My New Niece

We had a family dinner last night to celebrate my nephew's birthday and something made me smile. My nephew married a woman from Japan last year and she has really made a wonderful difference for our family get togethers.

My new niece takes the time to really speak to my mother, always making eye contact with love, interest and respect in her voice. I've heard her telling mom how delicious each dish is and how much she appreciates the hard work in preparation time that is involved in making them. This is all music to my ears because I know how very much it means to my mother. My niece also offers to bring something she prepared as well and then takes over the clean up. What a joy! My nephew deserves a lot of credit for choosing such a wonderful wife but then again, he's always been such a sweetie that I should have expected nothing less from him.

The photo is of my mother with my nephew and niece at their wedding last year.

Remembering Our Veterans

We were at the Navy BX yesterday and saw that a Christmas Tree was already on display. As I looked at the tree I noticed the flag flying at half mast for our fallen soldiers of Fort Hood, Texas.

We owe such a debt to the men and women who serve our countries. They bravely put themselves in harm's way knowing that they may have to give the ultimate sacrifice for the rest of us. When we're at Tripler Army Hospital or the Illinois Great Lakes Hospital, all the men and women are so polite, kind and utterly respectful saying, "Yes, ma'am" or "May I help you, sir?" They hold themselves with pride and determination to do their best.

To all our servicemen and veterans I would just like to say, Thank You.

KC Goes to Disneyland

Tiffany called on Skype a couple of days ago so we could make it clear to KC that even though she would be riding on an airplane for a long time, she would not be coming to see us. She would actually be seeing her great Aunt Kay (Art's sister) and Great Uncle in California and go to Disneyland for the first time. That's right. Art's sister's name is Kay also. Remember how I told you that Art had three dogs named Finnegan #1, #2, #3? (No, not at the same time.) Well, he went from a sister to a wife with the same name also.

KC was just raking leaves a couple of cool days ago. I imagine it will startle her to suddenly be in warm L.A.

I wish we could be there, too.

I remember the first time we took Tiffany and Jonathan to Disneyland. My sister-in-law had gotten us a good deal. We were able to buy a ticket good for 5 days for the price of one. Well, we went to Disneyland every single day. We should have just set up a tent there. Yes, we're crazy!


Tif had such a great time running from character to character and wanting to experience everything over and over again. I hope KC will catch the magic also.

Doing the Right Thing

Abe Lincoln of Pick a Peck of Pixels wrote a post on Sunday about how some Americans thought it was a good thing to kill off all Native American men, women and children in 1867.

When I've mentioned atrocities that happened in the past some people have excused it saying, "It was just the times. That was how it was back then. They couldn't help but believe that way."

I couldn't believe that but could it be true? Slave owners and their families were OK because they really felt it was fine with God for them to do this? European immigrants coming to America could kill Native Americans in horrific ways because they were clearing the country for Christianity? Citizens didn't really know what was going on during the Holocaust and if they did it was still OK because they were clearing the world of Judaism?

Really?

And yet there were people in those times who fought against the injustices. I was reading about John Brown in the Smithsonian Magazine. His strategy was extreme but he was a religious man fighting the extreme evil of slavery. During the Holocaust there were diplomats and citizens who tried to save as many people as they could.

I'm not sure why but thinking of this opened up memories of kindnesses from so many people we met while away from Hawaii. I'd heard terrible stories of prejudice on the Mainland. I feared it and steeled myself for it. Yes, I saw a bit of it but there were far more people who were extraordinarily kind.

Thirty five years ago we were newly arrived in Chicago from Hawaii and moved into a two flat owned by an older German landlord who told us he fought under the Kaiser. He became our surrogate grandfather giving drills to train me to not open doors so freely as I did in Hawaii. He would cook sweet and sour meatballs and share them with us. I know he cared deeply about us and was upset when we bought a home and had to move out. He came to inspect our home later to make sure we'd made a good choice and we visited him whenever we could.

We moved into an older subdivision populated mostly by Catholics in a predominantly Jewish town. We didn't know any of this when we bought the place. In fact, we moved in the winter and Art heard from somebody on the train going to work that they were surprised we lived there because they thought it was a very segregated community. We had no idea! What a shock! They told us our community was even nicknamed "The island of gentiles in the sea of Jerusalem." From being in the majority in Hawaii, it was rather disconcerting to be a minority and it took some getting used to.

Anyway, one day I was talking to my neighbor who was into Lithuanian dances and she was scolding me for not knowing any Japanese dances. Dick, a veteran of WWII (Pacific theater) and a retired reporter was riding by on his bicycle....slowly. He overheard part of our conversation, stopped and proceeded to quite sternly chide my neighbor saying, "Why do you expect her to know Japanese dances? She is American!" I stood there with my mouth agape.

When Dick passed away, I wanted to attend the funeral. I planned to sit at the back and be unobtrusive. However, when I walked in, somebody must have noticed. I suppose I stood out a bit. Dick's grieving wife walked down that long aisle, thanked me for coming, took my hand and insisted I come up front to sit with them.

I've never forgotten that.

The Travels of Father and Son

I do believe that one of Art's favorite trips was without me. It's true. It was in January of 2002. My son, Jon was in Mali as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Art was retired and wanting to see and experience the adventures that our son wrote about. I was teaching and couldn't leave for a month to go off to Africa. Granted, I wasn't exactly needing to go once I heard about the toilets being a hole in the ground, about mosquitoes carrying malaria, and the joy of roughing it. The most I want to rough it is Motel 6, thank you.

Instead, while Art was gone, I tackled below zero weather in the Midwest with record snowfalls. The neighbors had to push my car out into the street so that I could get to school. OK... never mind. That's another story.


Jon met Art in Mali's capital city of Bamako and then took him to his home village near Koutiala. Art loved every single minute and enjoyed meeting the people of the village as well as the other Peace Corps Volunteers when Jon threw a fete for him.

On one memorable outing Jon took Art for a boat trip on the river. Art was amazed at all the birds he saw around him and tried to take some photos from the leaking boat.





Don't these look like pigeons?


Back at the village they saw a few of these guinea hens. They're not pets. They're food.


After a few days they traveled to Tanzania to climb Kilimanjaro (Remember what I said about Motel 6?) and go on a safari where they saw this golden crowned crane.


I do believe these must be ostriches.


Nope, no idea what this is.


Jon chided me later for not coming another time when school was not in session. I do think they had a much better time without me holding them back. In this instance, it was a good trip for father and son.

What theWorld Needs Now

What's the matter with me? Suddenly I don't know what to write about. My mind's a blank.

So... Hmmmm... I think I'll just write about somebody I happen to know.

Gene is a Presbyterian minister. He is the husband of Art's college friend. When I first learned that we were going to visit with Sharon and Gene at a 3 day house party I figured we may have some evenings of prayer or religious discussions.

To my surprise I discovered that devout, pious and knowledgeable as Gene is, he did not try to ram his religion down anybody's throat. He and Sharon had amassed a great collection of Asian art and religious artifacts. I discovered that Gene was very knowledgeable in Buddhism and many other world religions. Even more important, he respected everybody's right to believe as they do so long as they did no harm. He also believed as Sharon and her parents did that the world is a family of friends who must be respected, understood and given aid where needed.

From the start, I know Gene tried to understand me. He asked a lot of questions regarding prejudice, religion, etc. and he presented his views with warmth and friendship. He used to laugh and tell me that I must forgive him if he ever sounded like a pompous old fellow because he was working on that part of his character.

When Sharon passed away suddenly I was amazed at the strength of his beliefs that he was able to conduct much of the service for her funeral himself.

I've known quite a few people who are so sure that their religion is the only way, not just for themselves but everybody that they will look down on and even condemn how others believe. And then they think that their way is the only way to Peace.

I remember being at a Teacher's meeting a long time ago where everybody stood up and had a group Christian prayer before we did something. I stood with the others even though I knew a few people in the group were Jewish. It was just assumed that everybody was Christian. Art says he had similar situations at E.P.A. Art and I are fine with it. We just do our own meditation within our hearts.

I'm pleased to say that all the friends I have of every faith ARE understanding and respectful of each other and me. I remember Dina of Jerusalem Hills Daily Photo encouraging me to study and be more active with my Buddhist faith but lovingly included my family in many of her family's Jewish traditions. My neighbors in Illinois encouraged us to send our children to their Catholic pre-school. We did, and the kids made a lot of friends there.

What does this world need? Loving understanding and respect for each other's belief systems. Perhaps then we could take a step toward peace.

Brothers and Sisters

My little granddaughter is nearing her 3rd birthday and I'm thinking she needs a brother or sister, preferably a brother JUST BECAUSE that's what Art and I had and we wanted the same thing for Tiffany when she was born.


1947-8 Honokaa,(Big Island) Hawaii
Art and his only sibling, Kay (yes, her name is Kay, too) are four years apart. It's worked well for them and they are very close keeping up with each other's lives every Saturday without fail by cellphone, letters and visits.


1953 Kunia, Oahu,Hawaii
My only sibling, Dennis and I are three years apart and I thought that was the best thing ever. I could lord it over him and boss him around. NO... I'm kidding. Honest. He is quite stubborn and will insist on doing things his way no matter what I try to coerce him to do. He's also smarter than I am which makes it hard for me to lord it over him. We were each other's best childhood friends doing almost everything together. I wanted the same for my children.


1984 Chicago, Illinois
When Tif was about two years old I asked the pediatrician what the best age span between children was and he said three. We followed his advice and it worked out extremely well. Just as the pediatrician said, Tif was out of diapers by the time Jon came around but they were close enough to enjoy playing with each other. Throughout their school years, their age span was just close enough that they could understand each each other's music. They are devoted to one another and would do anything for each other. I remember Tif crying over Jon when she saw him in his hospital bed with his shattered arm strapped up after surgery.

And now here's my little granddaughter who needs a sibling soon, not that I'm nagging or anything.

Well there are my mom and her sisters here in Hawaii who are a year apart and it's a lot of fun for them. So maybe it doesn't matter what the age span is.

I'd still like another grandchild. OK... I've got a grand-dog. Yes, yes, I know that. But....

Health Care and Farmers Market Sunrise

Art saw this cartoon this morning in the Honolulu Advertiser and got such a kick out of it that I just had to post it.



Then we got our reusable grocery bags and headed for the Open (Farmers) Market in Waiau. The rain stopped just in time for us and the sky was ablaze to greet the day.


We got a nice selection of vegetables for the week and are now off to start the day with a few errands.

Making the Most Out of Macro

Now that I've read some of the directions in the Instruction Manual for my new camera I've learned that I wasn't doing the macro properly. So my camera isn't really defective. It was me all along. What can I say? It still takes a steady hand though and maybe I need to read the manual more thoroughly but every time I start reading, it puts me to sleep!
I just wandered around our minuscule yard taking macro photos of my mother's flowers. I haven't a clue to the flower's name. It's pretty and a lot of neighbors have it but I don't know what it is. Quilly has just told me that this is a Desert Rose. Thanks, Quilly!


This is an orchid. I have no idea if it's a cymbidium, dendrobium or what. I do know its buds are what bulbuls consider their dessert.

On the plus side, I don't think I'll get insomnia anymore. I just have to pick up the instruction manual. I haven't even begun to tackle the Prius Navigation System manual yet. Gee... It's making me sleepy just to think of it!

Some Sunday Stuff

It's a rather lazy Sunday. Art is busy working on my office closet. Unfortunately, the closet skeleton that the contractors put in is not exactly square so it's taking a bunch of adjustments to create the shelving.

We needed doors for it and when I called around I discovered that, it would cost upwards of $900 to get it custom made. Then one day we were at Home Depot and discovered that they had Build Your Own cabinet doors that we could buy for about $200! Yahoo! However, right now... Art is struggling with how to create the structure to attach the doors. It's all a learning process since it's the first time he's actually had to do this instead of mounting a pre-hung door. I have faith but I'm hearing a lot of sighs and groans over there.

Another fun item going around Hawaii is comedian Frank DeLima's Furlough Day Song which brings attention to the 17 Friday furlough days that Hawaii's children are being deprived of schooling. If you go to this Honolulu Advertiser site and click on Audio: you'll be able to hear the song.

The final fun thing that Art just showed me is a Yahoo Comics website. I do love my comics and miss some of my favorites in the Chicago Tribune. This site gives me a whole new batch to check out as well as those I enjoyed in the Trib. When we're gone on trips, I can catch up on my comics using this website.

Hope you're all having a lazy, happy Sunday. We had only 15 Trick or Treaters last night. Looks like I'll be passing out left over candy to whoever shows up. Kit Kats and Dark Chocolate Hersheys anyone?

Halloween!

Michelle of Rambling Woods posted a terrific explanation on the origins of Halloween. Stop by and check it out. The National Geographic video really does a great job of giving you the history of the holiday.

I always had the hardest time picking a costume for Halloween. More often than not, I was a witch... a nice witch, a pink haired witch, a warty witch, a plain ol' witch.

Other teachers were a lot more creative than I was.

The kids took Halloween very seriously but I always reminded them to brush their teeth and not eat too much of their candies at one time. I wonder just how many heeded my warnings.

I hope the four bags of candy I bought for tomorrow is enough. How many bags did you buy?

Just One of Those Days

Ever have one of those days when things are just not centered right? Everything just seems a bit awry? That was my Thursday. First, I got a message that one of my friends lost her mother. She'd passed away peacefully in her sleep. My heart ached for her.

Then I opened a package that came yesterday from the window company to replace some broken parts. I discovered the new parts had been broken during shipping. I e-mailed the company and they wrote right back to say they would ship it again.


I looked out my windows and the vog was so heavy that I couldn't see the Waianae or Koolau mountain ranges that I can usually see very clearly. All around Oahu, the heavy volcanic haze seemed to smother my mood. The hot, muggy air was stifling.

We were out shopping and Art jokingly said "Looks like your brother ditched you for the weekend exercising, hunh?" I would normally laugh this off but it bothered me. Poor Art... that made him feel bad.

I told Art I was just feeling really strange. Not happy. Not upset. Just weird. Low. Hot... sweaty... Yucky...

There were happy things that happened too. I went to see my nurse practitioner at Tripler Army Hospital who gave me the results to my blood tests that showed good improvement in my glucose and cholesterol levels. Kathy is such a smart, caring, thorough health care provider and she even surprised me with a warm hug before I left.

I was exhausted this afternoon. Then I came down with really painful bloating and stomach cramps during dinner. Nuts! Diarrhea. Double nuts! But I felt a bit better just in time for...

Line dancing! My childhood friend, Diane gave me a ride and she had a surprise gift for me. Her husband had made a video for us. Joanne, my other high school buddy had a pomelo for Art to eat. (I can't eat it because it's in the grapefruit family and will interact with my medication.) Presents are always such spirit lifters.

So... all in all... The day is ending on a happy note. Well... I do have this nagging headache starting however.

Hmmm... are those the cool trade winds returning that I'm feeling coming from my windows? Could it be true?

Ahhhh... tomorrow is another day...

Feelies and Young Kids?

Art and my mom have lovely, easy conversations. However, I know that each understands about 75% of what the other says. Still, that missing 25% can be crucial. The problem is that my mother mixes Japanese in with her pidgin English and Art will occasionally use English word combinations that she doesn't understand.

Last night, I heard mom tell Art, "I just saw on TV it's Feelies."

"What?" said Art. I saw him shake his head in puzzlement.

"Feelies and Young Kids, yeah?" explained Mom helpfully.

"Young Kids?" I could see Art struggling through all the things this could be about.

Finally I had to step in while I could still talk. I could hardly stop laughing. "She means the Phillies and Yankees. It's something she saw in the Japanese news."

"Yes," she said, "The World Cereals."

Wahiawa Botanical Garden Walk

I saw an article in Sunday's Honolulu Advertiser about the Wahiawa Botanical Gardens which is pretty close to our home. Mom thought my aunt and uncle would like to go and check it out and our neighbors were also game so we decided to go together today. I called ahead and was told that we should bring umbrellas and bug spray. We went out last night and bought some for the occasion.


When we got there we were relieved to see clear blue skies so we left our umbrellas behind. We also figured we didn't need the bug spray so we left that in the car.


The place was being decorated for Halloween but mom saw something that she didn't like right away!


"That's my grandson's name," she moaned. It gave her the willies.


The gardens were very beautiful. They had spent quite a bit of resource to really renovate the garden paths to make it accessible to everyone. We saw orchid plants clinging to huge branches.


There were a lot of plants I'd not seen before.


Everyone on this trip enjoys gardens and loved discovering all the strange and wonderful plants we saw.


And that's when we realized our mistake. We should have used the bug spray. The mosquitoes followed us like a blood sucking cloud. Then my uncle drew my attention to the handrail which I thankfully was not holding. It was teeming with a giant trail of GIANT ants. Yuuuuck!


Art found the gorgeous blossom on this candle tree interesting since the flower came right out of the big trunk instead of the branches.


There was no way I was going to sit down because that's what the mosquitoes wanted me to do. A sitting target!


The gardener told me this was a relative of the shrimp plant.


Art said there was more to see in another area but I think everybody had enough. As beautiful as it was, ants and mosquitoes are no fun!


We stopped by at Makino Chaya to pick up the $5.50 box lunch I ordered the night before. Our neighbors, aunt and uncle could not believe what we got. It was an extremely generous serving and the variety of food was fabulous. What a terrific way to end the outing!

IAEF, RTFM!

Tif and Ed gave me this very light and small camera this summer for my birthday and I love it. However, I couldn't figure out how to do the macro very well and I had to ask Art for help to figure out how to delete photos. I had a bit of time today so I started reading the manual that came with it. By golly! There's all kinds of information there!

This reminds me of that acronym IAEF,RTFM! When Art had just left the Air Force many years ago where he worked on satellite systems, he told me the officers used that acronym constantly and it meant, "If All Else Fails, Read The F(expletive deleted) Manual." When he worked with computers at EPA he says he was forever asking people who came to him if they had read the manual. My son-in-law complains of the same thing.

Well... I'd been getting along just fine pointing and shooting, but I see that if I'd read the manual before, there is a whole lot more I could learn on how to operate it. I guess I'll spend the next few days reading it. Who knows, maybe I'll learn something else.

HOT car!!!

One thing we've noticed about the Prius is that it's got a big dashboard surface that heats up and then radiates to the rest of the car. I can actually feel the heat even with the air conditioning on unless I put the fan on full blast. This is Hawaii. It's hot over here. We always use a wind shield shade to keep out as much of the sun as we can when it's in a parking lot. It really helps! I'm surprised everybody in Hawaii doesn't have a shade for their car.

I'm seeing a few people putting a little rug like cover on their dashboards. I wonder if this helps. Do you suppose the rug thing will absorb the heat and not radiate it? We're trying to drive as ecologically as we can without using the air conditioning full blast but this Hawaiian heat is terrible.

This week, it's also extremely, horribly humid AGAIN! Arrrrghhhhhh!

Ready for Halloween But Not H1N1

My daughter, Tiffany called to tell me about her miserable day yesterday. And it was miserable.

Our little village in Illinois really has terrific programs, not to mention that incredible library system I mentioned. They were also offering H1N1 flu shots free to young children. We always got our flu shots free there. Tiffany could hardly wait to take KC to get the shot. She'd been waiting a month but then the night before, KC came down with a case of hives.

I'm very sorry to admit she's inherited that from me. I used to get it for no identifiable reason. I attributed it to stress. If my resistance was down and I got upset, I got hives. It was sort of an early warning system. I get hives, I go to sleep, no more hives. If I didn't relax myself right away, I could end up in the emergency room. I didn't know about Benedryl then. Did they even have Benedryl?

Yesterday, Tif brought KC for her H1N1 vaccination and mentioned how she'd gotten hives the night before. They said she should call her doctor to see if it was OK for KC to get the vaccination. She called the Chicago office and they said to bring KC in. She did.

When they trekked into the doctor's office full of coughing, sick children nobody admitted to telling her to come in for a case of hives that was already gone. The doctor looked at her and sent her home.

This all cost Tif over a hundred dollars for the quick visit (lousy health insurance... but that would be another rant), lots of gas and NO H1N1 flu vaccination.

Not a good Friday for them...

Ah well, at least my little monkey is ready for Halloween!

But my all time favorite so far was not really a costume but a snow suit that her doting Uncle Jonny sent her. She reminded me of a little Eewok.

Nameless No More

My grand-dog has finally earned a name and a fine name it is even though it made me think of Mongo (fictional planet in the old Flash Gordon series) or mungo beans or mango. But that's OK. Mungo is a fine name. Here's what my son, Jon e-mailed me from New Mexico:

"The dog now has a proper name.

It's a name that I'd thought of a long time ago, but it didn't seem like a good fit for this dog. It's Mungo, after the Scottish explorer/traveler Mungo Park. I've always wanted a dog that I could name Mungo. Mungo Park was the first westerner to see the Niger River. What sealed the deal: according to Sarah's dictionary, Mungo means "reclaimed wool of poor quality." That seems very appropriate for this stray who was picked up on a reservation. He used to be so timid that it seemed ridiculous to name him after an explorer. He is not timid anymore and is mostly happy and energetic although he has been having a lot of accidents.

The gate idea initially worked. Yesterday, not so much. While we were gone, he knocked down the gate and pooped ALL over the dining room. I mean all over it. I'm not sure why he moved around so much while he was doing it, but I guess he likes to spread it around. I used a ton of carpet cleaner and half a roll of paper towels cleaning it up. We should have just kept Topcat."

I see that my grand-dog has a lot of learning to do. I'll have to tell Jon and Sarah to check out Dez's blog, Glass Half Empty-Taking It One Step at a Time. Her puppy, Piper is a handful, too.

Hmmmm.... this is interesting. My granddaughter and grand-dog are being toilet trained at the same time! Maybe they should put pull-ups on Mungo, too.