Dinner With Friends, Two Toys, Another Virus Vanquished

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

4/10/21

Aloha All –

Last Saturday evening we drove up to Waikaloa Village (about 30 miles north) and had a very good Italian dinner with mainland friends spending the winter with their daughter, who is a teacher in Waimea. It was a beautiful afternoon drive along the upper road with a brief stop at Makani Golf Course (the one where Karen saw

the 40-50 Nenes) to admire the Jacarandas, which are tall, stately flowering trees that bloom each spring for several weeks.  Since we arrived early at the restaurant, we decided to drive on down to the coast to assess the tourist population in the rental condo complexes in the Waikaloa resort area.  When we were there last summer it was a ghost town, and very eerie.  This time it was really jumping and nearly every parking lot was full – clearly one of the sources of our newly returned traffic jams. Anyway, we enjoyed dinner and seeing our friends (all of us are now vaccinated, so we were pretty relaxed being with them).

Speaking of vaccinated, on Thursday after our Planet Fitness workout we both had doses of the newest Shingles vaccine.  This was Karen’s second shot and my first.  Like the Pfitzer Covid 19 vaccine, this is also a two-shot combo administered about 2-6 months apart.  I was very relieved that Karen is now protected, because as you may recall, I had Shingles about 6 years ago and it is a really, really, painful experience that is best avoided.  We both had received the older vaccine, but it was only about 60% effective, and I was one of the unlucky 40% .  The new vaccine is over 90% effective.  I might have some immunity from having had Shingles, but I’m not taking any chances.  It is a long-lasting and sometimes excruciating rash that in my case reset my pain scale upward by a couple of notches.
    
Early in the week I finished setting up a new receiver that drives our home entertainment system.  The old one developed a problem holding a wireless signal, so it was time to upgrade.  The setup wasn’t too bad, except that the connections were close together on the back of the unit and it took me a couple of tries to get all them on tight.  Another techno-toy I played with this week was a new router.  The cheap unit I got to quickly get us connected again worked ok, but once I had a chance to do more research on the latest and greatest technology available, I decided it was time to go up the a more high-powered unit.  I ordered one online and I got it set up on Wednesday.  The installation went ok, except for way too many wasted hours and angst caused by putting the internet cable in the wrong slot.  Once I figured that out it all went smoothly, and the transfer speeds and strength of the signal are definitely better.  I’ll probably keep the other new one as a backup or I may try to sell it online.

Ok, that’s it for the week.  We’re going to be busy with our trip preparations next week, but I’ll try to send one more update before we leave.  

Take care.  Stay safe, enjoy your spring.