by toby | May 12, 2014 | Life
Cement block. There's a lot of it decorating Hawaii. “I've never seen so much cement block in my life,” I said, looking at the barren red dirt of a former pineapple field, held in check by several tiered walls of untreated, unpainted, unpretty cinderblock,...
by toby | Dec 15, 2013 | Life
It’s always nice to start with the worst so you can end on a happy note. FIVE WORST THINGS ABOUT CHRISTMAS IN HAWAII: The price to see family. We’re stuck three thousand miles away from anyone out here, and flying at the holidays is two things: exorbitant and...
by toby | Jun 5, 2012 | Life
Hawaii backyard gardening has always been a labor of love, but I don't think it's always been this expensive. I put my garden in prior to the Crash of 2009, and it’s a good thing too or I’d never have been able to afford the lumber for the box beds (over $350.00) the...
by toby | Feb 17, 2012 | The Writing Life
Okay, so you got your Book of Secrets started. You wrote your story and identified themes and stuck spots. You probably then, got a little stuck. (Like I have been, now that I sent off my latest novel.) This is the time to purge clutter. Clutter weighs us down. It...
by toby | Nov 11, 2011 | Life
RatHunter on the job (video above. Be careful you might find it amusing) Day 1: Liko, our ridiculous Shih-Tzu, detects a rat behind the stove. He stands in point position, watching. He digs at the stove. He barks. We pull out the stove, the rat makes a dash for it,...