Bones, Vanishing Electrons, & The Poop is in the Mail

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

10/28/23

 

Aloha Everyone ---

 

A fairly eventful week here in near-paradise -- well,  by my low standards anyway.  It included visits to two doctors, giving our electric company a $400 gift, and exercisus maximus.

The first doctor visit was on Monday, with my internist.  We went over my routine blood test results and he confirmed my own impression -- "nothing to see here, move along." We also discussed the progression of my emphysema (still no miracle cure), high altitude medication for our trip to Ethiopia (diamox), and getting another probe-up-the-butt-oscopy.  That last topic generated a surprise response from my doc. He said that he has had experience of having the necessity of the procedure questioned for someone of my age with previous negative results and with my high level of current health and lack of family history.  (Turns out the government guidelines for colon cancer screening every 10 years end at 75 unless there are specific problems to be diagnosed.)   I then mentioned the Cologuard test and he thought that was a very good alternative for me, though he laid out the possibilities of false positives and false negatives and their consequences. Bottom line:  I'll get a kit in the mail and send in a sample for analysis, which looks for DNA signatures associated with the major forms of colon cancers and precancers.  If it is positive, the follow up will be a colonoscopy to see if the result was a false alarm.  If it is negative, I'll have a low possibility something was missed.  However, the test can be repeated every few years with a good chance of catching whatever wasn't detected previously. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

Sticking with the Geezer medical talk, on Wednesday I saw an orthopedic specialist about my hip issues. 

That's the spot!

Good news is that the x-ray shows my joints are in very good shape -- "the hip bones of a young man" he said! No hip replacement in my future! The pain is located in the sacroiliac joints, likely caused by a touch of arthritis.  I don't have shooting pain, numbness, etc., which means my case is very mild and can probably be controlled with occasional anti-inflammatory medication and special exercise.  The bad news, of course, is that it isn't likely to go away completely and is yet another sign of the relentlessness of geezerhood.  Anyway, I'll try some physical therapy sessions and see how it goes. I'll keep you posted.

In other news, this week is the end of our solar contract year with Hawai'ian Electric Company.  This means that any surplus we've generated over the last 12 months is forfeited to them and we start over at zero.  Our gift this year was a bit over $400, and in most years it has been about $300.  We just finished out 10th year of having the system, so that means we've donated around $3000 to the company coffers. Hopefully they've been putting it to good use, like a new fishing boat for the CEO.

 

In more positive news, on Thursday we went to Planet Fitness and I managed to get back to my previous settings and number of reps on the machines.  It felt good, I must say.  Then -- get this -- yesterday Karen and I also played golf!! We both did surprisingly well considering being off for a couple of months.  On one hole we both got pars, on another Karen got a birdie, and on a third I got a bogey. We pooped out after 12 holes, and I have to admit that we played by Kona-lago rules, meaning that we skipped holes we didn't like, took unlimited do-overs, and sometimes "assisted" each other's ball in finding its way into the cup, which is rewarded with a "pardon" of one stroke off the helper's score. As an added treat we saw about a dozen pairs of Nenes that have returned for the winter breeding season. 

Tomorrow we're flying over to Oahu and spending the night so that Karen can have Mohs surgery for a cancerous thingy on her leg.  We'll fly home Monday evening.  This arrangement isn't unusual here.  Many people travel for treatment because Honolulu is the closest place for certain kinds of specialty care.  Anyway, it might be kind of fun -- we haven't been on Oahu for several years.

Ok, that's it.  Take care and have good Halloween. 

Blood, Safari, Golf"ish"

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

10/21/23

 

Aloha All ---

 

Last Saturday's Iron Man World Championship went extremely well.  As I mentioned, this year's competitors were all women,  and everything went much more smoothly compared to last year when they tried to do two races in one week.  This was almost back to the good old days in terms of community support and the competitive yet friendly vibe.  The weather was perfect -- clear and sunny in the morning and fairly calm seas for the swim, and not much wind on the northern bike run.  Relative to some years it wasn't too hot -- rain the day before kept the temps down.  The good conditions were reflected in the record-breaking performances.  The professional winner finished in 8 hours 32 minutes, a course record.

I got my blood test results back over the weekend, posted to my online account.  I haven't gone over them with my doctor (next Monday) but I compared them to my results for March myself.  To me they look very good, and in some respects, like Cholesterol levels, even better than before.  Still no signs of diabetes or heart issues.  I'll see if my doctor agrees with my assessment.  His usual overall conclusion is that I have a very low chance of dying from heart attack or stroke.  Comforting, but that still leaves a whole range of nasty ways to go.  One of the things I want to talk to him about is getting a Cologuard test -- a non-invasive test for colon cancer.  I'm due for another probe-up-the-butt-oscopy, but I'd like to try the less unpleasant option if I can.  The Cologuard test isn't as definitive, and has about a 10% false negative and false positive rate.  In my position if it was a false positive the worst that would happen is that I'd have a colonoscopy and it would be clear of cancer.  A false negative, though, means that the test missed something that really was there.  The uncertainty is how bad is the thing that was missed?  My previous two colonoscopies were clean, I have no family history of colon cancer, and my diet for at least the last 25 years has been good for reducing risk.  What would you do?

A lot of this week was spent going back and forth with a safari company in Kenya to do an add-on to our Ethiopia trip next January.  The Ethiopia visit, as I have mentioned, is something that we have wanted to do for about 50 years.  Our first attempt was in 1976, the year we spent 1 1/2 months in Africa, a good portion of which was in Kenya, where we stayed with a friend who was doing research at the University of Nairobi.  We had to cancel the Ethiopia portion at that time because of warfare.  A few years ago we tried again -- this time on a group tour -- but had to cancel because of  Covid,  We rescheduled for the following year but once again had to cancel because of internal conflict.  We're now trying once again, probably for the last time.  Given the horrendous trip to get to this part of the world, we thought it might be good to revisit Kenya and go on a safari one last time.  Our previous safaris in Kenya were on our own in a little Toyota rental.  We traveled with a good friend from Ohio and went from camp to camp on a Serengeti circuit through southern Kenya and Tanzania.  Since then we've made several trips to Africa, and have done safaris in South Africa (twice) and Botswana. These were also on our own, but arranged with a company that provided transportation and accommodations at the game parks, two of which we had to fly into because there were no roads.  Our plan now is to fly from Ethiopia to Kenya after the group tour and do a private 1-week safari to three different parks north of Nairobi. We'll have our own vehicle and driver/guide/game-spotter) and we will stay in a lodge at one place and in tented camps at the other two. We're looking forward to it very much, but we're mindful that trying to re-create the past can lead to disappointment, also.  Of course, this all hinges on making it to Ethiopia first, so stay tuned........

On Wednesday we managed to go to Makalei to see if we could still hit that little golf ball.  We still aren't

up to a full round, however, so we opted for the putting green and drive range instead.  GOOD THING we didn't pay for a full round!  I was pretty pathetic, I must say.  Two geezer months off from this sport is a real problem, because the body not only forgets what to do, it can hardly do what it remembers to do.  Anyway, ready or not we are likely to try at least a partial round next week.  

Ok, that's it.  Off for our usual Saturday morning rounds.  Take care. Whistle a happy tune and hang garlic around your neck -- it might help keep the poltergeists and politicians at bay!

Iron People, Eyeball, Volcano

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

10/14/23

 

A fairly busy week here, in between jet-lag naps.  Today is the yearly Iron Man Triathlon, which this year has an interesting twist -- all 2000+ competitors are women.  The separation was the result of a huge

Clouds Over Kona

number of athletes qualifying for the race during the covid years, but not being able to compete here for the final championship because of travel restrictions.  Last year the organizers tried to handle the large numbers by having women compete on one day and men compete another.  The local community was adamantly against doing this again, because race day pretty well shuts the town down, screwing up work schedules and depriving businesses of customers.  Twice in one week was just way too much.  This seems like a much better solution. The men have already competed this year, in France.  We missed out on doing any volunteer work this year, due to our Balkans trip and our recovery from it.  As always, I'm in awe of the competitors who can actually complete the course -- a 2.4 mile ocean swim followed immediately by a 112 bike ride and finally a 26.2 mile run.  The pro's do it in about 8 hours and the amateurs average about 12 hours, though some take nearly the full 17 hours allowed.  Geeeez!

 

I got some good medical news this week from my retina doc.  I went Tuesday for my usual check up and all went well -- no sign yet of any edema.  I'll go back in a month, which will be 3 1/2 months from my last injection, a very good interval for me. Speaking of medical news (which we geezers do a lot), yesterday I had my blood sucked and I peed in a cup for my routine lab work before seeing my regular doctor, probably next week.  Always interesting to find out how things are progressing.... Also up next week is my appointment with an orthopedic specialist for an evaluation of some back problems I've been having for the past few months.  I have a feeling this is just another fun aspect of getting older, but I want to rule out anything more serious.  Note -- two doctors in one week!  If possible, we hope to  maybe get back to golf one day next week, if we can fit it in between medical visits.  BTW, we did manage a light workout yesterday at Planet Fitness.  All the Iron Man hard bodies around town shamed us into at least making an attempt at getting back to our exercise routine (though we did go in our pool a few days this week). Of course, we immediately nullified the positive effects with lunch at Taco Bell and a long nap...

Kilauea is still showing signs of waking up, and the volcanologists are paying close attention to three factors that might predict an eruption.  First, the summit seems to be swelling, a sure sign that magma is coming up from below and being forced into the cracks and crevices that underlie the surface of the volcano, causing it to swell.  The amount of inflation is measured by increases in the distance between points on either side of the summit.  They are too small to be noticed by the human eye but are important indicators of a possible eruption.  A second factor is seismic activity, the number and location of earthquakes produced when molten rock moves around underground.  Right now there are dozens of quakes per day mostly just to the south of the summit in an area where there was a brief but showy eruption in 1974.  Some of the quakes are occurring at a more shallow level, meaning there is magma moving around closer to the surface.  A third factor is the level of SO2 being produced near the summit and elsewhere.  This is gas that is dissolved in magma under pressure and is released when lava is at or near the surface. So far the measurements of SO2 have remained low so there is no vog at the moment.  Bottom line, 2 our of 3 indicators are suggesting a big volcanic burp at any moment.  I'll let you know.

 

Ok, take care. Stay safe and as sane as possible, given the current craziness.....

 

 

 

Back Home -- Sorta Kinda

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

10/7/23

Aloha Everyone --

Our long trip (34 days give or take) came to an end on Monday around noon. Well, our bodies returned home anyway, but our luggage was still in Zurich and our brains were lost in fog somewhere.  We got our suitcases back on Thursday and the brains seem to be arriving in pieces.  Maybe another few days.......

The trip back began in Tirana, Albania, about 1 hour late.  We barely made our connection in Zurich for

our 11 1/2 hour flight to San Francisco but our luggage didn't.  As we have done often, we spent the night in SF (there aren't any flights from the west coast to Kona in the evening) then continued on the next morning.  Actually, not having the luggage was convenient because we didn't have to hassle with re-checking it and just went straight to the gate.  We always pack what we need for a day or two in our carry-on bags so we had what we really needed anyway.

Adjustment to local time has been really rough this time -- maybe yet another fun part of geezerhood.  The Balkans are 12-hours ahead of Kona, so as the day goes on here our bodies are thinking it's getting later and later at night--time to sleep!  For me the worst symptom of jet lag is the mental fog.  Every little task, no matter how small, seems irritatingly complicated.  I can feel this improving a bit each day in the morning and lasting a little longer, but the recovery seems to be taking longer than it used to. Hopefully by next week things will be more or less back to "normal."

The house seems to have fared pretty well, no major problems that I've discovered so far.  Of course, have a lot of gardening and cleaning to do.  In...between...naps.

Oh, I should mention that right before we left I wrote that Kilauea was showing signs of waking up and that it would be just our luck (or curse) if it erupted while we were gone.  Yup, sure enough -- not long after we left there was activity at the summit, complete with fountains of lava.  Then it shut off completely.  Well,  now that we are back there are again signs that something might happen in the near future.  We'll see....... 

Ok,  that's all I can muster at the moment.  Let's all hang in there, though it's beginning to look like the only intelligence around is the AI kind.

Golf To Go, Anniversary, Swelling Volcano

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

8/26/23

Aloha Guys--

The world seems to get crazier by the hour.  I'll leave the analysis to the talking heads but it certainly feels like as a species we're regressing, not moving forward.

This week we have been in full prep mode for our trip to the Balkans with a stop first in Ohio to see our

friends there.  The pile of trimmings for our gardener to haul to the green waste facility is getting pretty large as we whack and weed.  Also, we've been cleaning, arranging to stop the mail & paper, scheduling house visits by our handyman, lining up someone to take us to the airport and pick us up at the end, etc. We have to-do lists to help us with this -- increasingly helpful memory aids, provided we remember where we put them......

On Monday we got in a partial round of golf that went pretty well.  We each got two pars and I also got a bogey.  As usual, some of my shots were amazingly good.  Others, well, not so much.  Yesterday we celebrated our Wedding Anniversary by making a visit to Planet Fitness (!?).  We decided to keep it low-key this year because of all the travel preparations. We'll make our trip the real celebration.  However, we did have our neighbors over for dinner on Thursday, and we were joined by the niece of one of them who is visiting from the mainland.  A very pleasant evening.  We may do more celebrating in Ohio.

The depth and complexity of the Maui tragedy are becoming clearer and clearer.  One example is the fact that while 115 are confirmed dead, less than half of them have been specifically identified and over 800 people are still unaccounted for.  Such ambiguity and uncertainty must be very difficult for the survivors to deal with.

Kilauea is still showing signs of stirring.  Here's what the volcanologists said in a recent update: "The earthquake activity and tiltmeter data indicate that Kīlauea summit is becoming increasingly pressurized. Similar episodes of earthquake and ground deformation activity occurred in November 2020 and August 2021, prior to eruptions in December 2020 and September 2021. The activity is currently confined within Kīlauea summit region and if it continues, could escalate to an eruption in the coming days, weeks, or months."  In other words, nature may be about to give us yet another lesson in who is really the boss.  Stay tuned.....

Ok, that's all for this week and probably until we get back. Stay cool and healthy, both physically and mentally.  Do yourself a favor by turning down the volume on those talking heads.  Aloha.

Spam for Maui, Valve Surgery, Travel Prep

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

8/19/23

Aloha All --

The focus here this week has been on the horrible aftermath of the fires on Maui. If there is anything at all positive in this it has been the local outpouring of support on all the islands for the survivors on Maui.  Volunteers have been collecting food, clothing, money, and transporting it to where it is needed.  It's one thing to have state and federal agencies and organizations like the Red Cross involved in the relief effort, but it is particularly gratifying to see neighbors helping neighbors so willingly and unselfishly.  The other day Karen and I saw a pickup truck in the Walmart parking lot loading several shopping carts' worth of donated items which were going to be transported by private boat over to Maui.  A characteristic local touch was what the carts contained -- SPAM and big bags of rice. Among the many controversies that have begun to surface about this tragedy is one that is also uniquely Hawaiian -- should Maui encourage or discourage tourists at this time?  On the one hand, it seems insensitive for the big resorts that weren't harmed by the fires to be catering to vacationers, and for those guests to be blissfully lounging by the pool while many locals are staying in shelters because their homes were completely destroyed.  On the other hand, many of the survivors have jobs at those resorts and if tourists stay away they will lose them, as will many other workers in tourist-related businesses.  If I knew someone considering visiting right now, I think I'd advise them to come but be compassionate and respectful of what's going on. For the future, there is a larger question of what to do about an economy that is so dependent on one thing, and which both benefits from and contributes to financial disparities.

The Old

Another focus this week was on surgery -- cutting into our house water supply line to replace one of the irrigation valves.  In my investigations of the high water usage in the last billing cycle I found that one of the six irrigation valves in my system was dripping slightly.  This valve is original to the system, so it is over 25 years old.  Although the amount of the drip wasn't enough to account for my high usage, it seemed prudent to replace the valve -- normally not a huge project.  However, then I noticed that the original installers hadn't put in a shutoff valve that would isolate the zone and allow work on just the irrigation pipes. It would instead be necessary to shut off water to the whole house.  Hmmm.  In the spirit of "don't-just-fix-it-make-it-better" I decided to install a shutoff valve and replace the irrigation valve at the same time.  This required re-routing the plumbing to make room for the shutoff and some careful planning of the pvc parts needed.  Of course, like almost any other project, the plan was altered a few times as reality and practicality overruled theoretical

The New!

planning.  In other words, I made three trips to Lowe's to get more and different fittings before the job was done.  It was a bit unnerving to make that first cut because at that point there was no turning back and no water going to the house until I got that new shutoff valve installed successfully. When I turned the water to the house back on, I experienced relief and a big ego boost when nothing leaked and the new irrigation valve worked perfectly!!

We're close enough to our Balkan trip to start our preparations in earnest.  This week was mainly garden-oriented (with the exception of the valve surgery), with a lot of heavy trimming of plantings that don't grow very fast.  Next week we will focus on things that are faster and therefore can't go as long without being whacked back.  Our gardener can take care of some of landscaping while we're gone, but mainly at a maintenance level rather than deciding on heavy trimming and shaping.  Also next week we'll start the long-term cleaning routine that we do before a long trip.  Whew!

Last night we attended our local community theater's production of  "Toil and Trouble," a modern spoof of the famous scene in Shakespeare's Macbeth.  It was pretty well done, given the small budget and restricted pool of actors to draw from in our little community.  The stars are likely to be somebody who will help you find plumbing fittings or serve your poke bowl at lunch the day after the show -- ordinary people who also happen to be very talented!

Finally, I should mention that Kilauea has shown some signs of "restlessness," as the volcanologists have called it.  This week there was an increase in small earthquakes and the summit has been "inflating" slightly, consistent with magma moving around underneath.  The SO2 levels have remained very low, however, which suggests the magma isn't degassing near the surface.  This might be just a sleep-snort and if so the activity should subside.  Or it will be our usual luck that an eruption will occur shortly after we leave, like the last time we went on a trip.  Fun times. 

Ok, I'll check in again next week.  Hope you all stay well and as cool as conditions allow.

Fires, Leaks, Pars & Pads

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

8/12/23

Aloha Folks --

Well, Hawai'i joined the year's devastation club this week and did it dramatically.  I'm talking of course about the wildfires on Maui and here on our island.  Maui was really hit hard, particularly the waterfront town of Lahaina, which is a somewhat larger version of our Kailua waterfront.  Both have (in the case of Lahaina, HAD) a core of old wooden historic buildings that epitomize "flammable."  Most were built in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The picturesque setting, along with the tourist shops and restaurants that now occupy them, are (were) a big tourist draw.  The fires on Maui started inland and were pushed toward the ocean by high winds, cutting off the few escape routes.  Dozens of people were killed, as you probably know, and hundreds of buildings and homes were destroyed.  It will be a long time before Maui recovers in the Lahaina area, but much sooner in other parts of the island. Naturally this will be a blow to the island's visitor-centered economy, which was just getting back to pre-Covid levels. The fires on our island were up north near some of the megabuck resorts, one of which was evacuated briefly, as well as a residential area called Kohala Ranch.  Very little damage occurred, perhaps because we didn't have the strong winds that Maui did.  By the way, the news attributed the high winds to Hurricane Dora, but that is misleading.  Dora passed 1000 miles to the south, normally too far to have any effect on us.  However, a pressure system to our north interacted with the hurricane pressure and produced the winds that fanned the fires.

The saga of the water leak continued this week.  I found another couple of leaks in the garden system and fixed them, and ran careful checks on the usage for each zone.  One zone seemed very high and my calculations over a 2-month billing period suggested it would account for the recent high bill.  Until I rechecked my calculations and found...ahem..an error that wiped out the high usage value altogether.  This left 2 possible explanations.  First, while we were gone something went kerflooey, like a toilet that didn't shut off after my handyman checked it on his weekly visits.  Second, the new meter is inaccurate and reads 30% too high.  I checked the meter's accuracy by noting the before and after readings when I filled a one gallon container.  It was exactly one gallon.  Likewise toilet flushes were exactly correct. I also checked the meter's consistency by running my irrigation cycle a couple of times and getting exactly the same values each time.  The one-off possibility is by far the more probable of the two at this time, and this is reinforced by the fact that so far my usage is normal for the period.  I've now done all that I can, and I'll have to wait and see if this problem has somehow gone away on its own.

Speaking of leaks, the edema in my right retina returned and on Tuesday I had an injection.  The timing is good, because I knew I couldn't last until we returned from our Balkan trip.  Unfortunately the clinic was out of the new drug (Vabysmo) and so the doc had to use Eylea instead.  It should be ok for the time being.

Karen and I played golf on Monday, and this time it was gorgeous. In fact, my solar system recorded an

Lots of Photons

almost perfect day as far as its power curve. I played pretty well  -- 2 pars (!) and a bogey.  We did the 16-hole version of our game, still not the full 18 but way better than the rained out game we had last week.  On Thursday we went to Planet Fitness, though it was tough to convince our bodies to do it.  We hadn't been there for several weeks and we were definitely overdue.  Whomping soreness yesterday was the penance for being remiss.

In the fun news department, I got a new Ipad that I recently ordered and got it all set up.  The old one was getting very slow and the battery needed replacing.  I could have had the battery replaced, but the money would have just given me a slow device with a longer lasting battery.  Besides, a new techno toy is always a treat.

That's about all -- kind of a busy week by our standards.  We're beginning our preparations for our trip, though the real push won't be for awhile yet. Take care, stay cool and remember that contrary to the crazies, there is nothing wrong with the middle.