking a page (leaf?) from the Slow Food movement, we’re using the Slow Read method, reading a few chapters per month of this book and bringing in related articles to discuss. Our first session, with required potluck, introduced to the book and posed the questions, What is true wealth, and What is Happiness, and why do people crave it? We had the opportunity to see the Dalai Lama when he came to Portland a few years ago, and his message was that the one thing all people want is to be “happy”. They just disagree in how to accomplish that.

Psychologist Martin Seligman, author of “Authentic Happiness” postulates that happiness contains elements of pleasure, engagement or connection with others, and meaning, such as altruistic or service related activities. Modern consumptive societal patterns tend to wade in the shallow end of this pool, trying to find happiness in “stuff” while deeper and more resonant results come from connecting with others and using your unique gifts and talents to benefit more than just you.

This topic came up in another context when I heard about the 72 year longitudinal study of Harvard students which was seeking to find the secret to what makes a “good life” 268 Harvard underclassmen, including many powerful people such as Ben Bradlee of the Washington Post, and JFK were interviewed, measured, and recorded throughout their lives and a review of the archives is fascinating. George Vaillant was the long time director, and his personal story shows the challenges of trying to find a simple answer to the question of what can we do to be happy. In the end though, it shows a mechanistic view of happiness or life in general can't explain the mystery (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200906/happiness )

I reflected on these things after a number of relevant events in the last week. Dianna & I spent a thoroughly enjoyable Memorial Day weekend at Oceanside with Ted & Meg & Rick. We had great food; great weather, and great company. Rick & I even assisted Ted in some productive work. (You can see our "Pathway to Happiness" in the photo above)

I also got to see Sean and his band before they headed off on their 5 week 20 performance tour of the country and was reminded once again how pursuing your passion is priceless. Also, last night, I co-taught the last class of The Center for Earth Leadership's “How to Be an Agent of Change In Your Circle of Influence”, and was inspired by the creativity and enthusiasm of the participants. We went to see "Star Trek" tonight and the same message of fun, connection with others, and a higher purpose played out with great special effects and a clever nod to the memories of those of us who grew up inspired with Star Trek ideals....

I think among all the events, I had plenty of evidence to validate Seligman’s hypothesis.

In coming weeks, I’ll share more on any insights that come from our readings or any other randow nudges I get.

STP #29

As May 20th ended, I was quite STumPed
Until to a logical conclusion I jumped
A poetic tribute would not be hard to STooP
As long as I highlighted Reeble Jar, his musical group
I knew it would be hard to know when to SToP
But I had to mention his Glass-blowing shop

It’s rare for him to encounter a hill that’s too STeeP
Though one once caused the demise of his first early Jeep
He’s always been one to take the next STeP
Since he’s a happenin’ guy who’s always quite hep
Who continues to leave his unique STamP
On the Eugene city that’s quite damp

So, in closing, it is with much glee
As the last year approaches of his decade three
That with the coming dawn
We celebrate all that is Sean
On the occasion of the 29th birthday of STP

Writing a blog entry as a tribute to Sean is like describing a symphony in 4 notes... it can be done but it leaves out a lot of highlights and nuance... (Try G-G-G-Eflat....)

At 6:30 PM on Wednesday, May 21st 1980, Sean Thomas Ponder arrived in Portland Oregon during the aftermath of the Mt. St. Helen's eruption and just missed by 6 hours being born on the least likely birthday among the current population. (Oct 5th is the most common...) This would be a harbinger of Sean's style of being unique. Music has been a part of Sean's life since early on and most people are aware of his current performance with his band http://www.myspace.com/reeblejar but few people know Sean is one of only a handful of people to play the Theremin under the tutealge of Leon Theremin in 1991 at Stanford (who also gave Einstien lessons, but said he wasn't very musical) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on_Theremin and to call up and talk to Bob Moog directly when 11 year old Sean decided to build a Theremin for his science project.

Sean's integration of music and glass-blowing also has followed an unusual path. He moved to Eugene and attended Lane CC and apprenticed as a glass blower and then when his bosses decided to close up shop, they handed him their customer list and Sean became a small business owner in his early 20's servicing accounts nationwide. It's an amazing balancing act, keeping the band going while working to pay the bills, so this summer's road trip with the band should be a great adventure after a lot of hard work. Reeble Jar will play in Portland at Goodfoot on May 30th and then leave June 2 for a month long tour of at least 11 states...

As the first person to meet Sean, I've always been honored by the privilege and am proud of who he is and the impact he's had so far. His grandfather was one of his biggest fans and vicariously shared in many of Seans adventures. I look forward to continuing to cheer for him - as long as I can stay up late enough...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SEAN!

It's Later Than You Think (2:30)

This aging thing has never seemed nice
As no injuries for me would more than suffice
But I’m facing the truth
That I sprained my tooth
So I must elevate my mouth and fill with ice.


LEONATO…

Brother, men can counsel and speak comfort to that grief

Which they themselves not feel; but, tasting it,

Their counsel turns to passion, which before

Would give preceptial medicine to rage,

Fetter strong madness in a silken thread,

Charm ache with air and agony with words:

No, no; 'tis all men's office to speak patience

To those that wring under the load of sorrow,

But no man's virtue nor sufficiency

To be so moral when he shall endure

The like himself. Therefore give me no counsel:

My griefs cry louder than advertisement.

ANTONIO...

Therein do men from children nothing differ.

LEONATO...

I pray thee, peace. I will be flesh and blood;

For there was never yet philosopher

That could endure the toothache patiently,

However they have writ the style of gods

And made a push at chance and sufferance.

Much Ado About Nothing, 5.1, 21-39 Thanks to VagabondScholar


I understand the sequence of decline from muscle to muscle memory to memory but the aches and pains of aging still irritate. After lucking out with years of injury free athletic activity back in the 20th century except for a few rolled ankles and an unfortunate intersection of softball and eyeball, I thought the likelihood of injuries would diminish as I aged. I was embarrassed by pulling a hamstring for the first time when I was bowling with Rick 10 years ago, but I think I topped that recently. Last week I was enjoying some popcorn, bit down funny and hurt my tooth. It bothered me for a day and a half so Monday I made an appointment with our long time dentist.

Dianna and I both grew up with unfluoridated well water so we both carry amalgam accumulations that are reaching end of life, so I assumed I broke a filling. After poking, prodding & extra X-rays, Dr. Jarvis deduced I had injured a ligament holding a molar in place – effectively “spraining” it. He said it should recover in a couple of weeks and approved noshing, but no gnashing…

Thought the Shakespeare quote would add some class to the site…

On a more interesting note, I ran across a intriguing site at our monthly “Engineers for a Sustainable Future” meeting. We had representatives from newly named Neighborhood Natural Energy (nee Northwest Neighborhood Energy) http://www.n2e.org/ , scaled district energy provider. Their ideas have interesting potential but they are affiliated with a social entrepreneur networking site for seed funding sustainable projects called The Change Exchange ( http://www.thechangexchange.org/ ) This site opens the door to a number of interesting projects and I look forward to following progress and reporting on ideas in future blog entries…