Seeing Comet A3 With Help From Strangers

Art has always loved astronomy and even bought a telescope a long time ago. (It's in the closet somewhere.) He'd recently heard that there would be a comet sighting after sundown in the western sky close to the horizon.

I got this from CNN news:

Sundown was at 6:09 PM last night so we waited and looked out our western facing window on the 2nd floor. Uuummm...wouldn't you know there was a big tree blocking that view?

Our next effort was to take a walk and try to find an area that would afford us the best view of the western horizon. Would you believe we found a spot and waited and waited? But we couldn't see anything. The sky was also still somewhat lighted. I figured it was a lost cause and coaxed Art to go back home. 

As we walked down the street, we saw someone standing outside his house staring at the sky with a pair of binoculars. I asked him if he was looking for the comet too and he showed us a photo of the comet that his friend had taken. He told us we needed to wait until it was really dark and pointed to where the comet should be. 

And OMG! There it was!!!

We couldn't believe it!

We soon learned that the fellow we were talking to was from the Big Island just like Art and they graduated from the same high school!!! (Granted the fellow is somewhat younger than Art.)

We were all so excited that he called out to his neighbors and soon we were all looking out at the western sky (somewhat higher on the horizon than we originally thought) and taking photos.

One neighbor had been on an African safari just like Art. They all started sharing photos they'd gotten of the comet.

We could hardly believe it!

It was awesome that we could see this with our naked eye even though Art had brought binoculars with him. 

After about a half hour, the comet began to fade away and we all went back home excited and thoroughly happy that we were able to have seen this celestial event together.

After all... we won't be able to see this comet for 80,000 years and I guess we won't be here by then. 😁

Since Art did not get to see the northern lights in Chicago this summer, I'm glad he was able to get a view of this comet.

Uuuummm... uh oh... Is he going to want to look for it again tonight?

POSTSCRIPT:

OMG! Art wrote his high school classmate friend asking him if he knew this fellow we met last night.

His friend, Gary told him that YES! He knew this fellow because they worked together at Pearl Harbor. And if this is true, my cousin might know him too!

There is a joke in Hawaii that the first question you ask anyone you meet is a pidgin phrase, “What school you grad?”

Surviving Tooth and Nail

Does bad luck really run in 3s?

I've been fighting lethargy and a bad tummy which is NOT fun. My doctor has ordered an ultrasound of my liver and more blood tests because he didn't like what he saw with my 3rd set of blood results. (This is Bad Luck #1.)

And then... would you believe mom was outside picking up leaves from a shedding roadway tree and she stubbed her toe? She managed to do it just outside of camera range so we have no idea how it happened.

When she walked in, I was in the middle of preparing cornbread so I asked Art to look at it. He looked at her toe closely and said..."Aaahhh... I don't think I can do this." 

Ahhhh well the cornbread would have to wait. I looked at her toe, gasped and then we drove to Kaiser Emergency. Her toenail had completely lifted up and was just hanging on at the base.

The nurse who was checking us in asked whether she hit her head because there was blood on her temple.

What?!?

We were so busy looking at her toe, it never occurred to us to look at her head. Good grief. I looked at her temple and yes... there was a little blood. I told the nurse that she must have touched her toe and then her head. He got a damp cloth and wiped off the blood. 

Good grief! There WAS an injury. Sigh....

He chuckled and said it was his job to be an injury detective. 

The doctor came and ordered scans of mom's head and feet. Everything was fine. She then said that there might be enough of the nail still attached to leave it as is!

"How do we care for this?" I asked her. 

"Don't worry," said the doctor. "The nurse will be in to take care of it."

And yes, the nurse took care of it. She sprayed it with some kind of solution and through trial and error managed to get the nail covered. She also gave me some supplies to keep the nail protected. I love nurses.

(This is Bad Luck #2.) 

And then the following week. Arrrghhhh! We were having lunch and I'd cut thin apple slices for us to have. When I took a small bite of one of the slices, I felt a pop.

Noooooo..... it felt like my tooth might have chipped ... or something.

But no, it wasn't just a chip. 😲 2/3 of my front tooth had just snapped off! It just snapped off!!! What the heck!

I made a call to the dentist who kindly fit me into her packed schedule to install a temporary tooth. She also gave me a referral for orthodontic care. 

Sigh.... (And this is Bad Luck #3.)

I'm just hoping I don't get a #4.

Why?

I've been avoiding writing a post about politics, but I felt compelled to with the situation in our country right now.

Going through the editorial letters last week, I came across this letter. It addresses what I've been wondering. I know 98% of the people I hang out with are seeing the evil that is Trump. So why is it half our country might vote for him?

This letter gives you an idea.

I think it's similar to what happened in Germany. How is it so many of the German people supported Hitler and the evil he perpetuated killing 6 million Jews?

In fact, I saw this on Reuters:

WASHINGTON, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Thursday that Jewish-American voters would be partly to blame if he loses the Nov. 5 election to Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate.

And then there's the whole thing that he and Vance are saying about the Haitians in Springfield, Ohio.

This is from the BBC news:

A baseless claim that illegal immigrants from Haiti have been eating domestic pets in a small Ohio city has been repeated by Donald Trump.

During ABC's presidential debate, Trump said: "In Springfield, they are eating the dogs. The people that came in, they are eating the cats. They’re eating – they are eating the pets of the people that live there." 

Much of Trump/Vance attacks are nasty, calling Kamala "mentally impaired, stupid, dumb as a rock, etc." This was on USA TODAY.

Trump used similar rhetoric Saturday during a speech in Wisconsin, and he's frequently called Harris "stupid," "weak" and "dumb as a rock" on the campaign trail. Trump has also repeatedly criticized Harris' racial identity, falsely saying she "turned Black."

We always taught our elementary kids to be more respectful and to refrain from that kind of nasty attacks on others.

Why does so many Americans want a leader like this for our country?!? Why would you want this kind of example for our children? Why would you want him to represent who we are to the rest of the world? 

Why?

POSTSCRIPT:

Did you watch the Vance/Walz debate? I kept wondering why Vance kept blaming things on Kamala Harris. She was/is the Vice President. The Vice President presides over the Senate, certifies the tally of the Electoral College and performs ceremonial duties for the president. The Vice President does not have that much power. I don't know what Vance is thinking he'd be able to do if he became Vice President. I imagine he'd be sorely disappointed.

Irritating Spam Text Messages

I've been pretty safe from weird spam text messages on my iPhone, but I suddenly got hit with one everyday that totally irritated me. I'm assuming it came from China.

I tried erasing it.

Then I reported it to Apple as junk text. 

If you haven’t opened the message: Swipe left on the message, tap , then tap Delete and Report Junk.

I did all that but it didn't stop. In fact I suddenly started getting these text messages almost every hour.

Arrrgghhh...

You can find a solution for anything online so I looked up what to do.

Yay! 

Here it is and it worked. I haven't gotten anymore of those messages. I wondered what it said though.

You know what? I just used my Google Translate app and it told me what the message was!!!

Seriously?

I thought it was going to tell me to vote for Trump. Then again, it would have to be in Russian. 😂

Baking Soda in Lemonade? Really?

We do have a Myer (Hawaiian type) lemon tree that does produce quite a bit of lemons. We don't use it much. It was planted because (believe it or not) mom felt she needed to rinse her hair with a little lemon juice to keep her hair healthy. Well, what can I say? She still has a lot of hair so what the heck? 

Anyway, as it turned out, my brother loves to make lemonade for his family and he required a lot of lemons so whenever there were a lot ripening, he got to take them home.

Well... He told me a long time ago that he adds a little baking soda into his lemonade to take away the acid. He did also caution me that putting too much baking soda could add too much sodium to your diet. 

He and my sister in law went on a long trip last month so with ripening lemons, I thought I'd try making lemonade using a little baking soda.

But how much? I wanted to make a jug full. I found this recipe online, but 2 mainland lemons are very different from our Hawaiian Meyer lemons which are very big and juicy. 

And I didn't want just a glass. I wanted to make a jug full if I was going through all this trouble.

OK. I got 4 Meyer lemons and got 2 cups of juice.

I added 4 cups of water, 3 Tablespoons of sugar and 2 teaspoons of baking soda after much trial and error. 

Art had to be the taster since I've lost most of my sense of taste. 😕

Wow! When I added that baking soda, it was almost like it was going to blow the lid off the bottle! 😱 It bubbled up like crazy.

I got this explanation online:

The acid in the lemon juice reacts with the base in the baking soda to create carbon dioxide gas.

And this is supposed to take that bite off the lemonade. Well, Art felt the juice was still a bit strong so I added 2 more cups of water to the lemonade which he pronounced OK.

Well... I think it needs more sugar... but I bow to his taste buds.

Glucose Lowering Discovery

I'd been noticing the bottom of my toes were feeling a bit numb. 😳 A friend of mine told me how her brother developed diabetic neuropathy. Ack! 

I got this from the Johns Hopkins website:    

Diabetic polyneuropathy (DPN) affects multiple peripheral sensory and motor nerves that branch out from the spinal cord into the arms, hands, legs and feet. Typically, the longest nerves — those that extend from the spine to the feet — are affected the most.

I know that my fasting glucose levels had been rising in the last few years along with my A1c which is the average of 3 months of glucose measurements.

I went to see a substitute doctor because my regular doctor was not available. She did tests on my feet and fingers and told me I need to take diabetes seriously. 

OK... I realize my breakfast cereals were not the best. My nurse friend, Terry suggested I do overnight oats which she preferred. Oatmeal is OK... but I was rather liking the crunch (and OK...) sweetness of my morning cereal. 

Hooowever... I was willing to give it a try. I experimented a bit and came up with 1/2 cup of Old Fashioned oatmeal, 1 cup milk, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and some little cut up dried fruits (cranberries, apricots and prunes). I put them in a glass jar and it was ready for my morning breakfast. I didn't have to cook it. However, it still wasn't perfect so I started making it in the morning for the following breakfast. That worked best for me... and eventually, I didn't miss my cereals. 

So thank you, Terry. 😄

But all this wasn't enough. 

Confession: I haven't been exercising. That kind of stopped with the pandemic. I no longer went to Zumba because our teacher moved to Seattle. The other problem was our caretaking of mom as her dementia worsened. 

However... with Art's insistence that I resume our walks, I started giving mom her showers after dinner and we would take a 1 mile uphill walk. I knew mom wouldn't go out of the house with her nightgown. We also have great neighbors who would tell me if anything went awry.

We started walking in September.

According to the World Health Organization: "The expected values for normal fasting blood glucose concentration are between 70 mg/dL (3.9 mmol/L) and 100 mg/dL (5.6 mmol/L). When fasting blood glucose is between 100 to 125 mg/dL (5.6 to 6.9 mmol/L) changes in lifestyle and monitoring glycemia are recommended."

So you can see my glucose was NOT good. And it hasn't been good now for several years.

I kept a separate chart detailing what I ate and the glucose levels after 2 hours whenever I had a different meal. But the BIGGEST change was when we started that short 1 mile uphill walk. I also listed my glucose on my Fitbit app.

And even more telling was when I didn't get to walk for some reason (rain or whatever), the following morning's glucose level went up.

Walking in the morning when mom was at day care did not show the same results. 

I'll see my regular doctor next month and can't wait to show him my discovery and progress. Yay! 😁

Kupuna Fun Walk

We mall walk with our friends, Dave and Diane occasionally and it's always fun to catch up on our lives. Recently, Diane mentioned that there was going to be a Kupuna Walk. Kupuna in Hawaiian means grandparent, ancestor or honored elder. There were going to be booths set up with information for senior citizens AND a scavenger hunt. 

Diane's brother was going to work there so of course, we needed to go.

Oh my gosh! I couldn't believe how crowded it was!

There must be a LOT of kupuna on the island and they were all there collecting information and little fun items or candy treats.

We got this Scavenger Hunt card which required us to go around the mall searching for answers.

OK, you know it was all to entice us to visit these shops.

But you know what? 

It was fun! 

One of the best things we experienced was Art and me getting to see one of his cousins who we hadn't seen in a long time. She was giving out information about Project Dana which is a group to support kupuna and caregivers. I'd already heard about this from a blog buddy, but how awesome to hear about it again from Art's cousin.

Granted, the prize for completing the card was just a bottle of water, a cooling towel and this strange folding cloth screen which we're not sure what to do with. 

But it doesn't matter. 😄 The real prize was the fun we had and the exercise we got!

Opting Out of Unwanted Charity Mail

We've been concerned about all the charity mail we've been getting over the years. We knew some organizations must be selling our name and address because we've never donated to them before. We know so many are doing good work and wasting their resources by sending mail that would go straight into the trash or recycling bin.

Our first idea was to write a blanket letter and send it in the prepaid return envelopes that they often include with their requests.

It didn't work. We were still getting countless charity envelopes everyday.

So then I wondered if I could look online and find a way to actually send a message to the organizations directly to take us off their mailing list. 

I was surprised that it WORKED! Many of them replied to me right away saying they would take us off their mailing list and thanked us for our past support (if we had) of their organization.

Those that have not responded in May are the charities that Art said he did not reach out to online but had returned their requests by mail.

If we get snail mail requests from them again, I will find their address online and send an email.

And look at our mailbox the other day!

It's been like this for several days now.

I'm relieved. I really hated to see all that postage and paper waste.

Yay! 😀

POSTSCRIPT 1:

Aside from charity, we get tons of brochures from travel companies, some we've never heard of.

We have traveled on Viking and they often send very fancy booklets, brochures, etc. We don't need them so I wrote them too. 

And this is the reply I got from them the following day.:

Dear Kay, 

Thank you for your recent online inquiry. 

We confirm that your request has been received and we have removed you from our marketing communications. 

As we pre-print our marketing materials, you may continue to receive additional brochures that were already in route. Please allow up to 6-8 weeks for the cycle to complete. 

If we can be of further assistance at this time, please contact our Customer Service Department at (888) 663-8454 to speak to any specialized service agent.

Wow!

Awesome!

POSTSCRIPT 2: 

Ah well... We just got three more charity mail yesterday. I'm sure our name is being sold or something. But I'm not giving up. I can be quite persistent. I'll just keep writing to opt out of unwanted mail. 😏 We can help save our environment one brochure at a time.

POSTSCRIPT 3: 

I just got this message from Earth Justice. He wrote a very nice letter.

"Thank you for reaching out and letting us know. It looks like we may have sent you an introductory piece of mail from a list shared with us by another organization, which means you are not on our regular mailing lists. I have added you to our suppression list so that even if another organization shares your information with us again, we will not send mail to you."

I've now modified the emails I'm sending to all organizations to include taking me off their mailing list, not  to share my name and address and to put my name on their SUPPRESSION LIST. I'm determined to help save our planet one unwanted piece of mail at a time. 😁

By the way, I just added 7 more charities and travel companies to the list.

Retiring With a Water Cannon

When we left for Chicago in July, we were part of a retirement ceremony for a United Airlines pilot who had been flying for 40 years. There were lovely little speeches by several people in the waiting area just before we boarded our flight.

It reminded me of the time when my cousin, Arnold retired from Hawaiian Airlines about 10 years ago. My aunt and his sister, Joan were alive then. Auntie Grace was mom's younger sister. Mom still thinks about her and has a hard time accepting that she's gone. I can't believe my cousin, Joan is also gone. She passed away about a month before her mom. It was a very sad time.

However, Arnold's retirement party was a very, very happy time to remember as we all celebrated this special day with all his friends, family and co-workers.

I'm pretty sure a water cannon was mentioned at the time, but I really didn't have a good idea what that must be like. 

Therefore, when we were told we'd be greeted with a water cannon at O'Hare Airport in Chicago, I was really curious and excited.

I got this photo online on reddit of another Hawaiian Airlines retirement.

When we touched down in Chicago, it was announced that the Chicago Fire Department would be doing the water cannon for our United Airlines pilot. I was sorry I didn't have a window seat but Art got this photo from across the aisle.

I'm glad cousin Arnold got to enjoy this fun retirement celebration from his seat in the cockpit so long ago.

Yay! I'm Done With Another Photobook!

Another thing that kept me busy and away from my blog was creating another photobook for Art, me, our kids and grandkids. It actually encompasses our son and his family's travels, our 2 trips to Illinois and our all coming together in July. 

There were 84 pages. But then I had to come up with a cover which I always, always have a hard time with. I finally thought this cover with oak leaves at the top might work since we had an oak tree in back of our portrait. 

I showed it to my brother and he reassured me that it was very nice. Hmmm... I texted him asking if he was just saying that so he wouldn't have to improve it. My brother is a really talented graphic artist. He said my sister-in-law asked him the same thing.

I reminded him that he's my favorite (OK, only) brother.

So a bit later, he sent this to me. 😁 Yup. Perfect! I like it.

Then I remembered a deal Shutterfly had sent in the mail a while back. I have 84 pages so this is perfect! And 40% off on top of that? Doesn't get any better than this, especially when I have to order 3 books since I have to send one to Illinois and one to South Asia.

It's Art's job to upload the pages I created so I reminded him to TAKE OFF the Costco discount. If you keep the Costco discount, you can't use the Shutterfly Discount. 

Isn't it amazing?

When Costco first turned over their photo account to Shutterfly, we made the mistake of not taking their discount off which prevented our being able to use the Shutterfly offers. We know better now.

POSTSCRIPT 1: We'd gotten the notice that the books were going to arrive on September 13th so I was happily waiting for it. It did not come and we got another notice that it would be delayed until the 17th.

POSTSCRIPT 2: And then it was the 19th and it still hadn't arrived. Apparently, the photobooks were handed over to UPS and then transferred to USPS and somehow they couldn't deliver it in over a week. Aggravation!

POSTSCRIPT 3: WHAT?!? Delayed again! Now USPS is saying it'll come on the 25th! Something fishy is going on here.

POSTSCRIPT 4: Art decided to write to them and got the message that it's been delayed long enough that they'll send another shipment. 😀 Fingers crossed it comes this time.

ZEVO?

Our friend, Dave told us months ago about a bug catcher called Zevo. He showed us how many bugs his Zevo had caught and we were very impressed.

We therefore ordered a couple of them from Amazon and plugged one in the kitchen where we do get plagued by flies or whatever at times. I'm always leery of mosquitoes in the evening because I used to get a number of bites. I'm thinking now that it wasn't mosquitoes but bird mites because once we stopped pigeons from living under our solar panels, I haven't gotten tons of bites.

This is what the Zevo looks like in the daytime and at night. I don't think they work as well in the daytime so we just turn them on at night.

At first, there weren't very many bugs at all, but when I checked a couple of days ago, this is what I saw.

Yay! It caught one mosquito in the bedroom and a lot of ant drones in the kitchen. I don't know what those other teeny bugs are. I don't see any flies though.

And you know what though? I haven't had mosquito or bird mite bites in months while in the house. Uuummm... I'm knocking on wood. I hope I haven't cursed myself.

Cat Cafe!

We enjoy mall walking with our friends occasionally. As we were completing a rotation, I noticed some interesting people that were entering the mall along with one focused person who seemed to be heading to something important.

After a few minutes we saw a gathering around what looked like a cat cafe.

Oh right... There's a sign above that should have alerted me right away. 

The fellow we saw entering the mall appeared to be either someone giving a blessing for the start of a business or maybe a pep talk.

We then saw a huge crowd that had formed in front of the cafe. By the time we made yet another mall rotation many of the customers had gone in and others were waiting. 

We looked at this sign and was rather surprised at the price.

$23 for half an hour?

$28 for 60 minutes?

With only a $5 difference, I should think you may as well stay the whole hour. It does include a complimentary drink.

This brought to mind our time in Tokyo last year with our son, daughter and their families to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary.

We stopped at a Cat Cafe in the Harajuku area because our then 4 year old RK LOVES cats. Keola and Sarah don't own a cat. They only had their dog, Mungo who passed away a couple of years ago.

But RK fell in love with cats.

So that's where we went.

Let me explain that RK is a rough and tumble boy.

But when he went into that room full of cats, he became the gentlest, most adoring little man ever. It made us all smile to see how sweet he was with every cat he approached or if a cat wandered near him.

Unfortunately, after a half hour, we saw his face redden and hives break out around his face. His nose started to run but he did not want to leave.

It was a shock to all of us. None of us knew he was allergic to cats. He'd been near cats before but somehow this prolonged time near them caused this terrible reaction.

Sigh....

So we left the cat cafe quickly and a half hour later, fortified with an ice cream cone, RK was back to his normal self.

Whenever they return to Hawaii someday, I guess we will not be frequenting this Cat Cafe MOFF. (I did discover online that this is a Japanese franchise.)

OMG! OMG! 

I just checked my photos from our trip to Tokyo last year.

That Cat Cafe we went to in Tokyo is the same franchise that opened here in Hawaii. (This is me with Keola.)

The cost of entrance in Tokyo was about $7 for 30 minutes buuut... you had to buy a drink. 😄

Ah well... maybe there will be a dog cafe someday too.

Hand Signs Around the World

We were out at a food court with friends when Dave smiled and said, "I have something you could write about on your blog."

He pointed across the food court and asked, "See that sign next to that food stall? It's the Korean sign for love." 

Art and I looked where he was pointing and didn't even notice it at first.

It was a new chicken eatery and it didn't even dawn on us what that lighted sign was about.

We have that two hand sign and the American Sign Language for LOVE. 

I don't know if they still do this in Japan but for the longest time I couldn't understand why the younger Japanese would put up the V sign when taking photos. That's my Japanese cousin with the V sign. 

I've seen all kinds of explanations. One was to make (especially girls faces) appear slimmer. That didn't make sense at all. Another explained that it was the sign for Peace. 

I thought the V was for Victory. So anyway, I still don't know.

When Art and Dave went to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates on the way home from Tanzania last year, their guide taught them another sign. I got this from the VoiceMap website:

"That is the three-finger salute made famous by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai. The gesture outlines three letters: a W for win, a V for victory, and an L for love."

Ummm... Art is actually doing it with the wrong hand. 😂

So if you're in another country... it would be a good idea to know what hand signs stand for. In the U.S. this gesture could look like a finger snap which could be taken the wrong way too.😬

The Happiest 75th Birthday Ever!

One of the happiest moments during our trip to Illinois this summer was to stay with our daughter and family in Chicago and be there to spend a week and a half with our son and his family. This was a very rare moment for us since our son and wife work in South Asia. And here we were finally, FINALLY all together except that our daughter-in-law had to leave for meetings in D.C. just before my birthday. She did happily call me though to wish me a happy day.

It was such a happy surprise when I saw that they'd gone specially to get a Portillo's chocolate cake for me. Special too because I know chocolate is not my daughter's favorite. 😆

And then I saw they'd mounted a gigantic candle on top. At least I thought it was a candle. But it didn't stop there.

It slowly began to rotate and spread out petals as it went around and around playing the birthday song. I was totally astonished.

And yes the cake tasted as wonderful as I remembered it.

Granddaughter, KC also added chocolate chips and whipped cream to add even more fun to it.

The funniest thing happened the following day though. The cake had started to collapse. It's a very rich cake, but well... sort of caved in on one side. Not to worry, we loved eating it anyway.

We all laughed and just savored being together. This was such a very rare and precious time.

It was one of the happiest birthdays I've ever had! 

Handi-Van for Mom

Whenever Art takes mom to the day care center which mom always calls "The Senior Club" we have often seen the Handi-Van dropping off riders there.

With Art having just celebrated his 80th birthday, I really felt we should look into those Handi-Van services. 

The Handi-Van is a public transit service for persons with disabilities who are not able to use the City's bus service.  I figured mom's dementia was a disability and she certainly can't use the regular city bus by herself.

We took her in for an interview and she easily passed the test to qualify for the service. 

I wondered how she could carry her HOLO card to identify and pay for the bus. I found this lanyard on Amazon that would help. She could just wear it and show it to the driver. You can also add on an Apple tag just in case something should go wrong.

I read the instruction booklet that was sent to me and saw that she was also required to carry payment for the driver in case her card did not work. Darn! I can't give her money to carry.

Reading further, I discovered you can buy paper tickets. I could stick that in her lanyard too. We took a trip to the Transit Pass Office and bought some tickets. We just bought a few since we didn't know if the Handi-Van option would work for sure.

OK... I guess we're all set to try this out. I'm allowed to go on the bus with her for free to test it out. But Art would have to pick me up. 

I mentioned this all to mom and she says she's perfectly content to go on the (Handi-Van) bus. This is something she is very familiar with since she rode the city bus early in the morning and late at night to and from the Japanese language newspaper where she worked decades ago. She's thrilled that this bus will pick her up at our home and take her to her "Senior Club." 

Finger crossed that this works. 🤞