Always Thankful

At this holiday time of Thanksgiving, I have much to be thankful for in my life. I won't start a list. And don't worry. Although I don't mention Art here, I do always count my lucky stars that he would come into my life and make it as happy as he has. When I told mom we were engaged, she was so happy she could hardly contain herself. She still lets him know how grateful she is for him even as her memory has been declining. 

Anyway... 

One of the things I'm so happy that Art and I were able to do for mom was to take mom and her sister, my Auntie Grace to Eiheiji. This is from the Eiheiji website:

Eiheiji, "The Temple of Eternal Peace", is one of the two head temples of Soto Zen. It is located deep in the mountains, near the northwest coast of Japan, not far from Fukui City...

This was in April, 2010. I think my grandfather was there sometime in the 1940s.

Mom and Auntie Grace's father was a zen priest who was trained there.

When I researched the temple, I learned that only relatives of zen priests who had been there would be allowed to spend a night at the temple. 

That's a photo of my grandfather at the Eiheiji Temple. 

Mom and Auntie Grace had a wonderful time with two priests-in-training who took care of us during the stay. There was a ceremony and we were all named. Not sure what they said, but mom and Auntie were thrilled.

I am so happy we were able to do this for them before Auntie Grace passed away. It did take a lot of planning on Art's part.

And here's mom absolutely ecstatic for her 96th birthday a month ago with one of her favorite grandsons. 

And another thing I'm thankful for is my brother.

He's always been my favorite brother. OK, he's my only sibling, but he'd still be my favorite.

Since we started our lives living in a plantation home in the middle of a cane field with no other neighbors for miles around until I was in 1st grade, we had only each other for playmates.

When we were in college Dennis roomed with Art and me for a couple of years. 

He and Art were and are best buddies and even did a "Round-the-Island" bike race together.

When Art and I left for Illinois, Dennis came with us for a road trip from California to Chicago. 

After arriving in Chicago, Dennis flew home to Hawaii. I remember feeling like an arm was torn off.

And now, here we are back in Hawaii again and I know he's always there to help whenever we need it.

Art also has just one sibling; his sister, Kay and they are also very close. Yes, her name is Kay too.

And now... what really makes us happy.

We have two children. Tiffany and Keola.

I'm sure I've written about this before but I just have to repeat it.

When we first brought Keola home, Tiffany was very happy.

But one night I heard her crying and went up to her room.

"I change my mind," she said. "I want a dog instead. You love him more than me."

I told her that Keola didn't belong to just Art and me, but he was also hers to protect and teach.  

And she took it to heart...seriously took it to heart. 

When Tiffany left for college, he wrote a beautiful letter telling her he'd miss her and asking who was now going to help him choose his clothes. "Certainly not mom and dad," he joked. I think he joked.

And now, if I'm frustrated because Keola hadn't written in a while or whatever, Tif would still defend him saying he's got two boys now... etc.

And yes.. friends. I'm thankful for all our friends and relatives. You know who you are. We have lifelong friends and relatives on the mainland and here in Hawaii and blogland. 

Yes, there is so much to be thankful for even though sometimes, the political climate looks bleak, there are always lots to make us happy. 

So I'm going to keep that thought with me as we travel into the holiday season.

Terrible, Horrible, Super Awful Vertigo!

I took mom out to the Handi-Van the other morning and the driver said, “How come you no stay long time? Your husband when bring your mom out for the last few days.”

I just love hearing Hawaiian pidgin. I grew up speaking it but my brother says I lost it when we moved to the mainland.

Anyway, I told the Handi-Van driver that I’ve been dealing with vertigo and it’s supposed to last 3 or more months.

It was a surprise to hear him say,  “YOU TOO? My wife get um too. Lots of times. Have to do the exercise. She need help to get up, yeah.” 

Good grief! Every time I turn around, there are so many people (mostly women) who have had this and unless you’ve been through it, you cannot know how horrible it is.

At my appointment last week, Dr. Payne said the MRI done two years ago showed I did not have a tumor growing in my brain. Dr. Payne had sent me to see the ENT doctor who deals with vertigo at Tripler. At that time, Dr. Chen diagnosed what I had as PPPD (Persistent Postural-Perceptual Dizziness). 

Dr. Payne disagreed with that diagnosis.

And now that I’ve done more research, I think Dr. Payne is right. It said that with PPPD, you don’t have the world spinning (apparently the world goes side to side?) and you don’t get nauseous to the point of vomiting. 

So nope. That’s not me. The world definitely spins and I do get sick to my stomach horribly.

I’ll be waiting to see what the new diagnosis will be. 

Meanwhile, Dr. Payne warned me about scrolling on the computer. 😳

And he’s right. If I scroll through items on the computer, it does make me dizzy.

I already have a bunch of blog posts scheduled for several weeks so I guess I’ll be more careful about being on the computer for a while until this episode passes.

Meanwhile, have a wonderful Thanksgiving, everybody!!! ❤

MORE Phishing Scam

This is just a warning.

My daughter and son-in-law are constantly warning us to be careful.

But sometimes, the email you get looks really legitimate.

I got this one last month. 😲 Outlook is my Microsoft E-mailbox. Well... this was a shock! I'm supposed to click there to update it? But which email? I have several. And I'm losing all my data? 

But then I saw that message saying do not reply to that message. Hmmm...

OK I didn't reply, but I thought I'd forward it to my techie son-in-law to ask him about it. 

But when I did...😠 Look who it's from! It's a (scammer)deeboyle@comcast!

This is so annoying and a little warning to everyone. There's a lot of evil people out there.

Is the Sky the Limit for the Skyline Budget?!?

Our friends, Dave and Diane proposed a trip on Hawaii's sort-of-new light rail system called the Skyline.

According to Wikipedia: 

"The final cost has grown from preliminary projections of $4 billion in 2006 to as much as $12.4 billion by 2021."

I did see another early projection cost of $5.1 billion.  Ahh well... what's a billion here and there? 😕 In 2025, it's still projected to be over $12 billion.

In 2025 the Star Advertiser called it:

"The world's priciest light-rail project per capita..."

Much of the problem now is that because the rail is so costly, it may not be able to go as far as proposed initially. They've also cut out most of the parking lots at the stations and uuummm...  NO bathrooms. 😬 

OK, going back to Dave and Diane. They suggested driving to Kapolei to the start of the Skyline and riding it to the end in Kalihi. Then we could ride it back to Kapolei and grab lunch there.

They've been on the rail once before. We've never been on the Skyline, so it would be an adventure. Our daughter laughed when I told her about it since we used the subway system while living in Chicago for 35 years and have also been on the Shinkansen bullet train many times in Japan.

But this is Hawaii!

We went to one of the few Park and Ride stations in Kapolei. We'd purchased a HOLO card several years ago in anticipation of riding the rail and never used it. Holo is Hawaiian for to go or to ride.

You'll notice Diane and Art climbing up those stairs? 😆 I followed them on the escalator.

We were there around 9:00 in the morning and didn't see many people riding at all.

It was fun to see a bird's eye view of the landscape. 

We passed through Waipahu where I grew up on a sugar plantation camp. 

The smoke stack was part of the sugar mill. When I was growing up, there used to be 2 smoke stacks. The sugar mill is gone now.

We could see battleships that were out of commission and the Arizona Memorial as well.

That big pink building on the hill is the Tripler Army Medical Center where Art and I go for our health care.

After about a half hour we arrived at the Kalihi Transit Center.

We got off the train but then realized we should have just stayed on since it was going to go right back to Kapolei where we got on.

It didn't matter. The next train came in 10 minutes and we got on.

Dave (the professional photographer) suggested that we go to the front (back?) of the train so we could have the big window to look out of.

This was loads of fun!

One of the things we wanted to check on was how far the station was from the International Airport.

We could see that if you weren't loaded down with too many suitcases, it's about a 15 minute walk from the station to the entrance of the airport.

This would be promising in an emergency.

At this point, it looks like they have funds to get to the Ka'akaukukui Civic Center stop. Their original plan was to build the rail to Ala Moana. This would allow tourists to board the train at the airport, ride to the Ala Moana Center and then take a bus into Waikiki. 

We'll see if that ever happens and if the cost goes up to $15 billion. 😮

Once we got back to Kapolei, Dave and Diane drove us to the Island Vintage restaurant.

That was also loads of fun and I especially enjoyed their Pure Mango Smoothie. 

It had been a wonderful expedition and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

When Dave and Diane dropped us off, Dave called out, "What do you think about trying the zipline 😲 next?" 

Hmmm....

Northern Lights in Hawaii?

My cousin, Ellen texted this photo to us and I asked her if I could post it here. She said she and her husband were driving through Waipahu (here on the island of Oahu) and saw this amazing spectacle. She wished everybody could see it.

She asked her husband to stop the car so she could take the photo.

And no, I did not photoshop this at all. 

Ellen said this is her Hawaii version of the Northern Lights.

And you know what? After all these years of seeing and taking photos of rainbows here in Hawaii, I never tire of seeing them. And I don't think I've seen anything quite as beautiful as this.... yet.

Times Change... Or Have They?

Quite a while ago, I saw this Pearls Before Swine comic strip in the Star Advertiser but didn't have a story to post it with.

So now I have something to post about.

We were having our weekly Starbucks drink after finishing our mall walk with friends one morning. 

The Dodgers had won their 2nd World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays. Art was very happy the Dodgers won even though he had to send his $1.00 bet to our son overseas. 

They have a $1 bet over most of the major sports games.

I forget when Keola lost the bet and sent this foreign currency to Art. 

Anyway, there we were with our friend, Dave (who is not Japanese) who smiled and said, "Isn't it pretty amazing that Japanese-Americans were once put in Internment camps and now 3 Japanese players are World Series winners?" 

In fact Yoshinobu Yamamoto was even given the MVP title. 

Yup... Pretty amazing.

Dave went on to say, "Did you know that baseball was big in the Internment camps? In fact, they all had baseball leagues competing against each other?" 

No, I didn't know. I do know some friends and relatives who were incarcerated in Internment camps on the mainland. We even had an Internment camp here on Oahu called Honouliuli. 

I looked it up online and found this book.

I guess baseball was big in the camps and helped to keep spirits up at a time when it felt the country was against them even though they were Americans.

I saw this on a website called Baseball in American Concentration Camps: History, Photos, and Reading Recommendations.

I was surprised they called it a Concentration Camp. The correct term is Internment. Whatever the case. It was a terrible time. A couple of my uncles joined the 442nd Infantry Regiment. Another uncle's father and older brother were sent to an Internment camp on the mainland merely because they were reporters for a Japanese language newspaper. It was 83 years ago in 1942. Armed military came to their house and took them away... and this was in Hawaii!

But now we are happily celebrating the triumphs of 3 Japanese players who helped the Dodgers win the World Series.

We're thrilled, of course. But wow! Isn't it amazing? 

But then we're hearing from our daughter in Chicago about ICE raids. She sent us this photo taken safely (she reassured me) on her way to work.

Reeeally Scary AI

We were out walking with our photographer friend, Dave. His wife and I have been friends since kindergarten. 

Ever since John of The AC is On showed us that iPhone Portrait trick on his blog, Dave has taught us how to play with our iPhone also.

Well... he has now discovered something that Google photos can do which really freaked us out. 

Dave had taken this photo of us the last time we were out together.

Looks like it's taken on Portrait mode since the background is blurred.

Anyway, understand it's NOT a movie. He only took that one photo because he was teaching us how to use that Portrait mode on the iPhone. 

So here's what he showed us on Google Photos.

UH oh...

I hope this video comes out OK and you can see it. I've never tried to post a video from my computer before that wasn't from YouTube. If you’re able to see the video, you’ll notice that this Google AI video doesn't show Art’s left arm moving to place the mask on his face even though his arm is in the still photo. On the other hand, 🤣 you can’t see my hands, BUT the video manufactures hands for me putting on the mask. 

If this video is not able to be posted correctly, let me just explain that Google actually took the still and was able (with AI) show Art and me both putting on our masks. It was absolutely astonishing and looked totally real except for his missing left arm.

And frightening.

You really can't believe everything you see on the web anymore.

Sticker Shock and Awww...

Art got the safety check done on our Prius to get another sticker to put on our license plate for the year. The deadline was September to get it done.

He didn't relish the idea of standing in the long line at the City Hall Satellite Office. So he opted to pay the 78¢ stamp to mail in his check to get the sticker. 

Well... he waited and waited for the sticker to be sent to us but it didn't come. When he checked our bank account, it showed that the check had been cashed. So he waited some more but still, the sticker did not arrive in the mail.

Well... it was now September. 😬 So he called the Department of Motor Vehicles. The Consumer Advocate who answered said they got the check but could not tell him if the sticker was mailed so he just needed to wait for it. And if he still didn't get it, to go to the Satellite Office. Another week went by. 

No sticker.

With September almost over, he gave up and went to the Satellite Office. He was directed to a long line. When he got to the front, the person at the window directed him to another line. 

When he again got to the front of that line, he was told he should have stayed in the other line. 😵 He was then told he'd have to pay 50¢ for the replacement sticker EVEN THOUGH they'd already cashed his check. 😏

He paid it, got the sticker and put in on our license plate so we could be legally on the road. I hope it doesn't fall off. Well... if it does fall off, we should get another sticker in the mail someday, right?

Do the police really look for those stickers?

Well...

After all that, Art got a call from the Department of Motor Vehicles. She said she was following up on that call he made in September. 

OK, she got an earful from Art. He just told her EVERYTHING he went through to get that little sticker. She asked if he wanted to be reimbursed the 50¢. He told her, "yes" just on principle for this whole fiasco. And no, he wasn't nasty at all to her. He was very pleasant actually... (I was listening) just detailed. 🤣

A week later, he got this in the mail. 💗

*Translation: Mahalo is Hawaiian for thank you.

Learning from Blogger Buddies and Regular Buddies

There are so many wonderful things about blogging. 

1. For one thing, it keeps my mind active to come up with posts to write and I NEED to keep my brain active because I'm getting more and more forgetful. 

2. I really feel that special friendship with so many long time bloggers from all around the US, Canada, and England. There were even more from Australia, India and Japan but I don't see them as much now.

3. I love sharing and knowing about everyone's happy and fun times as well as sharing our difficulties and getting advice. Sharing and connection is a very valuable thing.

3. I also learn so much from everybody... which actually brings me to today. John in Canada has a blog called The AC in On. He did a post recently titled: 

Phone Portraits. https://anvilcloud.blogspot.com/2025/09/phone-portraits.html

John took a photo with his iPhone on the Portrait mode of his friend with a darkened background. I thought that was the coolest thing. But I just couldn't figure it out.

OK, well... luckily we do have a SUPER photographer friend who we walk with every Friday. Dave just happens to be married to my childhood friend, Diane since kindergarten. 

I mentioned this cool thing I'd seen on John's blog site and of course, Dave would know how to do it too.

As the four of us sat in the food court of the mall one Friday, Dave took this photo of me using that feature and showed me how to do it.

So I went home and promptly forgot how he did it. 🙄

I told you I'm getting forgetful. 

But I didn't give up.

One morning, Art told me to check out the orchids that were now blooming.

They were so pretty that I took a photo of it.

Then... I wondered.

Dave said in order to do that darkened background, I had to take the photo in Portrait mode.

So I did.

And through trial and error, I did get this effect.

And then I forgot how I did it.

However, being able to look things up online is really helpful for forgetful people so I found this.

OK... this must be how I did it.

And that's another reason why it's great to blog. If I forget (which I will) and want to know how to do this again, I can just look it up on my blog. 😁

Pee Collection

I was feeling OK at my last appointment a few months ago but my wonderful primary care doctor, Dr. P-- saw something in my blood sample that he apparently really didn't like. He said my sodium and chloride were too low. And the Serum Osmol (whatever that is) was really, really low. He had me redo the test and it was apparently still not good. 

So he sent me to a nephrologist. I had to look that up to see what he was. He's a kidney specialist.

Well, Dr. J-- felt the numbers weren't good but not horrible. Still...he saw that Dr. P-- had done quite a bit of the appropriate testing and thought I should redo the tests yet again. 

Sigh...

Well.. he wasn't satisfied with those test results either. 😟

So he said he wanted me to do a blood and pee collection at the lab, be tested, drink 1.5 liters of water, and then have my blood and pee tested again in 4 hours.

Sigh...

The Tripler lab however said they didn't do the test Dr. J asked for so they had me do at 24 hour pee collection instead. Seriously? And they stressed getting EVERY drop. If I lose any, I had to start over again. Arrghhh...

For the guys: Just know it's a lot harder for a woman to collect pee than a man. I won't go into detail on this. You'll have to use your imagination.

Well... actually that's OK. Never mind.

Anyway, I was happy that they give you a little plastic pee-catcher which made it a lot easier.

So yes, I did it.

And I didn't drop any. 😁

However, when Dr. J saw what the lab did, he was not happy. 

Sigh...

So he's going around them and saying he wants me to go back, get blood and pee tested, drink 1.5 liters of water and go back and be tested again. 

Sigh...

He says this will be the LAST test... for now.

But in all this, there's a bright side.

Mom's doctor has asked for a pee sample from mom. 

This would have been REALLLLLLY difficult. I KNOW you can imagine why.

My brother went to the Kaiser Lab and got the little bottle to put her pee in. 😏 I'm sure he's glad he doesn't have to do it. 

And here's the bright side. 😄 I have that plastic pee collection thing. Woo hoo! What a relief! 

Sigh...

And yes, the results for her test were perfect. The doctor says she’s doing well. Aside from her memory problem, she’s healthier than I am. 😆

Life and Death of a Balloon

This is how it all started.

Our son and family were here for a month this summer. And in that time we incredibly celebrated 4 birthdays: our daughter-in-law, Art, me and our grandson. 

Our son bought a balloon and lei for Art. For JK's birthday, Keola also bought a balloon and lei for him. Two days later which happened to be the day before they left in August, we celebrated my birthday. 

JK told me I could have his lei and balloon since the flowers were still fresh and the balloon couldn't be taken with them on the airplane.

Here I am with JK's orchid lei and balloon.

Well...

Art attached the balloon to the back of the dining room chair and we were surprised that it was still gently swaying in September.

As I watched it's slow descent throughout the months I figured I'd take photos to see just how long the helium would stay alive and keep that balloon afloat.

Would you believe this was on Halloween, October 31st? It was still desperately trying to keep afloat.

But guess what.

Our dear cousins brought over several gifts for mom to celebrate her 96th birthday a couple of weeks ago.

And one of the things they brought...

Yup.

Another balloon! 

It makes mom smile when she sees it along with the flowers they also brought.

POSTSCRIPT: 

With all the worry for those in need during the government shutdown, etc. we did make monetary donations to the Food Bank.  However, we were at Costco and thought we could actually add something that felt even more substantial. The Hawaii Libraries were all partnering with the Hawaii Food Bank to collect food for those in need until Friday.

It was fun looking through the aisles for something that we thought would be quickly used. KOKUA is Hawaiian for help.

What kind of food would you donate?

Profusion of Pigeons!

Pigeons on our roof a few years ago was a terrible problem. They were building nests under our solar panels, pooping and leaving nesting garbage all over our roof. I was also getting a lot of bites from bird mites. 

We had to have our roof cleaned several times just to get the mess off. This is Ku. He was up on our roof for quite a while just getting all the debris off from the pigeons. Their poop and mess was also in the gutters and weeds started growing in it. All that had to be removed.

We then had netting installed to bird proof the solar panels a couple of years ago. A few pigeons still come by but they don't stay long. 

I think.

And then a good friend of ours sent this photo that he took on one of his daily walks. It absolutely sent shivers up my spine.

We see people in our neighborhood sometimes feeding pigeons outside and I wonder how their neighbors are feeling about that.