Mexico A Go-Go; Negatrons; Covid Spike

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

7/24/21 

Aloha Everyone –

Hope you are surviving summer by staying cool, unburnt, and uninfected.

This week we finalized our Mexico plans for September, made a deposit, and booked our flights.  As I mentioned last time, the itinerary is non-standard and very much to our travel preferences.  The area

Mount Alban near Oaxaca

will be quite small by tourist standards, with lots of visits to small towns and villages, architectural sites (this area was the center of Aztec, Zapotec, Mayan, and other civilizations), natural areas (especially a bio-reserve just north of Oaxaca), and we won’t go anywhere near the glitzy Yucatan coastal resorts.  Our two guides are a married team who have been doing this for a number of years. He’s a local-born naturalist who has been a guide for 20 years, and she’s an expat Canadian who is an expert in food, culture, and art.  She’s particular knowledgeable about the famed artist Frida Kahlo and has even written a book about her life and her work.  In short, we are certain we’re in good hands, and we like the fact that we’ll get the perspectives of both a local native and an expat who has adopted Mexico as her home.  (Here’s a link to their tour website, and also one to her personal page: https://discover-oaxaca.com/ and https://www.suzannebarbezat.com/ ). Now all we need is for Covid not to screw this up.  There is a surge in Mexico recently and unfortunately not a lot of people have been vaccinated.  Unlike the US, though, their low rate is because of unavailability of vaccine and lack of infrastructure, not to people choosing to leave themselves unprotected and to infect others as a consequence.

Speaking of that, Hawai’i has seen a dramatic surge in cases in the last few weeks, including on our island.  This is nearly all “community spread”, and about 30% are young people 18 and younger.  Less than 1% of the Covid-related deaths in the last month have been people who were fully vaccinated.  That is, 99+% of the people dying here are those who are unvaccinated, despite the fact that we have plenty of vaccine and there are many walk-in medical and retail venues giving free shots. The paper reported yesterday morning that about 20% of the recent cases are related to local unvaccinated people traveling to the mainland and returning to spread the virus among unvaccinated friends and family. Nearly all of the recent cases are unvaccinated people. It seems to me that freedom of choice should entail accepting responsibility for the consequences of your decision to other people.  I could argue that this is evolution in action and we should just let people go ahead and kill themselves and each other, except that the cost to treat those who request it in terms of medical facilities and personnel is borne by the rest of us.  “Freedom” doesn’t mean “free.”  Getting...off...high horse...now.......

On another cheery note, large parts of the mainland are experiencing dire drought conditions, fires, and record-breaking heat, but we have continued to have showers almost every day and cloudy skies even if it doesn’t rain.  We’re still covering our pool each night whereas in most years we would have been able to stop a month ago. This has kept the pool temperature pretty nice, and the rain has meant we haven’t needed to add water for months and months.  However, the cloudiness has put our pv production in the dumper, and our recent HELCO bill a few days ago showed we were in the red for the month by about 70 kw hours, the worst production in the last year. I call these “negatrons.” With our high energy costs 70 kwh translates to about $25.  We pay about 30-35 cents per kilowatt hour, whereas back in Ohio the rate was about 5 cents when we lived there and about 8 cents now).  We have a surplus built up from previous months that will be used to pay this, but I’d rather have a bigger cushion if we go into a.c. season.

Ok, that’s it.  Sorry for the pontificating but sometimes I can’t help myself.  Stay well.  Stay happy. Carpe Diem.

Shiny Mo’ Bettah, Travel Plans, Stealth Birthday

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

7/17/21

A few things to report this week, nothing earth-shattering but thankfully that’s my life these days.

Got nearly all of my bathtub metal replaced in the two guest bathrooms.  After 35 or more years of corrosion and pitting, the old cover plates and handles were looking pretty bad, despite the fact that they don’t get that much use.  The new chrome makes a big difference visually, which is the kind of project I like – you can actually see that you accomplished something.  Of course, to other people it just looks like it should, rather than a problem standing out.  I still have a couple of tweaks I might do – replacing the shower heads might be nice and should be fairly easy (oops, never say that out loud – you’re bound to jinx it).

We’ve made progress on our fall travel plans to Mexico. We heard back from the travel company we contacted last week with a couple of options that sounded good.  We urged them to go ahead and send a detailed itinerary and cost, which they did.  We were impressed – both options fit our interests very well and the price was reasonable, considering this will be a custom tour just for the two of us (you may recall we’ve traveled this way before, for example in Peru, the Middle East, and in South Africa).  We’ve decided on an itinerary which will start in Mexico City and then go south through the state of Puebla visiting small towns, archeological sites, and nature preserves for 6 nights before arriving in Oaxaca for 8 nights. We'll use Oaxaca as a base for exploring the many sights in the surrounding area.  We’re going to add on 3-4 nights in Mexico City on our own at the beginning.  We spent time there decades ago and it will be interesting to see the changes, as well as visit places we didn’t take in before, like the Frida Kahlo Museum.  Frankly, we’re getting kind of pumped for this trip – it sounds like just the kind of trip we like: historic, full of rich culture, art, architecture, natural beauty, unique flora & fauna, and of course *food.* I’ve read the craft beer movement has even established itself there, and I’ll be eager to exercise my beer snobbery.  Of course, Covid is the wild card that could ruin our plans.  This spring and early summer have been very good in the areas we will be visiting, but there has been a recent uptick of cases that may lead to restrictions that could make enjoying things much more difficult.  We’re not worried for ourselves but the vaccination rate there is quite low and a new variant of the virus could really take off.  We have to put a deposit down for the tour soon, but the balance isn’t due until right before the start.

On Thursday I had another #@!*^  birthday anniversary.  Unlike the others we’ve been celebrating

recently, this one isn’t all that joyous.  In this case it is a sobering reminder that life is a terminal condition – so enjoy it while you can. I wanted to keep the day low key and self-indulgent, so it was a simple agenda of working out at the gym, having my favorite Vietnamese sandwich at the shore, a nice nap in the afternoon, and then a tasty New York strip steak which I barbecued to my own liking, accompanied by a good craft beer and a glass of Merlot. The side dishes were all favorites: angel hair pasta with olive oil, anchovy, and parmesan, a fig salad with goat cheese, and some fresh sauteed asparagus spears.  Oh, and my favorite home-made chocolate chip oatmeal cookies for desert.  Good meal and a good day, considering!

Off to market.  Take care everyone. Be safe. Be cool. Be healthy. Be happy!
 

Fizzled Fireworks, Celebrating a New Beginning

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

7/10/21

 Aloha Everybody –

Last weekend was one of snafus, but one wasn’t a problem and the other was actually fortunate.  I showed up at my eye appointment on Saturday only to find I had misread my calendar and it was actually *this* Saturday.  Not a problem, really, because the new office is just down the hill from us less than 5 minutes away.  So today I will be having my follow up and possible eyeball injection.  I’ll update you next week.

Our community fireworks were supposed to be Sunday night, the 4th.  Everyone was pretty excited since this was the first display since Covid.  This time the venue was changed to the shoreline park just north of town. We were leary of getting stuck in traffic after the event, so we positioned ourselves upslope in a nearby shopping center parking lot, along a few hundred other people, many setting off their own fireworks.  Many hundreds of other people were positioned in other vantage points -- we

locals really know how to make the best of  our conditions. The time came for the big bang and......nothing, nada, zilch.  We waited for ½ hour and then went home.  The story we’ve heard is that a computer cable malfunctioned and no one had a backup.  Of course, there was no way to get word to the spectators, so the celebration slowly wimped down as people drifted away. The show was re-scheduled for the next night, July 5th, which turned out nicely for us, because that is the date Karen and I moved to Hawai’i twenty years ago.  We celebrated with champagne, dinner on the waterfront, and FIREWORKS!  Granted, the show was only about 10 minutes long but very well done.  

It is hard to believe it has been 20 years since our move. Looking back, we agree it was a good decision and we’re glad we did it.  It is a very special place to live and when we consider the alternative of staying in Ohio, well........

We’ve canceled our Ethiopia tour for fall ‘22, for good this time.  We’re sad about this – it was a place that has been high on our destination list for decades, but something always seems to prevent us from going.  We’ll see how the political/health/agriculture situation goes over the next 6 months or so, but from our research it doesn’t look good.  So we’ve now booked a small group tour to the Caucusus – Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan – for three weeks in May next year. This is another very historic area with unique culture that should be very interesting.  We’re also trying to put together a trip to Mexico this fall.  We contacted a company that does custom itineraries to make one in the Oaxaca area for a couple of weeks. Our thought is we’d couple this with a visit to southern California to make it a bit longer.  So far we haven’t heard back from the company so this is all very iffy.  I’ll keep you posted.

I’ve been doing some plumbing repairs that have involved replacing corroded parts in two bathtubs, a fairly easy task except that I discovered some non-standard installation in the original work that posed some complications.  So far, so good though.

Ok, that’s about it.  Stay healthy, sane, and cool.

Please Shut the Gate!

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

7/3/21

Aloha All – Happy 4th of July!

We have a number of snowbirds from Canada and from the US northwest who flock here each winter to escape their cold and cloudy weather.  Right now I suspect many are thinking of returning here to cool off.  Wow, 116d in Portland!  People in Canada, Washington, and Oregon dying from the heat! The only upside I can see is that the blistering heat wave seems to have passed quickly.   

I really hope that more folks don’t decide to come to Hawai’i right now no matter what the reason.  In the 20 years we’ve lived here we’ve never seen the problems tourists bring as bad as this.  The economy is doing great, but the cost of that is incredible traffic, empty store shelves, overcrowded beaches, long waits at restaurants, and a general breakdown of the “aloha spirit.”  For instance, this week we noticed stressed-out and even surly clerks at a several venues, a very unusual phenomenon here. And in response to higher demand, airlines are adding flights and using larger planes to bring even more people, One thing that might have a positive impact on the problem is that our weekly cruise ship is going to return to service in a few weeks. Here in Kona this brings a thousand visitors who sightsee, spend money, and then get back on the ship and go away. As long as this stays at one ship we can handle it. Another thing that might help is that our vaccination levels are getting high enough so that restrictions on capacities at venues may soon be eased, making facilities available to more people at the same time.

I finally managed to get my driveway power-washed and most of the bird poop removed. Some poop seems to have industrial-strength sticking power, though, and even the force of the power washer has difficulty getting it off. We have an electric line that runs above the driveway that is a favorite roost-and-poop spot.  I shoo birds away whenever I see them up there, but they still manage to make a mess. Indeed, after the power washing the driveway was nice and clean – for less that 12 hours.  The next morning as we started our neighborhood walk I found three big splattoes, like the birds were thumbing their beaks at me.

The driveway was one of my few physical efforts this week, other than doing some insect spraying and heavy pruning.  Karen, on the other hand, in addition to our usual weekly workout at PF, played golf twice.  Once was her weekly round with her golfing buddy, and the other was a small group lesson given by the course pro.  This is a four-week course on Friday mornings and after this week she has two more to go.  I’m beginning to feel like a slug compared to her!

Caught two more coqui frogs this week, one of which I’ve been after for weeks that was setting up in our front garden.  He was a young one, which means he would only call a few times in a row. Even though the area is close to our kitchen and living room, I took just a little too long to get our there, and by the time I arrived he would shut up for an hour or so.  I was close to catching him a couple of times, but I was never able to see exactly where he was hiding.  Finally, I happened to be out there Thursday night when he started up and I was able to locate him and make a successful grab.  This was a very good one to get early, before he could start mating and producing a number of little coquis because this is an area where we would hear them loud and clear inside the house.

Finally, I have my 6-week eyeball check later this afternoon. I’ll let you know next week what the outcome was.

Take care everyone.  Stay healthy and cool.




 

Almost Normal (Not), A Missed Anniversary

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

6/26/21

Aloha all –

I see that it’s only June and it is already a bit toasty for you.  Crank up that a.c.!  We have stayed mild and pleasant so far, except for our persistent rainy and cloudy afternoons.  Still, the pool is up to 81-82, but we still need a little help from our electric backup for our hot water. Our electric bill shows the

Above 0=we pay

Note 1 pm dropoff

story very clearly with a graph of our monthly usage over the past 12 months.  Most of the time our PV system produces a surplus, but for the latest period we didn’t quite break even. The system itself produces another graph which also tells the story by plotting the power generation throughout any given day.  Many days this past month show great generation in the morning but a dramatic drop when the clouds move in later in the day.  I really like this graph because I can log in from anywhere in the world when we are traveling via the WWW and see what the weather has been like at home at any time. The electric bill graph is only available once a month.

Speaking of traveling, we are struggling to plan for the rest of this year and next year.  The foreign places we want to visit are either struggling with Covid and have severe travel restrictions or are having political and social problems.  We have rescheduled our Ethiopia tour for a year from September, hoping things will be better but that still seems uncertain.  We’d love to return to Europe, but even countries that are open to foreign travelers may be difficult for us to find accommodations and open attractions.  Plus, they are also having a heat wave this summer. A substitute might be to travel in the mainland US, but apparently many, many people have decided to do that too, as photos of National Park crowds illustrate. That may make it very difficult to make arrangements and not very enjoyable even if we can. As I've mentioned before, it is certainly true here that there are too many people trying to do the same thing at the same time). Once again we are SO glad we did as much traveling over the years as we did – at least we have some great memories to relive.

On the home front, we’ve been whacking back our foliage and weeds that have loved the cool, wet weather.  Also, a very positive accomplishment is that my neighbor and I have managed to catch quite a few coquis this week, a total of 12 between us.  There are many more still around, but even a reduction of 12 has quieted things down considerably.  We’ve both become very good at locating and grabbing the little suckers, and once we’re on the hunt for them they are very likely to become coquicicles – that is, frozen solid in the freezer.

We got back to our weekly Planet Fitness workout on Thursday.  Ouch. However, our favorite reward of a Vietnamese lemon grass chicken sandwich at the beach cancelled some of the pain.

Oh, and we were so involved with our guests that we forgot to celebrate an important anniversary -- the day 20 years ago that we finally closed the sale of our Oxford house.  This was definitely a relief, because we had already closed on our Hawai'i house, and the Oxford closing eased the financial burden of owning two houses at the same time. It was also a relief because there had been a couple of nerve-wracking delays to get things settled because of financial complications for the buyers in getting the funds together.  Those were some very stressful times, to say the least.

Finally, yesterday I had my second Shingles vaccination. You may recall that I had quite a reaction to the first one, but so far this reaction hasn't been too bad; a pretty sore arm and a good excuse for an extra nap. No matter how bad the reaction though, it sure beats getting another case of shingles!

Ok, off to farmers’ market.  Take care, stay cool, stay healthy.

Whew! A Deafening Silence

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

6/19/21

Aloha Everyone –
    
Well, our guests left last night and the house sure seems quiet. We think the twins enjoyed their stay, but sometimes it was hard to tell.  Their edge-of-puberty mood swings could go from giggling and engaged to sour and sullen in a few nano seconds.  Karen and I agree that if they had visited a year from now they might have been rather difficult guests. Anyway, a couple of big hits were the ride in the Atlantis Submarine and a day pass at the Waikaloa Hilton resort up north.  The resort has two pool areas, one with waterfalls and grottoes, and the other with a long river-like waterway that has several slides.  There is also a lagoon with fish, turtles, and other marine life to see while snorkeling.  Finally, to put icing on the cake, the resort hosts educational encounters with bottle-nosed dolphins that we were able to watch, though not participate in because of the steep extra cost.  Karen and I enjoyed the day, too – we hadn’t been here in quite a while and it was a chance to be reminded of just how special the place is.

For us the past week has been a real eye-opening education about kids and parenting.  As I said last time, this experience confirms our opinion that some people should be parents and some perhaps should not – we definitely fall into the second category.  However, I found I was pretty good at the role of goofy-yet-fun-old-guy, and I was even able to make the kids laugh.  My sense of humor may turn off a lot of adults but it seems to resonate with 11-year-olds.

We also had a chance to see once again our island from the point of view of a visitor – something we haven’t done in a long time.  This led to a confirmation that we are well-suited to live in this uniquely special place, and that it’s way too easy to take things for granted after a while,  which leads to focusing too much on the sometimes irritating challenges of living here.  Finally, I’ve been surprised to see just how well our tourist economy is recovering.  The numbers of visitors at the usual places were up to the point of being over-subscribed.  This will ease as more venues open up, of course, but it doesn’t bode well for our traffic congestion once the car rental companies repopulate their fleets, resulting in even more vehicles are on the road.

So now the agenda is to get back to our usual routine, and to pick up again on the projects we interrupted or put off – such as getting our carpet cleaned, resealing our stone decking, power washing and re-coating the driveway, and tracking down a few coqui frogs that are setting up homesteads in the landscaping, and of course the usual whacking back the jungle.

Take care everyone.  Stay cool, enjoy your early summer.

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.