Stanley's Piano Concert at the Hospice

We met Stanley at the Tuesday Farmer's Market several months ago and discovered that he lived just down the road from us. He said his wife had died two years ago and he was still missing her. The Ewa hospice where she spent her last days asked Stanley if he would come back and continue to play the piano for their other patients after his wife had passed on.

Since then, he's been going to 5 other places also to play the piano. He asked us if we would come and hear him play.


We got there just in time. He said he was pacing around outside thinking we wouldn't be coming because of the tsunami warning in the area. We didn't even realize there was a tsunami expected. He was happy to see us and had brought a giant avocado to share with us.


We settled down in the lobby area to listen to him play a lot of show tunes from the 30's to the 80's. After each song and our applause, he'd ask us to name the music and the show. I think we surprised him. He played songs like As Time Goes By, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, Cabaret, Fly Me to the Moon, Some Enchanted Evening, That's All I Ask of You.


He said the only song he knew by heart was a song Frank Sinatra wrote called, This Love of Mine. Stanley said he sang it once after his wife died and his friend cried. He sang it for us.

This love of mine goes on and on,
Though life is empty since you have gone.
You're always on my mind, though out of sight
It's lonesome through the day,
But oh! The night.

I cry my heart out, it's bound to break,
Since nothing matters, let it break.
I ask the sun and the moon,
The stars that shine,
What's to become of it, this love of mine.

I couldn't help it. Tears suddenly came brimming to my eyes.


When his concert was over, Stanley invited us to his favorite "Cheap Eats" restaurant at Wong Kung Restaurant in Waipahu. We insisted that since he provided the concert, we would most certainly provide the meal.


The lunch special was $4.75! We were surprised at the generous, tasty servings.


I had pork broccoli and Art had eggplant with chicken. We liked our meal but Stanley wasn't very pleased with his oyster chicken. I took this photo after I'd already eaten almost half of it so you can imagine how big the serving size was. I really need to remember to take my photo before I start eating! Sheesh!

Since we started the morning with the Farmers Market, taking my mom to get her blood tested at the hospital and then out to breakfast, it's been a mighty full (of calories) day. I'm going to have to do some walking to expend what I've had fun eating today.

I'm sitting here feeling sad for Stanley and yet admiring him for continuing to want to share comfort and a bit of happiness with those who need it most.

The View From Tantalus (Puu Ualakaa Park Look Out)

When our guests were here last week, we took them up to Tantalus (mountain lookout) to get a view of Diamond Head, Manoa (University of Hawaii campus), Waikiki, Honolulu and Waianae.


It was a sunny, clear day!


It seemed as though you could actually see the curvature of the Earth on the horizon. You can see Honolulu straight ahead.


The Waianae mountain range is seen in the distance.

Lies My Teacher Told Me

I've been reading James Loewen's book, Lies My Teacher Told Me. My son gave this book to me before I retired. I've only begun reading it more carefully and it's painful reading.

I got through the Christopher Columbus myth and it shook me up. I knew some of that history. The Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria, etc. I knew he wasn't the first discoverer. I did teach my class that the Norse actually were there before him.

But then there's a whole lot more that textbooks wouldn't touch... what he did after that. He was in this for gold, slaves and riches. Columbus carefully documented all his travels so it's apparently all there to see the cruelty of how native girls of 8 and 9 were given as sex slaves to his lieutenants, how natives who did not regularly produce gold for him had their noses, ears or hands chopped off, and on and on.

"Estimates of Haiti's pre-Columbian population range as high as 8,000,000 people. When Christopher Columbus returned to Spain, he left his brother Bartholomew in charge of the island. Bartholomew took a census of Indian adults in 1496 and came up with 1,100,000." If you count the children, the estimate would probably be more like 3,000,000 but it's still horrendous. Natives were also often killed for sport.

I won't go on further about all the horrible things that were done to the native people here. The Spanish killed and enslaved thousands...millions of natives and considered it their Christian God-given right.

I'm now reading about that first Thanksgiving.... sigh....

I do think all teachers should read this book.

We often talk about how other countries give their citizens misinformation... brainwashing, etc. I'm afraid, we do, too. Oh yes, we do, too.

Back to the Big Island

We decided to take our visitors, Sam from Tokyo, Jud from Burma (Myanmar) and Shirley from Taiwan to the Big Island. This would be especially nostalgic for Jud since the company he worked for built the Kona and Hilo airports.


Our first stop was the Farmers Market in Hilo where we once again bought flowers for Art's parents' columbarium in Honokaa.


We stopped at Rainbow Falls to admire the beautiful sight.


After walking through Honokaa again we drove to Waipio Valley where taro is still grown.


Kamuela is a gorgeous town where green hills reminded me a bit of what I imagined Ireland would look like. We had fun posing with a figure of a paniolo (Hawaiian cowboy).


We walked through Kona and enjoyed the beautiful sunset while we savored some delicious Kona coffee ice cream.


Art reserved a large 2 bedrooms, 2 baths vacation condo (Kona Coast Resort) which we really enjoyed.


The furniture had a teeny bit over the top Hawaiian motif which we smiled at. When the cost was divided between us, it worked out to a reasonable $35 a person.


We didn't use that fancy tub but we had fun looking at it.


The following morning we went to Pu'uhonua o Honaunau's City of Refuge.
This was a "place of refuge for defeated warrriors, noncombatants in time of war, and those who violated the kapu, the sacred laws. This place was used for several centuries."


Black sands beach at Punalu'u Bay in the Ka'u district had tiny, shiny olivine crystals mixed in the lava sand.


We noticed a sea turtle resting on the beach and then found a plaque that told of the legend of Kauila.


Kauila, the mystical sea turtle had her home in the Ka'u district at Punalu'u Bay. She had the ability to turn herself into human form and would play with the children on the shoreline and watch over them.


No trip to the Big Island is complete without a trip to the Volcanoes National Park. We first visited the Halemaumau crater and saw the huge plumes of volcanic gases that cause the terrible vog which has been rather harmful to people and agriculture.


Kilauea Iki is still an impressive sight. I could just imagine what an amazing sight the 1959 eruption must have been.


We drove back to Hilo and bought strawberry mochi (a giant strawberry encased in mochi and azuki beans) and a box of assorted mochi from the Two Ladies shop, chocolate dipped shortbread cookies from the famous Big Island Candies and some thinly sliced shoyu beef jerky from George's Meat Market.

I called Mavis, my high school friend living in Hilo to give us a recommendation for a place to eat. She suggested New Star Chinese Restaurant. The food tasted as good as it looked.... so much so that I forgot to take a photo before we started digging into the scrumptious dishes.

Dinner over, exhausted but thrilled with our happy travels, we boarded our Hawaiian Airlines flight back to Oahu.

Dining Out Italiano

Our friend, "Sam" who is visiting us from Japan insisted on taking us out to dinner tonight. I asked my friend, Joanne where we should go. She recommended Palazzo Ristorante Italiano in Aiea about 15 minutes away. We checked the web and found good reviews so we decided to give it a try.



Palazzo Ristorante Italiano
99-080 Kauhale St # C2
Aiea, HI 96701-4117


Art had this calamari dish which was really delicious and the rest of us had the Scallops Piccate. I think that's what it was called. Whatever its name, it was fabulous. We were all thrilled with our food and the friendly service. The owner, Lok waited very kindly on us and we had a lovely meal. All the wait staff was extremely attentive throughout our dinner.


I wasn't expecting such terrific Italian food right here on Oahu in our neck of the woods. It was also quite reasonable. I'd go back there instead of some of the pricier places we've been to. OK... so we don't go to pricey restaurants unless somebody is getting married or won something or graduated but... this was very nice indeed!

What the World Needs Now

When my husband, Art left Hawaii to attend a university in Peoria, Illinois, he was eager for the adventure. He did not return to Hawaii for his entire college career because it was just too expensive. I imagine he must have been lonely at times although he says he relished the challenges.

There was a family near the university who recognized the special difficulties of students so far away from home. They began inviting international students to their home for weekend dinners. Art (yes, they knew Hawaii was not a foreign country) was coaxed to go and found a husband, wife and their daughter, Sharon who loved people from around the world and wanted everyone to be part of their loving family.

When we moved to Chicago, they asked us to stop by when we were in Springfield. That didn't happen for many years as we were busy with our own family responsibilities and never made that journey down south. However, when we got the call to please come, we did.

On that first visit, I was impressed and touched by the loving embrace of friendship that they immediately extended toward me, Art's wife. Sharon had married Gene, a minister who is the most liberal minister I've ever met. He is always respectful of other religions and accepts everybody's right to believe as they do. I guess it made sense that Sharon would marry a minister like that.


There were many visits to Springfield from that time on with other international friends from Burma and Japan.

When we told them that we would be moving to Hawaii, a plan was hatched to have everybody come for a week long stay at our home. Sharon looked forward to seeing Hawaii again and introducing Gene to the islands.

However, suddenly, ruthlessly fate stepped in and snatched Sharon from us. We learned last year that she'd had a stroke. We waited for every piece of news and thought she would be out of the hospital with the next phone call. It was not to be. In less than two weeks, she was gone.

We stopped to see Gene on our way to Hawaii. I kept expecting Sharon to come walking out of her kitchen with her always amazing culinary concoctions. I could almost hear her laughter echoing in the Japanese garden that she, her mom and Gene had cultivated for many years.

Then our friend from Tokyo proposed a plan to have us all get together at our house with Gene. Gene said he was game. Plans were made. Tickets were bought.

Fate stepped in again. Gene was stricken with a brain ailment and is still under a doctor's care. He will not be able to make the trip but says he still wants to come later. I hope so.

Meanwhile... our friends from Burma and Japan will arrive tomorrow and Monday. We'll have a wonderful get-together all the while holding Sharon's memory in our hearts. Wouldn't it be truly paradise if this world could have more people like Sharon, Gene and her parents?

I won't be able to do much blogging this coming week but I'll be thinking of you.

Teachers' Salaries

My very good retired Illinois teacher friend, Gerri sent the following to me this morning and I had to share it with all my very good blogger teacher friends in cyberspace.

Teachers' hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or 10 months a year!

It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do--baby-sit!

We can get that for less than minimum wage. That's right. Let's give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked, not any of that silly planning time, time spent grading qualitative papers, organizing, purchasing supplies the schools don't provide, additional meetings, setting up in the morning, and so on.

That would be $19.50 a day [7:00 AM to 3:30 (or so) PM with just 25 min. off for lunch].

Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children.

NOW...

How many do they teach in a class, 30? So that's $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day.

However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! We're not going to pay them for any vacations.

LET'S SEE....

That's $585 x 180= $105,300 per year.

What about those special teachers and the ones with master's degrees?

Well, we could pay them minimum wage, and just to be fair, round it off to $7.00 an hour.

That would be $7 x 6 1/2 hours x 30 children x 180 days = $245,700 per
year.

Wait a minute--there's something wrong here!

Average teacher salary $50,000/180 days = $277/per day/30 students = $9.23/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student. A very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even try - with your help - to EDUCATE your kids!

WHAT A DEAL....

And the parents don't even have to buy us pizza!


Thanks for this fun post idea, Gerri!

I should tell everybody out there that Gerri was a Behavior Disorder teacher. She was worth her weight in gold in the classroom and as a friend. When I returned to teaching after a dozen years away, Gerri was the one who showed me the ropes and taught me how to hold on to my classroom with a velvet gloved hand and to smile through every day.

Kolea (Pacific Golden Plovers)

I went to Aerobics class today with my high school friend, Joanne who is also a retired teacher.

Yiiiiikes! How uncoordinated can I be? This must mean I can't walk and chew gum at the same time also. When I concentrated on my footwork, my arms just didn't seem to know what to do with themselves. When I concentrated on my arm movements my legs decided they could do whatever they wanted, never mind trying to get anything in rhythm to the music. Sheesh!

Oh wait.... I was going to do this post on the Pacific Golden Plover.


Joanne told me this bird with the tuxedo coloring that we saw outside the Waiau Community Center where the Aerobics class is conducted is a Kolea. That's the Hawaiian name for the Pacific Golden Plover. When our Seattle friends, Patty and Paul were here in March, Patty did mention that she thought it was a plover. Apparently there's an American and a Pacific Golden Plover.

Joanne says there's even some organization that keeps a sighting count on the Kolea and that school children are taught about the Kolea's long, arduous non-stop journey to Alaska annually.

They are certainly a very interesting bird and fun to watch as they skitter everywhere.

Still Looking for a Bedroom Set

Our daughter, Tiffany was kind enough to go out to the Home Decorators show room in Chicago today to look at the Mino bedroom set we'd ordered on-line. We were willing... in our aggravation of not finding something we like in Hawaii... to pay the horrendous 75% shipping fee.

Unfortunately, the Home Decorators people said we had to order the set before we could find out if the vendor could ship to Hawaii. They said not to worry if we didn't like it because they would give us the option to accept or decline once they figured out the final cost and whether it could even be sent.

We ordered. Once we found out it could be sent to Hawaii we sent Tiffany out to look at it.

Then they told us that it may already have been sent.

What?

We called and e-mailed and they said that once they know the cancellation of the order has gone through, they would refund our money. Uhhhhhh?


Tif took several photos and at first we thought it looked pretty but then she focused on the details that showed rather poor workmanship that you couldn't see from the set pictured on-line.

The on-line set boasted English dovetailing. As you can see by this photo Tif sent, there's no dovetailing at all.

The drawers could only open seven and a half inches!


There were also no track glides so Tif said the drawers could not open and shut smoothly.

So there you have it.... back to furniture shopping.

And let's hope we get our money back without any trouble.


P.S. I just got an e-mail message reassuring me that Home Decorators.com has cancelled the order and would be crediting our account. Phew! That's a relief!

Remembering KC

I was thinking about by granddaughter, KC tonight and missing her and her parents. I looked through a collection of photos from August and saw this one. I was sitting on the floor by the front door waiting for my friend to pick me up to go line dancing. Two year old KC saw me sitting on the bare floor and brought over a pillow for me to sit on. Then she brought over another pillow, sat on it and waited with me.

I loved seeing her caring and thoughtfulness. I was proud of her, and wondered if it was her own natural empathy or was she somehow taught to be caring by her parents? Was she mimicking behavior she'd seen or did she figure it all out on her own?

I remember my first graders all being so different. Some were incredibly thoughtful and caring and others were very self absorbed. My own two children, raised in the same household are very different. Both are loving and caring but poles apart in so many ways. You'd think they were raised in different households. I guess I believe you are who you are from the moment you are born but you are taught to do the proper social cultural formalities. But then again, how does this explain the liberal versus conservatives?

Good grief? Where am I going with this? I think it's time for me to go to bed.

University of Hawaii Agricultural Extension Program

Once a month, the University of Hawaii has a garden show to give answers to gardening questions and sell some plants. Since the get-together is just down the street it was hard to pass up even though we knew we'd have to stand in the hot sun.


We decided to try growing a couple of eggplants. At 50 cents a plant, it was worth a try.


We saw a lot of plants being grown in containers but we wondered if we could duplicate those results.


I saw Art eyeing the papaya plants but he restrained himself from buying another one.



Joe was the docent who gave us a tour of the gardens. He wasn't a big advocate of container gardens because he said it dried too quickly in the hot Hawaiian sun. He showed us this huge "snake squash" that he said could grow to be 8 feet long.

Joe also instructed us on the best way to grow green onions. Apparently, the way we'd been doing it is wrong. Instead of just cutting the tops off, putting it in water and then transplanting it to the ground, he said we needed to cut the roots off until you had only an inch and a half left. Then we needed to dry it before planting it in the ground. Hmmmm... I don't know... We'll try it and see what happens.


Joe also said asparagus is what we all needed to grow. He said it would take 2 years to produce results and then would give us asparagus spears for 15 years. Sounded great! They weren't selling asparagus though so we'll have to look for it at the garden shop.

Now I'm pooped! That tropical sun is withering.

Yellow Bumblebees (Oops! They're Actually Carpenter Bees!)

For the longest time we've had bumblebees swarming along the side of our house. We suspected they had a nest in the fence between us and our neighbor but we didn't know where. A couple of weeks ago we had State Termite come out to spray the perimeter of our house because we were rather infested with tiny biting ants, little German and gargantuan American cockroaches.

The person doing the application did not wear any protective clothing or mask so we figured it wasn't that powerful a spray.




Two weeks later however, we've counted 81 dead black and yellow bumblebees. We're also not seeing any biting ants anymore and very little cockroaches. It's rather surprising how potent that poison was.


My mother is extremely allergic to bee, wasp and ant stings. She can die from it if not treated quickly so it's good that there are no longer any bees to possibly harm her. However, it's sad to see so many of the bumblebees dying, too. I'm wondering now just how strong that poison was and if the fellow doing the application is safe.

My brother has just told me that what we thought were bumble bees were actually carpenter bees who like to bore holes in wood.

Fixing Health Care in America

I'm having a hard time understanding why there's so much antagonism against health care reform.

According to the National Coalition on Health Care:
"Several studies estimate the number of uninsured Americans. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly 46 million Americans, or 18 percent of the population under the age of 65, were without health insurance in 2007, their latest data available.1"

Health insurance is so expensive that I've known quite a few parents of my past students who could not afford health care for their families. I remember one dad telling me he had to just wait until a child was sick enough and then he'd take his child to the emergency room.

I also know a family member who got kicked out by her insurance company once she got too sick.

There are too many stories about the sick state of health care in the U.S. And yet people are absolutely filled with maniacal rage and hysteria about doing something to change anything if there's a remote possibility that it will affect their lives, even when they don't exactly know how it will affect them.


I thought the President's speech today was excellent. I really felt he tried to bring people together to listen to reason and to dispel misinformation. Did it work? I sure hope so. I'm really hoping something gets done this time. We need to come together and help those in our country who are less fortunate.

That heckler during the President's speech? Would somebody please tell him to grow up and learn some manners?

It's 09-09-09!

Isn't this a fun day?

I went to Aerobics. I think a third of the class was over 80. Our instructor is 80 and I was having the hardest time keeping up with all of them! Our teacher, Mae is as nice as can be and kept reassuring my friend, Joanne and me that we would eventually get the hang and stamina for it.

When I staggered home Art said the shipping quotes came in (via e-mail) for the furniture and it was NOT good.
Haiku Designs said shipping the "Hiro" bedroom set would cost $1499.00

Then while still following Abe's advice and looking at other websites, I found the same set under a different name. It was called "Mino." The website was Home Decorator's Collection. Apparently they're affiliated with Home Depot. They said their shipping cost would be 75% of the cost of the item which would be $1888.50 if I did this right. Good grief!
However, their Mino set cost less. Altogether, buying from them would be less.



What to do, what to do...
First off, Art discovered that a Home Decorator's Collection store is located in Chicago. I'm hoping my daughter will be willing to go have a look and tell us if we should even be pursuing this route.

I'm remembering that the furniture set at Inspirations Furniture is half the cost of this one. Sigh...

Once this decision is made and our Prius is finally shipped to Hawaii, we'll be able to lay low and not worry about another major purchase for a while. Unless there's a hurricane or fire or termites attack the house or the pipes spring a leak or.... Arrrghhhh!

Tuesday This and Thats

It's been another day of just this and thats.

Started the day going to the Farmers Market and bumping into my aunt and uncle there. I loved seeing them looking so well. My uncle is 87 and walks several miles a day. He's got better cholesterol and blood pressure levels than everybody else.

Bumped into a neighbor who lost his wife a couple of years ago. He now plays piano at the hospice where his wife stayed for a time before she passed away. We were going to watch him play today but things got in the way. We promised to go another time.

Art's friend came over with salmon collars, eggs, stomach and fillets that he caught in Alaska. He just missed Art taking my mom to see the dentist for an appointment that opened up suddenly.

I saw Abe Lincoln's comment on my post yesterday about checking online for bedroom suites since we couldn't find something we liked here in Hawaii.

I took his advice and found a set that Art and I both agreed on at Haiku Designs. (Just in case you're looking, Hiro is the one we're thinking of getting...maybe.) HOWEVER... and there had to be a HOWEVER... I know there's going to be a crazy exorbitant shipping fee. There always is, to Hawaii. The website said they would notify me about the shipping cost and then we could decide whether we wanted to go through with it. It's awfully scary to buy something without actually touching it and seeing it in person. The website said if you don't like it you could send it back, but you'd be charged the shipping fee... again.

Well... we'll see.

I'm going to Aerobics for our first lesson tomorrow with my high school friend, Joanne. Let's see... there's my water bottle, my mat, my towels, my shorts and top. I feel like it's the first day of school.

Bed Update: More Troubles! Arrrghhhh!

First of all, yes, we knew that most people in Hawaii have the California King (longer, thinner) mattresses. However, we were told that Eastern King (shorter, wider) was available but that sheets were hard to find. We checked ahead and found that you could find the Eastern King sheets everywhere.

So we decided to get the Eastern King mattress (with bunkie boards for a lower profile)..... as you all know.

I had all these lovely plans of now finding JUUUUST the perfect zen-like bedroom set. Clean lines....light wood (so it doesn't show scratches)... low profile... platform... ahhhhhh....

We went to Homeworld, Honolulu. No platform bed suites for Eastern King. Well, they had one, I think but we both didn't like it.

We went to Rooms Hawaii. Nothing we liked. We didn't even check for platform suites there because there wasn't any style that grabbed us.

We went to C.S. Wo: Nada. Mostly ornate Asian.

We went to Homeworld, Aiea. Nada nada.

Went to Inspiration Furniture, Aiea: They had three bedroom set styles with an Eastern King platform bedframe. It's a very popular, modern styling type store but the bedroom furniture quality is pretty shoddy. Of the three, this one style was just OK... The price was good though.

We went to Honolulu Design Center today: It turned out to be the flagship store for Inspiration Furniture, Aiea. It had a lot more furniture but only three more designs which were sort of like Ikea particle board but 4 times the price.

Remembering how I've been known to change my mind, Art is reluctant to buy juuuust yet. He wants to take one more trip to Rooms Hawaii just to see if there might be a possibility there that we missed.

And then... that's it! Decision time. It's not like we've got many choices here.

(Young) Women Drivers?

Art has often complained that (mostly YOUNG) women drivers often do not show simple courtesies like allowing somebody into their lane while driving. I told him he was generalising too much. Therefore, lately he's been pointing it out to me and you know what? I hate to say it, but it's true. Also, guys are more apt to wave to thank you for letting them into your lane. He also wanted me to add that young women tend to not let him cross the street at intersections when he's out running.

Why do you think this is?

I'm thinking girls' psyches are usually ingrained into being wary of strangers. Meeting a stranger's eyes to thank them on the road might be scary. Girls might also have the expectation that gentlemen are expected to let them into traffic, but that they should be allowed to go first and not let anybody in.

That's my excuse for my sex. It may not be the best excuse but a probable (reasonable?) explanation.

I think people are often conditioned to be a certain way. Teachers are conditioned to meeting people's eyes and being friendly. My kids were always surprised (occasionally rolling an eye or two?) that no matter where we travel I would bump into a teacher and would start having friendly conversations.

Art's doctor, within 10 minutes of his first visit asked, "Are you an engineer?"

Although I'm always in the passenger seat, I'm going to wave THANK YOU to every kind driver I see.

More Fires Cooking Around Here!

We were heading back from the Waikele Outlet Mall and couldn't understand why there was such a big traffic jam.


Not again. Smoke in the distance. The traffic jam was because the Honolulu Police Department had to close of H1. According to KGMB TV: The fire’s direction of travel and proximity to the H-2 freeway has caused the HFD to request that the Honolulu Police Department (HPD) close the Northbound H-2 freeway at the H-1 and H-2 merge.



This time we could see the flames from our window.


My mother was oblivious to it all. She didn't want to leave her nishime dish that she was busy nurturing. We told her to make a lot because my brother loves this Japanese stew as well as Art's cousin. She had to use the big pot but then couldn't look into it so she needed the ladder to make sure her epicurean delight was looking just so. Does she have a recipe? I've never seen it. One of these days, I'll just have to watch her and write it all down.