Status of My Broken Arm

I went to see my orthopedic doctor, Dr. G at the end of June and more X-rays were taken on my broken humerus. He told me that it was still healing after my accident in mid-May and would take several more weeks for complete healing.

He was actually surprised that I had as much mobility as I did due to my wonderful physical therapist, Stephanie at Aiea Rehabilitation Center. He warned me though that the shoulder would never be the same again and that I shouldn't press down with the arm.

For our family trip to Japan a week later I did wear the sling (most of the time), especially on trains hoping people wouldn't bump into me.

I have to make a follow-up visit to the orthopedic doctor, but now he's on vacation.

He said in June that I'd need more physical therapy but that the referral could only be made after the next follow-up visit.

Trouble is... ummmm... we have a couple more trips before the end of the year.

Sigh...

I am back at Zumba and dancing with my right arm and sometimes with my left. I think I might be able to manage tai chi, sort of.

Slowly but surely.

Conserving Hurricane Water

We were warned as Hurricane Lane approached that we needed to keep water for two weeks. That's a lot of water.

I have a huge plastic tub that I filled with water and kept in the shower to use in the toilet.

I'm rather surprised that it really is going to take us quite a while to use up all that water for the toilet. It's good to know.

I also had all this water that I filled for drinking and cooking.

Would you believe I used all of it and it still wasn't quite enough to fill our washing machine to do one load of wash?

It really made us more keenly aware of how much water we are using daily.

When Art visited our son in Mali, West Africa, they had to take a bath sharing one bucket of water. It's food for thought.

Super Orchid

When I broke my arm in May, Art's cousin, Renee brought over an orchid plant for me. It was gorgeous.

In mid June our daughter, Tiffany and family arrived and marveled that the orchid was still so beautiful.

It was still gorgeous in July. Our son-in-law even touched the leaves to see if it might actually be plastic because the flowers just didn't seem to wilt.

A couple of blooms did fall just before we left with them toward the end of July.

When we returned in mid August we were amazed to find that two flowers were still hanging on. Unbelievable!

And now here we are heading into September. Will they hang on? 

John McCain, A True Patriot

I've always respected John McCain. I loved that he wanted the political parties to work together for the common good. He gave a speech saying each party must try to win together and not on their own. He lived with honor and gave his life to public service.

I watched a segment on 60 minutes and marveled at what an even more amazing man he was. Here is a link to that program.
https://youtu.be/lLl0Gihrbi8

John McCain will be missed. We have lost a great man.

Blue Patches of Happiness

With all the fear and anxiousness gripping Hawaii these last few days, there was joy on Saturday when University of Hawaii's football team, Warriors beat Colorado State 43-34.

If that wasn't enough for Hawaii's sports fans our Little League team was able to triumph over Georgia 3-0 and become the National Champions. They were to play against South Korea on Sunday for the World Championship.

Saturday was a day of rejoicing with the hurricane dwindling down to a tropical storm and our two teams winning although we must remember that there was a lot of flooding and damage on the Big Island.

Sunday morning, the rain stopped and Art went for a walk.

He texted a photo back to me to show blue skies trying to break through.

It was a joyful sight.

Later in the day, we watched the final game of the Little League World Championship.

And oh my gosh!

They won!

I'm as happy for them as I was for the Chicago Cubs in 2016. Coincidentally, that's when Art and I were in South Korea.

What I especially loved was the boys' coach immediately coming together with the team and repeating the words, "Humble" to them.

He was reminding them to have aloha for everyone and to show good sportsmanship and kindness. It was important to be humble.

What a proud day.

Dodged the Hurricane Bullet

The evening news on Friday told us that we could relax a bit now. Hurricane Lane had been downgraded to a tropical storm. We could sort of go back to our normal lives.

Granted, I've now got a lot of water to find uses for and ummmm... lots of Pop Tarts, peanut butter, crackers, tuna, canned veggies, etc.

Hurricane season does run until November so I guess we'll keep these supplies around for a bit before donating it to the food bank.

Oh gosh! I guess we didn't have to try to finish up all our ice cream, did we?

Thank you, everyone for your kind words, prayers and thoughts. 

What a relief!

Hurricane Lane Update

Yesterday, the news showed videos of Rainbow Falls on the Big Island. It was pretty darn shocking. We've never seen the falls looking like this.

Last night we looked out the window and saw this.

Have you heard this saying? 

"Red sky at night, sailors' delight.

Red sky at morning, sailors take warning."

I was thinking the red sky last evening was a great sign, but then Art warned me that we often have colorful skies in the evening, often from the vog.

When we awoke this morning I checked on Hurricane Lane's progress. It's now been downgraded to a Category 2 Hurricane but that's still a wind speed of 110 mph. I think I saw some place that our house can withstand 60 mph. I hope that's not true. The news said the hurricane is still moving slowly toward us on Oahu and will hopefully turn west tomorrow.

Here's hoping.

For now... it's raining HARD with occasional strong gusts of winds.

UPDATE:

First they said the hurricane would hit Oahu on Thursday afternoon. Schools and other activities were cancelled for both Thursday and Friday. Then meteorologists said it would be Friday and that the hurricane was weakening from wind shear, trade winds and other variables. I just read in the paper that they're now saying it looks more like Saturday, that we could take a direct hit and a 90 degree turn away from Oahu is NOT guaranteed. It's nerve wracking.

Hurricane Prep!

OK...
Yes, I was sort of worried, but now I'm REALLY nervous.

Yesterday was pretty calm. Art and I started the day with our usual Wednesday mall walk. We then decided to walk around the house to put away loose objects that could fly about in high winds.

We turned in our recyclables to clear up our patio and then I accompanied Art on his Meals on Wheels route. He was told to inform all his clients that there might not be a meal on Friday because of the approaching Hurricane Lane.

OK... That was unnerving. Art got a message from our tai chi instructors that class was cancelled for Thursday. An email then came up that Zumba was cancelled for Friday. Schools were being cancelled for Thursday and Friday.

We went to the commissary to pick up more supplies for hurricane readiness.

I'd read that a cellphone charging bank would be a good thing to have so we bought one. It was a panic buy so we didn't get a good price and don't even know if it's a good product but we took a chance.

There was a fellow at the Navy Exchange in army fatigues who seemed to know quite a bit and he encouraged us to buy it. Quite a few people were also buying it.

We saw in weather news that peanut butter and bread was a good idea because you don't have to cook it.

When we got to the commissary, this is what we saw. No peanut butter and NO water either.

What a shock!

I've never seen it like this.

And the lines were horrendous!

I don't often buy peanut butter but now I really wanted a bottle of it.

I know. I know. I could check out other grocery stores, but I was still disappointed.

That's when I spotted a small abandoned hand basket of food items. The shopper must have decided the line was just too long.

And what do you suppose I saw in it?

Yup!

The last bottle of peanut butter.

"But I don't like crunchy peanut butter," complained Art.

"More for me," I said.

Oh... and I also bought three cans of spam. I did leave eight cans for somebody else who might want it.

I'm seeing a few neighbors boarding up their windows with plywood.

Yup... I'm really nervous now..

I just got a message from our home owners' insurance company saying they were worried about us. Sheesh! I've never gotten a message like that before!

Now I'm scared.

UPDATE (Thursday 8:15 AM): It's starting to rain.

Hurricane Lane

It's that time of year again. Hurricane Season. When we moved back here 10 years ago, we were more diligent about the hurricane warnings. We stocked up on food, water and emergency supplies.

However, since that time, we've been rather lax. After seeing the Hurricane warnings again on TV and newspaper, I checked our water supply and saw that the bottles of water had expired 2 years ago. And food... well... we didn't have anything in particular saved except a small box of Vienna sausages (expiration date: 2020).

It's sort of like the boy who cried wolf. After a while, you think it's not going to happen.

For the people of Hawaii who suffered through Hurricane Iniki in 1992, the warnings are taken very seriously as they should.

You just never know.

So this time, we did a bit of stocking up.

It's not really enough, but more than we've done before. I've also filled several empty gallon vinegar jugs full of water for the toilet, etc. and Art is cleaning out and water barrel.

We're going to do more shopping for some.... hmmmm... what do people in Hawaii stock up on, oh yes... Spam. It lasts a LONG time.



UPDATE: It's sounding scary. We're going out to buy more supplies today. They're saying the hurricane is moving closer to the islands than expected and will reach Oahu tomorrow and onto Friday.

Not Much Aloha for Chicago's Aloha Poke

While we were in Chicago this summer, we saw an article in the paper about a Chicago company copyrighting the name Aloha Poke. They actually forced other shops in Hawaii and Alaska (owned by Hawaiians) to stop using the name because they had copyrighted it for their use only.

So what is poke?

This is from Wikipedia:

Poke (Hawaiian for "to slice" or "cut crosswise into pieces"; sometimes stylized Poké to aid pronunciation) is diced raw fish served as either an appetizer or as a main course and is one of the main dishes of Native Hawaiian cuisine. Traditional forms are aku (an oily tuna) and he'e (octopus). He'e (octopus) poke is usually called by its Japanese name "Tako" Poke, except in places like the island of Ni'ihau where the Hawaiian language is spoken. Increasingly popular ahi poke is generally made with yellow fin tuna. Adaptations may feature raw salmon or various shellfish as a main ingredient served raw with the common "pok(e" seasonings.

Poke was started in Hawaii by Hawaiians and after becoming very popular in the last few years has been adapted into lots of different variations of the same theme.

I've never been a huge fan of it, but my children who were raised in the Midwest (and the rest of the family) LOVE it!

Well....

Now here comes this Chicago company saying shops in Hawaii or anywhere else cannot use the words Aloha Poke.

I didn't know how angry people in Hawaii might be but I found out when I went to the bank and saw our favorite teller. She asked where we'd been and I told her we were in Chicago visiting our daughter. She then asked if we'd heard about the Aloha Poke craziness.

Sigh...

As my son-in-law has told me. It feels rotten, but it is the law. The Chicago company did have the right to copyright the name.

I know. But it's not right. It really isn't.

Spring and Summer

We have had one of the busiest, most eventful spring and summers we've ever experienced which I will be recording in future posts. It was full of loss, travel, visiting with family and friends, injury, illness and recovery. Hopefully things will now settle down.

In a nutshell:
March-April: We were on a Viking Riverboat Rhine riverboat cruise of Germany, Hungary, Austria and the Netherlands.

May: We flew to Tokyo to attend the funeral of our dear friend, "Sam."
May: I broke my arm the day after our return from Tokyo.
June: Our daughter and family arrived in Hawaii.
June: We went to Tokyo again for 10 days with our daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter. This had been planned a couple of months before by our son-in-law.
July: We left for Illinois, spent one day there and flew out to Maryland with our daughter, Tiffany and granddaughter.
August: Tiffany wrenched her back lifting her baby nephew, Art caught a cold and we flew back to Illinois. Back in Illinois, we visited with long time friends and neighbors for a couple of weeks before going home again.

We're now hoping for a bit of time to recuperate from so much that has happened in the last few months.

And now... what to write about... where to begin...

Let Me Hold You While I May

I was showing my 11 year old granddaughter my blog and came across this post from ten years ago which I referred to again in 2011 that I would like to share with you once more.

"Elaine, my teacher friend gave this clipping to me at least 15 years ago and it's been tacked to my cork board above my desk all these years. It was printed in McCall's Magazine in September,1966. It is rather long but I'm going to type it out just because I'd like to be able to find it again if this gets lost in the move to Hawaii."

Let Me Hold You While I May

By Mary Jean Irion

The day is over; now I will sleep. It has been a normal sort of day, common like a rock along the path. Nothing about it would make one exclaim over it, as one might do with a shell or a glistening piece of quartz. It was just a rock, lying there along my way. But now, knowing that it is about to go from me forever, I hold it in my hand curiously, turning it this way and that, marking its shape and texture, weighing it on my palm. What was it really, this normal day?

It was routine, mostly....washing, ironing, a trip to the store, meals, dishes--the common denominators of women's days.

It was pleasant here and there...a letter from an old friend, my husband's telephone call for no reason, a back fence chat with my neighbor, half an hour with a good book, some loud laughs with the children at dinner time.

It was irritating now and then....a sticky ocean of spilled maple syrup, mealtime with one greedy child and one finicky one, the arrival of a bill unexpectedly high, a persistent salesman's theft of fifteen beautiful minutes.

It was deeply joyous at times... the whole house glorified with the strains of the new "Greensleeves" record; our unliterary twelve-year-old's first book (begun today, to be finished tomorrow) with its dedication--to wonder of wonders--his parents; our eight-year-old and her friend playing dress-up, painted and perfumed, scarved and veiled, clattering through the kitchen in spike heels and courtesaned innocence.

It was sobering and frightening in some ways...Mom's waning health and increasing discouragement; the big blow up after dinner about homework and learning to accept responsibility, and the guilt that followed my hasty words; The vague, huge uncertainties that draped themselves over us, cobweb-like, with the ten o'clock news from a tense and shadowed world.

It was blessed with love throughout...in a pig-shaped breadboard made and presented to me by my son; in the wave of feeling as I watched our little daughter sleeping in soft moonlight, her long lashes shadowing her cheek; in an hour alone with my husband at the end of day.

Just a normal day. A normal day! It is a jewel! In time of war, in peril of death, people have dug their hands and faces into the earth and remembered this. In time of sickness and pain, people have buried their faces in pillows and wept for this. In time of loneliness and separation, people have stretched themselves taut and waited for this. In time of hunger, homelessness, want, people have raised bony hands to the skies and stayed alive for this....

Normal Day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it will not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want more than all the world your return.

Toto Plumbing Conumbrum

For a couple of weeks our rather pricey Toto toilet kept leaking off and on (mostly on). It was driving me crazy at night although Art can sleep through anything.

There's so many electronics involved with this toilet which also has a bidet spray to really clean you thoroughly that I was hoping would last forever.  As it turns out, it's been less than two years since we've bought this toilet.

Aggravation! One night I even tied a wire cord around the whatchamacallit to make it stop dripping water.

Art looked online and discovered lots of people had similar problems but we couldn't quite figure out which caused our leak. Then one day, I had our tank filled with water and the whatchamacallit tied with the wire cord to make it stop trying to fill more water in the tank. That's when we discovered the tank had drained on its own. What the heck!

We then knew it was the flapper over the drain hole that was defective!

And of course, all this was past the 1 year warranty period.

Of course.

We went to the Toto store and found that they have a new kind of flapper now. And of course, at $15 for that one piece, it was a lot more expensive than the usual $5 to $6 flapper.

Sigh...

So yay! The toilet is fixed! Keeping my fingers crossed that nothing else goes wrong.

Owning a home is so much fun... Arrrghhh....

Making Soap Foam

I've written before about how I dilute my shampoo to be economical and to make them easier to bubble up. Here is something else that Art insisted I should try doing.

Friends had given us foaming soap this past Christmas and they ran out rather quickly. I wash my hands all the time.

Art insisted that if I put about 1/4 to 1/3 soft soap and then add water, it would foam up nicely.

I know he'd been doing this at his bathroom sink for a while so for the sake of a blog post, I thought I'd try it.

I added the Softsoap (Costco refill) into the soap foam bottle (about a third of the way) and then filled it with water. I may have added a bit too much Softsoap.

Whatever the case, it worked beautifully! I now have lots of foaming soap ready for me to use!

And yes, I had to listen to Art saying, "I told you so."

That Magical GFCI Outlet Button

One day mom called up to me that the rice cooker was no longer working in the kitchen. I also noticed that the light on one side of the kitchen wasn't working.

Doggone it! I wasn't thrilled with the idea of having to pay an electrician to come and fix this. I didn't think we'd lost power because my computer was working and probably not a fuse since other parts of the kitchen were working.

I waited until Art came home from delivering his Meals on Wheels and told him the bad news. "Did you reset the gfci button?" he asked.

Hunh?

He went over to the outlet and showed me the little red button.

He explained that we have these outlets in the kitchen and bathrooms.

I got this from the How Stuff Works website.

"That outlet is called a ground-fault circuit interrupter  (GFCI). It's there to protect people from electrical shock, so it is completely different from a fuse."

OK, so now I know. Let's hope I remember the next time something like this happens again.

California Beach Rock N' Sushi

We went out to dinner at the California Beach Rock N' Sushi restaurant near the Pearlridge Mall with friends from tai-chi and were surprised at the amazing amount of food they offered for their Early Bird Special. It cost $15 between 4:00-6:00 PM.

We'd never even heard of this place. It's a small restaurant tucked in among a bunch of other businesses.

We decided to take mom a couple of weeks later to see if she'd enjoy it as much as we did.

The Early Bird special comes with miso soup, rice, salad, tempura and a choice of sashimi or California roll and a choice of grilled salmon, teriyaki chicken or teriyaki beef.

Art opted for the salmon which was good but didn't have much flavor. Mom and I chose the teriyaki chicken which was very good. In fact, Art took a few pieces of my teriyaki chicken sauce and rubbed it over his salmon.

So did mom like it?

Oh yes! Definitely! And she ate almost the whole thing!

We went on a Tuesday afternoon around 5:00 and it was pretty empty. The server said that the early part of the week is pretty slow. The restaurant is PACKED on Friday and the weekends.

Mom was not excited about eating out before we moved back to Hawaii several years ago.

She's enjoying it quite a lot now.

Awesomesauce!!!

When we were visiting our daughter and her family a couple of years ago, I heard Tiffany using the term awesomesauce. She said it was now a commonly used phrase. I'd certainly never heard that phrase used in Hawaii before.

Well... when we were in Maryland last winter I was surprised to see this advertisement when the elevator door to our hotel closed.

I looked up awesome sauce or awesomesauce online and got this from the Urban Dictionary website.

I'm really tempted to use the phrase here in Hawaii, but I'm afraid my friends might think I'm being weird.

Have you heard the term awesomesauce used in your neighborhood?

Fixing My Dead Ball Point Pen

The Papermate Flexigrip pen has always been my favorite since my teaching days.

I guess I liked it because the grip is comfortable, I don't have to worry about a losing a cap and the ink comes out smoothly and seems to never fail...

...until now.

No matter how much I scribbled, the ink just wouldn't flow.

Then I remembered a trick someone (probably Art) taught me a long time ago.

It was something about heating the tip of the pen to melt some of the clogged, dried up ink.

It took a couple of tries, but it works now.

I looked online to find out if this was a legitimate solution and found this Lifehacker website on how to Revive Dead Ballpoint Pens.

Someone did caution not to go too "fire-happy" because you can melt the pen which would really kill it. They suggest boiling water as an alternative.

Ah well, it worked for me this time so I'm happy.

The Sweetness of a Middle Child

I have three wonderful nephews and they are each beautiful and talented in their own way.

I was pondering the question of nature vs. nurture the other day. Are children's personalities hardwired when they are born or are they taught to behave and feel a certain way.

I'm thinking it's 50/50. I do definitely think each baby comes with a certain personality that you can start seeing pretty quickly. However, I also definitely believe that experiences will shape a person.

My nephew, Barry is a case in point.

Aside from the fact that he's known to have hogged the bed as a 2 year old, he is truly one of the sweetest, kindest, most thoughtful guys I know.

One story always comes to mind.

Barry is the middle of three sons. His older brother, Shawn was born blind and eventually became a successful musician in Hawaii. Shawn is now independent, but he did need quite a bit of support as a youngster, of course.

When Barry was in kindergarten, he spent all afternoon with something clutched in his fist. It turned out that a certain cookie was part of his lunch that he knew Shawn loved. Barry held on to that cookie all afternoon until he could go home so he'd be able to give it to the brother he loved.

This certainly wasn't something he was taught or encouraged to do. It came from the heart that has always been Barry. 

I'm thinking that cookie couldn't have been very appetizing by the time Barry could present his offering to his older brother, but the sweetness of his gift still resonates with me today.

Dangerous Walks

Early in the morning, before the sun is fully up in the sky Art and his friend walk twice a week meeting up with another friend at one of their coffee breaks along the way. It's a pleasant way to get their exercise and socialize at the same time.

One morning, Art sent me a text saying that his buddy had an accident while walking.

They usually walk side by side so they can converse more easily. This time Art was walking on the street side while his friend walked on the inside.

Apparently his friend brushed his arm against the chain link fence surrounding a yard. A couple of the sharp wires were poking outward and sliced Art's friend's arm badly causing a lot of bleeding. They staunched the bleeding with napkins they had until his friend's wife could come and take him to the emergency room to get patched up and receive a tetanus booster shot.

Walking is wonderful exercise but it's not without its hazards.

POSTSCRIPT 1: We went back the following day to let the homeowner know what happened and they were really glad we told them.

Since then I've noticed that some chain link fences are made with the braided sharp ends, while others are curled in to make it safer.

It's amazing what you notice only after something  bad happens.

POSTSCRIPT 2: Several days later, Art and his buddy went for their regular walk and saw that the homeowner had made excellent improvements to insure that the fence would not cause anymore injuries to any walker. They'd even painted the edges to make it more visible.

POSTSCRIPT 3: After a week, this is what his arm looks like. It still hurts and oozes. However, we're all happy that no else should be injured from this fence. Unfortunately, there are others.

Hazardous Ice Cube

Our freezer went on the blink again! Aggravation!

Therefore I'm having to make ice the old fashioned way, in ice trays.

I then manually take out the ice and put them into the ice bank so that it can then come out of the freezer door when I need it.

The ice cubes are larger, but that's perfectly OK...

Except when I dropped one and it fell on my foot.

It hurt because the cubes are heavier, but I didn't think anything of it.

Then I looked down.

Can you believe it?

The ice actually took a bit of skin off my foot and was bleeding!

Is it because I'm older and my skin is thinning out? Sheesh?

I lived for 35 years in Illinois and never once got cut by ice. Now here I am in Hawaii and this happens.

What the heck?

Generation Z

My daughter, Tiffany told me that she was talking to 11 year old KC and mentioned how at one time the TV stations stopped broadcasting around midnight or so and they'd play the national anthem and then you'd get some sort of test pattern.

I remember seeing a test pattern like this when I was growing up.

KC was astounded. She couldn't believe you couldn't watch anything on TV after a certain time.

"Couldn't you just use your DVR? What about YouTube?" KC asked.

Tif told her she didn't even have a remote control.

Well, that really shocked KC.

Tif went on to tell her there were remotes after a while but they were attached with wires to the television. "However," she clarified, "Grandpa wouldn't buy one because he felt he had two kids who could easily walk over and change the channel." She also told KC there were no cellphones, no iPads and no laptops.

I used to surprise our kids about the things we had to do without in the "olden days." It's incredible to hear our daughter now telling her own daughter about the primitive way she had to live while growing up.

I guess we were the Baby Boomers who had to explain these things to the Generation X kids. And now they are explaining how things were to the Gen Z. I found this above graph at https://www.careerplanner.com/Career-Articles/Generations.cfm.

I wonder who gets to name each generation. Don't you wish you could be called The Greatest Generation?

Hawaiian Mochi

I have written about mochi before, but haven't really explained what it is other than to say it's a dessert made of glutinous rice which doesn't sound very exciting.

Art and I took mom to the Big Island last year and stopped by the Two Ladies Kitchen to bring home mochi.

I did ask permission to take photos for my blog. The owner was as nice and friendly as could be and insisted that I try the different types of mochi she'd created.

I'd bought four packages of different kinds of mochi and was stunned to learn when we got home that she had added an extra strawberry mochi in each box!

 

And then recently, my daughter in Illinois sent me this video she found of the ladies who own and create these awesome mochi! It makes me want to go back there again.

Pet Peeve

I'm sure there are pet peeves that are far worse, but this one really bugs me.

It's those expiration dates on OTC (Over the Counter) medicines and other food items.

I had the hardest time seeing the expiration date on this Benedryl box. Come one! Couldn't they even print it in black?

Then there's those spaghetti bottles that have the tiny black expiration dates printed over the dark surface so it's near impossible to find. Arrrghhh!

What the heck?