Let's Bogey; Skylight Blues; Foreclosure No Mo'

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

11/20

Aloha Everyone!

The front that came through last week brought us hardly a drop of rain.  We did have a couple of days of mostly cloudy weather and an uptick in humidity, but that's about it.  The remnants of the front are still around and it has been warmer -- we even ate dinner outside by our pool the other night, and we ran the a.c. in our bedroom a couple of nights this week.  We did get some light sprinkles Thursday and Friday night -- not enough to do the garden much good but enough to wake up the coquis and to obscure the lunar eclipse.  I see from the weather reports that at night you've been dipping below the temperature at which water turns to ice.  As I recall that can be downright painful....

In Covid news, our island inched up another notch in terms of vaccinations to 68%, still going slowly but at least improving.  The daily infection rates have been dropping a bit, too, but we'll have to see what happens after Thanksgiving -- lots of gatherings means lots of opportunities for viruses to crash the party.  At least with breakthrough cases the severity has dropped and the demand for hospital facilities has eased off.  The unvaccinated folk will at least have a shot at a ventilator. We're going to a friend's house for a pot luck, and I'm a little nervous because there will be almost 20 people.  We will be outside most of time, and I plan on wearing my mask.  We're pretty sure that all of those attending will be vaccinated, but that still doesn't mean we will be 100% safe. The odds are good enough though to give it a try.

My skylight project is all done and it really looks better.  Of course, this is one of those projects where only I notice the difference.  I'm going to have to revisit this in the near future though, because one of the opening mechanisms has to be replaced because of a gear problem.  I've located a source online and it should be a simple job.  I'm also toying with the idea of installing motorized openers with remote controls.  Right now we open and close the skylights with a long rod that attaches to a crank mechanism. It would be much more convenient to just push a button.  On the other hand, the motors and buttons would add to my growing inventory of electronic gizmos and gadgets that could go bad....

A big event in the neighborhood this week was that a boarded-up house at the end of the street is finally getting some attention.  The property has been in limbo for years because of legal issues surrounding its foreclosure. Several years ago a squatter tried to move in but the neighbors got together and nipped that in the bud.  It was then boarded up to prevent others from trying again and has been an eyesore ever since.  But suddenly this week a big dumpster arrived and someone is cleaning out the debris and starting to fix it up.  The neighbors are ecstatic.  This is certainly the time for a new owner (or maybe the bank) to fix it up and maybe sell it.  Our real estate market is hot, and houses are selling for ridiculous prices, including ones that aren't particularly desirable. This will also spice up the neighborhood gossip, too, as we find out more and speculate about the progress.

Enjoying the Show

My golf outing this week went well, though I only got one bogey (Karen got 2 pars and several bogeys).  In general I think I played better and more consistently.  Some of my tee shots were surprisingly good this time, but my putting wasn't so hot. Yet again the weather was beautiful, although the course is getting very dry and the fairways were somewhat brown.  However, the dry grass allowed the ball to roll a long way and probably saved several strokes on the downhill holes.  But on the uphill holes there were a few times when the ball rolled backward away from the

Snack Time

green, despite my loud verbal commands not to. Bad ball!  We counted 28 Nenes this time.  Remember, these are the endangered state bird that looks like a Canada Goose, but is in fact indigenous to Hawai'i and has a number of characteristics that are quite different. One that is the same, however, is the poop that we have to watch out for when we play.  Golf courses are a haven for Nenes.  The have ample ground cover in the rough areas for nesting,  plenty of room to forage on the fairways and greens, and even ponds and small lakes to swim.  Nenes migrate but not very far, usually just from one end of

Definitely A Tough Shot From Here

the island to the other, and from higher to lower elevations.  They'll be at Makalei from now until late next spring, and we should start seeing babies in mid-winter.  

 

 

Ok, that's it for now.  Hope you've got your winter gear ready. Make sure that thing ... do you call it a "snow shovel?" is handy.  Heh, heh.