Fires, Leaks, Pars & Pads

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

8/12/23

Aloha Folks --

Well, Hawai'i joined the year's devastation club this week and did it dramatically.  I'm talking of course about the wildfires on Maui and here on our island.  Maui was really hit hard, particularly the waterfront town of Lahaina, which is a somewhat larger version of our Kailua waterfront.  Both have (in the case of Lahaina, HAD) a core of old wooden historic buildings that epitomize "flammable."  Most were built in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The picturesque setting, along with the tourist shops and restaurants that now occupy them, are (were) a big tourist draw.  The fires on Maui started inland and were pushed toward the ocean by high winds, cutting off the few escape routes.  Dozens of people were killed, as you probably know, and hundreds of buildings and homes were destroyed.  It will be a long time before Maui recovers in the Lahaina area, but much sooner in other parts of the island. Naturally this will be a blow to the island's visitor-centered economy, which was just getting back to pre-Covid levels. The fires on our island were up north near some of the megabuck resorts, one of which was evacuated briefly, as well as a residential area called Kohala Ranch.  Very little damage occurred, perhaps because we didn't have the strong winds that Maui did.  By the way, the news attributed the high winds to Hurricane Dora, but that is misleading.  Dora passed 1000 miles to the south, normally too far to have any effect on us.  However, a pressure system to our north interacted with the hurricane pressure and produced the winds that fanned the fires.

The saga of the water leak continued this week.  I found another couple of leaks in the garden system and fixed them, and ran careful checks on the usage for each zone.  One zone seemed very high and my calculations over a 2-month billing period suggested it would account for the recent high bill.  Until I rechecked my calculations and found...ahem..an error that wiped out the high usage value altogether.  This left 2 possible explanations.  First, while we were gone something went kerflooey, like a toilet that didn't shut off after my handyman checked it on his weekly visits.  Second, the new meter is inaccurate and reads 30% too high.  I checked the meter's accuracy by noting the before and after readings when I filled a one gallon container.  It was exactly one gallon.  Likewise toilet flushes were exactly correct. I also checked the meter's consistency by running my irrigation cycle a couple of times and getting exactly the same values each time.  The one-off possibility is by far the more probable of the two at this time, and this is reinforced by the fact that so far my usage is normal for the period.  I've now done all that I can, and I'll have to wait and see if this problem has somehow gone away on its own.

Speaking of leaks, the edema in my right retina returned and on Tuesday I had an injection.  The timing is good, because I knew I couldn't last until we returned from our Balkan trip.  Unfortunately the clinic was out of the new drug (Vabysmo) and so the doc had to use Eylea instead.  It should be ok for the time being.

Karen and I played golf on Monday, and this time it was gorgeous. In fact, my solar system recorded an

Lots of Photons

almost perfect day as far as its power curve. I played pretty well  -- 2 pars (!) and a bogey.  We did the 16-hole version of our game, still not the full 18 but way better than the rained out game we had last week.  On Thursday we went to Planet Fitness, though it was tough to convince our bodies to do it.  We hadn't been there for several weeks and we were definitely overdue.  Whomping soreness yesterday was the penance for being remiss.

In the fun news department, I got a new Ipad that I recently ordered and got it all set up.  The old one was getting very slow and the battery needed replacing.  I could have had the battery replaced, but the money would have just given me a slow device with a longer lasting battery.  Besides, a new techno toy is always a treat.

That's about all -- kind of a busy week by our standards.  We're beginning our preparations for our trip, though the real push won't be for awhile yet. Take care, stay cool and remember that contrary to the crazies, there is nothing wrong with the middle.