Grand Jury Pay, Fixing Fixes, Ethiopia Post Mortem

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

2/24/24

 

Aloha Ohana ---

 

This was a busy week.  I think. I'm not sure since much of the time I was in a mental fog or taking yet another nap. My 12-hour jet lag is lifting, but slowly.  You might be amused to learn what the first three foods we indulged in after getting back to the good ol' USA:  pizza, Taco Bell, and barbecued steak. Shameful and sad.  But really tasty!! 

Neither of us has developed any new symptoms this week, so we survived the 22 hours in a sealed metal tube without catching anything from fellow passengers.  We were particularly concerned about the San Francisco leg -- the plane was absolutely full and there were many young kids on board (aka precious bundles of germs). 

 

Among other catch-up tasks was going through the mail back log.  Lots of tax forms and charity appeals, plus the usual travel brochures, and hidden in the pile was my pay for showing up at the Grand Jury selection session.  Whoopeee!  I quickly deposited that $31.32 and figure I 'll use it to buy some of my favorite beer.  Seems appropriate.  

 

I also spent a bit of time re-fixing my pool solar system that I fixed before we left.  Near the end of our Ethiopia tour I got a text from my handyman who was doing his weekly inspection and found water shooting off our roof and the pool level way down.  One of my connections had come loose and the system was on its way to emptying the pool through the gap in the pipe.  Fortunately he was able to turn off the system and refill the pool.  Over the weekend I re-did the connection (correctly, this time) and got the solar heating going again.  However, it will take some time before the temperature gets up to an acceptable level.  Always something!  Oh, I should note the techno-marvel of texting in real time with my handyman half-way around the world, with my location being in a primitive lodge in the middle of nowhere.

 

On Tuesday I saw my retina specialist and got very good news -- no new edema, so no injection needed.  The pool solar system may be leaking but my eyeball isn't.  I'm scheduled for 5 weeks from now, which would put me well over four months between injections.  Definitely good news.

 

Karen saw her doctor on Tuesday and got some antibiotic for her bronchial infection.  She acquired this fairly early in the trip after catching a cold from another person in the group.  The cold went away but she was left with a persistent cough, made even worse by the dry, dusty, and smoky conditions we encountered everywhere in Ethiopia. She got some medication there but it didn't entirely clear it up.  Hopefully this new antibiotic, plus rest and better air, will do the trick.

We're excited to host some very good friends from Ohio who arrive tomorrow afternoon and will spend about a week. They've been here several times before, so high-power sight-seeing isn't required or desired.  This is good -- given our diminished states I'm not sure we would be good tour guides.

 

It is hard to give an overall assessment of our Ethiopia trip. Here's what I said in an email to some friends

"No Ma'am, this isn't Kansas"

who are interested in our travels:  "Ethiopia lived up to our expectation of being historically and culturally unique and exotic to a degree we hadn't expected. But no one should underestimate how difficult it is to travel in Ethiopia, both physically, in terms of elevation changes, temperature extremes, poor roads, sketchy infrastructure, and psychologically, in terms of exhausting constant cultural whiplash -- from mass exhibitions of Orthodox Christian religion unlike anywhere else we've seen to tribes whose women stretch their lower lips to hold a clay disk as a way of attracting a mate. Oh yes, and food that led to overall weight loss for the trip, a rarity for us. But despite the difficulties that reached even our limits, the trip epitomized why we have traveled all these years-- to experience firsthand the full essence of what it means to be human --warts and all."

 

That's about it for this week.  Stay warm, stay healthy.  Don't listen to the crazies, including the ones who are really AI....  (Put the "I" in quotes....)

Back Home -- Sorta Kinda

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

2/17/24

 

Aloha Everyone ---

 

This will be just a quick note to let you know we are home, arriving Thursday early afternoon.  It was a

Batchelor Club

killer trip -- 6.5 drive from our last safari camp to Nairobi, 8.5 hour flight to Frankfurt, 7-hour layover, 11.5-hour flight to San Francisco, a blissful night at an airport hotel there, then the final leg of 5.5 hours to Kona.  Jet lag is severe -- a 12-hour time difference that is hard to adjust to, as it flips day and night around completely.  Everything seems like a monumental task -- it's like mental molasses for 3-4 days at least.

 

Anyway, it was an interesting trip and next week I'll report more.  For now we're getting the house in shape again for visitors next week, and dealing with a few problems that cropped up while we were gone.

 

Take care.  Hope you are surviving winter ok.

 

 

Panel Pau, Quiet New Year, New Skin Doc, Grand Jury

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

1/6/24

 

Aloha All ---

 

Remember last time when I said I fixed some leaks I found in my roof-top solar pool panels?  Nope.  If anything my "fix" made matters worse.  When the system shut off and the panels drained, a goodly amount of water was flowing into the house gutter, rather than back into the pool like it is supposed to. 

So simple, right??

My assessment was that the whole panel would have to be removed or bypassed until a more permanent solution -- like replacing the entire 20-year old system -- could be done.  BUT there just isn't enough time to get estimates and line up the job before we leave for Africa.  So, I did a bit of by-pass surgery by cutting out the bad panel and just running new tubing across the gap.  A "simple" job that took two very hard days of sawing and twisting and pushing and pulling and a LOT of swear words.  I won't regale you with the whole story, but suffice it to say it was a typical "thisdoesn'tlooktoohardIbetIcandoitmyselfreallyeasilybutonethingleadstoanother" project.  Anyway, I got it done and no leaks (!).  However, I still have my bubbly pool and I've got a couple of parts on the way that I'm hoping will take care of the problem.  Obviously, when I return from Africa the pool is going to be a major focus of my time, money, and angst.

 

Our New Year's Eve was pretty mellow this year.  I opted not to set off any fireworks and we had a quiet dinner and early bedtime.  At midnight the area became pretty lively, and one pyro-enthusiast kept going until well after 1 a.m., timing his explosions to occur just as we were finally drifting off to sleep.  On Tuesday we hosted a dinner for two of our friends who live upslope near Makalei golf course.  Another couple was supposed to join us but both of them have a recurrence of some nasty respiratory bug (not Covid) and they didn't want to expose us this close to our departure date.  Very considerate but disappointing not to have started the new year with their company.

Karen and I both made visits to a new skin doctor on Wednesday, and these went well enough that we are likely to switch permanently from our previous dermatologist.  We have been patients for many years, but the old one has been reorienting her practice more and more to purely co$metic stuff -- you know, "dermamold",  "thermasculp" and "tone&tuck", that kind of thing.  Lately she's even into running a weight-loss program, which to me has nothing to do with dermatology.  At the same time she's been raising her rates for checkups and medical procedures, a move which stings because she's one of the many physicians here who don't take insurance.  The new dermatologist seems dedicated to the medical side of things, and even better, she takes our insurance.  We'll see how it works out, but so far so good.

 

I have taken down all the Christmas lights and other decorations on the outside of the house.  We left the tree up until this weekend because Karen hosted a book club yesterday and wanted her friends to see it, but it will go back into the box today or tomorrow.  The living room will seem awfully dark without it.

I've saved the best news for last.  My name wasn't one of names that were drawn for Grand Jury duty! This was one lottery I was quite happy not to win.  I showed up at the local courthouse at 8:30 a.m. yesterday and the whole process took about 2 1/2 hours.  After I learned exactly how the Grand Jury operates, I realized my objection wasn't necessary.  Sixteen jurors are selected for each of two separate juries, and each one meets once per month during the year.  Only 8 jurors are needed at any one meeting, though, and no more that 12 ever have to attend at one time.  Even better, the exact dates are known for the entire year, and if you can't serve on one more more, you can easily get out of some sessions.  So, even if I had been selected, I could have simply told them I was going to be gone for the next couple of meetings and there would have been no problem. Note, this is a case of ignorance leading to the wrong conclusion and much unwarranted worrying about a problem that didn't really exist.  There may be one or two other people in the country who are guilty of this, I'm not certain.....

Ok, we off for our usual round of Saturday morning events, our last until we return.  I'll try to get something off to you next week, but it might be brief.  Take care, carpe diem, be kind to others and to yourselves.

Pool Bubbles, Ho, Ho, 2023 Go!

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

12/30/23

 

Hou'oli Maka Hiki Hou! (Happy New Year!) ---

 

Our Christmas was quiet.  I turned on my Pandora Christmas Carol station and managed to last about 6 hours until the Silver Bells, Sleigh Bells, and Hosannas got to me.  As  I mentioned, Karen and I weren't going to give each other presents -- but two days before Christmas I had a stroke of inspiration as we were doing our usual Saturday morning rounds.  Mescal!!  Karen and I were introduced to this high-brow version of Tequila during our last visit to southern Mexico year before last, and we became quite fond of it -- especially Karen.  We brought back some with us but "we" (mostly Karen) drank it all months ago.  It's hard to find here in Hawai'i but one of our local grocery stores does carry it, and I was able to score a bottle on Saturday morning and surprise Karen with it for Christmas.  Good going, Dick!

 

Christmas day we went to a dinner hosted by a neighbor and good friend that we've attended for the last few years.  Very pleasant, with some interesting discussions with people we don't ordinarily interact with -- including a couple of professional musicians and also a couple of fellow travel-addicts.  The menu included both Turkey and Ham, the second of which love -- maybe too much.  Ham is something I've had a weakness for bordering on derangement for as long as I can remember.  As a kid my mother would serve

ham on the bone, like the kind in cartoons.  These hams predated the ones you can now buy pre-cooked and pre-sliced .  These had to be baked and then served with some of the meat sliced onto a platter.  My weakness was so strong that if there was left-over ham in the refrigerator, I would get up at night and eat a fair percentage of my body weight in the stuff.  Today, because of the salt and fat concerns of geezerhood, I have had to limit my intake so that my death certificate doesn't read "death by ham ingestion."   However, I might have exceeded the reasonable limit this year -- by just a smidge, I assure you.

On Thursday we played golf at Makalei.  It was a sunny, clear day for the most part, a definite contrast to last week's rain-out.  In fact, we played all 18 holes, a noteworthy feat for us. I did a solid "meh," but

Karen did great -- a par on one hole with a one-putt, and SIX consecutive Bogeys!!!  Obviously my "meh-ness" wasn't contagious.  At first we were puzzled because we didn't see hardly any Nenes or Peacocks, but as the day wore on they came out from the tree-lined margins and we wound up seeing about 20 Nenes and 20 Peacocks, including the white male Peacock who was displaying for some interested females.  We were pleased to get in this round and have it be a good one because it may have been our last until after we return from our trip.

 

My big techno-woe this week was fighting bubbles.  Bubbles in our pool, that is.  Somehow air is getting into the solar heating system and this means there is a problem to be solved somewhere.  I consulted with my pool service guy and I'm going to replace something called the vacuum breaker valve that is attached to the solar panels and is supposed to open only when the system is off, allowing air to enter the pipes so that water will drain back into the pool.  It may be that mine, which is now 18 or so years old, is allowing air all the time, thus creating the bubbles.  On the mainland finding a replacement would be fast and easy, I'm sure, but here the main supplier of parts for these systems doesn't stock the size I need.  Soooooo, the problem will persist until one that is ordered arrives.  While investigating the cause of the bubbles, I also found a couple of leaks in the roof panels themselves which I tried to fix yesterday myself.  Ah, home ownership!!  

On a philosophical note, I'd say 2023 was somewhat of a mixed bag.  It certainly had some up sides for me personally in terms of travel experiences, personal development, learning opportunities, and generally being in pretty good health.  However, the depth and breadth of problems around the world in terms of climate change, wars, ideological extremism, social antipathy, and a loss of anything resembling a moral center, leave me with a nagging feeling that humanity is heading in the wrong direction.  It also leads me to realize that I've lived in some very good times that may not recur in the near future.  So, as this year comes to a close I'm grateful for my past life and somewhat leery about what the next years might bring.  Nevertheless, I sincerely wish you a Happy, Healthy, and Fulfilling New Year.... 

 

Off we go one last time this year to the beach for our breakfast picnic.  Take care, stay warm!

'Twas the Week Before Christmas

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

12/23/23

 

Mele Kalikimaka!  ---

 

It's hard to believe that Christmas is just TWO days away!  I guess I'm ready, and I've been trying hard to get into the spirit of things -- we have lights up inside and outside, the tree is decorated and we've been lighting it each night during dinner and throughout the evening, our Christmas cards are mailed, we've been to several festive events and get-togethers with friends, etc.  I've noted that each year we send fewer cards, partly because this tradition has been fading universally, and partly because of the sad fact that fewer on our mailing list are still upright.  Also, we've taken to sending Season's Greetings by email, a convenient, cheap, but less expressive way of keeping in touch. 

On Sunday we attended a presentation by the Kona Choral Society of Handel's Messiah -- well, the part that focuses on the birth.  It was very well done and featured four soloists, three of whom were exceptionally good.  We know a couple of people in the chorus, including the wife of my old fraternity brother who lives here now.  In fact, we had a delightful dinner with them on Wednesday in their new house that replaces the coffee farm they sold this year.  On Monday we went to a holiday party hosted by the women's organization that Karen belongs to -- one of the fun things they did was to stick a famous name on each person's back and the person had to guess the name by asking any of the other attendees three yes/no questions.  I was Tom Cruise..... Last night we hosted dinner for two of our Ohio friends who are here on their yearly visit to their daughter, a teacher at a private school up north in Waimea.  They are now living in Wisconsin, and have shown the wisdom of their years by coming here during the winter.  It was a real treat to catch up with the three of them, and certainly appropriate to the season. Whew! I'm sure that this much socializing is routine for many people, but for us it is way more than normal.

 

Karen and I have decided to forgo personal gifts this year (except for her new Iphone), and instead we've designated a few items for both of us as Christmas presents -- a new kitchen scale, a portable carpet cleaner, and an electric blanket (!).  Jingle bells!

Early in the week we received our Kenya e-visas (we already have them for Ethiopia).  This eliminates one more obstacle to our trip.  Now all I need is for the Circuit Court Judge to let me out of being on the Grand Jury, something I won't find out until January 5th.  Cutting it a little close, I'd say.

On Wednesday Karen and I played nine holes of "aqua-golf" at Makalei.  It started out sunny, but by the

Where's the Hole?!

fourth hole it began misting, and by the seventh it was raining at a pretty good rate.  We slogged through the ninth hole and then aborted.  Too bad, because although I started off poorly, I was doing much better around the time it started to rain, including one bogey and some satisfyingly good shots.  After the rain started the peacocks ran for cover, but before that we saw quite a few, and also saw our first baby Nene of the season.  Cute little guy!  Actually, our Kona weather has been kind of sucky lately -- night temps have dropped to a frigid 62d and it has been cloudy and rainy parts of most days.  This resulted in a rare monthly electric bill that exceeded our maintenance charge because our pv panels just couldn't cover our usage. It was paid from our surplus credit, but it wiped out our reserves.  Because of the lack of sun and the cold nights, our pool temp has fallen below our wimpy geezer threshold, so we haven't been in for several days this past week.  Oh, the hardships of winter!!!!!

 

Our RSV vaccinations gave neither of us hardly any problems at all, much less than our Covid updates and flu shots. I had a *very* slight sore arm for about a day, but otherwise felt fine. It's a bit of a relief for me to have the extra protection, especially prior to an international trip.

 

Ok, we're off for our usual stop at Farmer's Market and then a beach picnic breakfast.  Take care. Stay warm and healthy.  Merry Christmas!

 

Cologuard Results, Fiber Installed, "RSVPlease"

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

12/16/23

 

Aloha Family ---

 

I finally got the results of my Cologuard test this week, and my poop passed with flying colors! In the report's words,  "Cologuard did not find blood or abnormal DNA in your sample...You're unlikely to have colon cancer...The chance that a person with a negative Cologuard test has a colorectal cancer is less than 1 in 1500 (negative predictive value >99.9%) or has an advanced adenoma is less than 5.3% (negative predictive value 94.7%)."  Whoopee!  Next test is recommended in three years.  If anything was missed this time around, two negatives would be very, very unlikely.

 

We got our Hawaiian Tel fiber internet service installed this week in a two-step process.  On Monday a crew showed up to run the cable from the street to the box on the side of our garage where the old land

line used to be.  There were actually three old lines that were legacies from the olden days of wired phones.  They removed those and coiled up a bunch of the new cable in the box.  The fiber optic cable is remarkably thin and light weight.  I had the guys strip back the insulation to reveal the actual information-carrying core -- a tiny hair-thin strand of clear plastic.  Incredible.  On Thursday another guy arrived to install the actual equipment and activate the line.  Because of my advanced planning this took less than an hour and went very, very smoothly.  The main piece of the setup is a small white box about the size of a business letter and as thick as a paperback book.  The fiber light signal goes in and digital info comes out, thanks to many little digi-fairies inside.  From there the signal runs to our router and is distributed throughout the house.  I simply unplugged my Spectrum cable service from the router and plugged in my CAT6 to the new equipment in the garage, and in about 30 seconds I had made the switch, getting 4x the speed for less money.  Very happy at the moment.  Yesterday I called to cancel my Spectrum internet service.  They immediately offered to match the Hawaiian Telcom price and increase my speed, but I told them they were a day late -- I already made the switch.  They did, however, let me keep my mobile phone plan, so I'm I'm definitely a happy camper.

No golf this week but we did manage to go to the driving range and practice putting green on Thursday

Santa's Outrigger Comes to Town

after the cable installation.  These are rather different than at most courses, I'm sure.  The practice areas at Makalei are halfway up the mountain, so you have to have a cart.  The driving range is down slope with a fantastic view of the ocean, framed by tall trees.  In other words, it's a nice outing even if you don't play a round.  We had beautiful clear weather, but honking wind.  Like St. Andrews, but 40 degrees warmer and no rain.  I did pretty good, certainly much better than last week when I couldn't seem to hit the ball.  Hopefully some of this will carry over to the next time I play, probably next week.  

Oh, I almost forgot to mention the latest challenge to fulfilling my bucket list visit to Ethiopia.  The judge rejected my written request to be excused!  I got a call on Wednesday telling me the news, and that I must report on January 5th (7 days before we're scheduled to leave) "for the drawing of names for the upcoming Grand Jury."  I'm hoping that somewhere along the line I'll be able to get excused on the grounds of pre-aranged travel that will be a financial hardship to cancel.  Maybe my name won't even get drawn, which would be great.  One positive to this:  I will get paid $30!!

Finally, later this morning Karen and I will get our RSV vaccinations.  I'm particularly motivated to get this because of my Emphysema, which would make any respiratory problems much worse.  It's likely I'll have a similar reaction to this vaccine as I have to others, hopefully only lasting a few days.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Ok, that's it for this week. Take care.  Beware of false moral equivalencies.  Stay warm.

Switch to Fiber, Golf Jinx, Grand Jury Duty?

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

12/9/23

 

Aloha All ---

 

Well, my timing for getting my cables run to handle fiber optic service turned out to be excellent!  This week Spectrum raised our rate by 25%.  I called to complain and didn't get anywhere -- they wouldn't match the price I can get for a year or more with Hawaiian Telcom's promotional rate, and Spectrum would still be higher than HT even when my fiber service increases after the introductory period. So, I then contacted Hawaiian Telcom and got more details on their fiber optic service, and went ahead and ordered it. The installation is scheduled for next Thursday.  Should be interesting. I'll wait to cancel Spectrum until I'm sure everything is working ok with the fiber service, but this time next week I should have faster internet at a lower cost.  With my new cable set up all it will take for me is to unplug the modem cable from our router and plug in the new cable I ran to where the ONT (Optical Network Terminal) will be located in the garage.  Fingers crossed.

My bragging about doing so well at golf has come back to bite me.  This week Karen, our friend, and I

Grrrrr!

played on Tuesday.  It was a gorgeous day.  The course was beautiful.  We saw lots of peacocks and nesting Nenes.  I played really, really, badly.  For some reason I just couldn't seem to hit the ball!!  After 11 holes of exhausting frustration we called it a day.  Karen and our friend were also having a bad day, possibly due my negative influence.  I hope it was just a matter of sore muscles and stiffness from being a troll in our crawl space for a good part of the previous couple of days.  Anyway, I'll certainly give it another try next week.  If I do well, though, I'm keeping my mouth shut.

Speaking of jinxes, the latest obstacle to my bucket list attempt to finally visit Ethiopia came this week in the mail -- a letter from the Circuit Court appointing me to the Grand Jury for 2024.  I would ordinarily be interested in this duty -- it involves deciding whether cases have enough evidence to go to court.  However, it entails being on call the entire year, including, of course, the time we are scheduled to be in Ethiopia and Kenya.  In the fine print of the letter it says that you can be excused on the basis of previously arranged and paid travel plans.  So I've crafted a letter explaining our arrangements, and enclosed a copy of our flight itinerary.  Hopefully this will get me out of  it.  I'll certainly let you know.!

Ok, we're off to market and our beach breakfast picnic.  Take care.  Be nice to your AI -- hopefully it will then be nice to you.