Saving Wildlife

My dear friend, Myra texted this photo to our chat group of tai chi friends about a bird she rescued from a bucket of water.

She and her son swaddled the bird with a towel to dry out its feathers and left it in the outside sink overnight. 

The following morning they discovered that the bird had flown away.

We had to smile at the happy ending to their wildlife rescue.

It reminded Art of the time he and the kids decided to rescue a baby squirrel when we lived in Chicago.

Art, Tiffany and Keola had gone to the park and saw some children huddled over a baby squirrel that seemed to be ill. Our kids were still in elementary school then. 

They brought the squirrel home and put him in a cage with some water to hopefully let it recuperate undisturbed before they could let it out again. They set the squirrel in our family room. I was a little dubious about this. When I checked on the squirrel later, I saw that there were teeny tiny black dots in the water dish. And lots of teeny black dots hopping out of the cage. 

Apparently, the squirrel had died which was very sad and the fleas were leaving its body as it cooled. Needless to say, we were all hopping around then to control the situation and had to fumigate the house. We discovered the following day that both kids and Art had flea bites on their body. Not me.

It was a lesson to be learned. We never brought wildlife into the house after that very itchy episode. I see that Myra and her family were more careful than we were.

When to Brush Your Teeth If You Drink Coffee

Art always brushes his teeth when he gets up in the morning before he eats breakfast. I figured it's better to brush your teeth after you eat to get rid of food debris. I always have a mocha with breakfast and Art has black coffee every other day. 

I'd noticed during our lock down that my teeth were getting more stained. Therefore the article clarifying if you should brush your teeth before or after drinking your coffee caught my eye. I then looked up more articles and darn! Art was right. You're supposed to brush your teeth before you drink coffee.

I found this on Delta Dental's website:

"But if you’re planning to eat or drink something acidic — such as grapefruit, pineapple, orange juice or even coffee — it’s better to brush before breakfast.

That’s because acid attacks your teeth after you eat, weakening your tooth enamel. It takes about 30 to 45 minutes for saliva to remineralize and restore the enamel to its previous state. Brushing too soon can damage your teeth while your enamel is temporarily weakened. Instead of brushing after breakfast, consider swishing with water to help wash away acids."

Darn! I can't find where I saw it but I also read somewhere that if you don't brush away the plaque that forms on your teeth at night (before breakfast), coffee with adhere to it making staining easier.

So I guess this means I have to start my morning routine differently. I just hope I can remember.

POSTSCRIPT: Doggone it! I've been goofing up and now brushing my teeth twice, before and after I eat breakfast. Art purposely puts my toothbrush out on my sink in the morning to make sure I remember to brush my teeth before going to breakfast. However, when I'm done with breakfast, I'm on automatic control and brush my teeth again. Arrrghhh! 😖

Best Buy Fridge Repair

Best Buy scheduled repair guys very quickly to fix the little uneven refrigerator door problem. They don't remove that protective plastic covering because they try to limit touching anything during the pandemic.

One thing I love about Hawaii is that service people always remove their shoes before entering anyone's home. It's just understood.

The guys assured us that it was going to be an easy fix. And it was. I think it only took about 15 minutes. He loosened or tightened the door hinge and leveled the doors. He then unscrewed and matched the uneven door handles. 

I noticed that one of the guys' mask kept falling off his nose so I gave them both a black mask I'd made.

A couple days later, my eagle eye brother stopped by and admired our new fridge. However, he noticed right away that the handles now matched but the space between the freezer door and the refrigerator door was wider at the top than the bottom. Sliiiightly... Ah well... Not everything in life can be totally perfect.

He told us that my sister-in-law absolutely loves having that ice dispenser so they can't get a fridge like ours. The thing is, when we stopped replacing that ice maker, I got used to making our own ice. It took me a few days to remember to open the door to get more ice from the container I set up, but I'm OK with it now.

The other nice thing is that once Art disconnected the water tubing leading to the freezer, we actually had more space in the back so that the fridge could be pushed further toward the wall which made it even better. It's extremely difficult to get a counter depth fridge and more expensive.

I'm also remembering that when we lived on the mainland, there was a leak in the fridge water line so water got under our maple floors and warped it. This is why we opted for tile in our kitchen this time. Anyway, now we don't have to worry about fridge leaks or breaking ice makers. 

I just want the darn appliance to keep things cold. I wonder how long it will last. 😬

Washing Lettuce My Way

 A few years ago I remember a tai chi friend telling me that she was going to go shopping for lettuce which she would wash all at once and store in her refrigerator for the week. I wondered if it would last that long.

I often buy green leaf lettuce and even if it's a little wilted, will perk up beautifully if I slice a sliver off the bottom stem and dunk it in water for about 15 minutes.

I got lazy a while back and started buying already washed salad from Sam's Club. The salad usually lasts about three days before seeing signs of spoilage. But then there was that incident where I found that wasp at the bottom of the salad. It must have been sitting there for 3 days in the fridge and was still alive.

Since then, I've gone back to buying green leaf lettuce for salads. I first break off the leaves and dunk them in water for about 20 minutes or longer.

After soaking I rinse them in a little running water and stick them in my salad spinner.

Once I've gotten the lettuce dry, I pack them in these Ziploc containers. They usually last between 5-7 days. I like doing it this way because I can use the leaves for sandwiches or salads.

The funny thing is, if I can't wash the lettuce right away I take off the wire band from the lettuce bunch, put the stem side on a slightly damp half sheet of paper towel, stick it back in the plastic bag and store it in the fridge.

I always find this red stain where the stem was cut. There's nothing red on the lettuce, so it must be some kind of reaction.

I wonder why.

All the half sheets I use are dried and Art uses them later to clean the glass top on the stove and whatever else needs cleaning.

Also.... I find that green leaf lettuce lasts much longer than red leaf lettuce.

I'll bet I could cut my carbs by a lot if I just eat lettuce wraps for lunch. It's a thought.

Defiance at the Farmer's Market

We recently went to the Open (Farmers) Market. The sun comes up later these days so we have to bring a flashlight. There are several officials at each market who have marked off spacing in the line at each booth. Masks and social distancing are carefully monitored, probably because there are mostly vulnerable senior citizens at this very early morning time.

Last week, we were paying for our papayas and bananas when a woman walked up cutting in front of everybody and NOT wearing a mask. She must have been new because we didn't recognize her at all. She stood very close to the people who were trying to look for their produce.

This was the first time we've seen anyone not wear a mask at the Open Market. Everyone is always respectful of each other. The officials must have just missed seeing her. As we were leaving, I told the official about her and they immediately rushed over to correct the situation.

When we went to the Open Market this week, we mentioned it to our favorite farmer. He told us it was terrible. He'd asked her to wear a mask and get into line. She went into a rant about how terrible the Mayor was when she'd actually voted for him. She felt it was wrong to demand that she wear a mask or wait in such a long line, etc. etc. etc.

We sympathized with our farmer friend who said we would be surprised at how often they've encountered this during their days at other locations. Our town is really very, very good about following COVID safety rules from what we've seen at all our grocery outings. We thought this was an anomaly. Our farmer bemoaned the fact that we do have that percentage of people who are incredibly selfish thinking only of their "rights."

So yes, we have them in Hawaii too. Sigh...

New Refrigerator Delivered!

Our new Whirlpool refrigerator was delivered a couple weeks ago. The fridge it replaced was also a Whirlpool that died after about 14 years. We were hoping to get a different brand, but had certain requirements that only another Whirlpool offered. It needed to be as close to counter depth as possible and we didn't want another ice maker/water dispenser since our other ice maker died twice. The only place that had the fridge was Best Buy.

Since the fridge brands were the same, we decided to keep some shelving just in case they might fit.

And nope. We would find that the wire freezer shelves would not fit.

There was a hope for the door fridge shelves though.

We were holding our breath that the new Whirlpool would not stick out too much.

Sigh of relief... It stuck out about the same as the old fridge.

The delivery guys worked very carefully. They wore masks and tried to avoid touching anything. He only peeled off the plastic wrap a little so the handle could be attached.

We're pleased. We could use one of the door shelves on the new fridge and I used the other one to hold ice in the freezer since we no longer have an ice maker. A couple of ice trays were provided with the new fridge, but I added more. I saved a veggie bin from the old fridge to hold all our blue ice which we use for our coolers when we go grocery shopping.

The delivery guys said we had 15 days to see if we were pleased with the product. If we wanted anything corrected, we could call them to have a technician come to fix it. If it couldn't be fixed, they'd deliver another refrigerator. That was nice to know.

OK... I know you might think I'm anal, but the door handle was just a big off. One is a little higher than the other so Art called the store.

Yup. A technician is coming. I wonder if it's something that can be corrected. 

And how am I liking life with no ice maker?

Well... 

I liked having that ice dispenser even though I had to fill it manually, BUT I know it's something I can get used to. 

Let's hope nothing else breaks down.

Another Earworm

Every so often there will be a song I hear that just keeps playing over and over in my brain for several days. This time it started with Doug's ApacheDug's Teepee blog. He listed many of his favorite songs, which got me thinking.

One of the first songs that came to me was Someone to Watch Over Me from Mr. Holland's Opus. It's sung by Jean Louisa Kelly.  She is supposed to be a talented singer/student who is attached to music teacher, Mr. Holland. 

I really enjoyed the movie, but there was something about her voice and the way she sang it that grabbed me. The song was written by George Gershwin in 1926 and has been sung by many excellent singers, but there was something about how Jean Louisa Kelly sang it that just grabbed me and became an earworm.

Oh brother... now I'm thinking of more songs that grabbed and stayed with me. This one became a favorite when my son was playing Little League baseball. Granted he was really good at it and was actually a pitcher. Me? I'm not a sports fan. I was just into it watching my son out on the field.

This is Peter, Paul and Mary singing Right Field. It's about a little boy who becomes a hero for his team even out in right field. I remember McDonalds used the song in a commercial a long time ago.

And one of my all time favorites was by Perry Como. I loved it so much that my daughter and son-in-law played it at their wedding for us.

"And I Love You So" was written and recorded by Don McLean for his 1970 album, Tapestry. Perry Como recorded the song in 1973.

OK. That's it for now.

Maybe if I think of all three songs, none of them will be strong enough to become another earworm.

Mom Healing Her Wounds Naturally

Mom walked in the other day from trimming bushes and told us she'd lost her balance a bit and got scratched by the bushes on her wrist. I told her we could disinfect it with hydrogen peroxide, but she said she had her own method of just washing it normally and applying the liquid from her aloe plants.

I know that aloe liquid is great on burns. We kept a pot of aloe growing in Illinois just in case we burned ourselves.

Here in Hawaii, mom keeps a LOT of aloe growing in the garden.

We've used the aloe on the kids when they came to Hawaii and got sunburned. It really does help with sunburns.

I wasn't so sure it was the best thing for cuts though.

That same day she gouged her skin on the bushes, she also ripped the skin on her arm coming in the door. It turned my stomach to look at it.

I was worried about that and showed her the hydrogen peroxide.

Did she listen to me?

Nope.

She used soap and water and... you guessed it, liberal applications of aloe.

I kept close watch on her injury and you know what? It did heal rather nicely.

And did she say, "I told you so?"

Of course.

I'm still not totally sold on this, but we'll keep that aloe patch in the garden multiplying anyway.

Just in case.

POSTSCRIPT 1:

And here's a photo from February 9, 2021. It's been about 2 weeks.

POSTSCRIPT 2:

Would you believe my sister-in-law recently took a nasty fall skinning her knee and hands? My brother and nephew cleaned the wounds out with alcohol which must have hurt like the dickens. 

This reminded me of the times we've had minor repairs or surgeries at Tripler Army Medical Center. The doctors always told us not to clean the stitches or wounds with alcohol or hydrogen peroxide which yeeeesss.... mom refused to do opting for water and a little soap instead with lots of aloe applications.

So I just looked it up and found this on Web MD.

Can you just imagine mom saying, "I told you so?"

Mom's 2nd and My 1st

Mom got her 2nd Pfizer shot at Kaiser on Monday. Again, she said she couldn't even feel the needle going in and it was all a breeze. 

She had a bit of an achy arm on Tuesday, but that was all.

I went in for my 1st Pfizer shot at Tripler on Tuesday. 

It wasn't quite as easy to find because they told me it was on the 3rd floor lanai. Where the heck was the 3rd floor lanai? I'd never been there.

Well, after asking medical personnel at the back entrance of the hospital, we were able to locate the area. I didn't even know about that lanai area.

I filled out the papers at Station #1 and then proceeded to Station #2 where a doctor was seated to answer questions. 

He told me to call my regular doctor to set up the 2nd shot. That was a surprise. A friend of mine who goes to the VA got the appointment for his 2nd shot at the time he received his 1st shot, just like Art and mom. 

We then had to wait a while because they'd run out of Pfizer syringes. Our nurse told us that they defrost just a few at a time depending on how many people were waiting. The syringes were brought down in a blue cooler bag and stored in a portable cooling unit.

OK, it's not like I didn't feel the needle, but it was just a prick and I did feel the vaccine flowing into my muscle. My nurse was so very friendly that it made waiting a pleasure.

I then had to sign out and wait 15 minutes before leaving.

The weird thing is I contacted my doctor like they said and the office told me it was too soon to schedule an appointment for 3 weeks away. But why? Art and our friend were given their 2nd shot appointments right away.

I was told to check into the Tripler website. Would you believe NONE of the CONTACT US websites work?

Arrrghhhhh!

Well... we shall see what happens next. Aggravation!

POSTSCRIPT 1:

After some frustration, I phoned the Tripler Hotline (talked to a live person) and was told I should come in at the same time on the date they assigned me. She told me they were getting a lot of calls about the same thing. I suggested they notify the doctors' offices and those administering the shots. And then I messaged my doctor's office and told them the same thing. Anyway... main thing... all set... I hope. 🤞

POSTSCRIPT 2: 

Would you believe I got another call from another doctor saying the HOTLINE got it wrong? That's NOT how it works. And he's not sure how it works yet. However, he got me another time anyway. I hate to say this, but I think it's a matter of the squeaky wheel.

Doubling Down With Double Masking

I've been hearing a lot about double masking lately.

According to Dr. Fauci:

“I mean, this is a physical covering to prevent droplets and virus to get in. So if you have a physical covering with one layer, and you put another layer on, it just makes common sense that it likely would be more effective.”

In Maryland, my son has been wearing two masks since April or May of last year.

Art and I noticed it in photos that he sent us and we're now seeing the wisdom of his choice. Granted, he is an epidemiologist and he happened to have a few N95s he had been using for his spray painting projects.

And since Dr. Fauci is now unmuzzled by a certain president and can more openly give advice to the public, he's saying that double masking would be a "common sense" thing to do.

Art's sister sent us 3 N95s (with vents) a while ago from her husband's workshop but we hadn't used it.

However, with the new more contagious COVID-19 variants lurking in every corner it seemed like the thing to try. 

We were surprised at how much easier it was to breathe with those two layers. I guess a lot had to do with the firmness of the N95 keeping the fabric away from our noses. The vented N95 keeps me safer and the cloth mask over the vents keeps everybody else safe if I had COVID.

We did notice more people being double masked at the inauguration.

If you don't have an N95, they say a KN95 or a surgical mask could also give you that added protection.

So, of course, we had to try it. And you know what? It's easy to breathe with both masks too. Amazing! 

My brother says he puts his paper surgical mask in his cellphone sanitizer and reuses it. Sounded like a good idea.

As for our precious N95s. I just hang them in our powerful Hawaiian sun for an hour or so and hope that does the trick.🤞

I must tell you that after wearing that N95 for our shopping trips, it takes a good couple of hours or more to get those telltale indentations out of my aging skin. 😖

Sigh... ah well. It's the price we have to pay until the pandemic is controlled. I'm wondering if it will ever be completely over though. I'm figuring I'll be wearing masks on airplanes even when they say the pandemic is over.

Do You Really Need This Much Stuffing in a Medicine Bottle?

I opened my bottle of 5 mg. Melatonin pills. There's 90 of these tiny pills in the big bottle and a whole TON of cotton stuffing.

I was shocked at the waste of it.

The bottle is 4 1/4 inches (10.5 cm.) tall. 

The pills take up about 1/2 inch (1.5 cm.).

Sounds crazy, right?

I figured the manufacturer just wanted you to think there were more pills in the bottle even though it clearly states 90 pills.

I found this on the Consumer Reports website:

"Why the waste? “We try to use the same size bottle for different products, for cost-saving,” a customer-service rep from supplement maker Nature Made told us. “Sometimes the pills are bigger, so the bottle will be full.” A Bayer rep blamed the size of that company’s low-dose-aspirin bottle on the amount of information the Food and Drug Administration requires it to convey. Curious, because the Bayer bottle below is pretty puny—and still mostly empty.

Larger packages and bottles can grab a shopper’s attention, says Dave Wendland, vice president of Hamacher Resource Group, which designs how products are organized on drugstore shelves. “That could turn into more sales for the manufacturer,” he adds.

The number of pills is stated on the package, and yet, “I know I’m buying 100 tablets and not a serving of something that I might expect to fill the box,” a Bayer buyer wrote. “But really, it does create an expectation. And what about wasted space/cost in shipping and packaging?”

One plus for big bottles: They’re easier to recycle than small ones, which may not survive the sorting process, says David Cornell, technical consultant for the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers."

OK. So now we know. I suppose it would be hard to fit all that drug information on a teeny bottle label and when you think about it, I am far sighted so teeny words would be difficult for me to see.

Ah well... uuuummm... Does this look like I'm struggling to find something to blog about? 😆

Another Pandemic Project

I've written before about things deteriorating, rusting, and eaten by termites in Hawaii.

I was suddenly noticing red stains on the wall of our closet. I thought at first that I was bleeding.

After a while I realized I must be touching something, but what?

It's this!

I got it a long time ago in Illinois. I used it to hold wrapping paper, ribbons, little crafty things for gifts or whatever.

But like so many other things in Hawaii, it was deteriorating. Many of our reusable fabric bags are made of the same material and fall apart too.

I could just toss it, but since I do have time during our pandemic lock down... decided to sew a replacement.

But with what?  I don't have a ton of fabric lying around.

However I did have leftover material from making a washing machine cover a decade ago. It lasted a number of years outside on our patio and is stiff and almost like canvas. It was NOT easy to sew, but I was determined. My sewing machine survived this project, thank goodness!

Here it is in the closet filled with this and thats which to be honest, I'll probably forget I have.

OK, another 1 day project done.

What else? Hmmm....

The "Art" of Framing a Puzzle

We were really excited when our daughter, Tiffany and her family sent Art a Shutterfly puzzle last summer for Art's birthday. It was such a perfect memento of 2020's pandemic year that he decided to frame it. Unfortunately, there was a weird defect on the right side border that became apparent when he completed it. Tiffany contacted Shutterfly and they sent another one. When Art completed that one, there was a defect on the left side. Ah well... he figured he could still frame it.

After much research, he bought the Puzcraft Puzzle Saver Adhesive Sheets and the Americanflat 20x30 frame on Amazon.

The Shutterfly puzzles are rather thin and loose so we had to be very careful sandwiching the puzzle between two big cardboard pieces and flipping it over to the back.

Measuring carefully, he applied the adhesive sheets after securing the puzzle with strips of cardboard so it wouldn't move.

It's a good thing I never got rid of my heavy encyclopedia dictionaries which we used for weights to secure the adhesive to the puzzle.

When we tried out the frame on the puzzle, you could see the horizontal spaces since the puzzle was a little too short for the frame.

I cut strips of cardboard as fillers before applying this rather expensive $17 linen hinging tape that my brother suggested to cover up the border imperfections. Art had actually proudly cut pieces of black puzzle pieces to fill in the imperfections. However, I really felt the linen hinging tape over the entire border would look better.

And here it is looking quite nice over the guestroom bed which is actually Art's Office.

OK... You think we're done, right?

Nope.

Our son did not know that his sister had sent us a Shutterfly puzzle and ended up surprising  his dad with another puzzle from Shutterfly a few months later.

Well.... we did, of course have to frame that one too. Luckily we had enough adhesive sheets and hinge tape to prepare Keola's puzzle also.

Keola's puzzle is 16x20 and did not have any border imperfections. It was also a smidge too small for a 16x20 inch frame so we used the black hinge tape on the border of the matt so the space would not be noticeable.

We really prefer these circled type of clips to hold the backing onto the frame. It's so much easier to handle.

So there we are. The Shutterfly puzzles are done and Art's puzzle table is now open.

Would you believe he's got six more to do. Keola also sent him a 3,000 piece puzzle.😱

This should keep Art busy until 2022 and none 😀 of these puzzles need to be framed!

Reusing Holiday Cards

For the past several years I've been sending out our holiday newsletters mostly by email. We do still get hard copy Christmas cards that I scan and keep on my external hard drive. And yes, I do send hard copy cards to those people who don't do technology.

I like doing it by email because I can send more photos and write personal messages without my fingers cramping up. Since I do so much by email these days, I don't have the stamina to write by hand.

However, I hate throwing away those pretty cards we receive. I save them to look at the following year before discarding them and keep the covers of the cards to cut up and use as gift tags.

This year, I had an idea. I've been cutting round corners on the card covers which don't always look pretty so I looked on Amazon to see if there was such a thing as corner cutters or whatever.

They do!

Uuuummmm....

Now I've got a whole lot of potential gift tags. But when I thought about it, we really don't give all that many gifts that need tags. 

Oops....😆

I wonder what other corners need trimming.

How to Label Your Files

I was looking for a photo on my external drive and saw that I still hadn't corrected so many of my photo files.

I'd started out naming my photo files with the month-day-year, e.g.

April 3,1998
Jan 2,1996
May 5, 1996

I don't think you're even supposed to use commas.

I did this for a couple of years inconsistently before figuring out it was not a good idea. In fact, it's a really bad idea because then you'll have your photos organized in alphabetical order starting with April and ending in November.

So then I fixed it with a numbering system, e.g.

01-15-2006
02-13-2008

Now I wouldn't have the alphabetical order problem, but there was still the problem of the year. Everything was being ordered by the month and it was still not organized unless I put them in separate folders by YEAR which is what I did.

When I moved to Hawaii, my brother saw what I was doing and said I should do what they do at the police department. Sigh...

You should put the YEAR-MONTH-DAY, e.g.

2015-01-13
2015-04-16

And so on and so forth. It's also good to add a little clue as to what the photo is about when you name your photo. (e.g. 2021-01-20 Inauguration)

I am NOT looking forward to fixing my old files.

Dinosaur Masks for My Grandsons

My two little grandsons are absolute fanatics about dinosaurs. They have books, clothes, puzzles, backpacks, tons of little toys, etc. all about dinosaurs. OK. OK. We're guilty as charged for giving a lot of that to them. But gee... they love dinosaurs. What can a grandparent do?

Well, I can make masks, that's what. I'd already made them a ton of masks. But I hadn’t made dinosaur masks! 

So when I saw dinosaur material at Walmart while running in for something else, I had to get it. It was difficult to position the dinosaurs in just the right place on those little masks. So... of course... when I was already almost done cutting them I got a bright 💡 idea! 

I found a transparent plastic sheet protector and drew the pattern of the mask on it indicating where the middle of the mask would be.

The original white pattern on the left is opaque so I could never tell what the finished product would be. With the transparent pattern on the right, I could see where I would have to cut.

Of course, then JD told me he just liked carnivorous dinosaurs and little RK requested spiny dinosaurs.

Therefore, I had to keep all that in mind while planning where to cut.

And then, my daughter gave me more dinosaur material as a "surprise" Christmas gift so the boys ended up with way more masks than planned.

OK... I think they now have enough masks to last the entire year. 

The funny part was when they received their masks and JD put on one of them. 3 year old RK looked at the orange spiny one JD was wearing and immediately said, "I want that." 

I guess it's true. One grandson really does like carnivores and the other must have spiny. They did wear their new dinosaur masks on their next outing. 😁 Their grandma is very happy.

Well, that's it for dinosaurs. I think I should send them a book about birds or maybe fish?

Stoned By a Friend

Last month, I was surprised to receive a package from an Illinois teacher buddy. It was rather heavy and I was totally mystified. 

I was opening the package when Art walked in. "What did Carole send you?" he asked.

"A rock," I answered.

"A rock?!? Carole sent you a rock?" he asked incredulously. 

"Actually, it's a stone," I told him.

It was a stone she had decorated beautifully for us with a wish for the new year. 

Carole had mentioned how she was into rock/stone painting as a hobby during the pandemic. I had been impressed with several of her amazing, artistic creations that she had shown me by text messages.

There are lots of Rock Painting and Stone Painting books you can buy that show you ideas as well as instructions on supplies that are needed and how to prep your stones. 

The funny thing is, I set Carole's rock on my desk and didn't even turn it over because I thought it was just going to be blue.

It wasn't until a couple of days later that I turned it over and saw this beautiful surprise.

I love it! I told you she was creative and talented. It was especially touching because my mother's father as many of you know was a Zen priest. He told his children that one of the family's mottos was Arigatai. It is Japanese for thankfulness or gratitude.

I am thankful. I'm thankful for friends like Carole who haven't forgotten me even though I'm so far away. I'm thankful for all my family and friends here and on the mainland and beyond. I'm thankful for all of you who keep me company online everyday.

Yes, I shall be going into 2021 striving to be thankful for all that I have and not to worry about what I can't yet control.

Saying Goodbye

I’d been planning to write this post for several weeks, but just couldn’t get myself to do it. I guess it’s because I didn’t want to acknowledge the finality of our loss and we have suffered too many losses both last year and this month.

Last month, I had to say goodbye to my witty, funny, brilliant cousin, Walt. He knew so much about everything and was interested in everything and everyone. He was an excellent cook and kept trying to find the best beans to grind for coffee. He'd share the beans with Art that he felt had a certain flavor or aroma or whatever and he'd attach notes on each little bag explaining how he roasted it, etc. Now, every time Art takes out his Dunkin Donuts coffee bag, he thinks about Walt.

Walt, who was 10 years younger than me, had been fighting bladder cancer and it seemed as though he had overcome this horrible disease. I thought he'd won. He once laughingly told me, "I'm too mean to let cancer beat me." 

But then suddenly... he wasn't able to fight off that last battle. We saw him at the hospital looking quite upbeat before the pandemic hit. I spoke to him on the phone at the hospital and he sounded perfectly fine toward fall of last year. But I worried when he started leaving a few comments on my blog in October ending with "love, your cousin Walt." We almost never use that "l" word. I do, but well... not my male cousins. That made me nervous.

He called me in November from the hospital and we spoke for nearly 45 minutes. He told me it was bad and though the doctors gave him 6 months, he didn't think he could make 2 because the pain was so unbearable. 

When my blogger buddy, Linda from Kansas learned of this, she sent me a set of hospice books for Walt's family and one for me.

They are written by hospice pioneer, Barbara Karnes. Her website is bkbooks.com. 

Walt's wife told me that the books were very helpful.

I couldn't open the books until we decided to go and visit Walt at his home when we knew his days were limited. They are very well written and structured step by step.

I couldn't believe the change in just a little over a month. Walt was bedridden and could no longer talk but when my brother and I held his hand, we felt the pressure of Walt's grip.

Leaving the house, we said  goodbye and suddenly there was a sunshine smile on Walt's face with a very slight wave. I will always remember that smile. Walt died two days later.

I was still reeling from Walt's passing when we got a call from good friends in California.

We met Mike and Jean during a biking trip in the Netherlands in 2007. We were still living in Illinois at the time. I hadn't been on a bike in 30+ years and suddenly here I was biking through the Netherlands and Belgium. Art was in an advanced group. I was in the turtle group. Jean was also a teacher and she took me under her wing and watched over me. There was one incident when her bike wheel hit a curb and she fell. What did she do? She got up (with bleeding leg), turned to me worriedly and asked, "Are you all right?" 

After that we saw each other whenever we went to California and they came to visit us in Hawaii. We have a lot of photos of our fun times together.

When we got that call last month from Mike that Jean was fighting an undiagnosed cancer, I absolutely could not believe it. Jean is also younger than me. She was meant to live forever always helping others and never putting herself first. She loved horses. She loved teaching handicapped children. We all loved her. I ordered a set of those hospice books to be sent to their daughter who passed it on to Mike for me. They were in some sort of assisted living with the option to move on to hospice care when the time came. I sent photos to her daughter that they could add to her digital frame in her room. Mike said they expected to be there for quite a while.

Mike called two days ago to tell me Jean had passed away in the morning. How is this possible? Mike says the end came so suddenly that they were all surprised.

He thanked me for the books which he said were extremely helpful to him. Knowing that Jean is more of a private person, he told her that when she felt she needed to go, not to worry about them because they were prepared and he left the room to call their children to let them know what was happening. Returning to the room, he found that Jean had quietly left us all.

I think of her going ahead of us, leading the way and teaching us how to make that final journey with dignity and grace.

Oh Nuts! Now the Refrigerator?

One month ago, our Whirlpool refrigerator vents iced up which caused the temperature to rise to 50 degrees F. We defrosted it to enter the new year without rotten food. Sadly, it only lasted about a month before icing up again. The fridge temperature rose to an alarming 60 degrees F. 

"I can fix it," said Art. "Let me get the hair dryer."

No way.  

When the ice maker died, Art ordered a new one online and fixed it. One year later, it broke down again so I got out the ice trays and made ice cubes manually. 

Then it started this whole vent icing thing a year or so ago. Art learned from friends that the vents needed to be defrosted so that's what he's been doing.

We bought the refrigerator in fall of 2006. I've read that refrigerators last about 10-18 years. The average fridge life expectancy is about 14 years. Our fridge is 14 years old.

This time, I put my foot down. No more YouTube DIY fixes. No more blowing hot air into the vent to melt the ice.

My cousin told me she has a Whirlpool too which was only 5 years old when the gasket broke. I told her I'm never buying a Whirlpool again. She said, "Me too."

The problem is it's very difficult to find a refrigerator that is counter depth and we needed a counter depth. I REALLY regret not finding a way to avoid this problem when the kitchen was designed. We also decided we didn't want an icemaker. In fact, when we were looking at refrigerators a year ago, we bumped into someone who said they were also looking for a fridge without an icemaker/water dispenser.

I called Home Depot and they said the wait time on any refrigerator was 12 weeks due to the pandemic. Sheesh! 

I called Lowes but couldn't get connected to the appliance department. I called Disco Mart and they said they didn't have anything that came close to counter depth. 

I called some other places before calling Best Buy who said there was one model that might work. It's going to stick out a bit, but would probably fit in our space.

We went to look at it. It could be delivered in 3 weeks. Free delivery and $24.99 for hauling away the old refrigerator. It's stainless steel which will match our other appliances.

And the brand?

Sigh... Whirlpool

Well, we bought it and will be keeping our fingers and toes crossed that it lasts at least 14 years. I did look online and it said Whirlpool was a good brand. Let's hope that my cousin just happened to get a lemon (which did get repaired and is working) and our new fridge will be a peach. 🤞

POSTSCRIPT: Since we're waiting for our new fridge to be delivered Art did defrost the vent and yes, it's working fine again. For now.