How To Put Screws and Little White Balls in Holes

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

3/12/22

Aloha Everyone!

Spring yet?  The signs here are getting clearer:  our pool temp made it up to 84d this week, another cruise ship visited, and the plumeria around town are starting to bloom again, as are the Silver Oak and Jacaranda trees.  Oh, and the snow birds & whales are starting to leave.

Our Covid situation has continued to improve and restrictions are loosening.  In a week or so our indoor mask requirement will be discontinued, and the vaccination/testing procedure for visitors may be dropped.  It's almost like normal times, though I'm probably jinxing it by saying that.  This virus is still around and will be with us in less disruptive form for a long time, like the flu or colds.  What's not so normal here is our continued lack of rain that is leading to some serious drought conditions in certain areas.  Usually at this time of year we get afternoon showers at least, but I haven't measured any significant moisture for a couple of months now -- until last night. We finally had a decent rain starting around dinner time -- I haven't checked my rain gauge yet, but I bet it was .25" or more.  Both humans and coquis are happier.  The forecast is for more this afternoon and evening, but the predictions are notoriously "iffy" here.

I got my holes drilled for the new bathroom hardware I told you about last week.  The first one took a long time and a lot of effort, even though I thought I had the correct drill bit for going through stone tile.  Then I searched online for "how to drill holes in stone tile," and learned that there is a difference between a masonry drill bit (for brick and concrete) and a special bit for various kinds of tile, including marble and granite.  Quick trip to the toy store and the rest of the holes were fairly easy.  The hardware is now up and looks good. However, this is one of those projects where I'm the only person who appreciates the difference.

On Thursday I was called into duty as substitute golf partner when Karen's usual partner had other

White Peahen

plans. We both did pretty well.  I managed to get 4 (!) bogeys and 1 par, even though the first three holes were lousy -- I just couldn't seem to hit the ball.  My excuse is that on those holes we saw a lot of Nenes (11 on the very first hole) and the Peacocks were really active doing their mating dances, which is spectacular to see.  Karen's friend played later in the afternoon and saw a pure white female, something that is very unusual.  She snapped a photo and sent it to us. Other golfers have said they've sighted her in the past, but Karen never has.  We must have passed right by the spot where she hangs out but we didn't see her.

We made our flight reservations for the Caucasus trip, which we hope will still go despite current craziness.  At the moment we're convinced there isn't any reason to cancel, but if enough other people on the tour back out then the company may have to cancel it.  We'll see.  There's no problem with the plane tickets -- we can shift the credit to other flights without penalty -- but we really don't want to.

OK, that's all for this week. Off to market and to our usual beach breakfast picnic.  Take care. Get those shorts ready!