Blog Hiatus

Sigh...

I'm afraid I'm needing to take another blog hiatus now. I'll be back soon. There's suddenly too much going on for me to keep up with.

I'll try to get myself organized to write about it when I return. Until then, have a wonderful fall everybody. 

Mysterious, Weird Lemon

 I wrote a post earlier in the month about this strange huge lemon that was growing all by itself from a thick branch instead of at the ends of thinner branches. 

One blogger buddy wondered what the inside of the lemon would look like. This has been a strange month for lemons on our tree. We also had some really small lemons with discolored skins. Hurricane Lala blew a bunch of them down. 

But not our huge lemon that was growing where it shouldn't have. It had no problem hanging on and turned yellower with each day. 

Since we'd be on a trip soon with my brother coming to stay at our house with mom, I thought I'd go ahead and pick it to show my blogger buddy. The lemon was pretty hard to twist off as it held on tenaciously to the thick stem.

I

I had one of the small lemons that Hurricane Lala had blown off the tree so I thought I'd cut that one too.

First thing I noticed was that the rind was much harder than usual.

The small lemon was pretty much dried out on the inside so I threw it away.

I used the juicer to get every bit of juice from the big lemon... and it wasn't all that much. 😕

Ah well...

I'm noticing more flowers on the tree now so hopefully they will follow Mother Nature's rule and grow where they should and produce more juice. 😇

Scary AI... Really Scary AI

My grandson, J-- sent us an email to thank us for all the books we'd sent him through Amazon for his birthday. It was lovely to hear from him. I was so pleased to see what a great writer he was turning out to be like his mom and dad. 

But when I scrolled down on my iPhone, I was surprised to see this. 

I couldn't believe the iPhone suggestion answered his questions for me and even celebrated what he wrote about entering middle school. It even included his brother's name in the letter with a suggested closing. 😮

And no... I didn't use the suggestion and wrote my own letter.

But wooow...

If someone replies to me from now on, I'm going to wonder if it was that person or AI.

Woooow... This is spooky to me.

Who Me? Worry?

Why is it that as soon as we leave the islands hurricanes decide to attack? Lala attacked a couple of weeks before we were set to leave for Illinois to visit our daughter and family.

And then we heard about Hurricane Lowell that was passing south of the islands suddenly changing its mind and swerving north toward Kauai next to our island of Oahu. What the heck? 

If that wasn’t enough, suddenly there was another hurricane named Karina. We’re reading how sometimes hurricanes will be drawn to each other and become a monster.

And then it seems there was a Marie… Ackkkk!

My brother is taking care of mom in our house and is usually pretty nonchalant about things. He’s not as hyper-crazy like I am when there’s a calamity threatening. However, with THREE hurricanes threatening, my nephew came over to help his dad put up all the hurricane shields for the 1st floor. I had to use a chair to help install the shields. Cody could put up the entire shield without a ladder. It must be nice to be so tall.

I’m writing this while in Illinois. My brother keeps telling me to relax.

But we’ll be watching as the hurricane season, forecasted to be bad this year drags on.

Getting UP After Falling

Terry, our retired nurse friend sent this video to us about ensuring our ability to get up from a fall. Art and I did take a "Fall Prevention" class, but it was more about how to fall. This video shows exercises on strengthening your muscles so you're able to get up if you do fall.

Hmmm.... well... balance is somewhat difficult for me since I suffer from vertigo. 

Our son, Keola was testing us when he visited to see if we could get up from the floor with crossed legs. 😕 And nope, neither Art nor I can do it. But yes, we can if we're allowed to use our hands.

Ahhh well... I guess I'd better practice doing those pushups. 

Please stay safe, everybody.

Trying Hard to be Positive in Trying Times… and Failing a Little

I’m really trying. I really am. I’m trying not to post too much about Trump. Honest.

But I saw this recently and just had to share it.

And then one of my very good teacher buddies sent this to me.

Sigh…

OK, I got it out of my system.

…for now …

Doubling the Bird of Paradise

We've passed this house and seen this unusual sight before. But this time I just had to take a photo. Growing up in Waipahu, many people had the Bird of Paradise flower in their gardens. 

I think. 😐

I just know we had two large plants. 

I think. 😗 I'll have to ask my brother. But I do know I never saw anything like this.

It's another flower growing out of the original flower.

It does bring to mind the shape of a bird, hence its name. Granted... it would be a two headed bird. 😊 

POSTSCRIPT: We went by the house again several days later and found more birds of paradise blooming. Most of them looked like they were going to do this piggy back type flowers. I guess it must be a new variety of Bird of Paradise.

Remembering Dolly

I've always admired Dolly Parton and loved her music. She was not only mega talented, but was also an incredible person who cared about others. I was amazed to learn she has donated $500 million to so many different causes such as wildfire recovery and vaccine research.

But as a retired teacher, you know I loved how she started the... 

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is dedicated to inspiring a love of reading by gifting books free of charge to children from birth to age five, through funding shared by Dolly Parton and local community partners in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and Republic of Ireland.

She really seemed like such a kind, friendly person and that was evident when my cousin, Arnold sent this photo to me. 

Arnold was a pilot for Hawaiian Airlines. This photo was taken in 1990 or so. He said the cabin crew were all making a fuss over her and he went back to welcome her and say he was one of her fans. She insisted he sit on her lap for a photo and would not take, (I'll bet it was a weak) "no," for an answer. He says Dolly really is as nice as everyone says. Well, Arnold's a sweetie, too! Isn't this just the coolest thing?"

 

 It's really wonderful to know there are famous personalities who are just super nice people and care about everyone.

The world has lost a beautiful, fabulous, human being and we are poorer for it. However, we can count our blessings that she was part of our world for this short time.

All Important Back-Up Power

Hurricane Lala was a wake-up call for us. We've had several storm misses and after a while... you might get a little complacent. 

But this one was definitely scary. Trees were downed in quite a number of places and I've read that 200,000 customers lost power during the height of the storm. My brother was lucky. They never lost power at his condominium.

The Big Island caught the brunt of the storm and the south side will take several years to get back to normal again.

We lost power twice. Luckily, we'd bought a back up power battery called EcoFlow Delta 3 Portable Battery Power Station a year ago from Home Depot. Art always keeps it partially charged.

It's not very large at all and it's quiet. And it did keep our refrigerator running for about 9 hours. Granted, the second time we lost power, Art had to drive the power station to my brother's house to charge it and by the time he returned, power had been restored again. 

I'm thinking we need a back up for the back up for the next time a hurricane comes too close.

And then there's our computer. 

Our son-in-law had set up a UPS system after a brown-out fried both Art and my computers. 

I always thought UPS was United Parcel Service. But no... it also stands for Uninterruptible Power Supply. 

However, when it started beeping and beeping and I still had a blank computer monitor, I figured it wasn't working so I pressed all the different buttons to turn it off.

When I told my son-in-law about it the next day he said there is a MUTE button I could have pressed.

Oops!

Also when I took a photo of the back of the UPS, he said the monitor plug was not in the right place which is why we couldn't see anything and power down our computer. 

The UPS is to give you time to close your computer apps safely before turning it off.

Oops! 

OK... I think it's OK now...

I think.

We'll have to see when the next hurricane come close to us. 😩

We were using flashlights that we put everywhere, but discovered it wasn't the best for mom. I set up a flashlight in her bathroom when the power went off in the evening. 

I decided to get these lantern/flashlights which I hope will be helpful. They can also be charged with sunlight. But if there's a hurricane, will there be sunlight to charge the lanterns? 😳

Sigh...

Scam?

We recently got 2 or 3 letters and postcards addressed to a Helen. No one named Helen has been living at our address for at least 25+ years.

We first got a letter which we didn't open. We just wrote that no one lived at this address by that name and returned it to our mailbox for the mail person.

A couple of days later we got this postcard addressed to the same Helen.

And we sent it back out again.

But this had me suspicious and I looked up that phone #.

This is what I found online.

I could swear we got another postcard saying Helen won something and that she should call an 888 number, but I can't find it.

Anyway...

Good grief!

I guess if it sounds too good to be true... you'd better check online because it could be another scam.

It's a scary techie world out there.

Hmmm... I wonder who Helen is.🤔