Ships Ahoy, Double Doc, Pele Pops Off

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.

10/17/26

 

Aloha Fellow Strugglers!

 

Well, the Iron People have left and things have quieted down considerably.  Last week's race went well. The weather wasn't much of a factor after all, except that high surf on race day made a number of athletes seasick, resulting in a fair amount of barfing at the beginning of the bike portion which immediately follows the swim. This has happened a few time before, especially effecting athletes who can only train in swimming pools or lakes. They also have the disadvantage of not being used to seeing sharks watching them from below.  Other than that, it was cloudy and breezy enough that the heat wasn't too much of a problem.

 

We are in re-positioning season, the time of year when many more ships come into port than just our weekly scheduled one.  Nearly all of these are changing location for the winter from Alaska to the South Pacific and/or Australia and New Zealand.  Several ships visited the week before Iron Man, and this week we've had several more.  This is a boon to local merchants along the waterfront because, except for Iron Man, this is a low point for tourists.  The ships vary in size and cushiness from smallish (300) to medium (about 2000) to MEGA (4000 +).  There is a rough and imperfect negative correlation between size and cost.  The best bargain is a cabin on one of the MEGA boats because you can share the cost with 4000 of your closest friends.  I looked at the itineraries of our recent visitors and found that most are on 19 to 29 day cruises from Vancouver, stopping in Hawai'i and several south sea islands, then continuing to ports in New Zealand and winding up in Sydney, Australia.  One ship was on a 10-day cruise from California to Hawai'i and back before its final repositioning voyage.  Although I've softened my attitude toward cruise travel, I doubt you will ever find me on a ship with 4000 other passengers. I understand the appeal of comfort, convenience, and affordability but it just isn't the kind of travel experience I would find worthwhile.

 

In  Geezer Gazette news, I started the week with a double dose of doctors.  On Monday I saw my internist for my routine 6-month visit to go over my blood work.  Everything was ok, including cholesterol, sodium, and glucose levels.  However, I learned that he is retiring in December.  Ouch! Now I have to find someone else, not an easy task here.  Despite complaining about him from time to time, I could always get in to see him on fairly short notice if I had a problem.  He was my primary doctor for about 20 years, a record for me.  On Tuesday I saw my retina doctor and as expected I had an injection in the left eye, though the edema buildup wasn't all that bad considering it was 8 weeks out from the last shot. Note that this makes my third appointment since we returned from our trip -- roughly a visit every 2 weeks.  This will continue because my appointment at Bascom Eye Institute for my evaluation and consultation will be the week after next. Anyway, this visit went pretty well on the usual measures.  Acuity in my right eye improved in response to the injection 2 weeks ago to 20/60.  My left eye tested at 20/40 despite some edema buildup.  However, the standard eye chart test does NOT capture the vision problems I have that are independent of the edema -- progressive dimming, loss of contrast, and light sensitivity.  A better test that I thought of is to display a line of letters that I can read ok.  Then turn down the contrast and brightness of the display in measured steps, each time presenting a new line of the same size..  The dial setting where I can no longer read the line would be lower (i.e., less adjustment needed) than for someone with the same acuity numbers but without my mysterious symptoms.  Who knows, maybe Bascom is ahead of me on this and that will be one of the things they examine.

 

Garden Flames

About mid-week we finally got a welcome break in our hot and humid weather. Although it has still been pretty toasty during the day, we had several nights that were cool enough that we didn't need the a.c.. Unfortunately the cooler nights dropped out pool temperature, but the water has still been low to mid 80's, not bad once you get used to it.  I've been able to do more garden work, something I really want to get done before our Florida trip.  

 

Pele finally popped her cork and began fountaining last night.  This is episode 55 and it is long overdue.  For weeks the summit caldera was  highly pressurized and seemed ready to blow at any minute but only some gurgling and spattering occurred.  Scientists could tell that magma was moving around in novel ways underground, and they were thinking lava might erupt from different locations.  In the end, though, the current fountain is coming from the same vents as before.  As usual it is quite a show and reminds us again that we live on in awesome, changeable  place.

 

Ok, that's it.  This will be my last missive for a couple of weeks.  I'll give you an update when we return.  In the meantime, resist the temptation to regard bizarre and corrupt behavior as acceptable, no matter how much of there is.  Carpe Vitam!  

Tight Buns and Hard Bodies

[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.

10/10/26

 

Aloha  Everyone!

 

Today is he annual Iron Man Triathlon World Championship here.  All week long we have been humbled by the 2500 participants as they have been getting ready for the race.  They are easy to spot as they bike, run, or swim:  tight buns, upper bodies like inverted triangles, zero body fat, and leg muscles like steel cables.These magnificent specimens of humanity are very distinct from usual visitors (and ourselves) who are considerably more squishy.  Only about 130 of the participants are professional triathletes.  The rest are amateurs with jobs and families who somehow find the time and commitment to train for this grueling event.  Even in my most fit moments I could not have completed any of the three legs, let alone do all of them back-to back.  The professionals finish in 8-9 hours, while the amateurs take around 12-13 hours, with a final cutoff of 17 hours. Although Iron Man competitions are held at many locations throughout the year, the one here is the World Championship.  Not just anyone can sign up.  You have to qualify by winning in your age group in one of the designated qualification races leading up to this one.  This selection process has resulted in a higher and higher percent of finishers, now about 95%. This year there is special concern, however, because it may be excessively hot and humid, although we had some overnight rain that cooled things off a bit.  If it clears later, however, the number of dropouts may be higher than normal. The ultimate DNF is death, and about 3 participants die per year worldwide, usually from cardiac arrest during the swim portion.  I'm not sure what the number is for the Kona race in particular, but I would certainly be one of them.

 

In past years we have served as volunteers to help put on the event.  We used to enjoy this, primarily

because it gave us a chance to interact with the participants and to help make their experience a uniquely special one that they had worked so hard to achieve.  However, this year we opted out.  Iron Man has become more and more commercialized.  It is now a big business, bringing in yearly revenue of about 250 million dollars,  It's a privately owned company so the exact profit amount isn't public, but one thing is certain:  company profits are heavily dependent on the free labor provided by volunteers.  Many come from the community where the race is being held, but a large number are family and friends of the athletes.  The largest chunk of revenue comes from entrance fees -- about $1000 per athlete. There are now around 200 Iron Man events per year held in 80 countries around he world, with about 200,000 participants.  Do the math and you will see what I mean -- Big Bucks!  In recent years we've gotten the feeling that the company takes volunteers for granted, a work force to be exploited rather than appreciated.  One of the few positive aspects of Geezerhood is the freedom it gives you to not put up with that #@%%^ We wish the athletes well, but not the money-centered owners of the race.

 

Not much other news this week.  Our continuing hot weather has kept us holed up, except for a couple of shopping expeditions, two workouts at PF, and at least one daily session in our pool.  Our three a.c.'s are humming in harmony starting in the late morning.  Surely this will break soon.

 

Ok, that's it for this week.  Here's my latest question for you: Is there a difference between a skeptic and a cynic? Carpe Vitam!

Nolo No Show, Steam Bath, Good Geezer News

[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.

10/3/26

 

Aloha Fellow Time Travelers!

 

Despite the dire warnings of certain doom, Nolo came and went with very little effect.  At our house, as with most of the leeward side of the island, the wind and rain amounted to bupkis, nada zilch, nothing, It's tempting to excuse the overhype by saying it is always better to be safe than sorry. I'm not so sure that's the case.  The predicted track of the storm NEVER showed it coming to within 100 miles of the south shore, and the actual path it took followed the predicted one almost exactly.  Radar showed areas of heavy moisture extending out from the center that did indeed include the southern portion of our island, but hardly the entire island, as the news seemed to imply.  Further, the arrival time of a hurricane's effects are generally predicted fairly accurately, yet county offices, schools, libraries, and beach parks were shut down days before it was necessary to do so.  This amounted to alarmist fear mongering, not rational risk assessment.  When dire effects don't materialize it may make people less likely to heed legitimate future warnings.  Hmm.  I believe there's an old folk story about this -- something to do with a chicken and the sky falling.   Ok, stepping down from my soapbox now.....

 

One effect of Nolo that was real was that it jumped our heat and humidity to very uncomfortable levels for almost a week.  I have an indoor/outdoor thermometer/hygrometer in our bedroom that objectively ocumented our steam bath conditions.  At times the humidity hung at 88+% with temperatures near 90 degrees.  The peak during the day was in the mid-afternoon, when doing anything outside except going in our pool was out of the question.  Consequently our usual gardening activities and house maintenance projects were put on hold.  As I mentioned last week, thankfully we have three rooms in the house that have a.c.,and we have a photovoltaic system to cover the cost of running the a.c. units.Even without hurricane-driven weather this year, it has been much warmer than in our previous 25 years here.  Meteorologists attribute this to a recurrence of the El Nino weather pattern, which is predicted to continue into next year.  Ugh!

 

The Geezer Gazette news this week is mostly positive.  First, on Tuesday my visit to my eye doctor went well.  Acuity improved a smidge in my left (good) eye, and my injection in the right went smoothly, as

Ono on Ono

usual.  Pressures were good, too.  We're holding off on doing the SLT procedure on my left eye so that I can have a preemptive shot before my trip to Bascom-Palmer. Moving to other body parts, my heart continues to behave itself after my ablation in February.  According to my self-monitoring devices, I haven't had an Afib episode for 7 months.  As you recall, my cardiologist said I could stop my blood thinner as long as I continued to stay in normal rhythm.  After about two months my bruising and bleeding problem has greatly improved -- I no longer look like I have leprosy.  A third bit of good news is that my blood pressure has lowered enough that I'm almost off the control medicine.  I'm not sure why this has happened, but for several months now my readings have gradually lowered.  I will be seeing my regular doctor in a week or so for my routine 6-month checkup and I'll ask him about trying to go off the medication entirely and see what happens. Finally, the inhaler he prescribed the last time I saw him has definitely been helping with my emphysema symptoms.  The improvement was very slow and subtle, but it seems to be much easier to breathe now and I don't get out of breath as badly as before.  My blood oxygen level, which is tracked by my Fitbit, has ticked up a couple notches, too -- although it was ok to begin with. Who knows, maybe the lung medication is what has lowered my bp, too.  Better living through chemistry!

 

Ok, that's it for this week.  I'll leave you with a question to ponder.  Which of the following is optional:  Being a Geezer or being a Curmudgeon?  Take care and Carpe Vitam!