A Two-Legged Roof Rat, A Ladder Too Far

 [Note -- this is another in my series of blogs based on weekly emails I send to my family on the mainland.]   

11/7/20

Aloha All –

This has been an “interesting” week. Well, “interesting” if you think watching dangerous social manipulation at its most extreme is interesting.  I’m trying hard to filter out the election mayhem and wait.  My life is too short and potentially enjoyable to allow it to be hijacked by this stuff.  I like the way columnist Michael Gerson put it recently: “In a divided nation, Americans need to defend a space in their lives where cable news does not reach, where social media does not incite, and where the basic, natural tendency is to treat other people like human beings. This offers not just the prospect of greater tolerance, but the hope of healing.”
                           
Ok, now let’s talk about ME. I spent quite a bit of time this week on my roof.  Far more than I planned, dealing with one of those one-thing-leads to another house projects.  This started out as a simple matter of removing the vent screens in the high gable of our bedroom so that I could wash them. Turns out these (2 of them) were custom made to fit the triangular openings in the gable.  The screws holding them on were on the outside, so I had to reach them via the roof.  Thankfully the screws were not too rusted and I was able to get them loose.  This was progressing nicely (well, after several trips up and down to get more tools) when I discovered extensive termite damage in one of the screen frames. This will require completely remaking the wooden frame, then re-painting and re-screening it before putting it back. I  have assigned the skilled carpentry part to my trusty handyman and I’ll do the painting, screening, and remounting.  Estimated time for this 20-minute job is now about a week and considerably more expensive than a bit of water. Oh, and working under the cramped gable led to a dramatic demonstration the next day that the most wonderful workout machines in the world don’t necessarily use the muscles employed in house projects.
                           
All this started when I decided to wash the ceiling fan blades in our bedroom and I happened to get a closer look at how filthy the nearby screens were.  I also got a close look at the rust on the fan and decided to get it down and repaint it, like I recently did to the other two a few weeks ago. However, this one hangs above the middle of our bed, suspended from a beam that turns out to be the highest in the entire house.  My ladder just wouldn’t reach – at least not without the possibility of a trip to the hospital in the attempt –  and so I got my handy man to bring over his extension ladder and get it down for me.  I’ll now sand it down and refurbish it like the other two, then I’ll have him put it back up.  I love this guy – he’s been working with us since we moved here and he is very, very, good at all kinds of things.  Unfortunately, he’s now making noises about his own retirement in the not-too-distant future.  

Planet Fitness yesterday was again not crowded. No post-exercise lunch outing this time, though. We had to get home so Karen could get ready for a book club meeting.

Ok, off for our usual routine.  Hang in there everyone.

The Calm Before the Storm, Terminating Termites

 [Note -- this is another in my series of blogs based on weekly emails I send to my family on the mainland.] 

10/31/20

Aloha Everybody –

When I joked last week about your mainland “yo-yo” weather, I didn’t realize just how much on target I would be in the case of Colorado.  Geez, you guys go from fire to ice in a matter of hours! A 6-12" snowstorm on top of rampaging wildfires is pretty wild, even though I recall that extreme swings are common there.  Anyway, I hope you find a middle ground and that the fires will be brought under control soon.

About the most extreme weather event here this week was that one afternoon I heard thunder (very rare) a couple of times, and on Tuesday it rained about .5 inches during the afternoon and evening.  Karen played golf at her usual course that day and had good conditions until the last 3 holes when they got a little wet.  She did well again, by the way – 3 pars and 3 bogeys.  She keeps wanting me to play with her but this isn’t motivating me much.  As the bird mating season progresses though, I may go just to see the Nene chicks and the peacock displays.

As Election Day gets nearer our mail-in voting system seems to be going very smoothly, unlike what I see happening on the mainland.  I mentioned that we have about 6 drop-off boxes in secure locations spread around the island for a population of about 180k.  This contrasts rather glaringly with the Texas approach of one box per county, which in one case is one box for several million people.  I’m frankly dismayed by the obvious attempts to go well beyond trying to ensure the integrity of the voting system and instead to suppress voting altogether for certain groups of legitimate voters. This IS the USA, right – the country that claims to represent to pinnacle of Democracy?!  Ok, stepping down from my soapbox now.

This week I’ve made arrangements to get estimates for “tenting” our house for drywood termites.  This was last done when we bought the house 20 years ago.  It is a standard practice here whenever a house is sold and when (not if) infestations start to appear.  This past spring we had clear evidence during what is called the “swarming season,” a few weeks when the winged versions of the termites emerge and try to find a new spot to munch on.  Anyway, drywood termites are very, very common here and it isn’t a matter of “if” you will have to treat your house, but rather “when.”  We’ve done very well to go as long as we have, mainly because I was coached early on by a neighbor who used to work for Terminix on how to spot treat small infestations on you own and I have been pretty diligent over the years in doing that.  Anyway, we’ll get our first estimate on Tuesday and it will be interesting to see what the $$$ will be to do this.  BTW, drywood termites aren’t the same as the subterranean variety, which will quickly eat your house in no time.  Ours are slow but relentless, and though they can do considerable damage, the current building codes require that house be built using strutural lumber that has been pre-treated to ward off termites. The treatment doesn’t totally prevent damage, though, and sooner or later you have to fumigate.
                   
Our workout at PF yesterday was again well-timed.  Very few people and everybody followed the mask and disinfect routine.  Afterwards we had a small pizza, salad, and a nice beer at Kona Brew Co.’s outdoor restaurant. The beer made for a rather deep nap later.

Well, that’s about it for this week – no major house projects but of course still whacking back the jungle. Things are starting to slow down a bit, which is welcome.

Take care everyone.  Steel yourself for what may come for the next few weeks.

Tuning a Toilet, Shooting 3 Pars, and Poking an Eyeball

 [Note -- this is another in my series of blogs based on weekly emails I send to my family on the mainland.] 

10/24/20
                           
Aloha Everybody –

Hope you’re enjoying your fall yo-yo weather.  Looks like you’ve had some nice days and some that...aren’t.  It’s pretty much the same here as always, though to us local residents it seems like fall is here – cool nights (last night 67d at our house) and shorter days.  Sunset now is at 6pm, sunrise not until 6:20 am.  Tourists who associate warm weather with long summer days on the mainland are usually surprised by this, but our being closer to the equator (about 19d north) means our seasonal swings aren’t all that much – we’re always about 12/12 plus or minus an hour or so.

Did indeed have an eye injection last Saturday, but the fact that it had been 3 months is great news.  Also, there wasn’t a huge problem and this was more of a precautionary move.  My retina guy even said the thickness of my retina has improved noticeably, a very good thing though it doesn’t mean I’ll regain much of the vision already lost.  Next appointment in 6 weeks.

Karen played golf on Tuesday and shot *3* pars!  Obviously, playing weekly has paid off for her.  She also reported seeing 8-10 Nene mating pairs on the course.  Nenes are our state bird, descended from some Canadian geese that arrived here about 500k years ago.  They’ve now evolved into their own distinct species and are found only in Hawaii.  They’re smaller than regular Canadian geese, have deeper striations on their necks, feet that are more padded, don’t tend to flock together as much, and they mate for life. They love golf courses, where we humans have actually *created* habitat that encourages breeding and thus has helped to bring them back from near extinction.  They usually move to some other part of the island during the summer (I think to higher elevations) , so these are the first ones she’s seen since spring.  Makalei is a real haven for them, and definitely an added attraction to the course.

My rebuilding of our master bathroom toilet didn’t quite lead to fixing the problem, as I reported last week.  I was puzzled that the valve continued to run intermittently, but this week I figured it out.  All it took was a few adjustments to the height of the filler tube and after that it has been working perfectly.  This was another case of looking at something very, very closely and reasoning it out.  I plan to keep trying this as long as my grey cells allow.

Tourists are arriving in droves – about 4k since Thursday, apparently not deterred by the pre-testing requirement.  Merchants are happy – for now.  How much of an upsurge we get in a couple of weeks will be crucial to whether this is sustainable.  We continue to have new cases among locals and this means there is “community spread.”  A likely cause of this is that there is a cultural preference for large multi-generational family living arrangements among some groups of people here, many of whom are essential workers who come into contact with the community at large.  When visitors become part of the community, their Hawai’i vacation may turn out to be not as fun as they had hoped.  The biggest problem so far is educating some of the mainlanders that masks aren’t optional here – they’re required.  The logic is clear and based on solid research.  A few days after testing negative you can be infected and then be spreading the virus before showing symptoms.  A mask is the best way to prevent that,  period.  I’ll also repeat my mantra that as Covid 19 cases fill up our meager medical facilities this means that non-Covid emergencies and hospitalizations will be a real challenge, including the kinds of problems that tourists encounter.

Worked out yesterday at PF and it was pretty empty around 12:30.  Everyone was masked up and spaced out – except for one old fart who looked like a returning snowbird, with a t-shirt that had “Casanova” printed on the front.  He had his mask pulled up as he shuffled from one machine to the next, then promptly lowered it around his neck as he exercised on it. I lost track of him, then a short time later I saw him at the front desk with his mask down arguing with the staff.  I couldn't hear the exchange, but he had that "screw-you-I'll-do-what-I-want" look on his face. Then he left, with his mask still down.  I’m not sure, but I think they kicked him out.  Good. I let them know when we left that appreciated their diligence and as long as they kept it up we would keep coming.  Geesh!  After our workout we got another Vietnamese sandwich at had a beech picnic lunch watching the surfers.

Ok, yet another beautiful morning.  Off on our usual rounds. Stay warm, healthy, and sane, and away from old guys with Casanova t-shirts.

Zork's Pandemic Reports from Earth

 [The following are agent Zork Zynt's reports that have been received so far regarding our pandemic experiment on Earth.  Note that after several early reports a batch of garbled transmissions leaves a significant gap in his observations.  Also note that he seems to become increasingly alarmed by the dysfunctional reaction of his study population to the viral agent, something we had not entirely anticipated though we had expected a certain level of chaos.  The batch ends with a disturbing suggestion that our immunization of field agents may not have been as effective as we believed......]

 ___________________________________

Encrypted Transmission #010 Agent ZZ to IEC Local Date 03.02.20

COVID19 experiment going nicely. Global panic spreading fast. Supports plan to use a fast spreading virus to cause chaos and social discord. More later.

Encrypted Transmission #011 Agent ZZ to IEC Local Date 03.07.20

Congrats to Bio Directorate engineers! COVID 19 perfect for global panic experiment -- moderate R0 and death rate, mostly elderly humans, just as designed . US leader ignoring facts, floundering to control panic. More later...

 Encrypted Transmission #012 Agent ZZ to IEC Local Date 03.15.20

Pandemic Experiment Directorate: Consider moving up timetable for next round -- humans seem unable to learn from experience. Get this. Many are claiming they have a right to spread virus by not wearing a mask! Chaos continues here. US leader prime source of misinformation.

 

Encrypted Transmission #013 Agent ZZ to IEC Local Date 03.19.20

 

Pandemic experiment still going better than expected. Our virus is working great -- weeding out those burdensome elderly humans. Kudos to the bio-guys. However, humans are acting more and more bizarrely and I'm getting worried. Report again soon.
 

 [Note -- several garbled transmissions occurred during this gap, Most were unintelligible and have been omitted.]

 

Encrypted Transmission #014 Agent ZZ to IEC Local Date 10.10.20

 

Cases of experimental virus on the rise again. Didn't expect this. In US over 220k dead, 8 million infected. Leader insists no big deal, wants to go for Herd Immunity (would require 150 million to be immune, around 4.5 million deaths at current rate). Some followers actually endorse this strategy -- obviously many humans lack compassion or good sense or both.

 

Encrypted Transmission #015 Agent ZZ to IEC Local Date 10.20.20

 

Not feeling so good. Human form leaking more that usual. Can't taste Krispy Kremes anymore. Are you sure field agents are immune to the experimental virus?  Can't seek medical treatment because that would reveal my non-human identity.  Nothing in my field kit helps. Please advise!

A Light in the Dark, A Ballot, and A.C. Woes

 [Note -- this is another in my series of blogs based on weekly emails I send to my family on the mainland.]

 10/17/20

Aloha Guys –                                
                                
Still here and still thankful I am. Like Willy Nelson who jokes when asked how he is doing these days, “Well, woke up again today not dead...”  A teensy bit morbid, but I’ll take it.

My handyman streak continued this week.  I finished refurbishing a landscape light that is in the entry area.  At first I was going to just buy another one because we like the design – sort of a hanging lantern that casts a nice circle of light – but nobody in town is selling them any more.  So I took the old one apart, spray-painted it, rewired it, and used some old hollow rigid tubing I had squirreled away to make a new and taller support post for it.  Damn, *better* than new! Notice the theme here in my latest projects – don’t give up on old things. We geezers have got to stick together!  On a more “iffy” note, I replaced a fill valve in one our toilets but it still kept losing water and turning on intermittently. So I got a flush valve kit, removed the tank and replaced the gaskets and the valve itself.  Good news is that nothing leaks externally.  Badish news is that it still runs occasionally and this will take a bit more problem solving.  Also good news, though, is that this toilet is over 25 years old and the gaskets were really shot – I have probably headed off an even worse problem.

On Wednesday Karen and I cast our ballots, something I’ve been waiting to do for four years. Hawai’i votes entirely by mail in a system that I defy nay-sayers to find fault with.  Besides mailing your signed ballot, you can drop it off at several special drop boxes that are available 24/7 until the end of voting on November 3.  These are located at each of our police stations on the island and at the guarded location in our Kona Civic Center. We opted for the CC option since it was  on our way to Costco and to make sure we didn’t add to the burden of postal workers right now (not because we’re worried about security).  This took about 1 minute, not 7 hours like some voters in Georgia have had to endure. Like most other states, we can now check on the status of our ballots by going online to make sure they were (a) received and (b) the signatures and the ballots themselves were validated (i.e., the same ballot was received that was mailed out to us, no votes on the ballot were changed, and that we have voted only once).  
                        
Yesterday I deferred to the experts for our CRV’s AC problem and dropped it off at my trusty mechanic’s shop for diagnosis.  The refrigerant was down to near zero even though I recently added some.  They refilled the system with a pump that is much more effective than my can-from-Autozone method.  Their refrigerant has a dye in it that will allow them to check for leaks in the external lines.  However, no leaks in the lines means an internal problem that will require a rather major repair (roughly $650), not something I want to tackle myself.  Gotta do it, though – ac is a must for driving here.  The plan is to wait until the refrigerant drops again, check for leaks, and then go from there.  Stay tuned.    

Our Kona Corona contamination continues, and we have now far outstripped the Hilo side of the island in new cases, with 150+ in the last month to their measly 115.  The University of Nations currently accounts for about 1/3 of that total on our side and the rest are in the community somewhere, presumably under isolation.  Despite this, on Thursday the state dropped the 2-week quarantine for people arriving with negative COVID 19 tests, but if you go directly to Hawaii Island you must also have a second test at the airport when you arrive in order to avoid the 2-week quarantine.  Until the end of the month anyone who has spent more than a day on any other island and then comes here will still have to quarantine, no test options unless you get tested again on the previous island within 72 hours of flying here. Even if you aren’t quarantined, you must still wear a mask in public venues and thankfully people here are responsibly doing this – visitors who don’t will find us very unwelcoming. This may sound strict, but I’m all for it, mainly because no other state has health facilities more likely to be overwhelmed than ours, especially on our island.

Also on the health news front, I have an eye appointment today around noon.  I shouldn't jinx this, but my right eye seems to be holding ok even though it has been 3 months since my last injection.  Even if I have one today,  the long interval is a great relief after 5 years of almost monthly injections.  I'll let you know.

Ok, that’s it.  Off to market and beach breakfast.  As nearly always, it’s a beautiful morning here and we intend to enjoy it as much as we can.  Stay safe, warm, and healthy.  And VOTE as soon as you can.

Fixing a Robot, Making Coqui Ceviche, Taking Over First Place

[Note -- this is another in my series of blogs based on weekly emails I send to my family on the mainland.]

10/10.20

Aloha Everybody – Hope you’re still enjoying your fall.

We’re surviving here, although at times the news these days threatens to overwhelm even our rather idyllic life here.  It’s like being hit in the face with a shower of toxic sewer sludge.  I combat this by trying to keep busy and focusing on the positive moments as much as I can.

For instance, this week I solved a maintenance puzzle that has been bugging me for several weeks.  We have a robot pool cleaner that runs around the bottom and sides of the pool sucking up debris and rubbing off algae.  He’s a cute little bugger, about the size of a pumpkin with little feet on either side of the body that provide propulsion in kind of a waddling motion.  The random pattern it follows is a marvel of hydraulic engineering, determined entirely by water flowing through a gearbox mechanism. The exact principle is something I’ve never quite figured out.  Like anything else that is mechanical, the robot needs occasional maintenance to keep it running correctly.  I’ve gotten quite good at doing this myself with parts easily available online. One occasional problem these particular models have is that the movement pattern begins to favor turning one way more than the other and it starts just going in circles.  This tangles the hose that carries away the debris to the filter and the robot can’t do its job any more.  I’ve fixed this problem before several times (thanks to YouTube, of course) and it is usually due to a bad bearing that is easily replaced or some other issue that is pretty obvious.  Not this time, however, and over the last couple of weeks I’ve replaced almost every innard the thing has without success. Finally, I noticed the foot on one side wiggling more than the other – subtle but enough to screw things up.  Turned out to be a bushing that was worn on one side but not the other.  Swapped out the bushing and voila!  Even my pool man was impressed.

Despite this success there are still other challenges, of course.  The coqui frogs are still trying to move in, but so far I’ve managed to keep them at bay.  On Tuesday I cleared a huge amount of stuff from an area that borders the infested property next door to make us a less attractive breeding ground.  This seems to have helped but my muscles are *still* recovering.  My fellow coqui warrior in the neighborhood tried something this week that seems to have been very effective, though limited in where you can do it for safety reasons.  It seems that agricultural lime powder * (used to balance soil ph) is very deadly to coquis and for a while it was an approved treatment for controlling them. The usual technique is to blow the powder into the foliage with a leaf blower, creating a cloud of dust that coats everything with a fine coating, including the coquis.  The lime is tolerated by most plants but not by human lungs, it turns out.  People were applying it without proper precautions for themselves and neighbors, and it lost its approval. That doesn’t mean people don’t still use it in certain instances. The area that my fellow warrior used it on was a large patch of Monstera (large leafy plant that looks like a philodendron) that he shares with a neighbor.  Coquis love this plant and there were a dozen or more in that area.  With the neighbor’s agreement and with proper protective gear he treated the area one night this week and it has been blissfully silent ever since. I’d like to use it on my next door neighbor’s property, but as I mentioned before he refuses to try to control them.  Wonder if he has the same attitude toward rats, cockroaches, or termites.  

On the Covid 19 front, our west side of the island has now moved ahead of the Hilo side in terms of the number of new cases in the past month.  Whoopee.  Quite a few of our new cases, but not all of them, are connected with the University of Nations missionary school that I mentioned last week.  About 800 staff, students, and community contacts have now been tested and we’re waiting for all of the results.  So far it looks like it has been well-contained, but I’m remaining somewhat skeptical.  Yesterday we had a record number of new cases on the island, and 4 more at the University of Nations. In the midst of this upsurge is the possibility of opening up to tourists again this month, probably with a second test required after arrival. What a quandary, though -- we need the money from tourists but our meager hospitals are nearly at capacity now. What will happen with even a modest increase in cases?

On a more positive note, we had a good workout yesterday at PF.  Arrived about 12:30 and just about had the place to ourselves.  Our guess that Friday was less busy than Thursday was correct. We followed the workout with a take-out Vietnamese sandwich at the beach and a long nap when we got home.

Ok, on that happy note I’ll close.  Off for our usual Saturday morning routine of market, beach breakfast, and a few errands.  Take care everyone.  We’ll get through this somehow.  Right?

 

*[Disclaimer:  Ok, Ok. I know that Ceviche is actually made with the lime from citrus trees, not from agricultural lime, which is a mineral.  I suppose Coqui Ceviche could be made that way, too, but I don't really propose eating coquis with either preparation.]