Pests in Paradise?

OK... people often say Hawaii is like living in Paradise. Well... I don't know. We have a terrible cost of living here. Home prices are crazy. It's hard to find doctors and nurses. They're even having a hard time finding teachers. Traffic is bananas on Oahu. ETC. ETC.

On top of that, we have pests...year round.  

First we had the pigeons building nests under our solar panels. We had our roof cleaner, Ku take care of that. Then we had our solar panel people come out and put critter guards around the solar panels. Then Art shot ice pellets at the pigeons every time I heard them land and coo about maybe trying to build another nest. Unfortunately, I see a house a distance away now having the same problem because their neighbor is regularly feeding them. 

But yes, it has improved considerably. I think our feathered foes have moved on. We're not getting the horrible bird mite bites anymore. 🤞

Then there was the cockroach problem. We used the Harris tablets and gel. So far, we haven't seen another one. Sooo far... 🤞

But then suddenly, we found worms in the peanuts I'd boiled and given to friends and relatives.

What the heck!

And then we started getting tons of these tiny moths everywhere.

Art took a picture and looked online. He said it was a linen moth. I searched all our closets and none of our clothing seemed to be eaten. We don't even have woolen or linen type clothing and my cotton things looked fine. I also didn't see moths flying around our clothes closet.

We'd be sitting and watching TV and a moth would come flying past us. Annoying as heck! Down in the kitchen, we were getting them constantly. They seemed to be everywhere. We once caught 24 of them in a day. Art used a fly swatter because they were so light that when you tried to slap them, the movement of the air would send them flying out of the way.

But then I decided to do an online search. The worms in the peanuts did not look like linen moths. They looked like pantry pests. I found this on the University of Minnesota Extension website. However, the moths themselves looked similar.

In fact, I learned that clothes moths are often mistaken for grain/food eating moths.

So I'm thinking... could it be?

I went downstairs to look in our closet where we keep some of our dried food. Most are in airtight containers.

When I opened the door, a couple of moths immediately flew out. 

Our bag of rice was closed tight, BUT under it was this! There were lots of rice debris and even some cocoons and dead moths. There were no holes in the bag, but it looks like they got out or in through the stitching. 

Doggone it! I guess we'll be buying smaller bags of rice from now on. 

I was wondering if we should get a large plastic airtight container to hold the rice, BUT how do you know the bug eggs weren't already there in the bags.

Sigh...

Ah well.. Now we know what the culprit is.

Knowing the Time of Day

We were visiting Art's 95 year old aunt at a retirement home where she is lovingly cared for. She has her daughter, son, grandchildren, nephews, nieces and other family members visiting her every day. She had been living independently until she hit her head when she fell one day. 

When we went to visit auntie the other day, we admired a clock that her son had given her. 

Mom keeps forgetting what day it is. I even gave her a LARGE calendar on which she could cross out the days or write notes to keep track of the things she needed to remember.

Unfortunately, she forgets to cross out the days or write anything and is often confused.

This clock seemed absolutely perfect so we found it on Amazon and  ordered it. It is meant for seniors with signs of forgetfulness. Doesn't the word dementia sound terrible? I don't like to use the word. 

The question now is where to put it.😐

POSTSCRIPT:

Art is saying he rather likes that clock so much, he might get it for us. 🙄 

You know he already wears an Apple Watch that tells him all that not to mention anything else he needs to know.

Blogaversary #15!

I began my blog on February 29th, 2008 which was a Leap Year. I can hardly believe it's been 15 years! 

We were getting ready to move to Hawaii. It was hard saying goodbye to very dear friends in my Chicagoland neighborhood and teacher friends who were like family. It was hardest to leave my daughter, son-in-law and new, precious granddaughter.

Dina, my Israeli friend had encouraged me to start this blog and I decided to give it a try with her help.

I met Linda, DJan, Lin, Sherri that first year and some others who have since sadly left the blogging world.

But since then, I've met so many other blogging and commenting friends that make me smile everyday.  Thank you. Thank you.

You have all added so much fun and advice that I have been truly grateful for.

Thank you for being my friends. Thank you for challenging me. Thank you for keeping me company from so many distant places and giving me another interesting point of view. You are the BEST!

A Trusted Contact?

 My daughter works for a small investment firm and came across a problem with an elderly client.

Tif recommended that we set up a "trusted contact" for our accounts. (Not sure yet if this is for banks or whatever.) We thought having our children and grandchildren listed as beneficiaries was good enough, but apparently there's also something (a form to fill out) called "trusted contacts" for any investment firm you use. This is on top of Power of Attorney. Sheesh!

I got this from the Charles Schwab website.

What is a trusted contact?

A trusted contact is someone who can: 

• Confirm your current contact information
• Confirm your health status
• Confirm the contact information for other authorized parties
• Discuss urgent, unusual account activity or other possible red flags

It's important to note that trusted contacts are unable to act on your behalf, execute transactions, or engage in account activity unless they're already an authorized party on your account.

What are the benefits of having a trusted contact?

While you may not be required to have a trusted contact, establishing one may help your financial firm move more quickly and decisively when addressing suspected fraudulent activity. You may already have a power of attorney or spouse listed on your account, but a trusted contact provides an additional resource to reach out to if an issue arises.

Generally speaking, it would be a trusted family member. Luckily, we do have a number of trusted family members, but we'll stick to our daughter and son since they generally know where we are. I hope they don't mind this silly photo I just posted.

Ah well...  I thought I'd share this just in case.

Only in America and Why?

We were sent the following chuckles from our tai chi communications director. 

Limit all US politicians to two terms:      

- One in office  

- One in prison

Apparently, Illinois already does this, and it seems to work for them!  

Kay: We lived in Illinois from 1974 until 2008. In that time 3 of Illinois' governors were indicted and sent to jail. Daniel Walker, George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich  🙄

     

Only in America ... do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.  

  

Only in America ... do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and a diet coke.  

  

Only in America ... do banks leave vault doors open and then chain the pens to the counters.  

Only in America ... do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.  

    

Only in America ... do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.  

   

Only in America ... do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering.  

 

And here are just some things to think about:

Why does the sun lighten our hair, but darkens our skin?  

 

Why can't women put on mascara with their mouth closed?

   

Why don't you ever see the headline 'Psychic Wins Lottery'?  

   

Why is 'abbreviated' such a long word?  

   

Why is it that doctors call what they do 'practice'?  

   

Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dish washing liquid made with   real lemons?  

   

Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?

   

Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?  

   

Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food?  

   

Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?  

   

Why do they   sterilize the needle for lethal injections?  

   

You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes?  Why don't they   make the entire plane out of that stuff?  

  

Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?

 

If con is the opposite of pro... is Congress the opposite of progress?

 

If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?

 

Kay: Have a very happy, safe weekend, everybody!

Falling Safely (As Possible)

Good friends of ours mentioned how they'd gone to a series of Aikido Safe Falling Classes. There was a demonstration at our local library so we went to see it.

The fellow giving the talk said they were all volunteers teaching kupuna (Hawaiian for grandparent, ancestor or honored elder) how to minimize injury from a fall. He demonstrated how to roll and avoid hitting your head, hip or boney areas.

Since I've taken several falls and several of my friends have also had some very nasty falls it seemed like a good idea. I've broken my foot and my shoulder. 

Still...I wondered if it was possible to learn how to fall when it happens so quickly that you often don't have time to think.

Art and I decided to take the class and find out.

We've had several sessions now and we've learned to make it instinctual to tuck your head when you're falling and to spread your arm out to cushion your head. It is VERY important to protect your head.

One of our teachers is a professional stunt person as well as a martial arts expert. 

We've been falling onto the mat during our lessons over and over.

Another thing they stress is DHS. 

If you fall, you should not let people get you up immediately. You need to ask yourself, "Am I Dizzy? Am I Hurt? Do I feel Strange. This is to prevent further injury.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that when I fall again (and I'm afraid it will probably happen someday) I will remember what they're teaching us.

Going to the Movie Theater for the First Time in 2+ Years!

About three years ago, several members in our family gave us very generous gift certificates to Regal and Consolidated Theaters. We were looking forward to seeing some movies but then COVID hit and we were MUCH too nervous to go anywhere a lot of people might congregate. Besides, you'd have to take off your mask to eat the popcorn which is half the reason for going to the theater to see a movie.

However, then my brother and sister-in-law went to see a movie a while ago. Then our friends went. And then we heard that several Regal Theaters had closed. Uh oh... We needed to use our gift certificates! 😲

They'd all gone to see Avatar. My brother and sister-in-law weren’t impressed with Avatar. They felt it was more of the same sort of plot as the first one (which I can hardly remember anyway). But then our good friend said he loved it.

Art loves science fiction so we decided to risk it.

We chose a Tuesday when kids would be in school. There's a whole routine to our going to a movie. We brought our extra shirts in case the theater was too cold. We planned to get the largest popcorn size that would allow us to get a refill to take home.

Although there were a number of people there, it wasn't crowded. We wore our masks although we saw that most people don't wear them anymore.

The friendly girl at the refreshment counter even gave us a box to put the overflow of popcorn into it, making it easier for us to share during the movie. We also got one drink and one hot dog to share. This would be our lunch.

When we entered the theater where Avatar was playing we saw only two people there. Another couple came in later, but that was it. Just 6 people in the entire place. And then the two ladies behind us called out and asked if we go to tai chi. Good grief! They were from our tai chi class!!! What are the chances of that coincidence happening? They reminded us that we needed to go and get the 3D 😎 glasses to see the movie. We'd TOTALLY forgotten that you need the glasses! Sheesh! 

Before leaving the theater we remembered to get our refill of popcorn. Perhaps it was because there weren't very many people at the theater, the friendly fellow at the refreshment counter REALLY overflowed our popcorn. When we got home, we had it with our dinner and then had left over popcorn for two more lunches. I'd stored the popcorn in an airtight jar and it was perfect.

Did I forget anything?

Oh... the movie?

Art loved it! He really loved it!

I was OK with it. I thought the 3D was really a lot of fun. The underwater scenes were awesome.

I'm all for going to see another movie. I want to get more popcorn. 😁

Death of a Whale

A couple of weeks ago, my friend, Joanne on the island of Kauai sent me some sad pictures of a 56 foot long, 120,000 pound sperm whale that had died and was washed ashore onto the beach.

She also shared a photo of where the sperm whale was buried and marked with large boulders.

We did see the story on the evening news. They mentioned how an autopsy of the whale revealed fishing traps and nets, plastic bags and other plastic garbage. Undigested fish indicated that the garbage had probably blocked the intestinal tract of the whale thereby making it unable to digest its food.

The ocean was once and maybe is still being used as a garbage dumping area which is harming all the seabirds and animals that share our planet with us.

We generate a LOT of non-degradable material. Hawaii does now limit plastic use. 

I hope it's making a difference because we still see a lot of plastic washed up on the beaches. 

It's sad.

Multicultural Multiracial Multiethnic Multi Everything

This is going to be another year of working on organizing family photos and information from 1972-2021. Yup. I started working on the photobooks 2 years ago and it's still ongoing. However, there's a photo that brought back a lovely memory for me.

It's a photo from 1982. We were planning a birthday party for our daughter, Tiffany.

We lived in the Chicagoland area back then in a multicultural/multiracial/multiethnic neighborhood that was perfect for us. When we bought our home we didn't know the joke that it was called the Island of Gentiles in the Sea of Jerusalem. It was winter when we moved in and I was a little worried when I heard of that reference. It was only our second year of living in Chicago. I'd never been out of state from Hawaii like Art. I'd heard of racism in the news. I'd heard of bigotry but hadn't experienced it... yet. So yes, I was worried.

When the older couple across the street came to greet us, I wondered how they would accept or not accept us. I needn't have worried. They became our first friends and even took up the role of protectors. He was a retired colonel and told us their Catholic parochial school even accepted Muslims. I didn't tell him then that we were actually Buddhists. When we needed to get to the hospital in the middle of the night for the birth of our son, Mrs. M was the one who came to stay with our daughter, Tiffany.

We quickly ended up with the most wonderful friends who were Irish Catholic, Jewish, Black, Asian, everything. Our children went to a Catholic pre-school, a Presbyterian pre-school and public school. They attended services/celebrations in Catholic and Presbyterian churches. They went to lots of bar and bat mitzvahs.

One family (from Israel) who we particularly loved invited us to all their family celebrations. At the bar mitzvah for their son (who was also our kids' babysitter) we tasted the most wonderful cake and told them how much we enjoyed it. Their daughter, Pazit worked for the Jewish bakery and was happy to order a cake for Tiffany's birthday.

When we went to pick up the cake, Pazit was shocked. She'd ordered the same sort of flavor cake as the one from her brother's bar mitzvah, but instead of flowers or girlish decoration, there was a giant Star of David. She was trying to explain what happened to the baker and was at such a loss for words that she told them to just look at us and look at the cake!

It was pretty hilarious and rather than having them redo the decoration, we chose to keep it. The other party invitees who were Jewish absolutely loved it. Those children who were not Jewish probably didn't understand the fun of it.

But all in all... seeing this photo just brought back these awesome memories.

B-52 Cockroach in Our House

When we lived in Illinois, I don't recall seeing American cockroaches. We certainly saw the smaller variety of German cockroaches, but I was happy we didn't have the giant American ones that we have in abundance here in Hawaii.

I did a science experiment in high school where I put American cockroaches in jars with different kinds of impossible food material. I remember cardboard, tobacco, leaves, etc. None of the cockroaches died. In fact they flourished and I ended up with jars teeming with them. Yuuuck!

There was a book here in Hawaii written by Lisa Matsumoto called How B-52 Cockroach Learned to Fly. 

So yes they do fly... high.

When we lived in the sugar plantation camp, I would walk into the bathing room carefully, making sure there were no giant cockroaches (or cane spiders) ready to dive bomb over me (or on me).

Well, the other night Art walked into our bedroom and was surprised to see what looked like a giant cockroach on our (filtered light) window shade. Since it was dark and he could only see what looked like a shadow, he hoped the bug was outside of the house.

Nope.

So what to do? If he tried swatting it, the bug would probably just fly off. If it skittered off, we'd be chasing it all over the house. If he swatted it really hard, he could bring down the window shade and cause a mess.

He pondered the problem for a few minutes and decided to bring in the vacuum cleaner. Hmmm... I had my doubts that the cockroach would sit still to be sucked into the vacuum cleaner. Amazingly, Art managed to do just that.

Kimo of Terminix had just stopped by that morning and sprayed the perimeter of the house for vermin.

Maybe this bug was dazed from the poison Kimo had sprayed.

Whatever the case, Art took the vacuum canister outside and disposed of the unwanted invader to our bedroom.

We now need to figure out HOW it got in.

We have enough B-52s outside of the house. We don't need them as house guests. 😝

POSTSCRIPT 1:

Holy smokes! We don't see these B-52s much in the house at all but the following night THERE WAS ANOTHER one on the wall next to the headboard of our bed!!! Art and I quickly started covering our bed and the cockroach actually jumped onto our bed and then flew to the wall behind Art. 

Art grabbed his slipper to smash it on the wall and it jumped on the floor where Art was finally able to swat it. 

And if THAT wasn't bad enough, I was sitting on the toilet next to our bathtub when I looked at something moving and saw this!

Arrrghhh!!!!

POSTSCRIPT 2: There was a 4th B-52 cockroach the following night so Art called Terminix and they said they would send an inspector out for free to figure out how they were getting in. 

POSTSCRIPT 3: Would you believe the inspector never showed up and never called to tell us he wasn’t? Irritating. We ordered some Harris cockroach gel and tablets on Amazon that were recommended by friends. I hope it works. Then again, we haven’t seen any American cockroaches in several days, so hopefully that’s it for a while. 🤞

If any of my Hawaii readers know a good pest control company please let me know. It might be time for a change.

Arthritis? Me?

I wrote earlier about needing to put an elastic brace on my knees since Thanksgiving. I finally went to see Dr. Payne  after Art coerced suggested I do so. I wonder if Dr. Payne gets teased about his name. He's really, really nice, (handsome too, not that I noticed) and not too close to retirement. 🤞 I’ve had too many doctors and nurse practitioners retire on us lately. 

Anyway, the doctor manipulated my knees this way and that. I told him true to form, my knees stopped hurting (a lot) a couple of days before my appointment with him. He still had me go to radiology to get my knee X-rayed and also to get some physical therapy. 

He didn't mention steroid shots. Phew! A good friend of mine said she had to get steroid shots right into the knee and it really hurt, BUT felt great after that.

I'm glad she got such wonderful relief, but I DID NOT relish getting a really painful shot right into the knee. Am I chicken? 🐔 Yes. I admit it. I don't enjoy needles.

When I got home, I found my knees were achy again, probably from walking all over the hospital and then going shopping.

So I applied Salonpas patches. 

I received an email from Dr. Payne in the afternoon telling me the X-rays showed arthritis in the knee. I didn't tell him my left knee didn't feel necessarily perfect either. 

Arthritis?!? Me?

I don't know anybody in my family who has arthritis although mom's knees aren't always pain free either.

Whatever the case, I have to do the physical therapy and then report back to the doctor.

This morning, Art showed me an article he found about acupuncture being the best treatment for arthritis.

What?!?

More needles? 🙄

POSTSCRIPT: 

I thought my knees were getting better and then wham! About 4 days ago, the pain hit again. What the heck! I’d even stopped using the knee brace. 

A friend of mine had recommended Aleve. I know it’s a lot stronger than Motrin which I’d taken for my broken arm a while back. But you know what? It actually helped and it’s good for 12 hours. 😃 

However, I’d really prefer not relying on it. I tried Voltaren which didn’t help much. Granted it’s been expired for 2 years. The Salonpas didn’t do much at all either.

What do you use for pain? 

Fruitcakes Galore!

Holy smokes!

I was looking in the freezer of our back-up refrigerator for something to cook for dinner. As I moved things around, I was rather surprised to see just how many holiday treats we still had from neighbors and friends.

Even more surprising was how many fruitcakes I'd frozen for mom and Art. I've rearranged things now so they're all on one shelf. Good grief! 16 more loaves! 

I'd baked 5 batches of the small loaves and given a lot to friends, relatives and neighbors. It's just that I kept experimenting (every week or two) with more dried fruit and less candied fruit I had to order online because I couldn't find it at the stores.

Then I went to only juice-soaked dried fruit and trying to figure out the best ratio of fruit to batter. At one time I used to wrap them in brandy soaked cloth but everybody told me they preferred it without the alcohol.

OK. I don't care for fruitcake, but Art, mom and quite a number of other people love it.

I was almost tempted to give it one more try until I saw what I'd stored in the freezer. Art says it's not a problem at all. He's actually quite happy to know that he has a ready supply.

Still... I wonder about making a Batch #6. I'd like to try doing it with less juice perhaps? Hmmm...

Nah...

Appreciation and Acknowledgements

I saw an article by Carolyn Hax in the newspaper last week that had me sighing. I've seen a number of columns about people (mostly seniors, I suspect) who don't receive an acknowledgement from her loved ones. (And I'm sure I've already written about this, but oh well...)

I'm not surprised. 

My daughter has voiced the same experience and she's not a senior.

Some people are saying they just stop sending gifts or checks to recipients who don't acknowledge receiving them. I remember reading a joke about a grandmother who sent checks to her grandchildren and always got a visit from them. Her friend was amazed to know she had such thoughtful grandchildren. 

The grandmother then smiled and said she sent the checks unsigned. 😂

There's also the thought that people are tired of receiving gifts they can't use and have to regift them which causes more of a problem.

In the case of our grandchildren, we've asked our daughter and son to create a wish list from which we can all choose what our grandchildren would like. It works perfectly.

I always made sure my children acknowledged all their gifts when they were growing up.

My daughter was even more careful to instill in our granddaughter, KC the courtesy of sending acknowledgements.

We were on a trip to Yellowstone with them over a decade ago and KC would be busy drawing a small picture or just scribbling "Thank you" for gifts she'd received for her birthday. 

I must say she never complained. It was just a kind habit she'd learned.

And now...

Many, many years later, she still sends a quick note despite the fact that she belongs to two different dance groups (private and high school) and has a heavy high school study load.

My little grandsons also send their own acknowledgements with pictures and quick notes.

These notes were for their great grandmother and mom was absolutely thrilled. She loved the fact that KC even added a thank you in Japanese.

I have good friends where a bargain has been struck. No more gifts for birthdays or Christmas. We only send text greetings.

And that was the best gift of all.

Chirping vs. Cooing

The other morning Art told me that he was shocked I did not get up around 1:00 in the morning when the smoke alarm started chirping because the battery was dying. He thought I might be devious enough to pretend I didn't hear it so I wouldn't have to get up.😏

Understand that Art wears hearing aids. I have excellent hearing 😁(sort of). Hence his suspicion. 

"How is it that you can hear the pigeons land on the roof and even hear their cooing with the windows closed in your office BUT not hear the loud smoke alarm chirping in the hall?" he asked skeptically.

"Cross my heart," I said. "I didn't hear a thing." I even showed him my Fitbit which recorded that I did not get up. 

And yet, Art has told me the story of the cross country trip he took with a buddy when he was in the Air Force many moons ago.

They'd stopped at a hotel exhausted from the driving and went to sleep. In the middle of the night, there was a fire in the building next to their hotel and there was a lot of commotion with fire engines blaring their sirens, etc. The friend apparently watched while the building burned and Art never got up. In fact, he was surprised to see the charred aftermath the following morning.

Interesting because I usually get an hour or two less sleep than Art in the evenings but the Fitbit almost always shows I have much more deep sleep.

Ah well...

And about those pigeons. They never sleep on our neighbor's roof anymore since Art has been vigilantly shooting them with ice pellets when I hear them land on our roof.

The other wonderful thing is that we are no longer getting those terrible welts from bird mites for the last several months. 🤞 Hopefully, the birds will eventually give up.

Hopefully.

Preserving Memories

Art and I celebrated our 50th Wedding Anniversary in early January with a few relatives and long time friend Diane who was my Maid of Honor so many years ago. We've also been friends for some 68 years.

A very dear relative stunned us by bringing a bouquet of 50 roses and a helium balloon.

I do love roses but I really don't like seeing them slowly die. It makes me sad. When we lived in Chicago, we had an enclosed heating system in the basement. I used to dry flowers in there because it was ventilated and dark.

Here in Hawaii, every room is pretty darn bright. However, since we have a guest bathroom that is not used when the kids aren't visiting, I hung the roses upside down on the shower stall grab bar once I saw the blooms drooping.

You can see the anniversary balloon is now losing its helium but fighting to stay afloat. We had a bit of fun wondering how long it would stay afloat.

I really like the look of the roses. It's a lovely reminder of the love that we shared and was shared with us during the happy celebration.

POSTSCRIPT:

I was just noticing that in brighter light, you can see more of the color.

Checking My Facts and Rechecking It Twice

I mentioned my experiment about the (factory set) High Efficiency setting on my iPhone vs. the Most Compatible that I wrote about last month to my techie son-in-law (who prefers Adroids). 

APPLE High Efficiency vs. Most Compatible Confusion (Here's the link.)

He says he did the experiment with my daughter's iPhone and thought the difference was negligible. 

"Really?" I said. 

"Did you take the photos you posted while holding the phone?" he asked. "Or did you use a tripod? Is it possible that your hand may have shaken while using the High Efficiency setting?"

Arrrghhh... "While holding it," I answered. I could just imagine him smiling.

I thought about it and thought about it and decided I needed to redo the experiment so people didn't get the wrong information from me.

I got out the tripod and set up my iPhone. I decided to use my Apple Watch to take the photo remotely so I wouldn't shake the iPhone by touching it. 

I took two photos using the High Efficiency and then the Most Compatible setting. And the photos looked the same and were the same MB size. And they were also both JPG.

Arrrghhh! What the heck!

Sooo... I REBOOTED 🙄 my iPhone and retook the photos AGAIN. This time there was a huge difference in size and the High Efficiency photo was a JPEG and the Most Compatible photo was JPG.

 

There was also a slight variation in color. 

I took the photos seconds apart to change the camera setting from High Efficiency to Most Compatible so the light couldn't have changed much.

I then cropped the photos to compare the clarity.

 

And yes. There is a difference, but you know what? For everyday photos for my blog, I don't need that much clarity to take up space on my account.

So... I changed my camera settings back to High Efficiency. However, if I'm taking a trip or wanting to take photos of family, I think I'll change my settings to Most Compatible.

On the other hand... will I remember? 😖 And will I remember to reboot my iPhone? Sigh...

P.S. And by the way, my techie son-in-law says unless someone has a super old Android phone, any photo you send to that person taken with either setting should be OK.

Braces for a Bum Knee

It happened some time before and during Thanksgiving. With all the cooking and preparing for the family Thanksgiving pot luck, I somehow injured my knee. I don't know if it was because I was standing so much over the sink or crouching down to get baking dishes. It just started hurting and wouldn't go away.

I finally looked for some sort of leg brace that I remembered we had and put it on.

I don't know who we got it for (Art says it wasn't him) but this is Hawaii and the elastic had deteriorated or stretched out and wouldn't stay up when I walked.

Sooo... I ordered a different kind of leg brace on Amazon.

OK... First problem. I put it on upside down. 

I saw the directions on the box the following day and turned it around, but I had problems with the diagonal crisscrossing of the straps. 

It must be my aging brain. Sheesh!

At that point, I decided to take some ibuprofen. 

But then, would you believe I found another knee brace in the closet? When I looked it up on Amazon, I saw it was cheaper than the one I bought. 🙄

And this one was much easier to put on. No crisscrossing straps. And I think it's more comfortable.

Art's comment: "Have you considered the fact that the ibuprofen is making you think this is the better brace?"

He wants me to send a message to my doctor for PT.

Maybe.

OK... I'll send him a message to see if it's necessary.

POSTSCRIPT:

I just got a call from my doctor's office. I have to go in next week to have him talk to me about treatment.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Mom sleeps with a wooden pillow. Frankly, I don't see how that could feel good, but she swears by it. 

She does wrap it with some towels to soften it which makes putting a pillow cover on it a little tricky.

I was cleaning out her linen closet (for the New Year) which had a LOT of OLD blankets, bedsheets, towels, etc.  (I put whatever was in good condition into the donation pile.) Mom did not even remember where any of it came from.

I pulled out a bedsheet that had a couple of tiny holes in it to discard but then realized I could make several pillow covers for her.

I also wrapped the wooden pillow with thicker old towels that I sewed on firmly so it would be easier to put a pillow cover over it.

But then... what to do with the rest of the cut up bed sheet...

When I wrote the blog post about Christmas Waste, several bloggers wrote about making furoshiki (Japanese type cloth gift wrap) or bags with material they had.

This gave me the idea to use the left over material (from making cloth covers for the wooden pillow) for a cloth bag for my brother. Whenever he comes over to pick up some newspaper or lemons from our tree that mom likes to give him or whatever, we put it in a plastic bag. Now we can use this cloth bag to transport things back and forth and it will be washable too. 😁

This is why I love blogging. I get so many really helpful ideas from all of you!

Amazing, Incredible New Year Osechi!

I've always been impressed with the New Year osechi that my cousins enjoy in Japan. They are so pretty and look really delicious!

My cousin, Ricky texted this photo to me from Tokyo last year. I'm sure they enjoyed something very similar this year.

What is osechi? Here's the explanation on Wikipedia:

"Osechi-ryōri (御節料理, お節料理 or おせち) are traditional Japanese New Year foods. The tradition started in the Heian period (794–1185). Osechi are easily recognizable by their special boxes called jūbako (重箱), which resemble bentō boxes. Like bentō boxes, jūbako are often kept stacked before and after use."

 I do know they are very expensive to buy in Japan.

And then another cousin's wife (who is from Japan) texted me a photo of what she had made herself right here in Hawaii for her family! OMG! OMG! Can you just imagine the work it took to make this?

But then our friends Cal and Myra texted this photo of what their friend gifted them this year. Apparently it was created from recipes she got from this website:

https://www.justonecookbook.com/

And us......?

Ummmm...

Art bought plates of sushi from Kozo Sushi. Mom cooked some miso soup and I warmed up some edamame (boiled soybeans).

My brother and sister-in-law provided the sake which I diluted with carbonated water.

And it was perfect! 

It was a great way to start the new year.

Now all I have to do is remember to write the correct date on checks, etc. It's almost the end of the month and I still automatically think it's 2022.

Sigh...

And for those who celebrate the Lunar New Year...

Xīnnián kuàilè (新年快乐) in Mandarin means New Year happiness

or 

Gong hei fat choy" (恭喜发财) in Cantonese means Wishing you happiness and prosperity.

One More Problem to Worry About When Traveling

On a recent FaceTime call with my children recently, my son asked if we had data blockers for charging our cellphones at airports or whatever. 

Ummm... no. But I do know not to use those USB charging ports all over airports and such because... according to the Federal Communications Commission:

"Malware installed through a dirty USB port can lock a device or export personal data and passwords directly to the perpetrator." 

I do know that a long time ago Art charged his Amazon Fire tablet at some foreign airport and it did something terrible to it so it wouldn't work properly.

That taught us never to use those USB charging stations. 

Instead, when we were in Newark last April, we only used charging stations that had regular outlets.

Keola showed us his data blocker and said we should really protect ourselves and our information if we're using a public charging station. 

Soooo....

OK.

We got it.

And we got Air Tags too in case they lose our luggage. (It was on my Christmas Wish List. Thank you, Tiffany.)

I hope we're now ready for any future travel. 

Fingers crossed. 🤞

POSTSCRIPT:

HOWEVER: We've since learned that Air Tags rely on other Apple products around the tags. In Europe, people might not have Apple phones and even less in Asia. Sigh... 😕

Cracks in My Cellphone Screen Protector

Well sheeeesh!

I bought the Ailun screen protector for my new iphone 14pro last year. We called the new iPhone my Christmas present from Art. (There was a big T-Mobile upgrade sale on it.) I then bought it for Art because T-Mobile had an even BETTER 🙄 upgrade deal a month later for Art. 

But then I ran into some problems. The super duper Otterbox iPhone drop protector cover would not fit with the Ailun camera lens protector on so I had to buy a different HLija camera lens protector instead which did fit. 

And then a month later, I noticed a fine line on the Ailun glass screen protector of my phone. I take very good care of my phone and had NEVER dropped it. I've only had it for a month, for goodness sakes! You can only see the cracks in a certain light so I missed seeing it for a while.

Anyway the screen protector came with 3 protectors so Art was able to use one on his new phone and now I could replace the cracked one with the remaining protector. 

And if it cracks again... well... I think I'll try another brand.

Sigh... 🙄

Is it REALLY Madame Pele?

When we went out walking the other morning, we bumped into a neighbor-friend who told us that his cousin had sent some amazing pictures he'd taken at Mauna Loa on the Big Island.

And indeed, when he showed a photo to us on his cellphone, we were amazed. He said it was of Madame Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of fire and volcanoes.

And then there's this one.

Do you see her?

Now, I don't want you to think I'm a skeptic, but I also know what can be done with Photoshop.

Still, you'll never see me take a lava rock home from the Big Island because that could cause you EXTREME bad luck. 

I'm not wanting to scare anybody... but heed the warning if you're ever on the Big Island. 😳

New Year Cards from Sendai

My mother's youngest sister lives in Sendai. I met her for the first time in 1970 when I stayed with my grandparents at their temple. My aunt, uncle and cousins lived with them. I got to learn from and love all of them during those three weeks. It was the first time meeting them and gave me memories that are still precious to me.

Mom and Auntie have been writing regularly for years and years. But now that mom's two other sisters in Hawaii have passed away, the letters are traveling even more often. I now scan mom's letters, add my own with lots of photos and email them to Sendai. Auntie, however, still does snail mail.

This year, Auntie sent a New Year card for each of us to match our personalities. 

Auntie took me aside the first time she met Art and told me that I had chosen well. 

She remembered that he liked woodblock masters, Hokusai and especially Hiroshige. She even gave Art some copies of Hiroshige prints that my grandfather had kept. 

Thus, she selected a card with Hokusai's famous woodblock print of the Kanagawa Wave.

She gave mom a traditional elegant and beautiful plum or cherry blossom card. 

And me? I got a huge cherry blossom tree bursting with blooms. That made me happy.

Oh my gosh!

I just noticed that she even found a Hiroshige stamp!

What kind of card do you think you'd want for yourself.