12-30-17 Sat.

This is the last Saturday of the year. This year seem to zip by so fast. What does the new year have in store for us? I think that everybody would like to know that.

On Christmas morning I went and videoed at the beach. I got lucky and there were 3 dolphins splashing around in the water and I videoed them for a few minutes. I'm going to include that link in case you have not seen it yet and if you're interested check it out.

https://youtu.be/p-JkfmHQjlg

My grandsons have come down with the bad cold, so I won't be able to take them for an outing today. What am I going to do? I so enjoy spending time with my grandchildren. They really are great. But, I guess every grandparent thinks there grandchildren are great is this not true?

 I would like to wish everybody a Happy New Year!

This picture was taken 4 years ago. In Hawaii at Dukes restaurant which was one of our favorite places to have breakfast. The view was just fantastic. The bacon was good too




I would like to wish you all nothing but the best in this new year.

Maranatha,
Frank

Hilda-Evelyn-Harriet

Are you ready for Christmas? Yesterday evening we had dinner at our church. It was a Christmas dinner put on by the staff. It was great! 220 people signed up. After the dinner we went into the sanctuary and we actually sang Christmas carols and then moved in to singing the Christmas songs like "Hark the Herald Angels Sing's". Have you ever looked at the words to this song it is so scripturally accurate, very cool. I can't remember the last time I had so much fun singing the Christmas carols, like decades ago. On Sunday we're having a candlelight service which will be really great.

Yesterday evening while we were waiting for the dinner to start. Actually it started but there was a long line and I stepped outside. Everybody was looking up in the sky and so I did too. There was a bright light in the sky and it was a rocket. This morning I looked it up so I can include a picture for you and they said it was Space X rocket. You can't see it really clearly from this picture, but when the rocket jettisoned its 2nd stage, it was really cool!

I was going to take Daniel to see the Star Wars movie today, but he called me yesterday afternoon and he's got a bad cold. I appreciate his consideration because I sure don't want to get sick. For some reason these colds drag on. Actually it's the cough that can last for months. You know what I'm talking about, it's that tickle in the back of your throat the causes the coughing reflects. And it's very frustrating especially when it's at night time and you cough and can't go to sleep.

When I retired from upholstering, I brought my work computer home and I have a lot of data including thousands and thousands of pictures that I've taken digitally and non-digitally over the decades. I was looking for something last week and I came across to a picture of Harriet that I don't believe I've used before.

Well I should have saved that picture onto a flash drive and transferred it to this computer because now I can't find it. But I've come up with some other pictures. The first one is of Harriet and her mother taken in 2008 at my dads birthday party he was celebrating 94 years on this planet.

 

I found some more pictures that I've taken in Hawaii that same year. The first picture is taken of a healthy Hawaiian breakfast.

 The next set of pictures I took at a little park. We'd always stayed in Waikiki and as you look to the west you see Diamondhead, on the other side of Diamondhead and of few miles down the road in a residential area called Kahala, there's this nice little park. For some reason there's no tourists there at all and usually it's pretty empty. Harriet and I would like to go there and there's a nice bench as you will see and Harriet would take a stroll down the beach in either direction.

As you can see it looks deserted. Nice quiet area just 10 minutes from Waikiki. This is a great place for relaxing and enjoying God's creation. One of Harriet's favorite places.

The same year there was a tandem surf contest and Harriet really enjoyed watching the men and women tandem surfing so gracefully.

That's it for today. God bless you and I hope that you will be in the house of the Lord this Sunday, worshiping the Creator, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Maranatha,
Frank
PS. I love you my girl.

12-16-17 Sat.

Christmas is getting close, it just seems like the time is flying by. Maybe it's because I keep putting things off to do for Christmas and Christmas is only a little over a week from now.

Probably the biggest activity this past week was installing the motorized screens that we had used at Maranatha Bible Church, to the church were going to now. Bill and I installed it on Wednesday here's a picture.

Bill is a good worker and we got it done in record time.

I'm meeting my friend Larry in about an hour at the Sandpit where we do our test flying. I've been having some firmware issues. Going to check it out.

I was going through some folders I have here on the computer looking for some specific surfing pictures and I came across to the picture I took of Harriet either 2006 or 2007 It's at Dukes in Hawaii.

I hope you have a great weekend and Maranatha!
Frank

12-9-17 Sat.

We had an interesting week with the high velocity Santa Ana winds. We have quite a few fires in Southern California and the powerful winds make it very difficult to fight the fires. Hopefully they'll be able to get them under control this weekend.

Unfortunately the waves have been pretty flat this past week.It's been anywhere from 0 to 2 feet. According to surfline were going to get a bump in the swell on Wednesday, I might go out and video then.

You know it just doesn't seem like there's much going on right now. Of course this is the time of the year we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, which is one of the 2 most important celebrations for Christianity. The other is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I know that we're going to have a Christmas dinner and Christmas concert at church on the 22nd and that will great. Bill Neu and I are going to install 2 of the motorized screens that we used at Maranatha Bible Church, we're going to use them at EVCF. So this coming Wednesday morning we are meeting at the church to mount the screens to the ceiling. I'll let you know how it goes.

I hope that you'll take time to really think about this Christmas season and what it celebrates.

11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. 
                                                       Luke 2:11-14

I hope you have a great weekend.

Maranatha,
Frank

12-2-17 Sat.

Where has this year gone? A few more weeks and then Christmas.

The past week I was getting back into the normal routine. It's nice to be home in one sense, but I miss the Hawaiian routine. It was a lot of fun and I miss the tacos at North Shore Tacos. Their shredded beef tacos where great. I had one just about every day.

 

Today I am taking the grandkids to Boomer. Formally know as the Family Fun Center. We always have a great time. First I am going to head down to Windansea or 15th St. in Del Mar and check out the waves. If they are good I will video and post them.

I hope you have a great weekend and plan to be in the Lord's House on Sunday.

Maranatha,

Frank 

11-25-17 Sat.

I flew back on Thanksgiving day. When I was booking the trip I did not realize it was Thanksgiving day, I was only looking at price and that was the cheapest day to return. I'll have to be more careful next time. The plane trip back was the fastest ever. We had a great tailwind and are ground speed was up to 613 mph. We landed 20 minutes early. Hawaiian Airlines is great.

I was telling my friend Larry yesterday that Harriet used to do all the packing for the trip and then all the putting away things when we got home. She was much more efficient than I am. It'll take me a few days to get everything squared away. But, this morning I'm taking the grandkids to see the movie that came out a week ago Justice League of America. Some of you may remember this when you're growing up if you read comic books. I look forward to seeing Joe, Hilda and the boys this morning.

One of the things I missed when on vacation is this ability to dictate the letters. I was thinking about it this morning and when the voice recognition programs first started coming out in the mid-90s (to my knowledge) I tried both the IBM version and Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Dragon NaturallySpeaking has come out ahead on this because this their main focus. It's not perfect, but it has a 95% accuracy rate and as a bonus it spells all the words correctly even if it's the wrong word. One of the problems I've had with this program for a long time is the word "sonrise". You see how it spelled it correctly and I'm referring to when I used it with Sonrise Community Church. For years it spelled it sunrise. I trained it over and over and over again and it literally took years for it to figure this one out. This is probably the most difficult word that I've had to train my computer to use.

Enough about computers let me give you a few more pictures that I took while in Hawaii. There was a little beach about a block and a half from where I was staying. It seems like there are beaches everywhere, but what do you expect when you live on the island? This is a couple of moms watching their kids play close to shore. The next day there were more kids in the water and one little boy got hit by a jellyfish and he was screaming like a banshee.


Here's a picture of a rainbow at the beach I videoed a low surfing at Laniakea. I've been here many times on previous trips and I never noticed all the telephone wires. It was not until I had to fly with my drone and make sure to avoid any obstacles. My drone has obstacle avoidance sensors, but the wires are relatively thin and it has difficulty in this area.You can see the full rainbow.

The morning I left I went down to a couple of the brakes that I have videoed and this is taken at Log Cabins. It's hard to tell but the ways were about to 12 to 14 feet here and it's almost a short break. Very gnarly.

That's it for today. I hope you have a great weekend and I look forward to seeing you at church on Sunday morning.

Maranatha,
Frank

11-18-17 Sat.

Aloha! November is a rainy month her on the North Shore of Oahu. I would say that 6 out of the past 7 days have been intermittent showers and windy. Yesterday was the good day, no rain and light breeze. Here is a pic I took at Wiamea Bay, looking 180 degrees from the water. This is Wiamea stream. There is one house built into the hillside, see if you can find it.

 I took the next pic as I was checking out the beaches. This was taken just North of Sunset Beach. I wanted to fly out and video that little Island, but it was to windy.

No matter where you look there is beauty in God's Creation. When driving from Haleiwa Town heading North, just before you get to Laniadea beach there is a ranch on the right side. Every time I see this beautiful tree, it reminds me of how God takes the simple things and makes them so beautiful.

 I am heading to the South side of the Island to video places that were special for Harriet and I. We would like driving and taking in all the beautiful sights.

If you go to my you tube channel you can view all the video's I have posted. Just type in: Frank Kovacs and click on my picture.

Have a great weekend and don't forget to be in the House of the Lord on Sunday.

Maranatha,

Frank

11-11-17 Sat.

Aloha! I arrived on Tuesday to the North Shore of Oahu. Staying at a little studio apt. Twice the size of the hotel room we used to stay at in Waikiki and almost half the price. Great location between Waimea Bay and The Pipeline.

Of course I have to have a bacon picture here. I really like Haleiwa cafe.

There is a nice size swell that moved in yesterday. I took videos with my drone for over 3 hours. I am heading back there this morning.  Here is the link if you are interested. Best viewed on a large smart TV. The color of the waves, reef and surrounding area is great.

https://youtu.be/43paQaEBOMQ

Here is a sunset from my location plus 300 ft, take with my Phantom 4 Pro

Waimea Bay, totally flat taken from a sacred spot 300 ft above over looking the bay. They used to offer human sacrifices up until about 200 years ago.

This is a picture I took in 2006, the Shore break at Killer Waimea.

This is the view driving to the North Shore, the trees are so beautiful!

The weather is good, it sprikles a little a few times a day, but very nice. I really miss my Girl to share the beauty of God's Creation! Yes, I still love my Girl!

Ok, I am going to bail out. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Don't forget to be in the House of the Lord this Sunday.

Maranatha!
Frank and Harriet

11-4-17 Sat.

This past week was extremely busy. I'm trying to get everything done before I leave on Tuesday morning for a vacation.

Today is Big Al's memorial service. It's 11 AM at Sonrise. I hope you can make it if you knew brother Al. What a great guy!

Yesterday evening pastor Jack had a men's dinner at his house. There were as I would guess about 75 people are so there. It was really nice. He lives in Alpine and has a huge backyard. Set up tables and those outdoor propane heaters that you see it restaurants that have outdoor seating.

I wanted to show you how I dust the floor. I drag Ethan around by his foot. What great kids I sure enjoy them. I took them to see the new Thor movie that came out yesterday. I thought the movie was disappointing but it's just fun to be with the boys.

Hopefully by next Saturday I'll have some new pictures for you of Hawaii. They're supposed to be a Pipe Masters surf contest starting on November 12 through the 24th, so I will be able to see and video a lot of it. I just hope we get some big waves.

I hope you have a great weekend and Maranatha!

Frank

10-28-17 Sat.

Last Sunday I went to Tanner and Breanna's home to celebrate their son Lincoln's 2nd birthday. I've got some pictures and I want to share them with you. Many of you know them and their extended families.
This is Lincoln and Linette. Linette is Breanna's mother.

This is Tony and Lincoln. Tony and Linette are married and are the proud grandparents. Lincoln is a beautiful baby!

This theme for the birthday party was "Construction". Tony has a business of pool excavation. So people were supposed to bring things along those lines and I didn't get the message. I got Lincoln some Lincoln logs. Here you can see the birthday cake and it's supposed to be like a little construction site. Very cool.

This next picture is my favorite. Lincoln is looking through this cardboard cutout Tractor.

Here is Lincoln eating his birthday cake with a tractor and if you notice that Lincoln puts the cake in the bucket of the tractor, very cute.

Lincoln sharing his tractor.

Lots of nice people there and it was just a great time to be with friends and enjoy the little guy.

Yesterday morning I spent with Samuel and Ethan. I picked them up a little after 9 AM and took them on my Friday morning errands. One of things I do is to go by my dads house and make sure everything is in order. Then we came back to my place and watched another episode, of "The Flash". I made the kids popcorn and then we had Natchoes. There really sweet kids and I love them so much. We have a great time together.
This is Ethan watching TV and he has this cat statue he likes to have sitting with him while watching the movie. Looks like he's having a good time. The cat is not real.

I had to have Samuel pose in the same way his brother is posing. Samuel is a really good helper and very intelligent. I love my boys!

It's almost 4 AM on Saturday morning I'm going to head out to the beach and shoot some videos if it's not foggy. I have to run the batteries down on my drones I'm taking with me to Hawaii because it's the proper protocol when shipping them.

Lots of things to do this next week. A week from today will be Brother Al's memorial service. It will be at Sonrise Community Church, starting at 11 AM. I would recommend getting there 15 minutes early because it will be packed.

That's it for this morning I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Maranatha,
Frank

10-21-17 Sat.

The top of the morning to you! I can't forget to do the blog 2 weeks in a row.

I didn't mention to you but a few weeks ago I was asked to speak to a small group at church. The small group is called, "Hope and Encouragement". It's for people who have lost a spouse or someone like a family member. Everybody was very nice. I had the opportunity to share my experiences and then give encouragement through God's Word.

The waves have been pretty poor. There's a swell coming in at the beginning of next week and hopefully something will materialize so that Larry and I can go down and do some videoing.

I am working out the final details in my trip to Hawaii in November. Unfortunately you can only take 2 batteries with you on  the plane and you're not supposed to put a lot of batteries in your luggage that is stored in the belly of the plane. Maybe you recall how a plane had a fire due to a battery that was not properly packaged and shorted out. I'm taking both of my drones and that's a total of 18 batteries. When transporting them I will discharge them to 10% or less (that is the proper protocol). I don't know if this is interesting to you or not, because it's such a unusual situation. I contacted the person that I'm renting the little house from on the North Shore and I will ship the batteries in separate boxes to her in advance of my arrival.

While I'm there I'm hoping to post some more exciting pictures than I had in recent weeks to this blog. Usually there are some good storms in the northern Pacific ocean that generate some nice size swells for Hawaii during this time of year. I just looked on the surf line website and it is projecting 18 feet at the Pipeline for this coming Monday.

Lots to do between now and then. We have Brother Al's memorial service on November 4th. What a great guy he is!

I hope that you'll be in the house of the Lord this Sunday to worship the Creator, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, because he is worthy!

Maranatha,
Frank

10-14-17 Sat. Afternoon

No I'm not dead, yet. I got a call at 5 PM this evening from my friend Larry and he was asking me if I put the blog out today because it didn't come up on his cell phone. I so forgot. This is the first time in over three years that I forgot. Well, I guess were allowed a little bit of grace, but not much, right.

It's really kind of funny because during the week I think about things that I can include in the blog and then sometimes when it comes to Saturday I've forgotten them. I think I need to write them down.

I don't think I shared this picture with you. Last week when Larry and I went to Windansea to video the waves and the surfers, this was the full moon that had not set yet. Normally I don't like to turn the camera and take pictures this way, but in this case it's the only way I could get the moon in and the foreground.

Often times I peruse through my files looking for something and I come across  pictures like this one. This is the backwash hitting the shore break at sandy beach in Hawaii in 2015.

My brain is completely drawing a blank. I think I will have to close the blog post and hopefully this next week I will be able to take some notes so that next week's blog will be more interesting.

God bless you and you know what day is tomorrow, the Lord's Day! I hope that you will be in the Lord's house worshiping the creator and our redeemer Jesus Christ

Maranatha,
Frank
PS. I love you Harriet