Muscles, Eyes, Skin, and Lava Episode 33

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.]

9/20/25

Aloha Everyone!

 

This was a very physical week -- by my standards, anyway.  Karen and I returned to Planet Fitness and also played golf, neither of which we had done for over a month because of our trip to the Northwest. Even though we tried to ease back in to them, both activities resulted in same experience -- being pooped and having very stiff muscles.  The golf actually went pretty well at times -- I got two pars and a bogey. Karen got a par on one of the same holes that I did -- a dual achievement.  Unfortunately I couldn't keep up that level of performance, and on several holes I was absolutely lousy.  Part of the problem was that if I had a good shot that went a long distance, we couldn't find the damn ball, a frustrating result of a recent downturn in my vision caused partially by my retinal edema.  I had an injection on Tuesday, but the medication really hadn't kicked in yet by the time we played golf on Thursday. I have to say that of all my current health problems, the one that concerns me most is my eyesight. Hopefully a new pair of glasses will help somewhat, and I have an appointment next week with my optometrist.

 

In other geezer news, yesterday I had my 6-month checkup with my dermatologist.  It went pretty well, but I do have a thingy on my neck that might be a basal cell carcinoma, a very treatable form of cancer. I'll go back in November to have this spot checked again, along with some other suspicious areas.  Isn't this fun?

 

My final bit of news is that Kilauea acted up again this week, Episode 33 in this ongoing eruptive period

Just Gurgling

that began last December.  The volcano had been quiet since Sept, 2, but according to the scientific measurements, it was building up pressure for another fountaining event.  The prediction was that it would start sometime between 9/17 and 9/22.  Sure enough, on the 17th it started spitting up new lava for brief periods of what is called "dome fountaining" -- low gushes that would come and go for short periods.  Then a continuous fountain began early Friday morning, reaching 800 feet before settling back to about 300 feet high. 

Main Event

Around noon, after just nine hours, it was all over, but current measurements suggest another episode will occur after a period of recharging.  Also, the volcano spits out more than just lava.  S02, the gas that is the main component of Vog, also gets ejected in huge quantities.  During this latest episode it was measured at 50 thousand tons of gas per day.  Once this gets around the tip of the island and up along our coast, we get a period of increased pollution, which is what we are experiencing right now.  This probably won't last long, though -- maybe a few days.  Don't breathe and you'll be just fine.

 

Ok, that's it for now.  Have pleasant dreams of our fading liberal democracy -- it may yet come again. In the meantime, Carpe Vitam. 

Smoky Trip, Sunny Week, Maintenance Catch-Up

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.]

9/13/25

Aloha Everybody!

 

We got back from our quick mainland trip last Saturday evening. Overall it was a good trip, though our

What do you see?

drive through the Cascade Mountains turned out to be more of  a drive through the "Smokies." Smoke from wildfires in the area dulled the view of the countryside, particularly the day we drove through North Cascade National Park on our way back to Seattle.  A recent fire in the area reduced visibility even to the point that driving was a challenge at times.  Normally that route is supposed to be beautiful, but we'll have to rely on the guide book photos to verify that.  In addition, the six days we spent in Rainier Park and on the Cascade loop coincided with a hot and sunny spell that produced 100+ degree days. We had to limit our outdoor activities to either before noon or after 6 pm.  Despite the heat, the night time temps dropped to the low 50's, well below my Hawaiian comfort level. Note, that makes for a daily swing of nearly 50 degrees!  If all this sounds like our experience last summer in the Canadian Rockies, it was indeed very similar -- minus the passing out and visit to the ER, of course.

 

Chihuli Glass

    I don't want to sound too negative, however, because there were also some very enjoyable aspects of the trip as well.  Seattle was great, as were our quick visits with our friends in Portland.  We found Seattle to be a very enjoyable place (good weather there, by the way).  It was easy to get around, and very inexpensive with our Golden Geezer bus passes.  We stayed in a comfortable historic hotel in Pioneer Square called The Arctic Club, near another historic building, Smith Tower, built in 1914.  Smith was the Smith in Smith-Corona, and for decades his building was the tallest skyscraper outside of New York. Our anniversary dinner was at a nice French restaurant tin the famous Pike Place Market overlooking Eliot Bay  We also went to three museums that were a "hoot" -- not a term I usually use to describe a museum. One was a museum dedicated to the work of renowned glass sculptor Dale Chihuly. He personally curated the pieces

Trust me, it's ok

that are shown here, and they are absolutely stunning.  A second museum was one that just recently opened, The Museum of Illusions.  There are several of these around the country, including one very fittingly located in Las Vegas.  As the name implies, both classic and novel illusions are very effectively and informatively presented, and many of them are interactive and large-scale.  We enjoyed this place very much.  The last museum was the Boeing Museum of Flight.  This huge facility not only has an amazing collection of real planes, there are two simulators that allow you to try your hand at the controls. One involved trying to land the Space Shuttle, which I crashed three times in a row.  The other was a jet fighter simulator that would actually turn upside down if you wanted to (or weren't skillful with the controls).  I quickly discovered that being Top Gun is very hard -- I didn't crash, but I wasn't able to shoot anything down either.  

 

Back home, this past week has been peaceful and uneventful.  Several days have been clear the whole day, with the result that our PV system is well ahead of the game for the first time in months.  The pool temperature has risen to the high 80's, which feels very comfy.  My projects around the house have mainly focused on fixing things that I've been putting off.  For example, I spent several hours one day repairing our outside garden lighting system to get a couple of lights working again.  I also got caught up on cutting back a clump of bamboo that quickly gets out of hand if you don't routinely keep it under control. With my recent health issues preventing my from whacking it back, it had done just that.  

 

Ok, that's my news for this week.  Hang in there and keep a tight grip on what you know is true and good. Carpe Vitam! 

Golf Mishap, Fixing A Robot, Fighting Fires

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.]

816/25

 

Aloha!

 

I hope you are all enjoying your summer, despite the upsetting domestic and international news these days, as well as the crazy weather in many parts of the world. We have had somewhat drier conditions here, but it still has been cloudy a lot of the time.  We're on our way to our fifth month in a row that our pv production has been in the hole. At least the warmer nights have kept our pool comfy.

 

We played golf on Wednesday for the last time before we return from our mainland trip.  It was a pretty good round, despite an embarrassing and slightly bloody mishap on the 2nd hole.  I was doing very well

Skid Marks

up to that point, and I was close to the green in fewer shots that usual.  As we do often at Makalei, I had driven the cart to a place that made for a shorter walk after finishing the hole. This tends to speed things up because the other player(s) can be chipping and putting while I reposition the cart. Unfortunately this meant I had to walk down an embankment to get to my ball, and on the way I slipped on a patch of dirt, fell backward on my ass (the embarrassing part) and skinned my right arm that I used to break my fall (the bloody part). This was partly a result of my delusional still-20-something brain telling my geezer body that it could function like it used to, and my body saying "Oh yeah?"  Anyway, I staunched the flow of blood with tissues and bravely

My First Wedgie

finished the hole.  Back at the cart we washed off the wound with bottled water, dried it as best we could with a paper towel, and slathered on some alcohol hand cleaner to disinfect it temporarily.  I kept going for the rest of the day and did quite well (by my standards), finishing with 4 bogeys.  At home I thoroughly washed my wounds, soaked them with vinegar, then coated them with antibiotic ointment.  So far so good -- no sign of infection -- but the scabs shout "geezer-guy walkin' here!"

 

On a more positive note. my home maintenance project this week was successfully fixing a problem with  our pool robot.  This little guy is a marvel of engineering.  It runs entirely off our vacuum return line, no electricity or electronic parts at all. Water and debris are sucked through an opening in the bottom of the robot, travel through a hose to a port in the side of the pool, and from there to the filtration system.  The robot travels all over the bottom and sides of the pool, driven entirely by hydraulic action.  The water flowing through it turns a turbine that powers "feet" on each side, and a mysterious gear box deep in its innards randomly varies which foot gets more power, causing it to turn left and right.  It is also

Rodney The Robot

engineered so that every part of the robot can be replaced easily, and I've learned how to do this over the years.  About a month ago the robot started favoring left turns, which results in inefficient coverage because it twists its tube into a knot. There are a few reasons for this problem, but I narrowed it down to the need to replace several parts inside. I ordered them online and this week I took the robot apart, installed the new parts, and voila, back to normal.  Total cost about $50, labor free (well, a good beer that afternoon was perfect payment).

 

We've finished making our travel plans for our trip to the Northwest, and we're in prep mode around the house.  Since this is just a two week trip, we don't have to be as thorough as we normally are when we're gone a month or more. We're getting kind of excited -- this is our first trip since last spring when we went to Yosemite and Las Vegas.  One potential wrinkle in our plans, though, is that there have been a number of wildfires in the area we are visiting.  We're hoping this won't lead to a repeat of last summer, when fires and smoke in Canada made for very unpleasant conditions. We've learned over the years, though, that plans and reality don't always coincide, and more often than not a mismatch leads to positive experiences, not negative ones. In fact, on-the-fly problem solving is one of the aspects of independent travel that we value highly.

 

Ok, that's it for this week.  I'll check in again when we return.  Carpe Vitam 

Testing My Tacks, Making Travel Plans

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.]

8/9/25

 

Aloha All!

 

This week I got back to physical activities that have been restricted during my recovery from surgery.  On Sunday I did a complete workout at the gym, though with very light weight settings on the machines.  My routine makes use of about a dozen of these self-torture devices, each of which targets a different set of muscles.  I also usually use a pair of free weights to do a quick shoulder muscle exercise.  I didn't hear or feel any tummy tacks popping loose, but by Tuesday my muscles were really  sore and stiff.  Obviously they objected to getting back to work after a nice lazy 6-week vacation.  I also resumed my usual gardening and house maintenance chores, like catch-up pruning, pushing our trash bin to the top of our driveway for weekly collection, using my heavy backpack blower to clean dust and debris from our walkways, lanais and pool area, and hauling my garden sprayer around with a couple of loads of weed-killer.  I also did some outdoor repainting of one of our lanai railings. Another test came on Thursday, when  Karen and I played golf.  I whacked my way through a full (for us) round and had some pretty decent shots, winding up with three bogies.  There has been less rain on the course during the last week, so the drier grass helped the ball roll farther. Thankfully the extra distance cut down the number of fairway shots, each of which required a full swing and really tested those tacks.  They seemed to hold ok, but by the end I was really pooped and glad to get home for my afternoon dip in the pool followed by a rather deep "nap."  After all of this week's effort and resulting soreness, my conclusion is that it is easy to let a geezer-body get out of shape and very difficult to get it back in.....

 

With all our health uncertainties we haven't made many travel plans.  We have our Mississippi river boat trip coming up in October, but other than that we haven't made any commitments.  This is unusual for us -- normally by this time we have a good idea of the trips we want to make next year and even have made some preliminary arrangements.  Besides the health issues which make exotic travel

Seattle

daunting right now, even relatively easy foreign travel doesn't seem attractive at the moment, due to international political conflicts, local attitudes toward tourists, weather extremes,  and our country's self-imposed pariah status. Nevertheless, our wanderlust has gotten the better of us and we've decided to take a quick 2-week trip to the Pacific Northwest at the end of this month.  We're going to focus on Seattle, the Cascade Mountains, and perhaps zip down to Portland to visit a couple of friends who live there.  We've been to Seattle before, but it was a long time ago and a very brief visit.  Our current plan is to spend several nights in Seattle, then rent a car and drive the Cascade Loop, a circular route that is supposed to be very picturesque.  We will do this leisurely, with multi-night stops in a couple of places along the way.  If the weather cooperates it should be just what the travel-doc ordered.

 

Episode 30 of Kilauea's eruption came and went this week.  It was another bubbler rather than one with high fountains like the one we saw.  Driving all the way down to see it would have been rather disappointing, and we are glad we timed our visit as well as we did.  The fountaining may return, but for now the show is relatively subdued.  The various monitoring devices indicate another episode of some kind is coming, we'll just have to wait to see what it produces.

 

Ok, that's it for now.  Off to market and beach breakfast.  Be well and be good -- we could use more of both qualities in the world right now.  Carpe Vitam.

A Tsunami, My Royal Tooth, A Birdie !

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.]

8/2/25

 

Aloha Kakou!

 

There were several items of interest that occurred here this week.  First, as you undoubtedly heard, we were threatened by a tsunami on Tuesday, the result of an 8.8 earthquake off the coast of Russia.  Though this was huge and locally quite damaging, by the time the tsunami traveled 2k miles to reach us, it was pretty pooped out by the journey -- much like our jet-lagged, sleepy-eyed tourists. A typical tsunami travels about as fast as a passenger jet (about 500 mph), and we had plenty of warning that something was coming.  However, we didn't know for sure how big the tsunami was until it passed a network of monitoring buoys to our west.  Bottom line is that we had virtually no damage.  However, the 

LOUD

state was taking no chances and shortly after the earthquake we started hearing sirens along the shore accompanied by warnings pushed to everyone's cell phones. I received my first one as I was at the dentist paying for my long-awaited crown to fix my broken tooth.  I'd say the warning system worked very well here -- I can't imagine very many people not being aware of what was going on.  However, when an evacuation order was given things didn't go so great.  Due to poor urban planning and haphazard development, there are very few roads that lead away from our tourist-laden shoreline. I've mentioned this before in the context of the devastating wildfires on Maui a few years ago.  Our roads weren't quite as jammed as they were on Oahu, photos of which you may have seen on the news, but it would have been faster to have just walked inland a short distance.  The state also ordered large ships to leave harbor to avoid having them cause huge damage if the tsunami shoved them around.  Also, it is much safer to be in a ship away from shore, because there the tsunami "pulse" is just a rise in the ocean level and often barely noticeable in open water.  There were two cruise ships visiting the island of Hawai'i that day, one in our harbor and one over in Hilo.  The order to leave port came when a number of passengers were on excursions and they couldn't get back before the ships had to leave.  The stranded passengers weren't just left to fend for themselves, though, and were well taken care of by the cruise companies, rejoining the ships the next day. However, a few people demonstrated what seems to me a stunning degree of self-absorption by complaining on social media that their ship should have waited for them.  Let's see -- risk the lives or injuries of hundreds versus inconveniencing some who could easily get out of harm's way.  Really?

 

As I hinted above, on Tuesday my broken tooth became royalty -- it now wears a bright new crown!  The final session in the dentist's chair went very quickly compared to the one where the tooth was prepped and a mold for the new crown was made.  The final piece fit perfectly and it didn't take long to glue it into place.  I haven't had any problems with it, other than my tongue is bored without something to continually explore.  The whole restoration process took almost three months.  I broke the tooth on May 1 and it was finally fixed on July 29.  Patience, Grasshopper.

 

My final bit of news is that I passed my 6-weeks-from-surgery point this week, and that means I can now abuse my body with abandon.  Well, maybe not, but it does mean I can get back to activities that were restricted while my innards healed.  Like golf.  On Wednesday I played at Makalei with Karen and our golf buddy.  Since my muscles haven't really done much work for 1.5 months, I decided to ease back into the game by just playing about half the holes and sitting out the rest.  It went very well, including my tee shots which require a fair amount of effort and stretching. I even got a birdie, my first-ever.  Granted, it was on a short par-three hole, and I had to invoke the Kona-a-Lago rule of "If it hits the pin, it's in," but  still.......  By the end I was pretty pooped, and my body was telling me "enough!"  The last couple of days I've felt a bit stiff and sore, but mainly in my muscles, not in the area of the surgery.  Obviously it will take some time and effort to get back into shape, but I'm pleased with the progress so far.

 

Ok, that's it for now.  Take care and keep to the middle course. It's saner in the center. Carpe Vitam.

Car Surgery, Eyes On Hold, Golfishness

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.]

7/26/25

 

Aloha Folks!

 

In earlier missives I've noted that it takes patience to live in paradise.  Everything takes longer and is more difficult to accomplish than on the mainland.  This is partly due to the mellow, laid-back attitude of those of us who live here. Another is that there is a shortage of goods and service providers compared to the mainland, leading to delays in obtaining everything from root canals to auto parts.  My wife's 2003 Mazda

Yikes!

Miata developed a transmission problem that required parts that had to be ordered because they weren't available here. We patiently awaited their arrival for weeks because they had to be shipped (literally "shipped") from foreign suppliers. My guess is that a mechanic on the mainland could have obtained them in just days.  Anyway, they finally arrived and the car went in for surgery early Wednesday morning.  This is a major repair that requires removing the transmission and disassembling it to get to the problem. It took 1 1/2 days and a bank loan to finally retrieve the car on Thursday.  Despite its age, Karen loves the car and won't part with it, no matter what the cost, so it was definitely worth it.

 

In other news, I saw my retina doctor on Tuesday and there was no sign of significant edema in either  eye. Good report, except for the possibility that it might flare up soon -- scheduling a follow-up too far out might miss nipping the problem in the bud.  Treating either eye now isn't advisable, because administering the shots too close together can actually cause worse problems.  So I'll return in two weeks for another exam. As you might guess, I have just about memorized the eye chart, making assessments of my acuity pretty much worthless for deciding when an injection is called for.  The only test that is really informative is a laser scan of my retina called an OTC (Optical Coherence Tomography). It produces a detailed image of the retina that can be viewed in layers and on edge, like a CT scan. In my case it shows precisely how much edema there is and where it is.  Since it is objective rather that subjective like the eye chart test, it is much more diagnostic for the need for an injection.  And it is quick, painless, and has no ill effects. The eye chart test is painless, but it is slow and frustrating.

 

Yesterday Karen and I got back to Makalei, after a couple of weeks off.  We were joined this time by our frequent golf buddy, who just returned from a family reunion on the mainland.  The weather was very

good, with several periods of sunshine and no rain.  We even saw some mother peacocks with babies in

Peacock Paradise

tow, 4 in all.  I again did mostly chip shots and putting, but upped the number of them and even tried a couple of more distant shots.  It went pretty well.  I'm trying to gently exercise my abdominal muscles since they  haven't been used much for almost 6 weeks.  On the last hole of the day I decided to go all out, including a tee shot that was surprisingly and pleasingly very good -- in fact, I wound up getting a PAR for the hole!! Next week I may try to play at least some of the holes for real (well, Kona-a-Lago real).

 

Ok, that's about it for this week.  Off to farmers' market and then a beach breakfast.  Stay cool if you can, and consider that showing compassion and kindness doesn't necessarily mean that you condone someone's behavior.  Carpe Vitam!

Mo' Betta Birthday!

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.]

7/19/25

 

Aloha Everybody!

 

The biggest news of the week here is that Tuesday was my xx-st [content censored] birthday.  I am pleased to report that it was, as we say here,"way mo' betta" than a year ago.  On my last birthday you may recall that I was rudely reminded that the human body has an expiration date, and that Nature doesn't really care what your plans may be. We were in Canada at the beginning of a bucket-list trip to spend time in the beautiful Canadian Rockies.  The plan was to fly to Vancouver for a few days, then take the overnight train to Jasper and from there make our way to Banff, enjoying the dramatic scenery and idyllic countryside as we traveled by car. From Banff we were going to fly to the contrasting Arches National Park in Utah, a starkly different area of natural wonders.  However, my birthday celebration was quickly muted by (a) getting Covid, (b) having a sudden downturn in my vision, (c) experiencing an allergic reaction to something unknown that made my tongue swell up and my feet and hands itch like crazy, (d) becoming dehydrated to the point of passing out at the beginning of our first hike, (e) winding up in the Jasper ER and being diagnosed with persistent Atrial Fibrillation, (f) arriving in the Canadian Rockies during an episode of wildfires that filled the air with smoke, closed off some scenic areas, and destroyed a big part of Jasper the day after we left.  We shortened our trip and flew home, where I quickly became involved with more physicians and medical tests in a couple of months that I had encountered in my entire life to that point.

 

This year was far more pleasant.  Most of my medical issues have either stabilized (heart, eyes), or are moving in a positive direction (hernia surgery).  Last week I was treated to two early and unplanned birthday presents -- shows featuring lava fountains and Formula 1 cars.  On Tuesday I wanted to keep things simple and low-key, and it worked out great.  The birthday card Karen gave me captured my goals

Birthday Dreaming

beautifully -- the cover featured a bear snoozing contentedly in a tree, the epitome of taking it easy. For my lunch restaurant I chose one of my favorite guilty-pleasure places -- Taco Bell (!).  The rest of the day featured a dip in the pool and a couple of naps.  Dinner was at home because I really didn't want the hassle of going to one of our several high-end places in Kona.  The menu was a combo of my favorites:  a rare steak that I cooked to perfection on my grill, al dente angel hair pasta with truffle oil (purchaaed during our last trip to Europe) topped with lots of freshly ground Parmesan cheese, a side of buttered peas, and a mixed salad that included greens from our garden sprinkled with bits of Gorgonzola cheese.  No fancy wine, but instead one of my favorite beers, an Imperial Pale Ale that paired perfectly with the pasta.  I was a very happy birthday boy!  On Wednesday evening our neighbors treated us to dinner at Ola Brew Pub here in town, which has another of my favorite beers, a hazy Ipa called "Mo' Hazy."  This is a low-key, informal place that fit my birthday preferences perfectly.

 

To top things off, Karen gave me the perfect geezer birthday present -- a FitBit Charge 6 wrist band. This high-tech marvel monitors my heart rate, heart rhythm including Afib, exercise level, stress level, sleep quality, temperature variation, breathing rate, toenail growth, halitosis level, hair loss, dental hygiene, etc, etc., etc.  Now I can really be obsessed with health issues! Think of the ammunition I'll have during those geezer-guy get-togethers.....

 

In other news, our crappy weather has continued for yet another week.  We're on track to have a fourth consecutive month in which our p.v. system doesn't cover our usage.  This is unprecedented and getting really, really, old.  Despite the cloudiness, our pool temperature has stayed in the acceptable range, though some days we have to go in during the rain.  I've not read any clear explanation of what might be causing this pattern, nor how much longer it might last.  I just hope it's not the new normal. And of course I can still console myself with the fact that the weather in many other parts of the world is much worse right now.

 

Carpe Vitam. Enjoy your summer.  As things heat up, I find myself yearning for the good old days when "ICE" was just something we put in drinks to make them cold...