To Dye or Not to Dye

 OK... I'm really done making masks now. I've made about 200 which I've given out and masks are being sold everywhere for very reasonable prices these days. We even got them for free when we got tested for coronavirus. And we got some from T- Mobile Tuesday too.

But a couple months ago, I started making masks out of 100% cotton t-shirt type material because I'd read that it was an effective mask fabric to use. It was actually originally an oversized turtleneck blouse I had. 

I first had to buy the dye which I finally located at Walmart. I thought the indigo color would be good for guys or girls.

I cut out the mask sections to be sewn later and tied them up with rubber bands.

Art saves these rubber bands that our newspaper delivery person uses to keep the paper together. I've always told him he should just throw them away because we'd never use them. 

I'm glad he didn't listen to me.

I didn't have a squeeze bottle to put the dye in but found this empty Dawn bottle. I'm sure Art has wondered why I save these things too? 

It was a lot of fun to squeeze out the dye onto the rubber banded pieces of fabric.

I then called my daughter, Tiffany to ask her what I should do next since she and my granddaughter had tie dyed t-shirts before. I told her I needed help since I'd never tie-dyed before.

She told me to put the fabric into a bag and let it sit for 24-36 hours.

It was such fun to take off the rubber bands to see what kind of patterns I'd created.

Not bad...

Not bad at all.

Everyone was happy to get them.

Unfortunately, I think they're rather hot to wear after a while. I think it would be great in winter though (on the mainland, that is).

But the funny thing is, after telling Tiffany that I'd never tie dyed before, I found this photo that I took 30 years ago of my son's room after we'd decorated it when he was away visiting Art's sister for a few weeks. I made curtains out of white sheets and had tie dyed it. Strange though... I don't remember doing it.

I wonder what else I've forgotten.

Another YouTube Fix

The light on our ceiling fan had died and I really need that light. However, Art needed to remove the glass covering and see what kind of halogen bulb we had to buy as a replacement.

Unfortunately, that glass covering would not come off. It was slippery, wouldn't budge and we were afraid to break it.

So what did Art do? Yup. Looked it up on YouTube and discovered it's a pretty common problem.

The fellow said to use T-Rex tape which I happened to buy on sale in Illinois last year. 

We stuck it on the glass and twisted. 

To be honest, I didn't think it would work. Afterall, we'd already been trying to twist that glass casing off together with all our strength.

Dang! It worked like a charm. We got the glass cover off, took out the halogen bulb, bought another one and replaced it.

Yay! I have light in my kitchen again. How does one come up with these nifty solutions anyway? 

A Birthday Get-Away

 Art and I have birthdays that are exactly two weeks apart. We've been getting a free birthday drink at Starbucks every year for quite a few years now. We had also built up a bank of star rewards that would equal to another couple of free drinks which were going to expire soon.

Since moving to Hawaii 14 years ago, Art and I have celebrated every birthday and holiday with mom (unless we were traveling) making sure whatever dishes we had would be something we knew she would love.

For Art's birthday we decided to go out and get his free birthday drink and use up some star rewards to get another free drink for me.

It was a guilty pleasure to go out on our own and spend some private time together.

We went to a parking lot and sat under some flowering shower trees.

The breeze was cool. We sipped on our mocha frappuccino and matcha frappuccino with almond milk and gazed at the flowers around us.

It was peaceful and we felt like two delinquent kids.

We couldn't stop smiling and laughing.

That night, we had a special take-out sushi dinner with mom that she loved.

We enjoyed the brief hour so much that two weeks later on my birthday, we did the same thing again.

I was sure that the shower tree season would be over.

But the flowering trees weren't quite finished. As we sat under the trees again with our frappuccinos, the petals started swirling all around us. There's a word for this in Japanese. Hanafubuki. Flower blizzard. 

So there we were sipping on our drinks in the middle of this flower blizzard.

We were so happy.

And mom? Oh yes, another sushi dinner had her smiling too.

Puzzled Off by Shutterfly

Art has enjoyed putting puzzles together during these COVID-19 stay-at-home days. He's never been one for puzzles, but he's really enjoying the challenge of it now. 

It was our daughter who first sent him a couple of Ravensburg puzzles to do and from there it's been COVID history. I've written about this before. I must say Ravensburg does make quality puzzles.

And then, for his birthday, Tiffany and her family sent this 1,014 piece photo puzzle from Shutterfly. It was really pretty and we planned to frame it somehow.

However, after completing everything, he discovered that two of the puzzle pieces just didn't fit. Tiffany contacted Shutterfly and they sent him another puzzle. Art hoped that he could just find those two pieces and replace the non-fitting ones.

Nope! The pieces were different.

This time, he figured he'd do the borders first so he wouldn't be frustrated again.

Would you believe? 

No kidding! That one corner piece on the new puzzle does not fit properly. He tried replacing it with the corner puzzle piece from the old puzzle but the picture is different. 

I wonder if I could just use a Sharpie and color it in.

This is so crazy. It makes no sense. Don't they just use some kind of machine that would just stamp out the pieces automatically so they would all fit?

I guess not.

Sheesh!

Simple Telephone Fix

My 90 year old mother has a difficult time hearing people on the phone. I realized then that using the speakerphone option would be really helpful for her. She doesn't need hearing aids, but probably is a little hard of hearing. The volume control on the phone does not go high enough for her.

Art has hearing aids but doesn't always wear them at home so he's been using the speakerphone option also.

AND... when I'm having to call in prescriptions and need to use the keypad to punch in the prescription numbers, having that speakerphone is really helpful.

It's just one more way technology has made our lives easier.

Groundhog Thursday

Art and I seemed to always know what day it was because I had Zumba on Mondays and Fridays and we walked with our friends at the mall on Wednesdays. Tai chi on Thursdays was also another reference point. Art walked with a classmate and they met another classmate at McDonalds twice a week. On Sundays my brother would stop by to see mom. It's been so long since we've done these things that I've forgotten what else we did and what day we did it on.

Now that there's nothing to mark our days the only thing we have left is Thursday because Friday is garbage pick up.

So every Thursday we'll  exclaim, "It's Groundhog Thursday AGAIN!" just like the movie where the character repeated the day over and over again.

The scary thing is that with nothing to mark our days the months seem to just slip by faster and faster.

Sigh...

Groundhog Thursday seems to arrive within a couple of days.

How are you keeping track of your days?

House Plant in the Storm Drain

When we lived in Illinois we loved keeping plants in the house. We had giant peace lilies, rubber fig trees, areca palms, ficus benjamina, etc. I figured it would help keep the air clean when we were closed up for the Chicago winters.

In fact, our daughter sent us a photo of our very old rubber fig tree that somehow has taken on a very odd shape.

I told her that she should maybe just chop the top off and see if it will grow another shoot at the bottom. She's reluctant to do so since we left that plant with her when we moved back to Hawaii 14 years ago. I'm impressed she's kept it alive this long.

Those rubber fig trees grow absolutely wild here in Hawaii and are HUGE.

We also had a ficus benjamina for a long time which we left with friends when we moved.

Here in Hawaii, we don't keep houseplants. They seem to attract bugs. Besides, we have greenery all year long outside.

After caring for the ficus benjamina for years and always worrying when the leaves started to fall it was a surprise to see this on one of our walks.

Yup. There was a ficus benjamina growing right out of a storm drain. I wonder how deep that drain is and if the roots might be causing some damage. Whatever the case, it sure looked healthy.

POSTSCRIPT:

Just saw this on another morning walk!

It's a very healthy fern!  

I wonder if I'll find a mango tree next time. Just kidding.

When Siri Wouldn't Talk to Me

This post would only be of interest to iPhone users, I'm afraid. Sorry about that.

Apple just did another update on our iPhones. It's iOS 14.0 I normally don't pay attention to these updates, but this time there were changes that seemed like fun.

The widget said I could change Siri's voice. 

OK... I know it's silly. A female American voice is perfectly fine, of course.

But what the heck! I thought I'd change it to a British female for fun. I would have chosen Scottish (I'm reading Outlander right now), but I didn't see it. 

Art chose Irish male.

And then the trouble started. First it was his phone and then mine. Siri would not talk.

Seriously? Why? 

We tried turning off our iPhones and turning it back on again. Nope. Nothing. Siri would only give us text messages. 

So Art looked it up on Apple Support.

We had to go to Settings, Accessibility, Siri and then click on Always Speak Responses.

So PHEW!

Siri is talking to me again, but with a fun English accent. 

I wonder what I can try next. Maybe South African since I love Trevor Noah?

What would you pick?

Flu Shot Confusion

 We get a flu shot every year. The CDC states on its website that July and August are too early for senior citizens to get the shot because its potency will probably be diminished later in the season. They recommend September and October.

I was waiting for October, but then a good friend said she was looking for the High Dose flu shot and it wasn't available at one of the Longs (CVS). She finally found another Longs who said they had the High Dose. I called the Longs near us and they said they didn't have it, but had an alternate which was also for seniors. Well, I decided we should get the High Dose since it was obviously in high demand.  I got all the information on this post from the CDC website.

"The high-dose flu vaccine (Fluzone High-Dose Quadrivalent) contains four times the amount of antigen as the standard-dose inactivated flu vaccine, and has been associated with a stronger immune response following vaccination and better effectiveness than the regular dose flu vaccine in older people in a two-season randomized trial."

 I knew that mom had to have the alternate Fluad Quadrivalent at Kaiser the week before because all their High Dose Fluzone was reserved for their hospitals. 

Art and I went to that Longs (CVS) purported to have the High Dose Fluzone and got our shots.

Then I was hearing from other friends and relatives that they'd gotten the High Dose at other CVS stores. 

Another friend said she was told this alternate Fluad Quadrivalent was better than the High Dose Fluzone which is what she was given.

Sooo... I decided to do some research online to write this blog post and discovered some startling facts.

Here's what I found out about that alternate Fluad Quadrivalent.

"FLUAD and FLUAD Quadrivalent is a standard-dose, inactivated influenza (flu) vaccine, manufactured by Seqirus that contains an adjuvant. During the 2020-2021 influenza season, both trivalent FLUAD and FLUAD Quadrivalent will be available. Both of these vaccines are approved for people 65 years and older. They are manufactured using an egg-based process (like most flu vaccines), and are formulated with an adjuvant called MF59. An adjuvant is an ingredient added to a vaccine that helps create a stronger immune response to vaccination."

"FLUAD was initially approved in Italy in 1997, and at the time of its U.S. approval in November 2015, had been licensed in 38 countries, including Canada and 15 European countries. FLUAD Quadrivalent was approved in the United States in 2020; it will be available for the first time during the 2020-21 season." 

"To date, there have been no randomized studies comparing FLUAD and FLUAD Quadrivalent with High-Dose flu vaccine (brand name, Fluzone High-Dose and Fluzone High-Dose Quadrivalent) against laboratory-confirmed influenza."

 After doing all this research, I decided to make sure we'd gotten the correct High Dose Fluzone we were promised.

Nope.

We were given the alternative Fluad Quad, not the High Dose. And you know? I'm kind of ticked because both Art and I had asked if it was the High Dose and the people there said yes. She even told Art that it was 2 times more effective. Where are they getting their information?

I guess just as our country has not been prepared with the necessary PPEs for our frontline workers, we also don't have enough of the High Dose flu vaccines for all the seniors who would normally get this. 

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed, but we don't go out much and we're doing our best to stay safe. I know most of you are too.

Trump Science?

There was a clip last night of Trump talking to Governor Newsom of California and the secretary of Natural Resources. As they spoke of the urgency of the climate change disaster already happening on the west coast, Trump remarked, 

"I don't think science knows, actually,"

He also said,

"It'll start getting cooler. You just--you just watch."

Duh... well yes, it will start getting cooler. It's fall, for goodness sakes! It's going to be winter after that. This president does not understand the difference between global warming/climate change and seasonal weather change.

And on Wednesday he actually disputed his own CDC director, Dr. Robert Redfield's assertion that the COVID-19 vaccine cannot be ready before the election.

Dr. Redfield also insisted that masks are...

"the most important, powerful public health tool we have... I might even go so far as to say that this face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against COVID than when I take a COVID vaccine."

However, Trump told voters in Philadelphia the night before that... 

"There are a lot of people (who) think the masks are not good."  

I don't understand. Why is he doing this? Why is he rejecting his own advisors and pretty much promoting COVID spread. He's killing his own supporters who believe him and are following his example.

Trump even held a large indoor rally with thousands attending on Sunday in Nevada flouting the state directive limiting indoor gatherings to fewer than 50 people. Very few people wore masks since most of his supporters believe everything he says.

He told The Las Vegas Review-Journal,

"I'm on a stage, and it's very far away."

 Oh wonderful... So it's OK then since he's safe. But what about his supporters who don't wear masks and were certainly not social distancing? I suppose he doesn't care. Everyone who comes near him is tested everyday, so he's safe. 

I'm just shaking my head over here... and not understanding it at all.

Organic Wasp?

 OK. I'll admit it. I've gotten lazy. I now buy prewashed salad from Sam's Club or Costco. I TRUST them to make sure everything is washed properly. I just use my salad tongs and throw bunches of the salad into a bowl, add dressing and pass it out.

The other day, the Sam's Club organic salad had gotten to the last USE BY date so I washed my hands carefully and started to pull out the spinach and lettuce that had gotten a little mushy. The salad had been in our fridge for 4 days. Suddenly I noticed something moving. It's a good thing I had my glasses on.

Good grief! The wasp was moving slowly. I think it was sluggish from being in the cold. Art picked it up with a pair of chopsticks and was going to let it loose outside. I'm sorry, but I told him to kill it. You don't know where the wasp came from. It's packed in the U.S. but you can't be sure it's an insect indigenous to Hawaii.

The scary thing is that my 90 year old mother is severely allergic to bee stings. What if I inadvertently put it in her bowl? The thought of it totally freaks me out. 

I wrote to Sam's Club to let them know and they said they would tell the manager so he would be more careful. I wrote back that the Hawaii manager would have no idea there were bees in the salad. They needed to contact their producers. They said it would be the responsibility of the local manager. 

Whatever the case, I now use chopsticks to carefully look through any salad I buy.

Politically Appropriate Team Names

 I wrote a post in 2010 about our U.S. senator from Illinois, Paul Simon. He was the commencement speaker at our son's graduation from the University of Illinois. I was so moved by his speech that I wrote him a letter telling him so and he actually wrote back to me. This is an excerpt from my post.

...The first thing I remember was him admonishing the Board of Trustees for continuing to use Chief Illiniwek as the mascot for the University of Illinois. I'm proud to say my son was one of those strongly pushing to retire the dancing chief (who was actually dressed as a Sioux instead of an Illiniwek warrior). Mr. Simon told the Board that if one Native American felt it was denigrating to have a person dressed in a Native American costume as a mascot, it needed to stop. He spoke eloquently of prejudice, respect and understanding...

Art was wearing his high school Honokaa Green Dragons t-shirt the other day and it got me thinking about sports team logos and mascots. 

I wondered who came up with the idea of a green dragon. I didn't think there were green dragons in Hawaiian lore so I looked online. Would you believe there is a legend with dragons? Here's the link. https://www.to-hawaii.com/legends/puna.php

I don't think the Hawaiian people would mind Honoka'a High School using the dragon as their mascot.

I've always wondered why we had the Marauders as our mascot/logo for Waipahu High School. 

I mean really? A marauder? Whoever came up with that? Marauders are not good people. And if you look at the logo, you see they didn't look nice and didn't look like they would play fair.

Ah well...

At least it's more or less politically safe, just like Green Dragons. 

What was your high school logo/mascot? Can you think of a better name for the Washington Red Skins? Because... seriously... don't you think that's a terrible name?

Nonsensical Nightmare

We'd watched the last episode of the British detective show Endeavor on PBS that night. It was interesting though we talked about how parts of it didn't make sense. 

That night, I had this weird dream. I was a detective with a partner who was late showing up while we were looking for some killers. I saw them in the distance while watching on a garage roof. I had a flashlight that was shaking because I was scared. And I was a man. Sheesh!

Anyway.... I got more and more scared that the killers were closing in on me and I couldn't keep my flashlight steady so my partner would know where I was. (Yes, I know. The killers would see my light too, but when do dreams make sense?)

Suddenly a hand shot out and grabbed my shoulder and I jumped off the roof! Yup. I did. 

I'd actually jumped (rolled) off the bed. The hand that touched me was Art trying to gently wake me because he knew I was having a nightmare. 

Good grief! 

We were both shocked to see me standing next to the bed. It's a good thing I didn't hurt myself because I would never be able to explain this to my doctor.

Sheesh!

Sit or Stand

I have been tied to my computer for the last two months working on a genealogy photobook for our children and grandchildren. I suppose it's something to do with being on a Coronavirus lock-down or maybe just that I'm of that certain age where I want things recorded for the kids so they can know the roots and branches of their family tree. I thought I'd be done in a couple of weeks. That was a wild miscalculation. Whatever the case, I'm done and it's now Art and our daughter's job to edit for errors. 

Before I start with another photobook to record our family photos for the kids with a condensed snapshot of our lives for the past 40+ years, I'm taking a break and blogging again.

It's still having to work on the computer and therein was the problem.

In 2013, I'd read that it was better to stand than to sit at the computer.

So we constructed a shelf to elevate the monitor.

And I did like it. I could stand or sit. It gave me more freedom of movement. Eventually, I got a bigger monitor and still loved standing or sitting.

However.... 

Last month I noticed that the monitor was a little far away and... sigh... my eye sight might be getting worse. My brother had also complained about this when he used my computer.

Poor Art. I commandeered him to help me change everything again. He didn't mind since he does have time on his hands. It was rather a hassle because of all the wiring that we had to change... AGAIN. 

He even gave me his more comfortable office chair. But then, after a few weeks would you believe my butt started to hurt? Seriously. I never expected that to happen. Is it because I'm older now and there's less fat where it would have helped? Even an added cushion didn't help.

And my blood sugar rose. Darn! I haven't been able to go for Zumba classes or tai chi and we're stuck at home most of the time. And there I was sitting for long periods. 

So.....

It wasn't easy to mention my predicament to Art after all the trouble he's gone through.

And here I am, back to mostly standing (and sometimes sitting) with the monitor even closer to me. 

So far so good.

At least Art hopes so.

Tested for COVID-19

Hello everybody! 

Gosh it's been a while since I last posted. Looks like the whole Blogger format has changed. 😬 I hope I don't goof up doing this post.

I'm still excruciatingly at work on the family history book. However, I took a break and went for the free COVID-19 test here on Oahu and I just had to report on it quickly for my island family and friends.

Hawaii has gone from being one of the safest states with the lowest numbers of COVID-19 to being one of the worst. At one time, there were even mainlanders who were trying to get here because our numbers were so low. 

But alas! We also have people here who are disregarding the rules to wear masks, social distance and not hold large gatherings. They were even at City Hall protesting the Lock Down because they felt their civil rights were being infringed. And yes, they didn't feel they needed to wear masks. Now where do you think they're getting that idea from? 😒

So here we are with one of the worst numbers per capita in the country. We even had the surgeon general assisting our state government. Our Health Director, Bruce Anderson and State Epidemiologist, Sarah Park have been removed for ineffectiveness and replaced.

The latest effort is to have Surge Coronavirus Testing. They're trying to get 90,000 tests administered in two weeks. This was the first week. We weren't going to participate at first but then friends told us that it was quite easy and helpful for the state to get better data. So we went.

We registered first at https://www.doineedacovid19test.com/  It was very helpful to complete the registration online before going and bringing the printed voucher with us.

We signed up to go to Mililani District Park yesterday.

There's a large field there so lots of social distancing.

There was a trickle of people arriving for the test, but no line.

We presented our voucher and the National Guard attendant took our information and wrote it on the test vial.

The online registration website gives you the information on what to expect and there were also banners there telling you what to do.

We were directed by firefighters to head toward the line of tents set up for the procedure.

A nurse then explained how we were to remove the swab and insert it up our nose. That wasn't the best feeling and it did make me sneeze. I then had to place the swab into the test vial, twist it shut and seal it in an envelope. 

They gave us 5 cotton masks to take with us. I'm actually surprised at how comfortable these masks are.

So there you have it. It's our excitement for the week.

I shall have to leave again now and get back to work on our family history photobook.

Until I return, take care and stay safe please.

POSTSCRIPT 1: No, I haven't gotten my results yet. It's probably delayed because of the Labor Day weekend. I just wanted to note that interestingly these masks have copper and silver in it which is supposed to be even more effective. Cool!

POSTSCRIPT 2: 

Yay!

Medicare Scam Call

I'm not back to blogging yet, but I needed to get this out to warn you of a scam that is apparently not just in Hawaii, but around the country.

I got a phone call yesterday on our landline from a woman purporting to be from the Government Medicare Services. I'm sorry but she had a thick Indian accent which immediately put me on guard. She asked me if I'd received my new Medicare card and wanted to verify my address. I told her they already had the correct address and I was busy so... "No thank you."

Today, Art picked up the call and it was a man this time. Again, he had a very thick Indian accent and said his name was Oliver Brown (Art asked him for his name). The fellow asked Art if he'd gotten his Medicare card and told him he just wanted to verify some information they had.

He asked for our address. Art told him they already had our address and it was correct. They have our phone number so that's correct too.

Art then interjected and asked where this Oliver Brown was calling from. The fellow slowly, very haltingly gave Art his phone number which later proved to be non-existent. Art checked. Oliver Brown said he was calling from Washington and that Medicare was going to send a plastic card to replace the paper ones we were issued.

At that point, Art told him he was very busy and hung up.

Please be careful everyone. There are even more scammers out there proliferating along with COVID-19.

Please wear your masks, keep your social distances and stay healthy. Our COVID-19 numbers in Hawaii are now exploding with each day because... yes... we also have people who are not wearing masks and are having social gathering everywhere. It's spooky!

Very spooky.

Sigh of Relief!

Huuuge sigh of relief!

Thank you everyone for your well wishes.

I was really nervous this time, but Art was quite calm. He told me in the afternoon that he thought it would veer north. I told him he would be sorry to be proven wrong.

OK...

So he was right this time.

And even though I have to endure a bit of gloating, I am extremely relieved.

Extremely.

And now I've got to water the plants with all the water I've saved in plastic bottles. Or we could use it to do the laundry like we did the last time a hurricane passed by.

We were lucky this time, but it's only the start of the hurricane season.

My cousins on Kauai have told me what it was like with category 4 Hurricane Iniki. I am really hoping we don't have to experience what they did.

Fingers crossed.

Targeted By Hurricane Douglas

No, I'm not back to blogging yet. I'm still working on our family photo books and even making a few more masks. I think I'm addicted to making them.

HOWEVER.... I did want to let you know that we are taking Hurricane Douglas seriously. I know we're really serious because Art isn't saying, "Don't worry about it. It will probably change course." I'm usually the one saying we need to get our hurricane kit ready. We need to get some canned goods.

I saw this on the Washington Post website which is really, really scary looking.

This time, Art made sure to get his super charger charged. It's supposed to be a super battery that can recharge your car battery or anything else apparently. And we're getting all our plastic bottles ready to store water. We also have a tub liner to save even more water for the toilet. I've got our flashlights and we have batteries. We have a small camp stove.

And yet, this morning our skies were quite reassuring.

Is this what they mean by the calm before the storm?

Last year, we went to an AARP presentation about hurricanes. They suggested getting a contractor to create hurricane barriers for windows and doors. Some people install plywood sheets, but they're really too heavy for us to handle.

These polycarbonate sheets are supposed to be good. They're light and hopefully strong enough.

Unfortunately we don't have a storage area for super big panels so we settled for these astroguard fabric barriers. I HOPE they're good.

It took us a couple of days to get these up (about an hour and a half each day). We have a few more to put up, but we'll wait till tomorrow to do the rest. It's definitely a two man job.

Douglas is supposed to hit Oahu tomorrow.

We're keeping our fingers and toes crossed.

Blog Hiatus

I shall be taking a bit of a break for a couple of weeks or so. I’ve started working on a genealogy photobook of Art’s family for our children.

Actually, Art’s author aunt (his dad’s youngest sister) who has had several books published, did a family history book a couple decades ago.

However, I’m planning to compile some of what she wrote and add it to Art’s mom’s side of the family.  Then I'll add in our children and their families to pass down to our grandchildren.

I’m quite energized by this project, but it’s taking up all of my concentration so I’ll have to stop blogging for a while.

Until I see you again, please stay safe.

Relief

I wrote a post a couple of weeks ago about an elderly lady feeding a bagful of bread crumbs for pigeons on our street. We were very reluctant to do so, but we finally brought up the courage to ask her caregiver who was waiting alongside to not feed the pigeons on our street because it attracted and drew more birds to roost on our roofs and possibly drop bird mites into our homes.

They were very understanding and stopped feeding them the next day which caused the pigeons to follow us in droves when we went past the following morning. It was rather disconcerting.

We then noticed that we no longer saw the two women on our walks the following week and felt very bad. Did they feel they were no longer welcome? Did we devastate her so much that she no longer wanted to go out and exercise? Did we embarrass her so much that she was now homebound and not wanting to go out at all? Did we take away all her joy?

Was it only me that wondered about this? But no, Art mentioned that he was wondering the same thing.

Sigh...

Well, guess what? We saw them this morning when we went for our walk. They must have gotten up before us and were walking far ahead of us. We caught up to them and wished them a good morning and thanked them for their understanding. There were lots of smiles and good feelings.

As we climbed further up the hill away from them, Art chuckled and asked, "Did you see her bag of crumbs?"

Snail Mail in Corona Virus Times

My cousin "Ricky" in Tokyo keeps in contact with me by a texting app called Line. Line works best for sending photos and texts, etc. while overseas as well as at home. In fact, I use a different texting app for different groups of people. I do Line with Japan and family here on Oahu. With my children in Maryland and Illinois, I use Google Hangouts. My tai-chi sewing group and I as well as my teacher friends in Illinois use regular texting.

OK.... There I go, getting distracted.

I was actually planning to write about the opposite thing. SNAIL MAIL

My mother and her sister in Sendai send regular letters to each other by snail mail. In fact, my mother was a little upset when she learned that you couldn't find aerograms here in the US anymore. Aerograms are very thin folded letters. I guess you can still get them in Japan because that's what mom is always waiting for from my aunt.

I suggested to Ricky that we could have our mothers write letters, scan and email them to each other. We could even send them on LINE.

But no. My aunt insisted that she wanted to get her letters in the mailbox. She wanted the anticipation and to feel my mother's pages and see the texture of her strokes, etc.

So... OK... I finally convinced mom that she could write as much as she liked up to about three 8.5 x 11 inch papers and it would cost the same as an aerogram these days.

Nope. She wanted us to find paper about the size of the aerograms. So we did. Sigh...

Well, Ricky told me in April that his mom had sent my mom a letter. Mom waited and waited and waited and it didn't come.

Last week we finally got Auntie's letter. And then! The following day we got another one!!! Apparently, the post office in Japan had told her that the coronavirus was impacting mail.

All right... You know where this is going, right?

I convinced them that at least until the virus is under control, we should try the email method.

I've learned long ago that the Japanese letter size is different from ours. I discovered that when I bought some plastic folders in Japan that wouldn't fit regular 8.5 X 11 inch papers.

So....

Despite the fact that my math brain is not great, I had to figure out what would be the correct ratio so that printing would be easier for my uncle to do in Sendai.

Ricky can't do this for them since he lives in Tokyo.

Anyway, my mom is on the program with us and really likes the idea of mail traveling faster although she says letters are meant to go in the mail.

I told her it's progress. This is why she can have a treadmill for exercise in her family room. This is why she has a big screen TV. This is why I can show her photos from her grandchildren and great grandchildren almost nightly.

Sigh...

"I guess so," she said.

Organic Weed/Grass Killer

Art has been bothered by grass poking through the sidewalk but didn't want to use Roundup weedkiller. I told him I'd heard that putting vinegar on the grass would do the job. Ummm... He tried it and it really didn't do the job.

He looked online for an organic formula to do the job and found something he thought he'd try. After all, that organic borax/sugar ant killer certainly worked.

And this is what he found.

1/2 gallon white vinegar
1/2 cup salt
1/2 Tablespoon liquid dish washer

Although he did need two applications, it appears to have sort of worked.

We'll see if it grows back in the coming days.

Stickers to the Heart

Now that we're home almost all the time, I guess we're noticing more things that make us smile. Art pointed out some stickers that the grandkids left after their visits to Hawaii. I guess we just couldn't bring ourselves to take them down.

I never knew that our granddaughter, KC had placed these stickers on Art's electric toothbrush. I thought that's how they came when he bought it.

This poster was given to Art by our son of the Chicago Transit map to remind him of the routes he took when he worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  The stickers were put up by our grandsons, JD and RK.

I remember our kids having sticker albums when they were in elementary school. I wonder what the fascination is with stickers. But to be honest, I have a little sticker collection of my own now that I use to sometimes decorate cards that I mail out or to add to my calendar. I wonder if they stuck stickers anywhere else. I shall have to go and look. Afterall, I have the time.

Mom's Advice to Stay Healthy

There is a (pretty) tree next to our house that sheds different parts of itself throughout the year. There's the flower season, the stick season and leaf season. We're now in the leaf season. Mom complains about that tree and insists on staying out for perhaps an hour and a half each morning picking up another load of tree parts that fell on the road and sidewalk during the night.

I know many people in our town have actually cut down the trees that were planted decades ago on that road verge for that reason. And yet a lot of people will happily park their cars under this tree for the wonderful shade it provides.

By the way, I didn't know it was called a road verge. I thought it was called a parkway, but apparently it goes by different names in different regions. I got this from Wikipedia:

A road verge is a strip of grass or plants, and sometimes also trees, located between a roadway (carriageway) and a sidewalk (pavement). Verges are known by dozens of other names, often quite regional; see Terminology.

Anyway...

Mom has been doing this for perhaps 20 years, maybe more.

We keep telling her it's not necessary. Nobody does this. She's insisted it looks messy. Many neighbors have also put concrete over the verges so they don't have to take care of any ground cover.

Mom would be aghast.

This morning, Art went out to tell her again that it's not necessary and that she should come in and rest.

"No," said Mom. "I am 90 years old. This is my exercise. I also get Vitamin D."

As I watched from my office I could hear Art laugh. "If I live to be 90," he told her, "I will have to pick up leaves too."

Well, Mom has come in now to have her mid morning snack and I can see more leaves falling gently to the street.

Plans for the 4th?

Good grief!

Is it Friday already? Wasn't it just Monday a couple days ago?

Well...

This was Tuesday.

We were so glad to see that the Open (Farmers) Market was once more in operation.

Unfortunately several of the vendors were no longer there. Our favorite vendor told us that the others were not here because they could get more income through unemployment.

Sigh...

Hopefully, they'll be back once we are over the pandemic.

I gave our favorite vendor a couple of masks as a tip. I hope they like wearing them. I'm happy to say we got our usual papayas and other favorite vegetables.

Art is getting sushi for the 4th of July tomorrow. Our local government is worried about people who might choose not to social distance tomorrow. Fingers crossed. We've already had an uptick in COVID-19 cases from church, graduation and funeral gatherings. I know you are careful. I hope others are.

Happy 4th of July!!!