Protecting a Roof in Hawaii (Spying on Neighbors?)

We live on the 2nd floor so I do have a bird's eye view of things happening around our neighborhood. Not spying necessarily... just looking.

I recently saw contractors stopping outside our neighbor's house and begin work on their roof. The roof was 95% black with Hawaiian weather gunk (mold, dust, volcanic smog?), etc.

I found it rather fascinating to watch the progress as they turned the black roof to a blinding super white.

I imagine it will reflect a lot of the hot Hawaiian sun now.

Many of the homes in Hawaii use a roofing material called Gaco although I believe that's just a brand name.

We used Gaco on part of our house. We couldn't use it on the whole house because of the pitch of the roof. You can't apply this type of protection unless your roof is pretty flat which ours wasn't.

I got this from the Discovery Roofing website:

"Acrylic coatings come in white and have reflective properties. It has the same properties as plexiglas and have been engineered for roofing applications. These roof coatings looks like acrylic house paint. Don't be deceived by its looks. The acrylic roof coatings is many times thicker than house paint. Has the ability to expand and contract. It can resist the degradation effects of UV from the sun.

Polyurethane roof coatings comes in two types: aromatic and aliphatic formulations. Urethanes have higher tensile strength than acrylic coatings. The aromatic polyurethane is cheaper than the aliphatic polyurethane coating, but does degrade faster and turns a yellowish color over time."

There's a ton of different kinds of roofing material in Hawaii. I dread the time when we'll have to reroof the house... much like I dread having to choose a new mattress. Arrrghhh...

Honolulu Queen

Art goes walking in the very early morning and often sees things I don't get to enjoy. One of them is the Night Blooming Cereus.

I got the following from Wikipedia:

Night-blooming cereus is the common name referring to a large number of flowering ceroid cacti that bloom at night. The flowers are short lived, and some of these species, such as Selenicereus grandiflorus, bloom only once a year, for a single night. Other names for one or more cacti with this habit are princess of the night, Honolulu queen (for Hylocereus undatus), Christ in the manger, dama de noche and queen of the night (which is also used for an unrelated plant species).

No kidding? Honolulu Queen? I like it. When I was a kid growing up in Waipahu there used to be a ton of these plants. I didn't pay much attention to them because they were always shriveled up by the time I saw them. I'm surprised they bloom only once a year for one night.

Maybe I should wake up early and go walking with Art before the sun comes up.

Hmmmmm....nah... I don't think so.

Mom's Favorite Restaurant: Maguro-ya

We took mom to her favorite restaurant in Kaimuki the other day.

The restaurant is called Maguro-ya. Maguro is tuna in Japanese. However, mom's all time favorite dish is their misoyaki butterfish.

We haven't been to this restaurant in about a year just because it's pretty far for us to travel to get there. In fact, we've probably only been there about half a dozen times in the last few years at best. And yet, when we started to order and said we'd all be ordering the same thing, the waitress said, "I know already. Misoyaki butterfish teishoku, right?"

We were stunned. She said, "I remember from last time."

We were super surprised. The service was excellent and we couldn't get over the friendliness of everybody there.

As you can see, it's one of Art's favorite dishes also. He ate every last bit of his butterfish lunch. What mystified us was how they could get every last bone out of that fish. We couldn't find a single bone in all three fish.

I guess we should make an effort to get over to this restaurant more often (though the butterfish price is a little steep), especially since mom loved every minute and every boneless bite.

Fish Tails

We were at the Ala Moana Shopping Center a while ago and decided to spend some time looking at the koi (carp) in their center pond area.

What a surprise to see these koi with those gorgeous fins and tails. It's the first time we've ever seen koi like these and were mesmerized watching their graceful dance across the pond.

Spoofing: Something Else to Worry About

Art found something else to worry about with our phones. It's called Spoofing.

Here's an FCC website that explains it all:

"What is spoofing and how does it work?

"Spoofing" occurs when a caller deliberately falsifies the information transmitted to your caller ID display to disguise their identity. Spoofing is often used as part of an attempt to trick someone into giving away valuable personal information so it can be used in fraudulent activity or sold illegally. U.S. law and FCC rules prohibit most types of spoofing. Caller ID lets consumers avoid unwanted phone calls by displaying caller names and phone numbers, but the caller ID feature is sometimes manipulated by spoofers who masquerade as representatives of banks, creditors, insurance companies, or even the government."

And yes, it's happened to us. Because of our 847 Chicago phone number on our cellphones, we have gotten calls using that number which makes us think a friend might be calling us from the Chicagoland area.

So it now turns out that scammers can manipulate the phone system in such a way that they can go into your phone book and mimic an actual friend. Therefore you could get a call from a scammer which shows up on your cellphone with your friend's or relative's name and phone number which would make you take the call. They can then fool you into giving out sensitive information.

Sigh...

One more thing to worry about.

Message to my Friends:
Thank you so much for your kind words. I can’t begin to tell you how grateful I am for your cheering words. I’m not completely out of the woods yet. The orthopedic surgeon tells me my arm will never be quite the same again but he’s surprised and happy at the progress I’ve made so far. Art insists that’s a challenge for me. Physical therapy continues for me . Stay well everybody and please do be careful.

Mnemonics

Art and I always have fun with the Super Quiz in the Star Advertiser.

When we got to the question of something that projects upward from the floor of a limestone cave I knew the answer right away.

Ever since we visited a cave (maybe the Carlsbad?) and were given the mnemonic that stalagmites MIGHT reach the ceiling and stalactites hang TIGHT to the top of the cave, I have not confused the two words.

What are mnemonics?
This is from the Google dictionary:
"A mnemonic (/nəˈmɒnɪk/, the first "m" is silent) device, or memory device, is any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval (remembering) in the human memory."

I'm sure everybody knows the mnemonic that reminds us how to tell principle and principal apart. Just remember that the principal of a school is always your pal.

Then there's dessert and desert. Which has one s and which has two? I remember that one because I always want two desserts, but only one desert.

Do you know any others?

Maybe we can start with something to help you spell mnemonics.

Pigs on a Walk

Whenever Art goes on a walk with his friend Morris, he texts pictures to me to let me know what he's seeing.

I've seen way too many photos of pennies, nickels and dimes that he's managed to find.

But this was a shock!  I know there's a lot of feral chickens and cats around, but pigs?

It was in the news a few months ago that they'd found an injured wallaby in Halawa. OK, if Art sees a wallaby I sure hope he gets a good picture of it.

I'm counting on him.