Panel Pau, Quiet New Year, New Skin Doc, Grand Jury

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

1/6/24

 

Aloha All ---

 

Remember last time when I said I fixed some leaks I found in my roof-top solar pool panels?  Nope.  If anything my "fix" made matters worse.  When the system shut off and the panels drained, a goodly amount of water was flowing into the house gutter, rather than back into the pool like it is supposed to. 

So simple, right??

My assessment was that the whole panel would have to be removed or bypassed until a more permanent solution -- like replacing the entire 20-year old system -- could be done.  BUT there just isn't enough time to get estimates and line up the job before we leave for Africa.  So, I did a bit of by-pass surgery by cutting out the bad panel and just running new tubing across the gap.  A "simple" job that took two very hard days of sawing and twisting and pushing and pulling and a LOT of swear words.  I won't regale you with the whole story, but suffice it to say it was a typical "thisdoesn'tlooktoohardIbetIcandoitmyselfreallyeasilybutonethingleadstoanother" project.  Anyway, I got it done and no leaks (!).  However, I still have my bubbly pool and I've got a couple of parts on the way that I'm hoping will take care of the problem.  Obviously, when I return from Africa the pool is going to be a major focus of my time, money, and angst.

 

Our New Year's Eve was pretty mellow this year.  I opted not to set off any fireworks and we had a quiet dinner and early bedtime.  At midnight the area became pretty lively, and one pyro-enthusiast kept going until well after 1 a.m., timing his explosions to occur just as we were finally drifting off to sleep.  On Tuesday we hosted a dinner for two of our friends who live upslope near Makalei golf course.  Another couple was supposed to join us but both of them have a recurrence of some nasty respiratory bug (not Covid) and they didn't want to expose us this close to our departure date.  Very considerate but disappointing not to have started the new year with their company.

Karen and I both made visits to a new skin doctor on Wednesday, and these went well enough that we are likely to switch permanently from our previous dermatologist.  We have been patients for many years, but the old one has been reorienting her practice more and more to purely co$metic stuff -- you know, "dermamold",  "thermasculp" and "tone&tuck", that kind of thing.  Lately she's even into running a weight-loss program, which to me has nothing to do with dermatology.  At the same time she's been raising her rates for checkups and medical procedures, a move which stings because she's one of the many physicians here who don't take insurance.  The new dermatologist seems dedicated to the medical side of things, and even better, she takes our insurance.  We'll see how it works out, but so far so good.

 

I have taken down all the Christmas lights and other decorations on the outside of the house.  We left the tree up until this weekend because Karen hosted a book club yesterday and wanted her friends to see it, but it will go back into the box today or tomorrow.  The living room will seem awfully dark without it.

I've saved the best news for last.  My name wasn't one of names that were drawn for Grand Jury duty! This was one lottery I was quite happy not to win.  I showed up at the local courthouse at 8:30 a.m. yesterday and the whole process took about 2 1/2 hours.  After I learned exactly how the Grand Jury operates, I realized my objection wasn't necessary.  Sixteen jurors are selected for each of two separate juries, and each one meets once per month during the year.  Only 8 jurors are needed at any one meeting, though, and no more that 12 ever have to attend at one time.  Even better, the exact dates are known for the entire year, and if you can't serve on one more more, you can easily get out of some sessions.  So, even if I had been selected, I could have simply told them I was going to be gone for the next couple of meetings and there would have been no problem. Note, this is a case of ignorance leading to the wrong conclusion and much unwarranted worrying about a problem that didn't really exist.  There may be one or two other people in the country who are guilty of this, I'm not certain.....

Ok, we off for our usual round of Saturday morning events, our last until we return.  I'll try to get something off to you next week, but it might be brief.  Take care, carpe diem, be kind to others and to yourselves.