Travel Plans, Eyeballs, Gold Stars, and Clues

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

6/18/22

Aloha All!

My jet lag is almost gone, though it sure is easy to take a nap.  We've got most of the garden and house chores caught up, and things are returning to "normal."  We even managed a light workout at PF on Thursday, and the pool got warm enough for us to get back in for a few times during the week.  The weather continues to be weird, though, and after a few good days it's now returned to the rainy, cloudy, and cool pattern we've had all spring and now into summer.  Looking at the mainland weather reports, though, I know it could be way worse.

As I expected, my eyeball didn't need a shot last week, and I'll return in a month for another checkup.  With the retina problem more or less under control, I talked to my doc about cataract surgery.  Mine aren't that bad (he said they were "moderate") but friends who have had the surgery almost all say they were pleasantly surprised by how much difference it made.  My issues are the usual -- fuzzy lights at night, and difficulty adjusting to a darkened place after being in bright light.  Still, I'm not sure yet whether I'm bad enough to justify the operation.

Now that we've returned from the Caucasus trip we've begun to plan our fall trip -- our river cruise on the Danube followed by a couple of weeks traveling on our own through Germany and the Czech Republic.  It's been quite a while since we've planned this kind of journey and it involves a fair amount of active research and decision-making.  A group tour, of course, is easy once you make the initial choice.  But I find it rewarding and informative to fashion our own itinerary -- I learn a lot about the destination, what there is to see and do, where to stay and for how long, etc., and in the end I feel much more invested personally in the trip than when we've on a tour.  Once we're on our own after the river cruise, we''ll be splitting our time between Germany and the Czech Republic as we make our way north to end in Berlin.  We've been in both countries before, but we didn't spend as much time in the Czech Republic as we would have liked. That time we traveled by train and were limited in the places we could easily visit.  This trip we'll have a car and therefore be much more free to explore.

Two big events this week took place yesterday.  The first was that we both got our driver's licenses renewed (!).  I know, this doesn't sound like much, but because of the backlog here caused by Covid, we've had appointments to do this since before we left for the Caucasus.  Also, for me this will be the time when I get my "Gold Star" version (the so-called REAL ID required by TSA).  Whoopee.  A downside of the renewal this time is that I now fall into the Geezer category and from now on will have to renew every two years. Pain in the **s but overall a good idea to protect the public at large I suppose...

The other event yesterday was that we went to a community theater production of CLUE.  Really cute, and the locals did a very good job.  The venue was just south of us in a town called Kainaliu,  at the Aloha Theater, a vintage movie theater now converted for live performances.  It holds about 200 and has very good acoustics.  This was the first time we've attended a performance there since before Covid, and we really enjoyed it.  The only precaution we were required to take was to wear a mask.  This, like the lowered precautions at the gym, is making me a bit nervous because our new cases increased last week, and hospitalizations almost doubled.  At this point all you can do is be defensive and hope for the best.

Today we will return to our usual Saturday morning routine of market, beach breakfast picnic, and errands.  After so much discombobulation lately I'm ready.

Take care, avoid crazies, germs, and enjoy your summer.

Back Home Safe (?) and Sound

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

6/11/22

Aloha Everybody!

We got back home last Monday night after our three weeks in the Caucasus (Azerbaijan, Georgia, and

Baku-- The Old and The New

Armenia) and a week in Chicago.  Except for a dandy case of jet lag (14 hour time difference), we are sound -- we both passed our Covid test for our return to the US (as did everyone else on the tour).  To be sure I didn't pick up something on the long flight, I did a self-test on Thursday which was also negative. I'd say we are also safely back, but I'd have to ignore the danger in our country from crazies with assault rifles and concealed handguns.  Anyway, we really enjoyed the trip and learned a lot about a region that has had a very important and complex history, and that currently is caught in the push and pull of geopolitics.  In general, all three countries are very beautiful (of course, we're biased toward mountains and high plains), and the three capital cities are surprisingly modern, sophisticated, and livable.  Travel, as usual, corrected our inaccurate conceptions of the destination and the people who live there.

While were were gone it was unusually cool and cloudy.  This was good and bad.  It was good because the lack of sun kept the jungle from going berserk, which it usually does at this time of year.  There's lots to cut back and get back under control, of course, but not as bad as we feared.  It was bad because our solar production is sucking air, and our pool temp is way below our minimum comfort level.  We left it uncovered while we were gone but now we have started covering it at night again. Hopefully we can get it warm enough for our daily workouts sometime early next week.  It will depend on how cool it gets at night (66d last night!) and how much sun we get during the day (remember, we have solar panels that heat the water for the pool -- no sun = no heat).

Speaking of workouts, I managed to do a light one at PF on Thursday -- boy did I feel the lack of working out while we were traveling!  Ouch!  Karen didn't go -- she was having lunch with a friend who is leaving for a visit to the mainland (this is our friend whose cats I take care of when she travels, and I'm looking forward to that starting next week).  Very few people were masked at the gym, which made me a little nervous even though I was wearing mine.  Cases here are on the uptick, as are hospitalizations, but so far it hasn't overwhelmed our health care facilities. 

Today I see my retina doctor again.  It is about 6 weeks since my last Eylea injection, and I think things are ok.  If the tests justify it, I'll probably go another 4-6 weeks.

Unfortunately my eye exam will prevent me from enjoying one of the unique events here -- the annual King Kamehameha Days parade.  This will be the first since Covid, and it's really special because this is the parade that features horses with leis, and a group of riders representing each of the islands.  The parade route is along the shorefront through town and it is a lot of fun.  If my exam doesn't take too long I might be able to catch the tail end (so to speak).

Ok, that's it for this week.  Hope you are all ok and enjoying your early summer.

Travel Prep, Shiny Teeth, Ukulele Virtuoso

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

4/30/22

Aloha Everyone!

Nothing to See Here...Now

This will be my last regular update for awhile, because I'll be winging it through the Caucasus starting next week.  We're in final count-down preparation mode, which I've managed to get a pretty good start on. Most of my monthly outside trimming is done, and I got my lanai railing painted where I did the recent repair and more that badly needed painting. The rest will have to wait.  I still have some spraying for bugs and weeds to do, and interior cleaning. Actually packing for the trip comes last for us.

Also in the prep category is getting my eyeball injection last week.  I was two months out from the last shot, and even so there was very little retinal edema.  If I wasn't going to be gone for so long I probably would have opted to go a few more weeks. It is looking promising that I might be able to reach 3 months between injections in the near future.  Good news.

Karen and I had our teeth cleaned on Wednesday.  This really wasn't part of our travel preparations (!) but the appointments were already scheduled.  My checkup was very good, which it has tended to be since I started using an electric toothbrush a few years ago.  I swear by the thing now, even though it is rather messy to use -- I look like I have Rabies at the end.  The dental insurance we have doesn't have very good coverage for fillings, crowns, and other repairs, but they completely cover three cleanings per year. Well, except for the tax.  Hawai'i is one of the few places where even dental services are taxed, believe it or not.  It's a general excise tax and it is on ALL goods and services. I'd complain, but our property taxes and income taxes are comparatively low.

Tonight we're going up to Waimea to attend a concert by one of the best ukulele players in the world.  Her name is Taimane and I've seen her in person once before.  I immediately became a huge fan and bought some of her music.  This isn't the plunka-plunka Arthur Godfrey kind of ukulele playing.  Rather, she and several others here have taken the instrument to a new level with compositions that are inspired by a range of influences, not just Hawaiian (she lives on Oahu, and is part Samoan).  Anyway, despite the closeness to our trip departure, I couldn't pass up the chance to see her again.  If you're interested in getting a taste of what intrigues me about her virtuoso playing, here's a brief TEDx performance which might just blow your mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yDM2hp78L4 .

Ok, that's it.  We're going on our usual Saturday morning excursion one more time.  I'll try to send a few travel updates as we go along on our trip. Take care. Stay sane. Be thankful.

Volcano Snow, Tripping Out, Super Goo to the Rescue

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

4/23/22

Aloha All --

Kona Snow Cone

Well, not to be outdone by the mainland blizzards, last Sunday we had our own snowstorm -- on Mauna Kea, our 13k+ ft. volcano that is home to a bunch of observatories.  It wasn't much, really, but it made for a very pretty sight--from the beach.  Elsewhere there was a fair amount of rain, and we had yet another wet week with lots of cloudiness, usually beginning mid-morning.  The locals are complaining big-time, including me.

Karen's toe continues to improve, to the point that she played golf on Thursday.  To make it a bit easier, she played at a course that is closer to us and is much flatter than her usual one. The course has some interesting holes, including one along the shoreline, and the clubhouse overlooks picturesque Keauhou Bay.  But being much lower in elevation it can get quite toasty there, so she and her friends opted to start very early (that's 7:20 am in Geezer time). Still, she said it was kind of warm by mid-morning on holes that didn't have the usual upslope breeze.  She did ok, including getting one par, and was glad to get back to the game.  I went to the gym and did a pretty good workout compared to last week, when I was still a little off kilter from my Covid booster.

We heard some good news from our tour company this week.  Our first country, Azerbaijan, has dropped its Covid pre-test requirement, so our trip arrangements will be much easier with one less thing to worry about.  Current Covid cases in all three countries are very low, which also eases our minds.  We are starting our usual travel prep around the house, which includes a lot of cleaning, chopping and whacking. Plus, I will see my eye doctor later this morning for another shot to hopefully put more "seeing" in "sightseeing."

I finally got the super goo (Bondo) into the rotten spot on my lanai railing post.  The wood was mostly dry after a few days without rain, so I took advantage of the situation and got the hole filled and sanded.  Now I have to prime and paint not only that spot but the areas around it that need painting -- in other words, probably the whole railing.  Like I wrote last week, one thing always leads to another....

Ok, that's it for this week.  Try not to let the world's craziness get to you too much, though I admit I'm starting to think that there's not much hope for humans. Getting smarter doesn't mean wiser or kinder.

Vaxed to the Max, Toe Troubles, Coqui Caviar

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

4/16/22

Aloha Everybody --

Well, our weather this week was kind of yucky at times, but no blizzards or tornadoes like parts of the mainland. We are definitely back in our rainy pattern, not just afternoon showers, but cloudy and misty for good chunks of the day.  My solar system is sucking air, but I've got a big enough surplus from past months that I'm not really too upset.

On Wednesday we both got our 2nd Pfizer boosters. No great reaction this time, though Karen had a bit of a sore arm, and I felt puny on Thursday afternoon, with some joint aches for a couple of hours Thursday night. The latest large-scale research shows that the effectiveness of 2nd boosters for totally preventing Covid drops to normally boosted levels after just 3-4 weeks, but that the increased protection against a severe case continues longer.  I'm fine with that.  The remote possibility of a bad reaction to the vaccine is much, much, less than having bad consequences of getting Covid.  Anyway, we're now set for our trip, though Azerbaijan still requires a negative PCR test result 72 hours before arrival, so we'll have to do that right before we leave.  

Fortunately we're not leaving right away, because a week ago Thursday Karen hurt her foot when some cans fell out of our garage storage closet and targeted her toes. One toe seems to have lost part of the nail, and both it and the one next to it have cuts that she's taking great care not to get infected. She's much better now, but it has meant she had to skip golf this week, as well as our morning walks.  She was still able to make use of the pool, though, and we managed to do a light workout at PF despite her toe and my vaccine wonkiness. Looks like another week or more for her to get functioning again, and probably longer for the nail to grow back.

Mom, Dad & Caviar

The wet weather has been a boon for the coqui frogs.  I caught 15 this week, a number of them female.  Although the females don't sing and therefore aren't obnoxiously loud, they are very good to catch because each one can produce 25-30 eggs every two weeks. After a female finds a male and lays her eggs, she takes off and the male broods them.  They hatch in just a few weeks and then the juveniles are on their own,  reaching sexual maturity in about 9 months. As I said, the females find the males, zeroing in on their calls.  The ones I caught were in the process of doing just that, but it turned out not to be the kind of romantic evening they were looking for.  At maturity the females are much larger than the males and often their swollen egg sacs are visible on their sides.  One night this week I grabbed both a male coqui and the eggs ("Coqui Caviar") he was guarding -- the first clutch of eggs I've found because they're usually well hidden in small holes and in leaf litter.

Finally, this was an historic week for the town, because on Wednesday the inter-island cruise ship resumed its weekly stops -- first time it has been in port in 2+ years. The merchants love it, of course, and I do too because it's not only picturesque it also helps me keep track of what day it is!

Ok, off for our usual Saturday morning routine.  Hang in there.

Bad Clutch, Spray Paint, and Super Goo

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

4/9/22

Aloha Ohana!

More maintenance adventures this week here in near-paradise.  First up: car clutch problems. On our way home last Saturday the Miata's clutch started acting funny -- as in not working!  If I pushed in the pedal more than a couple of times it would get real soft and I couldn't change gears even with it all the way to the floor. Fortunately we were close to home and got there ok,  I found that if I just let the car sit for a short time with the clutch out, the pressure would return enough for a few pushes.  My trusty auto

A Kona Style Stop

shop was closed for the weekend by the time I called and I had to wait until Monday to talk to them. This is a garage I've used many times before because they are actually honest and do good work. Bless'm, they said if I could get it to the shop they'd try to work it in as soon as they could. I managed to drive it there by staying in 2nd gear and timing my turns and stops.  By about 3pm they called and had diagnosed the problem as a failed "clutch master cylinder," a relatively simple and "inexpensive" fix they were able to do that day!  So, a mere $280 and some angst solved the problem surprisingly quickly.  It turns out that Miatas of this age frequently have clutch problems, but usually it is something called the clutch "slave cylinder," located on the transmission itself.  Ours seems to be ok for now, but like geezer problems in humans, it's just one more issue to look forward to in the future....

Another maintenance project is in the "One-thing-leads-to-another" or "Whack-a-Mole" category. While I was on the roof last week removing the ventilation screens I looked in through the opening and saw the light fixtures in our bedroom closet, which are mounted at about the same height. They were a mess of rust and peeling paint and in desperate need of replacing or repainting.  A check of price$ for replacements quickly convinced me to repaint.  I got them down, sanded the bad spots, and got a couple of cans of spray paint.  Since they are mounted high up on the wall and thus prevent close inspection, they look pretty good now -- from a distance.  

A third project is still in progress because it has been too wet this week to finish.  One of the pool lanai railing 4"x4" posts has some rot at the base.  It is a major hassle to replace these (which my handyman and I have done), and in this case the rot could be cleaned out and patched instead.  My favorite product for doing this is in the same category as duct tape and super glue -- Bondo.  I call it "Super Goo." I think it was originally developed as filler for auto body repairs, but it will stick to anything: metal, wood, glass, stone, and of course, skin. It's an epoxy putty that you mix with a hardener cream and then apply.  Within 10-15 minutes this stuff is rock hard and can be sanded, painted, or drilled. I figure when the archeologists go through the ruins of my house they won't find much --- except blobs of Bondo all around.  I cleaned the rot out of the hole and it's waiting for its Super Goo, but it should be dry to do the job right -- maybe next week.

No golf this week, but I went to Planet Fitness twice.  Karen and I went on Tuesday, and then I went again on Thursday when she was playing golf. I know this sounds very energetic of me, but I assure you I make sure to counteract the positive effects with a nullifying nap. 

Ok, off to market and the beach.  Take care.  And remember, "moderate," "middle," and "center" are not bad things....

Screen Spring Clean, Booster Boosts

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

4/2/22

Aloha All!

Hope you're thawing out.  Weather here is nice, despite having a fair amount of rain this week. One day it totaled .7" and last night we got at least half that again.  If it keeps this up our pool level may reach the overflow drain!

My eye exam last Saturday went very well.  No edema build-up so no shot needed.  However, the real question is if I can hold off having another injection until near the end of the month, so that I'll be ok during our trip in May.  Although I'm sure health care in Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia is ok, I'd rather not have to find an eye doctor while we're traveling. The plan is to wait until April 23, another 4 weeks from the previous shot -- maybe a bit of a stretch, but so far so good.

My big house maintenance project this week was to honor the tradition of Spring Cleaning and wash the ventilation screens in our master bathroom.  These aren't your usual screens.  They were custom made for the large, triangular openings that are very high up in the eaves, and don't just pop in and out like regular screens.  To take them out requires a trip to the roof and loosening the 6 or so screws that holds each one to the frame.  I was the roof rat and Karen washed each one in the driveway as I took it down and put a clean one back up.  They were filthy.  Remember, these windows are never closed because they have no glass in them, and our Kona breeze carries through the house almost constantly.  Anyway, it was a fairly big job and definitely needed doing.  There are a few other smaller ventilation screens, but they'll just have to wait.

Our travel preparations are progressing.  We were relieved when it was announced this week that 2nd boosters have been approved.  It will make us as protected as we can get during the trip. I scheduled ours for April 13. This should allow enough time before we leave for the "booster-boosts" to have maximum effect, and also enough time so that any temporary reactions to the shots don't interfere with our usual last-minute preparations.  Our Covid situation is very good at the moment -- few hospitalizations and only about 120 active cases on the island.  It will be interesting to see what happens as this new, even more contagious variant becomes dominant, but for the moment we're enjoying the more relaxed restrictions.

Kona "Daffodils"

On Thursday I played golf with Karen and two of her friends.  I did so-so, and even got one par.  It didn't compensate, though, for the more frequent less-than-stellar shots of the day.  We got rained out on the last two holes, which was fine with me because I was getting pooped. Golf isn't a very physical game, but after roughly 140 strokes and quite a few do-overs, it can still be challenging. The course was looking much better after the rain we've been getting.  Saw quite a few Nenes and Peacocks, but no white Peahens.

Ok, off to market and breakfast.  Enjoy your change of seasons.  Try to withstand the buffeting winds of cruelty, extremism, power-mongering, selfishness, and greed we seem to be confronting these days.