Bone Scan,Vog, Safety Check

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

1/14/23

Aloha Everyone -- 

I hope your week went well.  Mine was pretty quiet, which was fine by me.  Weatherwise it has continued to be dry and cold (62d last night!).  Most mornings, as usual, are beautiful, though we've been experiencing

Our Winter Flowers

a fair amount of vog since Kilauea began erupting. When the summit eruption began, it was spewing about 15k tons (!) of SO2 (the main ingredient in vog) per day.  It still is hard for me to grasp that gas can weigh 15 tons, but there it is.  When SO2 combines with water vapor and particles in the air, it becomes VOG, a whitish/greyish haze.  Besides its unaesthetic aspect, vog is pretty nasty stuff, since part of it is actually H2SO4 -- sulfuric acid. Before you ask, breathing sulfuric acid is definitely not a good thing for your lungs (nor are most other forms of air pollution).  The potential harm varies with how concentrated the vog is and how long it lasts.  Here, we almost always get a break at night, when our winds shift to down slope breezes and push the stuff out to sea. Also, the concentration is less at higher elevations.  Bottom line:  this is something you live with if you live here, part of the price tag of the positive aspects.

The "Kilauea caldron" is still cooking, but has settled down quite a bit.  The latest SO2 measurement was down to about 3.5k tons per day, which should lead to less vog when we can clear out the current accumulation.

In other news, on Thursday I had a bone density scan to check on my osteopenia.  My last scan was in 2019, after being on Tamoxifen for several years.  This one will see what's happened in the intervening years and whether I should go on another round of the medication.  The scan was at the radiology lab that got hacked a couple of months ago, and the appointment had been made back in August for the soonest available slot.  I'd rather have played golf on Thursday with Karen and her friend, but when I tried to change the radiology appointment they told me the soonest available would be several months from now because of the backlog.  So I stuck with it and instead of chasing a little white ball I had my body nuked.

Since I was already out and about, I decided to make good use of my time by taking our suv in for its annual safety inspection.  The best location I've found for this is a place north of town near Costco, in an industrial area made up of a number of large warehouse-type buildings that are subdivided into various businesses.  An enterprising family got a franchise for doing the safety checks and really has a streamlined operation that makes this yearly chore fairly painless. You check in at an open-air desk, then when it is your turn you drive into an open door on one side of the building, get the check done, pay your money, and exit the other side.  Everybody is friendly and upbeat, and the whole thing for me took less that 1/2 hour.  Since the safety check facility is near Costco, I then made a stop there to get some things.  I figure this counted as extra exercise because, like most of these big box stores, it's enormous.  And of course I did a lot of zigging, zagging, and backtracking trying to find things.  I'm sure I deserved my reward of a Taco Bell lunch.  (I admit, TB is a guilty pleasure of mine.)

Ok, off to market and the beach.  Stay warm, stay healthy, and don't fall for false equivalences.

Pele Pops Her Cork, Christmas No Mo', Chopomania

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

1/7/23

Aloha All --

Well, Pele must have been jealous of all the New Year's fireworks and decided to put on a display of her

Pele's Fireworks!

own this week.  As you may know, on Thursday afternoon Kilauea, our most active volcano on the island, decided to wake up again after a brief 1-month snooze.  This has made for some great photo-ops for the news media, and the photos and video make it look like the whole island is once again about to be covered by lava.  Not so.  The eruption is exactly where it was before, in a crater within the summit caldera of Kilauea in Volcanoes National Park, and for the time being it isn't going anywhere. It happened about 4:30 p.m. at the summit, and for a while it was quite a show -- multiple fountains, some reaching about 160 ft. high.  Things have settled down considerably now,  but imagine being a tourist who just happened to be watching at that beginning moment!!  The location is the crusted-over lava lake that was active for about 1.5 years up until December. Lava underneath the crust is forcing its way through cracks in the crust, and that's what produced the fountains. For a couple of weeks there were indications that the magma system was recharging because volcanologists detected a number of small earthquakes and the summit was inflating. Here's Thursday's official description:

"The summit eruption of Kīlauea that began within Halemaʻumaʻu crater just after 4:30 p.m. HST today, January 5, 2023, continues at this time.  All activity is confined to Kīlauea summit region, within Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park. There are no indications of activity migrating out of the summit region. Multiple minor fountains are active in the central eastern portion of Halema‘uma‘u crater floor; the largest lava fountain is consistently about 10 meters (32 feet) high. Fountain bursts up to 30 meters (98 feet) high occurred around 7:45 p.m. and there were several bursts up to 50 meters (164 feet) high during the initial part of the eruption. Lava flows have inundated much of the crater floor (which is nearly 300 acres or 120 hectares).  As of approximately 7:30 p.m. about 10 meters (32 feet) depth of new lava had been added to the crater floor."

Note, this is all happening far from us -- about 100 miles -- and the worst effect here at our house will be the vog that will be produced from the degassing of the lava. It will take several days for this to happen, however.  Unlike the Mauna Loa fissure eruption, the gases are to the south of us and we are much more likely to be effected by them because of the prevailing wind patterns.  Another example of what it means to live with lava.

Aside from Pele popping her cork,  the first week of '23 was....well, not exactly an auspicious start to the new year in other ways.  I learned another new fun climate term, "atmospheric river" which, like "bomb cyclone" is yet another way to describe really crappy weather on the mainland. Floods, blizzards, high winds, etc. Not here, however, which was sunny and pleasant most of the week, though our pool remains at a brisk 77d because of the cool nights we've been having. I doubt you're shedding any tears for me. Also not boding well is the fiasco playing out in the new congress.  I'm getting really tired of extreme groups on the far left and far right hijacking the country, but it looks like we're in for another year of it....

Back to more mundane matters, all of my outside Christmas decorations are now down and stowed away.  The last to be decommissioned were our two driveway deer, which are a challenge to dismantle and  compactly bundle into their storage bags.  We left our tree up all week to enjoy the colorful lights at night.  However, this weekend it, too, will be taken apart and stuffed into its box until next year. Although I don't enjoy the discombobulation that the holidays entail, this year didn't seem as bad to me, I think because Christmas and New Year's fell on Sundays rather than weekdays.  Anyway, I'm enjoying getting back to a more "normal" routine.

My efforts to whack back the jungle continued successfully this week, thanks in part to my gardener and his super long pole saw and young muscles.  On Tuesday he hauled away a huge pile of limbs and foliage to the green waste dump.  It looks much more under control now, though of course this is illusory.  It will be back in a year or so.

On Thursday Karen played golf and I went to Planet Fitness.  She played with her retired veterinarian friend who, after fighting Covid for two weeks, felt strong enough to play.  They started late and finished 11 holes.  Karen did pretty well and got one par (!), and saw 2 of the 3 white peacocks.  The Nenes haven't yet brought out their babies for public display, except for the family with three that we saw last week. I'll probably go next week and hopefully see more.

Ok, that's it.  Certainly an "interesting" first week of '23.  Hope you all are staying warm, healthy, and away from the crazies.  Off to market and the beach.

Aloha '22, Aloha '23?

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

12/31/22

Aloha Everyone, and Happy NewYear (Hau'oli Makahiki Hou)!!

This has been a mixed year for me and I'm ambivalent about seeing it end.  On the one hand Karen and I had some very good travel experiences, I learned some new things, like how to hit a small white ball, and we continued to live in Hawai'i, land of lava and great weather.  On the other, the world seems to be coming apart at the seams physically, politically and socially, and some very crazy people gained power and influence during the year.  In keeping with my ambivalence, I've decided not to do my usual fireworks "extravaganza" again this year, and just let '22 end quietly and without much fuss.  How about you?

This past week was pretty good.  The Christmas dinner party we went to on Sunday was a nice way to celebrate. There were about 20 people, and the menu was traditional turkey etc.  Some of the guests were other neighbors, like a very interesting guy who lives down the street and who used to work for Disney as an "Imagineer," and others who were local friends of our host whom we didn't know but from whom it was stimulating to get fresh perspectives on things.  On Friday some old friends from Ohio joined us for dinner, along with their daughter who teaches in Waimea. Tomorrow we will share New Year's dinner with a woman in Karen's quilting group and her husband.  Like I said last week, this holiday season has involved a LOT of socializing for us, but we've certainly enjoyed it. My presents for Karen were pretty well-received, much to my relief of course: a lightweight garden hose she has been wanting, and a new rain jacket for golf. Mine included an Aloha shirt and a device to help me with my breathing exercises. How's that for being romantic!  All in all, it was a good Christmas.

Swimming Lesson

Despite all the socializing this was a fairly physical week for us.  On Tuesday we went to Planet Fitness for our 13-machine muscle-mangling session, and then on Thursday we played golf at Makalei.  The golf went very well, considering we hadn't played in over a month.  I got a couple of bogies and only lost two balls.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day.  We saw around 30 Nenes, including one family with three babies who were taking advantage of one of the course lakes.  The Peacocks are nearing their full mating plumage and we were treated to a couple of displays.  We only saw one white one this time, and we think it was the young male.  We can hardly wait for him to be mature enough to do the fan dance.  A problem with being a very mediocre golfer is that it takes so many strokes during a round that I'm really tired at the end.  We opted to skip the last two holes, which aren't all that interesting anyway, and I was perfectly fine with that.

In addition to the gym and golf course, this week I was on a campaign to chop back some bushes and tree limbs that have gotten out of bounds.  This is the best time of the year to do this, because the slower growing season means that your efforts will last a little longer. Much of what I'm doing involves using a pole trimmer, a strenuous workout for the core muscles which are also used in swinging a golf club. Needless to say, I'm sore.

The only medical news of the week is that we both got our teeth cleaned on Wednesday.  Anywhere on the mainland this would be trivial, but here we are experiencing a severe shortage of hygienists.  This means scheduling is 6-8 months out.  We ran into a problem earlier this year because our spring travel plans changed and we tried to reschedule our April cleaning.  Nope.  We already had this December appointment so we gave up and just brushed extra well.  Our insurance will cover 3 cleanings per year -- if we can find someone to do it.  We tried to get appointments for next spring but no luck -- our next visit will now be August.  We also made appointments for December and again for April, '24.  That will get us back on track, but if we have to change any of these we'll be out of luck.  By the way, if you need to see an actual dentist there isn't a problem.  If you know anyone who is a dental hygienist and wants to spend some time in Hawai'i, let them know that they would be hired instantly.

Oh, I forgot to report that the two Covid tests I took last Saturday and yesterday were both negative.  Yippee.  

Ok, that's it.  Christmas decorations will come down starting tomorrow.  Hope you are staying warm and shoveled.  

Lava Changing to Snow, Ho, Ho, Ho

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

12/24/22

Aloha to All!  --

How's that snow shovel holding up?  Back ok?  Any frostbite?  Heh, heh.  Actually, the weather reports from the mainland look rather dire, and I shouldn't  joke too much.  Any complaints I make about the weather here are pretty pathetic compared to conditions in many parts of the country.  "Bomb Cyclone" is a new term for my vocabulary. But of course everyone focuses on their own particular circumstance and I'm no exception, so here goes my whimpering anyway.

Last weekend we had a dandy of a weather front come through, with rain and wind continuing on Sunday

Yes, that's a volcano

and Monday.  This was the storm that caused an Hawaiian Airlines flight coming into Honolulu to have such a hard time, with people bouncing off the ceiling and a number of serious injuries.  The storm came in from the west -- a Kona (leeward) front -- so our side of the island took the brunt.  Here at our house we had some rather scary wind gusts and even some lightning and thunder, a rare thing for us.  It dumped a total of 5" of rain according to our garden rain gauge.  All that moisture fell as snow on our two 13k foot-tall volcanoes, and we have been treated to the sight of both of them with snow caps this week.  Yes, it will be a white Christmas in Kona (sort of).  Note, a couple of weeks ago lava was flowing down the side of Mauna Loa, and this week it was dusted with snow!

My eye exam last Saturday went fine and I skipped having an injection.  I'll take that as a nice Christmas present.  I'll return in 6 weeks, sooner if things go south, but for now both my eyeball and I are happy. 

This week has been high-level socializing for us.  Thursday we had our neighbors over for barbecued ribs, just to contrast with all the usual Christmas fare.  Yesterday we went to an annual get-together sponsored by a women's organization Karen belongs to -- the first time since BC (Before Covid) that it has actually happened. And tomorrow we're going for Christmas dinner at another neighbor's house.  Whew! I'm going to do a covid test today and another one around Tuesday or Wednesday just to see if all that close contact hasn't spread more than Christmas cheer. By the way, the test I did last Saturday was negative, which means covid didn't hitchhike back home from the mainland with us.

We went to Planet Fitness *twice* this week, Sunday and Wednesday. This is partially in lieu of playing golf, which we hope to get back to next week. It didn't seem any more agreeable to my muscles the second time than the first. 

Ok, got to get ready for Santa.  We'll do a day-before-Christmas beach breakfast picnic and then "chill" (pardon the expression) out for the rest of the day.  Take care.  Stay safe. Merry Christmas!!!

In From The Cold, Lava Pau for Now

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

12/15/22

Aloha Everybody  --

We got home on Tuesday from our quick California trip.  Later today I'm going to take a Covid test, but so far I think we're going to be ok, even though we were around a lot of unmasked people.  It was a fun trip, except that for us it was c-o-l-d (highs in the low 60's). Most of the time it was sunny, which helped, but when we went to Santa Barbara it rained 3 inches and turned even colder.  There were "sun breaks" and during those we enjoyed the very pretty area around Santa Barbara, including our friends' house, which sits above the city and has a great view when it's clear.  We really enjoyed staying in downtown LA, which we found safe, clean, and architecturally dazzling, particularly the Biltmore Hotel, where we stayed, the Broad Museum, the new Disney Concert Hall, and many old Art Deco and Art Nouveau buildings built during LA's heyday. We spent one night in nearby Pasadena and toured the historic Gamble House (as in Proctor & Gamble), a 1908 gem of Craftsman style.  As much as we enjoyed the trip, it is very good to be home and get warm again.

Now

While we were gone our two erupting volcanoes also decided to take a vacation and have now shut off completely.  Kilauea's lava lake crusted over just a few days after the fissure eruption of Mauna Loa suddenly stopped.  Volcanologists aren't detecting any seismic activity under either one that would indicate a resumption of activity, so for now we're a lava-free zone.  The two volcanoes tap into the same deep magma source, but they have separate plumbing.  The best guess of the volcanologists is that Mauna Loa's

Then

expansion during its eruption somehow pinched off the route of magma rising to the summit of Kilauea.  The good news is that the side vent lava from Mauna Loa stopped about 1.7 miles from Saddle Road, so the commuters and truck traffic can continue.  A nice Christmas present from Pele.

 We're now a little behind in our holiday prep.  Hopefully we'll get some cards and letters out this weekend, and we'd like to put up a few more decorations. Busy, busy, busy.

Last week while we were in Santa Barbara we got some bad news from Ohio. A very good friend died suddenly and unexpectedly.  He was recovering from some minor surgery and had an infection that may have contributed, but no one knows for sure at this time.  His wife died from cancer about a year ago, and although he was devastated from that, he seemed to be upbeat and looking forward to a January trip to Israel.  He had just finished rebuilding his greenhouse and was doing other projects that kept him active and involved.  A real shame, and he will be sorely missed.

Later this morning I will be seeing my eye doctor.  I'm not sure how this will go.  My eyesight in both eyes went downhill while we were on the mainland, which I think is due to the cold weather.  As soon as the temperature drops to about 65d my eyes start watering and my nose runs -- constantly.  It could be that my eyes got really dried out from all that crying.  I'll let you know next week.

Ok, off the market and to our beach breakfast picnic.  Take care.  Stay warm and be good so Santa will be generous.

Living with Lava, Tired of Turkey

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

12/3/22

Aloha All  -- 

Who's Got the Marshmallows?

Well, the big news here this week, of course, has been the eruption of Mauna Loa that began last Sunday night and has continued all week, with some interesting developments along the way.  Another of our volcanoes, Kilauea, has continued its 14-month summit lava lake activity, so at the moment we have the distinction of being an island with two simultaneous eruptions going on. Lotsa lava!  Now, if we can just get Hualalai  to go off also, we'll have a trifecta!  (I shouldn't say that -- it's the volcano we live on and overdue for an eruption...)

Mauna Loa had been rumbling since September, when the usual 10-15 earthquakes per day increased to 40-50.  Even so, the volcanologists didn't think it was about to erupt.  Here's the official update the morning of the eruption last Sunday: "Mauna Loa is not erupting and there are no signs of an imminent eruption at this time. Monitoring data show no significant changes within the past 24 hours. Mauna Loa continues to be in a state of heightened unrest as indicated by increased earthquake activity and inflation of the summit. The current unrest is most likely being driven by renewed input of magma 2–5 miles (3–8 km) beneath Mauna Loa’s summit."  

They were likely embarassed, then, when lava started spewing in the summit caldera about 11:30 p.m, that night. Oops.  However, Mauna Loa is a very active volcano that has erupted over 30 times since 1843, the first well-documented eruption (that's an average of once every 5 years), so nobody was surprised that it did so again.  In fact, the last time was in 1984, so we were kind of overdue.  I'm sure the volcanologists are carefully looking at how they misjudged the timing and what signs they missed.

Pretty Awesome!

The action at the summit was over in just a couple of days, and the eruption has continued from fissures further down slope, along what's called the Northeast Rift Zone. This shift has been common to about half of Mauna Loa's eruptions. Rift zones are a common feature of shield volcanoes and are natural lines of weakness that form as the volcano grows and settles.  The fissure eruptions have produced some spectacular fountains of lava, sometimes reaching 200 ft. They are in a rather remote area, however, and the best views have come from helicopter flyovers and from a web cam the volcanologists quickly set up.  The lava is flowing to the northeast, away from us, and there is almost no chance it will directly impact us.  Nor are there any communities in the path of the lava, unlike when Kilauea's rift zone eruption of a few years ago took out quite a few houses down south. However, it is looking increasingly likely that lava will cut Saddle Road, a major highway connecting Hilo and Kona.  This will be a major disruption, because many people live on the Hilo side and commute to the Kona side.  Also, a unique problem is that the only landfill on our island is on the Kona side, so trucks have been using the Saddle Road to haul all of the Hilo side trash to the landfill.  Commuters and truck traffic will have to use longer and more difficult routes.  The lava is currently about 4 miles from the highway and has slowed as it reached a more level area.  It could take a week before it cuts the road, but it seems inevitable if the eruption keeps going.

Being the lava enthusiasts that we are, on Thursday night we drove up north and went along Saddle Road to several spots where you could see the lava pretty clearly.  With binoculars we could even see lava fountaining from the most active fissure.  Pretty impressive, and we can add to our life achievement lists two firsts: seeing in person an eruption from Mauna Loa, and seeing lava fountaining in person.

Living with lava for the past 20+ years has taught us to take the dire, shrill, and hey-look-at-this -we're-all-going-to-die-isn't-this-terrible news reporting with a very large dose of "ho-hum."  We'll see what the reality is and deal with it -- yes, there will be vog (but none now), and yes, there will be destruction and disruption (but likely less than Kilauea's last rift eruption).  In the meantime, it seems best to just enjoy the educational entertainment it is providing, the recreational opportunities (lava tube hiking), and the money it's bringing to the island (thousands of tourists spending lots of it). 

In non-volcano news, Karen and I worked out at Planet Fitness on Sunday, trying to do penance for our Thanksgiving over-indulgence.  We had planned to also play golf on Thursday, but the course had to close for the day because their new liability insurance hadn't become effective.  They thought the change would be seamless, but some unexpected legal snafu came up that couldn't be quickly fixed.  Since we're leaving for CA next week, it may be awhile before I can chase a little white ball again. Darn.  We may miss the Nene babies when they make their debut.  We could have played somewhere else, but I'm kind of committed to Makalei and other courses don't interest me much. (Note, that should make clear my lack of seriousness about the game.)

We also managed to finally finish off our turkey.  Even though we bought a small 13-pounder, it has taken a week of lunches and dinners, plus a plate to take to our bachelor next door neighbor, plus freezing a fair amount, to do it justice.  Talk about bang for your buck!  I confess that about mid-week we took a break and barbecued a steak.  I think I've had enough turkey to last another year.  Not sure about steak, however,

We managed to get up more Christmas decorations than I thought we would before our trip, including setting up our (artificial) Christmas tree.  I have a few lights on the outside, and all in all it looks credibly festive.  

Ok, off one more time before our trip to run some errands and to enjoy our beach picnic breakfast.  Bundle up, keep smiling, stay healthy.

Lung Results, Turkey Day, Spring Travel Plans

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

11/26/22

Aloha Everybody  --

Thanksgiving Snow

Hope you had a good Thanksgiving.  Ours was quiet but very nice.  We decided to go traditional and have a turkey, though this time it was a fresh one rather than frozen.  Despite the dire predictions of shortages and high prices, turkeys were actually fairly plentiful here and not all that expensive.  Our guests were technically "homeless" -- earlier in the week my old fraternity brother and his wife had closed on the sale of their coffee farm.  They're now looking for a more physically friendly place that will require much less work.  Right now there isn't a lot for sale, so this may take some time.  Fortunately, their deal with the buyer allows them to stay until spring.

I got the results of my chest ct and it is mostly good news.  The nodules that were spotted 5 years ago haven't changed in size, so they are almost certainly not cancerous.  Nor were there any new nodules. That was the information I wanted, a comparison to the earlier results.  All isn't perfect, however. My emphysema has progressed nicely, from "mild-to-moderate" to "moderate-to-severe."  No oxygen tank just yet -- it's a matter of how fast and far it will progress from here on.  When I was trying to quit smoking 28 years ago after being addicted for 40+ years, the main emphasis of the campaign to get people to quit was that your cancer risk will drop.  There were also other points, like the irresponsibility of second hand smoke, and the overall health benefits of stopping.  All correct.  However, not mentioned was that for a large number of smokers (about 15-20%, rising to about 50% after age 45) the non-cancerous damage already done to your lungs would continue to grow over time in the form of emphysema, which is relentlessly progressive. -- it might be slowed by quitting but not stopped or reversed.  Although there's no cure, there are a number of ways of managing the condition, from breathing exercises to inhalers.  Something more to look forward to....

On a more pleasant note, this week I finished making hotel reservations for our spring trip to France and Italy.  They can all be canceled in case our plans change.  In making them I came across a number of hotels that have a new twist on their cancellation deadlines.  The best deal is if you pay in advance, like always, and this isn't refundable for any reason.  For a higher room rate you can maintain flexibility with the ability to cancel up to a few days in advance, that's also been common in the past.  But this time I found that in some cases the cancellation deadline was a week to a month ahead of time, and a few hotels had options of rates for a couple of different deadlines.  I'm sympathetic to smaller hotels that suffer from late cancellations, but in some cases their requirement was a month out to get a refund.  I booked somewhere else.

I'm going to try to get some Christmas decorations up this weekend, but we may wait for the heavy-duty stuff until we get back from California.  It will depend on how much spare time we have. Getting ready for this short trip isn't as demanding as preparing for longer ones, so we'll see how it goes. 

Ok, off to market and beach breakfast.  Take care, keep smiling, and bundle up.