Although I plan to have the Snark Hunt up in a couple of hours if my internet access continues, blogging will be otherwise intermittent today. Perhaps I should say it will come “in waves,” because waves are most definitely affecting everything around me this morning.

Ordinarily, the surf on our beach is negligible due to a double-reef that breaks the waves a quarter-mile offshore. By the time they reach shore, they’re mostly glassy ankle-washers. So you can imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning to find the surf is 8-feet high and pelting the shoreline. What’s left of it, that is.

While I slept, the waves carried off three more of my palm trees and literally washed away tons of earth from my yard. The strip of grass running parallel between my house and the ocean is three feet narrower, putting the water a mere 15 feet away from my lanai. When we moved here slightly over a year ago, that strip of grass was a 30-foot buffer. Yet still the city refuses to let us put in a sea wall.

Along the north-eastern side of O’ahu, the roads are closed due to dangerous conditions as waves break right atop the tarmac. The air is redolent with the smell of the ocean and salt rime encrusts every surface. Palm trees litter the beach, and what’s left of my yard is buried under inches of sand, dead coral and shells. Power, phones and cable have all been intermittent this morning as utility poles — toppled across the road like a giant child’s toys — are righted and re-secured. Worse yet: another high tide is due in less than four hours.

But hey, it’s “paradise,” right?