Shorter Waiting List, Hurricane?

[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.

7/25//26

 

Aloha Everyone!

 

My big news this week is that two of the items on my waiting list were taken care of.  As you may recall, about a month ago we got an estimate for doing some tree work -- namely lowering a couple of trees called Podocarpus by about 20 feet, and trimming another one back to the property line.  These trees are vigorous growers and reach heights of 60-80 feet before you know it.  They have

Hi Tech Tree Whacker

to be kept in check or it can be difficult and expensive to get them back to manageable levels, a lesson we learned the hard way this week. We finally made it to the top of the schedule on Thursday.  It was quite an operation, with a crane that had a claw and a saw at the end rather than one where the trimmer works from the bucket at the end of the arm.  Instead, an operator was on the ground and guided the tip to the branch to be cut with a remote control device. Then he had the claw crab the branch and hpld it while the saw cut if off.  The crane operator then swiveled the arm and dropped the branch in a convenient spot for workers to feed it into a shredder.  Pretty neat. Unfortunately I had to leave before the job was done and I didn't notice that the final height of the tree was still too high, so the trimmers may have to come back to do more work.  Still, quite an improvement.

 

Also on Thursday (!) I finally saw my cardiologist to go over the results of my heart monitor.  It was about a month ago that I sent the device in to be analyzed, but Thursday was the first available appointment I could get to learn what my cardiologist saw in the results.  Bottom line:  all good. During the two weeks I was wearing the monitor I had no afib episodes at all.  This jibes with my FitBit device that hasn't recorded an episode since March 9.  Yippee!  Given these results, plus the fact that I am constantly self-monitoring with my FitBit, the doctor felt that I could stop taking my blood thinner after gradually reducing the dose over the next week.  This is very welcome news on several fronts, including reducing the blood stains on our sheets and my clothes, as well lessening the vanity-deflating bruises all over my geezer carcass. 

 

Still on the waiting list is getting the a.c. problem fixed in my '24 Outback.  It's been almost 3 weeks since the car was in for service and when repair parts were supposedly ordered. The plan was to contact me when they arrived and make an appointment for them to be installed.  I've heard nothing but the sound of crickets......I called last week and the person I spoke with said she couldn't see any notes indicating the parts had arrived, but that she would check with the Parts and Service Departments and get back to me.  More crickets  It looks like once again I will have to show up in person and get them to deal with this.  Sheeesh!   

 

In more sobering news, there is a hurricane heading our way, foretasted to arrive Tuesday or Wednesday.  As usual, this one is coming from the east-southeast, so it will primarily effect the Hilo side of our island.  The predicted track right now is for the center to pass to the north of Hawai'i .  This puts Maui, Oahu, and Kaua'i on the direct path.  Fortunately DOGE didn't fire everybody at the NWS, so we are getting pretty good tracking and forecasting information well in advance.  The next couple of days will give a better idea of how serious this is.  By the way, do you know the difference between a cyclone, a hurricane, and a typhoon?  This came up at a party a while back and so I did I bit of a dive for information on the distinction. The answer is that hurricanes and typhoons are both tropical cyclones, storms that draw energy from warm ocean waters and produce rotating winds.  The term hurricane is used for cyclones in the west, while typhoon is used to refer to them in east.  Here's an authoritative description from NASA:  "Over the Atlantic and East Pacific, tropical cyclones are commonly called "hurricanes." The common term is "typhoon" for a tropical cyclone that forms in the West Pacific. Tropical cyclones are called just "cyclones" in the Indian Ocean and near Australia." Now you know!

 

Ok, I'm off to Farmer's Market and a beach breakfast picnic.  Take care.  In your spare time you might consider this question:  Can someone behave like a toddler, a bully, a buffoon, and an ignoramus all at the same time?  Any examples come to mind?