[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.]
11/15/25
Aloha Tout Le Monde!
How's that for linguistic virtuosity?!
Jet lag faded pretty quickly this time, and we both felt fairly good by last weekend, This week I've been almost back to normal, which includes my fondness for a couple of deep naps each day. On Sunday we did a light workout at PF, and we were once again reminded of how quickly the geezer body can become a blob of flab if you don't keep at it. Yesterday we tried to do some practice putting and ball-whacking at Makalei, but we were rained out before we even started. Despite this we may try to play a round sometime this coming week. Watch out, Peacocks!
Shortly after we got home last week I received my replacement motor for one of our roof ventilation
fans. You may recall that a couple of months ago I noticed it wasn't working, so I ordered a new motor. On Wednesday I sent my handyman up on the roof to bring down the fan housing so we could work on it. Everything went very smoothly -- we easily loosened the bracket holding the old motor and it was then simply a matter of taking off the old fan blade and putting it on the new motor. However, the project came to a screeching halt when the set screw holding the blade on the old motor shaft wouldn't budge. We tried everything -- more torque, penetrating oil, heat, lots of swearing. My handyman is pretty strong, and if he couldn't loosen it no one could. We gave up and reinstalled the roof unit temporarily until I could get a new fan blade and set screw -- given shipping delays these days, I thought it would probably another couple of weeks until this "simple" repair is complete. In other words, a typical home maintenance snafu. However, the fan blade arrived yesterday, just two days after I ordered it on Wednesday! This is definitely as good as it gets here. The shipping was USPS Ground Advantage, which can take anywhere from two days to two weeks, depending on variables we don't understand. It has nothing obvious to do with the size of the package or whether it's in a box or an envelope, or where it's coming from. Before you brag about your wonderfully fast Amazon Prime shipping, let me report that the same thing is true for those orders. It's yet another example of how unique living in Hawai'i can be. Anyway, hopefully we'll get the job done next week.
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| All you have to do is... |
In Geezer Gazette news, last week I dropped by my cardiologist's office to have his nurse paste a
heart monitor on me. This is the third time I've done this over the past year and I'm great with it. This device is like a Fit Bit on steroids. It monitors your heart 24/7 for two weeks and collects very detailed data about the state of your ticker. I'm betting it will show that my afib incidents have increased in number and duration, but they have remained mild in the sense that my heart rate usually stays below 100 and I'm mostly asymptomatic. Also, not all afib patterns are equally serious, and I think mine is pretty tame. Anyway, I'll see my cardiologist in a few weeks to go over the results and discuss any changes to my treatment plan. BTW, I'm a little envious of my friend in Ohio who has one of these kinds of monitors permanently implanted under his chest skin. It's very small and the battery lasts about three years. It uploads his data automatically to his cardiologist and he gets a regular report. At some point I may ask my doc if he thinks that would be a good idea for me.
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| Fit Bit on Steroids |
heart monitor on me. This is the third time I've done this over the past year and I'm great with it. This device is like a Fit Bit on steroids. It monitors your heart 24/7 for two weeks and collects very detailed data about the state of your ticker. I'm betting it will show that my afib incidents have increased in number and duration, but they have remained mild in the sense that my heart rate usually stays below 100 and I'm mostly asymptomatic. Also, not all afib patterns are equally serious, and I think mine is pretty tame. Anyway, I'll see my cardiologist in a few weeks to go over the results and discuss any changes to my treatment plan. BTW, I'm a little envious of my friend in Ohio who has one of these kinds of monitors permanently implanted under his chest skin. It's very small and the battery lasts about three years. It uploads his data automatically to his cardiologist and he gets a regular report. At some point I may ask my doc if he thinks that would be a good idea for me.
Turning to external geezer news, on Tuesday I had a quick follow-up exam with my dermatologist. This was just to check a couple of areas that she noticed at my last exam. Both have healed nicely, so far now all is good. I go back for my yearly check next spring. No news is usually good news in geezerhood. I have some new info on my eyes, but I'll wait until next time to regale you with that.
A couple of final tidbits. First, the 36th episode of our volcano's eruption-on-the-installment-plan came and went last week after a mere 5 hours of high (1000 ft) fountaining. The brevity of this meant that there were a number of people who traveled to see the eruption and either arrived just as it ended or missed it altogether. Pele can definitely be a mischievous tease at times. Second, we enjoyed our river cruise so much we have tentatively booked another one -- this time on the Magdalena River in Colombia. Some of our Ohio friends are doing this right now. We were going to wait and get their assessment, but it sounds so good we decided to go ahead and reserve space before all the spots are taken. We visited Colombia previously for about a month and enjoyed it very much, but we didn't spend time in this area. The cruise isn't really long enough for our travel style, so we're working on a 10-12 day private land tour in Panama to precede the Colombia portion. The trip will likely be in March and April next year. Kind of exciting.
Ok. Off to market and beach breakfast. Take care, stay warm -- both physically and psychologically.
2 comments:
I imagine you are going to like the Columbia trip and spring is the right time. I've been up and down the roads on both sides of the Columbia for most of my life. It's always a great road trip. Somehow the boat trip looked like more of the same and we haven't done that. Probably narrow minded of me. While you are there consider going by the Fort Clatsop where Lewis and Clark ended their westward trip in 1805. I thought it would be a mild yawn, but it was actually a very pleasant and informative tribute to the history of their trip.
When I go to Columbia the trip pays for itself 10 times over.
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