Two of mom's orchid plants had bloomed and I thought I'd share it with you. I took a bunch of photos and saw that something about that fuchsia color just wasn't turning out very clearly.
When I was teaching in Illinois, a friend of mine introduced me to Brown's Chicken's Buffalo wings. The store happened to be a short walking distance from our school so she and I would go and get it once a week (could it have been twice?) for lunch.
Well... my cholesterol jumped. The doctor asked me what I was eating and I said chicken.
"What part of the chicken?" he asked.
So I confessed and he said I should stop getting it so often.
Darn!
So I stopped eating wings. Buuut... I have tried Hardees, Kentucky Fried Chicken, El Pollo Loco, Chick-fil-A, Popeye's, Boston Market, Zippy's Broasted (That's what they used to call it.) Chicken, etc.
But then.... one night we decided we'd go ahead and buy some for dinner. Geeee... The menu really is just chicken fingers. Even the sandwich just has fried chicken fingers in it.
Our daughter, Tiffany warned us to eat it with the sauce.
Art bought the Caniac Combo which had 6 chicken fingers and then 3 more fingers (as a side order) just in case.
Although the 3 fingers were a side order, they had another sauce, toast and fries.
That was a lot of food. The fingers were quite large so 2 a piece was more than enough.
Mom had a finger for lunch the next day and Art made a sandwich with 2 of them since I didn't much care for it.
The drink was so large that we split it between the three of us.
I did make a little green salad to go with it.
OK... So what did we think?
Mom liked it a lot. She loved that the fingers were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. She liked the sauce too. Let's face it, mom likes carry-out food... any kind of carry-out food.
Art liked the tenderness and juiciness of the chicken fingers and said the sauce was OK. The problem for Raising Cane's is that they only have one kind of sauce.
You have to remember that I have lost my sense of smell and actually don't have a full sense of taste. Therefore, the chicken was boring and not worth the glucose it would raise in my blood. And the sauce was too mild. That's why I gave Art my chicken finger for his lunch the next day.
Would we go back there again? I don't think so.
I think the problem for Raising Cane's is going to be their extremely limited menu. It's a chicken finger restaurant. After an initial rush of people trying this new place, we're not seeing a lot of crowds around the store anymore.
I saw online that Raising Cane's is part of the Panda Express Restaurant Group. I thought that was interesting.
Looks like Chick-fil-A will come to Oahu. It's on Maui now. At least they have more sauce options.
What is your favorite chicken place?
The last time we saw our son and his family was in December, 2019 just before the pandemic began. We hoped to see them this year, but in spring, Keola told us that they were moving to Sri Lanka.
What? Where the heck is Sri Lanka? But we had a cruise scheduled until late May. Keola felt they'd be so busy that it wouldn't be a good time for us to fly to Maryland in July since they were leaving in August. We also had a bunch of doctor's appointments scheduled for all of us around that time. Whatever the case, they had a bunch of unfortunate delays and they ended up leaving in early September.
Keola said they'd always told us they wanted to go overseas.
"I know." I said, "But I guess I hoped you guys had forgotten about that." Both Keola and my daughter-in-law met when they were Peace Corps Volunteers so I supposed it's how they view their lives.
Around that time, we heard news about the citizens storming the presidential palace in Colombo. Accck!
"Not to worry," said Jon. Unlike the January 6th insurrection here, the people even waited in lines to storm the palace and did not seek to destroy it like the Trump supporters did at the U.S. Capitol.
They flew out of Washington's Dulles International Airport. It was a 12 hour flight to Doha (capital of Qatar) with an 8 hour layover before their 5 hour flight to Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Needless to say, they were exhausted as my grandson is showing here as he mimicked the statue.
They've already visited an aquarium and had fun at a children's park train ride. One thing that unnerves the boys are people staring and wanting to take a photo with them. The other thing is the food. It is very spicy and right now, Keola is trying to figure out what sort of food they can get for them.
I guess he and my daughter-in-law had always planned this sort of life for themselves.
Art and I will have to adapt.
I recently ran into my Zumba friend, Myrtle at the mall. We talked about missing our Zumba group and how it all ended with the pandemic. Anyway, it reminded me of the helpful hints she used to email us.
I have a bunch of glasses that did come out of the dishwasher with that rather unattractive cloudiness so I thought I'd try it.
Ahhhh wellll....
I love how we bloggers learn from each other.
John of The AC is On explained how you can use Ctrl + Z to undo an action you regret. Don't put the + though. Just press the Ctrl button and then z.
Yes, I knew about the reverse arrow when you're writing a post but the Ctrl z is great when you're doing other things on your computer.
I looked up Keyboard shortcuts on Windows and found other helpful hints.
Advance-Africa.com also had more Cntrl key shortcuts. They explain Apple keyboards also:
Apple control key
Apple command key on Apple computer keyboards the Ctrl key is written as "control" and is next to the option key and command key as shown in the picture to the right.
As far as the placement, the control keys are found in the same location as the Ctrl keys on an IBM computer.
I do often use the Ctrl + c to copy something and then Ctrl + v to paste it elsewhere. My brother taught me those. I don't think I can remember much else, but these three shortcuts are sure helpful.
Thank you, John of The AC is On.
One of Art's cousins went to Seattle and got to try an apple called Cosmic Crisp. She liked it so much that she brought some back and gave us several to try. We usually buy an apple called Envy that is very popular here in Hawaii. It was my Zumba buddies (before the pandemic halted the classes) that introduced me to Envy so that's what we buy all the time from Sam's Club. It's a little bit on the pricier side, but not bad.
Well, after trying the Cosmic Crisp, we decided it was just as crispy as Envy and tasted almost the same. That's what Art said anyway because my sense of taste is very bad now. However, I can tell you it IS very crispy.
Art and I share an apple every day at lunch. It's to balance out the unhealthier teeny bit of potato chips we also have with our sandwich.
I wonder how long the Cosmic Crisp season will last. Ah well... we'll enjoy it while we can.
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Oh darn!
Although most of the apples were fine, too many were brown and discolored on the inside. Surprisingly, it was still relatively crisp, but I had to toss them out. I wonder if that's why they were selling them for a lower price.
We went back to Sam's Club another day and saw they had Envy, BUT they were NOT crispy. What the heck! This is usually the time we went apple picking in Illinois. Why are these not great?
OK...
Still not much to write about so I'm digging deep
...into my fridge.
Aha! THE BLUEBERRIES!
The blueberries we get at Sam's Club and Costco have been more or less normalish size from what we've been used to getting in Hawaii, BUT the last two times we bought them they were gigantic. I told Art they could be grape size. The problem with gigantic blueberries is that they aren't great for my muffins. They take up too much room.
And that is a bambucha memory I will always treasure. I don't think that's the proper use of the word... but oh well.
OK....
I'm hitting a dry spell here on ideas for a blog post so Art suggested I write about wilted lettuce. (I happened to be soaking my lettuce at the time.)
"Nope," I said. "I've already written about lettuce."
But guess what. Although I did write about a wasp in my lettuce and how to wash lettuce, I've never specifically written about wilted lettuce. 😁
So here goes.
We were at the market two days ago and Art was looking at the green leaf lettuce. They looked awful... wilted beyond hope...almost beyond hope. And we needed the lettuce for sandwiches and salads. I told him I could try to perk them up.
(If I'd known I was going to write about this, I would have taken a BEFORE photo. Therefore you'll just have to take my word for it that they looked pretty terrible. The reason I bought them was because they were all green.)
The problem was... I forgot to work on them until today so they looked even more sad. Still I broke off the stem (to soak up water better) and left them to crisp up.
Friends have suggested all kinds of things to get rid of those pigeons on our roof. Our good friend, Dave sent us a YouTube video of a fellow with the exact same pigeon poop/debris problem as us on and under his solar panels. This fellow showed how he'd rigged a hose and camera system on his roof so that whenever he spotted the pigeons on his video he could turn on the water from below.
Ummm... he'd only had it up for a week, so I'm dubious.
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We had those set up to scare the bulbuls and mynahs who attacked mom's orchids. It worked for maybe... maybe a week before mom said she could swear the birds were laughing at her.
Well, Art has been spraying the pigeons for a week and they keep coming back.
In fact, we really think they're so smart they're just landing on a part of the roof that he can't see from the ground. Yes, it's true. Birds can learn and figure out how to outwit you.
So OK... Art is now climbing to a lower part of the roof that is relatively safe. And Dave loaned him a stronger hose sprayer that can reach farther.
I also came up with an excellent idea (if I do say so myself). Uuummm... I am taking credit for spraying the birds too, by the way.
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Our daughter had bought these trays to make tiny ice pieces for her slim neck thermos which couldn't fit big ice cubes.
I figured these little pellets wouldn't hurt the solar panels but would startle the pigeons.
We have studied those pigeons and know they now like to come at dawn or dusk so Art got up on the lower roof and threw a few of those ice pellets in an area he thought they might be.
We had no idea there were THAT MANY pigeons on the roof. Where were they hiding?
Sheesh!
Art will be varying his startle weapons each morning and dusk to keep those birds on their toes... or wings, that is.
We're keeping our fingers crossed.
After about a week of the ice pellet/water spray surprise attacks we didn't see as many pigeons in the evening. We'd counted about 28 pigeons who were calling our rooftop their home before.
HOWEVER: This morning we happened to look at our neighbor's roof and saw this.
Arrrgghhh...
And then.... about an hour later, guess where they went?
Arrrgghhhhhhh....
Making more ice pellets now.
A long time ago, Red of Hiawatha House asked the question:
Which part of your life surprises you the most and why?
I guess it would have to be Art.
When we initially met through a mutual friend, he must have thought I was an unworldly, naïve, young girl. I was a student at the University of Hawaii. I am five years younger and at the time had only been off the island twice, once to Kauai when I was about 10 years old and then two years before on an Art and Architecture college study trip to Japan. I was fine with not traveling. I'm semi-agoraphobic, I think. Art on the other hand was in the Air Force, been stationed in New Hampshire and California and loved travel and new situations. He'd also gone to Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois.
I did not think we would be anything serious, but 5 months later we were engaged.
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But there were some things that made it feel like it was meant to be.
Our birthdays are exactly two weeks apart.
He has one older sister. I have one younger brother.
We both appreciate artwork.
Hmmm... OK, that's it.
There are more differences.
He loves math and figuring things out. I don't. Math was always my weakest subject.
He hates to write. It's something I enjoy.
He likes science fiction. I prefer fantasy, (OK fine... romance) or regular fiction.
He loves traveling. I'm willing to go along, but don't ask me to plan anything.
I love dark chocolate, he doesn't love chocolate. Why? How can that be?
There are more differences than similarities.
However, it surprises me that I've been so lucky. His parents were absolutely the best and I loved them both dearly. He was willing to pull up roots in Illinois after 35 years of living there to return home to Hawaii so we could take care of my mother after my father passed away. He encouraged me to broaden my horizons, go back to teaching and work in Illinois and welcome new experiences. People often thought my brother, Dennis was his brother in the early days and not mine because they did so much together while we lived in Hawaii.
So I guess, yes. That's what surprises me most. I've been awfully lucky.
And you know what else? His sister's name is Kay too. You see? It was meant to be.
We've been hearing about the devastation Hurricane Fiona caused through Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland after hitting Puerto Rico and Bermuda.
It seems like there's one awful natural calamity after another lately. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed for Hawaii.
This brought to mind our trip to Canada in 2004 when we were celebrating Art's 60th birthday. It was one of our happiest experiences. We love Canada and Canadians. They have been invariably friendly, helpful and kind. This trip through Nova Scotia, PEI will always stay in my mind as one of our best... especially because of the people we met.
We stayed at one bed and breakfast where the husband was off on an errand but saw us in the breakfast room and just had to spend a half hour or more chatting with us about American politics. I was embarrassed that I didn't know much at all about Canadian politics, but he knew more than me about our American system.
Another bed and breakfast suggested going out to Balancing Rock. I've written about this before, but Hurricane Fiona brought it to mind because it's in Digby Neck in Nova Scotia.
We couldn't believe it! I don't know how it can just balance there like that with waves crashing below. It looked like someone could just cough and it would blow over.
I hope everyone is OK and can recover quickly and I hope that rock is still balancing. Perhaps one day, we'll go back there and see for ourselves.
I'm not a big sports fan, but I have heard of Brett Favre. Have you heard the latest news about him? You already know he's a big time millionaire football player, right? (Uuuummmm.... He's also a Trump supporter.)
This was in USA Today:
The State of Mississippi is suing former NFL quarterback and Hall of Famer Brett Favre and others, alleging they misspent millions of dollars that had been allocated for welfare.
Newly-revealed text messages from 2017 indicate that former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, who left office in 2020, was aware of the arrangement, and that the money that was intended to help low-income families. After being funneled through a nonprofit, it eventually went to Favre to help build a volleyball facility at the University of Southern Mississippi, the lawsuit alleges.
It was also on CNBC that:
Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, his spouse and two adult children are giving away their ownership in the apparel maker he started some 50 years ago, dedicating all profits from the company to projects and organizations that will protect wild land and biodiversity and fight the climate crisis.The company is worth about $3 billion, according to the New York Times. (This photo is from The Seattle Times.)
So there you have it. Two very rich people and what they did with money. As for Favre, it wasn't even his money. He actually stole from the poor to give to himself (to build a volleyball arena for his daughter's college) and then said he didn't know what was happening even though there are text messages that prove he did.
It's really darn pathetic. Really, really pathetic.
We have been plagued by pigeons (sometimes 20+ of them) living on top and under our solar panels. We could hear them skittering on our roof constantly. What the heck! How heavy can their little feet be? And the cooing.... cooing... cooing! You might think that's lovely and loving, but it gets annoying and would you believe... LOUD? Our neighbors even mentioned that they could hear them. Then we started getting bites which another neighbor suggested was from bird mites.
One neighbor had been feeding pigeons a couple of houses down. Another neighbor, Steve and Art went together and asked them if they could please stop because Steve was aware of the pigeon bird mites from his workplace. Thankfully, the pigeon feeders kindly stopped.
Then another person who lived much farther away was actually coming to our street to feed the birds while on their walks. Why our street? Why not at their own house? I asked them to please do it elsewhere and they have. (This is Hawaii. There's always something for birds to eat.) But it was too late.
When we had our roof/gutter cleaner, Ku come to wash down our gutters and solar panels, he said he didn't like to touch under the panels because he didn't want to get bird mite bites.
It was great that the solar company knew how to remove the panels to clean underneath it. Our microinverter was covered in bird poop.
The roof was covered with bird poop. There was lots and lots of nesting material under the panels and even a dead bird.
The next day, two pigeons came back and kept walking around and around the panels looking for a way in.
But they didn't leave. They sat in the gutter instead.
The day after that, there were half a dozen pigeons.
Arrgghhhh!
I looked up pigeon problems online.
They confirmed what I already knew. The cooing can get very loud and annoying. It's also a sign that they are loving our roof and loving each other.... if you get my drift... thus the nesting for their babies. The website mentioned how you have to make the birds uncomfortable and not like your house.
Uuuummmm..... Hoooow?
So Art started looking up water guns that he could shoot onto the roof from the ground. The kids and I have forbidden him from climbing onto the roof.
Today, I told him to just use our water sprinkle to startle them so he gave it a try.
Would you believe a strong splash of water had a CLOUD of pigeons go scattering into the sky? We actually couldn't count them because there were so many pigeons. We had no idea there were that many pigeons up there.
So I guess our plan now is to go out two or three times a day and splash them. But will they learn that it's just water and that our home is still their happy cooing place to be?
I hope not because I can only keep Art off the roof for so long.
Looks like Blogspot is having ANOTHER problem. I've tried to check on several bloggers' websites (on my sidebar) and have gotten this weird thing showing up.
We recently had a problem with electricity fluttering and sputtering for a good 2 hours. I should have turned OFF my computer right away, but like an idiot kept waiting for it to start working again. Luckily, my computer did not die. I did not lose everything. My back-up drives did not get fried from power surges.
But you know what? Those AC to DC electrical converter plugs take up a lot of room. Sooo... I do still have room, but not as much an abundance of space as I'd hoped.
Then I noticed the 2100 J on the box and wondered what that was. It's JOULES. I found this explanation on the Tripp-Lite website:
A joule is a measure of energy released over a period of time. For example, an average lightning strike releases about one billion joules of energy over a fraction of a second.
A surge protector joule rating indicates how much energy it can absorb before it fails. The higher the number of joules, the greater the surge protection provided. Keys to determining the amount of protection needed include the type and value of the equipment to be protected.
So do I have enough joules? I didn't even think to check that. This is what the website said:
A unit with up to 1000 joules of surge protection is adequate for these small electronics. Some components have sensitive circuitry requiring protection, but don’t store extensive data. Units with surge protector ratings of 1000 to 2000 joules will provide sufficient protection for power tools and office equipment such as printers, copiers and routers. Consider the highest joule ratings—2000 and above—for home theater components, gaming consoles and any computer that stores important data… anything from customer lists to financial information to irreplaceable photos and personal records.
Fingers crossed that I have enough. Then again, we don't get lightning strikes much. I think.
The main thing is... I will try to remember to turn off my computer quickly the next time we get some kind of Hawaiian Electric problem again.
After a very long illness filled with suffering, my mother's sister, Dorothy passed away last week. She was bed-ridden for much of it and it pained us all to see her that way. We would visit her once a week and mom would try to massage auntie's legs to provide more circulation and read letters to her from their sister in Japan. When the end seemed imminent I was able to thank auntie for all her kindnesses toward me and my baby brother throughout our childhood and when Art and I returned to Hawaii. I'll always remember her smiling. I can almost remember her laughter. Mom couldn't say goodbye. She couldn't find the words.
When my cousin texted to let me know that auntie had passed away a few days later, mom was relieved for her sister. She knew her sister's suffering was at an end.
But then... there was sadness. She said she'd lost all her friends and her sisters (here in Hawaii). And yes, at almost 93, most of her close friends had passed away.
She then felt forgotten... and I realized the pandemic had made it seem as though a lot of our family had forgotten her. The fact that she doesn't speak English makes things hard too and we haven't had any family gatherings for 3 years in order to protect her from COVID.
We took her to Foster Gardens in Honolulu. It has been a long, long time since we'd been there. In fact, the last time was with Auntie Dorothy and with Auntie Grace who passed away seven years ago. Everyone was full of health and energy back then.
There were baby palmettos growing alongside its bigger companions.
It was the leaves that caught our eyes.
They're split half way down the middle forming a little V. We'd never noticed anything like that before.
Art went back and asked for a leaflet written in Japanese for mom which she really enjoyed looking at.
Art received the following FORWARDED message a while ago and told me I should put it on my blog. Hmmmm.... I don't like to put misinformation on my blog so I checked some (not all) of the facts. He sent those fun facts to his sister and I hope she doesn't pass it on. I put what I checked in red.
Men can read smaller print than women can; women can hear better.
OK... I find this is true with Art and me. He can read much smaller print that me, but yes, I can hear much better than him. But is this true of others? I don't know.
Nope. Not true. I checked SNOPES and got this:
"The original formula called for caramel to give Coca-Cola its rich brown color, and although the recipe has undergone some changes through the years, none of them affected the ultimate color of the product."
It is impossible to lick your elbow.
Today, honeymoon has a positive meaning, but originally it may have referred to the inevitable waning of love like a phase of the moon. In 1552, Richard Huloet wrote:
In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts... So in old England , when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them 'Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down.' . . .I think I spent pretty much all of 2020 stuck at home just making masks for everybody. I'm pretty sure I sewed almost 500 masks, some of which were donated. I also gave many away to health care workers, etc.
N95s or KN95s were difficult or impossible to find back then.
However, we now have an abundance of masks. Drugstores, Sam's Club, Costco was even giving away free masks.
However, when we go out these days we see too many people waltzing around without a mask. The Health Department issues COVID numbers each week, but you KNOW the actual COVID infections are much higher since many people have an abundance of home testing kits at their disposal.
Well, I'm just looking forward to having the updated COVID immunization that will target the Omicron variants better. 🤞
The Star Advertiser printed a story a couple of weeks ago about how people in Hawaii are living longer than people in the rest of country.
Women in Hawaii have a life expectancy of 83.8 years. Men might live to 77.6 years (hopefully longer since Art is now 78.)
GRANTED, this is at birth in 2020.
Yes, I've heard of people getting heart attacks from shoveling heavy snow.
There were a lot of interesting facts presented. The article said that the leading causes of death in Hawaii in 2020 were:
1. Heart disease (3,698)
2. Cancer (2,478)
3. Accidents (673)
4 Alzheimer's Disease (562)
5. Chronic lower respiratory diseases (372)
6. Diabetes (338, Yikes! That's me!)
7. COVID-19 (322)
8. Influenza/pneumonia (239)
9. Suicide (184)
10. Other respiratory diseases (165)
They also noted that more affluent groups had the highest life expectancy. I imagine they can afford to see the doctor when they need to. Sadly, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders have 7-10 years less in life expectancy than other groups.
The article also referenced a graph listed on the CDC website. (You can check out this link to see where your state falls.)
The article also says these numbers are for people who are born in 2020.
It says that for a man who is 65 today, he could have a life expectancy of 19 years. So that would put him at 84. (I can just see Art thinking he needs to plan another trip before.... well... you know.)
A woman can have an additional 22.7 years.
And the reason for the longevity? They attributed it to the warm weather, outdoor lifestyles (Oops! I'd better get off my computer.), low obesity, low smoking rates and near universal health care.
Yay!
OK... Fine... I'd better get moving.
I started another photobook project last year just around this time, but it sure feels like I've been working on this for ten years instead of just one.
I scanned just about all our family photos in 2011. And then I gave copies of the photos on flash drives to our daughter and son.
Many bloggers are writing about approaching the end of our life journeys. I'd started thinking about our family memories and how the kids will have forgotten so much of it.
And that is how I became consumed with creating photobooks of Our Family Memories. I'm thinking it will be my magnum opus to leave our children and grandchildren. As of now, there will be five photo books covering from 1972 when Art and I met until 2021.
I've used all the journals I've kept through the years to write down the details of so many of our family events.
This means I have to use Photoshop to clone (create) more image to the edges to certain photos that are in danger of being cut off, especially the spine.
If it's just a matter of adding more wall, grass or fence, it's not a problem.
This is me and Tiffany looking at her new baby brother over 40 years ago.
I had to add/create image all around the photo including even my arm.
The photo below is Tiffany and my techie son-in-law in front of Notre Dame in Paris many years ago. You can see I had to add more scarf and straps for both of them and sky as well.
I'm hoping to finish this project by the end of the year. I can then send it off to be printed and also make digital copies for the kids. They will also, of course, get hard copies as well.
I don't think my magnum opus will be done though. I'm figuring there will probably be a Volume 6 to the set eventually.
If it's one thing I know about Hawaii, it's that we all probably know somebody who knows somebody you know. That's why they say there's a rule here where the first question you might ask someone new you've just met, "What school you when grad?" (Translation: What high school did you graduate from?)
The other day, my cousin texted me that I might want to tell Art that his cousin who happens to live close by my cousin had passed away.
At tai chi in a different town, a friend I met there happens to be the neighbor of a classmate/good friend of mine.
Another very good friend of mine has a brother who said my brother had really helped him many, many years ago.
And it just goes on and on.
What a shock!
There was my blogger buddy, Honolulu Aunty!
As if that wasn't enough the next news story had Art's cousin being interviewed.
How fun is that? (Oops! Sorry. That was my pidgin leaking through.)
So yes, according to the 1929 short story by Frigyes Karinthy that the world is connected by just six degrees of separation, in Hawaii... I'd venture to say it's three or who knows? Maybe less.
