A Trusted Contact?

 My daughter works for a small investment firm and came across a problem with an elderly client.

Tif recommended that we set up a "trusted contact" for our accounts. (Not sure yet if this is for banks or whatever.) We thought having our children and grandchildren listed as beneficiaries was good enough, but apparently there's also something (a form to fill out) called "trusted contacts" for any investment firm you use. This is on top of Power of Attorney. Sheesh!

I got this from the Charles Schwab website.

What is a trusted contact?

A trusted contact is someone who can: 

• Confirm your current contact information
• Confirm your health status
• Confirm the contact information for other authorized parties
• Discuss urgent, unusual account activity or other possible red flags

It's important to note that trusted contacts are unable to act on your behalf, execute transactions, or engage in account activity unless they're already an authorized party on your account.

What are the benefits of having a trusted contact?

While you may not be required to have a trusted contact, establishing one may help your financial firm move more quickly and decisively when addressing suspected fraudulent activity. You may already have a power of attorney or spouse listed on your account, but a trusted contact provides an additional resource to reach out to if an issue arises.

Generally speaking, it would be a trusted family member. Luckily, we do have a number of trusted family members, but we'll stick to our daughter and son since they generally know where we are. I hope they don't mind this silly photo I just posted.

Ah well...  I thought I'd share this just in case.

Only in America and Why?

We were sent the following chuckles from our tai chi communications director. 

Limit all US politicians to two terms:      

- One in office  

- One in prison

Apparently, Illinois already does this, and it seems to work for them!  

Kay: We lived in Illinois from 1974 until 2008. In that time 3 of Illinois' governors were indicted and sent to jail. Daniel Walker, George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich  🙄

     

Only in America ... do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.  

  

Only in America ... do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and a diet coke.  

  

Only in America ... do banks leave vault doors open and then chain the pens to the counters.  

Only in America ... do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.  

    

Only in America ... do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.  

   

Only in America ... do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering.  

 

And here are just some things to think about:

Why does the sun lighten our hair, but darkens our skin?  

 

Why can't women put on mascara with their mouth closed?

   

Why don't you ever see the headline 'Psychic Wins Lottery'?  

   

Why is 'abbreviated' such a long word?  

   

Why is it that doctors call what they do 'practice'?  

   

Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dish washing liquid made with   real lemons?  

   

Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?

   

Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?  

   

Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food?  

   

Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?  

   

Why do they   sterilize the needle for lethal injections?  

   

You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes?  Why don't they   make the entire plane out of that stuff?  

  

Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?

 

If con is the opposite of pro... is Congress the opposite of progress?

 

If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?

 

Kay: Have a very happy, safe weekend, everybody!

Falling Safely (As Possible)

Good friends of ours mentioned how they'd gone to a series of Aikido Safe Falling Classes. There was a demonstration at our local library so we went to see it.

The fellow giving the talk said they were all volunteers teaching kupuna (Hawaiian for grandparent, ancestor or honored elder) how to minimize injury from a fall. He demonstrated how to roll and avoid hitting your head, hip or boney areas.

Since I've taken several falls and several of my friends have also had some very nasty falls it seemed like a good idea. I've broken my foot and my shoulder. 

Still...I wondered if it was possible to learn how to fall when it happens so quickly that you often don't have time to think.

Art and I decided to take the class and find out.

We've had several sessions now and we've learned to make it instinctual to tuck your head when you're falling and to spread your arm out to cushion your head. It is VERY important to protect your head.

One of our teachers is a professional stunt person as well as a martial arts expert. 

We've been falling onto the mat during our lessons over and over.

Another thing they stress is DHS. 

If you fall, you should not let people get you up immediately. You need to ask yourself, "Am I Dizzy? Am I Hurt? Do I feel Strange. This is to prevent further injury.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that when I fall again (and I'm afraid it will probably happen someday) I will remember what they're teaching us.

Going to the Movie Theater for the First Time in 2+ Years!

About three years ago, several members in our family gave us very generous gift certificates to Regal and Consolidated Theaters. We were looking forward to seeing some movies but then COVID hit and we were MUCH too nervous to go anywhere a lot of people might congregate. Besides, you'd have to take off your mask to eat the popcorn which is half the reason for going to the theater to see a movie.

However, then my brother and sister-in-law went to see a movie a while ago. Then our friends went. And then we heard that several Regal Theaters had closed. Uh oh... We needed to use our gift certificates! 😲

They'd all gone to see Avatar. My brother and sister-in-law weren’t impressed with Avatar. They felt it was more of the same sort of plot as the first one (which I can hardly remember anyway). But then our good friend said he loved it.

Art loves science fiction so we decided to risk it.

We chose a Tuesday when kids would be in school. There's a whole routine to our going to a movie. We brought our extra shirts in case the theater was too cold. We planned to get the largest popcorn size that would allow us to get a refill to take home.

Although there were a number of people there, it wasn't crowded. We wore our masks although we saw that most people don't wear them anymore.

The friendly girl at the refreshment counter even gave us a box to put the overflow of popcorn into it, making it easier for us to share during the movie. We also got one drink and one hot dog to share. This would be our lunch.

When we entered the theater where Avatar was playing we saw only two people there. Another couple came in later, but that was it. Just 6 people in the entire place. And then the two ladies behind us called out and asked if we go to tai chi. Good grief! They were from our tai chi class!!! What are the chances of that coincidence happening? They reminded us that we needed to go and get the 3D 😎 glasses to see the movie. We'd TOTALLY forgotten that you need the glasses! Sheesh! 

Before leaving the theater we remembered to get our refill of popcorn. Perhaps it was because there weren't very many people at the theater, the friendly fellow at the refreshment counter REALLY overflowed our popcorn. When we got home, we had it with our dinner and then had left over popcorn for two more lunches. I'd stored the popcorn in an airtight jar and it was perfect.

Did I forget anything?

Oh... the movie?

Art loved it! He really loved it!

I was OK with it. I thought the 3D was really a lot of fun. The underwater scenes were awesome.

I'm all for going to see another movie. I want to get more popcorn. 😁

Death of a Whale

A couple of weeks ago, my friend, Joanne on the island of Kauai sent me some sad pictures of a 56 foot long, 120,000 pound sperm whale that had died and was washed ashore onto the beach.

She also shared a photo of where the sperm whale was buried and marked with large boulders.

We did see the story on the evening news. They mentioned how an autopsy of the whale revealed fishing traps and nets, plastic bags and other plastic garbage. Undigested fish indicated that the garbage had probably blocked the intestinal tract of the whale thereby making it unable to digest its food.

The ocean was once and maybe is still being used as a garbage dumping area which is harming all the seabirds and animals that share our planet with us.

We generate a LOT of non-degradable material. Hawaii does now limit plastic use. 

I hope it's making a difference because we still see a lot of plastic washed up on the beaches. 

It's sad.

Multicultural Multiracial Multiethnic Multi Everything

This is going to be another year of working on organizing family photos and information from 1972-2021. Yup. I started working on the photobooks 2 years ago and it's still ongoing. However, there's a photo that brought back a lovely memory for me.

It's a photo from 1982. We were planning a birthday party for our daughter, Tiffany.

We lived in the Chicagoland area back then in a multicultural/multiracial/multiethnic neighborhood that was perfect for us. When we bought our home we didn't know the joke that it was called the Island of Gentiles in the Sea of Jerusalem. It was winter when we moved in and I was a little worried when I heard of that reference. It was only our second year of living in Chicago. I'd never been out of state from Hawaii like Art. I'd heard of racism in the news. I'd heard of bigotry but hadn't experienced it... yet. So yes, I was worried.

When the older couple across the street came to greet us, I wondered how they would accept or not accept us. I needn't have worried. They became our first friends and even took up the role of protectors. He was a retired colonel and told us their Catholic parochial school even accepted Muslims. I didn't tell him then that we were actually Buddhists. When we needed to get to the hospital in the middle of the night for the birth of our son, Mrs. M was the one who came to stay with our daughter, Tiffany.

We quickly ended up with the most wonderful friends who were Irish Catholic, Jewish, Black, Asian, everything. Our children went to a Catholic pre-school, a Presbyterian pre-school and public school. They attended services/celebrations in Catholic and Presbyterian churches. They went to lots of bar and bat mitzvahs.

One family (from Israel) who we particularly loved invited us to all their family celebrations. At the bar mitzvah for their son (who was also our kids' babysitter) we tasted the most wonderful cake and told them how much we enjoyed it. Their daughter, Pazit worked for the Jewish bakery and was happy to order a cake for Tiffany's birthday.

When we went to pick up the cake, Pazit was shocked. She'd ordered the same sort of flavor cake as the one from her brother's bar mitzvah, but instead of flowers or girlish decoration, there was a giant Star of David. She was trying to explain what happened to the baker and was at such a loss for words that she told them to just look at us and look at the cake!

It was pretty hilarious and rather than having them redo the decoration, we chose to keep it. The other party invitees who were Jewish absolutely loved it. Those children who were not Jewish probably didn't understand the fun of it.

But all in all... seeing this photo just brought back these awesome memories.

B-52 Cockroach in Our House

When we lived in Illinois, I don't recall seeing American cockroaches. We certainly saw the smaller variety of German cockroaches, but I was happy we didn't have the giant American ones that we have in abundance here in Hawaii.

I did a science experiment in high school where I put American cockroaches in jars with different kinds of impossible food material. I remember cardboard, tobacco, leaves, etc. None of the cockroaches died. In fact they flourished and I ended up with jars teeming with them. Yuuuck!

There was a book here in Hawaii written by Lisa Matsumoto called How B-52 Cockroach Learned to Fly. 

So yes they do fly... high.

When we lived in the sugar plantation camp, I would walk into the bathing room carefully, making sure there were no giant cockroaches (or cane spiders) ready to dive bomb over me (or on me).

Well, the other night Art walked into our bedroom and was surprised to see what looked like a giant cockroach on our (filtered light) window shade. Since it was dark and he could only see what looked like a shadow, he hoped the bug was outside of the house.

Nope.

So what to do? If he tried swatting it, the bug would probably just fly off. If it skittered off, we'd be chasing it all over the house. If he swatted it really hard, he could bring down the window shade and cause a mess.

He pondered the problem for a few minutes and decided to bring in the vacuum cleaner. Hmmm... I had my doubts that the cockroach would sit still to be sucked into the vacuum cleaner. Amazingly, Art managed to do just that.

Kimo of Terminix had just stopped by that morning and sprayed the perimeter of the house for vermin.

Maybe this bug was dazed from the poison Kimo had sprayed.

Whatever the case, Art took the vacuum canister outside and disposed of the unwanted invader to our bedroom.

We now need to figure out HOW it got in.

We have enough B-52s outside of the house. We don't need them as house guests. 😝

POSTSCRIPT 1:

Holy smokes! We don't see these B-52s much in the house at all but the following night THERE WAS ANOTHER one on the wall next to the headboard of our bed!!! Art and I quickly started covering our bed and the cockroach actually jumped onto our bed and then flew to the wall behind Art. 

Art grabbed his slipper to smash it on the wall and it jumped on the floor where Art was finally able to swat it. 

And if THAT wasn't bad enough, I was sitting on the toilet next to our bathtub when I looked at something moving and saw this!

Arrrghhh!!!!

POSTSCRIPT 2: There was a 4th B-52 cockroach the following night so Art called Terminix and they said they would send an inspector out for free to figure out how they were getting in. 

POSTSCRIPT 3: Would you believe the inspector never showed up and never called to tell us he wasn’t? Irritating. We ordered some Harris cockroach gel and tablets on Amazon that were recommended by friends. I hope it works. Then again, we haven’t seen any American cockroaches in several days, so hopefully that’s it for a while. 🤞

If any of my Hawaii readers know a good pest control company please let me know. It might be time for a change.

Arthritis? Me?

I wrote earlier about needing to put an elastic brace on my knees since Thanksgiving. I finally went to see Dr. Payne  after Art coerced suggested I do so. I wonder if Dr. Payne gets teased about his name. He's really, really nice, (handsome too, not that I noticed) and not too close to retirement. 🤞 I’ve had too many doctors and nurse practitioners retire on us lately. 

Anyway, the doctor manipulated my knees this way and that. I told him true to form, my knees stopped hurting (a lot) a couple of days before my appointment with him. He still had me go to radiology to get my knee X-rayed and also to get some physical therapy. 

He didn't mention steroid shots. Phew! A good friend of mine said she had to get steroid shots right into the knee and it really hurt, BUT felt great after that.

I'm glad she got such wonderful relief, but I DID NOT relish getting a really painful shot right into the knee. Am I chicken? 🐔 Yes. I admit it. I don't enjoy needles.

When I got home, I found my knees were achy again, probably from walking all over the hospital and then going shopping.

So I applied Salonpas patches. 

I received an email from Dr. Payne in the afternoon telling me the X-rays showed arthritis in the knee. I didn't tell him my left knee didn't feel necessarily perfect either. 

Arthritis?!? Me?

I don't know anybody in my family who has arthritis although mom's knees aren't always pain free either.

Whatever the case, I have to do the physical therapy and then report back to the doctor.

This morning, Art showed me an article he found about acupuncture being the best treatment for arthritis.

What?!?

More needles? 🙄

POSTSCRIPT: 

I thought my knees were getting better and then wham! About 4 days ago, the pain hit again. What the heck! I’d even stopped using the knee brace. 

A friend of mine had recommended Aleve. I know it’s a lot stronger than Motrin which I’d taken for my broken arm a while back. But you know what? It actually helped and it’s good for 12 hours. 😃 

However, I’d really prefer not relying on it. I tried Voltaren which didn’t help much. Granted it’s been expired for 2 years. The Salonpas didn’t do much at all either.

What do you use for pain? 

Fruitcakes Galore!

Holy smokes!

I was looking in the freezer of our back-up refrigerator for something to cook for dinner. As I moved things around, I was rather surprised to see just how many holiday treats we still had from neighbors and friends.

Even more surprising was how many fruitcakes I'd frozen for mom and Art. I've rearranged things now so they're all on one shelf. Good grief! 16 more loaves! 

I'd baked 5 batches of the small loaves and given a lot to friends, relatives and neighbors. It's just that I kept experimenting (every week or two) with more dried fruit and less candied fruit I had to order online because I couldn't find it at the stores.

Then I went to only juice-soaked dried fruit and trying to figure out the best ratio of fruit to batter. At one time I used to wrap them in brandy soaked cloth but everybody told me they preferred it without the alcohol.

OK. I don't care for fruitcake, but Art, mom and quite a number of other people love it.

I was almost tempted to give it one more try until I saw what I'd stored in the freezer. Art says it's not a problem at all. He's actually quite happy to know that he has a ready supply.

Still... I wonder about making a Batch #6. I'd like to try doing it with less juice perhaps? Hmmm...

Nah...

Appreciation and Acknowledgements

I saw an article by Carolyn Hax in the newspaper last week that had me sighing. I've seen a number of columns about people (mostly seniors, I suspect) who don't receive an acknowledgement from her loved ones. (And I'm sure I've already written about this, but oh well...)

I'm not surprised. 

My daughter has voiced the same experience and she's not a senior.

Some people are saying they just stop sending gifts or checks to recipients who don't acknowledge receiving them. I remember reading a joke about a grandmother who sent checks to her grandchildren and always got a visit from them. Her friend was amazed to know she had such thoughtful grandchildren. 

The grandmother then smiled and said she sent the checks unsigned. 😂

There's also the thought that people are tired of receiving gifts they can't use and have to regift them which causes more of a problem.

In the case of our grandchildren, we've asked our daughter and son to create a wish list from which we can all choose what our grandchildren would like. It works perfectly.

I always made sure my children acknowledged all their gifts when they were growing up.

My daughter was even more careful to instill in our granddaughter, KC the courtesy of sending acknowledgements.

We were on a trip to Yellowstone with them over a decade ago and KC would be busy drawing a small picture or just scribbling "Thank you" for gifts she'd received for her birthday. 

I must say she never complained. It was just a kind habit she'd learned.

And now...

Many, many years later, she still sends a quick note despite the fact that she belongs to two different dance groups (private and high school) and has a heavy high school study load.

My little grandsons also send their own acknowledgements with pictures and quick notes.

These notes were for their great grandmother and mom was absolutely thrilled. She loved the fact that KC even added a thank you in Japanese.

I have good friends where a bargain has been struck. No more gifts for birthdays or Christmas. We only send text greetings.

And that was the best gift of all.

Chirping vs. Cooing

The other morning Art told me that he was shocked I did not get up around 1:00 in the morning when the smoke alarm started chirping because the battery was dying. He thought I might be devious enough to pretend I didn't hear it so I wouldn't have to get up.😏

Understand that Art wears hearing aids. I have excellent hearing 😁(sort of). Hence his suspicion. 

"How is it that you can hear the pigeons land on the roof and even hear their cooing with the windows closed in your office BUT not hear the loud smoke alarm chirping in the hall?" he asked skeptically.

"Cross my heart," I said. "I didn't hear a thing." I even showed him my Fitbit which recorded that I did not get up. 

And yet, Art has told me the story of the cross country trip he took with a buddy when he was in the Air Force many moons ago.

They'd stopped at a hotel exhausted from the driving and went to sleep. In the middle of the night, there was a fire in the building next to their hotel and there was a lot of commotion with fire engines blaring their sirens, etc. The friend apparently watched while the building burned and Art never got up. In fact, he was surprised to see the charred aftermath the following morning.

Interesting because I usually get an hour or two less sleep than Art in the evenings but the Fitbit almost always shows I have much more deep sleep.

Ah well...

And about those pigeons. They never sleep on our neighbor's roof anymore since Art has been vigilantly shooting them with ice pellets when I hear them land on our roof.

The other wonderful thing is that we are no longer getting those terrible welts from bird mites for the last several months. 🤞 Hopefully, the birds will eventually give up.

Hopefully.

Preserving Memories

Art and I celebrated our 50th Wedding Anniversary in early January with a few relatives and long time friend Diane who was my Maid of Honor so many years ago. We've also been friends for some 68 years.

A very dear relative stunned us by bringing a bouquet of 50 roses and a helium balloon.

I do love roses but I really don't like seeing them slowly die. It makes me sad. When we lived in Chicago, we had an enclosed heating system in the basement. I used to dry flowers in there because it was ventilated and dark.

Here in Hawaii, every room is pretty darn bright. However, since we have a guest bathroom that is not used when the kids aren't visiting, I hung the roses upside down on the shower stall grab bar once I saw the blooms drooping.

You can see the anniversary balloon is now losing its helium but fighting to stay afloat. We had a bit of fun wondering how long it would stay afloat.

I really like the look of the roses. It's a lovely reminder of the love that we shared and was shared with us during the happy celebration.

POSTSCRIPT:

I was just noticing that in brighter light, you can see more of the color.