Water Wing Golf, Security Light, A.C. Fix (?)

Note: This is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland. Since much of my news these days relates to trying to age gracefully, this series might be called The Geezer Gazette.]

3/29/25

 

Aloha All!

 

Can you believe it? April is creeping up on us and April Fools' Day will be here next week.  Hmmm. Come to think about it,  every day is starting to feel like April Fools' Day.... Anyway, life lurches along, and here are some of the highlights of my week.

 

On Tuesday Karen and I played golf with our friend but it didn't go well.  After about 7 or 8 holes it started to rain. 

A Swimming Hole?

We seldom have encountered full-out downpours on the course, and a shower can often be avoided by skipping to a hole lower on the course.  Not this time.  We tried to keep going in the spirit of the tough-as-nails Scottish originators of the game, but we finally gave up and headed for the warmth and dryness of the car.  By the time we quit, the greens had turned to ponds, a great excuse for putting badly. We still had our lunch with us, so we drove down to the beach for a picnic. 

My house project this week was to replace a faulty security light, a simple task that of course wound up being a much bigger deal than it should have been.  We installed a couple of these on the outside of the house several years ago after we were robbed while we were away on a trip. The theory is that ne'r-do-wells trying to break in at night might be deterred by having a glaring light suddenly shining on them.  The light is motion activated by a sensor that detects infrared sources, like human beings, cats, and the occasional feral pig.  Occasionally the sensors go bad, which is what happened in this case.  The light would sometimes come on when it was supposed to, but often it wouldn't.  I went to the big box hardware store where I had originally bought the lights and got what looked like an exact replacement.  Same brand, same model, same style. Everything seemed like all I would have to do is unscrew the old light and connect the wires (power off, of course) to the new fixture.  Nope.  In the intervening years the company had changed the design slightly and it took an exasperatingly long time to figure out why the new light wouldn't attach to the old outlet box.  I finally realized the problem and got the job done, but it was a lesson in why you shouldn't take things for granted.  The new light works fine, and I didn't electrocute myself nor fall off the ladder! 

On Thursday morning I finally got my new Outback in to have the a.c. fixed.  Recall that just a couple of months after I bought the car last year the a.c. stopped putting out cold air.  The dealership service department is so understaffed that it took almost two months to have the problem looked at.  They recharged the system and it worked fine -- for another couple of months.  Same deal. I had to wait almost two months to get them to try to fix it again. That was in January.  The decision was that the evaporator core, the heart of the system, needed to be replaced. They once again recharged the refrigerant and it has been working so-so since then.  The next available appointment was this past Thursday, another two month wait. It took all day Thursday and a good part of Friday to get the job done.  It seems to be working ok at the moment, but being the skeptic that I am, I made a follow-up appointment for early June.  That way, if the problem returns I won't have to wait a long time to get it worked on again.  Geez I wish things would be less of an unnecessary hassle!

 

Finally, I should say we are going ahead with our plans to visit Yosemite National Park, despite the efforts of our newly appointed Oligarch-in-Chief to mess things up.  We've decided that this may be our last chance to see this uniquely beautiful place, and we're determined to make the most of it.  We have reservations in the park itself for 5 nights, plus reservations in the surrounding area for another five nights, before we fly to Las Vegas for four nights.  The Vegas experience will be an interesting and perhaps lethal contrast.  We have tickets to a couple of shows and reservations at a couple of nice restaurants. Should be fun.

 

Ok, that's it for now.  It's hard these days, but keep trying to find your Zen place.... Carpe Vitam .

 

Flamenco Dancing, Air Plants, Beach Birthday Party

Note: This is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland. Since much of my news these days relates to trying to age gracefully, this series might be called The Geezer Gazette.]

3/22/25

 

Aloha Everyone!

 

By my current standards this was a busy week -- concerts, medical appointments, birthday parties, golf, gym & pool workouts, making travel arrangements, etc.  "Busy" doesn't mean interesting, however. I'll try to condense this so you don't doze  off.

 

On Sunday we attended a concert at the Kahilu Theater in Waimea. It has been a long time since we did this because lately the programs haven't piqued our interest enough to warrant the 40-mile drive there

Flamenco Vivo

and back. Also, most of the events are held at night, making the drive somewhat daunting. This performance was an afternoon matinee, however, and it was by a renowned dance company from the mainland called Flamenco Vivo based in New York and Durham, N.C.  They were terrific.  It was Flamenco, of course, but choreographed and performed in novel ways -- sort of like Modern Ballet compared to Classical. Afterward we had an early dinner with our friends visiting from Wisconsin whose daughter teaches at a private school in Waimea. All in all it was a great afternoon and well worth the trip.

 

On Tuesday I saw my retina doctor.  Same story as always, so I won't repeat it.

 

Happy Birthday!

Wednesday evening we went to a surprise birthday party for a friend of Karen's who is a member of the same women's organization that Karen belongs to.  It was held at a beach pavilion and had the typical Hawaiian elements:  lots of tasty pot luck food, a lei for the guest of honor, and Hawaiian music with Hula dancing.  It was a beautiful sunset that day, a perfect Hawaiian birthday present. Needless to say, we enjoyed it very much, partly because it reminded us of why we like living in this unique place.

 

It was also a physically active week (interspersed with naps, of course).  In addition to our daily morning walks we also managed to work out in our pool most days.  With more sun and steeper sun angle the water temperature has gotten up to a downright comfy level.  We went to PF on Monday, and played golf on Thursday.  Our golf buddy joined us on this round, the first time since last June. All of us did pretty well, though my performance didn't come close to last week's -- I only got two bogeys and no pars.  Still, all three of us had some very good shots, the weather was nice, and we saw about 20 Nenes and even one white turkey mixed in with the peacocks.  There was more pig damage to the course than last week, and we encountered one of the culprits as it crossed one of the fairways, a huge guy that would make a luau feast for many, many people.

 

I'll close with two more uniquely Hawaiian tidbits.  First, the volcano went through its 14th (!) spit-up since Christmas. This one lasted 28 hours and occurred in the same spot as all the others.

Hawaiian Daffodil

 It included a 7- hour period of fountaining that reached heights of 600 feet.  The second tidbit is about gardening. There are many unique plants that people here use in their outdoor landscaping. One is called an Air Plant.  These come in many varieties, and as the name implies, they don't need soil or water to live.  They grow very slowly and require absolutely no care at all, qualities I regard very highly, given the 24/7/12 growing season here. Some are very colorful at this time of year, and we have a few growing on the lava rock wall near our front door.  I've included a photo of one for your enjoyment. 

 

Ok that's it.  There's more but I don't want to overwhelm you -- that's probably being handled quite nicely these days by news stories about the country's political mayhem.  Here's something you might try that works for me. Close your eyes, click your heels, and repeat over and over: "There's no place like home,  there's no place like home, there's no place like home." 

New Glasses, Bogey Boogie, Skin Exam

Note: This is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland. Since much of my news these days relates to trying to age gracefully, this series might be called The Geezer Gazette.]

3/15/25

 

Aloha!

 

I see on my weather app that it has been in the 70's this week in the Midwest!  Wow, talk about  a spring thaw!  Back in the days when we owned our apple orchard in Ohio, I got nervous if we had an early spring warm up. If the trees were in full bloom when a cold snap hit, a frost could wipe out most if not all of the year's crop. Our roller-coaster spring weather in Ohio made this a real possibility.  We didn't breathe easy until after the frost-free date, which these days us in late April, but back 30 years ago it was mid-May.

 

My Geezer Gazette news this week is mixed.  On Monday I saw my optometrist and got a new prescription for glasses. My current uncorrected acuity tested fairly good (well, compared to my

Good Luck!

previous tests),  20/60 in my worst eye and 20/40+2 in my best eye.  However, a comparison of my eyesight with and without the new correction prescription showed just a little difference.  In other words, my vision can't be totally corrected with lenses that just refocus the light.  I'm sure this must be hard to understand for those of you who wear glasses with good results. But my problem is something far deeper, and as the optometrist verified yet again, it's not due to refraction errors, cataracts. glaucoma, macular degeneration, retinal edema. or any obvious problem with my optic nerve. I will certainly order the new glasses, though, because they will help a smidge, and these days I'll take every smidge I can get. You'll be glad to know I'm also going to shut up about my problem until I have something definite to report. 

 

The other piece of Gazette news is actually good.  I had my 6-month skin exam on Thursday and my skin passed with flying colors (except of course for the sags, bags, wrinkles, bruises, and age spots). Usually I  have to have several pre-cancerous thingies frozen with liquid nitrogen, the legacy of growing up in Colorado and poo-pooing sunscreen. But this time my dermatologist couldn't find anything to zap, and believe me she looked hard everywhere. I'm still on a 6-month schedule because of my past history, but I'm ok with that.

 

Staying with the good news, Karen and I played golf on Wednesday and we both did great, with very little fantasizing or applying Kon-a-Lago rules. In fact, it was one of my best rounds ever. I got a total of five bogeys and one par!  I don't have any explanation for this stellar performance, and I doubt if I can keep it going, but the moment was very sweet. Before you ask, let me remind you that we don't keep a total score because we often don't play all 18 holes. However, we do keep track of strokes on each hole so that we can compare this round with previous ones. My eyesight is good enough to see the ball as I hit it, but then I have to rely on Karen to spot where it goes. On long shots I can usually feel when I connect well, and there is also a certain sound that goes along with a good whack.  Both the feeling and the sound are very satisfying. We saw quite a few peacocks but not as many Nenes as we usually do. This might just be because they are now nesting out of sight. We'll look for them again next time.

 

Ok, enjoy the warmth.  And remember that honesty, integrity, and compassion are still admirable qualities, despite their absence in prominent people. And reality, truth, and facts really do matter.  Take care.

 

Look & See, 77" Techno-Toy, Pool Pump Meltdown

Note: This is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland. Since much of my news these days relates to trying to age gracefully, this series might be called The Geezer Gazette.]

3/8/25

 

Aloha, Fellow Life Travelers!

 

Two of my newsy notes this week have to do with vision, so I suppoise they qualify as Geezer Gazette items.

 

First, Karen's visit to her optometrist resulted in a new prescription that will get her to 20/25 in one eye, and 20/30 in the other.  This is good news, though before cataract surgery she had even better

Choices, Choices

eyesight and didn't require glasses except for reading. It is true that she has less trouble with fuzzy lights at night, but she isn't sure that the small improvement is really worth it.  At least with her new prescription she will be able to function well, including being my extra pair of eyes.  Both of us are cautionary tales regarding cataract surgery, though it is still true that 90% of the time people have improved vision afterward, often experiencing a dramatic improvement. But...Not...Always.  

The second bit of news this week is that my Costco online order for a new t.v. was delivered (shipping took a total of 4 weeks).  This 77" bad boy is a full 12" bigger than our old one, a geezer godsend.  It arrived late Wednesday afternoon and I spent Thursday reading the instructions and prepping it to hang on the wall.  We wrestled it up onto the wall bracket Thursday afternoon.  I then spent time tweaking it to get it to talk nice to my audio-visual receiver. My AVR handles all the input from our Roku, our DVR, and the Bluetooth media apps on our tablets and phones.  It was working fine for that night's t.v. viewing.  Definitely better!  By the way, my approach to Smart TVs is considered odd by many people, because the first thing I do when I hook them up is lobotomize them by not letting them connect to the internet. Instead, I set them to accept input only from my AVR.  I don't do this because I'm ignorant of the technological power of Smart TVs. Rather it's because I am fully aware of what they can do, and for this reason I regard these devices as potentially posing huge privacy and security risks.  The convenience, access, and control they offer are certainly appealing and for many people these features far outweigh the potential downsides of giving a t.v information about your viewing habits, search preferences, biometric patterns, links to other devices and your usage patterns of them (as in, "Siri, turn on the oven at 5 pm, start the dishwasher at 3am, open the garage door in 10 minutes"), etc.  It is far easier for me to control and limit the surveillance activities of my AVR, including shutting it off entirely from the internet except for specific functions that I choose.  Anyway, I'm very happy with the new tv's display performance.  I'm also pleased with myself for the successful installation, given current physical challenges.

 

The last bit of news this week is about one of those home-ownership headaches.  For about a week I've noticed our pool circulation hasn't been quite what it should be. Then one morning early in the week I discovered that the pool pump failed to start at its scheduled time.  Without the pump running the system doesn't filter the water nor send it through our solar panels. I did some troubleshooting of my own to rule out something simple, like a tripped circuit breaker or a timer malfunction. Nope.  I called my pool guy and asked him to stop by and take a look.  His assessment was that it might be a bad capacitor that pump motors like these need to get up to speed when they are first turned on.  It took him a couple of days to locate a new one, which was not easy given the age of the motor.  This type is being phased out by newer energy-efficient designs, a great idea that is irrelevant in my case because our pv system generates more that enough electricity to run my current pump. Anyway, it didn't help.  Still dead. It was looking more and more like I'd have to buy a new motor.  However, nobody on the island sells a direct replacement, so I'd have to have one shipped from the mainland, a lengthy and expensive proposition.  Of course, I could buy one of the available energy-efficient motors available locally, but this would require re-engineering the whole system.  Shees....  My pool guy, to his credit, kept troubleshooting and eventually spotted a problem in the timer connections that are inside the control box.  One of the circuits hadn't been properly grounded when the timer was installed.  Over time the lack of grounding caused one of the terminals to actually melt, cutting the power to the motor in half!  This might account for the slower circulation and eventually the lower power wasn't enough to start the motor at all.  These control boxes are common and easy to find locally, so we were able to test this possibility pretty quickly and inexpensively.  Voila! As of late yesterday afternoon we're functioning again so that today we should get some heating from the solar panels as well as having the water filtered.   Ah, home ownership.

That's the news for this week.  Stay warm, stay healthy.  Stay centered.

20/20"ish," Iffy Travel Plans, String Theory Putting

Note: This is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland. Since much of my news these days relates to trying to age gracefully, this series might be called The Geezer Gazette.]

3/1/25

 

Aloha, All!

 

March already!  Can you believe it?  Seems like just yesterday we were heralding cooler weather and

March Magnificence

those wonderful changes of seasons!  Now there are some welcome signs of Spring showing up on the mainland that will provide you some relief from  your rather brutal winter. To get you even more in the springtime mood, here's a photo taken Thursday of some "spring" flowers in our garden.  Of course, these were blooming most of the winter, too. Enjoy your early Spring, but keep in mind that Nature can be fickle....

In the Geezer Gazette this week the big news is that Karen finally got her glasses after 3 weeks of shipping time.  These were to be a quick stop-gap until her eyes stopped changing after her cataract redo last month. We expected them to arrive in about 5-7 days.  The delay unfortunately means the prescription is not quite right.  They do help a lot, and almost get her back to where she was before cataract surgery, but not quite. In addition to only giving her 20/20 "ish" vision, she also has a problem in that the glasses distort things so that objects seem to be leaning away from her.  She has an appointment with her optometrist on Tuesday for a follow-up and hopefully he will be able to assess what the problem is.  My left eye is now 1 month out from my own cataract surgery, and my vision has stabilized enough so that I can confidently say the overall improvement has been ......meh.  I notice a bit of improvement in my acuity but the overall problem that began last July is still with me.  A neurologist may be able to identify a cause but I'm now not hopeful there will be any cure.  My own diagnosis is that this may be a case of irreversible  Optica Geezerosis -- i.e., being an old fart.

 

In other news. we have been making plans for a short bucket-list spring trip to Yosemite, a National Park that we have never visited.  We actually booked a room in one of the hotels inside the park almost a year ago.  Now it is getting close enough that we want to firm up our plans.  Of course, our current administration's efforts to make the country great again may mean we have to cancel, since staffing National Parks is now deemed a waste of tax money.  So far we've not heard anything from the hotel and so we're going ahead with our plans, which are to fly to San Francisco, rent a car (Karen may be the driver) and travel to the park from there.  After 5 days of communing with nature, we are thinking of returning to SF and flying to Las Vegas, though our brains may explode from the contrasting experiences.  I'll let you know how the plans progress.

 

Karen and I played golf on Thursday.  It went pretty well. I got two bogeys and Karen got a par. These weren't manifestations of fantasy golf, either.   Karen's par and one of my bogeys occurred on our last hole of the day, a par three.  We both hit fabulous tee shots that landed on the green, though mine was considerably farther from the hole than Karen's.  Karen nearly putted a birdie  There were a number of other shots during the day that were surprisingly good, though there were also quite a few that required some fantasy adjustments.  As we were playing I thought of a new putting technique that I may try next time.  It involves using a bit of glue to attach a string to the ball, looping the string around the pin, and then pulling until the ball drops in the hole.  Perfect putt every time!  Notice, this requires no skill, no ability, no knowledge, and no ethics.  It fits nicely with the new administration's strategy for making appointments to high offices.

 

Pele is still pulsing, with the eleventh episode since December 23 ending this week after a brief period of fountaining that lasted about 12 hours.  Unfortunately these pulses have occurred close enough together to keep our vog levels high along our coast. If you've seen video of these recent episodes, you might think that the whole island is being inundated with lava.  However, as I've pointed out before, the active vents are actually in a very small corner of the summit caldera.  Video can be real but very misleading at times.

 

That's it for this week. Stay warm, enjoy your thaw. And as always, Carpe Vitam.

Bad Paint, Sore Arms, Magic Act

Note: This is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland. Since much of my news these days relates to trying to age gracefully, this series might be called The Geezer Gazette.]

2/22/25

 

Aloha Everybody!

This week I learned that old house paint is not like wine --- it doesn't get better with age.  In fact, it's more like humans with their definitive expiration dates.  Last week I wrote that I was going to paint my new 

A Vintage Year

stair railings to match the walls.  Being the miser that I am, the paint I used was left over from a project a few years ago. Usually I write the date I bought  paint on the can, but this time I didn't, so I'm not sure exactly how many years ago that was. At first the paint seemed fine -- it mixed well and went on smoothly.  However, after several hours I found that it was still tacky and had a rough feel to it even though it was supposed to be smooth semi-gloss. I waited a couple of days but it didn't get any better.  Finally, I  bought a new can of paint, sanded down the railings and painted them again.  BIG difference!  Lesson -- don't be a cheapskate when it comes to home projects.  It will only cost you more work.and money in the end.

 

My second mea culpa of the week involved our Valentine's Day Covid vaccinations.  Covid is very low here at the moment, so there was no urgent health reason to get the latest boosters yet. However, we felt that getting them not only added to our protection against the disease, it was also kind of a political act -- a message that we believe in the overwhelming body of scientific data that shows vaccines are safe and effective.  "Shows" here refers to the extremely high probability of positive outcomes and the very low probability of truly serious negative ones. Of course it is very common to experience short-term discomfort after receiving vaccines, a sign that our immune systems have been successfully tricked into manufacturing antibodies for battling the real disease from the vaccine's harmless virus fragments.  In this case both of us had surprisingly little reaction at first.  Then, shortly after I published last week's missive, we both got slammed with sore arms, achy muscles and joints, and  in general a feeling maybe like being it by a Mack truck. This lasted into Sunday but by afternoon we were well enough to do a light workout at Planet Fitness.  Lesson:  a little pain can lead to a great gain, and even make a statement against political idiocy.

 

We didn't play golf this week, but we did go to the practice putting green and the driving range at Makalei.  The putting went ok, although whoever designed the practice green made it devilishly difficult -- a chance to practice getting frustrated as well as your putting skill. Driving practice was a different story. The Makalei driving range is on a slope with a great view of the ocean about 5 miles away.  The horizon is low in your visual field because of the downward slope. and this means that a well-hit ball is immediately high enough so that it is against a sky/cloud background.  If you have good eyesight this isn't a problem.  If you don't, like Karen and me, then it is as if the ball has instantly disappeared.  If you're lucky you may see where it lands, but that requires knowing the trajectory of the ball, another eyesight-dependent task.  I found that if I stood directly behind Karen I could usually see where her ball was going, and likewise she could see mine from behind.  I suspect this arrangement was somewhat humorous for other golfers to watch.  Also, it was a good thing the price is based on the number of balls you hit and not the time it takes to hit them. We followed our duo magic act with a lunch at Patricio's Taqueria down near the shore, a tasty reward for our efforts and angst.

 

Ok, off our our usual Saturday morning activities. Stay warm. Stay calm. Smile.

  

Game Day Surprise, Golf Champ, Stair Railings, Pele's Afib

Note: This is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland. Since much of my news these days relates to trying to age gracefully, this series might be called The Geezer Gazette.]

2/15/25

 

Aloha Everyone!

 

We usually look forward to Super Bowl Sunday -- but we don't watch the game.  I'm not a big football fan, and although I enjoy some of the ads, it is easy to see them online without the surrounding hoopla. Instead of watching the game, we take advantage of the fact that Super Bowl Sunday is normally one of the two days of the year when it is blissfully quiet at Costco and we can get our shopping done with minimal hassle. (The other day is when the Ironman Triathlon is being held.)  However, this year we were surprised to find lots of people in the store who apparently were like us -- indifferent to the BIG game.  Any ideas?  Was this match up not interesting?  Was the billed half-time entertainment not as alluring as usual?  Gosh, what an intriguing mystery. Well, maybe not. Anyway, we still managed to finish our shopping fairly quickly, so it wasn't really that bad.

 

Toll Taker

On Wednesday I played more Fantasy Golf, and I had a stupendous, stunningly great, super-stellar, fabulously fabulous round.  In fact, I fantasized  so well I may soon qualify for the annual Seniors Invitational Fantasy Championship Tournament, to be held this year at some very fancy club in Florida, I believe. We saw lots of strutting Peacocks again, including one that barred the cart path to the first hole, convinced the cart was a very large and attractive hen. Karen got a par and a couple of bogeys.  I did not. As the day went along it clouded over and I got really cold. Back in my new Subaru I hit the seat warmer button and that helped speed my recovery a lot.

 

Before

My big house project this week was installing a couple of inside stair railings. These flights of stairs both have only a couple of steps, so the building code doesn't require railings. I put them on as an aid to maintaining balance going up and down -- a geezer precaution.  Anyway, since they are very short flights of stairs, the big challenge was finding appropriate wall studs to anchor the brackets securely.  I was able to do it,

After. Mo' Betta.

but it meant shifting the beginning and ending points of the rails a bit.  After painting the rails to match the walls, I think they will look pretty good and be functional as well.  I only had to employ the SAM technique (Structural Modification and Adjustment) once, when I used a file to make up for a slight error in the angle of the end cut on one rail.

 

The big Geezer Gazette  news this week is that .....there is no news.  Yup, a whole week without a single medical appointment!  Karen was supposed to receive a pair of glasses in the mail that should help her distance vision greatly, but USPS has delayed delivery for over a week. Lately this is not uncommon here and is mainly due to the shipping method being changed to ocean cargo.  This doesn't happen every time, but when it does we may not get something we ordered online for a couple of weeks.  Other times a package of the same size arrives in 3-5 days. It's yet another of life's puzzles. My eyes seem a bit better, but are still very far from where I wish they would be. My heart is still beating -- regularly as far as I can tell from my home ECG measurements. 

 

Speaking of hearts, Valentine's Day was low key.  We went to lunch at one of our favorite open air restaurants along the shore in town.  Then as a gesture of mutual affection we went to our local pharmacy and got our latest Covid booster shots.  We were glad to get them before our newly appointed Secretary of Health decides to ban vaccines ...... I also ordered the latest Apple Air Pods as a present for Karen.  These are upgrades to her current pair, and they include a hearing aid feature.  Pretty romantic, eh?!

 

In keeping with the heart theme, Kilauea's current eruption is exhibiting an Afib pattern .Since December 23 there have now been nine times when a couple of vents in the summit caldera have spewed lava in fountains as high as 200 feet for hours or days, then shut off.  All is quiet right now but the volcanologists are predicting this will happen again in the next 3 to 6 days.  This pulsing pattern is something we haven't seen in our 25 years of living here. However, we have observed that Kilauea is unpredictable and always changing.  Frankly, this is one of the things I really like about living here-- the island is very much alive and in a highly visible way.

Ok, that's it for this week.. Be good to each other and to yourselves.  As always, Carpe Vitam.