Travel Plans, Eyeballs, Gold Stars, and Clues

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

6/18/22

Aloha All!

My jet lag is almost gone, though it sure is easy to take a nap.  We've got most of the garden and house chores caught up, and things are returning to "normal."  We even managed a light workout at PF on Thursday, and the pool got warm enough for us to get back in for a few times during the week.  The weather continues to be weird, though, and after a few good days it's now returned to the rainy, cloudy, and cool pattern we've had all spring and now into summer.  Looking at the mainland weather reports, though, I know it could be way worse.

As I expected, my eyeball didn't need a shot last week, and I'll return in a month for another checkup.  With the retina problem more or less under control, I talked to my doc about cataract surgery.  Mine aren't that bad (he said they were "moderate") but friends who have had the surgery almost all say they were pleasantly surprised by how much difference it made.  My issues are the usual -- fuzzy lights at night, and difficulty adjusting to a darkened place after being in bright light.  Still, I'm not sure yet whether I'm bad enough to justify the operation.

Now that we've returned from the Caucasus trip we've begun to plan our fall trip -- our river cruise on the Danube followed by a couple of weeks traveling on our own through Germany and the Czech Republic.  It's been quite a while since we've planned this kind of journey and it involves a fair amount of active research and decision-making.  A group tour, of course, is easy once you make the initial choice.  But I find it rewarding and informative to fashion our own itinerary -- I learn a lot about the destination, what there is to see and do, where to stay and for how long, etc., and in the end I feel much more invested personally in the trip than when we've on a tour.  Once we're on our own after the river cruise, we''ll be splitting our time between Germany and the Czech Republic as we make our way north to end in Berlin.  We've been in both countries before, but we didn't spend as much time in the Czech Republic as we would have liked. That time we traveled by train and were limited in the places we could easily visit.  This trip we'll have a car and therefore be much more free to explore.

Two big events this week took place yesterday.  The first was that we both got our driver's licenses renewed (!).  I know, this doesn't sound like much, but because of the backlog here caused by Covid, we've had appointments to do this since before we left for the Caucasus.  Also, for me this will be the time when I get my "Gold Star" version (the so-called REAL ID required by TSA).  Whoopee.  A downside of the renewal this time is that I now fall into the Geezer category and from now on will have to renew every two years. Pain in the **s but overall a good idea to protect the public at large I suppose...

The other event yesterday was that we went to a community theater production of CLUE.  Really cute, and the locals did a very good job.  The venue was just south of us in a town called Kainaliu,  at the Aloha Theater, a vintage movie theater now converted for live performances.  It holds about 200 and has very good acoustics.  This was the first time we've attended a performance there since before Covid, and we really enjoyed it.  The only precaution we were required to take was to wear a mask.  This, like the lowered precautions at the gym, is making me a bit nervous because our new cases increased last week, and hospitalizations almost doubled.  At this point all you can do is be defensive and hope for the best.

Today we will return to our usual Saturday morning routine of market, beach breakfast picnic, and errands.  After so much discombobulation lately I'm ready.

Take care, avoid crazies, germs, and enjoy your summer.