Ever see the red "coals" from a just burned sugar cane field at night? The simmering red against the black velvet of night, not a manmade light to mar the beautiful contrast, oh my...and...living in Kaneohe right up against the pali, looking out the kitchen window during rainy season and counting 17 waterfalls cascading down the mountain. I loved, on a Sunday morning at sunrise, sitting on a lava outcrop next to the Blowhole and having breakfast, but then I moved to the north shore and every day was an adventure, never knew what I would encounter on my walks along the beach. Sigh.

Before we get started here, I'd like to ask you politely to refrain from garbaging up the thread with your favorite religion, Jesus, God, The Scriptures, dogma and etc. Let's keep it clean and not spoil the moment with a bunch of sanctimonious preaching? Thanks.

Many years ago now, I was living in a remote mountain valley in a cabin I'd built, and I was standing on a little deck at the back end of the cabin, which faced down the valley. It was raining very lightly and there was a brilliant rainbow arcing into the valley that seemed to end no more than 50 feet below the cabin.

We all know that you can chase a rainbow but never catch it, and the reason is because rainbows are actually circles when you see them from the air, above them. They only appear to be arcs that touch the ground.

But just because it really did look so close, I jumped down off the deck and ran down to where it seemed to end, and I found myself surrounded by brilliant prismatic colors in the air. I actually stood at, and in, the end of a rainbow!

After the Internet came along I searched out this amazing phenomenon and found that others had done the same thing and were themselves searching for others who'd done so. There aren't many of us, it seems to be a pretty elite club.

If conditions are just right, you really can stand in a rainbow and if you ever do, you'll treasure the memory of it for the rest of your life. What a wonderful planet we live on.

One of the funniest sights that I actually provided for locals was when as a 2nd LT I went to Hawaii, in Feb..... Me and a girlfriend toured the isle and ended up in waimea,,, I had spent all summer in lejuene running morning and night, lifting weight at noon (there were NO women at Lejeune then,,, that weren't married to someone else) and body surfing at Topsail beach. Thinking I was in the best shape of my life,,,and I was,,,,, I went body surfing at waimea. There was a circle of locals praying on the beach,,I swam out,, and grabbed a respectable wave... Dude!! It was KKKOOOLLLLL,,,, fast and tall...... all of the sudden it was too damned fast and too damned tall,,,, I looked behind me and there was probably 8 more feet of wave, and all of the sudden I was on top of it!! I looked down,,, and NO MORE water, just sand,,,,, I ducked my head and hit the beach so hard my legs went past my ears and tore my trunks in half!!! I was seeing stars,,, when the second wave hit me,,, and my girl also a marine grabbed me and drug me out, with one pant leg around each ankle,,,,, the locals were staring and pointing but not laughing,,, Waimea is serious business and I learned the lesson,,, and lived,,, but I am sure that story gets retold occasionally!!!

Ever see the red "coals" from a just burned sugar cane field at night? The simmering red against the black velvet of night, not a manmade light to mar the beautiful contrast, oh my...and...living in Kaneohe right up against the pali, looking out the kitchen window during rainy season and counting 17 waterfalls cascading down the mountain. I loved, on a Sunday morning at sunrise, sitting on a lava outcrop next to the Blowhole and having breakfast, but then I moved to the north shore and every day was an adventure, never knew what I would encounter on my walks along the beach. Sigh.