Travel Stress

I needed to add this for my records. 

In 2023, we went to Tokyo to meet our children and grandchildren to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. It was all planned months in advance. And yes, once we got there, we had a fabulous time. 

However, on the morning of our departure we had a horrible emergency. Mom fell while outside raking a few leaves and hit her head. The neighbors brought her to us and even cleaned the sidewalk of the blood. Needless to say, it was horrible. My brother was supposed to take us to the airport but ended up taking her to the Emergency Room instead. A friend dropped everything and drove us instead while my brother kept us updated on what was happening.

I always stress out before a trip planning what to pack, etc. I had our medication in little bags for every emergency. But then we were told that they needed to be in the original containers and even have doctor's orders. 😲 Seriously? That's crazy! 

So I kept the ones that were OTC in plastic bags and just wrote what it was for in Japanese. I copied it off of Google Translate. I kept the prescription meds in their original bottles.

So what else can go wrong?

On the Friday before our Tuesday travel date, Hawaiian Electric had a power outage at 2:30 in the morning. It somehow broke our circuit breaker and the following day, we had no power going to my office WiFi remote for computer and TV service. Arrrghhh! 

I asked friends and relatives for help and my friends came through with a LOT of electricians. We called the first one and Andy came on Sunday and fixed the breaker.

Phew!

OK... what else?

On Monday, the day before we were to leave... our neighbor's son came over to let us know that his mom who we've been friends with since we moved back to Hawaii in 2008 was in hospice care at home and we could come over to say goodbye. 

It was so hard. She'd been in the hospital for several weeks and was changed in appearance but aware of all that was going on. I told her what a great mom she'd been to her sons. It was hard to say goodbye.

And then there were more stresses after that, but I won't go into those things. This was enough....

I'm hoping my next posts will be happier when we return. 

Blog Hiatus Again

I think a lot of you realized that I must be terribly preoccupied right now. Yes, by the time you read this, Art and I will be in Japan. We left on the 8th because there were a lot of things Art still wanted to do in Tokyo. We then caught the train to Kobe 4 days later to join our Hawaii Tohoku Travel group. 

My brother is staying with mom while we're gone and I was busy writing instructions,  etc. for him. 

The days, weeks prior to the trip were totally consumed with informing our neighbors, preparing for leaving and making sure my brother was equipped with everything he needed as well as a stocked freezer. 

Because we would be doing so much on our own at the start of the trip as well as after we leave the tour group, there were a lot of logistical planning to do. 

I do NOT do well under travel stress. When I told my daughter, she chuckled and said I've always been that way.

Really? Who me? (I'm going out in a few minutes to pick up Pepto Bismol.)

So anyway, I'm taking a blog hiatus until I return and get back to normal. I will eventually record all the trials and tribulations along with the joy of the adventure when I can.

Until then, have a wonderful spring!

Diet Pepsi vs. Pepsi Zero Sugar

This is just a silly post. 

I'd read that people were going to stop drinking Coke Zero (which is what I drink every other day) because Coca Cola had made a special commemorative Diet Coke bottle for the inauguration after once criticizing him for his involvement in the January 6th insurrection.

I'm mad about this because he ruined our January 6th wedding anniversary date.

Anyway, here's the post that Trump's Deputy Director of Communications, Margo Martin posted about how it was the "first ever Presidential Commemorative Inaugural Diet Coke bottle."

So this is why I decided to switch back to Pepsi after my son-in-law had introduced me to Coke Zero several years ago. 

However, when I checked up on this I discovered this was not true like many of the other things that come out of this administration.

Coca Cola has made a Presidential commemorative inauguration bottle since 2005. Granted this might be the first Diet Coke inauguration bottle though. 🙄

But before learning all this, I told my brother I was going to make the cola switch since he'd be staying with mom while we're on a trip to Japan and I always provide him with Coke Zero to have occasionally.

I was surprised when he told me he actually prefers Diet Pepsi.

Soooo.... when we were at Sam's Club I saw a display of .... What?!? Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Zero Sugar. TWO Diet Pepsis. Why???

I liked the Pepsi Zero Sugar carton design better. I texted my brother and he said he usually buys Diet Pepsi but hadn't tried Pepsi Zero.

I checked the Nutrition Facts.

Hmmm...

Well... this didn't make it a whole lot easier so I looked online.

And this is what I discovered. 

I read another article where someone did a blind test and said the Pepsi Zero Sugar was by far the better tasting one.

Granted, you know I've lost most of my sense of taste so none of this should make any difference.

I told my daughter about all this and she said, "Mom, why are you drinking that? It's not good for you. You should be drinking water and if you like the carbonation, use your SodaStream."

😏 Out of the mouth of babes...

Mourning, Spotted and Zebra

I wrote a blog post last month called Mama Mourning Dove Needs to Find a Tree. 

I posted this photo;

Well, my Kauai cousin who I have to thank for helping to keep my posts accurate texted to tell me that it was actually a Zebra Dove.

No kidding?

And here I've been calling it a Mourning Dove all this time. I thought it was the same dove we had in Illinois. But now I'm wondering what that Illinois dove really was.

I looked up different doves and found this.

This is what a Mourning Dove actually looks like.

And then there's a Spotted Dove.

And here is my Zebra Dove that is more common in Hawaii.

I can see why it's called a Zebra Dove. Being a retired teacher, I still find it a lot of fun to learn something new. Apparently the dominant doves in Hawaii are the Zebra and Spotted although some areas are supposed to have Mourning as well. I shall keep my eyes peeled for them.

Thank you, Kauai cousin! 

Stressing... and now Crappy Luggage!

I'm afraid I've been up to my ears with packing, planning and agonizing for the last couple of weeks. Art and I are going on a trip to Japan soon and it's taking all my energy to plan for my brother to take over mom's care while we're gone... to plan the omiyages (gifts) to bring relatives...get food ready for he and mom to have and etc. etc. etc.

I'm really sorry I haven't been able to keep in touch with all of you. I'll look forward to catching up when we get home and recover.

Anyway.... 

Here I was packing some of our things and making lists and more lists when I checked Art's luggage and found this.

The sides of his Travelon luggage is made of some kind of hard spongy like thing and it had completely deteriorated.

I bought my purple Travelon luggage 5 years before we bought Art's black one.

I hadn't painted the big K on it yet in 2014.

In 2019, I put the K on both of our luggage since it made it easier to see when it came out onto the conveyer belt. Also, it might give a thief pause to steal such a conspicuous item.

We bought the same Travelon luggage in 2019 for Art since I liked mine so much.

Well... we looked carefully a few days ago and found it wasn't made in the same way. My luggage doesn't have that hard foamy, spongy lining on the inside like his newer one did. Both Travelons had a 10 year guarantee, BUT we couldn't find a way online to get it exchanged, fixed or whatever. 

So we had to throw it away along with this other smaller luggage I had. The straps just ripped off.

I guess it must be the salty Hawaiian air that makes things deteriorate faster.

So we went to Ross and bought another luggage after checking to make sure there wasn't any of that foamy insulation.

We also decided to get a Samsonite instead of a Travelon.

And my 10 year old purple Travelon?

It's still going strong. (Knock on wood!!!)

Go figure.

And the stress continues.

Hands Off! on Kauai and the Entire Country

I hadn't even heard about the Hands Off protest movement until my Kauai cousins told me about it about a week ago. They'd made a bunch of very artistic, very clever signs for the Hands Off rally that was going to happen in Lihue on Saturday, April 5th. I wished I could have been with them but, we are in the midst of too many things happening at once at our house. 

They texted photos to me of the rally on Saturday. A friend had taken it and shared it with them. And then they shared it with me so I could share it with you. Ummm... My retired teacher cousin said the dog was adorable but the sign was rather.... uuummm strong. So I changed it a bit, but you get the idea.

And yes, I wish I were with my cousins on Saturday. They told me that a newspaper photographer/writer from Kauai estimated 2,000 people showing up. And the funny thing was I knew that photographer very well from college. We are a very small state. The joke is to ask, "What school you grad?" and you'll find out that we're all connected.

When I looked online, I saw that over 1,400 rallies had taken place around the country. 

Wow!

Here are protests in Minnesota and North Carolina.

Wow! Wow!

And yes! Here's Chicago and New York.  That's Daley Plaza that we know so well. Art's EPA office was close by.

Honolulu had an impressive showing too. 

This is all reminding me of the 60's when I was attending the University of Hawaii. There were so many protests back then. And now it's time to make our voices heard again. We are still lucky to live in a country where protesting is a right. At least it is for now.

POSTSCRIPT:

A friend of mine sent a photo of a sign her sister-in-law made for the Hands Off in Honolulu. I thought it was too good not to share.

Fitbit vs. Apple Watch

I wrote a post earlier titled, Aggravation! Apple Watch Series 4 Suddenly Draining TOO FAST! and so many of you wrote that you don't use an Apple Watch or any other kind of techie type watch.

Sooo... that got me thinking. 

I find the Apple Watch rather cumbersome on my very thin wrist. I've always had thin wrists but after losing 10 pounds and then another 5 pounds when I had to use Invisalign after my front tooth broke off, I found the Apple Watch much too big. My left wrist was also hurting.... I don't know why... so I switched the watch to my right wrist.

I use the Fitbit Charge 2 at night to monitor my sleep. 

The Charge 2 was introduced in 2016 and I probably got it around then. The much heavier Apple watch is not as accurate in recording my sleep as the lighter Fitbit. So then, I'm thinking... do I really need my Apple watch? 

I've been using my old Fitbit all day and it lasts 2-3 days without a charge unlike my Apple Watch that needs to be charged by the afternoon. My Fitbit is also connected to my iPhone and therefore alerts me if I get a text message. 

So thank you, everybody! I wouldn't have made this excellent change without your comments telling me that so many of you just have watches that tell the time.

Anti-Trump T-Shirts!

Everybody we hang out with are absolutely aghast at everything Trump has been doing. I know Canada and Europe are totally ticked off with what's been going on in such a short time. Imagine another 3 years and 9 months. 

I'm remembering traveling through Canada and having to tell people we did not vote for George W. Bush. We still remember one Canadian Bed and Breakfast we were staying at where the wife was serving us breakfast and the husband was going out on an errand. He stopped to chat briefly, but when we said we did NOT vote for Bush, he stayed almost an hour just to talk. It's a fond memory. We really love all the Canadians we've met in Canada and when we travel.

I've told people that you have to be careful not to look at the road because Canadians will stop to make sure you're not planning to cross. Uuumm... You won't find that true in the U.S.

Anyway, so I was wondering. I know there are MAGA hats and MAGA t-shirts. I've seen some pretty disgusting ones where a woman was wearing a t-shirt saying "Trump Can Grab My Pussy." Seriously? Seriously?!?

Like I said... I was wondering. Could there be Anti-Trump t-shirts. OMG! TONS of them on Amazon. And they're so clever.

I jokingly told Art that if I'm traveling anywhere other than Russia and North Korea, I should buy this t-shirt.

And then I saw this political cartoon in the Star Advertiser and I'm thinking... maybe I SHOULD buy it.