A black cat dropped into my life over a year ago, and he's had such an impact on my life I haven't gotten around to blogging about him yet.

I first met him hanging around the parking lot of the community college where I work in January 2008. My campus is bucolic - perfect for a cat, as there are many hidey holes, lots of vegetation, flat and hilly terrain, and plenty of critters to play with and prey on.

But This Cat really liked people. I would come up the steps of the library, walk to my car, and The Cat would run over and greet me as if I was a very familiar friend - his question mark tail, hanging lazily in the air.

Not to say that he didn't make friends with my colleagues (many of whom are catfolks too).

They even named him - "Dewey" - after Melvyl Dewey, the inventor of the Dewey Decimal System, a library classification scheme. Dewey is a boy. Had he been a girl, it's very likely he would have picked up the name Elsie ("LC") for Library of Congress Classification system - that's the one most academic libraries use and the one my library uses. I know, saddling a mysterious cat with a reference to a classification system of knowledge...well, I'm sure there are cats out there with names more sublime and ridiculous...

But Dewey's story was a mystery. My campus has two feral cat colonies, and he looked like he didn't below to either. Though he was a bit thin, his coat was ok, and he was just too friendly to be a Feral Kampus Kitty. Over several weeks, he would show up just before sunset, and we'd hang out in the parking lot behind the library. I started bringing him snacks, and I opened up my car to him. Before long, he was hanging out in my car as we both listened to the BBC news on NPR. It was dinnertime in Hawaii, and Dewey and I were hearing about tomorrow already.

I was getting home later and later, and F was curious to know what was up. F loves cats too, and we talked about having one come and live with us (because you know that no home is really complete without a cat, or dog, or bird - that's the way I grew up) but the biggest problem: What to do when we travel? If you get hung up on questions like these, you'll probably never get what you want.

Dewey and I met during in winter. Winter in Hawaii is absolutely glorious in that it is windy, and rainy, and cool. I felt bad leaving Dewey at night, but my campus has plenty of buildings on pillar and post where he could find shelter, and the temperature never dropped below 60. I made sure he had a tummy full of food before I left.

One very windy night I worked until about 8PM - a little later than the time Dewey and I would meet. I climbed the stairs from the library entrance and walked to my car. I heard a strange, disembodied meow coming from....where?

I walked back and forth around the parking lot, and the meowing got stronger and then more faint...for 5 minutes I walked around, and around, and around, only to discover that Dewey...

was in the parking lot storm drain!

I fished out a flashlight from my car, beamed the light through the grate, and saw a very unhappy cat staring up at me.

We have a crackerjack security team at KCC. I called Wayne, who came over with a large crowbar. We lifted the grate up, and I climbed down to get a very relieved Dewey. Dewey was so anxious to get out of there that he helped himself out using the climbing rungs!

Of course, this made it more imperative that I make a decision about bringing him home with me. There were a few other pieces to the puzzle that needed solving.

Dewey and I hung out from Monday to Friday - I went to find him on Saturday, but he wasn't around. Sunday--same thing. F actually began to put the pieces together - he suspected that he was somebody's cat who came to KCC during the week when people were around. Ok. made sense.  KCC is surrounded by the neighborhoods of Kaimuki and Kahala

But whose cat was he? Time to find out.

My boss loaned me her cat carrier, and I took Dewey in to see if he was chipped - he was, and the veterinarian would call the owner and tell him/her about me.

An hour later, I got a call from a woman named Heather. I told her that I had really fallen for Dewey.

I popped the question whether I could take Dewey home, and to my joy she said yes! Dewey was one of six who was hand-fed as a baby (his mother was killed by the next door neighbor), so he's extraordinarily bonded with people.

It seems that Dewey has a half-brother at her house - right across the street from KCC - that didn't like him. Dewey was exiled to roam outside because of this, but would return to his home for food. Heather was grateful that he was going to a good home, and, if for some reason it didn't work out at home, I could bring him back. I couldn't believe my good luck that day!

I have much more to say about this cat, and will add more information later...

pics to come!

Dewey loves to be vacuumed (!), and loves boxes:

I took advantage of a cheap airfare and took a couple of days off to hang out in the Bay Area.

As luck would have it, my airfare coincided with Mayday, or Beltane as it's called in some circles.

The Wheel of the Year has two opposites: Beltane, the beginning of summer, and Samhain, or All Hallow's Eve, the beginning of winter.

Beltane/Mayday is a day filled with eager greetings to warm weather, flowering trees, and young love.

The Berkeley Morris dance up the sun every May 1 at Inspiration Point in Tilden Park. This year, I got to attend - and it's been a long time since I've enjoyed the Berkeley Morris.

Pictures to come soon.

I was the official photographer for this year's Swamp Romp at Kane'ohe Marine Base here on O'ahu.  There were 3 teams of "Swamp Pigs" this year.

A nice turnout of Honolulu's concerned citizens for marriage equality this morning:

More silliness - claims from both Hawaii and Chicago that Obama is "ours."

Well, now that he won the Presidency, he belongs to the nation and the world.

Still, I suspect there are very few Illinois residents that are good at this:


Sandy's Beach where he surfed is NOTORIOUS  for more broken bones and neck injuries than any other beach in Hawaii. You have to know what you're doing to surf here well.

And you can't learn it in a weekend's visit. Meaning simply to acquire the form he has in the above picture takes lots of practice.

Yes, the President surfs! Not on one of those fiberglass boards neither.

He surfs the old-fashioned way, just like the Hawaiians did and still do.

With the body alone.

Go Obama!

What a campaign so far, eh?

I'm very impressed with Barack Obama - but it was this rally that really brought it home for me:

   more »

He LIKES it...he really LIKES it!

Barack Obama came home two weeks ago for some rest and relaxation before the you-know-what.

My KCC colleague and teacher Jan Fried was there to interpret for him:








Maybe that will be me interpreting for him someday!

I had a very exciting moment in my American Sign Language 202 class two weeks ago.

As most of you know, ASL's word order is very different from English. Some deaf people are educated in environments where sign language is signed according to English syntax (SEE - Signed Exact English).

My instructor Linda had a WONDERFUL way of explaining how word order works. For you linguists out there, ASL follows a Topic-Comment arrangement, meaning the most salient topic of the sentence is signed first, and everything else follows.

Linda wrote a sentence on the board and called a student up to sign it. The student SEE'ed it. Linda then asked - "What would be the first thing you would draw to describe this sentence?" The student thought for a moment, looked at some of us in the class, and suddenly, the lights came on. "well, of course, for sentence one, December 21!" For the second sentence, "Gallaudet University" and then, for me at least, the third sentence was the charm - omigod - the MOON!!! You mean, it's that easy to determine the topic of the sentence?!?! Now, I don't want to give ASL the short shrift here, because like any spoken language, syntax can get complex. But for the most part, if you want to know the word order of an ASL sentence, ask yourself, "How would I draw the sentence?"

Here are the sentences..


1.  The first day of winter is December 21.
ASL: December 21 - winter - first day

2.  The founder of Gallaudet University was hearing.
ASL: Gallaudet University - founder-male- hearing

3.  Armstrong is the first man who walked on the moon.
ASL:  moon - walk on - first man - Armstrong.

4.  An elephant's pregnancy lasts two years.
ASL: elephant - pregnancy - two years long

5.  The next sign language class will be cancelled.
ASL:  class sign language next (will) cancel

6.  The tap water in your area is polluted.
ASL: your area water-tap polluted

7.  Elvis Presley had two daughters.
ASL: #E-L-V-I-S P-R-E-S-L-E-Y have daughter-two
ASL: daughter two have #E-L-V-I-S P-R-E-S-L-E-Y

8.  It's alright to drink tap water in Mexico.
ASL: Mexico water-tap drink ok

9.  It's worthwhile to attend the workshop.
ASL: workshop go-to worthwhile

10. It's alright to complain to your boss.
ASL: Complain to boss - ok.

11. If you wait two weeks to buy your airline ticket, the fare will go up.
ASL: airline ticket if two weeks wait - price - increase

12. If you install a Japanese motor in an American car, you will damage the car.
ASL: car American, engine Japanese install- car damage will

13. Putting a needle over a flame will sterilize the needle.
ASL: if flame under needle put - sterilize will

14.  First Hawaiian Bank is open on Saturday.
ASL:  Bank First Hawaiian open Saturday

15.  The name Wickstrum is Swedish.
ASL:  family name #W-I-C-K-S-T-R-U-M Swedish name

16.  The play has an interpreter for deaf people.
ASL: play has interpreter people deaf come

17.  Deafness runs in the Johannson family.
ASL: family name #J-O-H-A-N-N-S-O-N deaf generations back-to-forward