Nose Tweak, Toe Attack, Blind Drilling

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

3/20/21

 Aloha All –

You may remember that last week I went into detail as to why our side of the island seldom gets a lot of rain, sparing us from the floods that hit the windward side.  Nature heard me and tweaked my nose by proceeding to drop 1.65" of rain that day at our house, as measured by my garden rain gauge.  We aborted our usual Saturday market stop and beach breakfast picnic, and didn’t emerge from the house for the rest of the day – except for one time when I had to clear our driveway drain in front of our garage that was clogged up, creating a lake.  I can still claim vindication, however, because the Hilo side got something like 18".  We haven’t got much rain since, but the afternoons have been cloudy with just enough rain to be a pain.                

Predator in Paradise

Speaking of pain, on Wednesday we were just finishing our lunch by the pool and I was carrying my dishes back into the house when my fork jumped out of my hand and landed tines down on one of my toes. As usual I was just wearing flip flops, so my feet were bare. Therefore this hurt a lot.  Really a lot.  A WHOLE lot.  AN AWFUL LOT! It also drew a little blood, though not much.  I quickly washed the toe and put on antiseptic, but I didn’t have to bandage it and the pain subsided enough to not bother me much for the rest of the day.  However, that evening as we began watching tv the pain returned and this time it felt like I might have broken the toe.  I couldn’t flex it without excruciating pain, and it seemed to be swelling.  I put an ice pack on it for an hour or so and that helped, and with the help of a couple of doses of Ibuprofen I slept ok. Thursday the pain was better, although I still couldn’t flex the toe. The pain went away as the day wore on, and I was able to work out at PF with the exception of one machine.  I now think it wasn’t broken, but that one joint had became inflamed and caused the pain.  Today all seems ok, but I’m remaining cautious around predatory silverware.
                    
My big house project this week was replacing the approximately 25-year old blinds in our upper guest room (they were here when we moved in, so I’m just guessing as to their age).  These are the horizontal slat kind, which are nice here because they can be adjusted for privacy and still allow air to flow through the windows. We had to special order these because they have to be custom cut to fit our specific windows.  The first hurdle was to make sure they really did fit into the openings, and it was a relief to find they did.  The next challenge was actually mounting them.  Naturally, the old brackets couldn’t be reused, so I had to drill new holes for the mounting screws.  This is usually a piece of cake, but in the bathroom it meant drilling 10 holes through the stone tile that lined the window openings.  Tough enough, but it had to be done standing in an awkward position while maintaining a lot of pressure on the drill.  I got it done, but I really needed that Planet Fitness workout to unkink my muscles afterwards.  They’re up and look very nice, a slightly lighter color than before, and *seem* to be secure..... Of course, this gave us the opportunity to clean the windows and the surrounding areas, so we’re still finishing putting everything back together.  Oh, I should mention that these blinds are a favorite spot for our geckos, who like to lie on the open slats.  I’m sure it won’t take long before they occupy the new ones.

That’s about it for the week.  Hope you have all dug out and that your weather has once again lulled you into thinking spring has come (note, my nose tweak hasn’t dulled my meanness).  Take care.  Stay safe, warm, and healthy.