Jack-o-Melons?

Our son and his family live in South Asia right now, but our grandsons attend a private school and appear to celebrate a lot of the American holidays. I think Halloween is celebrated in other countries even though it originally began in England and the U.S.

From Wikipedia:

Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day.

I was still surprised that our grandsons do have fun with Halloween at their school. 

I'm thinking Halloween pumpkins might be harder to find where they are so they've resorted to creating Jack-o-Melons.

I'm glad they were able to find a watermelon. 

Art says he remembers carving a jack-o-lantern out of green papayas when he was growing up on the Big Island. I wonder what his parents thought about that. 

And here's their finished products.

Hmmm... I see they're still able to get Coca Cola there. I did have to send them a bottle of Chick-fil-A sauce though. 😂

And here's their scarily lighted Jack-o-Melons all ready for Halloween.

I've told them not to forget to send me a photo of themselves in their trick or treating costumes. Then again... I wonder if kids go trick or treating there. Hmmm...

A Son's Gift to His Mom

I wrote a post about three years ago called Transplanting Orchids with Help From a Son. Mom kept telling me that her orchid plants needed to be repotted. Well... I wasn't sure how to do that so I told my brother that his mother wanted his help.

So of course, he came right over and began working on it.

He had to split apart the overgrown plants and repot them with hapuu (Hawaiian tree fern).

He did an excellent job and eventually they began flowering a little at a time.

And then the other morning, four of the plants started sending out shoots and flowering at the same time.

There was a little morning shower the other day and the orchids were startlingly beautiful. It makes us smile whenever we look at them and they bloom for such a long time.

Uuummm... I am noticing though that those orchid plants are now overgrown for their small pots and need to be repotted again. 😁

Just in case my brother is reading this...

Oh Dennis.... Mom needs you again.

POSTSCRIPT:

By the way, thank you for caring about me and my health worry these past few weeks. I've been to my doctor who said the liver ultrasound turned out normal and I don't have to worry about it anymore. The blood tests also showed improvement so I'm getting better. However... the stomach upset. Sigh... He says I'll have to get poop tested. He wasn't sure how it would be done. I'm not liking the sound of that.

The Russians Want Trump to Win!

It was in the Hawaii news the other night that the Russians had stolen the identity of a Hawaii resident and was smearing Vice President Tim Walz with it. Matthew Metro lives in Hilo on the Big Island. This was on Hawaii News Now.

"Matthew Metro was a student at West Mankato High School 27 years ago when Tim Walz taught and coached there, but he said Walz wasn’t his teacher and certainly never sexually assaulted him and is trying to get the fake story under control."

 And this was on CBS News:

Russian disinformation groups likely orchestrated baseless claims targeting Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, falsely accusing the vice presidential candidate of sexually assaulting his students while he was a high school teacher, according to assessments by the U.S. intelligence community, independent researchers and a CBS News analysis. 

At least four separate claims have spread since early October, racking up millions of views on social media platforms including X, owned by Elon Musk. Darren Linvill, co-director of the Media Forensics Hub at Clemson University, said at least two of the claims seem to be directly linked to Storm-1516, a Kremlin-aligned troll farm. 

Matthew Metro was on TV saying how angry he was that Russian disinformation groups had gotten hold of the West Mankato High School Yearbook, stolen his identity and past, found an actor to play him and spread lies that were read by millions of people. 

It's really scary and his followers believe it, of course.

As for Mr. Metro? He says he's voting for Tim Walz, oh... and Kamala Harris, of course. 

The Last Fruitcake

Art has always loved fruitcake. Always. And so has his sister. They grew up on the Big Island. I could never understand it since my brother and I (growing up on Oahu) only ever had the store bought type that friends at the newspaper company where mom worked gave to her every holiday season.

When we were on overseas trips Art would look for fruitcake to bring home to taste and also to send one to his sister. It NEVER measured up to his memories.

And then... Jalna of Photos By Jalna posted a recipe in 2016 which I have used ever since. It's the taste that Art had been looking for. I even brought some for his sister in California and yes, she liked it too.

I now make this recipe about 5 times every season. I did change the recipe a little. For instance, instead of buying a lot of candied fruit, I soak dried fruit in canned juice + a teeny bit of sugar and use that. I give quite a lot away to friends, neighbors and relatives (not my brother though 😂 and I still don't eat it).

And then I freeze a LOT for Art. You can see two sections deep of fruitcake that Art has throughout the year. I carefully wrap the fruitcake in wax paper, Saran Wrap and then stick it in plastic Ziploc bags that I reuse later since they're quite clean. 

Art always has a thin slice for breakfast so the loaves will last longer.

But here we are in October and he's on his last loaf. 

I guess it will soon be time to bake again...

Vacuum Sealing Food to Freeze Without a Vacuum Sealer

I've always been amazed at how my daughter and son-in-law vacuum seal a lot of the meats and whatever they get from Costco or elsewhere for their freezer. It's such a convenient thing for a very busy family.

Well, when we were in Chicago, they bought me a vacuum sealer for my birthday... buuut... I had them return it because I really didn't feel we had enough counter space for another appliance. 

On top of that, I'd bought a bunch of reusable plastic freezer containers so I wouldn't have to use plastic freezer bags which I'd have to discard. 

I'm trying hard to reduce our use of plastic. Granted, my freezer containers are plastic. Buuuut... they are reusable. 😁

The containers in the back hold boiled peanuts which is Art's favorite Hawaii snack. I've heard it's popular in the southern states also.

I'm also saving some of those boiled peanuts for my brother which I did store in a plastic bag for him.

I think it was Tiffany who first introduced me to this Poor-man's vacuum sealing. I just stick a thin straw in the corner of the bag and suck out the air.

It actually works well enough for my purposes.

I guess you do need to have enough lung power to suck in that air though. 😁 

Catch a Falling Star (or Comet!)

I wrote a blog post on Monday about how we were able to view the illusive Comet A3 with help from strangers who became more than strangers that evening.

The comet is starting to fade away now as it gets closer to the sun, BUT Art (who loves looking at the night sky) was determined to see it again from our window.

He kept looking outside but Comet A3 was really far too faded to actually be visible with my naked eye. And I'm farsighted. Art is nearsighted and he said he could barely see it with his glasses on. 

However, he heeded the advice of the people we met on Monday and took a photo with his iPhone. There it was! What the heck! The iPhone was able to see what I couldn't!

That's when Art mentioned a setting on the iPhone that I didn't know about and he'd forgotten about. Granted he took the above photo while forgetting about this function anyway.

There's a Night Mode you can use on your iPhone and I'm sure Android phones have something similar too.

Actually, the iPhone automatically switched to Night Mode when I did it last night.

And then my MUCH younger cousin once removed sent this photo. And yes, they said I could use their daughter's photo without blurring out her face.

Is this not the cutest photo of the comet... ever? I just love seeing this adorable child about to catch that "falling star." (This is the link to Perry Como singing "Catch a Falling Star".)

By the way, I asked my daughter if she knew about that Night Mode and she said, "Yes, I use it." 🙄 Well... I guess I'm an old dog still learning new tricks. 😆

POSTSCRIPT:

Our friend, Dave just sent us his photo (taken with his iPhone) on Sunday when Art first called to alert him of the sky phenomenon. 

Several other friends also texted their photos last night once they saw my blog post... but I will stop posting any more comet photos here. 😄The comet is moving closer to the sun now and fading away. 

It's been fun... especially when I remember how we drove away from the Chicago light pollution and stood in an Illinois cornfield in April, 1986 with our good friend, Jim ages ago trying to catch a glimpse of Haley's comet which I don't think we actually saw, but told everyone we probably did. 

The Most Hated Airport

I recently saw in the Star Advertiser newspaper that Honolulu's Daniel K. Inouye International Airport had gone up in ranking. Now... glory be... our airport was apparently just the 4th worst in the nation.

Well, I have to say with all the airports we've been to, I can attest that it's true our Honolulu airport isn't great. But they did improve the bathrooms. 😆

However, there was that trip to Amsterdam we took with friends a couple of years ago where our 7:00 AM United plane to San Francisco had a malfunction and passengers were running around everywhere as they tried to change their ticketing to another airline. 

We stuck with United and they changed our flight to Newark instead, leaving Honolulu at 2:55 PM!  Arrghh!

At Newark Liberty International Airport, we now had a 12 hour layover!

United gave us $20 meal vouchers to use at Newark which we handed over to the server at the airport.

Would you believe when we returned to Hawaii after the trip, we discovered the Newark airport concession charged us anyway?!?

Arrrghhh!

OK.. So we don't love the Newark Airport either.

All these delays meant we missed a day of our cruise.

So that was our Honolulu airport and Newark's airport that we weren't thrilled with.

But like I said, the Honolulu Airport bathrooms are much improved. 😁

Granted the lines here and there can be really confusing.

But then I saw a while ago that the worst airport of all according to customer satisfaction was Chicago's O'Hare Airport in 2022.

Really? 

Well... it IS huge.

But I guess we're just used to it. And whenever we land there I know we're going to see our daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter so it makes me happy.

Ah well...

P.S. I just saw this on the Business Traveler website. The website is listing the worst large airports in the U.S. according to the J.D. Power Analytics firm in 2024. (The list goes from bad to worst.)

Ranking	Airport
1	Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport (MSP)
2	Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW)
3	Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)
4	John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)
5	Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW)
6	Harry Reid International Airport (LAS)
7	San Francisco International Airport (SFO)
8	Orlando International Airport (MCO)
9	Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL)
10	Boston Logan International Airport (BOS)
11	Miami International Airport (MIA)
12	Denver International Airport (DEN)
13	Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
14	George Bush International Airport (IAH)
15	Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT)
16	Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA)
17	Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)
18	O’Hare International Airport (ORD)
19	Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ)
20	Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)

Do you see what's at the bottom? Yup. Newark Liberty International Airport is the worst! Hawaii isn't even on the list. And O'Hare isn't the worst. OK, so it's the 3rd worst, but it's not THE worst.

Do you have an airport you love to hate or just love?

Seeing Comet A3 With Help From Strangers

Art has always loved astronomy and even bought a telescope a long time ago. (It's in the closet somewhere.) He'd recently heard that there would be a comet sighting after sundown in the western sky close to the horizon.

I got this from CNN news:

Sundown was at 6:09 PM last night so we waited and looked out our western facing window on the 2nd floor. Uuummm...wouldn't you know there was a big tree blocking that view?

Our next effort was to take a walk and try to find an area that would afford us the best view of the western horizon. Would you believe we found a spot and waited and waited? But we couldn't see anything. The sky was also still somewhat lighted. I figured it was a lost cause and coaxed Art to go back home. 

As we walked down the street, we saw someone standing outside his house staring at the sky with a pair of binoculars. I asked him if he was looking for the comet too and he showed us a photo of the comet that his friend had taken. He told us we needed to wait until it was really dark and pointed to where the comet should be. 

And OMG! There it was!!!

We couldn't believe it!

We soon learned that the fellow we were talking to was from the Big Island just like Art and they graduated from the same high school!!! (Granted the fellow is somewhat younger than Art.)

We were all so excited that he called out to his neighbors and soon we were all looking out at the western sky (somewhat higher on the horizon than we originally thought) and taking photos.

One neighbor had been on an African safari just like Art. They all started sharing photos they'd gotten of the comet.

We could hardly believe it!

It was awesome that we could see this with our naked eye even though Art had brought binoculars with him. 

After about a half hour, the comet began to fade away and we all went back home excited and thoroughly happy that we were able to have seen this celestial event together.

After all... we won't be able to see this comet for 80,000 years and I guess we won't be here by then. 😁

Since Art did not get to see the northern lights in Chicago this summer, I'm glad he was able to get a view of this comet.

Uuuummm... uh oh... Is he going to want to look for it again tonight?

POSTSCRIPT:

OMG! Art wrote his high school classmate friend asking him if he knew this fellow we met last night.

His friend, Gary told him that YES! He knew this fellow because they worked together at Pearl Harbor. And if this is true, my cousin might know him too!

There is a joke in Hawaii that the first question you ask anyone you meet is a pidgin phrase, “What school you grad?”

Surviving Tooth and Nail

Does bad luck really run in 3s?

I've been fighting lethargy and a bad tummy which is NOT fun. My doctor has ordered an ultrasound of my liver and more blood tests because he didn't like what he saw with my 3rd set of blood results. (This is Bad Luck #1.)

And then... would you believe mom was outside picking up leaves from a shedding roadway tree and she stubbed her toe? She managed to do it just outside of camera range so we have no idea how it happened.

When she walked in, I was in the middle of preparing cornbread so I asked Art to look at it. He looked at her toe closely and said..."Aaahhh... I don't think I can do this." 

Ahhhh well the cornbread would have to wait. I looked at her toe, gasped and then we drove to Kaiser Emergency. Her toenail had completely lifted up and was just hanging on at the base.

The nurse who was checking us in asked whether she hit her head because there was blood on her temple.

What?!?

We were so busy looking at her toe, it never occurred to us to look at her head. Good grief. I looked at her temple and yes... there was a little blood. I told the nurse that she must have touched her toe and then her head. He got a damp cloth and wiped off the blood. 

Good grief! There WAS an injury. Sigh....

He chuckled and said it was his job to be an injury detective. 

The doctor came and ordered scans of mom's head and feet. Everything was fine. She then said that there might be enough of the nail still attached to leave it as is!

"How do we care for this?" I asked her. 

"Don't worry," said the doctor. "The nurse will be in to take care of it."

And yes, the nurse took care of it. She sprayed it with some kind of solution and through trial and error managed to get the nail covered. She also gave me some supplies to keep the nail protected. I love nurses.

(This is Bad Luck #2.) 

And then the following week. Arrrghhhh! We were having lunch and I'd cut thin apple slices for us to have. When I took a small bite of one of the slices, I felt a pop.

Noooooo..... it felt like my tooth might have chipped ... or something.

But no, it wasn't just a chip. 😲 2/3 of my front tooth had just snapped off! It just snapped off!!! What the heck!

I made a call to the dentist who kindly fit me into her packed schedule to install a temporary tooth. She also gave me a referral for orthodontic care. 

Sigh.... (And this is Bad Luck #3.)

I'm just hoping I don't get a #4.

Why?

I've been avoiding writing a post about politics, but I felt compelled to with the situation in our country right now.

Going through the editorial letters last week, I came across this letter. It addresses what I've been wondering. I know 98% of the people I hang out with are seeing the evil that is Trump. So why is it half our country might vote for him?

This letter gives you an idea.

I think it's similar to what happened in Germany. How is it so many of the German people supported Hitler and the evil he perpetuated killing 6 million Jews?

In fact, I saw this on Reuters:

WASHINGTON, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Thursday that Jewish-American voters would be partly to blame if he loses the Nov. 5 election to Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate.

And then there's the whole thing that he and Vance are saying about the Haitians in Springfield, Ohio.

This is from the BBC news:

A baseless claim that illegal immigrants from Haiti have been eating domestic pets in a small Ohio city has been repeated by Donald Trump.

During ABC's presidential debate, Trump said: "In Springfield, they are eating the dogs. The people that came in, they are eating the cats. They’re eating – they are eating the pets of the people that live there." 

Much of Trump/Vance attacks are nasty, calling Kamala "mentally impaired, stupid, dumb as a rock, etc." This was on USA TODAY.

Trump used similar rhetoric Saturday during a speech in Wisconsin, and he's frequently called Harris "stupid," "weak" and "dumb as a rock" on the campaign trail. Trump has also repeatedly criticized Harris' racial identity, falsely saying she "turned Black."

We always taught our elementary kids to be more respectful and to refrain from that kind of nasty attacks on others.

Why does so many Americans want a leader like this for our country?!? Why would you want this kind of example for our children? Why would you want him to represent who we are to the rest of the world? 

Why?

POSTSCRIPT:

Did you watch the Vance/Walz debate? I kept wondering why Vance kept blaming things on Kamala Harris. She was/is the Vice President. The Vice President presides over the Senate, certifies the tally of the Electoral College and performs ceremonial duties for the president. The Vice President does not have that much power. I don't know what Vance is thinking he'd be able to do if he became Vice President. I imagine he'd be sorely disappointed.

Irritating Spam Text Messages

I've been pretty safe from weird spam text messages on my iPhone, but I suddenly got hit with one everyday that totally irritated me. I'm assuming it came from China.

I tried erasing it.

Then I reported it to Apple as junk text. 

If you haven’t opened the message: Swipe left on the message, tap , then tap Delete and Report Junk.

I did all that but it didn't stop. In fact I suddenly started getting these text messages almost every hour.

Arrrgghhh...

You can find a solution for anything online so I looked up what to do.

Yay! 

Here it is and it worked. I haven't gotten anymore of those messages. I wondered what it said though.

You know what? I just used my Google Translate app and it told me what the message was!!!

Seriously?

I thought it was going to tell me to vote for Trump. Then again, it would have to be in Russian. 😂

Baking Soda in Lemonade? Really?

We do have a Myer (Hawaiian type) lemon tree that does produce quite a bit of lemons. We don't use it much. It was planted because (believe it or not) mom felt she needed to rinse her hair with a little lemon juice to keep her hair healthy. Well, what can I say? She still has a lot of hair so what the heck? 

Anyway, as it turned out, my brother loves to make lemonade for his family and he required a lot of lemons so whenever there were a lot ripening, he got to take them home.

Well... He told me a long time ago that he adds a little baking soda into his lemonade to take away the acid. He did also caution me that putting too much baking soda could add too much sodium to your diet. 

He and my sister in law went on a long trip last month so with ripening lemons, I thought I'd try making lemonade using a little baking soda.

But how much? I wanted to make a jug full. I found this recipe online, but 2 mainland lemons are very different from our Hawaiian Meyer lemons which are very big and juicy. 

And I didn't want just a glass. I wanted to make a jug full if I was going through all this trouble.

OK. I got 4 Meyer lemons and got 2 cups of juice.

I added 4 cups of water, 3 Tablespoons of sugar and 2 teaspoons of baking soda after much trial and error. 

Art had to be the taster since I've lost most of my sense of taste. 😕

Wow! When I added that baking soda, it was almost like it was going to blow the lid off the bottle! 😱 It bubbled up like crazy.

I got this explanation online:

The acid in the lemon juice reacts with the base in the baking soda to create carbon dioxide gas.

And this is supposed to take that bite off the lemonade. Well, Art felt the juice was still a bit strong so I added 2 more cups of water to the lemonade which he pronounced OK.

Well... I think it needs more sugar... but I bow to his taste buds.

Glucose Lowering Discovery

I'd been noticing the bottom of my toes were feeling a bit numb. 😳 A friend of mine told me how her brother developed diabetic neuropathy. Ack! 

I got this from the Johns Hopkins website:    

Diabetic polyneuropathy (DPN) affects multiple peripheral sensory and motor nerves that branch out from the spinal cord into the arms, hands, legs and feet. Typically, the longest nerves — those that extend from the spine to the feet — are affected the most.

I know that my fasting glucose levels had been rising in the last few years along with my A1c which is the average of 3 months of glucose measurements.

I went to see a substitute doctor because my regular doctor was not available. She did tests on my feet and fingers and told me I need to take diabetes seriously. 

OK... I realize my breakfast cereals were not the best. My nurse friend, Terry suggested I do overnight oats which she preferred. Oatmeal is OK... but I was rather liking the crunch (and OK...) sweetness of my morning cereal. 

Hooowever... I was willing to give it a try. I experimented a bit and came up with 1/2 cup of Old Fashioned oatmeal, 1 cup milk, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and some little cut up dried fruits (cranberries, apricots and prunes). I put them in a glass jar and it was ready for my morning breakfast. I didn't have to cook it. However, it still wasn't perfect so I started making it in the morning for the following breakfast. That worked best for me... and eventually, I didn't miss my cereals. 

So thank you, Terry. 😄

But all this wasn't enough. 

Confession: I haven't been exercising. That kind of stopped with the pandemic. I no longer went to Zumba because our teacher moved to Seattle. The other problem was our caretaking of mom as her dementia worsened. 

However... with Art's insistence that I resume our walks, I started giving mom her showers after dinner and we would take a 1 mile uphill walk. I knew mom wouldn't go out of the house with her nightgown. We also have great neighbors who would tell me if anything went awry.

We started walking in September.

According to the World Health Organization: "The expected values for normal fasting blood glucose concentration are between 70 mg/dL (3.9 mmol/L) and 100 mg/dL (5.6 mmol/L). When fasting blood glucose is between 100 to 125 mg/dL (5.6 to 6.9 mmol/L) changes in lifestyle and monitoring glycemia are recommended."

So you can see my glucose was NOT good. And it hasn't been good now for several years.

I kept a separate chart detailing what I ate and the glucose levels after 2 hours whenever I had a different meal. But the BIGGEST change was when we started that short 1 mile uphill walk. I also listed my glucose on my Fitbit app.

And even more telling was when I didn't get to walk for some reason (rain or whatever), the following morning's glucose level went up.

Walking in the morning when mom was at day care did not show the same results. 

I'll see my regular doctor next month and can't wait to show him my discovery and progress. Yay! 😁