Vabysmo in My Eye, Birthday, New Cell Service

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

5/13/23

 

Aloha All!

 

Yet another wet week here.  Despite the rain, we're in full prep mode for our trip, plus there were a couple of significant changes to the usual routine. First, on Tuesday, as predicted, I got another eyeball jab.  Actually, the scans didn't show much buildup but we went ahead with the plan to stave off any problems during our trip.  However, this time we tried a new drug called "Vabysmo," which sounds more like it should be for indigestion than for eye problems. The generic chemical name is faricimab, which isn't much better.  Do you realize there are people who are actually paid to come up with these names?!  Anyway, Vabysmo is a relatively new drug that is showing promise in controlling retinal edema.  In at least some patients it can extend the time between injections by a month or more over Eylea, which is my current medication.  That could be 4 months between shots if I respond well to Vabysmo.  Anyway, it seemed worth a shot (so to speak), and we'll see how things are when I return from the upcoming trip.  In case you're wondering (I doubt you are, but humor me), the difference between the two drugs is described by Drugs.com as: "Vabysmo is a bispecific antibody that targets both vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2), whereas Eylea is a recombinant fusion protein that targets VEGF and placental growth factor (PlGF)."  Clear as can be, right?

Another change this week was that I switched cell service providers.  I was using Mint Mobile, which was very good and certainly a bargain at $15 per month for unlimited calls and texts plus 5 GB of cellular data per month.  However, Mint's international data rates are rather steep, and now that we're back to traveling I looked around for an alternative.  I settled on Spectrum Mobile, the same company that is also our internet service provider. It is also low-cost ($14 per month) and has international rates that are 1/10th those of Mint.  I made the switch this week, and it went fairly smoothly, by which I mean just a couple of snafu's that required a chat session with a tech.  It's been a couple of days now and all seems well.  One limitation of Spectrum compared to Mint is the amount of included data -- 5 GB versus 1 GB for Spectrum.  I'll just have to see if that will be enough.  Also, it will be interesting to see how well the service works when we get to France and Italy.  I can, of course switch back to Mint without a major hassle if I want.

We played golf on Thursday.  It was an ok outing but rather rainy, which I'm using as my excuse for not doing as well as last week.  I had some very satisfying shots now and then, so I'm still enjoying it overall.  We may not play next week because that will be rather close to our trip departure, and we will be in full-blown last minute prep mode.

 

Thursday was also Karen's XX (censored) birthday. At her request the "celebration" was low-key, with the main events being our golf outing, a quick stop at Costco, late afternoon pupus at our neighbor's house, and some hulihuli chicken for dinner.  I got her a long-sleeved t-shirt with an island design, but it was the wrong size.  Fortunately it was from one of the stores along the waterfront and she'll be able to exchange it.

Guess that's about it.  Oh, Kilauea volcano is still not erupting, but there are signs it's getting restless.  There has been significant inflation lately, and an increase of earthquake activity that signals magma moving around underneath.  I wouldn't be surprised that something happens while we're gone.  Too bad -- our stretch of vog-free days since March has been very pleasant.

Take care.

Driveway Paint, Thick Air Golf

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

5/6/23

 

Aloha Everyone!

 

I can't believe it's May already.  What happened to April?  And last year?  And the last several decades?

 

This was a fairly productive week here.  On Tuesday my handyman and I repainted our driveway starting

Paint Job!

at 8 am to get it done early so that it could dry before any rain could ruin it.  It turned out to be a mostly sunny day, so our timing was perfect.  Monday was rainy for part of the day and I was getting worried.  But Tuesday morning was clear and the forecast (usually wrong) was for dry conditions.  I quickly mopped up the bird poop that had accumulated since I did the power-washing last week, and used my leaf blower to sweep off leaves and other debris.  The bird poop is particularly annoying -- we have a power line that runs right above the driveway all the way to the garage and birds love to sit on it and do their business.  Also, there is a nest of Mynah birds in one of our palm trees at top

Poop on the Paint Job

of the driveway, and Tuesday morning mom and pop must have been suffering from eating some bad berries, because they had left a fairly sizeable area of disgusting poop that I had to clean up before the painting.  Anyway, all went well and it looks really nice.  Of course, within hours new splattos of poop appeared.  Sigh....

 

I also managed to get some heavy monthly pruning done.  Some of this is great exercise using a long pole-pruner horizontally from our lanai.  Talk about a core workout!  The target was a vigorous bush/tree called podocarpus.  It looks a little like an evergreen tree, and it will grow to 40-50 ft. if not pruned back.  It is a very good tree for screening views of neighbors and other than pruning it requires almost no care.  It is drought resistant and insects don't like it.  It does shed needles like pine needles, but other than that it is a very useful and attractive tree.  And gives me a good workout.

 

On Thursday we played golf at Makalei and I did pretty good this time, including *two* pars and one bogey. All three of us noticed that our drives didn't go as far this week, which we attributed to the face-saving explanation that the air was extra thick because of all the rain lately.  Indeed, we skipped one hole because it started raining pretty hard, but the next one was ok so we kept playing for a total of 15 holes. There are two natural stopping points on the Makalei course.  The 11th hole is back down by the parking lot and the club house, so it would be easy to stop there and call it a day.  Our fellow player did just that but Karen and I kept going.  The twelfth hole starts back up the mountain again but after the 16th there is a junction on the cart path.  One way continues up to #17 and 18, and the other is a fast track down to the parking lot.  We are usually pooped by that time and choose the "down" direction.  Given how many times I have to hit that #@$#%% ball, I don't feel bad at all to call it quits early.

Speaking of rain, late Thursday afternoon after we got home from golf, there was a brief downpour that was so heavy it was almost scary.  Our over-sized gutters overflowed, as did the pool and the drain across the front of our garage door.  In about 20-30 minutes we received 2.2," an amount we've gotten before but over a much longer period.  As is often the case here, this was a very local phenomenon -- a few miles north or south of us got much less.  In the last two weeks we have had about 6.5" of rain, way more than our normal amount.

Karen started Physical Therapy this week for her hip pain. The therapist's assessment concurred with the doctor's -- not a bone problem but rather irritation of the muscles and ligaments.  She'll go twice a week until we leave on our trip, and she has exercises to do at home that should help. The therapist also advised against using a couple of the machines at Planet Fitness, which she thinks might make matters worse because of the specific ways they put pressure on the joints and muscles.  Interesting.  Note, this advice only applies to people with a problem to begin with --- she wasn't saying that the machines caused the problem in the first place.

Our pre-cleaning for our trip got a boost this week because Karen hosted a book discussion group at our house.  Naturally this called for a flurry of dusting, vacuuming, washing, polishing, etc.  I hope the women attending were suitably awed by my driveway efforts, but Karen didn't report any compliments.  

Ok, that's about it for this week.  Stay safe, dry, and healthy.

Coqui In The Buff, Eyeball Unmolested, Sparkling Driveway

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

4/29/23

 

Aloha Family!

 

We've definitely had our April showers this month (another 4+ inches this week), but of course here we

Kona Beachmobile

already (always) have the May flowers to go with them.  Another sign of spring has been the additional cruise ships making stops.  We always have a visit on Wednesdays, when the island cruise based in Honolulu comes to town.  However, in the spring we also get ships that are repositioning from their southern winter routes to their northern ones for the summer. This week we had three extras -- one on Saturday, another on Tuesday, and one on Thursday. This makes the town merchants very happy, of course.  It's such a far cry from a couple of years ago during Covid when the waterfront area was basically a ghost town.  It also makes for a very picturesque view of our bay.

 

This next item will convince you that I've lost it and may be ready for the rubber room.  I am very determined to keep coqui frogs out of our property, and I've become an avid and accomplished hunter.  This past week one tried to move into a large pot near our front door and I finally nailed him after an

Be Thankful No Selfie

initial difficult time pinning down where he was.  When coquis move into a new territory they tend to be timid about singing at first, and this one would stop just about the time I got close enough to spot him.  He finally got bold enough to sing a little too long, and my hand of doom ended his career.  Well, a few days later another one started up in the front of our house, but further down our path toward the garden.  As soon as I'd rush outside at the beginning of his song he'd shut up.  However, after a few days he got more cocky and I was getting closer each time he sang.  Then the other night when I got up to use the bathroom I heard him going for extended periods.  I got my headlight and my flip flops and went out to the garden path.  Please note, I had nothing else on because I didn't want to take the time to get dressed (besides, it was a warm night and the area where I was wasn't visible to anybody who might be passing by).  Sure enough, he started chirping and I zeroed in on him pretty quickly.  He was soon in the freezer, I was back in my warm bed, and it was blissfully quiet.

On Tuesday I saw my retina doctor and my eyeball was deemed not to need a shot.  We're going to wait two weeks and then I'll get one for sure.  That will last me until we return from our trip.  Two months is my current minimum interval, and it seems to be creeping up towards three months.  Yay!!  Speaking of shots, Karen and I had our additional Covid boosters on Thursday.  This will give our immune systems enough time to whomp up the Covid antibodies before our trip.  I had a pretty significant reaction for about a day, mostly feeling blah and achy.  Karen had the blahs, but she also had a very sore arm.  Still, these symptoms beat the heck out of the disease itself.

 

No golf this week, though we did visit the gym on Tuesday.  We canceled the golf because it rained the whole day before and it would have been just too wet and soggy.

My big house project for the week was to powerwash our driveway in preparation for re-coating it next week.  It had been quite some time since I had done this and it turned out to be quite a chore.  I've got my handyman scheduled for next Tuesday to help me do the painting, but I'm a little worried about the weather.  The coating has to have several hours drying time before it is rain proof.  We'll start very early and hope it stays dry long enough to be ok.  We do this with paint rollers on poles and it usually takes a couple of hours.  This coating not only makes the driveway look nice, it really helps in keeping down the mold and mildew around the house.  

Ok, that's the news for the week.  I also had a techno-woe that required way too much time and frustration to solve, but I'll spare you the details.  Stay well, enjoy your Spring.

Popping Peacocks, Putting Birdies

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

4/22/23

 

Aloha Everyone!

 

This was a pretty quiet week here.  Our yearly onslaught of Spring Break tourists is winding down, Merrie Monarch is over, and aside from a "cold" front that moved through the state early in the week bringing another .5" of rain, the weather has been uneventfully nice despite some afternoon and evening showers.  Our pool hit 84d degrees, which is our age-adjusted sweet spot and so we managed to work out most days.  

 

My main house projects have been to begin our month-before-the-trip preparations, and to repair our pool robot cleaner. The preparations are mostly outside trimming and spraying, timed now so I can do them again right before we leave. The pool cleaner repair is something I've done before when it suddenly seems to get lazy, because a leaf or other debris that gets hung up in the inner mechanism, a part wears out, or there is something lowering the suction pressure at the pump.  I've become very good at taking this thing apart and replacing pieces that routinely wear out.  I can find the parts online and they generally aren't very expensive.  I replaced several things this week but that didn't completely solve the problem, so then I suspected there was something lowering the suction. This is the type of robot cleaner that works when the pool pump sucks water from the pool and filters and heats it before sending it back to the pool. The flowing water drives a little turbine inside the cleaner and that powers its movement. I did a quick search for "how-to" videos on pool equipment adjustments and I found one explaining how to adjust the vacuum.  Closing and reopening the main valve seems to have improved things a lot.  Perhaps something was partially clogging the valve and the sudden surge dislodged it.  I'll keep you posted.

 

Karen and I played golf on Thursday at Makalei, along with her golfing buddy.  It was a pretty good round

Don't Pop The Peacock!

for me, much better than the previous outing.  Even though my score wasn't much different, I felt like I was playing a lot better.  I got a couple of bogies and even one birdie!  The birdie was on a par 3 hole. My t-shot felt pretty good, but I lost track of the ball.  However, we found it -- about 6 feet from the pin!  And darn if I didn't make that putt!  Another highlight was when one of Karen's fairway shots hit our friend's ball, bounced onto the green, and rolled up close to the hole!  Billiards!  A final example of why this was a fun round of golf was when I hit a beautiful chip shot that looked like it was going to land right near the hole -- but instead came down on the butt-end of a peacock who had suddenly decided to stroll across the green.  He wasn't harmed, thankfully, but boy did he jump!

That's about it. Hope you're all enjoying Spring!  Stay well, ignore the crazies.

Puddles, Merrie Monarchs, Guests

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

4/15/23

 

Aloha All!

 

Another wet week here. This is getting old, though it has its upsides -- I've been able to switch off my garden irrigation system for several cycles and I haven't had to add any water to our pool for many weeks now.  Unfortunately, our photovoltaic system doesn't have many photons to convert to volts, so we've been cutting into our reserves. Twice this week I even had to turn on our electric backup heating for our hot water so our showers would be at least lukewarm, and that uses even more reserves.  I'm confident, though, that in no time at all we'll be complaining about how relentlessly sunny it is and how badly we need rain....

A major feature of this week was hosting a long-term friend who is visiting from the mainland.  This is the woman who used to live here for over 30 years and then moved to Portland because her husband had health issues. I just realized this may be somewhat confusing because we have another friend in almost the same predicament, and both now live in Portland. The other friend, though, was a snow bird who never lived here on a permanent basis.  At any rate, we really enjoyed having her stay with us for a few days.  A

Hula Kahiko

highlight was sharing dinner at Four Seasons resort up north one evening. She is now over on the east side of the island, where she attending the annual Merrie Monarch Hula Festival in Hilo.  This is the World Cup/Super Bowl/World Series of hula, in which groups (both male and female) from all the islands and even other parts of the world perform and compete in honor of King David Kalakaua. Kalakaua is credited with saving hula as an art form after it had been severely repressed by Christian missionaries in the 1800's.  It is certainly alive and well today, and each year it evolves and gets more complex, expressive, and demanding. Two major categories of competition involve "hula kahiko" (old style performed to a chant and only a drum) and "hula 'auana" (modern, post-contact, performed with instruments and in more modern dress).  Both are fascinating to watch.  This is the first year since Covid that live-audience tickets have been available and they sold out almost immediately. 

 

Speaking of our ultra-posh resorts along the Kona coast, the demand is apparently strong enough that two more are opening:  the re-built Kona Village next to the Four Seasons, and the Auberge, which took over the Mauna Lani further north. These comfy accommodations start at a mere $1200 per night and go up to  $3000+ for a bungalow at the Kona Village. Sorry, airport parking for your private jet isn't included....

 

No golf this week, but we did work out at Planet Fitness yesterday. We were pleased to have the place almost to ourselves.  However, after lunch at one of our favorite Thai restaurants (TK Noodle), we stopped at Safeway on our way home.  Absolutely jammed. Karen tells me this is normally the case, and so I made a vow to avoid going on Fridays at all costs in the future.

 

That's about it.  Hope you are seeing some signs of spring.  If so, enjoy.  If not, take comfort in knowing it must be just around the corner (right?).  Take care.

Lazy Lava, Snowball Blooms, 400 Frogs

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

4/8/23

 

Aloha Everyone!

 

Karma bit me again this week.  As you recall, last time I bemoaned your lousy mainland weather compared with ours.  Well, within hours of sending my email it began to rain and our usual friendly sun didn't reappear until Tuesday.  By then we had accumulated over 2" of rain and nearly lost our tans. Our volcano summits got more snow, adding to the amount that was already there and making this the most we can remember since living here.  Most of the week it has been overcast and rainy in the afternoons, and our recent solar gains have evaporated. Go ahead and gloat.

I might as well go for broke and really ask for it by reporting on our still-quiet Kilauea volcano.  It has remained essentially shut off since the beginning of last month. The lava lake in the summit caldera has crusted over, and the usual earthquake activity signifying magma moving around has dropped to non-eruption levels.  Show's over folks, move along.  Now, just wait --all three of our active volcanoes will erupt and set new records of devastation. As I've said before, Kilauea is one of the most active volcanoes in the world, and this quiet period is the exception and not the rule.

 

Waking Up

One of our signs of Spring here is the reappearance of plumeria blossoms. In the fall the trees lose most of their leaves and flowers and remain bare for about 3 months. When they begin to wake up, flowers appear on the branches before the leaves, kind of like dogwood trees.  For a few weeks the trees look like colorful snow balls.  Unlike other flowering trees, though, the plumeria will continue to bloom for the next 9 months.  This snowball period is just beginning now, and it is one of my favorite times here.

 

This week we got two pieces of good medical news.  First, I peed in a cup and had some more blood sucked for a follow-up test to check my vitamin B12 level.  All good, though in the low range.  Karen saw an orthopedic doctor about a problem she's been having with one hip.  We both foresaw the all-too-common geezer hip replacement coming, but that wasn't the diagnosis at all.  Instead, she has a case of bursitis exacerbated by mild arthritis, treatable without slicing and dicing.  Definitely good news.

 

With our rain and warmer weather, the coquis are getting active and noisy again.  Being the semi-compulsive guy that I am, I keep track of my catches -- dates, locations, sex.  I'm nearing my 400th catch over the past couple of years.  My neighbor has 462.  I can't imagine how loud and obnoxious it would be with nearly 900 more frogs nearby! 

We played golf on Thursday at Makalei.  Not my best round, but I did manage to get four bogies.  I console myself for my overall high scores with the realization that if you calculate the cost per shot, I'm playing practically for free.

 

Ok, that's it for now.  Stay well and warm.  And remember as you contemplate the world scene that there is humor even in the Theater of the Absurd....

Techno-Jinx, Techno-Triumph, Travel Plans

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

4/1/23

 

Aloha Family!

 

April 1st! Can you believe it?  Springtime is here!  Well, except for those pesky little snowflakes and freezing temperatures.  I recall Spring in Ohio as a nice time when the tulips and daffodils bloomed, as did the forsythia and lilacs and flowering trees.  Of course, that was also the time of sudden frosts, tornadoes, and horrific thunderstorms.  Hmmmmmm...

Well, remember last week when I said that all my techno-toys were working again, and that I was afraid saying so would jinx things?  It took only a couple of days before the jinx kicked in and my receiver went on the fritz again -- same issue as before, it suddenly stopped streaming video to the t.v.  This time I went right for the fix -- re-initializing (re-booting) the system -- and again it worked.  However, this means I have an unreliable unit that shouldn't do this, given that it's only 2 years old.  Naturally, this happened the second time just 2 days after the warranty expired!  I decided to call anyway to see if I could get some help (of course, at the moment there is no problem).  I first tried Costco, where I bought the receiver, but they couldn't help me and referred me to Yamaha Customer Service.  I called, but their talk-to-a-human hours have been cut severely and the phone message suggested going online for a "chat."  I did, but the agent (maybe an AI?) was stumped and "escalated" my complaint to another level, one where someone was to call me on the phone, sometime in the next decade.  I was surprised and pleased when I got a call a couple of hours later and was able to explain the situation to a very knowledgeable and personable geek.  He was sympathetic but stumped, other than agreeing it must be a firmware problem on the hdmi board of the receiver.  Then for the good news.  He said Yamaha would extend my warranty and cover one future repair if it happens again!  The only downside is that I'll have to ship it to Honolulu because there is only one authorized repair place in the whole state of Hawai'i.  Yamaha will cover return shipping, but I'll have to shell out for the first trip. I'll wait until it fritzes again, so that the repair place can hopefully locate what's wrong.

Banned From The Pool!

Balancing the problem with the receiver, I managed to fix the umbrella lights that stopped working after the second dunk in the pool.  I forgot to mention last week that I had located replacements online for the solar panel and battery pack that go on the top of the umbrella.  These arrived on Wednesday and work fine.  The cost wasn't too bad, much less than a new umbrella, and all I had to do to was screw the parts into the top of the umbrella.  Now, if I can just keep the umbrella out of the pool everything will be great.  

We've finalized our travel plans for the rest of this year and we've also made preliminary arrangements for early next year.  As I've mentioned before, in May/June we'll be back in southern France and northern Italy.  The France part is primarily to see two expat friends (the current brauhaha about retirement age hopefully won't interfere much). Most of the trip will be in northwest Italy (Piedmont, Turin, Genoa) and also in Umbria and Tuscany.  We've been to Italy several times before, but not to all the places on this year's itinerary.  We'll be entirely on our own, renting a car in Marseilles and returning it in Rome.  In the fall we've signed up for another tour with ElderTreks, the company we used for visiting the Caucuses.  This time we'll be going to the Balkan countries of Macedonia, Albania, and Bulgaria.  Should be interesting, as these three have unique cultures with long and important histories.  We'll stop in Ohio on our way to visit friends.  Finally, in the spring we may finally get to go to Ethiopia.  This will be another ElderTreks tour, and we are really hoping that the political situation stays calm -- however, we've made multiple attempts for 50 years to go to Ethiopia and something has always prevented us from achieving our goal.  We'll see what happens this time.

On the home front, we did our usual Tuesday workout and on Thursday Karen played golf.  I opted to go to the driving range and practice green instead.  We drove separately and I drew the short straw to go to Costco afterwards for grocery shopping.  My big house project this week was to trim back a clump of bamboo that was getting out of hand.  This started as cutting just one stalk that had fallen over, but that led to another, to another, to another -- until the pile of cuttings was exhaustingly large.  Fortunately our gardener came for his weekly visit a couple of days later and hauled it all away.  We planted this clump shortly after we moved in to screen the view of the house next door.  It has done that, and also keeps us supplied with garden stakes, but this variety can send up stalks 30-40 feet and they lean outward toward the house, other trees, and into our neighbor's yard.  About every 6 months or so I have to whack off the stalks that are leaning too much.  Fortunately this is a "clumping" variety of bamboo, so it doesn't spread all over like some varieties do.

 

Ok, that's it for this week.  Stay the course and turn down the volume.