Another Window Leak.... Arrrghhh...

When we lived in Illinois, Art installed a window he bought from Certainteed and really liked it.

We moved to Hawaii several years later and did our home renovation. Art insisted on getting Certainteed again which our contractors supplied.

Art liked the fact that Certainteed had a lifetime warranty. Unfortunately, we later learned that the screens are not part of the warranty and in Hawaii with its salt air, they failed after a couple of years.

Then the double paned windows that contain some kind of gas started leaking about three years ago. When we called to get it fixed, we learned that Certainteed had been bought out by Plygem. After a length of time they did come and fix it.

Now we have three more windows that have started leaking and are discoloring. It took four calls before I finally got a hold of them. They said they didn't have a contractor in Hawaii yet who could take care of it so it would be a long wait.

A couple of years ago, we gave up on a mainland company and chose Windows Hawaii which is located right here on Oahu.

Granted two of their windows have had spring problems, but it took just one call and within three days Windows Hawaii came to fix it with a smile.

I'm really thinking we need to stick to Hawaii companies who are more responsive. They KNOW that word of mouth in Hawaii can kill a business and work hard to keep customers happy.

So far, we're quite pleased with Windows Hawaii.

We're still waiting for Plygem who I called two weeks ago. I hope we hear from them.

Easier Safety Check

Hawaii has a different system to register your car/van every year. In Illinois, we had to take our car to a certain location and have it checked for vehicle emissions. I think they attached something to the exhaust and made sure you weren't polluting the air. It was free.

Not so in Hawaii. Here you have to bring your car in to a service station to have a safety check. They check everything. One year we had to replace a cracked back light on our van. Our van is 15 years old and that was the first time we had to do something in order to get the OK to drive the van.

We first had to go to the City and County office to pay our registration fee, then head out to Jiffy Lube to get the safety check. Wouldn't you know it? The safety check person wasn't there so we had to go home and come back another day after calling first to make sure he was in.

When we got there we saw a long, long line and were told the wait would be 3-4 hours long. Arrrghhh! Are you kidding me?

Our friend, Dave had just mentioned another place that he goes to so we looked it up and went there. The price of the safety check is the same no matter where you go.

The woman there said the wait would be about 45 minutes and we could just walk over to the shopping area or go to Zippy's for lunch.

At Jiffy Lube, we had to wait in a cramped and crowded waiting room for a long, long time.

We decided to just walk across the street to Zippy's, grab lunch and then walk up the street and do some shopping.

Soooooo much better!

If it's one thing we've learned about Hawaii, you have to ask friends for the best places to go for everything! So much here is word of mouth.

Our van? It passed. No problem!

Third Trip to ER in 14 Months!

March, 2016: Mom fell backwards at the Democratic Preference Poll and hit her head. We went to the Kaiser Emergency Room and had her head scanned. She had a headache for a while, but was OK.

February, 2017: Mom tripped and hurt her foot. She could hardly walk. Back to the ER. She didn't break anything. Strong painkillers and she was OK.

May, 2017: Third trip to the ER. Mom was taking laundry down and somehow in the process of reaching up suddenly fell backwards onto her back and head.

CT Scan, painkillers and she's OK.

That's three trips to the ER in 14 months!

This is getting rather worrisome.

We've all heard how falling is one of the most critical worries for the elderly. I'm truly seeing that. I guess that's why I'm so exhausted when we take mom out. I'm constantly warning her about irregular levels on the ground. I even tripped once while worrying about her.

And yet, the last two falls happened at home. We've replaced the rugs in her room which we didn't think were safe. She stubbornly refused to allow us to change them for a safer solution until we quietly got rid of them and replaced them with new rubber bottom ones (while she wasn't looking) saying, "Happy Mother's Day!" It wasn't Mother's Day at the time, but she could only accept them and be happy. She admits now that they are so much nicer.... and safer.

But how do we even out all the pitfalls on the outside of the house? She loves to tend to the garden and yard. It's so hard.

Omiyamairi

When my nephew, Barry's wife became pregnant we all rejoiced at the good news. Miho is from Japan and they decided to have a Shinto blessing with an Anzan Kigan ceremony in hopes of having a safe and easy delivery. The priest laughingly predicted that they would have a boy. Happily, Miho's delivery was indeed easy and they welcomed a beautiful, healthy baby girl into the family. We were all overjoyed.

This past Saturday, we were then invited to a Omiyamairi which is a traditional rite of passage for newborns.

Wikipedia:

Miyamairi (宮参り, literally "shrine visit") is a traditional Shinto rite of passage in Japan for newborns. Approximately one month after birth (31 days for boys and 33 days for girls, parents and grandparents bring the child to a Shinto shrine, to express gratitude to the deities for the birth of a baby and have a shrine priest pray for his or her health and happiness. The practice is not dissimilar to a Christian infant baptism.

Today, most Miyamairi are practiced between one month and 100 days after birth. 

Miho's family had come all the way from Japan to attend the ceremony. Mom, my brother, Dennis, Art and I had met them when we visited Japan several years ago. It was wonderful to see them again and have them over for dinner.

In the above photo the priest is blessing and purifying everyone with a white onusa.

My sister-in-law then held her granddaughter while the priest painted a black dot on the baby's fontanel (soft spot on top of the baby's head). It reminded me of pouring a little water on a baby's head at a Christian christening.

We then all took turns bowing before the altar, clapping our hands four times and offering a prayer.

The ceremony closed with everyone having a sip of sake.

Art was more prepared this time and didn't gasp when he sipped on the sake. He was expecting it to be tea when we went to the Anzan Kigan last year.

The priest thought it was hilarious.

Art noted that this time I took the sake all in one swallow whereas he did it more ceremoniously by taking several sips.

Very funny.

I wonder if there will be another Shinto ceremony for us to attend as my grandniece grows up. I'll be sure to sip delicately next time.

And no, I didn't tell the priest that he guessed wrong about the baby's gender last year.

Fitbit Failing Fast

My Fitbit Charge HR is about 1.5 years old. I use it everyday. I'm addicted to finding out if I've made my 10,000 steps, climbed 10 flights of stairs, burned 1,500 calories and slept 8 hours. I do most of them about 70% of the time. OK, maybe 65%. Whatever.  I can almost never get 8 hours though. I'm lucky if I get 6.5 hours. It also buzzes to remind me that it's time to take my meds or test my glucose.

I wear it so much that I have a white untanned stripe across my left wrist. And now look what's happened.

The rubber wrist band is separating from the plastic face. Arrrghhh...

I just wrote to Fitbit asking them what kind of glue I should use to repair this. I'll let you know what they say. When I looked on the Fitbit Help Forum, it appears a lot of Fitbit Charge HR owners have had this problem and I can't get a definitive answer on what kind of glue is best to use. We shall see.

OK... I got a reply from Fitbit. They said it's not a good idea to glue it back because it could damage some of the parts and it'll probably come apart again anyway. Instead, they offered me a 25% discount on any other Fitbit product.

I'm thinking about it.

POSTSCRIPT 1: My Fitbit Charge HR is now being really, really goofy. The time was an hour off today and yesterday it said I'd gone up 22 stairs. Then it showed this on the screen. What the heck is that supposed to be?

POSTSCRIPT 2: Well, it just died. Kaputz! That symbol must have been counting down its slow death.

Sigh... I just ordered the Charge 2 after all. They don't sell the Charge HR anymore (which is a good thing since it doesn't last long), but I really need something to motivate me. Let's hope the Charge 2 lasts longer than the 1 1/2 years this one did.

Is It White Enough?

I'm still wandering around my house looking for something to post.

OK... Here's something.

I was getting a little self conscious because I felt my teeth were getting very dingy and yellowish. When I brushed my teeth, the contrast between the white toothpaste and my teeth was a little disconcerting.

I asked the hygienist and dentist what I should do. I thought she would offer professional dental whitening. I'd heard it could cost several hundred dollars.

Instead, she said to get Crest Whitestrips.

I asked whether fillings in my front teeth would show up. She said yes so as soon as that happens, I should stop using the strips.

What about sensitivity? She said it's possible that my teeth could become sensitive. So again, if that starts to happen, stop.

I should have taken a before and after photo, but I didn't think I would write about this so I didn't.

At the top is a photo that Art took of me last month which I enlarged. The bottom is one Art took after 10 treatments last week.

I'm going to stop.... maybe.

My teeth did get a little sensitive at one point and I stopped for a day and it's been fine.

I've got 10 more treatments left and Art says he might do it. Maybe.

The strips are expensive, anywhere from $30- $60 for different options. I chose the cheapest one. Perhaps I should have waited for a coupon. Ah well... I'm satisfied. This is good enough for me.

POSTSCRIPT:   Please remember that these two photos were taken at different times, in different lighting, etc. The conditions are different so it's not absolutely accurate.

Shampoo Savings

You know I'm having difficulty finding something to write about when I wander around the house staring at things.

This time my eyes alighted on my shampoo bottle.

I used to wash my hair everyday. Then I read somewhere that you shouldn't wash your hair so often because you're drying out your hair by removing natural oils that are actually good for your scalp and hair.

I looked on WebMD and got this:

"The experts agree: Only a small group needs to shampoo daily, like those with very fine hair, someone who exercises a lot (and sweats), or someone living in a very humid place, Goh says.
“If you have oily scalp, then daily washing is needed,” she explains. “Sometimes, people think they have dry scalp because they have dandruff, but in those situations, more frequent washing is also helpful.”

On the other hand this also popped up on WebMD.

"A good benchmark for hair washing should be twice a week or when you feel your hair needs it," says top hair consultant Scott Cornwall.

Then they quoted someone else in the same article that said since you wash the rest of your body daily, why not your hair?

Arrghhh...

So I wash my hair about every three days and I have found it doesn't get as oily as quickly anymore. Also I've been diluting my shampoo with 1 part water/1part shampoo.

The nice thing is I find it lathers up much faster and you use a lot less shampoo. It also washes out faster.

Art scoffed at this initially, but he's started to dilute his shampoo a little now too. He does wash his hair everyday.

How often do you shampoo your hair?

Childhood Mystery Solved!

One morning, Art asked me if my brother and I went barefoot to school when we were little just as he did on the Big Island.

I could remember running barefoot around our sugar cane plantation housing some sixty years ago, but did I actually go barefoot to school? I didn't think so.

I do remember sometime in 7th grade when there was a change in our elementary school (no middle school then) dress code. Suddenly shoes were required attire. I believe we liked to sometimes wear slippers (flip flops) before that time.

Since my memory is so poor, I had to ask my brother, Dennis.

And yes, of course he remembered.

To my surprise, he said he knew exactly why shoes were suddenly required of all students. Prior to that time, we did go to school with either slippers or barefoot (just as I remembered).

It seems he and his friends were playing on the school playground and one of his classmates who was wearing slippers tripped over a tree root, fractured his skull and had to be taken to the hospital. From that point on, unhappily, everybody had to wear shoes.

So now I know the rest of the story.

Interestingly, I never see children running around the neighborhood barefoot anymore.

...By Any Other Name?

I saw an article on the AARP website about names that are going extinct according to BabyCenter. BabyCenter has a database of 300,000 parents to check on popular and unpopular names.

According to them nobody in 2017 has registered the following names. BabyCenter is a British group, but they think it's the same in the U.S.

Angela, Bertram, Beverly, Carol, Cecil, Clarence, Clive, Cyril, Debra, Diane, Donna, Dean, Doris, Dennis, Derek, Duncan, Elaine, Ernest, Geoffrey, Horace, Joanne, Leonard, Maureen, Malcolm, Nigel, Neville, Paula, Roy, Sally, Sandra, Sharon, Sheila, Tracey, Wendy, Yvonne, Wayne

In 2016 the most popular names were: Sophia, Emma, Olivia, Ava and Mia, while the most popular boys’ names were Jackson, Aiden, Lucas, Liam and Noah.

I really think Hawaii should have it's own database because I've seen children's names at the recreation center where I go for Zumba. I KNOW they're not names or spellings you'd find on the mainland.

I know my granddaughter's friends are named Sophia, Olivia, Ava so that seems to be the pattern. I would think Kay should also be on the extinct names along with Dennis (brother) or Arthur (husband).  Oh my gosh! I just noticed my friends, Carol(e), Diane, Joanne, Sandra, Sharon and Yvonne are also on the extinct list.

Hermione is a super old name that was probably extinct. I wonder if anybody named their child Hermione after the Harry Potter series became popular.

I never liked Kay because I couldn't do anything with it. Nobody could shorten or make it more fun. My brother was called Denny or Danny or even Danny Boy at one time. But me? Always Kay. Why couldn't I have been Katherine? You can do all sorts of things with Katherine. You can even shorten it to Kay.

Then I met Art's only sister who is also Kay! My mother-in-law used to call me Kay Dear so much that Art's cousins started to call me that. And now I have some blogger friends named Kay. So it's OK.

If you could change your name, what would you pick?

The Inner Eye?

When we took mom to the ophthalmologist a couple weeks ago, we discovered swelling in her retina and a little more bleeding. They tested her eye sight with the letter chart and I was surprised at how little she could see. Even without my glasses, I could see that she really didn't know what the letters were. Her near vision wasn't great either. She's also got only about a third of her vision on her left eye. The damage from the retinal occlusion is irreversible.

What really mystifies Art, my brother and me is how she's able to write so well if she can't see well.

We finished the Big Island photobook recently. As always we asked mom to add her input so that she'd always remember what we did in her own words.

And here's what she wrote in tiny characters which my brother decorated on PhotoShop.

I have no idea what she wrote but we sent a copy by Dropbox to Art's college friend in Tokyo and "Sam" said he often needs a dictionary of kanji to read mom's descriptions. He says she writes like a teacher that she used to be and that most young people no longer know the kanji she uses because of computers.

It blows me away every time I see her writing. It's so beautiful and uniform.

It must be some inner eye in her brain that allows her to continue writing like this.

I did not inherit her fine motor skills. It all went to my brother.

I did become a teacher though.

Starting the Morning With a Laugh

Mom was walking through the kitchen when I noticed something that made me laugh out loud. Mom looked at me quizzically. Art then looked up from his morning newspaper, saw mom and chuckled too.

"What?" asked mom.

Art took her by the shoulders and gently guided her to a mirror. What she saw had her laughing uproariously. The neighbors must have wondered what was going on.

Mom uses and washes the Swiffer mop cloth everyday. Yesterday, she dropped the clean cloth onto her visor. When she put the visor on this morning before going out to do her gardening, she didn't notice the cloth and put the whole thing on her head.

And all this got me thinking. I wrote a post last week about a new visor/hat that I'd ordered for myself.

I'd shown it to my Zumba buddies who all promptly got onto Amazon and ordered one for themselves.

I should get a commission.

This visor is much lighter weight than the white cotton one she uses and covers more of her face. I don't know about the quality, but it seems durable enough for now.

I found mom outside and had her try my visor/hat on.

Mom loved the lighter feel of it. Summer is coming and she's out in the sun a lot in the morning.

Art smiled and said, "Looks like you're going to have to order another one for yourself."

Going, Going, Gone

Art and I took a tour to Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and continued on to Bangladesh on our own in March, 2015. While in Thailand we rode on an elephant and bought the photo they took.

We'd been surprised to see the photo slowly disappearing so we scanned it, restored it on Photoshop and printed it at Costco. Then I kept the Thailand photo to see how much it would fade. I took the above photo in March, 2016 one year after the trip.

I kept the fading Thailand photo just to see what would happen.

Here is the Costco photo in the frame and the photo we bought in Thailand today. Isn't it amazing? The image totally disappeared. I wonder if they just forgot to put some sort of finishing chemical on our photo.

Whatever the case, if we ever buy a photo overseas again I will scan it right away before I file it. Hmmm.... I think I can throw the nonexistent photo away now. 

Blog Influence

We are truly a blog related family. Everybody who reads and responds to a blog connects themselves and influences or is influenced by it.

Recently, California Linda wrote to me and another Hawaii blogger friend, Jalna that she'd found a great vest at the Eddie Bauer Outlet store.

Linda had seen a wonderful vest on another blogger site and thought we might be interested.

I wasn't at first.

I already have two vests. One REI vest is a heavier fleece and a little small on me. The four pockets can't fit much other than my airline tickets.

This other one is lighter weight and also has four pockets, but also can't hold all that much.


Sooooo.... here I was not even thinking about getting another vest for travel and I started looking online for another one. Nothing jumped out at me. Either they didn't have it in my size, didn't have good inside pockets, were crazy expensive or whatever.

And then...

This TravelSmith vest called out to me. It has 15 pockets!!! Seriously? 15!?!?!

The charcoal gray color that I would have chosen was $84, but this one in dark indigo was on sale for $69. I can live with indigo, I think. It looks gray doesn't it?

"Go ahead," said Art. "Happy Mother's Day!"

I still didn't want to spend that much. Then I saw where it asked for a promo code? Promo code? Suddenly I remembered my daughter telling me something about looking online for promo codes. I googled TravelSmith promo code and BINGO! There was a 20% Off Any Order promo code. I could hardly believe it. It brought the price down to $55.20! Granted there was a $9.99 shipping charge to Hawaii, but ah well...

It wasn't over though. I had to choose the size! What to do. Sigh. My chest is a S (Small) according to the size chart, but my waist was a M (Medium). Art suggested the M since it might give me more room on the inside pockets. The M could probably fit him too since it looks gender neutral.

And then Art reminded me of the time we were traveling someplace in Europe a long time ago and I'd put my boarding ticket in my dress pocket. I was following him onto a small plane when I panicked and couldn't find my ticket! I had too many pockets! I searched all my winter coat pockets before realizing I'd stuck the ticket into my dress pocket where I could find it easily. Arrrrghhh! Art had already boarded the plane not realizing I was still outside searching for it.

OK... 15 pockets, hunh? Hmmmm...

Let's hope I don't regret this.

POSTSCRIPT: 

Sigh... It arrived AND as I feared, it was too big around the chest. When I'd called them earlier about their return policy, the woman told me that it was FREE shipping for exchanges and that the return shipping label would already be in the package with the vest.

However, I found on the label that came with the vest, that it's free ONLY in the 48 contiguous states. Arrrghhh! I had to pay for postage to send it back, but they'll do the free shipping to send me the exchange.

Well... I hope the Smaller vest will fit or it will have been a disappointment. I don't think I'll buy from Travelsmith again.

My New Hat

OK... I've mentioned before that Art collects t-shirts. Whenever we travel to a new place, he buys a t-shirt. Although I've teased him about it, he says they're all functional because he wears them. And in Hawaii, t-shirts are pretty much all he wears.

Me, on the other hand; I collect hats. It's one of my vices. After moving to Hawaii I discovered that unless I apply liberal sunblock or stay in the shade, I get a dark ring under my eyes. I started to look almost like a raccoon when we moved back to Hawaii.

I liked hats for travel before, but after we moved back to Hawaii, I really got into big brimmed hats because the tropical sun is brutal. The problem is I'm always looking for the PERFECT hat.

Right now, the perfect hat for me is made by Wallaroo. Here are mom and me at the Foster Gardens. She's wearing one of my older hats before I got into Wallaroo.

One day, my friend, Diane mentioned that she doesn't like to wear hats because they made her head hot. Mom complains of the same thing and sometimes switches to a visor.

That got me thinking that a visor might be a wonderful thing since it might keep my head cooler, but I could never find something that had a wide enough brim.

That was when my friend, Pat suggested I search Amazon for golf hats. She was right, I found a visor with a wide brim.

The cool thing is the top of the hat can be zipped on or off.

Some reviews complained that it was too light, flimsy and could blow off.  However, for $12 I figured I'd give it a try.

The brim is a little weird. It's got channels filled with what feels like bamboo or wire.

I sent photos by text to my daughter.

She warned me that visors weren't the best thing for Asian women because our dark hair absorbs the heat of the sun and makes our head hot.

Arrrrghhh....

Ah well... I'll see how hot my head gets.

I'm sure Art is laughing at me, but he's still got a gazillion more t-shirts than I do hats! And no, I don't have all that many hats! Souvenir mugs on the other hand?.....

Our First Town Hall Meeting

We received a notice in the mail that there was going to be a Town Hall Meeting with the governor of Hawaii, David Ige. Neither Art nor I have ever been to a town hall meeting that we could remember. I told Art we should go. He laughed saying I was never very interested in politics until #45 got elected. He also gave me a knowing smile smirk remarking, "You need another blog post, hunh?"

We went early because Art was afraid parking was going to be difficult.

Ummm....

We arrived a half hour early and the cafeteria was empty. We had great parking though.

I was figuring nobody would come since Hawaii is known for having the lowest voting record. I thought people here were pretty apathetic.

But nope.

The cafeteria soon started filling up.

Governor Ige appears to be a rather mellow fellow. He speaks with a local accent and isn't flashy or particularly animated.

I thought it was only me that thought that and didn't want to give the impression it was because having lived on the mainland for 35 years, I was looking down on the local dialect. However, when I mentioned it to my friends here, they admitted that they felt the same way.

Yes, he does speak with a local accent, but what a surprise!

Local people in Hawaii are not apathetic. They had a ton of questions and Governor Ige answered each question carefully and knowledgeably calling on other department heads when a specific question required their input. We were very impressed. He knew his stuff thoroughly!

Oh yes, we had several questions too.

I asked what the deal was with Beth Fukumoto not being graciously accepted into the Democratic Party after being kicked out of power by the Republican heads in the state House of Representatives after she cited sexism and racism by their party and participated in the Women's March in January. Governor Ige said there are factions in the Democratic party as well and some get highlighted in the news. However, he assured us that the Democratic Party has a "large tent" of acceptance, with many different views which deserve a hearing.

OK... That was good.

Questions asked and answered covered rail funding, traffic, homeless problem, health coverage under the Trump administration, hurricane relief funding, National Guard deployment, safety of being a sanctuary city, safety in the event of bombing by North Korea, what roads are to be paved, Kupuna (older people) caregivers law, etc.

Governor Ige said that Hawaii is fortunate in being #1 in the US in life longevity. Our Prepaid Health Care Law is one of the best in the US at 6.7% uninsured, coming in second only to Massachusetts that has only 3.7% uninsured.

The following day, our friends told us to check Governor Ige's Facebook site. Yikes! There we are! What is Art doing? Would you believe he was fact checking everything that was being said?

All in all, we were very glad we went to the town hall meeting. I think more people should go and listen to our representatives and senators.

I came away feeling relieved with our leadership. We may not have agreed with everything he's done, but we're glad to know he's got a strong handle on what needs his attention.

National Nurses Week!

Art and I went to Tripler Hospital yesterday. As we entered the  hospital we noticed this huge banner above the entrance way.

It's NATIONAL NURSES WEEK! Yay for nurses! I have been grateful for every one of them. They are truly the patient advocates and are usually overworked and stressed. They have made a strong impact on my life.

The one nurse who I still remember fondly is Jeanne. I won't post her last name to keep her privacy. I had just given birth in the elevator of Great Lakes Naval Hospital. It was almost midnight and although Art informed the corpsmen of the urgency at the emergency entrance, they simply gave him a wheelchair and directed him to take me up by himself. Things have improved dramatically in the years following those days.

Whatever the case... my son was born in the elevator and Art delivered him. When we got out of the elevator a corpsman came strolling up to us. When he saw us, he ran in the other direction and we could only follow slowly.

That's when nurse Jeanne came rushing up to us. She immediately took over. She took our newborn son and suctioned his nose and did whatever needed to be done. She kept marveling at how calm we were. That's when they asked Art what my middle name was and he had to think. Jeanne laughed and said, "Aha! You're normal after all. I was wondering how you could both be so calm." Frankly, I think we were in shock.

I was taken to the operating room. The doctor who arrived was brusque and unhappy about having to be summoned after midnight and began stitching me up without any anesthetic. I tried my Lamaze breathing to stifle the pain. Jeanne held tightly on to my hand until she finally couldn't stand it and yelled at the doctor, "What are you trying to do? Kill her?" I was shocked and so grateful.

Things went better after that and she didn't leave my side until I was comfortably settled in the maternity ward.

A couple of days later, Art brought a baby book for our son and we asked Jeanne to sign it. She was like my guardian angel at the hospital and I'll never forget her.

I have several friends and relatives who are nurses. You know who you are. I'd just like you to know how much you are all appreciated. Thank you from all of us.

My nephew is now studying to be a nurse and I know for a fact that he will be one of the best nurses this island will ever see. Nurse Jeanne would be proud of him.

POSTSCRIPT: Oops! It's also National Teacher Appreciation Week! Yay!

Alien Creature Staring At Me

When my son, Keola, daughter-in-law and grandson, JD came to visit this past December one of the gifts they brought us was the 2017 calendar that they had JD choose for us.

We usually pick flowers or gardens for the kitchen so we were wondering what 1.5 year old  JD would choose.

We had to smile when we unwrapped the calendar. Keola and Sarah have taken JD to the Washington D.C. Zoo and enjoyed seeing the pandas. JD has also inherited the panda teddy bear that used to belong to his father. I guess it's not surprising that he would choose this particular calendar.

Every month we've been seeing these rather awesome animals with different expressions staring out at us. April's tiger seemed to look out knowingly at me as though admonishing me to cut out more of the carbs on my plate.

May was a surprise. I thought it was a made up animal at first, but gracious! It's an actual amphibian called an axolotl. Doesn't it look like some kind of alien? It's sometimes called a Mexican walking fish. Apparently, they're sometimes kept as pets.

I think May's amphibian has a different expression. I think it's saying, "It's OK to have a little ice cream. I won't tell."

Most Hated Movie!

Art and I were talking about movies we hated the most.

The movie I've hated seeing most was Stanley Kubrick's Clockwork Orange. There was a particular rape scene in it that disgusted me and the movie itself was about rampant violence and evil. I remember even having a nightmare after seeing it.

The movie that Art didn't like was Soldier Blue. I remember seeing it too. The graphic violence in it was absolutely horrible. It was a message movie showing the horrors done to the Native Americans. I know it was an important message movie, but I think I must have had my eyes closed for much of the time.

I wonder if it was because of those movies that my movie choices thereafter all had happy endings and were lighter, fun theater experiences. I don't enjoy going to a movie to see horror, cruelty and evil. I think I see enough of that in the world news.

What movie have you hated the most?

Tying Up Loose Laces

A while ago, Patti of The New Sixty wrote about a study on why shoelaces come untied. I mentioned it to Art and he reminded me of the shoe salesman in Illinois who taught us how to tie laces so they don't come untied.

Art insisted I should do a blog about it.  I told him it would be too difficult to explain how to tie it the way the salesman showed us.

So... he got his shoe and told me I should take photos of the steps. I did and he quickly agreed that it was too hard to show and explain.

So what's the best thing to do?

Look it up online, of course!

I discovered that there are a ton of ways to tie your shoelaces. Who knew?

Ian, that's who. Ian has a blog site called Ian's Shoelace Site. He's got 18 different ways to tie shoelaces!

And wouldn't you know he's got the exact method the shoe salesman showed us? It's called the Surgeon's Shoelace Knot, Tibetan Trekking Knot or Sherpa Knot. The most wonderful thing is that Ian's diagrams show you clearly how to do it.

Art says he always ties his shoes that way when he goes running and it never comes loose.

And the nice thing is that when you pull the ends of the laces, it comes apart just like when I tie it the usual way. Granted, my usual way might not be your usual way since I now know there are 18 different ways to tie your shoelaces.

Message to my grandson:

Happy Boys Day, Sweetie Pie!

Someday grandpa and I will show you how to tie your shoelaces too.

A Spoonful of Sugar...

"You don't need to make an appointment at the eye doctor for me," mom insisted.

"Too late," I told her. "It's time for your check up to make sure your eyes are OK."

"What for?"  she insisted. "My eyes have been fine. I'm old now. There's no need to go to the doctor. It is what it is. My eyes can never get better since I got the hemorrhage after my sister passed away. I don't want you and Art to go through so much trouble."

At the ophthalmologist's office a photo was taken of the back of her eye. I stood behind the technician's monitor and saw right away that there was probably a problem. I could see the swelling, but hoped I was wrong.

The doctor came in and gave us the bad news that there was swelling and he could see some bleeding too.

She would need another injection into her eye. I explained it to mom and she agreed to have the procedure.

The doctor confirmed that this might have happened because her younger sister, Dorothy was now not in good health and the stress of that worry probably raised mom's blood pressure which caused this to happen again.

I asked the doctor if this could be hereditary. Should my brother or I worry about having this happen to us too. He said it's possible with age. Sigh... Anything is possible with age, I'm afraid.

Luckily, mom said the shot didn't hurt much this time and she was quite happy.

We stopped by at McDonalds on the way home to get mom a little chocolate sundae.

She was thrilled!

It's amazing how a little sweetness can brighten a cloudy day.

Thoughtless? Lazy? Inconsiderate?

We were out doing some quick shopping at Sam's Club on Sunday and decided to grab a hot dog and salad which we shared. We were impressed with the large chicken Caesar salad for just $3.99. Even though we were eating quite late at a little past1:00, the eating area was full of people chatting and having a good time.

I did notice the two young fellows who were sitting down the bench from us eating their lunch and talking amiably across from each other.

When they left, Art pointed to their area. What I saw surprised me. It's the first time I've seen anybody just leave their trash on the table. Did they seriously think there were waiters at Sam's Club who were going to clean up after them?

We noticed other people as we were leaving staring at their mess and avoiding it. Another couple looked at it and sat in the spot we'd just vacated since we left it spotless.

I 'm just shaking my head thinking about this.

Blog Ranking?

I don't know what led me to looking up my url online, but when I did... I found this.

Isn't this a hoot?  Wow! I'm ranked 1,874,469 in the blogging world. Too funny! AND on top of that, my blog worth $1,438.80. Woo hoo!

I'm surprised that most of my visitors are from India. Wouldn't you assume it would be the US?

What's even more surprising is that they'd be able to get this information when I've got my Blogspot settings set to hide from search engines. You have to know my url to find my blog. I've had friends who lost my link and they have to ask me for my url address to get back to visiting again. I did this because my kids were nervous about me being too visible.

Once you're in cyberspace though, people will find you no matter what. That's OK... I'm not worth much anyway.

POSTSCRIPT:
Several people have asked me how I got the ranking. I used my Chrome browser and couldn't find it when I searched my url. I had to use the search on Firefox.

The site is called URLmetrics. And here's the link. http://urlm.co/

Have fun!

Knowing Which Way the Wind Blows

The other morning I was in the kitchen and heard the downpour. I looked out the mauka (mountain side) window and it was dark and stormy.  Oh well... I could see it was not to be a laundry day.

Then I went upstairs to my office and looked out onto the makai side (ocean) of the island.

What the heck?!?

I decided to do the laundry.

Art said I should check the weather app. I did and it said, "Mostly sunny."

I decided to do the laundry.

"Look out the window at the neighbor's windsock," said Art as he rolled his eyes. "Notice which way the wind is blowing?"

Dang! It's blowing mauka to makai. That means the clouds and rain are coming from the mountains to the sea. Arrrghhhh!

Too late! I already put the laundry in. Maybe, by the time it's done, the clouds will have gone past.

Maybe.