Fixing a Robot, Making Coqui Ceviche, Taking Over First Place

[Note -- this is another in my series of blogs based on weekly emails I send to my family on the mainland.]

10/10.20

Aloha Everybody – Hope you’re still enjoying your fall.

We’re surviving here, although at times the news these days threatens to overwhelm even our rather idyllic life here.  It’s like being hit in the face with a shower of toxic sewer sludge.  I combat this by trying to keep busy and focusing on the positive moments as much as I can.

For instance, this week I solved a maintenance puzzle that has been bugging me for several weeks.  We have a robot pool cleaner that runs around the bottom and sides of the pool sucking up debris and rubbing off algae.  He’s a cute little bugger, about the size of a pumpkin with little feet on either side of the body that provide propulsion in kind of a waddling motion.  The random pattern it follows is a marvel of hydraulic engineering, determined entirely by water flowing through a gearbox mechanism. The exact principle is something I’ve never quite figured out.  Like anything else that is mechanical, the robot needs occasional maintenance to keep it running correctly.  I’ve gotten quite good at doing this myself with parts easily available online. One occasional problem these particular models have is that the movement pattern begins to favor turning one way more than the other and it starts just going in circles.  This tangles the hose that carries away the debris to the filter and the robot can’t do its job any more.  I’ve fixed this problem before several times (thanks to YouTube, of course) and it is usually due to a bad bearing that is easily replaced or some other issue that is pretty obvious.  Not this time, however, and over the last couple of weeks I’ve replaced almost every innard the thing has without success. Finally, I noticed the foot on one side wiggling more than the other – subtle but enough to screw things up.  Turned out to be a bushing that was worn on one side but not the other.  Swapped out the bushing and voila!  Even my pool man was impressed.

Despite this success there are still other challenges, of course.  The coqui frogs are still trying to move in, but so far I’ve managed to keep them at bay.  On Tuesday I cleared a huge amount of stuff from an area that borders the infested property next door to make us a less attractive breeding ground.  This seems to have helped but my muscles are *still* recovering.  My fellow coqui warrior in the neighborhood tried something this week that seems to have been very effective, though limited in where you can do it for safety reasons.  It seems that agricultural lime powder * (used to balance soil ph) is very deadly to coquis and for a while it was an approved treatment for controlling them. The usual technique is to blow the powder into the foliage with a leaf blower, creating a cloud of dust that coats everything with a fine coating, including the coquis.  The lime is tolerated by most plants but not by human lungs, it turns out.  People were applying it without proper precautions for themselves and neighbors, and it lost its approval. That doesn’t mean people don’t still use it in certain instances. The area that my fellow warrior used it on was a large patch of Monstera (large leafy plant that looks like a philodendron) that he shares with a neighbor.  Coquis love this plant and there were a dozen or more in that area.  With the neighbor’s agreement and with proper protective gear he treated the area one night this week and it has been blissfully silent ever since. I’d like to use it on my next door neighbor’s property, but as I mentioned before he refuses to try to control them.  Wonder if he has the same attitude toward rats, cockroaches, or termites.  

On the Covid 19 front, our west side of the island has now moved ahead of the Hilo side in terms of the number of new cases in the past month.  Whoopee.  Quite a few of our new cases, but not all of them, are connected with the University of Nations missionary school that I mentioned last week.  About 800 staff, students, and community contacts have now been tested and we’re waiting for all of the results.  So far it looks like it has been well-contained, but I’m remaining somewhat skeptical.  Yesterday we had a record number of new cases on the island, and 4 more at the University of Nations. In the midst of this upsurge is the possibility of opening up to tourists again this month, probably with a second test required after arrival. What a quandary, though -- we need the money from tourists but our meager hospitals are nearly at capacity now. What will happen with even a modest increase in cases?

On a more positive note, we had a good workout yesterday at PF.  Arrived about 12:30 and just about had the place to ourselves.  Our guess that Friday was less busy than Thursday was correct. We followed the workout with a take-out Vietnamese sandwich at the beach and a long nap when we got home.

Ok, on that happy note I’ll close.  Off for our usual Saturday morning routine of market, beach breakfast, and a few errands.  Take care everyone.  We’ll get through this somehow.  Right?

 

*[Disclaimer:  Ok, Ok. I know that Ceviche is actually made with the lime from citrus trees, not from agricultural lime, which is a mineral.  I suppose Coqui Ceviche could be made that way, too, but I don't really propose eating coquis with either preparation.]