Undoing Surgery, Fixing Time, and Corona Comes to Kona

 [Note:  This is another in my Mainland Missive series, based on weekly emails I send to my relatives on the mainland]

10/03/20

Aloha All –

Well, a reasonably quiet week here, but still some peak moments also.  First, I mentioned that last week I replaced the cooling fan in my desktop computer, only to notice that the new unit was making a faint but irritating high-pitched whine.  I tried to live with it for awhile but it got just too irritating so I put the old one back in.  It was still working but had occasionally started racing fast and loud for no good reason.  This wasn’t all the time, but often enough to warrant the attempt to fix it.  When I put the old fan back in I took care to clean the contacts and all the fins on the mother board, and so far it has been fine.  In the meantime, I complained to the vendor and although they offered to send a new fan I declined and opted for a refund instead.  They are letting me keep the one I bought and so I’ll use it as a backup.  Sometimes the best repair is one you achieve by undoing your first attempt.

My other house projects this week included some vigorous pruning of a bush we had our tree trimmers cut back about a year ago.  This is called “Star of India” and is a bullet-proof plant that can grow up to 30 feet or more, which is what it was before the tree trimmers whacked it.  I’m trying to keep the thing low so I can trim it myself, but it requires some heavy duty pole pruning while standing on loose lava rock. I always have my cell phone with me in situations like this to summon someone to save me from myself.  Also on the project list and definitely safer – was that I fixed two of our battery-operated clocks by replacing their motors.  Got to have constant reminders of the creep of time these days, right?

The other big event here this week was the sudden appearance of a number cases of Covid 19 on our side of the island, nine of them at the University of Nations campus.  This “university” is a Christian facility where young missionaries are trained, though their activities are now curtailed. Another cluster is rumored to be associated with our local Walmart, but we haven't heard confirmation of this yet. Remember, up until now our surge has been confined largely to the east and south sides of our island, so this is rather sobering.  The next week or so will be crucial in finding out how much community spread there might be, but so far the number of new cases each day is staying in the single digits (we even had one day of zero), but then a spike of 27, and yesterday 16.  We’re on a Disney World ride without the long lines.

We worked out at Planet Fitness this week on Thursday.  When we first arrived I was a bit nervous because there seemed to be quite a few more people than usual.  But it turned out most were likely there on there lunch breaks and they soon left.  By the time we were halfway done with our routines the place was comfortably empty.  We also are suspecting that Friday is a better day because people are focused on weekend fun rather than working out so there are fewer huffer and puffers.  We’ll see. We’ll switch back to Friday next week.

Had a pleasant dinner at one of our favorite open-air restaurants last night, Jackie Rey’s.  No view but still nice.  We regard this as one of the best-managed businesses on the island, and their survival through the pandemic is evidence of that.

Ok.  That’s it.  I won’t comment on the insanity, chaos, and destruction that is raging seemingly everywhere these days.  You hear enough from other sources, I imagine.  Instead, we’re off for our run to Farmers’ Market and a beach (now reopened) breakfast picnic.  It is gorgeous here and we’ll try to focus on something positive.

Take care.  Stay warm and stay healthy.