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!