Twin Snow Cones, Snoozing Volcanoes, Medication Dilemmas

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

2/25/23

Aloha Snow Shovelers!

Well,  what can I say...mainland weather in many parts of the country has been a bit of a challenge this winter, right? This past week seemed like a doozy, with record snowfalls, millions of homes without power, and transportation grinding to a halt.  And this is still February!

Our wet weather of last week continued at a lower level this week, and although it was less that ideal for

Mauna Kea Summit

us, our "problems" pale in comparison to those of the mainland.  All the moisture brought more snow to the summits of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa -- very picturesque when viewed from one of our beaches. Some winters we see only a brief dusting of snow on Mauna Kea and nothing at all for Mauna Loa, but this year we've had quite a bit of snow on both, and it has stayed put for a couple of months now.

Mauna Loa Summit

Speaking of volcanoes, Kilauea is currently taking a nap.  This started about a week ago, when the gushing at the summit slowed and now has stopped completely.  Not good for

tourists, but excellent for our air quality.  It isn't clear how long this pause will last, but it is almost certainly only temporary.  Kilauea has been erupting more or less continuously for tens of thousands of years.  In fact, the latest reports are that the volcano is "inflating," based on sensitive measurements that the volcanologists track. This indicates an intrusion of lava into the cracks and crannies of the volcano's structure that usually predicts eruptive activity, along with an increase in small earthquakes produced as the lava moves upward in the main channels.  Geez I love this volcanology stuff!

I started using the steroid cream for my leg thingy, but stopped when I read the package insert that warned of glaucoma and cataracts as possible side effects.  It turns out that steroids can raise eye pressure, something that is definitely bad, particularly for someone like me who already has glaucoma.  Hmmmm.  Let's consider this -- a choice between smooth skin or eyesight. My dermatologist hadn't known of my glaucoma when she prescribed the cream, and to be fair the amount I'm using is quite small and only for a short time, so even if she had known she might have still recommended it.  Anyway, I'm going to delay using the cream until next week, which will be closer to my next appointment with my Eye Guy.  That way if my pressures increase we'll know it fairly quickly and can either stop the cream or increase my eye drops.  Medication issues are definitely a geezer preoccupation.  Isn't this fun??!!

Karen and I worked out at PF on Tuesday and played golf on Thursday, though we got rained out after 11 holes.  A puzzle this week was the return of the Nenes.  We saw about 25 of them, including two sets of three large babies.  We had thought the Nenes had left after a couple of weeks without seeing any, but apparently they decided to return, and it isn't clear why.  Anyway, it was good to see them, and particularly to see more babies.

Unfortunately for our exercise routine, the pool temp is still recovering from last week's rain and cloudiness and has been below our acceptable level.  Hopefully it will climb back enough in a day or two to allow our daily water exercise.

Ok, that's it.  Off to market and to the beach.  Stay warm, keep shoveling, don't listen to the crazies.

Superbowl Road Trip, Valentine Tacos, Leg Slices

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

2/18/23

Aloha Snow Bunnies!

This was an "interesting" week.  It started with Super Bowl Sunday, of course -- the most mega, most lollapalooza-ish, hugest, most gargantuan, superduperist football game in the history of the universe.  I didn't watch a minute of it. Well, except for some of the commercials, which I saw on YouTube.  I really think this game is over-hyped in an already over-hyped sport, and I have very little interest in who wins.  Don't get me wrong -- I do like certain team sports and several individual sports, too.  But professional American football is just not for me.

Instead of being glued to our t.v., we drove up to Waimea and enjoyed a very nice late lunch with friends from Ohio (now living in Wisconsin) and their daughter, who is a teacher at the Hawai'i Preparatory Academy.  Her parents are visiting for most of the winter, staying in her apartment on campus.  One of the best things about driving to Waimea was that there was almost NO traffic. If we hadn't joined them for lunch, our usual SB Sunday activity is to go to Costco -- no lines at the checkout!

Next up was Valentine's Day.  I kept it low key this year by treating Karen to a session at Planet Fitness followed by a romantic lunch at .... Taco Bell.  Hey, do I know how to charm the ladies, or what?!

On Wednesday I went to my dermatologist for my yearly checkup. Overall things were good, except for the thing that is growing on my thigh.  It has been removed twice, and each time it's come back bigger and badder.  The second time it was removed the biopsy identified it as a squamous cell carcinoma. The treatment (removal, plus cauterizing and scraping) often takes care of this type of nasty, but it seemed like it came back again.  However, the dermatologist (actually, her PA) was puzzled this time because it didn't fit the usual characteristics of squamous cell carcinoma.  She took a sample and sent it for analysis.   She called yesterday afternoon with the biopsy results, which identified it as non-malignant (whew!) "somethingsomethingsomethingelse hypersensitive tissue" where the tumor was removed.  The treatment is to apply a special steroid cream and cover the spot for two weeks to get it to heal properly.  If that doesn't work we'll hit it with a steroid injection.  Hmmmm..... Then I suppose they'll amputate.  Remember, this all began just to remove a wart that was kind of a nuisance.

Caught in the Middle

 We were scheduled to play golf on Thursday at Makalei but we canceled at the last minute because of a big storm that dumped rain on most of the state.  This continued into Friday and even this morning, to the delight of the coqui frogs.  From the radar picture on Thursday we might have been able to get in a few holes before getting drenched, but it didn't seem worth it.  Of course,  wimping out certainly isn't in the original spirit of the game, which was invented in cold, wet, and windy Scotland!  Don't care.  I'm definitely a fair-weather golfer.

My intention of continuing some painting projects was partially realized before the rains came.  Paint on the concrete block foundation in the front had bubbled and blistered, so I scraped all the loose stuff off, then primed it with a high-quality undercoat that should help the paint adhere better, then repainted.  It certainly looks better and should last longer.  When the weather cooperates I've got a wooden bench that needs re-staining and some sections of our lanai railings that need repainting, plus it's time to recoat our driveway.  I do this every 3-5 years with a special concrete paint that not only makes the driveway look nice, it keeps down the mold and mildew that used to form on it.  This isn't as big a job as it sounds because I get my handyman to help and we use long rollers that makes it go fast.  The hardest part is pressure washing the driveway first, then getting the paint on before the birds poop on it.

Ok, that's the weekly report.  Take care.  Only a couple more months of this fun winter weather to go!

Painting Pau, Back to Splashing & Ball Whacking

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

2/11/23

Aloha Everyone!

As your mainland winter lurches on with its Atmospheric Rivers, Cyclone Bombs, and Polar Vortex's, the weather here has been sunnier and drier, so the pool solar heating system has been able to get the water back up to a reasonable temperature.  We've been able to do our daily workouts several times this week, and after the initial shock when you first get in, it hasn't been too bad. The vog has been much better, too.  The volcano is still spewing, but the trade winds have returned and strengthened enough so that the volcanic gasses are blown farther eastward before the wind turns to the north, and this extra distance keeps it from getting trapped along our coast.  If you want to see the peculiar pattern of our winds, here's a link to an interesting website: https://www.windy.com/19.642/-155.997?19.051,-155.997,8 . 

I finished re-staining the lanai around our upper guest quarters.  It looks much better, though it's one of those projects where the successful outcome is just the disappearance of a problem -- if you didn't see it before you wouldn't notice anything.  Anyway, the project is done and now I'm going to move on to some other painting that is due -- house maintenance never ends.  Oh, one problem that may have taken care of itself is the solar lighting on the umbrella that blew into the pool.  I thought I was going to have to buy a replacement solar panel/battery for it, but it suddenly has begun working again. This isn't a sure thing, though, because after an initial return the lights futzed out for a day, but then came back and so far have stayed ok.  I'm hoping it was simply a matter of drying out slowly and now it is back to normal. I sure like it when things fix themselves.

I may have mentioned that our house is adjacent on one side to an undeveloped strip of land.  This attracts a number of animals and birds, including the endangered Hawaiian owl (the Pueo), and

Picking Breakfast

the endangered Hawaiian Hawk (the Io).  Both are endemic to Hawai'i, and it is quite a treat to see them flying over our neighborhood.  There aren't too many small mammals for them to prey on (remember, there were no mice or rats here until humans arrived), and their primary source of food is other birds.  They've both become rather fond of the introduced doves that are abundant in the area.  The other morning we saw an Io perched on the street power line as we went on our daily walk around the neighborhood.  He was surveying a grand buffet of doves in a driveway where a woman feeds them.  She's managed to attract at least 100 daily freeloaders, much to the delight of the hawk, I'm sure.  In other environments there are natural controls on the numbers of doves, but not here.  The native hawk is actually serving to help control an introduced species in this case.

On Wednesday we attended a memorial service for the husband of a woman who is a member of a women's club that Karen also belongs to.  He was quite a guy, and we both liked him very much.  He was quiet and unassuming, yet he had a remarkable history.  He was a fighter pilot during the Vietnam War until his plane crashed and he spent a year in the hospital recovering from burns and other injuries. His flying career was over, of course, but he continued in the Navy as an intelligence officer in the NCIS.  Although he suffered from dementia at the end, he remained pleasant and upbeat.  Sure seems to be a lot of this dying stuff going on lately.......

Karen and I played 18 holes at Makalei on Thursday.  I did ok again, getting a couple of bogeys and a par, and once again I had some rather nice shots, though rarely on the same hole. We did manage to finish all 18 holes, but the last few were a real challenge --when you're a duffer, you work much harder and it takes longer.  My reward afterward was a dip in the pool, a nap, and a beer. We saw only peacocks this time.  The Nenes have migrated to someplace else on the island.  They don't do any long distance migrating like the mainland variety of geese -- they know a good thing when they see it. 

Ok, that's it for this week.  Take care.  Stay warm. Stay safe. Stay happy.

Big Blow, Eyeball, Painting

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

2/4/23

Aloha Peoplecicles!

Guarding against frostbite, I hope?  I seem to remember that's a condition where the skin freezes when exposed to below-zero temperatures, right?  Gosh, that sounds bad......

We did have a bit of inclement weather here that was kind of exciting for a short while.  Last Saturday afternoon we had thunder, lightning, and about an inch of rain.  By itself, this isn't that big a deal, but

Taking a Dip

this was all at once and was accompanied by some rather scary gusts of wind, one them lifting one of our pool lanai umbrellas and dropping it in the pool.  The rain overwhelmed the drain that runs along the front of our garage door and we almost had a second swimming pool in the garage for a while.  Fortunately it settled down to just light rain and then cloudy skies all day Sunday.  It took a little work to get everything cleaned up, and I'm afraid the dunk in the pool shorted out the solar light system on the umbrella.  And the cloudy weather dropped the pool temperature to near freezing, to the point that we've not been in much this week.

The storm did have one upside, though -- it temporarily got rid of our vog for a few days. It's starting to build back up now, but so far it isn't too bad. By the way, the eruption at the summit of Kilauea is continuing, with a short pause a couple of days ago.  There's a 25-acre lava lake inside the summit caldera, and one "fountain" that's more like a gusher.  You can see a live video of the action here:  https://www.youtube.com/usgs/live .

My eye exam last Saturday went very well.  The all-important scan showed no edema buildup at all -- nada, zip, zero.  Very good news indeed.  My next appointment will be in 6 weeks,  almost 4 months (!) since my last injection.  My eyeball is loving not being jabbed as often.

I did two PF workouts this week -- Karen and I went on Monday, and I went again on Thursday while she played golf.  My muscles seem to be getting resigned to the effort, because it seemed considerably easier on Thursday.

Also on Thursday I re-stained our breezeway lanai.  This is a wood surface that connects the main house with our separate guest quarters and the lanai that goes around the upper one.  It's been quite some time since I last did this, and it now looks *much* better.  I use a solid stain that is kind of a grey color.  It's sort of like paint but is easier to work with and lasts about the same.  Naturally, this will now lead to another project, because the new color is noticeably brighter and more grey and draws unfavorable attention to the rest of the lanai.  In other words, I'll be re-staining the whole thing so it all matches.  I admit, though, that I haven't had to do much painting lately, so I guess it's time to start it all over again.

The concert last Saturday night in Waimea was terrific. The choreography was inventive and mesmerizing, and the young dancers showed great finesse and athleticism.  As I said last week, the group (Giordano) is a well-known and highly respected troupe based in Chicago, and I'm sure they were very happy to be here rather than there for a while.  Plus, they were put up at the Hapuna Prince, one of the fancy resorts up north.  Not a bad gig!

Ok, that's about it for this week.  Off for the usual round of market, beach breakfast, and errands in town.  Take care, stay warm, be safe.

Sofa No Mo', Lava Golf, Sad News

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

1/28/23

Aloha Snow Bunnies!

I see on my weather reports that the mainland is continuing its wintertime fun.  Here, the storms far to our northwest have sent us a lot of high surf, much to the delight of the expert surfers who ride the really big waves on the north shore of Oahu during this season.  We call them "Eddy" waves in honor of  renown Hawaiian surfer Eddy Aikau who would fearlessly tackle the biggest of them. The popular phrase "Eddy Would Go" refers to surfing conditions that require both skill and courage.  Personally, I have neither when it comes to a giant 20-30 foot wave about to crash down on me.

On Monday we got rid of our old sofa downstairs that I talked about last week. This was no small feat because it was heavy and had to be wrestled up a narrow flight of outside stairs to the driveway. Two of our gardener's helpers managed it without any obvious injuries. We were glad to finally have this project done.  There are a few other pieces of furniture down there that we'd also like to replace, but they aren't as high priority as this one.  The new sofa looks great it is actually pretty comfy.  I haven't yet given it the nap test, though.

On Wednesday night we received news that yet another dear friend passed away.  He had recently retired from Miami and he and his wife had just moved to Seattle.  He had heart problems that ultimately led to complications from recent emergency surgery.  They had visited us a couple of times here, and we were good friends back in Ohio.  He was one of the brightest people I've ever known, and also was a very talented operatic singer. Truly a sad event.

Karen and I managed a workout on Tuesday and 14 holes of golf on Thursday.  The first 6-7 holes were

Seriously?!

very good for me, much better than my last outing.  Then it started to slip, and all those extra strokes on the next set of holes wore me out.  Still, I got a par, a bogie, and had some rather impressive shots and putts.  As long as I focus on the positive I can convince myself to keep playing.  We didn't see *any* baby Nenes or Peacocks, so it is definitely a low year.  Last season was very good, though, so maybe this is just temporary.  There has been a lot of maintenance along the edges of the course fairways this year,  and I wonder if that didn't disturb the usual nesting sites.

Yesterday Karen went to her foot doctor for an assessment of how her ankle is progressing.  The verdict is that she doesn't need to wear her foot brace all the time now.  She should continue to improve, though age will slow the process.  Ironic, isn't it that healing takes longer when your "longer" is in shorter supply.

Later this morning I'll be seeing my eye doctor again. It's been 2 1/2 months since my last injection, which is getting close to a record.  I can't really detect a big downturn, but if there is even a hint of edema building again, I'll opt for the shot.  If there isn't any new buildup, then I'll definitely be going for a new record between shots, because I'll probably have another exam in 4-6 weeks, which would make the interval between shots 3-3 1/2 months.  Whoopee!

This evening we're driving up to Waimea to see a performance by the Giordano Dance Company from Chicago.  This is modern jazz-ballet group that is excellent.  We've seen them before and we're looking forward to the performance.  The event is at the Kahilu Theater, a very nice venue in Waimea that holds about 250 people and has state-of-the-art equipment.  It takes about an hour to drive up there, though, and so we have a pretty high threshold for deciding when to go.  This performance should definitely be worth it.

Ok, off to market and our beach breakfast picnic.  Stay warm. Stay positive. Don't let the crazies get to you.

Bones, Golf, Cable Guy, Couch

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

1/21/23

Aloha Frozen Family!

Unlike last week this one was busy for me.  Of course, back in my working years this wouldn't even come close to a usual schedule.  Mo' betta this way.

I got my bone scan results and they were pretty good.  No significant change overall from 3 years ago, so it isn't likely I'll go back on medication just yet.  However, my status is still osteopenic, which means an elevated chance of back or hip problems in the future.  For now I'll just try to keep doing what I'm doing and see how things progress.  Getting older is just a barrel of laughs, right?

On Sunday Karen & I went to Planet Fitness and on Thursday we played 16 holes of golf at Makalei.  The workout was good, and I even added a bit more weight to some of the exercises.  The golf

Look at ME!!

was...well, like playing the slot machines in Vegas.  I had just enough really positive reinforcement to keep me going rather than throwing the clubs into the lake.  I got a couple of bogies, and on one tough hole had the best score I've ever gotten, plus on another I hit the best tee-shot of my career.  However,  there were quite a few pretty bad moments as well.  Thankfully our minds have a way of burying those.  We saw nearly 30 Nenes, but still only the three young ones we first spotted a few weeks ago.  It looks like this may be a lean year for offspring. By now we would normally be seeing family groups instead of pairs (btw, Nenes usually mate for life).  I'm not sure what the cause of the downturn might be -- hopefully the biologists may identify something.  The highlight of the day, though, was watching the white Peacock do his fan dance.  His tail isn't as developed as older males, but hopefully in time this will improve.

On Wednesday we had a visit from the cable repairman.  I haven't had any major issues with my internet, nor with our tv streaming, but apparently their fancy sensing equipment detected some intermittent issues with our connection and they suggested having a service call to head off any future problems.  Believe it or not the guy showed up right on time, and seemed to really know his stuff.  He cleaned up the connection where the service enters our house, which was jumbled mess of now-useless cabling that was installed 30 years ago at least.  That didn't completely clear up the signal and he replaced the old connector inside the house where the cable connects to our modem.  That helped, but still not aces.  He then checked the connection at the street and found corroded connectors, which he replaced. Still didn't satisfy him, and he wound up totally replacing the cable from the street to the house!  Although this sounds like a lot of work, he was done in 1.5 hours.  I can't see a difference in how well everything is working, but I'm a believer in preventative maintenance, so overall I'm glad we had the call.  Now the only old part of the whole system is the cable from the house entry to the modem, which I may replace myself. No rush, though.

One of the not so great features of living here is that often shopping for things is frustrating because of limited inventory.  We've been looking for a new sofa to replace one in our downstairs guest quarters but nothing on the island was what we liked.  Finally we went online and ordered one last fall, knowing we would have wait for months before it showed up.  Patience is a necessity living here.  Anyway, the sofa arrived on Friday and it looks just fine.  However, we now have to get someone to haul the old one away.  We thought we had someone lined up but they will do it in their spare time -- in other words, more patience required........

While we were playing golf on Thursday we got a call from an old college friend who is visiting the island for several days.  It was a treat to have him and his wife come to dinner last night and catch up on our lives.  We hadn't seen them for maybe 10 years, so it was chance to get reacquainted and rekindle our friendship.  They live near Denver, and we might work out a trip to Colorado this summer to revisit them and other friends, plus enjoy some time in the mountains.

Ok, that's about it for this week.  Off to market, beach, and then a NAP.  Take care, stay warm, and keep your b.s. armor on.

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.