Smith: Tourist from Santa Rosa wondered who would attack Maui

Breakfast on Maui had just concluded for John Meislahn on Saturday when the Santa Rosan's smartphone alerted him that a ballistic missile attack was incoming.

The Pisenti & Brinker accounting exec hastened onto the balcony of the oceanfront condo in Kihei. Folks in adjacent units did the same thing as he: scanned the flawless blue sky for a missile or missiles.

“Everybody was just looking up,” John said.

Maybe they should have ducked for cover. But, as John adroitly posed, where in a Maui condo does one shield oneself from a missile blast?

Of course he was concerned about the “This a not a drill” alert. But it was making zero sense to him that Kim Jong Un or anybody else would want to blow up Maui.

On the island for a men's trip, John phoned his wife, Michelle, in Santa Rosa. “She was more freaked out than I was at that point,” he said.

He told her he couldn't talk long because if missiles were about to strike he needed to finish off what remained in the booze bottles. Michelle didn't think that was funny.

About then, John overheard someone in a nearby condo say he'd phoned “the general” and found that the warning was a false alarm.

Back home now, John's sharing photos of paradise and reminding himself not to assume that the next missile alert can safely be ignored, too.

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DOZENS OF HOMES once cleaned by Rob Kinney's company, Kinco Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning, no longer exist.

One such house was located off Riebli Road and belonged to Bill and Carol Dickerson. Once when Kinney was there, Bill Dickerson, a Vietnam veteran, showed him, suspended from the ceiling in his office, a keepsake fighter jet tail hook just like the ones that allowed him to make landings on the decks of aircraft carriers.

When Kinney heard the Dickersons' home burned, he remembered the tail hook. He took his wife Janice Baker-Kinney to the remains of the house to look for it.

They found it. Kinney has since spent hours sanding and wire-brushing and painting the fire-damaged military relic.

Pretty soon here he'll present it to former combat pilot Dickerson, a guy who chose well back when he picked a carpet and upholstery cleaner.

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AT ORACLE ARENA on Saturday, 10-year-old firestorm survivor Lilly Biagini scored big with the Harlem Globetrotters and the crowd.

Lilly is the amazing Santa Rosa kid who lost both legs to amputation years ago, and in October escaped the rental house she shared with her mom, Jessica, before flames devoured it. Among the possessions burned were her prosthetic legs.

Lilly has since been the beneficiary of kindness from many, including Ellen DeGeneres, who had her on national TV, and prosthetics maker Hanger, Inc., which made her a pair of new legs.

Globetrotters player Zeus McClurkin came to St. John the Baptist School in Healdsburg to visit with students who'd lost their homes. Upon meeting Lilly he invited her and her mom to Saturday's game in Oakland.

A YouTube video shows Lilly at center court at the home of the Warriors, sporting her Globetrotters jersey and looking like just about the happiest girl in the world.

Chris Smith is at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.