It is Your Kuleana!

Yes, we've heard of those people on the mainland who were protesting the wearing of masks saying it was their constitutional right to not wear one.

Seriously?

You have to wear a seatbelt in your car and on the plane. I don't see them protesting that. I guess because it's for their own safety.

Wearing a mask is not just for your own safety, but for the safety of others in case you are asymptomatic. We have friends whose son was asymptomatic and a relative who passed away from COVID-19. So yes, it is a huge concern.

And yet, Trump contradicted and flouted those precautions. For some reason his followers thought it was a permissible, appropriate thing to attend his rallies unmasked and packed close together.

I saw this sign outside the market and thought it gave the right message.

Yes, we know masks can protect ourselves.

But more important, it is our responsibility, our kuleana to protect everyone around us.

We wear masks to protect everyone in Hawaii.

I wish everyone everywhere would do the same because it is their kuleana.

Today is a day of Thanksgiving. There are many things to be thankful for. 

Let's count them together.

Meow in the Storm Drain

OK, I've posted about huge plants we've seen growing out of the storm drain.

I have noticed that the city must have come and removed them recently, by the way.

Anyway, I can't help looking into storm drains during our walks to see what else might be growing out of it. 

I wonder how deep it is and what it looks like inside.

I've seen painted signs on the pavement saying not to drop things in the storm drains because it goes directly into the ocean.

I found this message from the Hawaii Transportation website:

"The storm water drainage system along our roads and highways is designed to carry water quickly off the roadway and safely away. This means that any pollutants that are swept up in the storm water are carried directly to the ocean, polluting our waters. That’s why we all need to be aware of storm water issues and do our part to keep pollutants out of the storm drains."

Anyway...

Just wanted to show you what I saw recently staring up at me.

Not to worry, when we passed by, I looked back and saw it had jumped out and scampered away. I hope he (or she) doesn't jump into the drainage again during a rainstorm. 

Haven't Met a Canadian We Didn't Like

We've been to Canada several times. We loved Nova Scotia and PEI. We loved Toronto. We loved British Columbia. We loved Ontario. And everywhere we went, we met Canadians who were as nice as could be. What surprised us most was how Canadians seemed to know more about American politics than most Americans. 

We used to joke that if we even thought about crossing the street, the driver would stop for us. No, seriously. Once I just looked at the road and the car stopped. 

Canadians are nice.

Our tai chi communications guy sent the following photos and I just had to share them.

Here's the Canadian Police clashing with citizens.

And here's how the Montreal Police protest a labor dispute. They just didn't wear their work pants.

They are so polite.

And apparently, also very honest. When the attendants were missing and the gates were broken this is what the Canadians did.

And this was a note to the vegetable thieves.

So thoughtful!!!

Ah well...

 

I guess you can't expect all birdlife to be kind.

I wonder if all the police in Canada are as nice.

I love this.

But best of all...

Yes, they are.

Ponderisms?

The fellow who handles our tai chi communications sent the following "ponderisms" to keep our spirits up and mind active. I thought you might enjoy seeing some of them too.

Why do peanuts float in a regular coke and sink in a diet coke. Go ahead and try it..... 

(OK, I tried it. Is Coke Zero not considered Diet? I don't have regular Coke in the house, but well... what's the point?)  🙄

I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes.
 
How important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered? 
 
Why do you have to "put your two cents in"... but it's only a "penny for your thoughts"? Where's that extra penny going? (taxes)
 
Once you're in heaven, do you get stuck wearing the clothes you were buried in for eternity?
 
What disease did cured ham actually have?
 
How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?
 
👶Why is it that people say they "slept like a baby" when babies wake up like every two hours?
 
Why are you IN a movie, but you're ON TV?
 
Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?
 
Why do doctors leave the room while you change??? They're going to see you naked anyway.
 
Why is "bra" singular and "panties" plural?
 
Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat?
 
Can a hearse carrying a corpse drive in the carpool lane?
 
If the professor on Gilligan's Island can make a radio out of a coconut, why can't he fix a hole in a boat?
 
If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?
 
Why do the Alphabet song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have the same tune?
Why did you just try singing the two songs above?
 
Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog's face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him for a car ride, he sticks his head out the window?
 
How did the man who made the first clock know what time it was?  😏

Using Emojis on Blogger Posts

After we were all forced onto the new Blogspot format (system, operation, structure... whatever) I noticed that people were putting emojis onto their posts.

That looked like so much fun but I didn't know how. Aha! Then I located it. Yay! 😁

I used it a while ago for that Halloween math problem because Art said I needed to be clearer with the ghosts, pumpkins and bats. I can't believe they had all the emojis I needed.

OK, I promise not to get too carried away by this since it can be distracting 😆, but isn't it a nice feature to have?

Got Our Free Turkey

Thanksgiving will certainly be different this year. I know mom is disappointed. She loves getting together with family. Actually, we're all disappointed. 

Every Thanksgiving I wish my kids and their families were here too. It's hard when we're all an ocean apart. 

But this year we are a pandemic apart. Our local government has asked everyone to not have large family gatherings this year. We know it's necessary, but it's sad too. Still, we are thankful for so many things. We're healthy so far. We have each other. We can text. We can ZOOM.

I'm recalling now our big Thanksgiving potlucks where everybody would bring their specialty. My brother and sister-in-law would take turns roasting the turkey with Art and me.

It was just so much fun having the familiar (note the pumpkin pie that Art always makes) dishes along with so many other delectable treats.

I wondered if we would even roast a turkey for just the three of us.

But then there was that offer from Foodland where you could exchange a rewards coupon for a free turkey.

Hmmm....

And guess what?

I did have a rewards coupon! So we got the free turkey which now sits waiting to be defrosted. And if we're having turkey, I'll have to make that stuffing (the decadent one with mochi rice). Art will have to make that pumpkin pie.

Ahhh well... We shall have lots of leftovers to freeze and that is definitely something to be thankful for.

Happiness Is Being Carded

I've mentioned before how I'm now able to recognize people with their mask on. We've all learned to use a multitude of other clues to let us know who people are.

The other morning we got a fun text from my 40+ year old daughter in Illinois. She said that due to COVID-19 she got a very happy compliment.

Knowing that her grandmother does enjoy chocolates with liquor in it Tiffany had the bright idea to send her an advent calendar with liquor filled chocolate. Apparently Trader Joes had that perfect something.

And you know what?

They carded her at the check out. You have to be 21 in order to buy liquor in Illinois.

Oh, I'm sure she showed her drivers license very happily.

So Tif is happy and I'll bet my mom will be happy too.

Don't Want to Be Cursed By Pele

I've always appreciated the wonderful medical advice that Linda from Kansas who worked as a hospice nurse often gives me in her comments. I have a very dear and special cousin who is now about to enter Hospice Care and it breaks my heart.

I emailed Linda about my cousin and she wrote back a beautiful letter. She also emailed the following about what she would want done if she caught COVID-19:

"I just want to see my Hawaii ocean painting, and listen to my old-time tunes and Hawaiian music. I even thought of the moderately morbid idea of: "just fill a nurse glove with sand, and if the staff can't attend to me, to let me hold that sandy hand instead of my son's."   Thinking of someone in spirit, even when not physically present, can ease everyone's pain.  Hope I don't have to test out my idea, but I'm seeing lots of variations of this within the hospice literature these days."

So then.... I had this fun idea.

How about I fill a glove with Hawaiian sand and send it to her? I went to the post office but they didn't have a small flat rate box to enclose a sandy glove. That's OK. My friend, Diane happened to have one that she was happy to share with me.

Art and I haven't left our town in months. But we thought it would be a fun excursion to drive out to Nanakuli to get a small bag of sand. The beach was actually deserted so I happily got the cleanest looking sand and brought it home. I cleaned it with fresh water and set it out to dry.

And then it occurred to me. Was it against the law to get sand from the beach?  While my sand was drying, I looked online and found this on New York Post.

"It is illegal to take sand from Hawaii beaches, state Department of Land and Natural Resources spokeswoman Deborah Ward said. The law contains a limited number of exceptions that do not include personal or commercial sales. Fines for illegally collecting Hawaii sand can reach upward of $100,000.Nov 6, 2017"

Oh dang it!

It's supposed to be OK if it's just sand that clings to your bathing suit or beach bag, but not more than that.

Oh dang it!

I am a stickler for following the law.... but would it really hurt to just send a teeny bit? I wouldn't be selling it or anything... And it's just a little bit... sort of.

But then I read about Pele's Curse. She is the goddess of fire and volcanoes and creator of the Hawaiian Islands. The curse is that if you take lava rock away from the islands, you would get hit with mega bad luck. But I thought the curse was only for lava rock, not sand.

Oh dang it!

Apparently Pele doesn't want sand taken from the islands either. And I'm thinking if Linda by small chance gets infected by COVID, do I want to give her more bad luck? OK, yes, it might be a myth... but...

Sigh... I think I'll make her a Hawaiian mask instead. And oh... looks like this will mean another trip to the beach where I can return the now very clean sand. 🙄

Envy Not Good

I wrote a while ago about absolutely loving the super crisp Envy Apples. Zumba friends had recommended that variety to me but I never tried it and stuck to my tried and true Fuji apples. For one thing, Envy apples were more expensive.

Found this on Wikipedia:

"Envy is a trademarked brand of the Scilate apple variety. Scilate is the result of a cross between Royal Gala and Braeburn. It was developed in New Zealand by HortResearch, submitted for a patent in 2008 and patented in 2009.

The Envy apple is a mostly red with yellow specks. The peel is fairly thick and tough. The flesh is pale yellow. It is a sweet apple with low acid and a slightly flowery taste."

Well, they were on sale at Don Quijote market so I had to try it in October and LOVED them. Super, super crispy and sweet.

OK.....

So I bought it again at Don Quijote two or three weeks later and it was NOT good. Not crispy. 

But maybe it was a fluke.

Then I saw it at the Navy commissary and figured it must be better there. So I bought even more.

And they were even worse.

That's when I checked the label. Of course. They're from New Zealand which has fabulous apples, of course. But it's their spring now. Therefore, the apples must have been sitting around for about six months.

Sigh...

I guess I'll go back to Fujis... from the U.S., that is.

The Envies were good that first time though.

POSTSCRIPT:

Yay! I found some Envies at Sam's Club from the U.S.A. and they were crispy and crunchy. 😃

Famous High School Alumni?

There was a full page photo of a woman in the Star Advertiser a few weeks ago. I passed right by it thinking it was some sort of advertisement for Viking Cruises.

I figured it was expounding ‘Once a Viking Cruise traveler, always a Viking cruiser.’

Art took the paper and said, "Hey, look! Hilo High is famous now. It's got a Nobel Prize winner as one of its alumni!"

Since Art is from the Big Island, he would, of course know that Hilo High's mascot was the Vikings. 

I put on my reading glasses and saw that the paper was congratulating Dr. Jennifer Doudna who'd won the 2020 nobel prize in Chemistry.

Got this from Wikipedia:

"Jennifer Anne Doudna is an American biochemist known for her pioneering work in CRISPR gene editing, for which she was awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Emmanuelle Charpentier."

So I got to wondering if we had any famous alumni from Waipahu High School. Hmmm... Couldn't think of anyone.

I'm sure Radford High in Honolulu is proud to say Bette Midler graduated from their school. There's also Jason Scott Lee, Marcus Mariota, Bruno Mars, Iz Kamakawiwo'ole, Auli’i Cravalho and lots and lots of others though I don’t know what high school they attended.

"And don't forget Poncie Ponce," Art said. Poncie Ponce (musician, comedian, actor) acted on Hawaiian Eye for several seasons.

He graduated from Honokaa High School on the Big Island and was the stepbrother of Art's good friend.

And let's not forget we also claim Barack Obama who graduated from Punahou which is one of Hawaii’s premier private schools.

So... do you have any alumni from your high school who became famous?

Refrigerator Woes

Doggone it! The fridge is not cooling enough AGAIN! 

I know we need a new one, but we want one with no ice maker and no fancy stuff. They all tend to break down too easily.

When we were looking for refrigerators in pre-COVID days, we saw two other people looking for refrigerators without ice makers also. I'd like to get refrigerators like the olden days when they lasted longer than 10 years. Our daughter has our 30 year old freezer in their basement in Illinois and it's still going strong. 

The last time our refrigerator stopped cooling was in May. It’s only been about 6 months!

Three years ago, our friends advised us that it's often because the cooling vent has iced up. Sadly, that vent seems to be icing up faster and faster.

So here we are again, having to de-ice the vent with a hair dryer.

I hate looking for appliances. 

Once COVID is over, we'll have to go fridge hunting again. This is extra problematic because we need a fridge that is counter depth. Not easy. And it's more expensive. 😬

Not looking forward to it at all.

Teriyaki Chicken-COVID style

You already know I hate to cook. And mom has forgotten most of her recipes although she has about 5 dishes she can still prepare. Art and I take turns cooking, but all our dishes have to be what mom likes and be relatively soft because she has dentures. One of her favorite dishes that Art makes is sardines and sweet onions in brown sugar and soy sauce. He's also great at making omelettes. 

I make chili, chicken soup and corned beef hash patties which she's happy with. I used to make quinoa salad but she doesn't love it. And I can make teriyaki chicken which she really likes. This is the recipe I use. It's a recipe my friend, Diane gave me probably when I got married because she knew how great 🙄I was at cooking. It's a good thing Art's parents owned a small restaurant. He definitely knew/knows how to cook

Teriyaki Chicken

1 1/2 pounds sliced beef or chicken
1/2  cup shoyu
1/2  cup sugar
2  Tbsp. mirin or wine
1  clove garlic
1 inch ginger crushed
For Korean Style
Add:
2 Tbsp.  sesame see oil
1 tsp. sesame seed
Chili pepper or chopped onions  (if desired)

Combine above and soak thinly sliced beef for 1 hour.  (Longer and it could be too salty.)
I soak chicken thighs for 5-6 hours in the fridge.

A few years back, we were at Ala Moana beach and I saw somebody set up a little hibachi to grill some teriyaki chicken. He had the chicken soaking in a BIG glass jar. I've always wanted to get a glass jar like that. 

During our trip to Illinois in February, I saw my daughter, Tiffany (who is married to a techie Korean American guy we all love) buy a gigantic bottle of kimchi. She uses a lot of kimchi to make kimchi fried rice and I don't know what else. In fact, I think she knows more Korean dishes now instead of Japanese.

Anyway, I coveted that glass jar. She was very happy to give me two of them. I didn't need two but I wanted them anyway. I'm sure the TSA agent looking inside my carry-on wondered why I'd be carting two empty glass jars back to Hawaii.

I was planning to use the jar for the next time we had a big pot luck at our house where I would have to marinate a lot of chicken.

Well, now that we've been hit with COVID we don't get to call the family over. However, I like to make a lot of dishes in quantity and freeze them.

Isn't this so cool? I have 3.5 pounds of chicken marinating in 3X the recipe. I should have just doubled the recipe. Darn! I could have put in more chicken if I'd had them. This should give us several meals! 

It was Art's job to grill the chicken and we had enough for dinner and three more family servings to freeze.

Yay!

Taking a Closer Look

I remember a time when the kids were little that we would just set aside Halloween pumpkins in the backyard for the squirrels to enjoy during the long, cold Chicago winters. It would take several months before the pumpkin would be completely eaten, probably not by squirrels, necessarily but possums, skunks, racoons, etc.

For that reason, our daughter avoids putting out pumpkins in the back where the deck stands because skunks and raccoons have found it to be the perfect habitat.

Tiffany sent me a photo the other day so I could see that she set the pumpkin in their driveway.

She took this photo from between the slats of the blinds.

I thought it was funny that the lid of the pumpkin had come off, and yet, why was there still a stem on the pumpkin?

Upon further close-up, we were surprised to see that it was the squirrel's tail! I do remember roasting pumpkin seeds with the kids when they were little. Looks like the squirrel is enjoying the seeds raw.

POSTSCRIPT:
And just in case, you don't believe me that it's a squirrel, here are more photos Tif sent the following day.

Good grief!

You can see he's already gaining quite a bit of weight for the winter.

Hopefully Shifting Back to a Kinder Sanity

I was remembering the euphoria of President Obama's inauguration in 2009.

Our granddaughter was not yet three and history was being made with our first black president.

I'd hoped that racism was fading.

She's almost 14 now. Time does fly.

But then we had a backlash with 4 years of racism raising its head again.

I was looking back on my blog about that long ago time and found this following 2009 post about how racism and distrust of President Obama and people of other races, religions and a myriad other things were not gone.

Am I the Only One Who Thinks This is Stupid?

The White House said President Obama would be talking to kids and telling them to stay in school and focus on their studies. I got this from the LA times.

  ..."According to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Obama will "challenge students to work hard, set educational goals and take responsibility for their learning. He will also call for a shared responsibility and commitment on the part of students, parents and educators to ensure that every child in every school receives the best education possible so they can compete in the global economy for good jobs and live rewarding and productive lives as American citizens...." 

Then WHY oh WHY are there parents saying they're going to keep their kids home from school so they don't hear that message? There's some kind of hysteria going on and I don't hear a lot of rebuttal about how dumb this is. What am I not understanding? Children are looking up to President Obama as the leader of our country. Why shouldn't they hear him tell them that it's a good thing to be in school and to study hard?

         I'm totally at a loss. 

What must people in other countries think of us when this kind of stupid thing about us is in the news?

I clicked on that LA Times link and saw this about FOX news:

"On Wednesday, Fox News devoted a substantial portion of one of its prime-time newscasts to a discussion of whether Obama is, in fact, trying to seduce schoolchildren to some darkly obscure personal agenda. The sole guest, a spokesman for the libertarian Cato Institute, reported that “we’ve gotten a lot of calls from people asking, ‘How do I keep my child from being indoctrinated?’ ”

So this is what President-Elect Biden is inheriting. This is a country divided between that of inclusion and working with others and one of Me First.

I hope people will take their hats off and work together.

Relief!

I got up this morning at 5:30 and saw it was still not conclusive. And then an hour or two later, I got a text from my teacher friend, Gerri in Illinois.

"Woo hoo!!! Our new President Elect Joe Biden!"

"What?" I texted back and then checked the news.

Oh my gosh!

He won! He won!

I am so relieved. Biden has been decisively projected to win the electoral college and the popular vote.

Trump is not conceding.

But now there's the huge job of making it an America to be proud of again instead of the Red/Blue Country.

I'm so happy to see most people celebrating are wearing masks. What does that say about it all?

POSTSCRIPT:

We decided to celebrate with Panda Express for lunch. Guess who is really, really happy about the election. 

Art went down this morning to tell her and she was already watching early morning news from Japan. She knew the results almost before we did. Now that was a surprise.

91st Birthday Celebration!

We celebrated mom's 91st birthday recently. Our parents were not big into birthdays when we were growing up. I just remember there always being a dream cake. (More on that later) But that was it. No presents. No parties. Just that dream cake, but it was enough and we looked forward to it.

Now that my brother and I are grown up, the family does a little more than that. Grandchildren sent well wishes by text, Art and I got her dark chocolate (good for the eyes) candy,  socks and fancy sushi. Our daughter, Tiffany sent mom luxury face cream which she tells everybody is the reason she looks younger than her age. My brother, Dennis and Nancy brought over TWO really good sake (yes, mom LOVED that) and a chocolate chiffon cake that was awesome!

Mom has to write what each face cream is to be used for since she can't read the teeny English labels. 

Dennis told mom that they looked hard for dream cake but just couldn't find it. To be honest, the chocolate chiffon was better for all of us. It was super light and delicious. 

As children though, the birthday kid got first dibs on finding and picking the biggest chocolate flake on the dream cake. That was really important and super special!

But you know what? 

One of the MOST special surprises on her birthday was a call from Dennis and Nancy's son, Shawn in Las Vegas. Mom used to babysit Shawn when he was growing up, before he became a professional singer and musician.

At the end of the day mom said, "That was a really great birthday!"

An Original Use for a Face Mask

My brother went for a walk the other day and texted me a photo saying it was another clever use for a face mask in Hawaii. 

Isn't this absolutely original? I'm assuming it's a used mask. If they're like mom they've filled it with particles of tree fern fiber, sphagnum moss or some other material that drains easily. I'm sure the orchids will love it since that's where a lot of orchids like to live in the Hawaiian rainforests.

Can you think of another use for used masks because I'll bet our landfills are going to be full of them?

Still trying to keep my mind off the election.

Cleaning Magic

I wrote this post a while ago. I don’t have anything to say about the election because I haven’t been listening to it. (Sort of) The last I heard tonight was not sounding good and Art said we should just go to bed and deal with everything tomorrow. So... that’s what I’m doing and hoping for the best because I can’t think of the worst right now.

.............................................................................................................

One particular hot night, I know I had been sweating on my pillow so I decided to put them outside in the sunshine to freshen it.

That's when I noticed that the plastic chairs I use to set the pillows on were really grimy looking. I tried cleaning the chairs with soap and hot water. It did nothing. It was probably clean now, but stained.

So... I thought I'd try using this bleach cleaner.

At first, I thought it wasn't doing any better than the soap and water but then... voila! It turned white again.

This is so awesome! 

Social Distancing at the Open Market and an Election Night With Sake

I can tell you one thing. Seniors on Oahu ARE taking masks and social distancing seriously. Open Markets (Hawaii's term for farmers markets) opened up again a couple of weeks ago much to our delight. We have a favorite farmer at whose booth we always get our breakfast papayas and bananas. There's only about three sellers left. I don't know if the others have gone out of business.

The Open Market is closed today because it's Election Day. I asked them why since everybody in Hawaii votes by mail. They didn't know.

Everyone is careful. They even have the pavement marked to insure we know how far to stand. 

We could probably pick up our papayas and bananas at Sam's Club or another market, but we want to support our local farmers. It also seems safer out there in the open. 

I shake my head everytime I think about the message the White House encourages to have people disregard these COVID-19 safeguard recommendations. I'm just grateful that the seniors in our area are not being influenced by them.  

I think it's also funny that we can now recognize many of the regulars that frequent the open market even with their masks on. We're now learning to rely on other cues. Hairstyle, height, eyes, etc. Have you learned to do that also?

I know you have all voted. I'll be pacing the floor today. My Kauai cousin tells me she'll have a bottle of shochu (Japanese alcoholic beverage) to help celebrate or drown her sorrows in. We have a bottle of sake that my brother and family gave mom. We're going to join my cousin this evening in 🍷 spirit 😬. 

Fingers and toes crossed.

Would Dyeing Cure My Ugly Shorts?

I bought a couple of jeans shorts before the time of COVID-19 from Ross (discount store) because they felt really comfortable (it's a little stretchy around the waist). Granted they had these ugly stripes across the lap that's supposed to be fake crease marks. But I thought I could live with it.

Eventually however, they really started to bug me. 

And now that I'm stuck at home, I thought I'd do something about it.

I got out the pot, made the dye and stuck the two shorts in. 

Unfortunately, I forgot to check the label and dyed it thinking it was 100% cotton. 

It's actually 68% cotton, 30% polyester, 1% spandex and 1% something else. Thus that lovely stretch.

It explains why so much of the dye rinsed off. 

Darn!

The BEFORE is on top.

You can see on the bottom that the stripes are still visible. 

I wonder if more of the dye will keep coming off everytime I wash it.

So this is it! I give up.

Then again, if I'm stuck at home for months more on end... you never know what I'll do.

POSTSCRIPT:

OK, I've worn the jeans shorts and laundered it with several rinses. This is what it looks like now.

I'm content. Good enough!

I think...