Another Scary Injury for Mom

The first time mom ripped open the skin on her elbow, I freaked out. That time it was her elbow. I called the Kaiser Helpline and the nurse advised me to wash it every day and apply Vaseline. That was in November, 2021.

Last summer (June, 2022), mom fell and ripped up the skin on her hand. We took her to the ER and the nurse said her skin was so thin it wouldn't be able to handle stitches. She applied steri-strips to close the wound. I'd never heard of a steri-strip. However, the wound healed pretty quickly.

And now...

In February, mom said she just brushed her arm against the edge of the wall and ripped up her skin again. Arrrgghh!

I washed it with Sterile Saline Wound Wash that we bought at CVS and closed the wound. 

The skin would lift and I would push it down to close it before covering it with a non-stick pad. However, a couple of days later I couldn't get that one area down. It was stuck. And when I tried to pry it out, it hurt mom.

Too late, I remembered the steri-strips they applied at the hospital and we went to look for it at CVS.

We found it! It's called a Wound Closure.

I now have a full assortment of medical supplies to treat mom's wounds. 

I was really worried about that one open area, but eventually it seemed to close. Mom said it didn't hurt at all anymore. 

None of this freaks her out.

And me... I'm actually almost starting to get used to it.

On March 11th, this is what her arm looked like. A scab had formed and I was letting it air dry at this point.

Mom keeps telling me she knows she heals well because she's happy.

I'd be happier if she didn't get hurt so often.

POSTSCRIPT:

Incredible! After less than a month, her horrible wound is pretty much healed. 

Pretty darn amazing!

Cock-a-Doodle-Doo!

 I was looking out the car window at Wendy's and saw a whole flock of chickens.

Well, actually they were mostly roosters. I've heard that rooster crowing way too early in the mornings have aggravated some neighbors.

This brought me back to wondering why we Americans think roosters crowing sounds like "Cock-a-Doodle-Doo." 

I know that the Japanese call rooster crowing "Koke kok ko." I think that sounds more appropriate.

I wrote a post in 2018 when we were in Amsterdam about a women we met selling her beautiful handsewn creations who said her last name meant rooster in Dutch. She therefore used the word Kukeleku as her brand name. Kukeleku is Dutch for cock-a-doodle-doo.

If you go to the Omniglot website, you'll find how the rest of the world says cock-a-doodle-doo.

And since it's St. Patrick's Day on Friday, I should tell you that the Irish say, "cuc-adiú-dil-ú, a cháich, éirigí éirigí"

May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light. May good luck pursue you each morning and night.

--Irish blessing

Seriously!?!?

We were driving home one day when I spotted this big black truck in front of us in the next lane. On the back window there was a sticker that had me shaking my head.

Is Hawaii under attack? Do we need machine guns here?

I am so tired and fed up with people who feel the need to have assault weapons for everybody.

For some reason, it doesn't bother them to hear of all the mass shootings that seem to be common place in America.

I've read that here in the U.S. we have  120.5 civilian firearms per 100 people!

This is crazy.

Absolutely crazy!

POSTSCRIPT:

What a coincidence! This was yesterday's newspaper poll numbers in this morning's Star Advertiser.

Outdated Currency? Doggone it!

I married a traveler. I should have known better because I met Art when he was in the Air Force. He'd graduated from a university in Illinois. His sister went to a university in the Midwest. In fact, their father even went to an Engineering college in Wisconsin before a ruptured appendix sent him sadly home. They're from the Big Island.

I didn't leave the islands until my Junior year at the University of Hawaii when I visited my grandparents and other relatives in Japan for the first time with a college tour. 

So of course, Art took a job in Chicago a year after we married. Once the kids were older, Art decided we should venture overseas and explore the world. He chose England since ... well... they speak English there. 😁 Our neighbor in Illinois was also from England so he was very happy we'd be visiting his home country. This was in 1991!

I was not happy or excited. I was nervous. Would they be prejudiced there? Would we know how to get around? What should we pack? 

Art? Nope, not worried at all. He figured he already knew how to take the subway system from going to work on Chicago's "L" system. He also felt he could figure out how to drive on the other side of the street. Yikes! 😬

There were a few glitches. Art signed on to give up our flight because it was overbooked. However they didn't need our 4 spaces and said we could still go on the same flight. However, our Economy seats were now taken so they said they'd put us in Business Class. That had us worried.

What's Business Class? 

Art went up to ask if this would be a downgrade. The attendant smiled and said, "Trust me, sir. You will love it." And we really did.

And yes, Art took us everywhere and even drove on the opposite side without too much of a problem. We even went to Wales and saw a huge medieval castle called Caerphilly. It was truly amazing! 

Everywhere we went, people were friendly, helpful and kind. After exploring Wales and Bath and imagining the lords and ladies who often sauntered through the streets, not to mention the Romans who created the baths there, we headed back to London.

The kids were pretty tired by then. They pretty much slept through the musical, Cats but stayed awake for Starlight Express.

Oh dear! I was going to just write about British currency and got carried away.

Please forgive me.

Art and I are planning to go on a trip to England and remembered that we'd had some left over British currency. Yup. We found it! We had 285 £. 

Awesome!

But that's when we discovered those bank notes were withdrawn.

What?!?

Withdrawn?!?

The money won't be accepted?

How can that be? We can use our American money forever, right?

I don't know, but it seems like we can.

Art looked it up.

Yup. Our British sterling pound notes were withdrawn.

Apparently there are different series of bank notes. We have series D.

The English are now on series G.

Sigh...

We were told that you could go to a Bank of England in London to exchange them for series G, BUT there will be long lines. There's also no close Bank of Englands  nearby where we are staying. You mean they don't have banks all over the place like we do?

Arrghhh... 😖

Ah well... Art looked it up and we can mail our bank notes to the Bank of England in England and they will electronically send the pounds to our bank.

Lesson here: Don't save overseas money.

And did we take our kids back to England? Nope. The next trip was to Rome. 😄 

ALEXA was Wrong!

 Wow! ALEXA goofed! 

We like to do the Question of the Day with Amazon Echo's Alexa everyday.

The question a few days ago was: What animal is not a mammal?

• A black penguin (It was some kind of penguin.)
• A 9 banded armadillo
• A hairy woodpecker
• A bottlenose dolphin

I was confused. I knew the penguin and woodpeckers were both birds (never mind the dolphin and armadillo), but I figured she probably wanted the woodpecker.

Sure enough, she said my answer was correct that despite the confusing name, the Hairy Woodpecker was a bird. Duh! 🙄

BUT WAIT! Penguins are birds too! What the heck?

So I decided to ask ALEXA if penguins were birds or mammals. She all-knowingly said the penguin was a mammal.

I decided to see what Siri on my iPhone would say. 

I must tell you that Siri knew better.

According to the World Atlas:

"A Penguin Is Not A Mammal, But A Bird

Using the definition and description of a mammal above, a penguin, despite popular belief, is not a mammal. One of the reasons why penguins are not mammals is that they lay eggs instead of giving birth to young ones. In addition, they do not nurse their young ones with milk. Instead, they feed their young ones with regurgitated meals like krill, squid, and fish. The proper classification for penguins is that they are birds in the Family Spheniscidae and Subclass Impennes. Some of the things that show that penguins are birds include the presence of wings, they are egg-laying creatures, and feed their young ones in a manner similar to most birds. In addition, they have hollow bones, which is a feature that is characteristic of birds, and have feet instead of paws or legs of mammals."

Tsk! Tsk! I tried to tell Alexa she was wrong but she wouldn't listen to me. 😂

Pests in Paradise?

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

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

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

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

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

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

What the heck!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sigh...

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

Knowing the Time of Day

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

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

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

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

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

The question now is where to put it.😐

POSTSCRIPT:

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

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

Blogaversary #15!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Trusted Contact?

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

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

I got this from the Charles Schwab website.

What is a trusted contact?

A trusted contact is someone who can: 

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

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

What are the benefits of having a trusted contact?

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

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

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

Only in America and Why?

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

Limit all US politicians to two terms:      

- One in office  

- One in prison

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

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

     

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

  

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

  

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

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

    

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

   

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

 

And here are just some things to think about:

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

 

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

   

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

   

Why is 'abbreviated' such a long word?  

   

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

   

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

   

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

   

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

   

Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food?  

   

Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?  

   

Why do they   sterilize the needle for lethal injections?  

   

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

  

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

Falling Safely (As Possible)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another thing they stress is DHS. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Art loves science fiction so we decided to risk it.

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

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

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

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

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

Did I forget anything?

Oh... the movie?

Art loved it! He really loved it!

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

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

Death of a Whale

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's sad.

Multicultural Multiracial Multiethnic Multi Everything

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

B-52 Cockroach in Our House

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

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

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

So yes they do fly... high.

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

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

Nope.

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

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

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

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

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

We now need to figure out HOW it got in.

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

POSTSCRIPT 1:

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

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

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

Arrrghhh!!!!

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

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

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

Arthritis? Me?

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

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

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

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

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

So I applied Salonpas patches. 

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

Arthritis?!? Me?

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

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

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

What?!?

More needles? 🙄

POSTSCRIPT: 

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

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

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

What do you use for pain? 

Fruitcakes Galore!

Holy smokes!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nah...

Appreciation and Acknowledgements

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

I'm not surprised. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And now...

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

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

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

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

And that was the best gift of all.

Chirping vs. Cooing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ah well...

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

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

Hopefully.

Preserving Memories

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

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

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

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

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

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

POSTSCRIPT:

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