Saturday, January 25, 2025

Cloud Forest Walk, Eye Poke, Pool Cover Reel

Note: This is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland. In the last few editions I've related my aging woes to the extent that this might be called The Geezer Gazette.]

1/25/25
 
Aloha Everybody!
 
A Special Place
Last Saturday after I posted my blog, Karen and I joined a group walk through a special place here in Kona -- a "cloud forest."  The forest is on the side of Hualalai, the active volcano perched above our town. "Active" means still alive, bound to erupt again, but snoozing right now.  Not to be confused with Kilauea 90 miles to the south. The forest is a band of vegetation at about 3000 feet elevation. It's called a cloud forest because warm moist air from the ocean travels upslope during the day and meets cooler air at higher elevations, condensing to form clouds.  Trees and other vegetation enhance this process because their respiration further cools and moisturizes the air.  In places where the land has been cleared the condensation either occurs further up the mountain or not at all.  As you might imagine, a
Nature's Artwork

cloud forest is a cool, dim, and drippy place.  The plants love it.  Our guide, Norm Bezona,who is the originator of the 30-acre cloud forest preserve where we hiked pointed out trees that were 100 feet tall but only 40 years old, and plants that in other situations would be small house plants but here were big as Buicks. This is a rich and dense ecosystem in which everything is trying to find its niche and most have the resources to pursue this vigorously.  It was a fun and fascinating adventure to be sure, but I was glad to return to the warmth and sunlight nearer the shore.
 
Not much Geezer Gazette news this week.  Karen's eyes continue to improve but the progress has slowed somewhat.  My eyes are still not so good.  I saw my retina doctor on Tuesday and had a shot in my left  eye, the one that will be operated on next week.  I return in two weeks for an injection in the other eye. My heart continues to behave itself, even on reduced medication.  I feel much better lately, with a lot more energy and stamina.  That's not to say I still don't love a good nap. Or two.  Or three.

My big house project this week was replacing the solar cover reel for our pool. The reel is how we roll back the solar blanket that we use at night to keep the water warm and to reduce evaporation. A reel consists of two stands with cranks that turn a long metal tube between them that spans the width of the pool  The end of the solar cover, which looks like thick blue bubble wrap, is attached to the tube with straps. By using the cranks we can roll up the cover for storage during the day.  At night we just pull the free end of the cover and it unspools from the tube as we walk the length of the pool.The reel I replaced came with the house, so it was at least 25 years old. I repaired the cranks on the stands several times, but parts kept breaking as the plastic/resin became brittle from intense sunlight all those years.  I decided it was time to replace the whole thing and found one online that didn't cost an exorbitant amount to ship to Hawai'i.  The two crank assemblies were pretty easy to put together, but the tube took more work.  It came in several sections, some of which were slightly smaller and fit inside the others. The total length is adjusted to fit the width of the pool by sliding an appropriate amount of the smaller sections into the larger ones.  That part was easy.  To fix everything in place, the instructions called for me to drill holes through both sides of the assembled tubes and thread bolts all the way through.  It was surprisingly difficult and time-consuming to line up the holes and get the bolts in place.  A couple of times I had to resort to the handyman's last-ditch approach which I call the "SMA" technique -- Structural Modification and Adjustment.  This usually involves a hammer, saw, drill, or file and is often accompanied by an incantation of 4-letter words. Some people refer to SMA as the "Stand back, I'll make it fit"  technique. In this case I drilled the holes a bit bigger than specified and the bolts slipped right into place.  Hah! I also employed SAM to fix a problem with one of the cranks hitting the stand as it went around.  This took just a little modification with a file applied judiciously to the spot where the crank hit the stand.  Voila!  The project is now completed and the reel system works much better.

Ok, off to market and to our usual beach breakfast picnic. If there's enough energy left over, we may stop at Planet Fitness,  After that, I plan to return home for one of those naps I mentioned above.  Finally, things may be crazy right now, but that doesn't mean you have to be one of them.  Carpe Vitam.

1 comment:

Cecilia said...

Sorry your eye troubles continue. Glad your SMA worked, or more 4-letter words might have been called for.