Jurassic Hiking, Doctor Woes, Unmaking Travel Plans

[Note: this is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland.] 

2/6/21

Aloha All –
                       
Hope you’re staying warm (heh, heh).  We are now in the depths of winter here and it is of course terrible.  Three times this week the low temp on our bedroom lanai was down to 62d and last night it plummeted to 59d!! Can you imagine?  Of course, you guys have furnaces to crank up.  We have heating pads and more blankets.  What a hard life!               

Last Saturday Karen went golfing and I went on another short hike.  This one is a favorite of mine, dubbed “Jurassic Park” by locals.  The name is misleading, because plants during the Jurassic Period

A true "Cloud Forest"

were nothing like the foliage on the hike, but it is definitely a primitive-looking forest of ferns and odd-looking trees.  It is on the side of Hualalai, not far from where Karen was playing golf but higher, at about 3000k ft. elevation, in what is called a “cloud forest.”  The name is apt because almost every afternoon at this elevation, clouds form from the meeting of cool air high up and warm moist air rising from the ocean and land below.  This is the kind of misty environment native ferns and other flora love, as well as our native Ohia and Koa trees. It is also a place that visitors can hear and maybe see some truly indigenous birds, because at this elevation they have largely escaped the devastation of avian malaria brought in by introduced birds

Fern fuzz --very soft

who stay at lower elevations, along with the mosquitoes that spread the disease (also introduced).  Most visitors rush along the trail, which is only 1.5 miles long (but with several hundred feet in elevation change), and don’t appreciate the uniqueness of what they are seeing and hearing (and even smelling).  I like to take it slow and stop occasionally.  Anyway, it was good to get back here – I haven’t done the hike in almost a year.

On Tuesday I had a follow-up blood test and got the results on Wednesday.  The test was done exactly one week after the one that caused my dust-up with my doctor last week on Thursday.  Thursday was the day I stopped taking the diruetic that had lowered my sodium level, and in just 4 days it rose by 3 points to just one shy of the normal range.  No change in fluid intake, so the improvement was entirely due to stopping the drug, which in my opinion I shouldn’t have been taking in the first place.  I’ll have another follow-up next week just to make sure things are back to normal.  I’ve investigated the idea of switching physicians, and was pleased to find there are more alternatives now that the last time I had looked into this.  There’s no rush, and I’ll probably wait until it is time for another check-up. On a final and much more pleasant medical note – I had my yearly skin check by my dermatologist’s assistant and all is good. My little pre-cancerous thingies on my face are behaving themselves nicely.

We cancelled our May/June freighter cruise in Polynesia this week. Tahiti is now totally closed to visitors again, and even if they open up by the date of the cruise, the uncertainty will be just too great to make definite plans.  The cruise company offered either a refund or another rescheduling, and we chose to take the money.  Last year they offered only to reschedule us, so this was a chance to get out of it entirely.  Instead of Tahiti we may opt for somewhere on the mainland where there is nice spring foliage and flowers, like North Carolina.  We’ve always wanted to visit the Biltmore estate, and this might be the time to do it.  I’ll keep you posted.

That’s about it.  Stay safe and healthy.  Remember, only a month or so until spring!