Virtual Labor Day, Vicarious Golf, Nullified Workout, Steamed Minnie

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

9/11/21 (An anniversary to be remembered but not celebrated)

Aloha Everybody --

When we lived in Ohio we almost always marked the end of summer by going to the massive fireworks display on Labor Day, held on the Ohio River in Cincinnati.  This was a hugely popular event, attracting hundreds of thousands of spectators who would line the river bank to watch the show.  Despite the crowds I always thought it was worth it to get as close as possible – to feel the booms and experience how huge some of the fireworks were.  We handled the crowded conditions and inevitable traffic problems by arriving close to show time, leaving our car parked far away, then hustling back to the car afterwards and beating most of the traffic out of the downtown area.

The show was canceled last year, though they set off the fireworks at another site that was kept secret so that people wouldn’t try to congregate. The local tv channel recorded the display and broadcast it.  

This year the event returned to the river, despite the rise in Covid cases.  Our friends in Ohio with whom we usually attended were leery of going, even though they are both vaccinated, but decided to see how close they could get without getting into a really crowded situation.  It turned out the attendance was down so much that they were able to enjoy the show fairly close to the action.  They sent us the link to the televised version and it was AWESOME.  We hooked up our Ipad to the tv and ran the sound through our good speakers, with the volume cranked a bit high – not quite as good as being there but much safer.

Karen and her friend from Oregon played golf on Monday at another course.  This one was further up

Makani Golf Course

north and almost as beautiful as her favorite one closer to Kailua.  The weather was again gorgeous for them, and Karen again did quite well.  She also saw a mating pair of Nenes, the first of the season.  I enjoyed all this vicariously through Karen’s photos and texts.

Pizza at Sunset

 

On Tuesday we joined our friend for pizza, sitting on her shoreline lanai watching the sunset. She left on Wednesday morning but will return in December for another short visit.

That same night our Mazda got steamed –it looks like the radiator has developed a leak and will probably have to be replaced.  Minnie will go in for surgery on Monday, along with my wallet. I’ll let you know how this turns out.

On Thursday we did our usual workout at Planet Fitness, then completely nullified the benefits with lunch at Quinn’s Almost by the Sea restaurant.  Despite the self-depricating name, this is one of the oldest and most successful restaurants along the waterfront, and very popular with locals.  It is a stone’s through from the bay but has absolutely no view of the water – or of anything else.  However, the atmosphere is about as friendly and welcoming as you can get, and our lunch was delicious – blackened fish tacos with possibly the best fries in town, boneless Kalbi ribs, and a very good draft beer.  We took half home for dinner, and as soon as it was in the refrigerator we both took a long nap.  That’s my kind of workout!

We are still on track to go on our trip to Mexico.  Covid there remains much lower than here, and their downward trend in cases has continued.  Tomorrow we are going to try to get booster shots.  We think we qualify, but we will have to convince the pharmacy of that.  Again, I’ll let ou know.

Ok, that’s about it.  There is way too much strife, natural and unnatural disasters, and just plain craziness right now.  Take a deep breath (not in the presence of an anti-vaxer/anti-masker) and try to concentrate on whatever is good in your life.  

Postponing Paradise, Celebrating Mortgage Crossover Day

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

9/4/21

In the 20 years we’ve lived in Hawai’i we’ve experienced a lot of unusual things – volcanoes, hurricanes, the eerie quiet after 9/11 shut down all sea and air connections to the state, which meant no deliveries of food, fuel, mail, and toilet paper. But having our Governor ask tourists to stay away is definitely a first.  He’s been on t.v. a couple of times in the last week or so imploring mainland visitors to reconsider coming to our islands, despite our economy's heavy reliance on tourism.  This isn't because visitors are bringing disease and pestilence (very few Covid cases are linked to visiting tourists) but because our infrastructure is overwhelmed, particularly our health care system.  Here in Kona there are at most 2-4 available ICU beds – not much leeway to treat heart attacks, accidents, and other emergencies, let alone additional severe Covid cases – nearly all of whom are local, young and unvaccinated.  Restrictions on gathering size, restaurant capacity, tours, tourist sights, transportation, etc., etc. and the health risk local residents pose to visitors makes this a bad time to try to enjoy the beauty and usual warm hospitality of this unique and wonderful place. Come back later, please.

Here are a few tidbits from Thursday's West Hawai'i Today paper about the root cause of our current health crisis:  97% of the COVID-19 patients admitted to Kona Community Hospital since April 1 have been unvaccinated; most are under 50 and a few have been younger than 17;  unvaccinated people are 5 times more likely to be infected with Covid, and they are 29 times more likely to be hospitalized.  Those who are adopting a "wait and see" approach to getting vaccinated might consider that they might not be around to finally make up their minds.....

Hookay. Enough already.

This week continued to be wet, but we had a few days with a fair amount of sun and even ran our bedroom a.c. a couple of nights.  The pool is staying at about 82d, but we are still covering it most nights – very unusual for this time of year.  The afternoon rains have put a damper on our gardening efforts, though I did manage to take out a large amount of ground cover where coqui frogs were starting to take up residence.  By way, my hand catching efforts have really yielded results – between my fellow coqui hunter neighbor down the street, we have eliminated about 300 of the little devils in the last year or so.  They will keep coming, of course, just like ants and mosquitoes, but being diligent and putting in some effort at control does keep them at bay.

On Wednesday we celebrated yet another event – our mortgage crossover day!!  This was the day when our monthly payment began to consist of more money toward the principal than interest!  So from now on our actual debt will shrink faster and faster, definitely a good feeling.  We celebrated with sunset dinner at one of our favorite shoreline restaurants called Fish Hopper -- Poke Nachos with Wasabi Cream and Furikake Seaweed appetizer and a main dish of Blackened Opakapaka with coconut shrimp and purple potatoes.  Oh, and a couple of beers.  Very nice.  

Karen’s snow bird golfing buddy from Oregon arrived on Wednesday for a short stay to look after their rental house on the shore.  She and Karen played yesterday and will go again on Monday.  I guess I could have played with them but opted not to – I went to Planet Fitness instead.  Not as much exercise, but it is much faster......
                           
Ok, that’s about it for this week.  Try not to let news of current events get to you.  A tall order, I know.  What’s the saying, “Stop the World, I want to get off?" I agree completely.  Take care.

    
 

Eyeball Mo’ Betta’; Doctor Fights; Three Anniversaries

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

8/28/21

Aloha All –

My appointment with my eye doc last Saturday went very well.  My acuity was slightly better in the right eye (20/80), good pressures, no new edema.  The plan is to go back in four weeks just before our trip and probably have a precautionary shot then.  That will make 10 weeks between injections – a record!  By the way, I happened to stumble on the date when all this started – it was in the fall of 2013, nearly 8 years ago! I’m guessing I’m up to 50 or more jabs in the eyeball during that time, so I welcome the slowdown.

I also saw my internist for my usual 6-month followup.  This didn’t go quite so well, at least at first. My preliminary blood work showed – you guessed it – low sodium.  I got the usual call from his nurse – restrict fluids to 32 oz. and stay away from demon water. Deja vu all over again!  I know, I know, I was going to change physicians after the last episode of this, but somehow I never got around to it.  Then my prescriptions ran out and I figured the quickest way to get them renewed was to go back to Dr. “You-drink-too-much-water-stop-that-you-dufus” one more time. This was an actual office visit, not a Zoom call, and he’ll only see you in person if you’ve been vaccinated. The session actually went pretty good – I think he had reviewed my history in advance this time. He admitted that I’m somebody with normally low sodium (not caused by drinking gallons of liquid) and it can get even lower if I drink lots of water or if I sweat (or if somebody prescribes a diuretic without checking the patient’s history).  He backed off the restriction mantra but warned me of the danger of taking in too much pure water all at once with my condition – namely the risk of a brain aneurysm, aka exploding brain. There has to be a delicate balance between retaining enough salt in my blood to avoid this, while not having it so high that it raises my bp. Isn’t this fun!?  

We’re still on track for our Mexico trip.  Some of our acquaintances here have expressed grave concern over our safety in terms of the Covid upsurge.  It turns out that the current infection rate here in Kona is twice what it is in Mexico City, and it is 6 to 10 times higher in Kona than in the other areas of Mexico where we will be spending most of our time.  In short, we are far safer in Mexico than we are in Kona right now.  Anyway, our biggest concern is that Mexico may impose restrictions while we are there that would make it difficult to enjoy the trip, so we’re tracking developments closely.
    
Wednesday was our Wedding Anniversary.  Last year we celebrated with takeout.  This year we had

Complimentary Chocolate Souffle!

dinner at the Four Seasons resort up north.  Guess which was more enjoyable, though way more expensive. Also this week we had two other anniversaries which we always try to celebrate: The last first day of school for Karen on the 27th and the last first day for me on the 28th.  These days always put a huge damper on celebrating our Wedding Anniversary, so now we eagerly celebrate their absence.  We split a bottle of champagne three ways – a little before our dinner at Four Seasons, and then the rest on the other two days.  Let’s hear it for anniversaries!

We got our electric bill this week and it confirmed that June, July, and August have been the cloudiest consecutive months since we installed our pv system 8 years ago.  We still have a surplus for the contract year with Helco, but it is the lowest ever.  Actually this is kind of good news, because the surplus will revert to the company at the end of October and we will start from zero for the next 12 months.  Usually we give up hundreds of dollars when this happens, but this year it will be a pittance.  Our solar investment is paying off, in other words.

Ok, take care everybody.  Keep you head clear and your body safe.  Off to the beach (still open so far) for our picnic breakfast.

Becoming a Bogey Man, Lockdowns Looming

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

8/21/21

I’ll get right to the good news of the week.  On Wednesday Karen and I played golf again at Makalei.  This was the same mountain course where she regularly plays, the one with the peacocks and Nenes.  It

Happy Bogey Man

was a beautiful day again for my second outing – clear, sunny, great view of the ocean.  It was a bit wet to start from the rain the day before, but that wasn’t a problem (in some places the course is so steep that people often spin their golf carts when they put on the brakes too hard).  Karen did exceptionally well and I did too, including getting what I understand are called “bogeys” on two holes – one stroke over par.  I’m now a bogey-man!  We still didn’t finish all 18 holes, though – I pooped out after 14, which is three more than last week.  I’m not hooked yet, but it was certainly a good experience.

Now for some bad news.  The unvaccinated pandemic is much worse. We have now filled the available beds in our local hospital and all but one of the Covid patients are unvaccinated.  The number of active cases on the island now exceeds the number at any time last year, and over 90% are unvaccinated.  Testing centers have reopened and are doing a brisk business. Some people have seen the light and are getting vaccinated at an increased rate – a bit late to stave off this sh*t storm, but still a hopeful sign.  The Governor and the Mayor are soon going to reinstate some of our previous restrictions, including reducing gatherings on beaches, closing the libraries, parks and other public facilities where people come into close contact.  Loosening the distance requirements in restaurants is on hold after being very close to being relaxed. Also likely is the reinstating the requirement of a negative test to travel between islands, even with a vaccine certificate.  This may even be extended to travelers from the mainland as well. (Oh, a note to visitors: some have been caught with fake vaccination certificates, an offense with a justifiably stiff fine and quarantine.  Stay home, please.) We tried to get booster shots this week, which I think we qualify for, but the only vaccine available right now is the Moderna, and we need Pfizer.  At any rate, we’ll get one as soon as we can, hopefully before our Mexico trip next month.

Our rainy weather in Kailua continues – about 3 inches for the week at our house.  However, to the north there was another wildfire on saddle road.  Fortunately this one was controlled before it got very big.  The record-breaking fire around Waimea and Waikaloa is now contained, some good news.  Remember, we’re only talking about 40 miles between being soaked and being burnt. I believe there was some rain in that area late in the week, and that may help.

Today I see my retina doctor again.  It's been 6 weeks since my last injection and I might need another. I'm going to have a bit of a timing issue, though, because of our upcoming trip. I don't think I can last from now until we return, and so I may need to have another just before we leave -- but that's shorter than the usual interim. Hmmm. I'll let you know how this turns out.

Ok, I guess that’s about it.  Hopefully we’ll be able to have our beach picnic this morning if the beaches haven’t been closed.  Take care everyone.  This, too, shall pass.  Let’s hope it will be soon.

 

TSA PreChecks, Golf, Creatures Big & Small

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

8/14/21

Aloha All –

Summer finally arrived here this week – sort of.  We had several days when it was warm enough to crank up our new ac bedroom unit for a few hours, and we skipped covering the pool several nights.  However, last night the air temp dropped to a frigid 68d and it was cool a couple of other nights as well. It doesn’t seem to want to make up its mind.

One thing that is very much in earnest is our Covid spike.  The number of active cases is as high as anytime last year, and our local hospitals are now getting full.  The last report was that of all the hospitalizations at our Kona Community Hospital all except one are unvaccinated.  Next week a group of about 50 nurses from the mainland will arrive, some assigned to our island. They will assist the overburdened local staff and that should temporarily help administering to the regular patients, as well as to the Covid cases.

On Tuesday Karen and I stopped in at our local TSA Precheck enrollment center and signed up – surprisingly easy and fast.  We used to get this as part of our United rewards program, but they stopped that a few years ago.  Going though the PreCheck security line isn’t a great advantage here at our airport, but it sure is at big ones like Denver.  The regular line last spring when we had our forced layover there reminded us of a pre-Covid Disney World ride line – except that the experience at the end wasn’t fun at all.

After we applied for the PreCheck program we went on up to Makalei and played golf.  Yes me, Tin Cup Dick.  Karen’s snow bird partner is traveling (taking a cruise, no less!) and so I agreed to give it a try.  I actually hit the ball most of the time, and it usually went in the direction of the hole.  I made it through 11 holes before pooping out – remember, for me that was a LOT of strokes.  It was a gorgeous day and that course is really beautiful.  I even got to see several Peacock babies and to pet a cat!  Despite my Planet Fitness workouts I was also a wee bit stiff the next morning.  

About midweek we had a real dumper overnight – .8 inches total.  The next morning was we were on our daily walk we passed a driveway where the car parked there had an interesting roof decoration – a bedraggled turkey trying to dry out. My main thought was that if the bird pooped up there it would be a real mess. Turkey doo can be smelly, gooey, and often comes in astonishingly large quantities (see Cleaning Up Poop In Paradise). Anyway, this is the kind of interesting encounter that makes living here enjoyable.

Speaking of introduced critters, last night I officially became a two-fisted coqui killer.  A light rain around dinner time brought out the males loudly serenading for sex (their calls are to attract females). I went out hunting and quickly got two – one in each hand!  In both cases I was able to blind them with my headlight and make successful grabs.  Once I got the first one in my fist I heard another very close by and soon had him in my sights, too.  Normally it helps to have both hands free for capturing coqui, but in this case I figured I’d make a try with my free hand and see what happened. Bam!  One in each fist and soon, with Karen’s help, both bagged and in the freezer.  Sing to the ice cubes, you little buggers!


Ok, off to market and beach breakfast.  Take care and stay safe.
 

August Already? Abnormal Normality?

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

8/7/21

Aloha Everyone –

Well, August caught me by surprise.  What happened to June & July? I swear, since last year it is difficult to keep track of time.  In many respects it is like we skipped last year altogether.  Then I start to think back to the sh*t storm of events that happened. Maybe it’s because I’d like to forget that time and I have blocked it out.  Anyway, our return to “normal” seems to be an uneven lurch into the future.  On the one hand, we now have travel plans, we’ve returned to some of our usual routine (golf, Planet Fitness, Saturday mornings at the beach), and tourists have returned bringing much need revenue to businesses and providing jobs. On the other our Covid cases have now reached and exceeded last year’s record levels, tourists are overwhelming our infrastructure, and we’re spending time worrying about who is vaccinated and who is not – hardly “normal.”  Oh, and our travel plans now include arranging to have a Covid test in order to get back into the U.S.

One high for the week was last Sunday, when we had friends over for dinner – the first dinner guests (aside from our Ohio visitors) in 1 ½ years.  It was a real treat to chat, joke, and share a meal with someone.  Of course even that had a tinge of crapola because it was necessary to agree on some pandemic precautions for the evening.  Sheesh.  Anyway, it was still very pleasant. This is the couple I've mentioned before who own a coffee farm up above us.  He was fraternity brother back in the dark ages, and his wife is an expat Japanese who has been trying unsuccessfully to get back to Tokyo to honor her mother, who died last year. Tough. On the other hand, their house has one section that is a family vacation rental, and the return of tourists has been a great financial relief to them. As I said, abnormal normal.

Such Excitement!

My big house project of the week (!) was to apply some anti-algae spray to parts of the roof.  I routinely do this about once a year to combat dark discoloration of our asphalt shingles, but the online sellers of the product I used to buy from now no longer ship to Hawai’i.  I could do the old trick of sending it to a friend on the mainland and then having them reship it to us, but I recently discovered a different product that is available here at Lowe’s and Home Depot that may do the same thing.  Whoopie! (My threshold for excitement has lowered considerably lately.) My biggest challenge has been to find a 12-hour period without rain so that it has time to work.  We’re still getting almost daily showers – Tuesday it rained all day starting about 11 am, for a total of just over 1 inch.  Anyway, we’ll see if it works as well as the old stuff. Getting up on the roof will also allow me to fix another problem that is common in Hawai’i – we’ve got some nice foliage growing in one of the gutters and it’s time to do some weeding.

Since I haven’t mentioned it in a long time, I should give a brief update on our volcano that caused so much havoc a couple of years ago.  Not a speck of surface lava has been observed since May, and the lava lake that was in Kilauea caldera is completely crusted over. The volcanologists know that this is just a nap, though, because seismic measurements and other sensor data indicate a slow but continuous resupply of lava deep in the plumbing.  It could be years without any significant activity, or it could be only a few weeks.  The best bet, though, is that it *will* happen.  Kilauea volcano has been erupting more or less continuously (in geological time) for over 10k years, and there is no reason to expect it won’t continue for at least that same number into the future.

Well, on that semi-happy note I’ll end and get ready for our usual “normal” Saturday morning activities.  

Stay cool, unburnt, and uncontaminated.

Covid Mo’ Bad; Rain Drops & Wild Fires; Minnie Turns 50

[Note: this is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland. I've delayed posting this one by a day to give this week's Tattoo blog a little more exposure.]

7/31/21

 Aloha All –

Well, our preventable epidemic among the unvaccinated continues and is getting even worse. The number of daily new cases remains about 5-10 times more than it was before the Delta variant became dominant here, and on Friday set a record by exceeding the number at the height of our epidemic last year.  Over 99% are among unvaccinated people, though "breakthrough" cases are increasing. Hospitalizations are starting to tick up, and our local Kona Community Hospital reports that nearly all those cases are young and unvaccinated.  The severe cases all have pre-existing conditions, including those few who are vaccinated. We’re still ok, but it won’t take much more to become a problem for severe cases to get treatment. A newspaper article this week did report some good news – the number of people getting their first shots has increased slightly.  Karen had a good idea of offering “stealth vaccinations” for those who were vaccination-hesitant or anti-vax but who have now come around to facts.  For example, restaurants could open a back room near the restrooms that you could slip into for a quick jab while you wait for your order. That way nobody would have to know you were doing the responsible thing, and you wouldn’t lose face with your anti-vax friends.  Of course, they might get suspicious when you aren’t getting sick or being hospitalized but they are dropping like flies......

Our wet period is still with us.  I’ve said before that this is one of the coolest and wettest summers we can remember here.  However, by “here” I mean RIGHT here.  In fact, this morning it is raining as I write this and we may have to alter our usual routine. The northern end of the island is in drought conditions and we are even fighting wild fires near Waimea, only 45-50  miles away. The geological, meteorological, biological and cultural complexity of this place continues to fascinate me – there’s always something more to learn and to puzzle over.

Karen’s little Mazda Miata reached a milestone on Thursday – 50k miles!  I know this doesn’t sound very impressive, until you figure that Karen bought the car nearly 20 years ago in 2003. So the average mileage per year works out to less than 3k, which is very low.  The car’s nickname is “Minnie” and “she” has been a great car. We had her shipped over from Honolulu, a common practice even today.  We

have dealerships on the island of course, but selection and availability are much better on Oahu. Over the years it has been a very reliable car, and I bet we haven’t spent more than $1500-2000 on repairs & maintenance.  We just put on a second set of tires, and of course there have been several batteries, oil changes, some body work, a new vinyl top, new O2 sensor, and something called a cam sensor that measures revolutions and controls the engine timing accordingly. That’s it.  Now, like the rest of us, she will soon be hitting the age when sh*t starts to happen and we’ll likely spend a lot more keeping her going.  I bet new brakes are soon going to be one of those expenses, and a new timing belt (big bucks for that one).  I’ve suggesting getting a new model, but Karen won’t hear of it.  Being Karen’s car, I’m not allowed to drive it unless she’s with me or if it is necessary to get it serviced or repaired.  When I do get to drive, though, I’m always blown away from how much fun it is – responsive, nimble, great on curvy roads, and not overburdened with complex convenience and safety features.  Oh, and even at 18 she is great-looking and still gets compliments.  

Ok.  Weather permitting, off to market, beach breakfast, and a few errands.  Stay cool, healthy, and happy.