When Roses Die...

I'm always happy to receive flowers, but it requires a lot of care in Hawaii to keep it fresh. You have to change the water almost daily. And then... too soon, they die. So my initial happiness at receiving them is with the sad knowledge that they won't last long.

Last year (or was it the year before?), one of my cousins gave me some blue roses. I must say, I've never received blue roses before. I just knew they had to be preserved so I dried them in our shower stall.

However, just having dried blue roses didn't make the best of presentations.

Well, several weeks ago, another cousin gave me these red roses. OK... as I said, I don't like to see flowers die. It makes me sad. So we enjoyed the red roses for a few days and then I did the same shower drying treatment. I dried the baby's breath too. They dried very well.

I think it's a lot nicer now. I'm pleased and happy knowing the spirit of the flowers live on. 

If nothing else, it's patriotic, right?

Hawaii Won the Little League World Championship!

OK... Anybody who really knows me knows I'm not a sports fan. I don't know why, but both my brother and I somehow just didn't get involved in sports growing up in a poor plantation town.

Art on the other hand LOVES sports and he LOVES baseball and football. He still follows the Cubs and Bears even though we don't live in Chicago anymore. He passed on that love of sports to his children.

Tiffany was into skating and swimming. Keola was into every kind of sports, but he did love baseball like his dad. 

In fact, Keola was in Little League for several summers when we lived in Illinois and was even part of one championship team. He was also invited to be part of a traveling Majors team when he was a little older (whatever that meant), but couldn't go because we had a trip planned for Hawaii. And Art? Well, he actually helped to coach a team one summer. 

So OK, maybe I'm not into sports but I couldn't help but get excited about Hawaii's Little League Team when they played at Williamsport for the U.S. championship.  I was happy and nervous for them and I could just imagine how their families felt. 

And then I was certainly euphoric when they became the best Little League team in the nation. (This was Sunday's front page.) They'd won the U.S. championship on Saturday.

I was happy enough for them, but then Art said they would be playing for the World Championship on Sunday.

World? Seriously?

But wow! They won! The score was Curacao 3, Hawaii 13!

Well, I watched that game yesterday and absolutely marveled at the wonderful players on the team. 

They mentioned that Hawaii has won the World Championships before. Really? I looked online and found all the years that Hawaii had also won the Little League World Series:

2005 Ewa Beach, Hawaii

2008 Waipahu, Hawaii

2018 Honolulu, Hawaii

I think I'm most proud of the fact that Hawaii's Little League teams are known for their aloha. The coaches remind the boys to always show kindness to their opponents and to play with good sportsmanship and dignity. They are representing Hawaii.

I saw them hugging the players from Curacao and couldn't help but smile and be proud of these young boys.

They have made Hawaii proud!

MONDAY MORNING POSTSCRIPT:

We just saw this front page headline in the Star Advertiser this morning. 

Art and I especially loved what the Tennessee team manager, Randy Huth said during a postgame video. The Hawaii team had to win over the Tennessee team to win the U.S. Championship. 

Mr. Huth said, "I hate that they're so good, but I also hate that they're all so nice. Their coach Gerald (Oda) is so great. Their kids are so well-mannered and very respectful. They're great."

We are now even more proud of them!

WORDLE War!

My son, daughter and I (sometimes granddaughter too) are in a WORDLE battle and it's addictive. It's addictive actually, because of the GIFs that we send each other. GIFs are animated images with no sound that convey emotions.

Recently, (by LUCK, I'm sure) my daughter Tiffany got the word in 2 tries so I sent her this GIF. I'm sorry I can't post the animated picture.

Here, I got it in 4 and wanted to show that I was quite pleased. 

My son used to time himself to show us how long it took him to get the answer (usually just a few minutes). 

There's NO WAY I would admit how long it takes me.

Then Tiffany got it in 3 tries when Keola and I struggled with the WORD.  🙄 And this was her 2nd day of getting it on the 3rd try.

Brother and sister would often taunt each other (lovingly?).

Keola (Jon) had gotten the word with less tries than his sister.

However, when he didn't do quite as well, he sent this.

And then there was the time I juuust managed to get the word before I crashed. 

You only get 6 tries.

And yes... When I get it in 3, I let them know I'm very, very happy.... very, very, very happy!

The kids are really busy, but for just the few minutes it takes them each morning, we all connect and send our love and laughter.

When There's No TV...

Last week Wednesday, something weird happened with HECO (Hawaiian Electric Company) in the late afternoon. I was working on my computer and it just died. I rebooted the system and once again it died. It took me several tries before I realized that something was goofy with the electricity and I probably should turn off my computer before something really bad happened even though we have a surge protector on it.

Everything stabilized after a couple of hours of the lights flickering on and off, etc. But then, the TV wouldn't turn on. There was a big red X on the screen. We watch the evening news while we have our dinner, but with no TV, ended up just talking to each other. 

We usually watch TV after dinner, but with no TV we read a book and went to sleep early. I actually got a good nights sleep. 

The following day, Art called Hawaiian Telcom and they scheduled a technician to come out on Friday.  Sooo... we had another evening of no TV news and more talking and reading and going to bed early. 

On Friday, Dean of Hawaiian Telcom arrived.

He was the absolute friendliest, cutest guy.

He did all kinds of tests (while explaining everything) on the machines and taught us how to press the middle and bottom button simultaneously while pulling out the power cord. And putting in the power cord again while holding those two buttons.

I think that's what he said. Art would know.

Anyway, he said our modem had just gotten old and died.

But yes, he said that HECO's electrical problem probably was the final straw that caused our old modem to give up its last breath.

Dean then checked all our TVs to make sure they were now working and he was cheerfully on his way before telling us where their office was.

I told him Spectrum was often in the neighborhood trying to entice customers away. I told Dean, he's just made us happy to stay with Hawaiian Telcom. 😄

Not a Quarter, Baht What is It?

OH MY GOSH!  Remember that photo I posted last Friday about the coins I found in my Zumba bag wallet after 2 years of not going to Zumba when the pandemic hit? 

I said I had difficulty telling the quarter and nickel apart and posted this photo.

Do you see that quarter in the middle? 

Well, Art was looking at it closely and discovered it's not an American coin! 🤯

Sheesh!

I confess I did look at that fellow and figured it was some new famous American person the US mint had printed while I wasn't paying attention.

Here's a close-up of the coins that Art took for me to show the differences. I really should use my glasses.

Here's the heads and tails of the quarters coins.

Kind of looks like Thai money, doesn't it? I wonder what it is and what it's actually worth. And who the heck gave it to me?

POSTSCRIPT:

Heeeey! Art just found the coin online. It is Thai. 

AND....

It's worth 14 cents. That's a big coin for being worth just 14 cents!

14 cents?!?

I've been cheated!

What Do Coins Look Like?

I haven't been to Zumba now for two years and really miss the wonderful friends there and the exercise. Our Zumba leader left and the course is not offered anymore where I live. The other night, I was looking through my Zumba bag that held my sweatbands, towels, sun glasses, wallet, etc. I kept money with me for those times when I would go out for lunch somewhere with my Zumba buddies. In my coin purse were all these coins.

 OK. Wow! 

When was the last time I looked at American coins? The penny and dimes were obvious but I had to get my glasses to tell the quarter and nickel apart. And the quarters all look different.

We pay for almost everything with credit cards these days.

Do you still keep many coins with you?

Good Fences Make Happy Neighbors

After considering several options for replacing our old redwood fence, we finally came to a decision. 

Our son, Keola had come with us to Hawaii and replaced much of the fencing about 22 years ago. It was a huge job, but having Keola's help made it easier. The fencing on the side of the house was even older and belonged to our neighbor. The slats were now falling off (I tied them with some rope.) and carpenter bees had made homes in the posts. The neighbors were more than happy when we told them we would like to replace it. 

After getting several quotes, we made our decision. His price was about in the middle of the others, but Chris just sounded so low key, considerate and helpful. The pandemic went crazy right after we got his estimate. He then wasn't able to get the vinyl fencing color that we wanted (unless he got it from China which we preferred avoiding).

Two years went by and we almost gave up hope. But then, suddenly... last week Chris called. He said they were putting up fencing in a new housing development, but was waiting for concrete to dry so he could get our fencing installed now. (Happily, our vinyl fencing had arrived finally.) "When can we schedule it?" I asked.

"Tomorrow?" he answered.

"Tomorrow?!?" I asked. "How long will it take?"

"About a week," he said. 

"We know prices have gone up," I said. "Can you tell me how much it will cost now?"

"We'll keep it as is," said Chris.

"Really?"

We had to rearrange our schedule but we grabbed it. I wasn't sure if he'd remembered telling us that he could fix the ugly breakage at the end of our rock wall. 

Nobody else could/would do it. He remembered and said they'd do it at no extra cost. 

Then there was this dirt trench between our property and the neighbors'  hollow tile wall (on the other side) that keeps growing weeds and small trees.

It's a good thing Art is thin because he used to squeeze in between to pull out the overgrown weeds and bushes.

When the workers took down our old fence, Art cleaned it out and it took us a whole afternoon to pull out the little trees and their tenacious roots.

We decided to get cement from Home Depot and fill it. However, when Art calculated how much we would need, we realized what a daunting project that would be. Those cement bags are 30 pounds. Or was it 80? Probably 100. We'd need 3 bags of the stuff.

When we mentioned it to Chris, he said they could just fill it with cement at the same time they're installing the fence. 

"Could you add that to our bill? I asked. 

"That's OK," he said. 

Seriously? 😄 But wow! They did an amazing job of filling that trench. 

The BEFORE pictures are on the left. 

We are very happy. I told Chris I could put his company on my blog so people would know what a great job he and his workers do, but he chuckled and said he'd rather I not do that because he has so much business right now that he just can't accept anymore. 

Wow! I'm so glad we decided to hire him two years ago. It was a long wait but worth it.

And yes, the neighbors are all happy.

Mom Did Swear...

When my brother and I were little I remember hearing mom say, "Ekuso!" when she'd made a mistake or hurt herself. I asked her then what it meant and she gave some vague answer that translated to shucks.

(This is a photo of her that they printed in the paper where she worked to advertise Ajinomoto.)

Well... this was a long time ago and I actually haven't heard her use that word anymore.

With the rise of Internet, I was curious and looked up that mysterious word several years ago.

Imagine my surprise to discover that kuso means shit. It's a swear word! My dignified mother was saying, "Shit!" 

What the heck!

Sooooo.... on the way to her Monday Adult Day Care, I asked her what Ekuso meant just to see if she'd fess up to having used it. 🙄

She said she didn't know. 

Uh hunh.... 😏

"You used to say it when we were little," I persisted.

"No, I didn't." she answered.

"Well, I looked it up on the Internet," I told her. "I know it means shit."

Silence...

"It's not Ekuso. It's Eii kuso." she finally answered.

Riiiighhhtt...

I looked it up again. Turns out kuso means shit. So I don't exactly know what the deal is between the E or the Ei.

Whatever the case, I even found the definition on Wikipedia. Tsk. Such a bad word!

I told mom I was going to write a blog post about this and she burst out laughing.

Hawaii Votes By Mail

 Hawaii votes by mail. This is from the State of Hawaii Office of Elections.

Each registered voter will automatically receive their ballot in the mail by:

Primary Election: July 26, 2022
General Election: October 21, 2022

Voters who are away from their Hawaii residence during the election may submit an Absentee Application to have their ballot mailed to an alternate mailing address for the primary election, general election, or both.

I love this. No waiting in lines in the hot sun. Everyone in Hawaii who is a registered voter gets their ballot in the mail. 

Art, especially, is very serious about voting. We've watched the debates and read articles in the newspaper. We've both changed our minds several times. We've talked to friends to get their opinion. Some of the TV campaign ads we see are rather obnoxious and we suspect purchased by PACs.

There's one cute ad by Vicky Cayetano. She is running for governor. Her husband, Ben was once governor and is not popular with a segment of our population. She used to be Republican before 1997 but switched to the Democratic Party after her marriage to Ben in 1997.  Her ad shows her with a quiet Ben saying how they don't agree on everything. She might like ice cream, he likes poi. She likes poodles, he likes bulldogs. (I can't remember the ad exactly but it's along these lines.) It's just cute how she's spent two ads showing how differently they think and that she will do what she thinks is best. 

Whatever the case, we have made our decisions.

It sure wasn't easy. 

But we've done it and our ballots are in the mail. 

I really think this is the way to go and I hope other states will do this too. What is it like in your state?

Planning for the British Isles Trip

We have been traveling with two other couples which makes each trip so much more fun. We'll be taking another trip next year in early spring. This time, they are planning to fly a few days earlier to visit the Normandy region in France before joining our Viking British Isles Explorer cruise.

Art and I spent a week on our own in Paris many (many, many) years ago and absolutely loved it.

However, remembering our first trip overseas with the kids to England and Wales in 1990, we decided to go there to revisit old memories. We'd spent 6 days in the British Isles when the kids were still in grade and high school. We spent time in Wales, Oxford, and Bath but just 2 1/2 days in London. 

We still managed to squeeze in a lot of stops in London and saw Starlight Express and Cats during the evenings. Granted, the kids were so tired they fell asleep watching Cats.

Much of what we did centered on the kids, so we thought it would be interesting to see places with just ourselves in mind. We will be flying in to Heathrow three days early and Art has booked a tour to Stonehenge, Lacock and Bath the day after we arrive. I'm a little nervous since our flight this year was rather traumatic and we came in a day late. Hopefully, that won't happen again. 

Art and I will then have two and a half more days to enjoy before our ship sails. So far, our list of possible places consists of Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Tower of London, British Museum, Imperial War Museum, London Eye (maybe). Art has booked a room for us at the Montana Hotel in the Kensington area. (Is Kensington Gardens a place we need to see?) We considered taking the train from Heathrow Airport to the hotel, but don't want to tackle stairs with luggage even though there are no transfers along the way.

One place we're planning to experience is the Tower Bridge that Art and I did not visit in 1990. We enjoyed the Tower of London 32 years ago, but didn't think to visit the Tower Bridge. From there, we might take the ferry to Greenwich (Prime Meridian) and perhaps visit the Maritime Museum. (Uuuummmm.... you know this is Art's idea.) 

If any of you have been to or live in London and have some pointers, we would LOVE to hear it. Since our last trip to London was decades ago, we know things have changed and our memories are foggy. Now there's the Oyster Card or the London Travelcard, the London Pass. Yikes! Which to get? What else is there for us to know? Sheesh! I'm stressing out and it's still more than half a year away.

Thank you in advance.

Birthdays Keep Happening, But That's Good When You Consider the Alternative...

I just had another birthday. How did a whole year pass so quickly? Wasn't I just 70? Nope. That was in 2019 when they were just beginning to worry about the COVID pandemic. The summer of 2019 was when our children and their families came to Hawaii to help me celebrate that 7 decade milestone. How could time have flown by so quickly?

However, I have felt time on my body. Little things are harder to do. Word retrieval from my foggy brain is getting harder and harder. Walking tires me faster. (Art says it's my imagination.) And I'm getting rather clumsy at times. There's skin sagging here and there. It's quite perplexing even though it's expected.

Despite all that, family and friends made my day special.

There were cards from wonderful teacher friends in Illinois who haven't forgotten me. We do text each other all the time. 

Birthday text messages binged on my phone throughout the day.

There was a long FaceTime call from our children and grandchildren in Illinois and Maryland. And yes...very sweet gifts.

And then Art and I did our birthday tradition of going to Starbucks for my free birthday drink. I also cashed in my "stars" for a free matcha frappuccino for Art. I got the mocha frappuccino. We then sat under some blossoming shower trees for a quiet and happy moment together.

I thought that was it for my birthday celebration, but then our doorbell rang.

It was my cousin stopping by with this birthday bouquet. I was absolutely floored. 

She and her family just wanted to thank us for trying to keep my bedridden aunt's spirit up during this trying time.

Art and I don't give each other actual gifts for our birthdays. We always feel like we have the material things we need. 

But we'll just do little things for each other.

I'd been wanting to put up hooks in our closet for a while, but there really was no need for one. 

Our Dyson vacuum cleaner had died and we were left with this very sturdy attachment carrier. I thought it would be quite handy in the closet... if I could hang it up (instead of throwing it away).

Art does not like to put holes in the walls. He really doesn't.  However, it was my birthday, so there it is!

But now... what to put in it?

We didn't get a cake, but we did go to a favorite Korean restaurant for a take-out dinner. The food is awesome there but the proprietor is sometimes affectionately called The Angry Korean Lady because she can be a bit brusque at times.

We went in to pick up our order and the owner/lady was super, super friendly, full of smiles and helpful. The serving size was so big that we had enough for 2 dinners. 

So yup. All in all...

It was a very happy day, a very, very happy day.

Walking Iris is Wandering Too Far

That last time we really worked in our garden was 2019. Mom likes to think of the yard and garden as her domain. However, for the two weeks that we had mom stay indoors while her hand healed, Art and I took over the watering. That's when I noticed that the Walking Iris was once again overgrown.

The Walking Iris had begun wandering where it shouldn't. It was now surrounding and overpowering the rock garden. (The BEFORE photos of the Iris is on the left and the AFTER photos of the pruned Iris is on the right.)

I started digging them out myself before Art took pity on me and brought out the shovel. It was still hard work, but we got it done in about an hour and a half. 

The Walking Iris is very hardy. It's pretty hard to kill even with me caring for it for two weeks.  And if it was me caring for it, I'll bet it would stay where it should. 

However, now that mom is taking over, I imagine we'll be doing this again in another 3 years.

Notes from KC

When our daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter visited in the past, my granddaughter KC would leave little Post-It-Note messages around the house for us to find.

We found messages inside of drawers, in medicine cabinets, on our nightstands, closet shelves, etc. There were a very few we didn't find for months.

They were all such loving messages that I've kept them all. These were some of the ones I saved throughout the years.

It's been three years since I've seen her so we figured she would have forgotten how she used to do this.

Nope.

After they left to return home to Illinois, I found this note to let us know there are 18 of them around our house.

The first three were close by in my office. BUT for the life of us, we can't seem to find the rest of them.

KC is 15 now and a lot sneakier smarter than the rest of us. We have both intermittently looked for the rest of the notes. There are 15 more of them.... somewhere. 😆

Where could they be? They're not in the sort of places she put them before. How many hiding places could there possibly be? 

Hmmmm.... 🤔

POSTSCRIPT 1:

Found another one. 14 more to go!

POSTSCRIPT 2:

And then...

When I was not looking for her notes and almost given up...

I found this on the bookshelf. I could swear I'd already looked on every shelf.

But of course, I had not found them in order.

13 more to go.

Bird Graveyard?

For some reason, in the past year or so, pigeons and doves have suddenly decided to home in on our roof solar panels. Art, mom and I have gotten insect bites that we are pretty sure come from bird mites. We're getting a company to come and put up critter guards around the panels, but I wonder if even that will stop them.

It was a shock when our granddaughter, KC who was visiting from the mainland spotted a dove in one of our empty flower pots. How did it get there? Why would it choose to die in a flower pot? 

And then, the other day we were shocked again to find another dead dove had fallen off of the roof. 

A few days later, Art was cleaning out the gutters and he found another dove.

Why is it that the doves are dying and not pigeons? 

Is our roof now the bird graveyard?

Another ER Visit for Mom

On one of the last few days of our daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter's visit with us we were sitting down to a leisurely breakfast. Mom has her breakfast at 4:00 AM, gets on her treadmill for a morning exercise and heads out the door to pick up fallen leaves around the yard and tend to her small garden and lemon trees. 

On that Sunday morning we heard what sounded like a crash. We figured it was mom just dropping her stand up trash pan again.

However, Tiffany went to the window to look out and saw that her grandmother had fallen on the concrete walkway and unable to get up.

We ran outside and saw that her hand had ripped open. 

Luckily, we have a lightweight wheelchair we keep for just this sort of emergencies. We carefully helped her sit on it and took her to Kaiser's ER.

We were very lucky that the ER was not too busy. 

Mom got her wrist X-rayed and her head CAT scanned. 

The doctor said nothing was broken internally. That was a huge relief.

The nurse then used Sodium Chloride to clean her wound. (Isn't that just salt water?) Hmmm.... I asked the nurse if they weren't worried about flesh eating bacteria. She said, "No." Really? I thought they'd use something like hydrogen peroxide. I know Tripler Army Hospital won't use alcohol because it can cause tissue damage and inhibit healing. 

Don't they often show people using alcohol to treat gun shot or knife wounds in action movies? It would hurt like the dickens, I'm sure. But I know they used to disinfect wounds with hydrogen peroxide when our kids were growing up. No longer.

We have added sodium chloride to our first aid kit since it looks like we'll need it more often now.

The very competent nurse used these steri-strips to close the wound and applied some kind of sealant on top of it. She then bandaged mom's hand and we were good to go. 

Friends and my cousin stopped by with mangoes, desserts and even a wonderful soba salad to cheer mom up. 

Bruising where her face hit the concrete prevented her from smiling fully, but she was feeling much better two days later and was back on her morning treadmill. 

She had one day when I had to give her some Tylenol for muscle pain, but after that she was up and around with no pain at all.

In fact, she started mopping the kitchen before I took the mop away and told her to rest for a few more days. 

My brother said, "Wouldn't it have been great if we had inherited her genes?"

POSTSCRIPT: 

After 2.5 weeks where I changed her bandage every other day and bathed her so she wouldn't use her hand, we had her first in-person appointment with her new doctor. (I'd chosen someone who could speak Japanese.) 

The doctor removed her bandage and checked the wound. She was surprised! I'd emailed her a photo after the accident so she knew how bad it was.

It had healed! I checked it a couple of days before (while changing the bandage) and didn't like the color, but the doctor said it was great and mom could get it wet now and in a couple of days could resume her yard cleaning, etc. activities.

Art and I have compared the initial wound to how it looked 2.5 weeks later and don't quite believe what we see.

How is this possible? 

When Art and I injure ourselves it takes much longer to heal.

Art chuckled, "Maybe it's all the natto (fermented soybeans) she eats?"

The doctor had laughed during our visit and told her that if she feels like having sweets, feel free and enjoy. It's not like she doesn't. I've got all kinds of snacks and desserts that friends and family have given her.

So.... are her genes giving her the ability to heal quickly and is that the reason for her longevity?

Or... is it the natto? 😄

Peanut Creature

This is just a silly post I wanted to share with you.

A few weeks ago I was boiling peanuts for my daughter who was visiting from Illinois with her family and a stem fell out of the bag of raw peanuts.

As soon as I picked it up, I thought it looked like an alien creature. Do you see it too?

Why Does This Chicken Not Look Like a Chicken?

A few weeks after returning from our Scandinavian cruise, our daughter and family came to visit. We had not seen them in person in almost three years. Having them here was absolutely fabulous! One of the things we had to get used to was our granddaughter who had changed from a child into a 15 almost 16 year old teenager. Good grief! Her shoe size is bigger than mine. 

Anyway, we visited several Hawaiian fun spots during their stay. One place was the Dole Pineapple Plantation. It's not really a plantation exactly. It's just a tourist spot where you can try their (frozen) pineapple Dole Whip, walk through a little maze, ride a little train and check out tourist souvenirs.

Well... while sitting there enjoying our Dole Whip a brood of chickens kept walking by. There were all kinds of chickens or roosters with different coloring which was fun to see.

But then this one showed up. Is he weird looking or what?

I thought he rather looked like the dinosaur he's descended from. Have you ever seen a chicken like him? Or would it be a she?

Infected Puss Filled Finger

Art saw mom bringing in an aloe leaf one morning which is a clue that she's gotten injured. I've told her that it's been advised aloe is helpful for sunburns, but not cuts. However, she still insists on using aloe for anything anyway. 

Well.... Art asked her where she injured herself and she stuck out her finger.

He called me over and I was surprised to see a lot of pus that had formed.

This was not a recent wound or splinter. 

I'm thinking flesh eating bacteria which seems to be in the news quite often in Hawaii.

This happened on the day she usually goes to her day care which she really enjoys.

I told her we'd have to skip the day care and perhaps go to urgent care or ER. 

She was so upset about missing her day with friends that Art felt we (me)  could try opening up the pus sack and irrigating it.

I got one of my glucose monitor lancets and broke the sac open to find the splinter. I know it hurt... a lot... but she refused to flinch for fear I would stop. 

I squeezed out the pus, put some hydrogen peroxide on it and she happily got to go and see her friends.

Incredibly...

Within a few days, it had healed with no ill effects. So amazing!

Checking Your Medication

My daughter and family were here in Hawaii for three weeks this spring and we were so happy and grateful for all the help and advice they gave us during their stay.

My son-in-law, Ed was able to help purchase some kind of booster to make Art's computer a million times faster. Art had  been struggling with a very slow Internet connection. Ed also installed a great app to store our passwords which were driving me crazy. He also taught us to freeze our Experian, Equifax and Transunion accounts so that no one can hack and open up accounts in our name. It's wonderful to have Tiffany, Ed and KC all here in person to check over how we're keeping safe.

But then, the other morning Tiffany showed me something else I appreciated knowing. I had been wondering about the latest cholesterol medication (Atorvastatin) I'd gotten from the hospital. The pills had the same shape but were different in color and had different marks on them in the same bottle.

Tif showed me how to go to a Pill Identifier website: https://www.drugs.com/imprints.php

What a relief! It was good to know that both pills were actually the same drug and the same dosage.

I'm really missing having them here to help us with so many things.

It’s been a busy, happy and wonderful spring with our cruise with friends followed soon after by our daughter and family’s visit.

The house is quiet now. 

Sigh...