Diet Pepsi vs. Pepsi Zero Sugar

This is just a silly post. 

I'd read that people were going to stop drinking Coke Zero (which is what I drink every other day) because Coca Cola had made a special commemorative Diet Coke bottle for the inauguration after once criticizing him for his involvement in the January 6th insurrection.

I'm mad about this because he ruined our January 6th wedding anniversary date.

Anyway, here's the post that Trump's Deputy Director of Communications, Margo Martin posted about how it was the "first ever Presidential Commemorative Inaugural Diet Coke bottle."

So this is why I decided to switch back to Pepsi after my son-in-law had introduced me to Coke Zero several years ago. 

However, when I checked up on this I discovered this was not true like many of the other things that come out of this administration.

Coca Cola has made a Presidential commemorative inauguration bottle since 2005. Granted this might be the first Diet Coke inauguration bottle though. 🙄

But before learning all this, I told my brother I was going to make the cola switch since he'd be staying with mom while we're on a trip to Japan and I always provide him with Coke Zero to have occasionally.

I was surprised when he told me he actually prefers Diet Pepsi.

Soooo.... when we were at Sam's Club I saw a display of .... What?!? Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Zero Sugar. TWO Diet Pepsis. Why???

I liked the Pepsi Zero Sugar carton design better. I texted my brother and he said he usually buys Diet Pepsi but hadn't tried Pepsi Zero.

I checked the Nutrition Facts.

Hmmm...

Well... this didn't make it a whole lot easier so I looked online.

And this is what I discovered. 

I read another article where someone did a blind test and said the Pepsi Zero Sugar was by far the better tasting one.

Granted, you know I've lost most of my sense of taste so none of this should make any difference.

I told my daughter about all this and she said, "Mom, why are you drinking that? It's not good for you. You should be drinking water and if you like the carbonation, use your SodaStream."

😏 Out of the mouth of babes...

Mourning, Spotted and Zebra

I wrote a blog post last month called Mama Mourning Dove Needs to Find a Tree. 

I posted this photo;

Well, my Kauai cousin who I have to thank for helping to keep my posts accurate texted to tell me that it was actually a Zebra Dove.

No kidding?

And here I've been calling it a Mourning Dove all this time. I thought it was the same dove we had in Illinois. But now I'm wondering what that Illinois dove really was.

I looked up different doves and found this.

This is what a Mourning Dove actually looks like.

And then there's a Spotted Dove.

And here is my Zebra Dove that is more common in Hawaii.

I can see why it's called a Zebra Dove. Being a retired teacher, I still find it a lot of fun to learn something new. Apparently the dominant doves in Hawaii are the Zebra and Spotted although some areas are supposed to have Mourning as well. I shall keep my eyes peeled for them.

Thank you, Kauai cousin! 

Stressing... and now Crappy Luggage!

I'm afraid I've been up to my ears with packing, planning and agonizing for the last couple of weeks. Art and I are going on a trip to Japan soon and it's taking all my energy to plan for my brother to take over mom's care while we're gone... to plan the omiyages (gifts) to bring relatives...get food ready for he and mom to have and etc. etc. etc.

I'm really sorry I haven't been able to keep in touch with all of you. I'll look forward to catching up when we get home and recover.

Anyway.... 

Here I was packing some of our things and making lists and more lists when I checked Art's luggage and found this.

The sides of his Travelon luggage is made of some kind of hard spongy like thing and it had completely deteriorated.

I bought my purple Travelon luggage 5 years before we bought Art's black one.

I hadn't painted the big K on it yet in 2014.

In 2019, I put the K on both of our luggage since it made it easier to see when it came out onto the conveyer belt. Also, it might give a thief pause to steal such a conspicuous item.

We bought the same Travelon luggage in 2019 for Art since I liked mine so much.

Well... we looked carefully a few days ago and found it wasn't made in the same way. My luggage doesn't have that hard foamy, spongy lining on the inside like his newer one did. Both Travelons had a 10 year guarantee, BUT we couldn't find a way online to get it exchanged, fixed or whatever. 

So we had to throw it away along with this other smaller luggage I had. The straps just ripped off.

I guess it must be the salty Hawaiian air that makes things deteriorate faster.

So we went to Ross and bought another luggage after checking to make sure there wasn't any of that foamy insulation.

We also decided to get a Samsonite instead of a Travelon.

And my 10 year old purple Travelon?

It's still going strong. (Knock on wood!!!)

Go figure.

And the stress continues.

Hands Off! on Kauai and the Entire Country

I hadn't even heard about the Hands Off protest movement until my Kauai cousins told me about it about a week ago. They'd made a bunch of very artistic, very clever signs for the Hands Off rally that was going to happen in Lihue on Saturday, April 5th. I wished I could have been with them but, we are in the midst of too many things happening at once at our house. 

They texted photos to me of the rally on Saturday. A friend had taken it and shared it with them. And then they shared it with me so I could share it with you. Ummm... My retired teacher cousin said the dog was adorable but the sign was rather.... uuummm strong. So I changed it a bit, but you get the idea.

And yes, I wish I were with my cousins on Saturday. They told me that a newspaper photographer/writer from Kauai estimated 2,000 people showing up. And the funny thing was I knew that photographer very well from college. We are a very small state. The joke is to ask, "What school you grad?" and you'll find out that we're all connected.

When I looked online, I saw that over 1,400 rallies had taken place around the country. 

Wow!

Here are protests in Minnesota and North Carolina.

Wow! Wow!

And yes! Here's Chicago and New York.  That's Daley Plaza that we know so well. Art's EPA office was close by.

Honolulu had an impressive showing too. 

This is all reminding me of the 60's when I was attending the University of Hawaii. There were so many protests back then. And now it's time to make our voices heard again. We are still lucky to live in a country where protesting is a right. At least it is for now.

POSTSCRIPT:

A friend of mine sent a photo of a sign her sister-in-law made for the Hands Off in Honolulu. I thought it was too good not to share.

Fitbit vs. Apple Watch

I wrote a post earlier titled, Aggravation! Apple Watch Series 4 Suddenly Draining TOO FAST! and so many of you wrote that you don't use an Apple Watch or any other kind of techie type watch.

Sooo... that got me thinking. 

I find the Apple Watch rather cumbersome on my very thin wrist. I've always had thin wrists but after losing 10 pounds and then another 5 pounds when I had to use Invisalign after my front tooth broke off, I found the Apple Watch much too big. My left wrist was also hurting.... I don't know why... so I switched the watch to my right wrist.

I use the Fitbit Charge 2 at night to monitor my sleep. 

The Charge 2 was introduced in 2016 and I probably got it around then. The much heavier Apple watch is not as accurate in recording my sleep as the lighter Fitbit. So then, I'm thinking... do I really need my Apple watch? 

I've been using my old Fitbit all day and it lasts 2-3 days without a charge unlike my Apple Watch that needs to be charged by the afternoon. My Fitbit is also connected to my iPhone and therefore alerts me if I get a text message. 

So thank you, everybody! I wouldn't have made this excellent change without your comments telling me that so many of you just have watches that tell the time.

Anti-Trump T-Shirts!

Everybody we hang out with are absolutely aghast at everything Trump has been doing. I know Canada and Europe are totally ticked off with what's been going on in such a short time. Imagine another 3 years and 9 months. 

I'm remembering traveling through Canada and having to tell people we did not vote for George W. Bush. We still remember one Canadian Bed and Breakfast we were staying at where the wife was serving us breakfast and the husband was going out on an errand. He stopped to chat briefly, but when we said we did NOT vote for Bush, he stayed almost an hour just to talk. It's a fond memory. We really love all the Canadians we've met in Canada and when we travel.

I've told people that you have to be careful not to look at the road because Canadians will stop to make sure you're not planning to cross. Uuumm... You won't find that true in the U.S.

Anyway, so I was wondering. I know there are MAGA hats and MAGA t-shirts. I've seen some pretty disgusting ones where a woman was wearing a t-shirt saying "Trump Can Grab My Pussy." Seriously? Seriously?!?

Like I said... I was wondering. Could there be Anti-Trump t-shirts. OMG! TONS of them on Amazon. And they're so clever.

I jokingly told Art that if I'm traveling anywhere other than Russia and North Korea, I should buy this t-shirt.

And then I saw this political cartoon in the Star Advertiser and I'm thinking... maybe I SHOULD buy it.

Telling Trump to Keep His "Hands Off!"

My Kauai cousins and I have been texting each other regularly through the years. They are as upset as my friends and I here on Oahu about Trump and Musk's many drastic cuts since coming into office.

They told me last night that they had gotten their posters ready for another protest rally that was happening called "Hands Off!" 

The last big march Art and I participated in was in 2017 when we marched for Science. 

I hadn't even heard about this one, but I'm so excited and wish I could join them.

They texted me photos of their posters. I was so impressed by their art and creativity that I asked their permission to share them with you.

My cousins tell me their friends will also be participating in the rally.

This is reminding me of the protests we experienced in the 60's. 

Maybe that's why Trump is making sure protests are banned on college campuses.

I need to start thinking about making a poster soon.

POSTSCRIPT:

I wasn't planning on posting this today, but I think I will while we're on the topic.

This was from the editorial page of our Sunday Star Advertiser yesterday.

All my Canadian blogger buddies know how I feel about their beautiful country and their super nice citizens. They know how terrible we feel about all that's happening.

Elsbeth and Reacher?

I retired from teaching 1st grade in an Illinois public school in 2004. There was a group of teachers that I became very good friends with. I don't remember when we started going out regularly to lunch or dinner to just relax, talk about school things and our lives.

When I left Illinois to return to Hawaii, we formed a chat group on our cellphones so we could keep "talking" to each other.

There was one interesting thing that came up in one of the chats recently. Someone said they enjoyed watching Elsbeth although her husband didn't like it, but really loved Reacher.

According to AI, Elsbeth is autistic. I thought she was just quirky. The only thing I didn't always care for is that you know pretty much from the start "who done it." But then, that's OK. I enjoy watching her figure it out. Art doesn't care for that structure.

Maybe we teachers identify working with children who have different needs. 

Anyway... 

I remember the Jack Reacher movies when Tom Cruise played the title character. However, when I read one of the Reacher books by Lee Child, I realized that Alan Ritchson is more in keeping with Reacher's physique. 

I only read one of the Reacher books because it made me too tense to fall asleep. I usually read books before going to sleep. 

Anyway, the other teachers in our group texted that they also loved Elsbeth but didn't care for Reacher (on Prime) although their husbands loved it. I didn't even know Season 3 of Reacher was being aired.

And then my son-in-law texted us that he was loving Reacher and we should check it out. Soooo.... we've been tuning in. My daughter? Nope.

Art really enjoys it and I'm actually OK with it. But I distract myself by texting friends on my iPad because the story line with the tense music stresses me out if I don't have a distraction.

Have you seen either shows? What do you think?

Dogs Who Can't Read!

When we visited our friend, Terry and her husband we noticed that they had put up a cute dog poop prevention sign on their front lawn. 

She told me that they haven't had a problem since then with people walking their dogs and leaving poop on their lawn.

This all sounded like a fun idea so I bought one just like theirs and installed it on our front yard.

It seemed to work and we were happy.

My brother laughed when he saw it and said, "You know dogs can't read, right?"

I guess he's right because when we went for our evening walk a few days ago, this is what we found!  😖

Sigh... I guess the dogs in Terry's neighborhood are a lot smarter than ours.

POSTSCRIPT 1:

Noooooo! Would you believe a few day's later... 😣 more poop? This time it was a little father down on the sidewalk where we walk.

And no... I didn't throw the poop in our garbage bin. I left it out there on the sidewalk (in a plastic bag) for the owners to maybe get a hint. 

I'll leave it there and throw it away on garbage day so it doesn't stink up our bin. 

POSTSCRIPT 2:

OK...

We've had a lot of windy weather lately and it kept blowing the poop out of the pot and into the street which I kept picking up and putting back into the pot.

It was aggravating. But garbage day came. I tossed the poop away and hoped that would be the end of it.

Nope! More poop a week or so later!!! 😝

So I got a much bigger concrete planter pot and put the poop in it with a rock to hold it down just in case.

POSTSCRIPT 3:

NO, NO, NO!

Would you believe someone came and took the poop away WITH my planter pot?!? 😲

OK, that's it!

No more sublety. 

Since the dogs can't read, we put up a sign for the owners.

Sigh.....

Keeping the Roses Alive

A week or so after Valentine's Day my cousin dropped off a couple of dozen roses for us. The deep red color was beautiful and dramatic.

It was actually Art's idea to share the flowers with my sister-in-law. I asked my brother if they would like to have some and he said they'd enjoy it too.

So I gave half the flowers to Dennis and Nancy.

The stems were soooo long that I had to find a good vase for it. I used this rather tall vase to spread the flowers out and mom loved it. 

The following day, I had to cut the stems a bit.

And the day after that, I found a shorter vase and cut more of the stems off.  

The day after that found the stems getting even shorter.

I was adding flower fertilizer to the water in an even shorter vase each day. You can see all the vases I used. Mom never noticed the stems getting shorter. I also removed the petals that were looking old.

And this was the last vase I used. The roses gave us much joy for several days but it was time to say goodbye.

Oops! I thought it was the last vase, but I had one more.

My daughter, Tif had told me that she'd run out of vases and had to use spaghetti sauce jars for all the flowers that granddaughter KC received dancing at the performing arts center as well as the high school dance show. I told Tiffany she needed to cut the stems every day so they could enjoy them longer.

"You've got to be kidding me," she said.

POSTSCRIPT:

And then... in March, Mom brought home flowers that were given to the women. It may have been for Girls Day which is on March 3rd in Japan.

Anyway, I did the same thing for mom again and cut the stems everyday. It lasted about a week and a half. 😁

Mama Mourning Dove Needs to Find a Tree

 Art and I share watering the gardening duties every morning.

One morning, I was watering the bushes and Art looked at the electrical box in front of me and said, "Haven't you looked up and seen that dove nesting up there?"

He's been so exasperated with the mourning doves building a nest and making a mess there that he even put rocks to keep them off. 

Uuumm... I guess it didn't work.

He was going to shoo it off when he saw the little baby dove there. He took a photo of it.

Sigh... I guess we'll have to wait till the baby fledges and flies off.

Uh oh.... I went out later and saw this.

So there's 2 of them? Or is it 3? How are they fitting in that tiny space?

Ah well... I guess Nature finds a way.

POSTSCRIPT:

OK, the baby birds have left so Art decided to add bird spikes to prevent them from coming back and using the space as a nursery and toilet.

You know this is Hawaii. We have lots of trees. LOTS of trees. They don't need to build a nest on an electrical box.

Well... We'll see if this does the trick.

Handi-Van Report Card

When we first suggested mom going to a day care, she was not exactly thrilled, but was willing to try it for a day or two since my uncle was also there. She quickly found friends and began going 3 days a week. Then her geriatric doctor advised that we send her for the 5 weekdays since mom told her how much she liked going. (The doctor was also concerned about caregiver burn-out.) Mom says she loves to go so she can talk to her friends, and participate in all the activities (exercise, art projects, music) they provide.

Art is 80 years old and very fit. He started out driving her all the time to and from the day care and then began sharing a couple of the pick ups with my brother. But with her going more often, I decided to look into Handi-Van services last year which mom certainly qualified for.

So now I was worried about how mom would handle going on a bus everyday. I went with her the first time as a caregiver, but discovered that she didn't need me. She was content to ride the bus on her own. I'm thinking it's because she remembers going to work and returning home from the Japanese newspaper company in Honolulu when she was working there.

I was gratified to see how friendly, caring, cheerful 99.9% of the drivers were. The digital survey that Handi-Van sends out asks for opinions of people who actually ride the bus. I can't answer that because I'm not on the bus so I began writing to the person in charge by email about the lovely drivers who were picking her up.

I do love how careful the drivers are to make sure mom gets on the bus safely and to secure her with the seatbelt. That morning smile and cheerful, "Have a nice day," always comforts me.

I then stand out there to wave at mom because she invariably looks to see where I am so she can wave goodbye.

This morning, the driver stepped out with a big smile and jokingly said, "You have $46,000.00 on your HOLO card. I mean $46.00." 

He then thanked me for the commendation I'd sent to Handi-Van about the last time he drove mom to the daycare. He said he'd gone to work and saw his name on the board so he got a little worried and went into the office and learned about the commendation he got. He was thrilled and told them he remembered us. 

I did sort of detail what I liked about how he handled mom. I'm a retired teacher. I know how to write anecdotals. 😂 

I'm really happy this driver was praised. I have written several of these commendation emails to Handi-Van. They have so many different drivers. I've also written suggestions to improve how some of the Cabs (taxis) that come occasionally could take better care of seniors.

It's hard to stop being an educator. 😏

POSTSCRIPT:

There was a downpour on this day and the driver was so careful with mom that it just really made me feel good. She even rode on the lift with mom to make sure she stayed dry.

It's lovely that the drivers are so loving with their "kupuna" passengers. Kupuna is Hawaiian for grandparent, honored elder or ancestor. 💖

Toll Evasion Notice? In Hawaii?

Oh good grief! 

I just got this text message. How are they getting our cellphone numbers? 

My daughter works for a financial institution and told me about a seminar she attended about scams attacking seniors. It's mind boggling how many seniors have lost their savings to scams.

One of the important things she mentioned is that if we get a message or call that appears legitimate, tell them you will call them up later. You can then look up the number yourself and talk to a person you can trust.

She also reminded me to stop answering the home phone if it's an unfamiliar number. Let them leave a message.

OK... OK...

Anyway, I got a 2nd notice about my having an unpaid toll bill, even after I reported it as JUNK to Apple.

Tsk!

Important thing to note: We don't have toll roads in Hawaii and I don't drive anymore.

I reported this to the FTC fraud line too. 

https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/

I also learned that if you get a message purporting to be from the U.S. government, make sure you see the .gov at the ending. 

Stay safe, everyone.

POSTSCRIPT 1:

Oh no! Another one!

POSTCRIPT 2:

Good grief! I got another one supposedly this time from the Illinois Tollway. We haven't been to Illinois since last summer.

Soooo... anyway, I looked that phone number up online and got this NBC news website from Chicago.

The Chicago news also mentioned reporting it to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center. That web address is ic3.gov

So I did.

Ides of Trump and What? Gutting Funding to Voice of America?

I don't normally write on Saturdays, but I needed to show you that yes, Art went for his early morning jog and mailed my postcards at the post office. 

This will be on its way to the White House for the Ides of Trump protest.

And then this morning... more bad news. 

How much more damage can he and Musk do? This is from NBC news with the title: Trump signs order to gut Voice of America, other agencies. (This is the link to the story.)

"President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday aimed at gutting the parent of U.S. government-funded media outlet Voice of America and six other federal agencies, his administration’s latest step to shrink bureaucracy.

The order instructs the agencies — largely little-known entities including one that provides funding for museums and libraries and one tackling homelessness — to reduce their operations to the bare minimum mandated by the law."

This is scary.