When I was a Big Island reporter covering a 1978 Kilauea lava flow, my first decent sleep in three nights was interrupted by an angry middle-of-the-night call from Harry Kim, then director of the county’s Civil Defense agency.

A reporter who had been sent from O’ahu to relieve me showed up at a Pahoa evacuation center after midnight demanding to see if residents displaced from their homes were sleeping or not.

Kim was incensed by the reporter’s lack of respect for the victims’ privacy and scolded, “If I see that guy again, I’ll personally throw his a** off the island and pull the press credentials of everybody from your newspaper.”

That’s what I always admired about Kim in his more than two decades in Civil Defense — his blunt-spoken passion for protecting the safety and privacy of folks threatened by nature, balanced by a respect for the Big Island’s natural wonders, the folks who long to view them and even the reporters who cover them if they display common sense.

He’s shown the same qualities in his two terms as mayor, as seen this weekend when he helped open a new road to help visitors see a Kilauea lava flow rolling into the ocean near Kalapana.

Never mind that the unpredictable flow could end at any time or even threaten the new road, which it did within hours of the blessing.

“I think Madame Pele has given us a tremendous opportunity to admire her creation,” Kim said. “Even if this stops one day after it started, we’re going to make a few hundred or a few thousand people happy. We’re going to make a lot of people experience things that they’ve never even dreamt about.”

And he was his old scolding self when visitors trampled the properties of Kalapana residents and left rubbish behind.

“Remember, this is their home,” Kim said. “That’s what I try to make people understand. … This is their home and we are infringing in their home.”

He certainly made me understand with that wee-hours phone call so long ago.

My Internet connection has been mostly down all weekend. I posted yesterday on my cell phone, but don’t have anything to say today worth pecking out that way.

See you when Oceanic gets me back up.

It’ll be interesting to see if disgraced former Bishop Estate trustee Gerard Jervis’ reputation will end up further diminished or enhanced by the incident in Lanikai Friday night in which he chased down St. Louis High football players who allegedly egged his house.

The chase ended with the SUV driven by the boys dangerously perched halfway up a utility pole support wire after being rear-ended by Jervis’ BMW, with an egg carton clearly visible next to the SUV.

Police say an intentional hit by Jervis drove the SUV up the guidewire; Jervis’ attorney says the driver of the SUV had already lost control and ran up the wire before Jervis accidentally hit the vehicle.

Jervis was charged with first-degree property damage and is being investigated for driving under the influence of an intoxicant. The boys are being investigated for possible drunken driving and harassment.

Jervis had a reputation as a hothead with questionable judgment before he and his fellow trustees resigned under fire in 1999.

He was known for angry outbursts in the board room and a sexual tryst in a Waikiki hotel restroom with a Bishop Estate employee that ended with the woman’s suicide and Jervis’ hospitalization for an overdose of sleeping pills. He’s run a low-profile law practice in Kailua since then.

The Lanikai incident has renewed questions about Jervis’ temper and judgment in some quarters, while drawing him sympathy in others.

Lanikai residents have been victims of egging of their homes and cars for a long time, and are as tired of it as Jervis. While some think he should have just called police with the SUV’s license number instead of giving chase, they understand his frustration and desire to act when he finally caught culprits red-handed.

In the broader community, people are also weary of malicious vandalism against public and private facilities that costs millions of dollars a year to repair, but seldom is punished.

Jervis isn’t the only citizen who has itched for a chance to strike back.

The most intriguing news of the week came from a study suggesting that husbands who help their wives with the housework are rewarded with more frequent nookie.

I asked a few vacuum-trained husbands I know what they thought and they said they’d have to take the researchers’ word for it. They’re too exhausted to remember.

This study does explain another report from the Centers for Disease Control that Hawaii residents sleep better than people in the Northeast. We must have more husbands who help with the housework.

Other news that amused and confused in Hawai’i’s week that was:

• Legislators heaved a sigh of relief as they passed their “crossover” deadline this week. The crossing refers to all the genuflecting to lobbyists lawmakers do as bills fly between the House and Senate.

• The frequently absent Kona Sen. Paul Whalen made a surprise appearance on the Senate floor to announce he won’t seek re-election in November. Colleagues said it could only improve his attendance.

• Gov. Linda Lingle waited to endorse John McCain for president until weeks after he’d all but sewn up the Republican nomination. I wonder if Hallmark makes a card that says, “Thanks for nothing.”

• The dispute between Mayor Mufi Hannemann and Senate President Colleen Hanabusa over the Waimanalo Gulch Landfill is getting nasty and personal. I hope this isn’t a sign that the 2010 Democratic primary for governor will be fought out in a garbage pit.

• Hannemann says O’ahu residents who report potholes online or by phone can expect repairs within five working days. That’s pretty darned good service. It’s almost as fast as he wants to build the transit system.

• County liquor inspectors, whose good judgment has often come under question, are asking the Legislature to let them carry electronic stun guns like police use. If this bill passes, bar patrons could be in for way more of a buzz than they were looking for.

• Kamehameha Schools was criticized for hoarding its assets instead of spending more to educate Hawaiian children. They’d better save up if they’re going to keep paying $7 million a pop to settle lawsuits filed by non-Hawaiian kids they don’t educate.

• New UH football coach Greg McMackin is winning over fans with redesigned uniforms that will be greener next year and feature the name “Hawai’i” more prominently. They should send June Jones a souvenir jersey that says “Whodaguy” on the back.

• Justice Hawai’i style: Nelson Aguinaldo can still bid on city contracts after a plea deal in which he admitted underpaying his workers and overcharging the city for janitorial work and landscaping. While police investigated, Aguinaldo landed several new city contracts, including jobs to clean police facilities.

And the quote of the week …

… from state Rep. Josh Green on HMSA boss Robert Hiam’s $35,000 pay raise and $503,511 bonus last year even as the medical insurer lost $22.6 million:

“HMSA’s list of excesses is long and disturbing: inflated executive salaries and bonuses, big spending on advertising, lobbying, and government relations, an under-funded charitable foundation and investments in for-profit enterprises with tax-free income.”

With flak like that, lucky for Hiam that rolling in dough is a great stress reliever.

It appears the fix is officially in by Democratic legislators to take one last shot at saving Ronald Moon from having to retire as chief justice of the Hawai’i Supreme Court when he turns 70 in 2010.

The Senate voted 19 to 6 Tuesday to put a proposed constitutional amendment on the November ballot to raise the retirement age for judges to 80. The measure now goes to the House.

This bill is a transparent repeat attempt to block Republican Gov. Linda Lingle from appointing a new chief justice before she leaves office, and a contemptuous slap at voters who less than two years ago rejected by a nearly 2-to-1 margin a similar retirement amendment offered up by Democrats.

Sen. Brian Taniguchi, sponsor of SB 3202, was asked in an interview on Perry and Price last week about the possibility of taking politics out of the picture by applying the new retirement age only to future judges and not current jurists like Moon who knew the rules when they were appointed.

“I think that would be a good compromise,” Taniguchi said.

But on Tuesday, Democrats voted down an amendment to make that change, with Taniguchi among those voting no, proving that politics is the point of this bill and it has little to do with age discrimination.

Trying to amend the Constitution for short-term partisan gain and for the selfish benefit of a single person is the most irresponsible kind of legislating.

If this bill wins final passage in the Legislature, look for the issue — and the individual lawmakers responsible for the shameless politicking — to get a lot of attention as the election draws near.