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Sweeney in Hawaii 2006
October 10, 17, 2006
This started out as a chronicle of an extraordinary evening at
the Sweeney's Hawaii Estate. It was a heckuva night, to be sure, but events
later in the week threw a curve into this page. The wrinkle in the fabric was an
earthquake. Here we were, writing a page about a night of good food, sights and
sounds, and a few bugs, then a few miles from Kim and Olga's house, the earth
gave way in 25,000 feet of water and screwed up everyone's weekend.
Lets start with the good night anyway...
(As usual, click on the little
picture to see the big picture.)
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Sweeney Estate
I spoke with Kim after the earthquake and he told me
that a lot of the scenery in these photos no longer exists. The photo of Kim
and Olga under the tree is the last memory of that space.
(I think that he said the spot that Diana and I were standing on is also
swimming with the fishes.) |
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Dinner
Remember, this was PE (pre earthquake). Kim can do wondrous things with a
bar-b-que. (With all the damage from the quake, he may be
cooking outside for a while.) We had beef rib tips and fish,
kimchee and, no perhaps about it, the best lime pie we've ever, ever had.
And, that includes key lime in Florida, Diana's previous home. |
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The Black Eye
Only a couple of weeks before, Olga fell over a
concrete traffic barrier and smashed her cheek. Luckily, no plastic surgery
was necessary and she is making good progress. Kim showed us the pictures of
the damage and it was pretty severe. |
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Music and Guitars
Kim is multifaceted. He plays guitar and ukulele and
he does it lefty. Of course, unlike most left handed guitarists, he plays a
regularly strung guitar, not a left handed stringing. This means that he can
pick up a stock Strat and boogie till the cows come home. He plays a bass
uke that has strings the thickness of bungee cord. And, he has a classic
50's Fender Lap Steel that he plays with a dobro slide. |
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Marionettes and Telescopes |
Kim is giving us a tour of the Keck Admin building. |
Kim's nerve center. |
The tv conference call with the mountain. |
The Big Island from somewhere in space. You can see Kim's house at the upper
left. |
Where the astronomers sit and watch the heavens at night. |
Kim built this marionette from scratch. It is modeled on a European classic
and does almost everything that we do, but comes with strings attached.
(Oh, wait... so do we most of the time.)
I sure hope that this little guy survived the earthquake. It was a shaker,
and really shook everything up. |
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