Backflips, Geezer-Aids, Keurig for Lungs

[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.

4/2/26

 

Aloha All!

 

I mentioned last week that we had tickets to a Sunday afternoon performce in Waimea by an acrobat

Huh?!

troupe from Australia named Humans 2.0. It was absolutely terrific. It was sort of like Circue du Soleil, but without as much hardware. Instead, it was a combination of modern dance and choreography with the human body doing incredible things.  Strength, agility, balance, grace, and artistic sensibility were on full display.  The staging was simple lighting, costumes, and music used to great effect.  Bottom line:  if you ever have a chance to see them perform, do it.

 

Weather here has been sunnier and drier than for the last month or so.  Pool is up to 88d even without covering it at night.  We've enjoyed doing our daily pool workouts most days this week.  This is usually right before lunch, followed by a nap.  Speaking of workouts, we finally managed to get back to Planet Fitness this week for the first time in almost two months. It was a pretty puny session, but we figured it was a good idea to ease back into it.  Our muscles agreed, judging from the soreness the next couple of days.

 

There's a fair amount of Geezer Gazette news this week, much of it good for a change.  First, a couple of "geezer-aids" that I ordered online were delivered, and both have helped me cope with my vision problems.  The first was a pair of magnifying glasses that are often used in craft projects.  The frames have interchangeable lenses that go all the way up the 5x.  They also have a built-in light that has helped greatly with my dimming problem.  They only cost about $25, a real bargain considering how much easier they have made my daily activities.  The second aid was a pair of sunglasses that fit over my regular glasses and have a yellow/brown tint rather than the grey tint I've been using.  The problem with the old ones was that that they cut out so much light that I lost the edges of things. I was to the point of not using them even in bright light because they made things worse, not better.  The new ones do dim things somewhat, but they also sharpen the contrast so I can see the edges of objects much more clearly.  Again, an inexpensive simple chabge that has made things "way mo' betta'." Altogether both geezer-aids cost less than 50 bucks and didn't require any physicians or medical appointments. The other bit of geezer news comes from my routine visit on Tuesday with my internist. I asked if I could switch to a different blood thinner to see if it would lessen my side-effects of bruising and bleeding.  At first he agreed, but then showed his worth by recalling that the new blood thinner medication could interact with the residual heart-rhythm control drug still in my system.  The interaction in this case leads to even greater bruising and bleeding, possibly a serious problem.  Whew! No thanks.  The other outcome from the visit is that I'm trying an inhaler to see if it might help with my emphysema.  The interesting (to me, anyway) aspect of this is that the inhaler is like a Keurig for the lungs.  Each dose is in a pill-like capsule that you insert and then pierce.  The drug is in the form of very fine powder instead of a mist.  Cool, eh?

 

Ok, that's enough for this week.  I hope you all are doing well and having a good Spring. Don't let you-know-who puree your brain. Carpe vitam! 

Plethora of Plumeria, Piano Magic, Travel Plans

[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.

3/25/26

 

Aloha Ohana!

 

We don't have big changes of seasons in Hawai'i.  Some people who move here from the mainland 

Gotta Love It

miss this.  Not me. That's not to say everything is perfectly constant.  For example, there are several signs that it's time to say it's "Spring."  One sign is that the Plumeria trees, which lose their leaves during the "Winter," begin to bloom again while the branches are still bare. This produces what I call "snowball bloom," though some of the trees have blossoms that are shades of red and yellow. It is a spectacular, fragrant treat when we do our morning walks in the neighborhood.  Branches that overhang the street are fair game for collecting blossoms for small flower arrangements that we deploy in our house.

 

Another sign is the exodus of our winter visitors from the North West -- Humpback Whales and Snowbirds.  The whales go back to their summer home waters off Alaska, and the snowbirds migrate back to various home destinations along the west coast, with a few returning to the Midwest and East. This makes the next few months a sweet spot for living in Hawai'i -- the lull between summer and winter tourist seasons, when we enjoy less traffic and better stocked shelves in the grocery stores.

 

Besides enjoying "Spring" this week, we also went to a performance by Jim Brickman, a fabulous piantist/vocalist who is one of our favorites. He was touring the islands and our theater in Waimea booked him for a couple of shows last Sunday.  A real treat.  Tomorrow the same theater is presenting a traveling circus troupe from Australia called Human 2.0 that is kind of like a mini-Cirque du Soleil.  Waimea is a 40-mile drive from home, and normally we don't like to do that at night.  However. both of these are/were during the afternoon, so we jumped at the chance to attend.

We are now returning to our travel plans for late summer.  You may recall that we booked an Alaskan cruise in August on a small ship (80 passenger) operated by the same company that does the Mississippi River cruise that we enjoyed last year.  Now we're booking airline tickets, hotels, etc. We've decided to extend this trip by flying to Denver at the end of the cruise and taking the scenic train from there to Glenwood Springs, about a 5-hour trip through the Rockies.  Glenwood Springs is an historic hot springs resort town that should be fun to visit.  And of course, I'm a real train fan, particularly one that goes through mountains.  We'll spend some time before and after the train trip in Denver to see friends and relatives. 

 

Not much to report in Geezer Gazette news.  I saw my retina doc on Tuesday -- same old same old.  Yesterday I saw my cardiologist for the first time since he referred me for an ablation.  All good at the moment.  My ECG was, in his words, "about as normal as it gets." The plan is to wait until June, 5 months out from the ablation, and then do a 2-week monitoring session with a paste-on device that measures heart activity 24/7 and produces a very detailed report, much more thorough than my FitBit can do.  If that looks good, then I might be able to stop my blood-thinner medication.  That would be very welcome.  Even though I'm on a very low dose, my forearms look like the hide of a pinto horse and I bleed if I touch my skin with a feather. 

 

Ok folks.  It seems like we're living at a time when insanity, narcissism  and sociopathy are running amok, but surely there will be a day of reckoning, right?  Take care.  Carpe Vitam.

Return Home, Good Trip

[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.

3/14/26

 

Aloha Everybody!

 

We got home last Sunday after a lonnggg journey from Colombia of about 26 hours.  We left Cartegena about 8:30 p.m., so add another 10-12 hours to the total hours of being awake (ish). We flew first to Bogata, then to Houston, then Denver, then non-stop to Kona. Not exactly carbon-frugal routing, but we were at the mercy of airline scheduling. We had a fairly tight connection in Houston.  This was a concern because that is where we had to deal with Immigration and TSA screening. Zipped right through, thankfully. No delays at all.

 

It was a good trip, despite some geezer challenges.  Panama was a very interesting place.  Every major imperialist country in the 16th - 18th centuries wanted control of the shortcut between the

Quetzal

Atantic and Pacific that the isthmus provided.  Spain was most successful at this, but not without being repeatedly attacked by other powers, mainly the British.  British pirates and privateers often attacked Spanish coastal cities, particularly those that were staging points for shipping exploited loot back to Spain and therefore offered a rich prize to any successful attacker.  We spent several days in three different locations, including a town in the highlands of western Panama called Boquete.  It was here that we did some outstanding bird watching, thanks in large part to our private guide.  She was an excellent bird-spotter, very knowledgeable and was very facile at quickly setting up a spotting scope and attaching her cell-phone to the eyepiece so that on the screen we could see the target clearly, despite visual challenges.

 

The river cruise in Colombia was enjoyable, but not as much as our Mississippi trip last year.  The Colombia operation is just a year-old, and still has some kinks in the itinerary and activities that need to be worked out.  One of the best parts was interacting with local people, for whom our visits were as interesting to them as they were to us.  The ship was small, holding just 60 passengers max.  The

Cruise Booze

majority of our cruise mates were Canadian, and there were  a few Australians and Europeans as well.  They were all very congenial and had interesting histories, including one Canadian man who was an expat Indian whose family had been living for years in Uganda before Idi Amin expelled them. They arrived in Canada penniless with only the clothes on their backs.  Despite the setback and immense challenges, he eventually founded a very successful computer company that was recently bought out for megabucks.  Literally rags to riches.

 

While we were gone the abundant rain produced a garden jungle that we have been whacking back this week, but it will take some time. I've also have to do some cleanup from the big storm that we had right before we left. This will involve hiring someone to cut up some fallen tree limbs and haul them away. There just wasn't time to do this properly, plus tree trimmers were overwhelmed.  It should be easier now. 

 

In Geezer Gazette news, I had my 2-month video consultation with my ablation surgeon (actually, her PA).  So far so good.  The side effects from my anti-arrhythmic drug have abated somewhat, and I feel much more energetic and I have more stamina.  My Fitbit has recorded only a couple of brief Afib episodes.  The video conference confirmed, though, that it is ambiguous as to whether this is due to the ablation or to the residual effect of the drug, which I stopped taking just a month ago.  The next few months will tell -- I just have to wait and see.  The PA repeated what my surgeon told me before the procedure, that an ablation isn't a cure for Afib, despite what most people believe.  Rather, the goal is to reduce the "load" or frequency and duration of episodes without the use of drugs.  I'll take it.

 

Coming up next week will be a round of encounters with the medical establishment -- appointments with my dentist, retina specialist, internist, and cardiologist.  Maybe I should have scheduled a visit to my dermatologist just to do a complete round. Sheesh!

 

Ok, that's enough for now.  Take care and enjoy your Spring.  Carpe Vitam!  

Ash Fall, A Kona Low, Med Woes, On The Road Again

[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.

3/14/26

 

Aloha Everyone!

 

Petulant Pele reminded us this week that she has the power to mess things up for us.  Episode 43

Note Tephra Cloud

occurred on Tuesday, starting at about 9:30 and ending early evening after about 9 hours. This wasn't the biggest eruption but it was one of the most problematic. Would-be viewers were stymied because the park was closed for much of the time due to tephra fall (volcanic ash and rocks) at the observation sites and even in nearby communities.  This dangerous situation was caused by something called a "Kona Low" (see below) that made the winds blow the ash and hunks of lava in an unusual direction.  Here's the official description by the volcanologists:  "This eruption was comparable in size to episodes 41 and 42, but due to light winds produced tephra fallout similar to but not as great as episode 41.  The plume sent tephra falling within Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park along the north rim of Kaluapele (Kīlauea caldera) and into adjacent communities.  The heaviest tephra fall was recorded at Uēkahuna overlook (about 4-7 inches of accumulation) where 2-inch tephra began falling at around 10:20 a.m. HST and Kīlauea Military Camp (about 2 inches of accumulation) where 4-5 inch tephra fell starting at about 10:20 a.m. HST.  The Volcano Golf Course community was hardest hit with a blanket of tephra with pieces up to several inches in diameter." 

Start Shoveling

Imagine what this would due to your car -- or your head, for that matter. Of course the visuals of this made for great spots in the national news, giving the false impression that the whole island was blowing up. All this activity occurred over 90 miles from our house and posed no danger to us. Still, it made things difficult for people trying to reach the other side of our island because he tephra fall even closed the  highway near the volcano for a time.  This was very problematic, because there is only one road that circles the island so that the closest spot to get from one side to the other from the closed section was over 100 miles away.  The whole thing illustrates human vulnerability to nature's whims.

 

Sticking with the nature theme. this week I also learned and new meteorological term -- "Kona Low."  This is a condition in which a a low pressure area occurs on the leeward side  (i.e., Kona) of the islands either to the northwest (this one) or southwest, bringing winds along our coast.  The more normal pattern is for trade winds from the northeast to hit the windward side.  The positive effect for us is that leeward winds clear out our vog and keep it from accumulating along our coast.  However, this Kona Low was accompanied by a humongous rain system that has resulted in several days of cloudy and rainy weather, including some serious flooding on the northern islands.  We didn't have it as bad as other places, bu we've had an unprecedented string of cloudy days with near constant light rain and some very strong blustery winds that so far haven't done serious damage but have deposited a lot of junk in our pool.  This is expected to continue today, tomorrow, and even into Monday.  Sheesh!   Again, nature is ultimately in control, a lesson that is commonly driven home on the mainland, but holds here as well.

 

A couple of items in the Geezer Gazette are worth mentioning.  Late last week the side effects of the temporary anti-arrhythmic medication I've been taking got very severe.  My heart rate dropped into the 30's and low 40's and I felt like warmed over death: fatigue, muscle weakness, dizzy. I made a unilateral decision to cut way back on my routine heart rate medication and to stop the anti-arrhythmic stuff altogether (about a week early from the surgeon's prescription).  I contacted the surgeon's office and gave them my self-monitoring data and described my subjective symptoms.  A couple of days later I got a call from the surgeon's assistant with the recommendation that I cut way back on my routine heart rate medication and to stop the anti-arrhythmic stuff altogether -- in other words, my unilateral decision was vindicated.  It's now been about a week since these adjustments and I feel a tense better, but the anti-arrhythmic medication is very long lasting, so it will take more time before the side effects lift significantly.  I'm hoping that I can still do some of the more strenuous things we had planned for the trip, but I may have to tone them down.  We leave mid-week so feeling great may be a bit of a stretch.  I think I can still do the trip, though, and I'm really looking forward to being on the road again....

 

Ok, that's it for the week.  This will be my last missive until we return in April, so I leave you with this thought:  when the kernel of truth is removed from propaganda, only lies are left.

 

Carpe Vitam! 

Coqui Hormones, 3-Weeks Post Zap

[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.

3/7/26

 

Aloha Fellow Time Travelers!

 

Time to update you on my battle with one of my primo critter adversaries.

 

The Target

I've now caught 895 Coqui frogs. Nearly all of them were on our property, but I've also captured some from other house lots and gardens in the neighborhood.  Unfortunately they are prolific breeders and have no natural predators in Hawai'i (except humans like me), so they defy total eradication.  Ill probably hit 1000 sometime this year. I'm currently battling several that have moved into our front garden, so I'm likely to hit 900 soon.

 

Coquis are beloved in their home territory of Puerto Rico, where they're considered an informal mascot.  Here they are considered an invasive species and they do significant damage to our ecology, besides being loud and obnoxious (the call of just one Coqui can reach 95 decibels.).  One problem is that the lack of predators in Hawai'i has created densities that are 2-3 times greater than in Puerto Rico.  I wonder if Coquis would be so fondly regarded there if the numbers were as great as ours. 

 

Female on Left

Anyway, over the years I've become something of a "Coqui Whisperer," so I know their strengths and weaknesses.  One weakness is that they are ruled by their hormones, much like many humans. This leads them to behave in risky and self-defeating ways that allow "the Hand of Doom" to descend fatally upon them.  If conditions are right (a bit of rain and warm temperatures at night) the males' hormones kick in and theyMUST repeatedly call out their location to attract females.  That sound helps me to locate them as well, and that is a large part of catching them.  The males establish a broadcasting station early in the evening and they stick to it all night, even returning if they're disturbed by a marauding human.  Catching them while they're "singing" isn't a slam-dunk, however. Their call is so loud and narrowly focused that sound bounces off the nearby foliage and can seem like it's coming from one spot when it's really not.  Knowing their preferred types of locations for calling stations makes my job of grabbing them much easier.  I wear a headlight while hunting, and if I spot one I try to blind it and grab from behind. This must be quick, however, because they are very fast. There are other tricks that I've learned over the years, but I won't bore you with them.

 

So my battle goes on in this endless war.  The reward is a quieter evening and less ecological damage.  Plus a macho feeling of a successful hunt -- another example of being ruled by hormones I suppose.....

 

In Geezer Gazette news, Thursday marked my 3-week ablation anniversary.  I wish I could report that I feel great, much better than before.  But I can't because although I've only had a few short Abib episodes, I'm having some hefty side effects from the anti-arrhythmia drug that my surgeon prescribed.  Ironically, the effects are almost the same as I felt when I was in constant Afib.  In short, at the moment I've just exchanged one cause of feeling whacked for another.  The hopeful thing is that I only have to take this medication for another five days, and after that maybe I'll improve.

 

We've begun our prep for our trip despite the health issues.  Of course, another concern is that our "Peace" President will decide to take over either Panama, Colombia, or both.  Killed by friendly fire is not the way I want to die.....

 

That's it for this week.  Carpe Vitam! 

A Quiet Week of Healing

[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.]

2/28/26

 

Aloha Guys! 

 

I know February is a short month with only 28 days, but this one seemed to disappear in an eye blink. However, for some of you on the mainland it must have seemed to take forever as you coped with a very severe winter.  I'm sure Spring will come eventually, and not a minute too soon.  We've finally been getting some sunny days, so my pv system is doing well at the moment, and the pool temp is up to 84d, just in time for me to be able to go in after my two-week restriction.  It felt very nice.  

 

I won't burden you with much Geezer Gazette news this week -- I suspect you will appreciate that after last time's oversharing.  It was a very quiet week here, which I spent mostly recovering from my heart's shock therapy two-plus weeks ago.  I'm pleased to say it's going much better.  Hopefully I'll be in decent shape by the time we leave on our trip in a few weeks.. On Monday I saw my regular doctor to have my ER stitch removed.  That went very smoothly.  I then asked him about my breathing issue and he surprised me by diagnosing it as a problem of fluid buildup after the procedure.  I took a heavy-duty diuretic that day and I quickly began breathing much more easily.  Who'd have thought! Yesterday I saw my retina doctor and it went ok, except that I had to report that my ablation hasn't improved my eyesight so far.  I've only been in normal rhythm for 10 days, so there's still a chance it will help.  With luck that will be my last interaction with the medical establishment until we return in April.  I'm definitely ready for a break.

 

We're into cruise ship repositioning time, and this week there were ships in our harbor almost every

day. This makes the merchants along the waterfront in town very happy, I'm sure.  These are ships returning from southern waters to start their Northwest itineraries in the spring and summer. Of course, we still have our weekly visit by the Hawai'i boat, Pride of America. It does a 7-day cruise that starts and ends in Honolulu.  It's a good way to get acquainted with the major islands, but you really need longer on at least one of them to appreciate the culture, history, and geology of this unique place.

 

Pele is taking a snooze until mid-March. The current projection is for another session of spouting between March 6-16. This will be the 43rd episode since December of '24.  A truly remarkable phenomenon.   

 

Ok, that's enough for this week.  Stay well and happy. Carpe Vitam.

Heart Still Ticking Kinda Sorta

[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.]

2/21/26

 

Aloha Ohana! 

 

[Warning:  Oversharing Ahead] 

 

I told Karen that my Valentine's Day gift this year would be getting home alive after my 2/12 heart ablation

Not Yet

procedure on Oahu.  I delivered on my promise, though not in the most romantic way.  The procedure was Thursday morning a week ago and technically went very well.  According to the procedure notes that I received online, my "shock doc" successfully ablated several areas in the upper two chambers of my heart.  I learned several things from the surgeon's notes that surprised me.  First, I was out for a little over an hour, but the procedure itself took only 40 minutes.  In past years when this was a new treatment an ablation used to take two hours or even more.  Second, this wasn't just a few zaps with the ablator (aka "pulsed field catheter") -- she used a total of 66!  My poor ticker must have looked like a smoldering cinder.  Third, the ablation doesn't just involve one catheter and one vein -- it took several catheters and both femoral veins in my legs.  Despite the mistreatment, my heart came out of the procedure not only still ticking, but also in normal rhythm, something I hadn't seen since early December.  Unfortunately this only lasted a couple of days and was probably due to the fact that as soon as they put me to sleep, they used the paddles to shock my heart into normal rhythm. I guess this was to make guiding the catheters easier and more accurate, or maybe to give my heart a rest after the procedure. As I've mentioned before, ablations are effective because they create scar tissue that doesn't conduct the chaotic electrical signals very well.  It takes a month or two for the scar tissue to develop fully, and during this time afib often recurs, though hopefully less and less often and for shorter periods. I just have to wait and see if this is true in my case.

 

There were a couple of complications that made this more difficult and definitely less romantic.  The first required returning to the hospital's ER Thursday night.  After an ablation the usual process is to lie flat on your back for several hours to make sure the small incisions where the catheters were inserted into your left and right leg veins start to heal. The nurses in the recovery area were very nice, even bringing me my cell phone and providing a tuna salad sandwich while I waited, At last they pronounced me ready to roll and I was discharged late afternoon (total time in the hospital = 9 hours).  So far so good.  When we got back to our hotel room, however, one of the incisions started to bleed and wouldn't stop, even after following the instructions of the surgeon when I called her.  After a few hours of this, we finally decided I needed professional help and we went to the ER about 9 pm.  The ER doc tried a fancy solution involving glue, mesh, and foam.  Didn't work. He finally solved the problem the good old fashioned way -- a stitch, some clotting salve, and a compression bandage.  We got back to our room about 2:30 am, after about 4.5 hours in the ER. 

 

The second problem wasn't as acute but still very problematic.  The next day I had a lot of difficulty breathing, and this got steadily worse on Saturday (the day we got home) and Sunday.  Something must have really irritated my lungs during my marathon in the hospital and the ER.  It might have been the anesthesia intubation, but I didn't have any problem last summer when I was knocked out the same way and same length of time for my hernia surgery.  Whatever it was, the symptoms for several days were akin to having a cracked rib and at the same time having a reaction to a vaccination -- out of breath. achy joints and muscles, and a little feverish. Thankfully this started to go away by Monday, but it has taken most of the week to get back to almost normal breathing.  Also encouraging is that since Thursday (one full week out from Zap Day) I've been having episodes of normal sinus rhythm. So overall, I guess I'm moving in the right direction.  I'll keep you posted.

 

There isn't much non-Geezer Gazette news this week because I've been following my shock doc's instructions to "take it easy."  I've been following the Olympics, of course, including the riveting Curling controversy.  Also, Pele gave everybody a Sunday Valentine's present of episode 42

Coffee Blooms

fountaining, which lasted about 10 hours and shot lava as high as 1300 feet. Oh yes, and this week many of our Kona Coffee trees have been blooming -- an impressive sight in a large orchard.  Coffee is related to the gardenia, and the flowers of both are white.  Unlike the gardenia, however, coffee flowers don't have much fragrance.  We make due, however, with the many other fragrant bushes and trees that are always in bloom.

 

Ok, that's it for now.  Stay warm and stay the moral course. Some of us still know what that is.

Thrombus? Fish in the Pool, Bird Meds

[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

Swim Buddy

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!

 

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. 

Raining Lava, Whale Watching, Hosting Guests

[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.]

1/31/26

 

Aloha Folks! 

 

Well, Pele really popped off last Saturday after I posted Snow Crash.  Starting a little past 11 a.m. and lasting until about 7:30 p.m., lava fountains shot up to almost 1600 feet from two close vents.  Just

Asbestos Umbrella?

before dark this was very spectacular.  At 7:30 the show ended abruptly, as usual.  The height of the fountains, coupled with fairly calm winds, created a unique situation for the area around the volcano.  Tephra (small rocks) and even a few globs of football-size cooled lava rained down on the viewing areas and even as far as nearby Volcano Village.  They had to evacuate some areas inside the park because it was getting a bit dangerous (fortunately there are several live-stream web cams positioned around the volcano rim so the action was still available to watch). Along our coast the vog has been pretty bad for the past few days, and it is particularly high right now at the summit of Kilauea, so getting close might be still be hazardous.  The current analysis from the volcanologists is that the lava reservoir below the caldera is recharging rapidly, suggesting another episode is very likely in the next couple of weeks.  Pretty neat, eh?

 

Our guests from Ohio arrived Tuesday evening, just missing the show.  They managed to escape the mainland despite the travel snafus caused by mountains of snow and bitterly cold temperatures.  Needless to say, they aren't minding our somewhat cloudy and voggy 80 degree weather!  They have been here before, though it has been quite a few years ago.  We've kept it low-key, enjoying a couple of picnics and some general site-seeing.  One picnic was down south at the very picturesque "Place of Refuge," an important historic Hawai'ian religious center.  This is very near Kealakekua Bay, where Captain Cook wore out his welcome and was fatally whacked by warriors protecting the king when Cook tried to take the king hostage.  Another picnic was north, at a beach park where we were treated to the antics of some whales as we watched from the picnic area. This coastline is where we usually see humpbacks who have migrated down from Alaska and Canada for the winter (don't tell ICE, but I don't think they're documented).  Our friends are currently on the Hilo side of the island for a few days.  They'll then spend some time on Oahu before returning the to the Ohio deep freeze.

No news for the Geezer Gazette this week (!), but next time I'll regale you with an account of my heart CT scan and the results.

 

Take care.  Don't strain too much on clearing that snow! 

Miata Mystery, CT Snafu, North to Alaska

[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.]

1/24/26

 

Aloha Friends! 

 

Just like humans, as cars get older they become less reliable and prone to mysterious ailments.  Karen's Miata, which is 23 years old, is becoming a good example of this. Recently we needed to run a bunch of errands and decided to take the Miata, which is a lot of fun to drive and is more gas efficient for short trips.  The engine started just fine and then promptly died.  And refused to start again.  The symptom was straightforward -- the engine would crank but not fire at all. We were thankful that we hadn't yet backed out of the garage, rather than have this happen in the middle of an intersection somewhere, so all we had to do at that moment was switch to our other car.  Later in the day I did what any red-blooded know-nothing mechanic would do -- I opened the hood and looked in, then tried to start it again. Same problem.  I called our mechanic and made a service appointment,  the soonest available being a week away, this past Tuesday.  I then arranged for a tow truck to come early that morning.  On Tuesday, as I was preparing for the tow truck to arrive I tried to start the car one more time -- vrooommmm!!! WTH?!  I did this several more times, and it started fine every time.  I quickly canceled the tow truck and drove the car to our mechanic, who understandably said that unless the car had "thrown a code" (i.e. its computer detected a problem and displayed it on the instrument panel as well as storing it in its memory) there wasn't much he could do since it was running fine at the moment.  Note, this is the worst kind of problem to work on, because there's no clue to follow and no defect to detect.  Bottom line -- the car has worked fine since this episode, but just like my geezer body, you know it's going to give out on you sometime, probably when it is least convenient and most unwanted......

 

Speaking of geezers, there are just a couple of quick items in the Geezer Gazette this week.  I got my pre-op heart ct scan scheduled, but only after I called twice.  The first time I got a phone message saying to leave your information and they we would get back to you in 3-5 days.  A week later I still hadn't heard anything, so I called again. This time I got a live human who quickly got things set up.  I have a feeling I would still be waiting if I hadn't taken the initiative.  The second item is that I visited my retina doctor yesterday and, as expected, had another shot. Yawn........I told him about my upcoming ablation and he was very confident it would help with my dimming and indistinct image problem. I just hope the benefits of this procedure aren't being over-hyped.

 

Where's the Gold?

We have now made plans for our fall travel.  This should be easy and cushy, with only an hour time change -- an Alaskan Cruise.  It will also coincide with our 59th (!) wedding anniversary. We've wanted to visit Alaska for years but something always prevented us from doing so. In the early days had considered either a road trip or traveling by ferry or freighter.  The large cruise ship experience that is so popular really didn't interest us, and it still doesn't.  We've booked an 11-night cruise on a small ship (170 passengers) operated by the same company that runs the Mississippi cruise we did last year and liked so well.  We're now looking into ways to extend this, since it is too short by our standards. I'll let you know what we come up with.  Any suggestions?

 

Ok, that's it.  We're looking forward to a visit next week by a couple of friends from Ohio who are escaping from the rather brisk and bleak weather there right now.  They have been here several times before, but it's always fun to share our island life.  Take care, stay warm, don't slip on the ICE.

Heart Ablation, A Pele New Year, Travel Insurance

[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.]

1/17/26

 

Aloha Everyone!

 

This week Pele awoke to 2026 and had either an angry fit or a joyous celebration, depending on what you want to project.  On Monday morning around 8:30 am fountaining began and continued for nearly 10 hours.  This was following several days of gurgling, sputtering, and squirting.  Once again the volcanologists correctly predicted the beginning of the episode, which they had set as between 1/10 and 1/17.  Current information from the monitoring devices suggests another episode in a couple of weeks, near the end of January.  The air quality monitors along our coast showed a strong increase in pollution after winds carried the SO2 from the eruption around the tip of the island and up to our region. This dropped fairly quickly though, after Pele went back to sleep.

 

The Geezer Gazette news this week is all about heart issues.  My results of last Friday's echo cardiogram came back very quickly online.  They were the same as the first time 1 1/2 years ago -- no significant "stenosis" -- narrowing of the blood vessels.  The interesting and new information is that I was in Afib during the recent exam, whereas I was in normal rhythm during the first one.  This was kind of a good thing, because it allowed a comparison of how my heart performed under both conditions.  The major difference is that the outflow of blood is 10% lower during Afib -- not due to clogged arteries but to the heart pumping less efficiently. The Afib level is below the normal range for someone my age and can produce fatigue, dizziness, light-headedness, breathlessness even in the absence of other symptoms, like heart palpitations and chest pain.  I don't feel any palpitations or pain, but I do experience the others if an Afib episode goes on for a long time, which is what is occurring these days. Although this isn't good news on the face of it, at least it provides an explanation for much of what I've been just attributing to "geezerness," and offers some hope that things can improve. On Tuesday I had my video consultation with a cardiac electrophysiologist (aka "ticker zapper") on Oahu. She seemed quite knowledgeable and competent, though like a few other of my physicians she looks like she's about 13-14 years old.  She recommended an ablation procedure, and expressed confidence it might improve my quality of life, both now and in the future.  She was careful not to promise the moon, though, only that it was likely this would reduce the number and length of Afib episodes to the point that anti-arrhythmic drugs might not be needed. I signed up, and was pleased to be able to schedule the operation fairly quickly -- February 12th.  If all goes well, this should give me time to recover before our trip in March. As I've mentioned before, this will require going to Honolulu for 2-3 days, but that's ok.  I'm looking forward to having it over with, but certainly not to having the actual experience of the procedure.

 

Speaking of travel, we've now passed the point where we could get most of our money back if we canceled.  Our usual strategy these days is to only get insurance when the cost of the premium is less than the refunds.  As you might imagine, when you get older the cost of travel insurance gets extremely high because insurance companies know that cancellations increase with age.  We've stopped getting

policies that completely cover the cost of the trip because it seems more reasonable to "self insure" for the portion of the total amount of a tour or cruise that you feel you can afford to lose. The health insurance part of the policies, however, is essential because health care or evacuation costs can be quite high if you have a problem while traveling in another country -- keep in mind, for example, that Medicare doesn't cover you during foreign travel. But you can get the full travel health coverage in the policy even if it doesn't cover the entire trip cost.  We determine what the total premium we are willing to pay is, and then use the insurance companies' online calculators to see what refund coverage that provides.  It turns out that no matter what the refund coverage is, these policies still give give you full medical coverage (including evacuation and the ghoulish "repatriation of remains." Keep in mind that almost all of these policies operate on the "reimbursement" model -- in other words, be prepared to pay upfront and then try to get your money back from a company that is motivated to deny your claims.  We tend to be frugal about the premium because it isn't refundable at all. Also note that a shortcoming of our strategy is that the medical insurance doesn't cover problems arising from pre-existing conditions unless you buy the policy right when you put a deposit down on your trip, and cover its entire cost.  That would be very expensive insurance and if you need it you probably shouldn't have signed up in the first place.  But at least we're covered if we're bitten by a cobra, fall off a camel. or get attacked by piranhas.  

 

Ok, that's about it. I would be remiss, though, if I didn't acknowledge that a very momentous national anniversary will happen next week -- January 20th.This was the day a year ago that our American Democratic Republic died, along with truth, decency, civility, dignity, reason. and the rule of domestic and international law. In its place we are moving toward a fascist oligarchy headed by an autocratic leader who is a convicted felon, a proven prolific liar, a man who is without moral scruples, and who will never give up power peacefully, no matter how badly he loses a fair election.  In my view one of the most disturbing parts of this situation is that a dishearteningly large portion of our population regards these changes as positive.  Welcome to 2026......

 

On that happy note, I hope you have a warm and healthy week. Take care.

Volcano Snow Cones, Heart Echoes, Christmas Pau

[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.]

1/10/26

 

Aloha Everybody!

 

This week some of you got a good taste of coping with the white stuff that is a common part of the mainland winter wonderland.  Early in the week even we had snow, when a storm moved in and coated both Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, our 13k+ volcanoes.  The happens a few times each

Which Way To The Lift?

year, though it most often is confined to the slightly taller Mauna Kea on the northern part of the island.  Our other two volcanoes, Kileaua (the one currently erupting) and Hualalai  (the one we live on), are much too low to get significant amounts of frozen precipitation,(4k and 8k, respectively), though snow has been recorded on Hualalai occasionally.  By the way, the storm this week brought a day of cloudiness that made for a record low 24-hour pv production at our house of just 5.8 kwh -- rock bottom for the 13 years we've had the system.  That's only about 1/4 of our daily usage, Sheesh.

 

Now for a bit of Geezer Gazette news.  Yesterday I had my second echo cardiogram. This was in preparation for my video consultation with an electrocardiologist next week.  There are two types of this test -- the one I had is fairly quick and non-invasive. A technician rubs an ultrasound device on your chest to examine blood flow and structural abnormalities in your heart's chambers, valves, and arteries.  It's one way of assessing the chances you'll drop dead from clogged arteries. I had one of these a year ago September when I finally got an appointment with a cardiologist after being referred by my regular doctor.  It showed some enlargement of one chamber and slightly reduced flow but the overall conclusion was that clogging isn't my problem -- the odds of dropping dead from that cause are very low.  Hopefully the exam I had yesterday will show the same thing. I should get the results in a couple of days. The other form of this test is more sensitive but much more invasive -- the ultrasound device is shoved down your throat. Fortunately they sedate you while this is going on so the experience isn't as bad as it sounds.  Mine was the first type, and I'm glad. I don't want the second kind because (a) I'm a wimp and (b) it means there's some dire reason the cardiologist needs a closer and more detailed look at your heart before the ablation procedure. Next week the Geezer Gazette will include my reports of the test and the consultation.  Stay tuned -- after all, if it hasn't already, this could happen to you some day.

 

By Thursday Christmas at our house was pau (done, finished).  All the decorations inside and outside were back in their storage places until next year.  We managed to wrestle the artificial tree back into its box that we keep in the garage.  This was the hardest task physically.  We learned the first year we had the tree that the three pieces had to go back into the carton in a certain order and a specific orientation.  Plus, each layer of branches had to be flattened and then tied tightly against the trunk or the pieces wouldn't fit into the box.  The second time we put it up I learned that the strings of lights plugged together in a very non-obvious way -- detailed in the instructions which I had thrown away, of course.  Figuring out how to get the whole tree lit again turned out to be a major hassle.  I solved this by labeling each plug and its proper receptacle before I took them apart again.  Karen made a diagram of how the pieces fit into the box, and now it's just a matter of squishing everything tightly enough.  The tree is still in pretty good shape for its age, and hopefully it will last several more years.

Ok, that's it for now. Stay warm, keep shoveling. Another couple of months ought to do it... 

Muted Fireworks, Locksmithing, Yearning for Photons

[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.]

1/3/26

 

Hau'oli Makahiki Hou (Happy New Year)!

 

Except for the order of the words, the Hawaiian phrase for Happy New Year is a word-by-word translation:  hau'oli (happy) makahiki (year, or season), hou (new).  However, "makahiki" has a deeper and more philosophical meaning than just a 365-day unit of time  First, it actually refers to a social/religious season that emphasizes peace, rest, and renewal.  Further, it is tied to ideas of reflection, balance, and welcoming what’s next (see Word Spotlight). Sounds like we could all use some makahiki right now.........

 

The usual firework mayhem here in Hawai'i was somewhat muted this year.  Even Pele decided to sleep through New Year's Eve and didn't participate in the festivities. Part of the reason for humans to be subdued is

that there has been a statewide crackdown on illegal fireworks after a tragic explosion last year on Oahu killed 6 people and wiped out a good chunk of a Honolulu neighborhood.  On our island another reason was the seizure of 18 TONS of illegal fireworks last August in Hilo.  The Hilo operation had been going on for years, headed by a couple of guys who were smuggling them in from outlets in Wisconsin.  We're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars each year and a very organized setup. Eighteen tons of fireworks is a lot of noise that didn't occur!  There were, of course, a fair number of legal displays and the resorts along the coast had big aerial shows, so it wasn't totally quiet.  Karen and I set off a bunch of leftover sparklers from previous years, but other than that I restrained my usual pyromania.

 

My big house maintenance project this week was replacing a couple of our electronic door locks.  These are battery operated deadbolts with keypads that you enter a code instead of using a physical key (each comes with a key as a backup, though).  I really like not having to carry keys or retrieve them from hiding places that most burglars would locate in minutes.  I installed my first ones about 20 years ago and they have been surprisingly durable, except of course for the batteries which last about a year in the locks we use the most.  Finally, though, two crapped out at the same time.  I ordered replacements online because I couldn't find what I wanted locally.  The first two were inoperable and I had to order again.  The two bad locks were ones I found on Ebay that were supposed to be new but were in open boxes --- one had missing parts and the other was defective.  I ordered again, this time from the manufacturer through Amazon.  After a bit of fiddling I have them working well for now. Except for being shinier, this is the kind of project that requires effort and is a definite improvement, but isn't noticeable on the surface.  I have to be content with self-praise for a job well done.

 

I've complained a fair amount about the unusual cloudy weather we had in 2025, though our weather woes hardly compare in seriousness to the weather upheavals on the mainland.  Still, for us it is a big deal, since it really contrasts to the conditions we've experienced during most of the 25 years we've lived in Hawai'i.  The recording system of my solar pv system gives clear and objective evidence of how weird 2025was.  The data indicate there were only 4 months when we generated more power than we used.  In the roughly 15 years we've had the system, all of them showed the reverse pattern -- at most there were only 4 months each year when we didn't generate a surplus.  I'm not sure what has caused this, probably it is a complex combination of climate change factors, volcanic activity, temporary shifts in the jet stream, cosmic rays from black hole collisions, alien spacecraft contrails, etc., etc.  No matter what, though, we could really use some photons!  Our mornings almost always start off clear and promising, but by noon the sun takes a nap.  We're getting enough sun to heat our hot water supply, but the pool heating system is struggling to keep the temperature up to geezer and geezerette acceptability levels.  I know none of you are feeling much sympathy, but it's all relative, right?  

 

Absolutely no Geezer Gazette news this week. A welcome break for you and for me both.

 

Ok, that's it.  Remember, Spring is just around the corner....Maybe. It might be canceled or renamed by the next Executive Order.  

Pele Pops a Present, Pigging Out With Santa

[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.]

12/27/25

Ho, Ho, Holoha!

 

I hope you had an enjoyable Christmas!  Ours was livened up by a present from Pele -- at about 8:30

p.m.Tuesday night the 39th episode of fountaining began, a real treat for any visitors staying near the volcano.  It lasted only about 6 hours, but it was quite vigorous, shooting lava as high as 1400 feet from one vent and shorter distances from two others that are close by. This happened on December 23, exactly one year from the first episode.  The volcanologists' prediction was for the episode to begin sometime from the 23rd to the 27th, and they clearly nailed it. All indications are that

the episodic pattern will continue, with #40 coming in a couple of weeks.  It would be a great way to end this year if #40 occurred a bit early and joined the fireworks on New Year's Eve!  I find the whole thing fascinating.

 

Our Christmas was very nice, centering more around food than gifts.  Early in the week we shared a prime rib dinner at our house with some very close friends.  They used to live in Ohio but now are in Wisconsin.  They wisely escape the winters there and spend a few months here each year visiting their daughter, who is a teacher at a highly regarded private school in Waimea. By the way, we cooked the prime rib using a somewhat unusual method that we've employed several times with great success.  We baked it in a hot oven for just 25 minutes, then turned off the oven and left it for exactly 2 hours.  Perfect!  On Christmas Day we went to a pot-luck dinner at a neighbor's house, getting together with about 20 other people.  We've done this the last few years, and we really enjoy the congenial atmosphere and good food. Her house has a beautiful open lanai that overlooks the bay, a perfect setting for a Kona Christmas dinner.

 

As I said, gifts weren't the focus this year, but I was pleased with mine from Karen -- a couple of

gift cards for Taco Bell (!), a new shop vacuum cleaner, and a sweatshirt with a personally very appropriate logo on the front that says, "Yes, I'm Cold!"  As I've mentioned before, I've become so acclimated to our warm weather here that anything less than 70d is chilly for me -- my eyes start to water and my nose drips constantly.  This sweatshirt will come in handy on our frosty 64d mornings and when we travel to destinations with less agreeable climates in their cooler seasons.

 

I have just one bit of Geezer Gazette news this week.  Yesterday I saw my retina specialist. My right eye didn't need a shot, and my left has improved a couple of lines in acuity.  The improvement was largely due to the injection last time, and maybe just a smidge from the YAG procedure that punched a hole in the capsule holding my new lens. Yesterday the doctor did the YAG laser treatment on my right eye, so now I've been completely YAGed.  I wish I could say it made a miraculous difference, but there has been barely a discernible improvement in either eye.  However, I can now rule out cloudiness of the tissue over my new lenses as a cause of my continuing downturn.  I guess that's good news?

 

Ok, that's it.  The season of brotherly love and good will toward all is now over, and we can get back to the vitriol, incivility, and exploitation that seem to be the main qualities of the U.S. under our current "leadership."  I'd love to be more positive about the coming year, but I'm having a tough time finding a reason for optimism. The best approach is perhaps to stay committed to your own values, and don't fall into the trap of extremism.

 

Keep warm and fuzzy.  Don't forget to feed the reindeer!

Travel to Panombia, Healing a Heart

[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.]

12/20/25

Aloha All!

 

Well, I see that you mainlanders may be getting a break from your deep-freeze weather, a nice warmup for Christmas.  We're pretty much the same for the rest of the month -- highs around 80 at our house, lows in the upper sixties, sunny mornings with a chance of afternoon showers.  The current volcano forecast is for the next fountaining episode to occur between December 22nd and 27th so there's still a chance for a lava Christmas present from Pele.

 

This week we finalized our plans for our trip to Panama and Colombia ("Panombia") next spring.  The Panama portion will be a custom tour we put together with a local company, and we will make a deposit soon.  This took some back-and-forth to tune the itinerary to our liking, and we're pretty happy with it.  It will be a total of 12 days in Panama, spread between Panama City, the Caribbean Coast, and the mountain area in the northwest.  Our activities will include touring the canal, guided wildlife walks (particularly birding), exploring historical sites, and perhaps doing some snorkeling.  To the extent we could arrange it, the itinerary will provide for the things we like when traveling -- nature, architecture, history, culture, interactions with locals, food.  Following the Panama portion we'll fly to Colombia for our cruise on the Magdelana River, starting in a coastal city named Baranquilla and ending in Cartegena. At the beginning and end of the cruise we'll spend time on our own to flesh out the itinerary a little.  We spent a good deal of time in Colombia on a previous trip several years ago, visiting a fairly large portion of the country, so we don't feel the need to make this an extensive trip.  Anyway, we made the final payment for the river cruise and all we have left is to make some hotel reservations and book the international flights.  We're getting pretty excited about this trip, our first foreign excursion since last year.

 

 In Geezer Gazette news, I'm progressing on my ablation consultation.  I have a virtual session scheduled for January with a cardiac electrophysiologist on Oahu.  If I have the ablation procedure it will be at Queen's Hospital in Honolulu as an outpatient.  Prior to the consultation, I have a second echo-cardiogram scheduled also in January.  This should provide an up-to-date assessment of how my heart is functioning, along with the data from my recent heart monitor.  Should be a fun month. 

 

What a Float!

Finally, we had our annual Kona Christmas Parade this week.  This has a uniquely local quality, as the photo here shows. I've got all the house decorations up that I'm going to this year, and the place looks quite festive.  Karen finished decorating our living room tree, and we have been enjoying the lights during dinner and then as we watch t.v.. We are behind on mailing Christmas cards, but this seems to be a disappearing tradition.  We're very likely to send our yearly letter by email rather than by snail-mail the way we have in the past.

 

Ok, that's it for the week.  Have a great Christmas, and treat Santa with extra kindness. He deserves it more than ever......... 

36-Foot Noodle, Laser Eye Hole, Ablation Blues

[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.]

12/13/25

Aloha Folks!

 

Life lurches on here. My big house project this week was getting our new pool cover installed.  It wasn't particularly hard, but it was awkward trying to wrestle the thing into place, like dealing with a 36-foot piece of giant linguini (or a 600 square foot piece of bubble wrap). The pool measures 36 x 16, but the cover is pre-made as 36x18.   I laid it out in our driveway and carefully cut off the excess 2 feet on the side.  Then, with Karen's help,

Santa on R&R

we folded it into a more manageable size and carried it to the back of the house where the pool is, negotiating tight corners and some stairs to do so.  We stretched it over the pool in the late afternoon and I attached it to the cover reel with less difficulty than I had expected. Earlier I had cut off the old cover from the reel in easy to manage strips, and my neighbor helped me transport them to the dump in his pickup truck.  Job done!! As I was cutting off the old cover, I got a close look at how much it had deteriorated. It was definitely time to replace it, making the project even more satisfying.

 

There are three big items in the Geezer Gazette this week.  I'll start with the most angst-producing and move to the neutral and then to the downright positive news.  My appointment with my cardiologist on Wednesday went very badly because the results of my 2-week heart monitor showed a new problem that will likely lead to an ablation -- the treatment where some of your heart tissue is destroyed in order to get the rest of it to function properly.  Maybe.  The overall success rate of the procedure is only about 60%, but increases to 80% for patients in my particular situation.  My cardiologist is strongly recommending I have it done.  I have a referral now to consult with an Electrophysiologist to get an assessment. Isn't this fun!!??

 

In more neutral news, I had my YAG laser procedure yesterday on my left eye (not to be confused with the new experimental light treatment, which is still iffy as to when it will be available).  Absolutely painless, even without any numbing drops.  It took a total of maybe one minute. I'm still assessing if it did any good, but even if it didn't, this was certainly worth a try.  I have another appointment at the end of the month for a shot in the right eye, then we'll do the YAG procedure on it, too.  Needless to say, I'm getting very familiar to the eye clinic staff......

 

Finally, some good news. The results of my bone density scan showed very little change from 2 years ago, meaning I'm still mildly osteopenic but not getting worse. In fact, the risk assessments for breaking something got a teense better -- 10-year risk of %7.6 overall, and 3.3% specifically for a hip fracture.  Whoopee!

 

Ok, that's it.  Watch out for frostbite.  Oh, and let's all hope that Santa doesn't get shot down by some authoritarian country's demented and deranged supreme leader. I wonder who that could be......

Surf Santa, Bones & Eyes, Big Chill

[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.]

12/6/25

Aloha Fellow Elves!

 

December arrived this week and so did a post-Thanksgiving pulse of snow birds and tourists.  The town is looking very Christmasy, with colored lights in the palm trees and bell-ringing Santa's helpers in board-shorts and Aloha shirts outside Walmart. The weather has turned seasonally cool, too -- I recorded an overnight low this week of a mere 63 degrees!  I even had to use my heating pad and extra blanket to stay warm (remember, we have no central heating).  Also seasonal is the high surf we've had a couple of times on our side of the island this week, to the dislike of tourists but to the delight of the local surfers.  Even with the frigid nighttime temps our new pool system has kept the water temp tolerable.  I didn't install my new pool cover yet, but I hope to get to it this weekend.  That should help even more, because the old one is pretty shot and probably has lost a significant amount of its insulating ability.  I also got more decorations up outside, including some strings of lights and a cute new pair of snowmen that were a Black Friday special at Lowe's (I was vetoed on the 8-foot tall Grinch that was available, too). 

 

We managed to get our nearly 20-year old artificial tree up, though it still needs to be decorated.  It's

Driveway Greeters

pre-lit, so at least it adds to the seasonal house-vibes at night.  We opted not to expend the considerable effort of assembling the tree last year, because as I've mentioned before, we were in Cambodia until the second week of December.  It is a fair amount of work to extract the heavy box from its storage spot in the garage, carry the 4 tree sections into the house, then join them together.  In our youth we used to carry the whole box into the house, but those days are gone.  Real trees are available here at the big box stores, shipped in refrigerated containers from the mainland. I love the pine smell from the unboxed trees as I drive by.

 

In Geezer Mortality news this week, I had three encounters with the medical establishment. On Wednesday I had a bone density scan to check on the progression of my osteopenia.  One of the many clues that your body has an expiration date is that your bones get brittle at the same time that your sense of balance goes kerflooey, making a fall in which you break something more and more likely. I'll get the results of the scan next week and go over them with my internist.

 

I also had an appointment this week with my optometrist. The exam verified my current prescription is the best I can do, and also revealed significant edema buildup in both eyes.  I saw my retina doctor yesterday and got an injection in my left eye, and Ill return in a couple of weeks for my right. 

 

My ophthalmologist also confirmed an issue with my eyes that may be contributing to the dimness/brightness problem (separate from the edema build-up).  My cataract surgery earlier this year has led to a slight haze in my eye tissue where the lenses were implanted.  This is  something that occurs in about 50% of cataract patients  It isn't the new lens that gets hazy, but the eye capsule that holds it in place.  It can be easily fixed with a quick laser procedure in which a small hole is punched in the capsule allowing light to pass directly through the lens into the eyeball.  I'm scheduled for this treatment next Friday on my left eye. I'll keep you posted. By the way. a hopeful a new treatment that might also help my non-edema dimness/brightness condition has recently received FDA approval.  It's a non-invasive procedure called photomodulatiom retina therapy. It was developed to treat dry macular degeneration. I don't have that problem, but the underlying mechanism of my non-edema vision loss (dimness, lack of edge distinction, sensitivity to bright light) might be similar.  The new treatment definitely seems worth a try if it becomes available here, though it probably won't be covered by insurance.  I'm desperate for any improvement I can get, so I don't care -- I'll pay for it myself if I have to....

 

Ok,  that's my news for the week.  Hope you are surviving your early winter weather ok.  And despite the ugliness all around, try to tap into the holiday spirit.....