Why 666, 88 or Brandon?

The idea for this post began at our breakfast table when we were discussing a segment we'd seen on the Netflix series, Lucifer. I was wondering how 666 is supposed to represent the Devil. As it turns out, it was actually referring to Nero Caesar (the guy who supposedly fiddled while Rome burned). I'm not going to try to explain the code. It's all clearly explained in this video.

Then Art mentioned how he'd seen an article that stated there's now a White Supremacist code for 88 that they are starting to emblazon on their clothing and even in tattoos. 

"88 is a white supremacist numerical code for "Heil Hitler." H is the eighth letter of the alphabet, so 88 = HH = Heil Hitler. One of the most common white supremacist symbols, 88 is used throughout the entire white supremacist movement, not just neo-Nazis. One can find it as a tattoo or graphic symbol; as part of the name of a group, publication or website; or as part of a screenname or e-mail address. It is even sometimes used as a greeting or sign-off (particularly in messages on social networking websites).
The number is frequently combined with another white supremacist numeric code, 14 (shorthand for the so-called "14 Words" slogan: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children") in the form of 1488, 14/88, 14-88, or 8814."

And now this morning I saw that conservative right wingers are using "Let's go, Brandon" as a nasty epithet against President Biden. It stands for "F*** Joe Biden." Yup. And that crude epithet has even been used on the floor of the House by Republican representatives which shows the vulgarity that has invaded even the halls of Congress.

https://abc7ny.com/what-does-lets-go-brandon-mean-is-joe-biden-insult-origin/11183230/

"It started at an Oct. 2 NASCAR race at the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. Brandon Brown, a 28-year-old driver, had won his first Xfinity Series and was being interviewed by an NBC Sports reporter. The crowd behind him was chanting something at first difficult to make out. The reporter suggested they were chanting "Let's go, Brandon" to cheer the driver. But it became increasingly clear they were saying: "F-- Joe Biden."

This is how it started and now has spread in conservative circles. It was bad enough when Karen was used to represent racist white women. I have friends named Karen, for goodness sakes! Now it's Brandon. And yes, I have friends named Brandon who would really hate their names being used in this derogatory way.

I know some Americans are blaming President Biden for not fixing the polarization in our country. But how can you fix this kind of evil in just a few months that seems to have taken root from seeds that were already there and just waiting to sprout with the right conditions? The question is... how do you stop its growth?

POSTSCRIPT:

My friend, Linda in California just told me that 88 is actually a good luck number in some Asian cultures. I looked it up and yes! In the Chinese culture it's definitely true. This is what it says on Wikipedia:

"Number 88 symbolizes fortune and good luck in Chinese culture, since the word 8 sounds similar to the word fā (發, which implies 發財, or wealth, in Mandarin or Cantonese). The number 8 is considered to be the luckiest number in Chinese culture, and prices in Chinese supermarkets often contain many 8s. The shape of the Chinese character for 8 (八) implies that a person will have a great, wide future as the character starts narrow and gets wider toward the bottom."

Linda also mentioned that we have a t-shirt company named 88-Tees here in Hawaii... and yup. I guess we do. I had no idea. What a shame that White Supremacists have appropriated that number for their own evil identity.

Header Explanation

Hi everybody,

Mage of Postcards gave me the "heads up" that it was safe to change my header photo so I did. However, now I don't know how to add the explanation for the photo. I used to be able to do that easily, but now... sigh...

Several people asked me about the header so I thought I'd let you know what it was about today instead of putting it in the comments where people might not know to look.

Art and I go to the Open Market (Farmers Market in Hawaii) every Tuesday. It starts at 6:25 AM. We love seeing our favorite vendors there. In the summer, the sun is already up but in fall and winter, it's a bit dark.

This week, the skies were ablaze and Art wanted to show our kids so he took several photos and I used one of them for my header.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to bring a flashlight to see the vegetables for the next several months. On the other hand, the weather is cooler which I love. 😄

To all our wonderful Veterans, thank you so much for your service to our country.

Mom's Scary Arm Wound Update

I wrote about mom scraping the skin off her arm a week and a half ago. I washed, applied petroleum jelly and covered it with a non-stick pad and paper tape which is gentler than other types of tape. I contacted her doctor and spoke to an Advice Nurse. 

A couple of days later, it was looking really, really gooey yukky so I decided to tent the non-stick pad over it and not wash it for a day. Then I sent the photo to the Advice Nurse and asked them again if that was OK.

She said I needed to wash it out every day and continue to apply Vaseline so that night I did as she said.

However, I have to tell you that I think a day of air drying helped because it did look better.

Then I found we had some petroleum jelly in a tube and decided to try that. 

I don't know if it's my imagination but the tube version seemed easier to apply than the jelly in the jar and seemed more sanitary.

I also didn't realize that Vaseline is just a brand. We had the generic version of petroleum jelly.

Since we got that $5 off of $20 coupon (for getting our boosters at CVS) I bought a good back up supply of non-stick pads and paper tape.

I'm thinking this won't be the last time we'll need first aid supplies. (Art did also get a scratch from thorns on our lemon tree.)

All I can say is, I'm glad mom seems to heal well.

POSTSCRIPT: 

I just had to add this last photo. It looks quite healed now after 2 weeks. There's some raised keloid, but I'm thinking it will settle down after a while.

Reducing My Posts and Love You Forever

OK... Looks like it's happening to me too. My brain is getting fogged out. I'm stuck at home with no adventures and finding it hard to come up with a topic that I haven't already written about.

Therefore, I'll now be reducing my posts to three times a week. I guess Monday, Wednesday, Friday sounds like a good number.

Thank you to all the wonderful friends who have been trying to give me ideas so I could keep up the Monday-Friday pace. You know who you are. 

For today, I'd like to share this video with you. When I was teaching 1st grade (quite a while ago), a new book came out called Love You Forever by Robert Munch. I have a feeling many of my retired teachers will remember this book.

When I read the book so long ago I teared up to the point that I was crying. WHY? WHY? It's actually quite silly. You'll see when you watch this video. But for some unknown reason it makes you cry.

https://youtu.be/70aHBZEbrxo

Several days later I decided I could read this book to my class without any tears at all. Therefore, I confidently began reading it to my students. I was almost through it when suddenly it happened again. Tears!!! Me... tears!!! My class got worried and kept asking what was wrong. I finally managed to tell them it's because there's so much love in it. It's the love their parents all feel for them... what I feel for them too. That reassured my class.

I bought two more copies of the book and gave them to my kids. They were in middle school at the time.

Now they have kids of their own. I wonder if they can read this without tears. I shall have to ask them.

No Joy in DeJoy

I was having my once a week FaceTime meeting with my 6 year old grandson in Maryland. He is a very bright, beautiful child. Am I biased? Naaah... 

Since he's in 1st grade (and I'm a retired 1st grade teacher), my son said I could do some enrichment work with him so we've been working on phonics, fractions, time, adding and subtraction, etc. I also read a lot of books to him which he loves. He's even asked me to hold the book closer so he could read it to me. 😁

Anyway, I was asking JD if he'd gotten the letter I'd sent him with comics I'd cut out from our Star Advertiser quite a while ago.

I burst out laughing when he sadly replied, "No, I didn't get it. The Republicans are slowing the mail."

Why is Louis DeJoy STILL the postmaster general? Unfortunately, President Biden can't fire him. The only people who can is the Board of Governors who were mostly appointed by Trump. Ever since DeJoy has been in that position, mail has suddenly slowed down and become more expensive. He's also a major Republican Party donor and fundraiser and never had any experience in the US postal service.

The USPS has now raised the rates of postal service in time for the holidays and no longer provides mail service to Australia. Really? Why Australia? Thank goodness I don't have relatives there. If I did, I'd be really ticked.

My daughter in Illinois sent me a photo of a card I sent her on September 9th. It had gotten to her on October 25th. You have got to be kidding!

Dang! So I really do have to start getting a flat rate box started for Christmas! Ack!

POSTSCRIPT: 

I just checked what Blogger Ed of Iowa told me. Thank you, Ed! 
https://blog.stamps.com/2021/09/02/usps-service-suspension-to-australia/amp/

So it’s just first class mail to Australia that is suspended. You can still send by priority mail. Not sure of the difference though. And it’s due to COVID? I do really appreciate getting input from bloggers so we all get current and correct information.

Mixing Our Vaccinations

We took mom to get her Pfizer booster at Kaiser last month and the nurse laughed and said she was a tough cookie because she never flinched and was in such great shape. 

So true. Mom is totally calm, cheerful and grateful for any medical treatment she receives. Nurses are always coming out to tell me how happy they are to meet her and want to know her secret.

After getting the booster, her arm felt a little achy the next day, but after that... nothing. She said it was a breeze and she was just happy and relieved to have that extra protection.

Last week, Art and I decided to get our boosters. We'd heard on the news that mixing your vaccinations might prove beneficial.

We'd gotten Pfizers in January and February so we thought we'd go ahead and try the Moderna. Art had no reaction with either of the Pfizers. I got a little tired for the 2nd shot, but that's it.

The Moderna booster is only a half dose while the Pfizer booster is a full dose. 

Again, Art had no reaction to the booster vaccination. Both our arms ached for a couple of days but he was fine otherwise. Me, on the other hand, not so fine. I got a 99.9 temperature and felt really tired the next day. The following day, however, I was just fine. 

I'm kind of glad I didn't get the Moderna to start off with because I might have gotten a stronger side effect with the full dose. 

All I can say is I'm feeling so much safer now out in public. I wonder how often we'll have to be getting these boosters. 

Did you get any reactions to your vaccinations or the booster?

Hawaiian Words of My Youth

I was just thinking about Hawaii's pidgin English language and the Hawaiian words that became part of our everyday speech when we were little.

If you come to Waikiki, you'll see signs like these. But these aren't the Hawaiian words we'd commonly use growing up on the sugar plantation housing.

We also didn't use the words Kamaaina (local people) and Malihini (non-local people) very much.

We didn't greet each other with aloha or say mahalo for thank you. 

Art and I were having lunch and thought of the Hawaiian words that were laced in our pidgin language that we grew up with.

I'll give you the definition and how it was spoken just for fun.

makule (old person): What that makule guy doing?

mauka and makai (Toward the mountain or the ocean): Where she live? Mauka side or makai?

pio (turn off): No forget to pio the light.

huli (turn over): You like eat some huli huli chicken?

pilikea (trouble): I heard he was in big pilikea for ditching class the other day.

hemo (remove): Who when hemo the cover from the bottle?

pau hana (after work): When pau hana, you like go see a movie?

kau kau (eat): What you like kau kau for lunch today?

pupule (crazy, reckless): That guy pupule for not getting the vaccine.

moemoe (sleep): The baby going moemoe now.

pilau (dirty): Oh my! That some pilau kind stuff.

kapu (forbidden): No go there. Kapu as why.

manini (small): That some manini kind fish she caught.

okole (butt): Get your okole over here or you going get scolding.

ono (delicious): Wow! This manapua really ono!

uku (lice): You no like ukus on your head.

holo holo (go somewhere for fun): You like go holo holo down Waikiki?

Pau (Finished): OK, I'm all pau with this blog post now.  😁

POSTSCRIPT: (To my local Hawaii readers) What Hawaiian words did you grow up with? Art (who grew up on the Big Island) says he used kolohe for bad, but we didn't use it in Waipahu. (I got verification from my brother.)

Life is Ups and Downs

Wouldn’t you know it? Life is full of ups and downs.

After a day of birthday happiness and excitement, the following day, mom said she was rushing and banged her arm on the side of the house.

Good grief! This freaked me out. She didn’t tell me at first... insisting she was able to take care of it herself. Without even washing it, she had applied the juice of the aloe plant on it.

Arrrghhh!

I sent a message (with photos of the injury attached) to her doctor. The Kaiser Permanente Advice nurse called within the hour. She said I should wash my hands (I knew that) and then wash out the wound. (Ack! You mean touch it?) Apply a triple strength antibiotic cream and cover with a non-stick bandage and wrap with gauze strips. She also said I should look for red streaks coming from the wound or spreading redness. (Yikes!)

Hmmm…. I asked the nurse if the triple strength antibiotic was necessary because Tripler doctors always recommend Vaseline petroleum jelly instead. I have non-stick pads (this isn’t her first injury) and asked if I could just use paper tape. 

Yup. She said that was perfectly OK too and asked that I send more photos to the doctor in a couple of days. 

Mom said it hurt when I soaped, washed, rinsed and dried her still fresh and bleeding wound, but said she could handle it. Dang! She is so calm.

At noon the next day, I told her I should wash it out again and replace the non-stick pad. I was afraid to look.

What a surprise! It looked so much better. I swear she heals faster than I do! 

I washed the wound again, applied the Vaseline and covered it once more with the non-stick pad. 

Mom said this time it didn’t hurt at all.

Totally amazing.

POSTSCRIPT:

Two days later, it was bleeding, oozing (and really yukky looking) so I didn't wash or put Vaseline on it and just covered it like a tent with another non-stick pad hoping air drying would work.

I then sent a message to her Kaiser care team.

Darn. They said I need to keep washing, applying Vaseline and covering with the non-stick pad. 

Sigh... OK...

A Surprise 92nd Birthday!

Since the pandemic began, mom hasn't been able to see her grandchildren, nephews or nieces very much. However, mom's 92nd birthday will go on record as one of the BEST she's ever had.

My brother, sister-in-law, cousins, nieces and nephews, granddaughter and I have a chat group for mom's side of the family. We often wish each other a happy birthday on those special days or tip each other off on bargains or whatever around the island. I mentioned that mom was having a 92nd birthday.

I began getting text messages from everybody wishing mom a Happy Birthday with cute emojis and even some in Japanese, all of which mom was totally tickled by (which was my hope in mentioning it).

But then my cousin, Arnold decided to surprise mom in a BIG way.

He must have bought out the entire Marukai supermarket prepared food section. 

Good gosh!!!

We had tasty treats for lunch and dinner. A lot of it was eaten the next day and a lot of it was frozen. We won't have to cook for quite a while.

My brother and sister-in-law stopped by while we were out (to the dentist) and visited with mom and gave her several bottles of wine and a birthday cake.

More birthday greetings started coming in.

Her grandson, Shawn called from Las Vegas and I could hear mom laughing and loving it all.

Her great grandsons sent a birthday video greeting from Maryland. 

Her granddaughter and family in Illinois sent expensive face creams.

Her grandson, Barry and family arrived in the afternoon with more gifts and spent loving, quality time with her.

But one of the most surprising, most amazing thing to happen was when my cousin Ellen called to say that mom's sister (my aunt Dorothy) would say "Happy Birthday." Aunt Dorothy had a stroke a while ago and can now only answer with one word or repeat something you've said. I put the phone on speaker and had mom ready to listen.

Aunt Dorothy suddenly broke out in song. We were absolutely shocked! Auntie started singing the entire Happy Birthday song. I could see mom's mouth drop and her eyes start to tear. 

Ellen then dropped by with a huge balloon and bouquet of gorgeous flowers. I tied the balloon to her treadmill. 😁

At the end of the day and the following morning, mom was still basking in the glow of happiness from the outpouring of love, generosity, and kindness she was showered with.

And so am I.

And I Love You So

Joared of Along the Way posted about old songs recently which brought to mind a song that was my very favorite a long time ago. I've mentioned it before. It's Perry Como's And I Love You So.

https://youtu.be/SKp1HKM_4TY

I was looking this song up on YouTube so I could post it and saw that Elvis had also recorded this song. That was a surprise.

https://youtu.be/z8MOIs0Dd5g

And you know what? 

I rather like Elvis' version...kinda better.

Because I loved that song so much, our daughter and son-in-law played the song for us at their wedding reception. Good grief! That's almost 20 years ago.

https://youtu.be/BFkTu8Y1KLs

But now that we have grandchildren, my favorite song is Jason Mraz's Have It All.

Have a happy weekend, everybody! I want you to have it all!

Mom's Orchids

Mom loves her orchid plants. One of them that my brother transplanted for her earlier bloomed recently. With the sun streaming down on the flowers and looking so pretty I took some photos of it with my iPhone XR.

A week later, I showed those photos to mom and she asked, "Are those your friends' orchids? Where did you see them?"

And then it occurred to her and she laughed saying, "Oh, they're mine. They look even nicer on your phone."

When I told Art about it, he asked, "Would you like to see my photos?" Yes, it's true he got the upgraded iPhone 12 last year with the better camera. 🙄

I have reduced the file size of both photos before posting them here so perhaps it's affected the clarity, but yes... the photos with his upgraded phone is sharper.

Well... some day I will upgrade my phone and show him my photos too. Then again he'll probably say, it's not the phone, it's the photographer. 🙄🙄🙄

Isn't It a Little Early?

Didn't they use to wait until after Thanksgiving to put up Christmas decorations?

We were at Sam's Club a week or two ago and saw this. I have to smile when I see snowman displays around Hawaii since the only place you see snow in Hawaii is on the Big Island's Mauna Kea.

But sheesh..... 

Christmas?

It wasn't even really close to Halloween yet, not to mention Thanksgiving (unless you're Canadian, that is).

They are warning us that because of the slowdown in mail delivery and/or supply of gift items, people in Hawaii need to start shopping and mailing now.

But gosh... I can't even think about the holidays yet. We're still not comfortable holding a big get together at our house for Thanksgiving and don't love the idea of going shopping. It's probably going to be gift cards and Amazon.

If anything... I'm thinking of next year's holidays. Or is that too soon?

Bear With Me Please

I wrote a post earlier about fiberglass cows, eagles, furniture, pigs and pandas around various cities around the world.

As you know, I'm working on going through all my photo files and creating a set of 5 photobooks spanning 50 + years for the kids and us. I say us because Art says our memory is failing and it helps to look at the pictures to know what happened and when. He's being kind. He knows it's me who's getting forgetful. 

Anyway, I was looking at the 2004 photo files and found this summer trip we took with (daughter) Tif and Ed to visit (son) Keola and Sarah in Washington, D.C. Fiberglass pandas were all over the capital. I realize now that knowing who sponsored the pandas made it even more interesting. 

This panda was at the airport.

Pandachine 
by Sandie Bacon

Sponsor: National Air and Space Museum

Bears in Space 
by Millenium Mind

Sponsor: National Air and Space Museum

Bearly Discernable 

by Wendy Garner

Sponsor:  National Museum of Natural History.

Ten Thousand Happiness 

by Jiashan Mu

Sponsor:  The Embassy of the People's Republic of China

Panda of the Opera 

by Mary Howe Kiraly

Sponsor:  Cafe Milano

Baggy Bear by Robert Alston 

Sponsor: The Museum of Bags. 

I didn't even know there was a museum for bags.

Pandragon I 

by Tita Rutledge

Sponsor: Design Cuisine

Chocolate Dipped Strawbeary 

by Debbie Smith Mezzetta 

Sponsor:  Caribou Coffee

Honey Pot Panda 

by Millennium Mind 

Sponsor: Golden Triangle BID, Corp.

Hmmm... Gold dealers?

 

Pandillusion 

by Emily Tellez 

Sponsor: August, Lang & Husak.

Accessories are 

What Separates Us 

From the Animals 

by Chad Alan and his friends

 Sponsor:  Tiny Jewel Box.

Climbing Pandas 

by Zoara Janosova

Will You Miss Us? 

by Jeannette Murphy

I'm pretty sure this was at the Smithsonian Zoo.

Perennial Panda

by John Bledsoe

Sponsor: D.C. Mrriott & Renaissance Hotels

Thank you for bearing with me. I hope you enjoyed the creativity and sense of humor of these D.C. artists.

Chairs to Cherish

I'm working on our 5 photobook set spanning 50+ years of our lives. I'm on 2003 and came across photos of when our son returned from the Peace Corps and settled in Washington, D.C. He and Sarah invited us over for Thanksgiving but didn't have enough furniture in their basement (garden) apartment. 

Therefore, crazy people that Art and I seem, we packed our two plastic lawn chairs in our van and drove cross country from Illinois. Keola and Sarah prepared our Thanksgiving meal with all its fixings and we had a great time.

(I just noticed that they were using plastic lawn chairs in their apartment too.) 😄 

The first time I find those white plastic chairs in my photo file is in 2001.

We were on some other road trip and saw those chairs on sale some place. I think maaaybe it was something like $6 a piece. Whatever it was, it was too good to pass up. They were on our deck at first, but we began using them in the family room after we gave our loveseat to our daughter who was moving into her own condo.

We brought the chairs with us when we moved to Hawaii in 2008. And now, here we are with our 18 year old chairs and it sits outside on our patio. It's a convenient place for us to sit where we can put on/take off our shoes.

When my brother came to visit with mom during the pandemic we had them sit outside on those comfortable lawn chairs to chat.

Since plastic seems to deteriorate faster in Hawaii I thought our trusty chairs might also disintegrate, but it's still doing fine. 

Do you have any furniture that you just can't let go?

Noodles, Noodles Everywhere

Mom has never met a noodle she didn't like. Yes, she likes spaghetti just fine. 

However, I think her favorite is wun tun min.

Saimin is the local comfort food. A lot of people like to go to Shiro's, Zippy's, Sekiya's or a number of other places to have this local Hawaiian staple.

There's also fried saimin which is the same noodles but fried with kamaboko (fish cake) and other veggies.

Mom likes LOVES wun tun min which is saimin with little pork dumplings in broth. This might be her favorite noodle. Maybe.

Udon are just thicker noodles in chicken or beef broth. My daughter and family love it and will go to Marukame Udon multiple times when they're in Waikiki.

I've always wondered about the difference between saimin and ramen and found this on EATER website:

"Saimin noodles are similar to ramen, but the dough has more eggs and a higher concentration of ash. These ingredients give the noodles an intense flavor and a chewier texture."

Ash? Seriously?

When we went to Japan she's loved ramen and soba. Ramen in curry sauce had everything mom likes. 

Soba noodles are made with buckwheat. And yes, mom liked that too.

When Art and I were in Thailand, we got to try Pad Thai where we figured it originated. Pad Thai literally means 'Thai-style stir fried noodles."

Uuummm... It tasted just like it does in Chicago or Hawaii and we did love it just as much.

We were also excited about trying pho in Vietnam since it is supposed to be their national dish.

Yes. It was wonderful, really wonderful.

And yes, we've enjoyed pho right here in Hawaii too.

When we were in Chicago, our Korean-American son-in-law had us try jajangmyeon. Art really liked it. However, with all the dark sauce the noodles looked black. I saw in the newspaper that jajangmyeon is eaten on holidays, and April 14th (dedicated to single people) which is called Black Day. Is there some kind of subtle Korean message here?

We like pancit too which is the Filipino noodle dish. The Star Advertiser says there are two popular versions. Pancit canton and pancit bihon. Pancit canton is flour stick noodles while pancit bihon is made with thin rice vermicelli. I think I've only had the pancit bihon.

Despite the fact that mom loves wun tun min she is very partial to chow mein, especially Panda Express' chow mein.

Hmmm... You know what? We haven't taken her to Zippy's for wun tun min in several months because of the pandemic, but since she's gotten her Pfizer booster, I think it might be time to visit Nora, our favorite waitress there.

Star Fruit (Not Star Apple)

During one of our morning walks we passed by a house with tons of fruit dangling from the branches.

"Wow! That's a lot of star apples!" exclaimed Art.

There was even fruit strewn around the sidewalk below. 

"It's star fruit," I corrected him. It's also called Carambola. I didn't know it might help prevent cancer according to this WebMD article. 

We have these little discussions every so often. 🙄 I grew up on Oahu. He grew up on the Big Island (or what they call Hawaii Island now) and we have a difference of opinion on a few things. They call the correctly identified shave ice as ice shave. 

A few days later, my brother stopped by with some star FRUIT that someone had shared with them. 

I'm not a fan. The only time I was willing to eat it was as a child feeling rather starved as I walked those 5 miles (I'm told it was more like 2 miles) home from school... uphill... in blinding snow... just kidding. There was one neighbor whose star fruit tree had tons of fruit hanging over the fence (for kids, we figured).

And here is why it's called a star fruit.

I just looked up star fruit and do you know there are actually some other people who call it star apple? 

Art is the one who likes star fruit at our house, but we shared one with a friend who said she loves them with li hing mui powder. Wow! I've never heard of doing that, but now I'm curious what that would taste like.

Mom was passing by the kitchen and I told her Dennis had brought over some star fruit.

"Ahhh..." she said, "Five Fingers!"

Handy Dandy Stool

OK... Now you'll know I'm digging deep (into my closet) for a blog post. If this pandemic lasts a whole lot longer, you'll know what's in every nook and cranny of our house.

A friend of mine has some mobility issues and it brought to mind something we used on trips for mom when she had a problem with her knees. We did bring a wheelchair for a couple of trips to Japan for her but it's not the most convenient of items to travel with.

In 2013, we were planning a trip to see various canyons on the mainland. We saw Zion, Bryce, Arches, Antelope, Grand, etc. 

It crossed our minds that mom might tire so when we saw this portable, lightweight stool for about $10 at Don Quijote market, we decided to try it out.

Well... it was a godsend at one place we didn't expect. We were just done touring through the amazing Antelope Canyon when we learned that our touring truck had broken down and they needed to get another one. It took at least 45 for another one to arrive. 

The stool was comfortable for mom and she was very happy. I wished I had another one for the other elder member in the group.

OK... I'm going to put the stool away in the closet and look for something else to blog about. 😁

Another ER Visit!

I was feeling pretty good about not breaking any bones or having any sort of emergency that would require an ER visit. In fact, we've been avoiding going to the hospital where COVID viruses could be lurking and waiting to hit us while our two Pfizers are perhaps losing their efficacy.

We got our annual high dose flu shots on October 4th. Soon afterwards, my ears felt plugged like I was in a cavern. I'm not saying they're connected, but I'd never had my ears plugged for a long period of time like this. 

On Sunday afternoon, while working on the computer around 3:00, I suddenly got hit by a wave of vertigo. I had to lie down. Every time I thought I was OK and moved my head, I'd get that wave of vertigo and then nausea. 

OK... I figured I'd better make an appointment with Tripler Hospital soon. Art came up and found me on the bed and insisted instead on going to the ER....now! 

While driving to the ER, I felt like things were settling down. Still I was wondering if I had a brain tumor like my paternal grandfather. Maybe I should tell Art how to finish the family photobook I was working on. Maybe I should tell him how to inform bloggers why I wasn't posting... (yeah... I get crazy sometimes.)

We checked in at Tripler around 4:40. The nurses were all so super cheerful and friendly, I was amazed. The ER was filled and I told Art to wait in the car after they checked me in (because of COVID rules, I'm sure).

The doctor came in at 6:05 and was absolutely wonderful! My blood pressure had shot up to 153/137 earlier. He said not to worry. It's just from being in the ER and what I was experiencing.

I told him I was actually starting to feel fine. "Really. Maybe I should just go home." 

"Not to worry," he said. "That happens sometimes with my family too when they go to the hospital." 

He had me lie down and turn my head to the left for several seconds and WHAM the vertigo returned! "Yup," he said. "I could see it in your eyes." (Hmmm...I wonder what that looked like.)

He looked in my ears with that ear checking flashlight thingy and said, "Your ears are clear. No ear infection." (I knew my ears would be clear because I have wet ear wax. And I didn't have any pain so didn't think I had an infection.)

He explained how I probably had crystals (who knew???) in my inner (especially left side) ear and prescribed the Modified Epley maneuver to get them to move off or whatever. He also gave me an anti-nausea medication.

https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mayo-clinic-q-and-a-bppv-dizziness-caused-by-inner-ear-crystals/

So here I am... back at my computer and hoping that things settle down. 

You know what? I have to hand it to the doctors and nurses at Tripler. Despite the screaming children, ambulances coming in, and patients in all the curtained stations, they were as kind, super patient, friendly and cheerful as can be. They really are heroes!

Socks for My Chairs

We stopped by Daiso (100 yen store) recently just for the fun of it. Daiso is a very popular $1.50 store here in Hawaii. We used to always go to Daiso whenever we traveled to Japan just to buy some fun approximately $1 items.

I picked up some cute stickers to use on letters to my grandsons, freezer bags, gift envelopes for mom, etc. Then something quite different caught my eye. 

I've been using these plastic chair bottoms to prevent scratches on our flooring.

They're OK, but a couple of them cracked. I wasn't paying attention and the nail that was now exposed could have gouged the flooring. 

I pulled out the nail and covered the bottoms of the two chair legs with felt and tied them with a strong cord. They were starting to slip off.

So look what I just saw at Daiso. They're chair leg covers. They look like socks to me. (I wonder how long they'll last before wearing out.) Art thought these were cuter than the plain ones I was choosing. He thought our grandsons (whenever they're able to visit us again) would think the puppies are cuter.

But then, I just looked at the fine print. They're not puppies! They're sloths! 

Ah well... 

Next time, maybe they'll have dinosaurs.