[Note: This is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland.]
12/16/23
Aloha Family ---
I finally got the results of my Cologuard test this week, and my poop passed with flying colors! In the report's words, "Cologuard did not find blood or abnormal DNA in your sample...You're unlikely to have colon cancer...The chance that a person with a negative Cologuard test has a colorectal
cancer is less than 1 in 1500 (negative predictive value >99.9%) or
has an advanced adenoma is less than 5.3% (negative predictive value
94.7%)." Whoopee! Next test is recommended in three years. If anything was missed this time around, two negatives would be very, very unlikely.
We got our Hawaiian Tel fiber internet service installed this week in a two-step process. On Monday a crew showed up to run the cable from the street to the box on the side of our garage where the old land 
line used to be. There were actually three old lines that were legacies from the olden days of wired phones. They removed those and coiled up a bunch of the new cable in the box. The fiber optic cable is remarkably thin and light weight. I had the guys strip back the insulation to reveal the actual information-carrying core -- a tiny hair-thin strand of clear plastic. Incredible. On Thursday another guy arrived to install the actual equipment and activate the line. Because of my advanced planning this took less than an hour and went very, very smoothly. The main piece of the setup is a small white box about the size of a business letter and as thick as a paperback book. The fiber light signal goes in and digital info comes out, thanks to many little digi-fairies inside. From there the signal runs to our router and is distributed throughout the house. I simply unplugged my Spectrum cable service from the router and plugged in my CAT6 to the new equipment in the garage, and in about 30 seconds I had made the switch, getting 4x the speed for less money. Very happy at the moment. Yesterday I called to cancel my Spectrum internet service. They immediately offered to match the Hawaiian Telcom price and increase my speed, but I told them they were a day late -- I already made the switch. They did, however, let me keep my mobile phone plan, so I'm I'm definitely a happy camper.
No golf this week but we did manage to go to the driving range and practice putting green on Thursday
after the cable installation. These are rather different than at most courses, I'm sure. The practice areas at Makalei are halfway up the mountain, so you have to have a cart. The driving range is down slope with a fantastic view of the ocean, framed by tall trees. In other words, it's a nice outing even if you don't play a round. We had beautiful clear weather, but honking wind. Like St. Andrews, but 40 degrees warmer and no rain. I did pretty good, certainly much better than last week when I couldn't seem to hit the ball. Hopefully some of this will carry over to the next time I play, probably next week.
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| Santa's Outrigger Comes to Town |
after the cable installation. These are rather different than at most courses, I'm sure. The practice areas at Makalei are halfway up the mountain, so you have to have a cart. The driving range is down slope with a fantastic view of the ocean, framed by tall trees. In other words, it's a nice outing even if you don't play a round. We had beautiful clear weather, but honking wind. Like St. Andrews, but 40 degrees warmer and no rain. I did pretty good, certainly much better than last week when I couldn't seem to hit the ball. Hopefully some of this will carry over to the next time I play, probably next week.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention the latest challenge to fulfilling my bucket list visit to Ethiopia. The judge rejected my written request to be excused! I got a call on Wednesday telling me the news, and that I must report on January 5th (7 days before we're scheduled to leave) "for the drawing of names for the upcoming Grand Jury." I'm hoping that somewhere along the line I'll be able to get excused on the grounds of pre-aranged travel that will be a financial hardship to cancel. Maybe my name won't even get drawn, which would be great. One positive to this: I will get paid $30!!
Finally, later this morning Karen and I will get our RSV vaccinations. I'm particularly motivated to get this because of my Emphysema, which would make any respiratory problems much worse. It's likely I'll have a similar reaction to this vaccine as I have to others, hopefully only lasting a few days. I'll let you know how it goes.
Ok, that's it for this week. Take care. Beware of false moral equivalencies. Stay warm.
4 comments:
Yay for your good poop and 🤞🏼on jury duty.
$30; Richard old buddy, old pal...
Richard, a Cologuard test is a nice way to go, but I do hope you get to experience the ultimate test, a colonoscopy, if you haven't already. The advance cocktail is to die for. It does seem very unreasonable to not excuse you from jury duty when you've already paid so much for the trip (x 2). Does the judge assume you have 100% refundable travel insurance?
Actually, I've had two C-probes and a down-the-throat probe, too. I had the fun of *three* preps -- an extra because I didn't get cleaned out enough once and they sent me home before the procedure. Pooping into a tupperware container was WAY better.....
See latest blog (1/6/24) for update on Grand Jury duty.
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