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Menehune are a mythological race of Dwarf people,
in Hawaiian tradition, who are said to live in the
deep forests and hidden valleys of the Hawaiian
Islands, hidden and far away from human settlements.
They built temples, fishponds, roads and homes.

Here is a story told to me by a gentleman from Lanai.

When I was a young child, age 12, I was in the hills of
Lanai when I spotted something in a brush patch.
I walked casually, forward to this patch and met a small
Menehune, who I found was also 12 years old. I was of
short stature, about 3 feet tall and the Menehune, was shorter.
I estimated he may have been 2 feet tall.

We talked for a while, then he said he had to go. I never saw him
again, until I was about 60 years old. Fate stepped in and
I met him once more. He was still 2 feet tall and didn't appear
to have aged. I recall my father saying, the Menehune, grew,
at a slower rate than humans and didn't age like the rest of us.

I am much older now, living at a retirement home in the Seattle area.
I hope to return to Lanai to see if my Menehune friend will be at the
same place, I last saw him.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

New landers are on the Moon. Nearly two weeks ago, Japan's Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) released two rovers as it descended, before its main lander touched down itself. The larger of the two rovers can hop like a frog, while the smaller rover is about the size of a baseball and can move after pulling itself apart like a transformer. The main lander, nicknamed Moon Sniper, is seen in the featured image taken by the smaller rover. Inspection of the image shows that Moon Sniper's thrusters are facing up, meaning that the lander is upside down from its descent configuration and on its side from its intended landing configuration. One result is that Moon Sniper's solar panels are not in the expected orientation, so that powering the lander had to be curtailed and adapted. SLIM's lander has already succeeded as a technology demonstration, its main mission, but was not designed to withstand the lunar night -- which starts tomorrow.

Photo by JAXA, Takara Tomy, Sony Co., Doshisha U.

"It’s the big threat. A cheap, white powder — 50 times more powerful than heroin — which kills more than 70,000 people each year in the United States and countless others across the rest of the Western Hemisphere. EL PAÍS, in a long-term investigation that spanned two continents and included interviews with anti-drug czars in the U.S. and China, visited the clandestine laboratories in Sinaloa, where fentanyl is manufactured".......Read More at El Pais ➜  Also Read: How the United States got hooked on fentanyl 

An old writing, for you.

A withered tree,
branches askew,
moss covered limbs,
reminding me of who?

Wayward branches,
straight in the air,
reminds me of you,
when you spiked your hair.

Feeling ignored,
unappreciated?
Join the
Woe is Me Society,

or successfully withdraw,
from Social Activities.
An internal choice:
Nobody loves me,
Everybody hates me,
guess I'll go eat some worms.

Words over here,
Words over there,
but never are there,
Words to spare.

Where do words
go, when you orate?
Do they vanish in air
or just head for the gate?

Words, once lost,
have now been found.
Why words which are silent,
will never have sound.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

The well-known Pleiades star cluster is slowly destroying part of a passing cloud of gas and dust. The Pleiades is the brightest open cluster of stars on Earth's sky and can be seen from almost any northerly location with the unaided eye. Over the past 100,000 years, a field of gas and dust is moving by chance right through the Pleiades star cluster and is causing a strong reaction between the stars and dust. The passing cloud might be part of the Radcliffe wave, a newly discovered structure of gas and dust connecting several regions of star formation in the nearby part of our Milky Way galaxy. Pressure from the stars' light significantly repels the dust in the surrounding blue reflection nebula, with smaller dust particles being repelled more strongly. A short-term result is that parts of the dust cloud have become filamentary and stratified. The featured deep image incorporates nearly 9 hours of exposure and was captured from Utah Desert Remote Observatory in Utah, USA, last year.

Photo by Craig Stocks

The table was in the back of the room,
tucked away, in the corner. Shadows crept,
across the faces of those seated.
She was dressed in furs and an evening gown,
with a Boa wrapped around her delicate neck.
It became obvious that she didn't belong in the
dinginess of this seedy bar. Nevertheless those
present, admired the beauty of her appearance.
No one paid attention to her presence, at least not,
visibly, but they were aware of her presence.

Time passed slowly, throughout the early afternoon.
Soon, the after-work crowd would arrive and do their
usual, "scoping out" of those in the room.
Some brave self, anointed "Casanova" would venture
forth to attempt a conversation with this beautiful woman
tucked into the shadowed recess of the corner.
One such, came forward. He was politely refused to
have a conversation. She definitely was waiting for a
specific person.

Around 7, in the early evening, a foppishly dressed man,
approached, said a few words and sat with the woman.
Their conversation was quite animated, with hand gestures,
and strained laughter. It must not have been pleasant for he
stood up and abruptly left.
A few minutes later, the lovely lady, arose and walked with long
strides, out the door.
I'm unsure of where she went, but there was never another glimpse of
this beauty, who will always be a mystery.

Lost and alone,
in the dark,
trying to remember,
where did I park.