A Tsunami, My Royal Tooth, A Birdie !

Note: This is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland. Since much of my news these days relates to trying to age gracefully, this series might be called The Geezer Gazette.]

8/2/25

 

Aloha Kakou!

 

There were several items of interest that occurred here this week.  First, as you undoubtedly heard, we were threatened by a tsunami on Tuesday, the result of an 8.8 earthquake off the coast of Russia.  Though this was huge and locally quite damaging, by the time the tsunami traveled 2k miles to reach us, it was pretty pooped out by the journey -- much like our jet-lagged, sleepy-eyed tourists. A typical tsunami travels about as fast as a passenger jet (about 500 mph), and we had plenty of warning that something was coming.  However, we didn't know for sure how big the tsunami was until it passed a network of monitoring buoys to our west.  Bottom line is that we had virtually no damage.  However, the 

LOUD

state was taking no chances and shortly after the earthquake we started hearing sirens along the shore accompanied by warnings pushed to everyone's cell phones. I received my first one as I was at the dentist paying for my long-awaited crown to fix my broken tooth.  I'd say the warning system worked very well here -- I can't imagine very many people not being aware of what was going on.  However, when an evacuation order was given things didn't go so great.  Due to poor urban planning and haphazard development, there are very few roads that lead away from our tourist-laden shoreline. I've mentioned this before in the context of the devastating wildfires on Maui a few years ago.  Our roads weren't quite as jammed as they were on Oahu, photos of which you may have seen on the news, but it would have been faster to have just walked inland a short distance.  The state also ordered large ships to leave harbor to avoid having them cause huge damage if the tsunami shoved them around.  Also, it is much safer to be in a ship away from shore, because there the tsunami "pulse" is just a rise in the ocean level and often barely noticeable in open water.  There were two cruise ships visiting the island of Hawai'i that day, one in our harbor and one over in Hilo.  The order to leave port came when a number of passengers were on excursions and they couldn't get back before the ships had to leave.  The stranded passengers weren't just left to fend for themselves, though, and were well taken care of by the cruise companies, rejoining the ships the next day. However, a few people demonstrated what seems to me a stunning degree of self-absorption by complaining on social media that their ship should have waited for them.  Let's see -- risk the lives or injuries of hundreds versus inconveniencing some who could easily get out of harm's way.  Really?

 

As I hinted above, on Tuesday my broken tooth became royalty -- it now wears a bright new crown!  The final session in the dentist's chair went very quickly compared to the one where the tooth was prepped and a mold for the new crown was made.  The final piece fit perfectly and it didn't take long to glue it into place.  I haven't had any problems with it, other than my tongue is bored without something to continually explore.  The whole restoration process took almost three months.  I broke the tooth on May 1 and it was finally fixed on July 29.  Patience, Grasshopper.

 

My final bit of news is that I passed my 6-weeks-from-surgery point this week, and that means I can now abuse my body with abandon.  Well, maybe not, but it does mean I can get back to activities that were restricted while my innards healed.  Like golf.  On Wednesday I played at Makalei with Karen and our golf buddy.  Since my muscles haven't really done much work for 1.5 months, I decided to ease back into the game by just playing about half the holes and sitting out the rest.  It went very well, including my tee shots which require a fair amount of effort and stretching. I even got a birdie, my first-ever.  Granted, it was on a short par-three hole, and I had to invoke the Kona-a-Lago rule of "If it hits the pin, it's in," but  still.......  By the end I was pretty pooped, and my body was telling me "enough!"  The last couple of days I've felt a bit stiff and sore, but mainly in my muscles, not in the area of the surgery.  Obviously it will take some time and effort to get back into shape, but I'm pleased with the progress so far.

 

Ok, that's it for now.  Take care and keep to the middle course. It's saner in the center. Carpe Vitam.