[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.]
2/7/26
Aloha Guys!
Our guests from Ohio left on Tuesday to spend a week on Oahu before returning home. We had a good time, did some local sight-seeing, and had lots of good conversation. They had mostly dry weather for the couple of days they spent on the Hilo side of the island. This was fortunate, because the windward side of Hawai'i averages 130 inches of rain per year, whereas our side averages about 40 or less, depending on your exact location. The overall trip for them was well-timed to escape the cold and snowy mainland conditions. They won't return to weather as bad as when they left, but they'll likely encounter a 40-degree drop in daytime highs. As you know, this is well below my wimp threshold.
There's some important Geezer Gazette news this week. On Monday I had blood drawn to look for problems that might complicate next week's ablation procedure. A few things were slightly out of normal range, but my kidney function was ok, an important indicator of whether my system can clear the medications and drugs that will be administered. Of course, the test of how long it takes for my blood to clot was higher than the normal range, which shows my blood thinner is definitely working. My interpretation of the actual value was that it wasn't something that was a major problem for the ablation, but the surgeon would certainly want to know about it. On Wednesday we drove up to the hospital in Waimea for my special heart CT. We went up there because the scan required specific readings that the CT services in Kona can't do. The focus was on the dimensions and conditions of the chambers, veins, arteries, and valves, all of which were ok. The very important part of the scan is looking for the presence of any blood clots (fancy word = "thrombus") that might be jarred loose during the ablation, leading to a stroke. If there were any clots, I suspect this would have stopped everything in its tracks until they could be dissolved by medications. Anyway, I got a clean result so everything is on track for next Thursday at 7 am on Oahu. A positive feature of the trip to Waimea was that we had lunch with more Ohio friends -- the couple who visit their daughter each winter, who teaches at a private school in Waimea.
Speaking of Oahu and heart ablations (!), my neighbor was there this week for his second zap (not that uncommon) and I took care of his parrots while he and his wife were gone. He makes this pretty easy by preparing their special diet foods in advance, so it's mainly a matter of changing their cage liners and giving them fresh food and water. However, one of the birds needs special medication which makes it a bit more challenging. I mixed the liquid medication with a special fruit puree which the bird really likes, then spoon fed it to her. Fortunately she falls for it every time and seems to enjoy the attention. Good thing, because this is an African Grey Parrot with a beak that could easily take off my finger if it had cause to do so.
The ablationist for my neighbor's procedure is the same one I will have. This is good, except that both of his ablations had some complications, which I sure hope I can avoid, I really don't want to come out of this worse than when I went in, which so far is what has happened in his case. I'm eager to get it done but a teense anxious. Wish me luck. By the way, next week's blog may be delayed until after I return.
Finally, in the "these-people-are-definitely-losing-it" department, my wife and I have discovered a
new use for our swimming pool -- food defroster. The other night we decided to have salmon for dinner, which we had previously frozen. This decision came pretty close to dinner time, so we wanted to defrost the package quickly. Microwave ovens can do this, of course, but if you're not careful you can easily overdo it and start cooking the fish. My wife came up with the brilliant idea of tossing the (sealed) package into the pool for a while. Worked like a charm!
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| Swim Buddy |
Ok, that's it for this week. As I mentioned above, I may skip next week's missive or possibly make it a day late. I'll see. In the meantime, here's a homework assignment. Identify the author of the following quote. Hint: although it sounds recent, it isn't: “Propaganda must not investigate the truth objectively... it must present only that aspect of the truth which is favorable to its own side.”
Carpe Vitam.
