Masks for My Grandkids

I first started madly making masks in March. Madly! But I didn't have as many supplies as I needed. I scrounged everywhere including mom's sewing chest for elastic. I didn't have enough thread at first, but combined with mom's eventually had quite a bit until I found that many were polyester which would melt if someone tried to iron their mask. Friends gave me their cotton aloha shirts or 100% cotton bed sheets to cut up. My daughter sent me some of her cotton fabrics. I was at my sewing machine daily morning to night for a couple of months and ended up sewing about 200 masks. 

And then I was done.

But I had the last remnants left and asked my son if my grandsons could use more masks. 

He said, "Sure, they could always use extra masks."

So I made these.

After making so many masks, I've learned little tricks to make it go faster like not cutting the threads between masks. 

My daughter also sent me these "wonder clips" to use instead of pins.

I also made some ladybug masks for them.

Our son said the 3D style instead of Olson was better for the boys because they're easier to breathe. 

Unfortunately I made them a bit big. (Will they grow into them?)

Darn!

I kind of thought I was done with masks, but then my friend, Terry gave me more pretty fabric.

And somehow it made me want to get even more fabric. So we ventured out to Fabric Mart. Have I lost my mind? I don't need more fabric. I don't need to make more masks. Everybody can get masks pretty cheaply now. But the fabrics were so cute. 

Oh what the heck! I think my neighbors could use more masks for the holidays. And now I have some cute fabrics for my granddaughter and grandsons. 

And then there's all these supplies that my daughter sent me. 

Ah well...

 

Have I gotten addicted to revising patterns and making masks?

Could be...

Scary Day

Mom is 91 and she's been in good health. Well, except for the matter of a blood pressure that needs to be kept under control. She likes keeping to her schedule. She is having breakfast every morning around 5:00 (sometimes earlier), does 20 minutes on the treadmill and then watches her news from Japan. Once that's over and she knows what's going on with American politics from the Japanese point of view she heads out the door to water all her plants and rake up leaves from the sidewalk and street. She's also trimming back all the ground cover next to the sidewalk. Everything is kept neat and tidy.

Lunch is at 11:00 on the dot. She tends to have lunch on her own since it's too early for us unless we bring in take-out. Then there's the nap at around 12:30. Dinner is at 5:00 on the dot. 

If she doesn't follow this schedule, our mom-radar is pinging.

This past Friday, Art saw her coming in early from her watering while he was reading the morning newspaper. She told him she was unsteady on her feet. He called me immediately since their communication is often ...rather... interesting since he hasn't been able to pick up enough mastery of Japanese and mom has never gotten the hang of English. (Though I think she knows more than she lets on.)

Mom told me that she wasn't dizzy. She didn't have a headache. There was no numbness anywhere. Her face wasn't droopy and she was perfectly lucid. However, she felt she couldn't balance properly to walk and was afraid of falling.

This alarmed both Art and me. I sent off an email to her doctor and didn't hear back right away. Meanwhile mom took a two hour morning nap which she never does. Art and I worriedly paced around the room. We checked on her constantly to make sure she was breathing properly and she seemed fine.

We decided to go and pick up a quick take-out lunch so she'd have something to enjoy. When we got home, mom was just getting up and thoroughly enjoyed the lunch treat. Her appetite was definitely not diminished. We told her to use the cane when she walks around the house.

Mom said she has not been able to get a good night's sleep lately and keeps getting up around four times to use the bathroom and has difficulty getting back to sleep.

OK, so now she went back on schedule and took her after-lunch nap. That was surprising after that long morning nap. After almost an hour and a half went by and she was still napping, I decided to call the Kaiser Advice Nurse. I told her that mom's doctor had not emailed me back. She said mom's doctor was not in today and assigned another doctor to call me back.

By the time that doctor called me, mom had gotten up and her balance was restored. I had mom walk around the carpeted family room and she was astonished that her balance had been restored. The doctor advised me to keep mom off the treadmill for a time and gave permission to give her 5 mg. of melatonin each evening.

Mom got up the following morning in great spirits. She said the melatonin did wonders and she only woke up twice but could go right back to sleep. 

What a relief! Art and I were on edge all day. I don't think our mental health can take a lot more of all this stress.

And mom? She's cheerful as ever.

Did Alexander Fleming Really and Truly Save Winston Churchill with Penicillin?

Art recently got this Forwarded message and passed it on to me to enjoy. It sounded a bit too good to be true. I looked it up on Snopes and found that indeed it's not true. It's a myth.

I then checked Wikipedia for Fleming and found further information on just how untrue it was. 

Here's that Forwarded message Art got.

"Irish Luck - Remember to send it back!

His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog.

There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death

The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved.

'I want to repay you,' said the nobleman. 'You saved my son's life.'

'No, I can't accept payment for what I did,' the Scottish farmer replied waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family hovel.

'Is that your son?' the nobleman asked.
'Yes,' the farmer replied proudly.

'I'll make you a deal. Let me provide him with the level of education my own son will enjoy. If the lad is anything like his father, he'll no doubt grow to be a man we both will be proud of.' And that he did.

Farmer Fleming's son attended the very best schools and in time, graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin.

Years afterward, the same nobleman's son who was saved from the bog was stricken with pneumonia.

What saved his life this time? Penicillin.

The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill .. His son's name?

Sir Winston Churchill.

Someone once said: What goes around comes around."

You know what else is funny? He wasn't Irish. Alexander Fleming was Scottish.

I know I'm picky. I really do like to check these Forwarded emails and let people know if it's fake. I've been told I should "lighten up." However, I guess I don't like the idea of misinformation being sown and grown as fact. 

Ever since my son sent me a book called Lies My Teacher Told Me, I've tried to be extra careful to not teach or spread misinformation.

This is what I got from Snopes about this story:

"...Alexander Fleming did not leave the farm to rush off to medical school to become the doctor he had supposedly always longed to be. In fact, young Alec (as he was then known) departed for London when he was 14, where his older brother Tom had studied medicine and opened a practice. Alec attended the Polytechnic School in Regent Street; after graduating, he entered the business world at the urging of his brother, worked as a clerk for a shipping firm for a few years, then joined a Scottish regiment when the Boer War broke out. It was not until after all of this that Alec decided to try his hand at medical school, and even then it was the encouragement of his older brother that was the deciding factor, not a lifelong yearning on Alec’s part to become a doctor. Additionally, Alec’s medical school education was financed with a £250 inheritance from a recently-deceased uncle, not an endowment from a grateful Randolph Churchill.

Nor is the other end of this tale true. Winston Churchill did come down with a sore throat and a high fever while in Tunis (on the way home from his December 1943 meeting with Franklin Roosevelt and Josef Stalin in Tehran), and the diagnosis of the medical team called in from Cairo by his personal physician (Charles Wilson, later Lord Moran) was pneumonia. According to Wilson’s biography, Churchill was treated with sulphonamide (an antimicrobial, but one unrelated to penicillin) and digitalis (for his heart) and sent to bed to rest. By the time a specialist, Professor John Scadding, was flown in from London, Churchill was already well on his way to recovery. In short, Alexander Fleming was neither present nor consulted when Churchill was diagnosed with pneumonia, nor was penicillin used to treat the British prime minister...

According to the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge, Churchill publicly denied the Fleming story in 1946."

Therefore, before you send anything out, please check Snopes.

OK, OK... I'll get off my soapbox now.

Thriftbooks

I have a collection of books I accumulated through the years from garage, library, rummage sales etc. which I used for my first graders while I was teaching. I sold or donated most of them before our move to Hawaii but kept three shelves worth to enjoy with my future grandchildren.

During this time of COVID-19, I started sending some of the books to Maryland for my grandsons. My granddaughter is much too old for these 1st grade books. Good grief! She'll be in high school soon. Yikes! 

The older of my grandsons has entered online kindergarten and is already reading. I'm so proud of him. When he received the books I sent by Leonora and Arthur Hornblow, he was captivated by them. On one Facetime he asked, "Grandma, could you send me more Strangest Things books?"

I had given him and his little brother four of them but didn't have the Reptiles do the Strangest Things or Animals do the Strangest Things. I checked Amazon and at the time the cost was about $19 for a book. I see now that the prices have gone down. 

Anyway, I started doing more research and checked the reviews for a company called Thriftbooks.com.

The company seemed reputable and I figured $10 for two books wouldn't break the bank. So I ordered the books to be sent to Maryland. When I told my grandson he was thrilled, but could hardly wait for them to arrive. 

The website said the Reptiles book ($5.09) would be in Acceptable condition and the Animals book ($4.19) would be in Good condition. You can see from the above that prices and conditions change each day. Darn! I would have waited if I knew there would be books in VERY GOOD condition.

The books arrived in Maryland in less than a week and I asked my son to send me a photo. 

Darn! I could see that the binding on the Animals do the Strangest Things was in very bad condition. It was disappointing because that's the one that was supposed to be in Good condition.

Soooo....

I emailed a complaint letter and sent them the photo.

Within an hour, I got this message.

I was really impressed. 

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that the replacement will be in much better condition.

That afternoon, our son sent us a photo of the boys looking at the books and they seemed mesmerized by all they were learning. They didn't care that the binding was coming apart on the Animals book. 

Ah well... their grandma is very happy.

POSTSCRIPT:

The replacement book arrived a week later in Maryland and our son sent this photo.

My son says it's in much newer condition.

I'm very, very happy!

Mom's Orchids

Mom has been staring at her budless orchid plants for a while and thinking they are just too much work to keep up.

"They have to be transplanted," she sighed. "It's too hard for me to do anymore. The fertilizer is too expensive. And I would need more fern fiber...."

"Sure," I said. "You should just give them away." I was rather relieved.

The orchids must have heard that she would be giving up on them.

All of a sudden, one day, they decided to show their colors.

You can see new spikes shooting out of those dormant plants.

"Could you get me more orchid fertilizer and fern (Hapuu, Hawaiian tree fern) fiber?" Mom asked.

Sigh...

"And can you help me repot them?" she asked Art.

Notice she didn't ask my brown thumb. She knows me better.

Fun with Fossils

 Art had recorded a PBS series called Prehistoric Road Trip.

It brought back memories of his interest in rock and fossil collecting. Art does have this propensity for collecting things. As a child he collected stamps and coins.

When we moved to Hawaii from Illinois, I did pack the fossils and rocks he collected in a box. He used to enjoy picking up a small rock whenever we ventured out of Illinois. He would then note on the rock where he picked it up and when. This necessitated finding a rock with a flat surface. 

Art likes to collect things. I want them organized.

Therefore I knew where those rocks and fossils were and could dig it out for him to once more enjoy.

Unfortunately, they were just stuffed in the boxes before our move without much care.

I took charge of his rocks and Art was in charge of noting where each fossil came from. 

Unfortunately, unlike the rocks, the fossils had not been labeled properly because I'm sure he assumed he'd never forget where they came from.

And surprisingly, he did remember.

These shell fossils came from the Thornton Quarry located in the southern edge of metropolitan Chicago.

Good grief!

I was 8 months pregnant at the time laboring under the hot sun looking for fossils with Art, our daughter and some good friends.

We didn't find much, but I do remember it was fun. We went blueberry picking after that. 

I was young and had more energy than I do now.

Another adventure we had was our trip to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, Canada where we stopped at the Joggins Fossil Cliffs (UNESCO World Heritage Site) Visitors Center before going to the cliffs. We had a lovely chat with the Rock Museum proprietor at the Center. (Believe it or not, Art looked through my Travel Journal and found all the notes I jotted down about that day.) 

As we were leaving the shop, the very kind and generous owner gave me this 300 million year old (Carboniferous) fossil root that had been found at the cliffs. Art insisted on paying for it but she would not take his money. I love Canadians. No, seriously... We love Canadians.

And no, we didn't find any other fossils on that very rainy day.

These fish fossils are from the American Fossil at Kemmerer, Wyoming.

This is from their website:

"American Fossil is giving you the opportunity of a lifetime. We have the only quarry in the world where you have the opportunity to dig fossils and keep every fossil you find. We have recently acquired the South Dempsey Quarry, in the Green River Formation..."on

Art's sister and brother-in-law had gone there and paid the $59 a person price for the opportunity to dig their own fossils and then sent these two to us. We were very impressed.

While Art was busy with his fossils, I labeled where he got each rock and put them in individual mini bags.

There are teeny rocks from Turkey, Italy, Canada, U.S. Japan, South Korea, Portugal, Tanzania, Kenya, Greece, etc. and a special rose rock from Kansas that a certain wonderful blogger friend sent me.

And much as I was not into collecting little pebbles on our trips, every time I held one, I remembered the adventure it contained.

I hope that someday soon we'll be able to have more adventures again. 

I think that's enough of rock collecting though.

Well, that's what I think anyway.

Kiss Me Quick?

We were walking past our neighbor's house and saw a bush with pretty purple and white flowers. I thought that was really odd. I wondered if two different types of flowers had been grafted onto the bush, but that seemed unlikely.

I asked our neighbor what kind of plant it was and she said it was called Kiss Me Quick a long time ago, but she wasn't sure if she was remembering correctly.

I looked online and there it was on this Nature and Garden website. It's called Brunfelsia Alata or Kiss Me Quick or Yesterday Today Tomorrow. In three days the flowers turn from violet to white.

I guess the thought is kiss me quick or I'll fade away? I just thought it was a cute name for a plant.

Tons of Spam/Scam Calls!

 Are you suddenly getting a ton of spam/scam calls on your landline? We've been getting two types almost every day and all hours of the day and night. One involves a recording saying you might not be getting your stimulus package or something like that. The other is from a recorded "Don Joseph" saying he can get you a better, lower rate on your credit cards. I can block calls on my cellphone but can’t do much on my landline  

We can't leave it for our answering machine to pick up because either mom or all of us might be sleeping.

I looked online to see how you can block calls.

OK, so we started to block those calls using that CALL BLOCK button. However, you can only block 25 calls on our Panasonic. 

But we discovered an aggravating thing. Don Joseph uses a ton of different numbers and they're local calls. Same recording, but different numbers. What the heck is going on?

The recording asks you to press #1 if you want to talk to someone. Art once tried pressing on 1 and got someone but as soon as he started to say, "Take us off your call list," the person hung up.

Aggravating.

We finally decided to call Hawaiiantel and talked to Kiki who told us that the phone numbers are fictitious and computer generated. There's nothing the phone company can do about it because each number is different.

Kiki asked if we'd registered our number with the Do Not Call list. Art told her we had a while ago. She said it needs to be done every year. I quickly looked it up online and told her it said that once we do it, we don't have to register again. She said it's wrong and that we need to redo it every year.

Here's a link to the Do Not Call Registry.

Fingers crossed, I hope it works!

POSTSCRIPT: 

The calls have decreased a little bit, but now we're getting something that is listed from the federal government with an 808 area code.

Pandemic Family Thanksgiving

We've heard of so many people disregarding the pleas of the CDC to avoid travel for Thanksgiving and not have huge family gatherings. Many felt it was somehow necessary for them to have big family parties. I'm happy to say we and our neighbors did play it safe... and it really was fine.

Yes, we did miss seeing our extended family for Thanksgiving. However, it was still a wonderful Thanksgiving. Friends and relatives sent loving messages and photos which we all enjoyed. 

At the appointed time, we got a ZOOM call from our children in Illinois and Maryland and spoke for over an hour.

It was magical. There was laughter and fun and the spirit of Thanksgiving.

At first mom thought that our kids were all together and calling us from one their homes.

She's still amazed that she can speak to and see them in Illinois and Maryland at the same time.

The rest of the day was spent preparing stuffing, salad, pumpkin pie and roasting the turkey.

Mom thought everything was delicious and it was! She told Art his pumpkin pie was much better than anything you could buy in a bakery.

It really was a lovely day.

I hope you had a happy day full of gratitude and thankfulness too. 

It is Your Kuleana!

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

Seriously?

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

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

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

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

Yes, we know masks can protect ourselves.

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

We wear masks to protect everyone in Hawaii.

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

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

Let's count them together.

Meow in the Storm Drain

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

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

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

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

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

I found this message from the Hawaii Transportation website:

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

Anyway...

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

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

Haven't Met a Canadian We Didn't Like

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

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

Canadians are nice.

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

Here's the Canadian Police clashing with citizens.

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

They are so polite.

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

And this was a note to the vegetable thieves.

So thoughtful!!!

Ah well...

 

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

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

I love this.

But best of all...

Yes, they are.

Ponderisms?

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

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

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

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

Using Emojis on Blogger Posts

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

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

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

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

Got Our Free Turkey

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hmmm....

And guess what?

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

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

Happiness Is Being Carded

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

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

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

And you know what?

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

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

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

Don't Want to Be Cursed By Pele

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oh dang it!

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

Oh dang it!

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

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

Oh dang it!

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

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

Envy Not Good

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

Found this on Wikipedia:

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

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

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

OK.....

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

But maybe it was a fluke.

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

And they were even worse.

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

Sigh...

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

The Envies were good that first time though.

POSTSCRIPT:

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

Famous High School Alumni?

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

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

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

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

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

Got this from Wikipedia:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Refrigerator Woes

Doggone it! The fridge is not cooling enough AGAIN! 

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

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

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

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

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

I hate looking for appliances. 

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

Not looking forward to it at all.