Hosting Raccoons, Walking Inside a Volcano

[Note: this is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland.] 

6/13/21

Aloha Everybody –

Our main focus this week has been our mainland guests – Karen’s close teaching friend from Ohio and her twin 11 year-old granddaughters. They arrived on Monday afternoon and after a beach picnic we had the twins in the ocean within a couple of hours. Big hit, as was our pool when we got home.

Not such a big hit, though were my explanations of geology, culture, climate, and volcanology.  It seems even very bright 11-year-olds don’t have much patience for minutiae.  So I quickly learned I had to dial it *way* back – tough for me since I haven’t had much chance at pontificating for quite a while.

Thanks to Karen’s tutelage we got them used to snorkeling in our pool and then did the real thing at one of our nearby beach parks.  That went well, but grandmother cut her toe on some coral and required some first aid by the nice life guard on duty.  That and a chronic knee problem curtailed some of the hiking I had planned.  

We spent Thursday and Friday nights at the volcano, even staying in the historic Volcano House that is right on the rim of Kilauea caldera.  Even though there wasn’t any volcanic activity, this is an awesome experience.  The sights around the National Park are also very special and one that seemed to be interesting to the kids was walking through a section of the huge Thurstone lava tube.  The weather was about the best Karen and I can remember it ever being there – crystal clear and warm Thursday and Friday.  Saturday when we left, though, was the much more common drizzle and cool weather for the volcano area.  In fact, it was cloudy and occasionally rainy the rest of our time on the windward side.  Still, it didn’t interfere with a stop at a couple of waterfalls and bayside picnic lunch in Hilo.

We’re now back in Kona and I’m writing this Sunday morning.  Unfortunately it is raining, unusual for us, so we’ll have to shift our plans a bit – the big event will be a submarine ride in Kailua Bay with some indoor shopping to follow.

We’re enjoying our young visitors but it has been a real education about what it’s like to be with kids. Not sure we could ever have made it as parents....

Take care, enjoy your summer.

One Eyeball Shot,Two Anniversaries, Four Frogs, One Pair of Twins

 [Note: this is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland.] 

6/5/21

 Aloha All –

This has been a busy week.  As expected, I did need another eyeball injection, but even so there was good news from my retina doctor: I have a nicely shaped macula.  He meant that instead of being misshapen from edema that it actually was near normal, except for the one spot that is still oozing a little.  Anyway, he used the minimum numbing drop method and I had very little problem with the shot itself, both at the time and the next day.  With continued luck, I’m good for another 3 months, though I’ll go back in 6 weeks for a checkup just to make sure.

This week was our yearly double celebration of the last day or working and the first day of retirement. This was number 21, which is very hard to believe. Both of us retired at the same time in 2000, which makes it easy to keep track of. Neither of us has had any difficulty adjusting to retirement, and though we enjoyed our careers we have certainly enjoyed retirement too. We don’t do much to celebrate except having half a bottle of champagne and appetizers at each of the two sunsets.

This week I achieved a personal best in coqui catching – 3 in one night!  And the next night I got another one in the same area for a total of 4. Our continued wet afternoons have really revved them up, and although we don’t have many that manage to move in, our neighbors are producing a never-ending supply of interlopers.  I attribute my increase in catching ability mainly to practice.  I can now more easily discern where they are perched from their calls – which is often not at all where it sounds like.  I’ve also gotten better at seeing them because I've learned to look for a tell-tale shape despite their excellent camouflage. Finally, my grabbing technique is also better from practice, and I’m now more comfortable with the sensation of having one in my fist.  As I’ve mentioned before, the most sure-fire and humane way to kill them is to put them in a plastic bag and toss it in the freezer.  Bam!  Coqui-cicle.

Next week we will be hosting some special guests.  A former colleague of Karen’s is bringing her orphaned twin grand kids to visit.  They are 11-year old girls, very smart and mostly well-behaved, but also full of energy.  This will be a challenge for us.  We’ve been planning as many activities as we can that they might be interested in, and we’re hoping a lot of time in our pool and at the beach will also work.  Of course, this has required some extra house-prep, too, since it will involve both of our guest rooms instead of just one.  The one where the kids will be staying is usually Karen’s she-cave – and so it has required some attention it usually doesn’t get in terms of stowing stuff and cleaning. Anyway, as we understand it they are very excited about coming to Hawai’i and have been counting down the days.  Should be fun but exhausting for us.  I’ll give you an update next week.

Okay, there’s more but I’ll stop there. Off to market and beach breakfast picnic.

A Revived Technobrick, Lots of Work and Naps

 Note: this is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland.] 

5/29/21

Aloha Everybody –

From the weather reports in our paper I see that it certainly warmed up there after we left – maybe a teense too much.  Ohio in the upper 80's in late May?  Our temps have been in the low 80's much of the week, but that is normal and with our constant cool breezes it is actually very nice.  We’re warming up a little as we head into “summer” but nothing dramatic or weird so far. The pool is up to 82d thanks to warmer overnight lows and covering it at night.  I really missed our daily workouts in it while we were traveling.

I left off last time bemoaning the sudden coma of my 2-year old cell phone.  The problem was that it

The Technobrick

would no longer charge, and instead displayed a message saying that moisture had been detected in the charging port and to unplug it immediately.  I switched cords, tried a new charger, blew out the port and made sure it was in fact dry, and each time it would seem ok at first and then fritz out again. I did get it charged up enough to quickly do a back up (I hadn’t been doing them up to this point) and to get it to a semi-usable state.  I went online and looked at new phones, but then decided I really couldn’t justify upgrading since I like everything about the current one – its size, display, camera, speed, etc. – and that I needed to make more of an effort to revive it before giving up.

A deep dive into the geekosphere revealed that (a) this was not a totally unique problem, (b) it could be fixed for about $100 if I was willing to part with it for a week or so (no one on our island does this so I’d have to send it off), ( c) online videos made it clear this was not something I wanted to try myself, and (d) there were a number of easy and cheap work-arounds to try first, including buying a 30-buck wireless charger.  I zipped out to Walmart and bought one figuring it was worth a shot.  Bingo – so far the wireless method works without a hitch (the online geeks confirmed my suspicion that the circuitry was different from the charging port).  Techno-brick no more and I’ll keep the phone until something else goes wrong, then get a new techno-toy. In the meantime it has begun charging through the port again, but it case it doesn’t I have a reliable backup.

Aside from that, the week was spent catching coquis (4 in 8 days), whacking back the jungle, and getting back to my naps, which I really missed on our trip.  We also worked out at PF on Thursday and this time upped the settings and reps to get back to our previous levels.  Ouch. Amazing how quickly things go to pot and how slow it is to get them back.

Today I see my retina doc.  It’s been nearly 3 months since I’ve had a shot and I may need one, though I haven’t noticed any dramatic downturn.  My threshold is low for getting it, just as a precaution and preventative if nothing else.  It is such a relief for this to finally be stabilized and not such a big part of life......

That’s it for now.  Off to market and beach breakfast picnic before my 1 pm appointment.  Take care, all – enjoy your early summer!

You Know You're A Geezer When....

Geezerhood can kind of sneak up on you, especially for those of us who have a tendency to be in denial. 

The Primo Geezer

So here are some tips that will help you recognize the symptoms.  If you nod in agreement with more than one or two, welcome to the club!!

Please add to the list by using the Comment option below, (you can do this anonymously if you wish) and if you're interested in further explorations into the vagaries of being "youth-challenged," see my Geezerhood collection of posts.  

• You and your pharmacist are on a first-name basis. 
  
• You get the senior discount without asking.
• People start to call you "Sir" (Geezers) or Ma'am (Geezerettes) or "Hon" (either).
• Competitive Complaining is the usual style of conversation among your circle of friends.
• People seem to want to carefully explain things to you, usually at a high volume level.
  
• Teenagers want to borrow your clothes for their "retro" parties.
• You don't recognize the names of any  current pop music artists.
• You see more doctors in one month than you used to see in ten years.
• The smell of coffee can keep you awake for days.
• People start offering you their seat on a bus, and sometimes have a concerned look on their face.
• You start getting offers in the mail for free hearing tests, supplemental insurance, and hemorrhoid creams.
• When you travel you carry a special satchel full of medications.
• At the TSA Security checkpoint the officer patronizingly asks if you have any metal implants -- and unfortunately you have to answer "yes."
• You can remember events from 20 years ago but not why you came into a room just now.
• Naps are no longer just nice, they're a necessity
• You know the name of the man in the photo above.
  

What Else Could Go Wrong?

 Note: this is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland.] 

5/22/21

We are finally home after an unexpectedly long journey and we're now recovering from 6-hour jet lag and a sore butt.

The trip over to the mainland went so smoothly it was eerie. No delays, quick check-ins, even managed to have an open seat next to us on the long flight from Kona to Denver despite a very full plane. We had a very short connection time in Denver but made the next flight with time to spare. Had an efficient Covid-style check-in at our hotel in Cincinnati (electronic registration, no-touch key cards), easy Lyft ride to the car rental office the next morning and a beautiful drive to Knoxville, ending with great barbecue and beer that first night on the river.  Then the weather crapped on us, with temps dropping so low that it frosted for two nights in a row, thus putting the damper on our goal of seeing spring flowers and bushes in bloom.

Still, the Tennessee/North Carolina trip itself was interesting and we had enough good days that the weather wasn't a total buzzkill.

 

At the end of our itinerary we were able to reconnect in person with a number of good friends from our working days in Ohio. Sadly, one especially close Ohio friend passed away while we traveling in North Carolina and we were unable to see her before her death. However, by delaying our return home a day we were able to attend the funeral -- a sad event yet a heart-warming tribute and a chance to see many mutual friends.  Another Ohio friend also died while we were there, the husband of a very close colleague in my department, but in this case the funeral wasn't for several days after we were scheduled to return and it would have been difficult to change our arrangements again. 

It seemed fitting that the journey home would include some definite travel challenges that reminded us that snafus are often a part of the deal.  Our flight from Cincinnati to Denver was delayed by about six hours when the plane's computer found a part that was malfunctioning.  To determine that it was really a part and not just the computer itself fritzing out, the pilots had to conduct several time-consuming reboots and diagnostic checks (I suggested my method of giving it a good whack to see if that would help but they didn't follow my advice).  The part wasn't stocked in Cincinnati and had to be flown in from Chicago, which took a couple of hours. Thankfully, rather than having to wait for the part to be installed, we were put on the plane that brought the part, and finally took off for Denver.  Of course we arrived way too late to make our original Kona flight, and all the later flights were totally full.  So United put us up in a Denver Airport hotel and re-booked us on the next day's flight. All went pretty well after that and we even arrived in Kona a little ahead of schedule.  

 

The next day we had a beach breakfast picnic that was very nice, but Karen lost her Iphone in the process.  Fortunately the phone was locked, and as soon as we discovered it was missing I went online and put it into Lost Mode -- making it worthless to anybody who found it.  I also made the phone display a message saying that a reward was offered for its return and giving my own cell number to call.  Sure enough, around noon we got a call from a woman who said she had bought it from a homeless man (probably not true) and would meet us to return it for the reward.  This turned out to be close by and we gratefully gave her a generous reward just a short while later.  Whew!  Crisis averted. But then this morning MY phone suddenly turned into a techno-brick.  I'm still working on this problem and will catch you up next week.

 

There's more to the saga of our return journey but I'll stop there for now and let you ponder the old saying, "what else could go wrong?"

Hope you are all well and enjoying your late spring.  Carpe diem!

Travel in the Time of Covid 3

Note: this is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland.] 

5/8/21

Aloha All --

Travel always includes things you can't control no matter how much careful planning you do. The weather is one of them. Although we've had some nice days on this trip, much of the time has been unusually cool and rainy. We've often been able to roll with this by doing inside stuff, like the rainy day we visited the Biltmore mansion in Ashville.  Or by taking refuge in a shopping mall.  Normally I hate shopping but the mainland offers us a chance to buy things not available at home, and if there's nothing else to do,  I'm ok with it.  I still find it mentally exhausting, though -- I'm definitely better at buying than shopping.

I also have found I can survive outside at 60d as long as it is sunny. My toughness has allowed us to do a fair amount of nice hiking, mostly in the late morning and afternoon when the temperature hits my minimum.  But if it's 60d AND cloudy, I'm by a heater somewhere. 

After our bucket-list visit to the Biltmore we headed back north and spent a couple of nights in Berea, Kentucky.  Berea is home to a small college of the same name that was founded in 1855 by an abolitionist Presbyterian minister who felt men and women of all races deserved equal education.  It was closed by the Confederacy during the Civil War but reopened afterwards and is still going strong. It is so well endowed by private donors that since 1895 it hasn't charged tuition. The 1600 students are selected from applicants who have high academic potential but who can't afford a higher education without financial support. The school's funding supports a beautiful campus with first rate facilities. We were very impressed. 

We're ending our trip in Ohio, where we're visiting old friends-- and sadly attending the funeral of one of them -- before returning home. I probably won't write next week to accommodate our very least favorite part of the trip-- the long journey itself. 

Take care. Carpe Diem!

Travel in the Time of Covid 2

Note: this is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland.] 

May 1, 2021

Aloha Everybody --

While we were traveling in Europe it was not uncommon to pass through a town with one or more attractions that we wanted to see on our way to the day's destination and find them either closed for the day or for the hours we had before having to move on. This same thing happened to us in Charlotte NC except that we had two whole days there.

The attractions were the NASCAR Museum and the highly acclaimed Museum of the New South (i.e. post Civil War). We did manage to get to the NASCAR museum but the other was closed the entire time.

In Charlotte we stayed at the Duke Mansion in an area called Myers Park, designed by John Nolen, the same urban planner who designed Merimont in Cincinnati. Despite the sightseeing woes,  we enjoyed staying in the mansion very much -- it ranks in the top 10 of all our travels. Also, Charlotte may be short on historical sights but it has to be one of the most modern and livable cities in the country.

The weather has been a yo-yo.  Nice in Charlotte but now in the Smokies at Blowing Rock it has turned windy and cool again. It is sunny, however, and today we managed a couple of nice hikes. Having a lot of good food and excellent beer so we need to work it off!

Take care. I imagine your spring is in full swing. Enjoy!