Life Changes

A day or two after we returned to Chicago, Tiffany and her husband had some surprising news for us. They were going to sell their home and settle elsewhere. 

This is the home Art and I bought in 1976 and where the kids grew up. When Art and I moved back to Hawaii in 2008, they bought this home from us. But now they were planning on selling it. However, before it was put on the market, they already had two families wanting to buy their home. It's such a lovely neighborhood that children of our old neighbors were wanting to bring up their families in the village as well.

Returning to Illinois in the past was always easy because we didn't have to pack much at all. All our clothing and footwear (for each season) were stored in the attic in all these containers and a cedar chest as well.

But now we were having to go through everything and make decisions on clothing to give away, donate or bring home to Hawaii.

A lot of our winterwear as well as spring and fall were donated to the school district where I taught for children from disadvantaged families.

I sent a photo to our granddaughter at the university asking if she'd like any of my fall and winter jackets.

Nope.

So they went into the donation pile also.

What she really wanted was her grandfather's Air Force jacket.

Really?!? 

Not my pretty jackets?!?

Tiffany said Art's jacket is 'retro.'  

Well, Art was very happy she would be keeping it. It's nostalgic for him too.

We had a LOT of bags of clothing and footwear to donate in Illinois. But we did bring a few things home and then had to clean out our closets and make more trips to the Salvation Army here in Hawaii.

I'm now looking through our closets and shelves to see what else I can donate. This has me now on a downsizing frame of mind. 

Visiting the Chicago Botanic Garden Again

Whenever we go back to Illinois, we manage to visit the Chicago Botanic Garden at least once and this was no exception. 

Tiffany had managed to get a discount so although the entrance/parking fees had gone up in the past years, it was very reasonable for us.

I always remember coming here in 1982 when they first introduced the Japanese garden. 

Our Israeli friends Moshe and Dina had suggested we make an outing of it.

Our son, Keola was three years old at the time.

And now...44 years later, Keola lives in Africa and it was Tiffany and her husband who took us back to that same Japanese garden.

We enjoyed walking around the huge garden but didn't get to see everything. There's just too much.

I liked seeing the pond with all the different varieties of water lilies.

But this was my favorite.

And yes, of course we needed to stop and marvel at all these ancient bonsai beauties.

We stopped for lunch at Potbelly and then Trader Joes before heading home and just relaxing and being grateful for a lovely day.

Visiting the Baha'i Temple

My Chicagoland teacher buddy recommended going to visit the Baha'i Temple in Wilmette, Illinois. She said that whenever people came to visit her, she'd take them to the temple because it was such a beautiful, peaceful place.

In all the time we lived in Illinois, we'd never gone to the temple even though we'd known about it and sometimes even passed by it. But now... here we were visiting from Hawaii and we finally decided to go and see it.

Tiffany drove us to the temple and yes, we were very impressed. 

Here is the Go Visit Chicago website I found this explains what the temple is about. 

https://www.govisitchicago.com/bahai-house-of-worship-in-wilmette-illinois/
Architecture as a Spiritual Conversation
One of the most beautiful things about the Wilmette temple is how its design speaks both to faith and to art.

The Bahai House of Worship in Wilmette is designed by the architect Louis Bourgeois. You will be surprised to see that Bahai Temple features symbols of various faiths carved on the walls including the Star of David, the swastika and the symbol of Islam.

Also, construction includes number “nine”, yes it has nine entrances, nine alcoves, nine fountains in garden. 

Looking up what the Baha’i faith is about, I learned it is trying to combine all the religions into one. I like that concept very much, but I really don’t know enough about it.

This is from Wikipedia:

The Baháʼí Faith is a religion, established by Baháʼu'lláh in the 19th century that teaches the essential worth of all religions and the unity of all people.

Whatever the case, we walked around the temple with the nine entrances and gardens in front of each one and entered the temple as well which had a very peaceful serene feel to it. 
 
We were very glad to have come and experienced the peace of it at this very nonpeaceful time.

Really Rabid Rabbits!

When we first moved to Chicago in 1974 I thought the little bunny rabbits hopping around the neighborhood were cute.

And they are cute. When I was in college, my roommate's boyfriend gave me a white rabbit that I played with for many years until Art and I married and moved to Chicago. 

So anyway, I like rabbits. I do. 

At least I did.

I went to the backyard a few days after we arrived in Chicago and saw this. Tiffany said it was the rabbits. The weird thing was they seemed to just chomp off the stem and leave the leaves on the ground uneaten. What the heck?!?

And then...

A few days later, I noticed they attacked the funkias/hostas under the oak tree toward the backyard fence.

I took these photos from a distance and you can see the culprit hidden among the plants.

Again! He/She is only eating the stems.

I looked this up online and it confirmed that rabbits like to eat only the stems because they are easier to eat. 

Seriously?!?

The voracious rabbit then ate more of the plants next to the house.

And moooore of the plants under the tree.

Sigh...

And then proceeded onto another area as well.

I looked around at other neighbors' yards and didn't see them having this problem.

We thought the rabbits weren't eating the funkia/hostas in front of the house since they looked perfectly fine from the street.

But as we neared the weeping cherry blossom tree, a rabbit came darting out of the funkias. What the heck!!!

That was when we discovered the rabbit or rabbits were eating the plants from inside out so nobody could see them. Friends mentioned that coffee grains sprinkled around the plants would help to keep the bunnies away. We started to do that... but perhaps too late.

It's fall now with winter around the corner. It will be interesting to see what happens next spring.

Visiting the Obamas

Our daughter, Tiffany knew we were a little disappointed when we tried several months before (in July-August) to get tickets for the Obama Presidential Library in September. Tickets were sold out until November. However, Tif and our son-in-law said they would take us to the south side of Chicago to see the building and grounds around the library. 

It was fun to see the Chicago skyline again. We could identify the Hancock building as well as the Sears Tower, now called the Willis Tower. I was sorry to see smog in the skies above the city though.

When we arrived at the Obama Presidential Library, there was no parking so our son-in-law dropped us off and went to look for somewhere to park.

There was a long line to take a photo next to the statue of Barack and Michelle Obama.

Everybody in line were in high spirits. The people behind us kindly took our photo next to the statue and we did the same for them. 

We walked around the garden of native plants and took a photo next to the Obama Presidential Center/Museum. 

I'm glad there was a sign with the words that were on the building.

This was a speech President Obama gave in Selma, Alabama in 2015.

“

 You are America. Unconstrained by habit and convention. Unencumbered by what is, ready to seize what ought to be. For everywhere in this country, there are first steps to be taken, there is new ground to cover, there are more bridges to be crossed. America is not the project of any one person. The single most powerful word in our democracy is the word ‘We.’ ‘We The People.’ ‘We Shall Overcome.’ ‘Yes We Can.’ That word is owned by no one. It belongs to everyone. Oh, what a glorious task we are given to continually try to improve this great nation of ours.”

I believe these words are especially important today. 

We left the Obama Center in high spirits and then stopped again to see the Chicago skyline before going to Chinatown for lunch and then home.

It was a fun day.

POSTSCRIPT:

Tiffany sent me the Obama website that posted some fun statistics.

Yes, we did see a lot of people high fiving with the bronze statues of the Obamas. We didn't realize that it was the in thing to do.  Perhaps someday we'll have to go back and do it. 😀

Canadian Geese and Popping Corn on the Cob

I was still feeling jet lagged the following Friday on August 28th. Our daughter, Tiffany who sometimes seems more like a surrogate mother than a daughter decided that we needed to go for a walk along the shore line of Lake Michigan next to Northwestern University to get some sun and recalibrate our internal time clock. It was fun to see Chicago in the distance from the shore line.

The Canadian geese (not American geese) were totally unafraid of us during our walk.

Tiffany warned us not to get too close to them because they could get irritated and snap at you. 

We also noticed a tremendous amount of wild rabbits everywhere.

Meanwhile, my brother kept me posted on all that was going on in Hawaii and insisted I should relax and not worry about mom. He admonished me to enjoy our time with Tiffany and her family. I promised to do so.

The following Saturday morning, Tiffany suggested going to the farmers market.

I can't remember ever going there before. It was certainly different from our farmers markets in Hawaii. 

Yes, Tif and Art did select some fresh corn on the cob to enjoy.

They also bought some popcorn on the cob which was new to me. I wondered how Tif was going to make it pop.

She knew what to do.

Tif put just one of the popcorn cobs in a bag. I figured it wasn't going to give you much popcorn with just one cob.

She then microwaved it. 

What a surprise!

Just one cob popped a lot of popcorn which was enough to fill a large bowl. The four of us really enjoyed our fill of it with our dinner that evening.

Have you ever done this? 

HNL or ORD in 7 hours 10 minutes

After extensive preparation, we embarked on our journey to Chicago. (This was in August. I'm just needing to record it here so I don't forget.) My brother came to take over the care of our nearly 97-year-old mother. With her memory difficulties worsening, I was apprehensive about leaving her.
 

I know it sounds silly that I was so nervous. Dennis is incredibly capable and did his best to reassure me that everything would be fine. I provided him with detailed instructions on her care. He drove us to the airport happy that we could have this time away.

He kept reminding me constantly by text while we were in Illinois to relax and remember I was on vacation.
 

Surprisingly, our flight to O’Hare was shorter than anticipated, taking only 7 hours and 10 minutes. I was exhausted when we arrived in Chicago at 4:37 AM the following morning.
 
Our luggage arrived promptly, and we were able to leave the airport right away. The baggage clerk in Honolulu had been impressed by the initials I had painted on our luggage and expressed his intention to do the same to his luggage, given the prevalence of black luggage being checked in for flights.
 

Our daughter came to pick us up, and it was wonderful to see her again. After all that travel, we went straight to sleep. I knew we would be jet-lagged for several days, but it was incredible to be back in what used to be our home, where we had spent 35 years working and making wonderful friends.
 

I was telling my daughter and son-in-law how I always ask not to have ice with my drinks because someone told me that the ice was made from water in tanks at the bottom of the plane that might not be as clean.

“The ice generally comes with the flight caterers,” said my daughter. 

“No,” I said. “Someone who knew what they were talking about told me so.” 

“Look it up,” she said with a sigh.

So I did and this is what I found on Travel + Leisure. (https://www.travelandleisure.com/why-you-should-reconsider-ice-on-plane-7509141)

 "In a 2017 peer-reviewed study published in the Annals of Microbiology, researchers took samples of 60 ice cubes from both domestic and industrial facilities, which contained more than 50 different strains of bacteria. As the researchers stated, "A consistent percentage of the microorganisms identified from ice are known agents of human infections, and their presence indicates an environmental contamination.

 That means the cubes are likely picking up the grimy stuff somewhere along the way from the ice factory to your cup—and that's not even accounting for how ice trays aboard planes are likely disgusting. “Don’t get ice in your drink, don’t drink coffee, tea, or hot water on the plane, and don’t touch anything in the lavatory with your bare skin,” a Reddit user claiming to be a flight attendant commented on a viral thread from 2017. “The ice is put in a tray with a scoop, and the trays don’t get cleaned very often. Every surface on the plane is touched by hundreds of people daily and is not often disinfected. We don’t have the opportunity to wash our hands at all during the beverage service.” 

 So OK... that's it. Still no ice for me. 

AI Is Now Used to Scam People

I’m not back to blogging yet, but I thought this was something important I should pass on.

An ad popped out the other day on my iPad that had Bill Gates, Morgan Freeman and some other famous people purporting that some honey-cinnamon blend something or other was going to reverse memory loss.

It really, really looked like Bill Gates, Morgan Freeman and the other famous people who I've forgotten. Yup. I've forgotten which is why I was curious about this. 

The amazing thing is that it all looked REAL. Really, really real!

But I checked online and apparently... yes... it was fake and created using AI.

You seriously can't believe any of these claims anymore. You see so many ads for face creams that promise to remove wrinkles in so many weeks with photos showing Before and After. Well... I already know that's easy to fake with Photoshop.

Anyway... I'm not back to blogging yet, but I just had to warn you about this. I think I saw that Google has now blocked that fake Bill Gates/Morgan Freeman ad which is a good thing. I just hope too many people didn't fall for it.

Blog Hiatus

Sigh...

I'm afraid I'm needing to take another blog hiatus now. I'll be back soon. There's suddenly too much going on for me to keep up with.

I'll try to get myself organized to write about it when I return. Until then, have a wonderful fall everybody. 

Mysterious, Weird Lemon

 I wrote a post earlier in the month about this strange huge lemon that was growing all by itself from a thick branch instead of at the ends of thinner branches. 

One blogger buddy wondered what the inside of the lemon would look like. This has been a strange month for lemons on our tree. We also had some really small lemons with discolored skins. Hurricane Lala blew a bunch of them down. 

But not our huge lemon that was growing where it shouldn't have. It had no problem hanging on and turned yellower with each day. 

Since we'd be on a trip soon with my brother coming to stay at our house with mom, I thought I'd go ahead and pick it to show my blogger buddy. The lemon was pretty hard to twist off as it held on tenaciously to the thick stem.

I

I had one of the small lemons that Hurricane Lala had blown off the tree so I thought I'd cut that one too.

First thing I noticed was that the rind was much harder than usual.

The small lemon was pretty much dried out on the inside so I threw it away.

I used the juicer to get every bit of juice from the big lemon... and it wasn't all that much. 😕

Ah well...

I'm noticing more flowers on the tree now so hopefully they will follow Mother Nature's rule and grow where they should and produce more juice. 😇

Scary AI... Really Scary AI

My grandson, J-- sent us an email to thank us for all the books we'd sent him through Amazon for his birthday. It was lovely to hear from him. I was so pleased to see what a great writer he was turning out to be like his mom and dad. 

But when I scrolled down on my iPhone, I was surprised to see this. 

I couldn't believe the iPhone suggestion answered his questions for me and even celebrated what he wrote about entering middle school. It even included his brother's name in the letter with a suggested closing. 😮

And no... I didn't use the suggestion and wrote my own letter.

But wooow...

If someone replies to me from now on, I'm going to wonder if it was that person or AI.

Woooow... This is spooky to me.

Who Me? Worry?

Why is it that as soon as we leave the islands hurricanes decide to attack? Lala attacked a couple of weeks before we were set to leave for Illinois to visit our daughter and family.

And then we heard about Hurricane Lowell that was passing south of the islands suddenly changing its mind and swerving north toward Kauai next to our island of Oahu. What the heck? 

If that wasn’t enough, suddenly there was another hurricane named Karina. We’re reading how sometimes hurricanes will be drawn to each other and become a monster.

And then it seems there was a Marie… Ackkkk!

My brother is taking care of mom in our house and is usually pretty nonchalant about things. He’s not as hyper-crazy like I am when there’s a calamity threatening. However, with THREE hurricanes threatening, my nephew came over to help his dad put up all the hurricane shields for the 1st floor. I had to use a chair to help install the shields. Cody could put up the entire shield without a ladder. It must be nice to be so tall.

I’m writing this while in Illinois. My brother keeps telling me to relax.

But we’ll be watching as the hurricane season, forecasted to be bad this year drags on.

Getting UP After Falling

Terry, our retired nurse friend sent this video to us about ensuring our ability to get up from a fall. Art and I did take a "Fall Prevention" class, but it was more about how to fall. This video shows exercises on strengthening your muscles so you're able to get up if you do fall.

Hmmm.... well... balance is somewhat difficult for me since I suffer from vertigo. 

Our son, Keola was testing us when he visited to see if we could get up from the floor with crossed legs. 😕 And nope, neither Art nor I can do it. But yes, we can if we're allowed to use our hands.

Ahhh well... I guess I'd better practice doing those pushups. 

Please stay safe, everybody.

Trying Hard to be Positive in Trying Times… and Failing a Little

I’m really trying. I really am. I’m trying not to post too much about Trump. Honest.

But I saw this recently and just had to share it.

And then one of my very good teacher buddies sent this to me.

Sigh…

OK, I got it out of my system.

…for now …

Doubling the Bird of Paradise

We've passed this house and seen this unusual sight before. But this time I just had to take a photo. Growing up in Waipahu, many people had the Bird of Paradise flower in their gardens. 

I think. 😐

I just know we had two large plants. 

I think. 😗 I'll have to ask my brother. But I do know I never saw anything like this.

It's another flower growing out of the original flower.

It does bring to mind the shape of a bird, hence its name. Granted... it would be a two headed bird. 😊 

POSTSCRIPT: We went by the house again several days later and found more birds of paradise blooming. Most of them looked like they were going to do this piggy back type flowers. I guess it must be a new variety of Bird of Paradise.

Remembering Dolly

I've always admired Dolly Parton and loved her music. She was not only mega talented, but was also an incredible person who cared about others. I was amazed to learn she has donated $500 million to so many different causes such as wildfire recovery and vaccine research.

But as a retired teacher, you know I loved how she started the... 

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is dedicated to inspiring a love of reading by gifting books free of charge to children from birth to age five, through funding shared by Dolly Parton and local community partners in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and Republic of Ireland.

She really seemed like such a kind, friendly person and that was evident when my cousin, Arnold sent this photo to me. 

Arnold was a pilot for Hawaiian Airlines. This photo was taken in 1990 or so. He said the cabin crew were all making a fuss over her and he went back to welcome her and say he was one of her fans. She insisted he sit on her lap for a photo and would not take, (I'll bet it was a weak) "no," for an answer. He says Dolly really is as nice as everyone says. Well, Arnold's a sweetie, too! Isn't this just the coolest thing?"

 

 It's really wonderful to know there are famous personalities who are just super nice people and care about everyone.

The world has lost a beautiful, fabulous, human being and we are poorer for it. However, we can count our blessings that she was part of our world for this short time.

All Important Back-Up Power

Hurricane Lala was a wake-up call for us. We've had several storm misses and after a while... you might get a little complacent. 

But this one was definitely scary. Trees were downed in quite a number of places and I've read that 200,000 customers lost power during the height of the storm. My brother was lucky. They never lost power at his condominium.

The Big Island caught the brunt of the storm and the south side will take several years to get back to normal again.

We lost power twice. Luckily, we'd bought a back up power battery called EcoFlow Delta 3 Portable Battery Power Station a year ago from Home Depot. Art always keeps it partially charged.

It's not very large at all and it's quiet. And it did keep our refrigerator running for about 9 hours. Granted, the second time we lost power, Art had to drive the power station to my brother's house to charge it and by the time he returned, power had been restored again. 

I'm thinking we need a back up for the back up for the next time a hurricane comes too close.

And then there's our computer. 

Our son-in-law had set up a UPS system after a brown-out fried both Art and my computers. 

I always thought UPS was United Parcel Service. But no... it also stands for Uninterruptible Power Supply. 

However, when it started beeping and beeping and I still had a blank computer monitor, I figured it wasn't working so I pressed all the different buttons to turn it off.

When I told my son-in-law about it the next day he said there is a MUTE button I could have pressed.

Oops!

Also when I took a photo of the back of the UPS, he said the monitor plug was not in the right place which is why we couldn't see anything and power down our computer. 

The UPS is to give you time to close your computer apps safely before turning it off.

Oops! 

OK... I think it's OK now...

I think.

We'll have to see when the next hurricane come close to us. 😩

We were using flashlights that we put everywhere, but discovered it wasn't the best for mom. I set up a flashlight in her bathroom when the power went off in the evening. 

I decided to get these lantern/flashlights which I hope will be helpful. They can also be charged with sunlight. But if there's a hurricane, will there be sunlight to charge the lanterns? 😳

Sigh...