Anzan Kigan

We attended a special ceremony this past weekend at the Izumo Taisha Shinto shrine which is located close to Chinatown in Honolulu. I've seen the shrine before but never actually been there.

I was excited when my nephew and his wife invited us to an Anzan Kigan ceremony. I'd never heard of this Shinto ceremony for expectant mothers who would like a safe and easy birth.

I got the following from the Hawaii Kotohira Jinsha.

ANZAN KIGAN - safe birth blessings for the expectant mother
Suitengu Shrine in Kurume, Fukuoka is the main shrine of all Suitengu shrines in Japan, particularly famous as the deity of safe and easy births. Celebrate the process of life, and prepare for the most profound moments of joy through an Anzan Kigan ritual for birth.

Before entering the Shinto shrine we had to wash our hands.

My sister-in-law, Nancy helped mom.

Mother-to-be, Miho provided all the information to the priest. I really think Miho is glowing and beautiful in her pregnancy. I know nephew, Barry is thrilled!

The ceremony began with an introduction to explain what was going to happen.

There was a prayer, chant and also a chance for us to make a wish.

The priest then held a white haraegushi which is used for purification and waved it over our heads as a sort of cleansing blessing.

Sprigs of leaves were then given to us which we presented to the altar after bowing deeply and clapping our hands. I nearly chuckled seeing how much taller mom's youngest grandson looked next to his grandmother.

At the closing of the ceremony, we were all presented with shallow dishes from which the priest poured a drink for us. Art and I thought it was tea and was surprised to find it was sake.... rather strong sake at that. Art's face must have registered some shock because the friendly priest had to work hard to restrain a chuckle.

After the ceremony was over, we were invited out to dinner at Hale Vietnam in Kaimuki by my brother and sister-in-law.

This was the first Shinto ceremony I'd ever experienced and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The priest mentioned that there is another ceremony for the baby after he is born. I'm saying he because that is what the priest predicted. And though Miho is hoping for a girl, if this baby is anything like Barry, a boy would be totally fabulous!

And that wish I made at the beginning of the ceremony?

Did I wish for world peace and understanding, the end of sickness, happiness for everybody? Ummm... no. I wished for something I didn't expect to happen. I wished the Cubs would win.

And when we got home, guess what happened last night?

Happy Halloween, everybody!

Cubs Fever Dreams

I got a text message from my daughter saying she and KC were at Wrigley soaking in the Cubs excitement. I hate being a pessimist, but I'm thinking you should enjoy the feeling now because any day now the bubble could burst.

And yes, we're holding our breaths.

We were in Chicago last year when we lost the National League championships to get into the World Series. Now we're actually in the World Series. Sigh....

It's going to be a stressful, nail biting weekend...

SUNDAY POSTSCRIPT: Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! We won! It's now Indians 3, Cubs 2! There's hope again.

Brush or Floss First

I have no idea how we got on this topic, but my brother and I were talking about teeth brushing. He's always been blessed with good teeth. He never needed braces and didn't have many cavities. Mom insists it's because she was able to drink more milk during her pregnancy before he was born.

Anyway...

He and I started talking about flossing and he insisted that you should floss first and then brush. He was surprised that we would do it in the other order. He felt you could get the major debris out of your mouth first with the floss and then polish the teeth by brushing after.

Well, we like to brush the debris out of our mouth first and then floss what we might have missed between our teeth.

I looked it up on the Internet and it seems it really doesn't make any difference. What do you do?

Stepping Forward With Smooth Heels

One of the things I learned at the Diabetic Workshop I attended was how to care for my feet. They said that diabetes does often affect the feet causing pain and nerve damage. One of the possible conditions is dry, cracked, bleeding feet.

I've had that. My heels and sides of the feet were often dry and peeling. There have been times when it even bled which was no fun at all and painful to walk on.

The diabetics nurse counselor advised us to use a pumice stone while in the shower since our feet would have been soaking and the skin would be softer. After the shower, she said to carefully dry our feet and apply Vaseline or lotion. I used Eucerin.

I did it and was amazed that within a few days this is what my feet looked like. Not a crack in sight! And it's smooth. I mean.... really, really smooth.

You know I'm running out of blog posts when I start writing about my feet.

Every Vote Counts!

Mom says that the first time she voted in Hawaii was when I was in the 8th grade and came home from school telling her she needed to vote. She says we went down together to the polling station so she could take part in the election process. I don't remember any of this, but she insists that's what happened.

Then Art and I moved to Chicago. When we moved back in 2008, we registered to vote in Hawaii and I made sure that mom could once again vote. She was afraid to at first thinking she would have to serve in a jury that she wouldn't understand. I had to explain that it was simple enough to explain that her English was too limited.

I then learned that we could get mail-in ballots with everything written in Japanese for mom. Perfect!

There were about two dozen amendments to the Hawaii constitution and charter that needed to be voted on this year. It was a headache for me to understand the gobbledygook explanation in English! Mom spent two days studying the Japanese explanation and came up with almost the same conclusions we did. I was amazed she took it dead serious.

Well... what she was really dead serious about this time was voting against Trump. She said she wanted to make sure our country would not be a laughing stock to the world.

I love the early mail-in ballots. Hawaii tends to be very apathetic when it comes to voting. I wonder if we'd have a higher percentage of voting if it were all done by mail-in ballots. Whatever the case, it's a whole lot more convenient. The best part? We're done! Our ballot is in the mail!

Oh My Gosh! This Is the Year!

We can't believe it! The Chicago Cubs won the National League Championship Series against the L.A. Dodgers! We're in the World Series after 71 years of hoping, praying, wishing....

We were in Chicago last year when the Cubs almost made it to the World Series. They beat the St. Louis Cardinals, but lost to the New York Mets who went on to play in the World Series after the Cubs lost to them four games in a row.

Our granddaughter, KC was super excited. The school even had a Sports Day. Everyone was feeling hopeful that the Cubs would win the National League Championship, especially since the movie Back to the Future forecasted they would win the World Series in 2015. Sigh... We were pretty depressed.

This year, they won the first game against the Dodgers and we were very excited. However, then they lost the next two. After so many let downs, I wasn't expecting anything to happen this year. I watched Art pacing the floor as he watched the games.

Then the Cubs won the next two. On Saturday night, I was rather busy sewing. I suddenly got an excited text from our son in Maryland asking, "Are you watching?" Art was pacing as usual, but wasn't expecting the win yet since it was only the 7th inning.

I went downstairs to prepare dinner and turned on the TV so Art could run down and watch the game without missing a beat.

Suddenly, there was an eruption of cheers.

Good grief! The Cubs won! They're in the World Series!!! Oh my gosh! We don't have to say, "Wait until next year."

Then again... the World Series begins tomorrow. I hope we don't have to say that familiar phrase all Cubs fans know after the World Series is over.

Wish us luck please.

18 More Days?

Warning: This is a political post. If you don't want to hear anything about politics, please come back another time.

Art was on an outing with some high school classmates and discovered that one of them was voting for Trump. The rest of the people were surprised (shocked). Another friend told him he knew his son and daughter-in-law were voting for Trump because they had quite a high income and thought Trump would put measures in place that would help them with their taxes.

I know a few (very few) loved ones who are also saying they're voting for Trump.

Reasons they give:
*  They don't trust Hillary. (Seriously??? And they trust Trump. Why?)
*  They think Trump will help them keep their wealth. (Seriously? To avoid taxes and doing their fair share?)
*  Trump tells it like it is. (Seriously? About grabbing women's you know what and thinking abuse is OK, and then denying that he'd done it?)
*  Hillary is crooked? (Seriously? After bilking people with his Trump University and not paying people for their services by declaring bankruptcy four times?)
*  Bill Clinton was an adulterer. (Seriously? Bill is not the one running for president. And didn't Trump do the same thing?)
*  Hillary said some mean things about the women who fooled around with her husband. (Seriously? You can bet I would too. Was she supposed to be nice to them?)
*  He's an outsider and could shake up Washington. (Seriously? You want somebody who doesn't know what he's doing, doesn't understand world politics, shoots from the hip whenever he feels hurt or insulted and can't get along with either political party?)

I saw something on Facebook recently which I thought was hilarious. It was written by Joelle Wisler and called The 7 Stages of Grief When a Loved One Supports Trump. It made me laugh even when I wanted to weep.

Sigh...

And if you're voting for Trump, please don't tell me. I'm already depressed enough.

Names of Endearment

We lost Art's mom 30 years ago and his dad 8 years before that, but their memories and examples live with us today. His dad was the sort of man people described as willing to give the shirt off his back if you needed it.

Art's mom wrote to us regularly even though her fingers were all crippled by rheumatoid arthritis. She'd also had a double mastectomy and had one leg amputated. And yet, she was always cheerful, always kind and always wanting everyone to be happy too. Her life had been one of hard work and hardship, but she never complained and counted all her blessings. I was always in awe of her. Needless to say she was very well loved by everyone.

I was remembering one incident when she'd been staying with us for the summer. I passed by the room she was sharing with Keola who slept in his crib. That afternoon he was with mom on her bed and had fallen asleep on her lap. I came in to take him away and move him into his crib because he had to have been heavy on her leg. She silently motioned me away and watched him sleep for over an hour.

Art's mom always began her letters to us with Dearest Arthur, Kay Dear, Sweet Tiffany and Gentle Keola. All the relatives began calling me Kay Dear as well which never failed to make me chuckle.

I can still hear her voice and see her smile. I am always grateful for the beautiful way they raised their son. Their spirits and love will live on in their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Saving for Retirement

I'm worried about my kids and everybody else's kids. An Associated Press story reported on the Chicago Tribune stated:

"Forty-eight percent of all Americans aged 18 to 30 have zero in retirement savings and no access to a traditional pension, according to a GenForward poll by the Black Youth Project at the University of Chicago with the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research."

This is really scary. What are they going to do when they reach retirement age? I know it seems far away but most of my readers know how quickly we all get there.

I think I started saving early because my mom always made an example of squirreling away money and doing everything she could to reduce expenditures.  We were in plantation housing and poor even though my brother and I didn't know it until we saw somebody's home with white carpeting.

Art grew up watching his parents slave away with their small restaurant/soda fountain/store and making every penny count. I remember how his mom used to cut up cigarette cartons for note cards.

Early in our marriage, we started saving. Art put away a certain amount in savings bonds with each paycheck automatically so we'd never see it. As soon as our kids were born, we started an education account for them. When I started working, Art insisted I save a bit in my 403b (similar to 401k) with each paycheck so I'd never see it either. We also made sure a portion of our paycheck went to charities in gratitude for what we were able to share.

I still remember how proud I was to get my paychecks. I put everything in the bank except for about $300 which I would take out in $10 denominations. I would then spread it out like a fan in my hand to look at it and then dole out allowances for the kids and whatever. I know... it was crazy, but it felt good.

We took trips around the U.S., but not out of country until the kids were 12 and 15. There was such a good deal air fare to England that Art couldn't resist. Art and I never took trips on our own until the kids were in college. We went to a lot of rummage and garage sales for clothing and pinched as many of our pennies as we could. No cable, almost no fancy restaurants, etc.

There's a lot of ways to save and cut costs. We're comfortable enough now that we can afford to take trips and buy whatever we really need, but there's still a worry of something catastrophic happening.  You can never tell. You can never really tell.

I am relieved to see our kids following along our footsteps and saving as much as they can as well... at least I think they are. I hope they are.

Glucose Monitors are Inaccurate?!?

What the heck! Now that I'm diabetic, I've been really, really trying hard to exercise more and watch my carbs. I've been pricking my fingers to learn how certain foods affect my glucose. I've taken the Diabetes Workshop at Tripler.

My nurse practitioner had given me a glucose monitor to use a couple of weeks ago. It's called Precision X-tra and made by Abbot. I started pricking and testing which showed that my glucose numbers were pretty high and worrisome. Even at the lowest setting, the needle poked pretty darn deep and was painful.

Then I attended the Diabetes Workshop and they gave me another glucose monitor called Freestyle Freedom Lite. It was a ton better! The needles didn't poke as deeply and didn't hurt as much. It also did not require much blood. Yahoo!

A few days ago Art asked if it wouldn't be interesting to try both meters to see how they compared. That's the scientist in him. I agreed. I set up both monitors with test strips, pricked my finger and applied blood from the same drop to both test strips.

This was 2 hours after eating dinner. Precision X-tra showed 107. Freestyle showed 95. Your reading should be less than 140.

A couple of mornings later I thought I'd test my fasting blood glucose. I did the same procedure. Precision X-tra showed 127 which is bad (Diabetes). Freestyle showed 107 (Pre-diabetes).

A fasting glucose should be between 70-99.
Pre-diabetes is 100-125.

 These are huge differences. So which one is accurate? Art said it was like having two watches with different times. How do you know?  A 20 point difference is darn significant!

I called Abbot on their Help Line and was shocked to learn that monitors can differ up to 20%! She said the reading differences of 127 vs. 107 fell within those guidelines.

This was very intriguing to Art so he started researching this conundrum. He discovered that it was true. The FDA allows for a 20% difference. They said you can't compare two monitors because they could each fall within 20% of each other.

One way you could tell was going to get your blood tested at a lab, pricking yourself and testing both monitors in the lab and making sure the lab centrifuged your blood within a half hour.

Really? That's all it takes? I have to ask the lab to do that? Uh hunh... riiiiight...

Sigh....

Ah well...

I'm going to go with the Freestyle because frankly, I like their numbers better.

First Taste of the Satsuma Tangerine

After three years we've finally gotten a fruit on our Satsuma tangerine tree. It was HUGE...YUGE...

The only problem was we didn't know when to pick it.

We wondered if we should wait until it turned completely yellow or when it just got soft.

We looked online and there were many, many opinions. Some said even when it's yellow it might be sour or then again, could be over ripe and dried out. Others said you could pick it when it's green and it might be ripe.

Still others said we should pick one and we'd know what the others would be like.

Well...

We only have one that's yellow. The 10 other fruit are of various sizes and colors.

We finally decided to go ahead and try it.

We had the grand opening/peeling with my brother, sister-in-law and neighbors.

The skin peeled away very easily and had separated from the wedges.

Unfortunately, it was pretty dried out and pulpy.

Our neighbor, who used to have a tangerine tree said we should leave the fruit out for a couple of days after picking next time so it can draw moisture from the rind.

OK... got it.

We shall see.

By the way... on the plus side. Even though it was dried out, it was sweet.

There's hope.

POSTSCRIPT:
We've tried two more fruits at different stages and they're all pretty dry and pulpy. Ah well... Maybe next year it will be better.

Canstruction 2016

For the 11th year competing teams, led by architects, builders, allied design and engineering professionals showed off their talents by designing giant sculptures made entirely out of canned foods.

We were able to view this at the mall when we were exercising there. I had to look up Groot because I'd never heard of him. The theme for this year was Space.

We didn't much care for the Death Star. We didn't even know what it was until we read the sign.

The Millennium Fal-can on the other hand was fabulous and it did win one of the prizes.

Optimus Prime? I couldn't see it.


Hunger Invaders... meh...

I thought Marvin the Martian was great. Darn! I misspelled Martian. Sorry about that. It certainly used the labels effectively.

Wall-E? Hmmm.... I didn't recognize him.

I didn't think much of the Space Can-Vaders, but I thought it was lovely to have this tribute to Big Island's Ellison S. Onizuka who perished in the Space Shuttle Challenger tragedy.

I'll bet my granddaughter would have loved to create some structures with her mother's store of cans.

Waipahu

I grew up in a sleepy plantation town called Waipahu on the island of Oahu. It has changed in the almost 50 years that I've been away.

We recently went back and saw that though much had changed, some things were still recognizable.

Although the sugar plantation is gone, you can still see the smoke stack.

We stopped along Depot Street which was packed with cars going to the markets. On the right, used to be Arakawa Store. It's now called the Waipahu Plantation Marketplace.

Mom and Art decided to go in and see if anything looked familiar, but it was closed.

Arakawas used to be the department store where we all went to do our shopping. I worked there one holiday season as a gift wrapper. I learned how to wrap anything very quickly in those days. Maybe, my present wasn't all that pretty, but I was quick.

Across Depot Street used to be Bigway Market. It's now the Waipahu Festival Marketplace. My brother, Dennis worked at Bigway as a bagger for a while. To this day he can bag things perfectly. I still wince at what I see baggers doing these days. I remember him practicing before he started working there. All the ladies loved him and told my mom. He really was a cutie sweetie pie. OK, he still is.

The Waipahu Theater where we went to watch movies on so many Saturday afternoons is now The City of Refuge Christian Church.

As for our own rented home at the plantation camp housing, it's completely gone. Much of the area burned and was leveled. There are stores and a new housing development there now. I can't even tell where our home used to be.

It's a strange feeling to know that a part of your physical past is gone. When I left Hawaii in 1974, my brother drew a picture of the home where we grew up and sent it to me in Chicago so I could remember what it looked like.

It's one of the most precious gifts he's ever given me. See what I mean about him being a sweetie pie?

1st Time at Genki Sushi

We've never eaten at Genki Sushi although we know it's very popular. Much of the reason is because I've always known I was pre-diabetic and sushi is FULL of carbs.

Then there was that horrible Hepatitis A scare with Genki Sushi being the source of the outbreak. Art has always been intrigued about going there so when there was a 10% off your bill enticement to try the place, I told Art we should go since the place would probably be the cleanest it's ever been.

Our friends, Diane and Dave have eaten there before so we went together knowing they could show us how it's done.

We sat down and saw all the various kinds of sushi being rotated on a conveyor belt next to us.

They were quite mouth watering.

You can also order off the menu and your selection would be delivered by this cute little train.

I didn't take a photo of it, but I did order the pricey ikura (salmon roe) to share with Art as well as the California roll. That was a total of three pieces I ate.

No I didn't take the cupcake.

Here's my lunch along with the three pieces of sushi.

Looks like their 10% off special did entice quite a few customers back. They gave us these fans to remind us to go again.

When I got home, I tested my blood glucose and it was a very respectable 126! Yay! Couple that with spending time with good friends, it was a very wonderful lunch!

Chrysophyllum oliviforme?

Whenever we're at tai chi class at the park, I've noticed this beautiful tree.

Since it's fall now, looking at the leaves on the ground reminded me of the colors we used to see in Illinois.

When I looked up at the tree I thought all the leaves were the same rust color that you see on the bottom of the leaf.

One day I was surprised to discover that the top of the leaf was actually this beautiful emerald green.

This is the same leaf, top and bottom.

Apparently, it's also called the Satin Leaf tree. Here's a link to Wikipedia about Chrysophyllum oliviforme.

At one of our tai chi classes, Art couldn't resist taking this photo.

Uh oh... I wonder if our teacher noticed I was not totally concentrating on my tai chi moves.

Blooming Beauty

We woke up one morning to find that the buds had not been bitten off by bulbuls and the orchids were almost all in bloom.

They were truly beautiful.

I thought it would be lovely just to leave them outside to enjoy their beauty every time we left the house.

Mom thought about it and said she wanted to share it with one of her dearest friends.

Her friend who had no children and doted on my brother and me when we were growing up had passed away several years ago and mom still likes to visit her niche at the Buddhist Temple to share her happiness.

Couldn't resist taking this close up of the orchid.














A few days later this branch bloomed and surprised us. We didn't realize it was a different kind of orchid, but it was just as lovely.

The other sprig of orchid blossoms is now on the kitchen table where mom says we should enjoy the smell every day.

Senior Fair

Last month, we went to the annual Senior Fair at the Blaisdell Center in Honolulu. We always take mom to get her free Kaiser flu shot. Art and I get our flu shots at Tripler Army Hospital.

We invited my brother and sister-in-law to join us since they belong to the Kaiser plan as well and could get their flu shots with mom.

Dennis and Nancy love to go fishing so they enjoyed admiring the huge fish with mom.









Art always enjoys visiting all the booths geared toward seniors.

Blaisdell was PACKED!







Politicians had set up booths as well hoping for the senior vote.







Mom had fun watching the hula danced to Japanese music. That was a new one for me. It worked quite well since most people probably don't understand the Hawaiian words.

They know seniors love  to travel so there was a booth with Travelon items being sold.

I have a couple of their shoulder bags and love them so I don't need another bag.

However.... this was a backpack that I might love since it would keep my hands free.

It's going on my holiday wish list. You can get it a lot cheaper at Amazon.




Once we were done, Dennis and Nancy treated us to lunch at Gyotaku restaurant along with our nephew Barry and his wife, Miho who met us there.

All in all... a most wonderful day!

Anticipation of Beauty

Mom had given up on orchids since the bulbuls were constantly biting off the buds.

You can recognize bulbuls by their pointed dark colored heads and red bottoms. Mom was convinced they were taunting her and biting off the buds on purpose just to aggravate her.

The other day I saw that three of her plants were spouting buds.

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for her.

Yay! Fruit At Last!

We planted our Satsuma tangerine tree in 2013. Yes, I know we can buy a bag of them for $5 when they're in season. However, we love the idea of being able to pick a sweet fruit from our own tree.

It started out as a small tree that took off until we had to start trimming it back. We had flowers but they fell off before they had a chance to fruit. The following year they actually fruited, but fell off when they were the size of a tiny bead.

And then this year the little tangerines actually started to grow!

When we came back from our trip to Chicago, we were surprised at how big the fruit had grown. Maybe mom was singing to it or something.

We now have about a dozen fruit in different sizes!

If the birds don't get to them first or some disease or a hurricane blowing them down, we might get to taste our first fruit in a month or two.

(This is the same tangerine from different angles.)

Trouble is... we don't know when to pick it. I looked online and it said it could be yellow and be too dried out and old. It could also be yellow, sour and unripe. Then again, sometimes it could be green and be ripe and sweet.

Arrrghhhh....