Doubling the Bird of Paradise

We've passed this house and seen this unusual sight before. But this time I just had to take a photo. Growing up in Waipahu, many people had the Bird of Paradise flower in their gardens. 

I think. 😐

I just know we had two large plants. 

I think. 😗 I'll have to ask my brother. But I do know I never saw anything like this.

It's another flower growing out of the original flower.

It does bring to mind the shape of a bird, hence its name. Granted... it would be a two headed bird. 😊 

POSTSCRIPT: We went by the house again several days later and found more birds of paradise blooming. Most of them looked like they were going to do this piggy back type flowers. I guess it must be a new variety of Bird of Paradise.

Remembering Dolly

I've always admired Dolly Parton and loved her music. She was not only mega talented, but was also an incredible person who cared about others. I was amazed to learn she has donated $500 million to so many different causes such as wildfire recovery and vaccine research.

But as a retired teacher, you know I loved how she started the... 

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is dedicated to inspiring a love of reading by gifting books free of charge to children from birth to age five, through funding shared by Dolly Parton and local community partners in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and Republic of Ireland.

She really seemed like such a kind, friendly person and that was evident when my cousin, Arnold sent this photo to me. 

Arnold was a pilot for Hawaiian Airlines. This photo was taken in 1990 or so. He said the cabin crew were all making a fuss over her and he went back to welcome her and say he was one of her fans. She insisted he sit on her lap for a photo and would not take, (I'll bet it was a weak) "no," for an answer. He says Dolly really is as nice as everyone says. Well, Arnold's a sweetie, too! Isn't this just the coolest thing?"

 

 It's really wonderful to know there are famous personalities who are just super nice people and care about everyone.

The world has lost a beautiful, fabulous, human being and we are poorer for it. However, we can count our blessings that she was part of our world for this short time.

All Important Back-Up Power

Hurricane Lala was a wake-up call for us. We've had several storm misses and after a while... you might get a little complacent. 

But this one was definitely scary. Trees were downed in quite a number of places and I've read that 200,000 customers lost power during the height of the storm. My brother was lucky. They never lost power at his condominium.

The Big Island caught the brunt of the storm and the south side will take several years to get back to normal again.

We lost power twice. Luckily, we'd bought a back up power battery called EcoFlow Delta 3 Portable Battery Power Station a year ago from Home Depot. Art always keeps it partially charged.

It's not very large at all and it's quiet. And it did keep our refrigerator running for about 9 hours. Granted, the second time we lost power, Art had to drive the power station to my brother's house to charge it and by the time he returned, power had been restored again. 

I'm thinking we need a back up for the back up for the next time a hurricane comes too close.

And then there's our computer. 

Our son-in-law had set up a UPS system after a brown-out fried both Art and my computers. 

I always thought UPS was United Parcel Service. But no... it also stands for Uninterruptible Power Supply. 

However, when it started beeping and beeping and I still had a blank computer monitor, I figured it wasn't working so I pressed all the different buttons to turn it off.

When I told my son-in-law about it the next day he said there is a MUTE button I could have pressed.

Oops!

Also when I took a photo of the back of the UPS, he said the monitor plug was not in the right place which is why we couldn't see anything and power down our computer. 

The UPS is to give you time to close your computer apps safely before turning it off.

Oops! 

OK... I think it's OK now...

I think.

We'll have to see when the next hurricane come close to us. 😩

We were using flashlights that we put everywhere, but discovered it wasn't the best for mom. I set up a flashlight in her bathroom when the power went off in the evening. 

I decided to get these lantern/flashlights which I hope will be helpful. They can also be charged with sunlight. But if there's a hurricane, will there be sunlight to charge the lanterns? 😳

Sigh...

Scam?

We recently got 2 or 3 letters and postcards addressed to a Helen. No one named Helen has been living at our address for at least 25+ years.

We first got a letter which we didn't open. We just wrote that no one lived at this address by that name and returned it to our mailbox for the mail person.

A couple of days later we got this postcard addressed to the same Helen.

And we sent it back out again.

But this had me suspicious and I looked up that phone #.

This is what I found online.

I could swear we got another postcard saying Helen won something and that she should call an 888 number, but I can't find it.

Anyway...

Good grief!

I guess if it sounds too good to be true... you'd better check online because it could be another scam.

It's a scary techie world out there.

Hmmm... I wonder who Helen is.🤔

Saimin Surprise!

We'd taken mom to get a blood and TB test at Kaiser a week ago. After having quite a few vials of blood taken, we thought we should give mom a treat and take her to our local Zippy's restaurant to get a bowl of her favorite saimin noodles. I don't think we've been there in a year. Maybe.

We also ordered an extra serving of char siu, fish cakes and vegetables to add to the soup for each of us.

Although we ordered the small size, we were surprised to see how much food there was. Mom told us it was too much for her so we reassured her that she didn't have to eat all of it. 

I then texted a photo of her with her saimin noodles to my brother, Dennis. I keep him constantly updated on everything we do with her since he lives rather far away from us and is only in our area when he comes to visit her several times a week.

Imagine our shock when he suddenly showed up and sat next to her! 

Apparently he never comes here because Dennis and my sister in law go to a Zippy's closer to their home. However, they just happened to be in this area because my sister in law was picking up something at a store near this Zippy's and they decided to just grab some take out lunch to bring home. Standing in line for their order he got my text photo and decided to check where we might be and surprise us.

Mom has dementia. When he suddenly appeared, it wasn't that much of a shock since she does periodically see him. So she calmly accepted that he was just there.

And her bowl of saimin noodles?

Uuuummmm.... she finished it all and proceeded to try to drink up most of the broth. 

I then showed her the photo I took of her and Dennis. 

She was shocked! She had completely forgotten that he'd stopped by to say hello.

I had to have Art finish my noodles. It was too much for me. 

Art paid for the meals and we headed home.

Upon arriving home, I assumed that she would have forgotten where we'd been and that she'd had a huge bowl of her favorite saimin noodles.

Imagine my surprise when she turned smiling to Art before going into the house and saying, "Thank you very much for taking me everywhere and getting me the saimin noodles."

This all reminded me of the family mottos that my Buddhist priest grandfather had instilled in his children.

My aunt, Chikako was telling me what the family motto was. Those are her words on the left.

My mother is Hiroko. 

My aunt Machiko is remembering the letter my grandfather gave my grandmother before being drafted into the war.

The amazing thing is that even with dementia, my mother's Japanese handwriting is incredibly beautiful. She is always careful to not waste anything, always humble and to this day is always grateful. 

Will Lala Hit or Miss Us?

I am writing this post on Saturday, several hours before Hurricane Lala is expected to pass south of our island of Oahu. It's grazing some parts of the Big Island right now.

I'd asked my classmate/good friend on the Big Island how they were doing and she said it was OK in Hilo. In fact, her neighbor had shared a photo with her with the funny caption "Only in Hawaii."

And then my cousin on Kauai sent me the same photo! Apparently she found it on Facebook.

Whatever the case, with all the dire warnings several days ago with threats that it could be another Hurricane Iniki which happened in 1992, Art and I decided to siiiighh... go ahead and put up the hurricane shields on Friday afternoon. 

After 2.5 hours, we were exhausted and we still weren't done with everything.

But we gave up, saying it probably won't be thaaat bad anyway. 

But in the afternoon, the governor and mayors on all the islands warned on TV that this was promising to be bad and emergency crews would be on stand-by.

It rained all of Friday night and the hurricane wasn't even all that close to us yet.

Then on Saturday morning, we saw this and more warnings.

Arrrrghhhh...

So we went out and put up the rest of the hurricane shields.

I texted my cousin, Lorna, "I'm exhausted putting up hurricane shields. We figure if we prepare, Lala will fizzle out."

She texted back, "If it fizzles, it will be all due to your efforts! Thank you." 😂

I've got all my fingers and toes crossed that Lala will blow away from us, and then I'm going to ask my brother to come and help us take all this hurricane stuff down. 

POSTSCRIPT: (Written on Sunday night)

Well it's been pretty darn awful! On Saturday night around 7:30 PM the power suddenly went out! And the winds began to blow and rain started to pummel the windows. The branches of the tree next to our sidewalk broke off and fell on the neighbor's fence. I could feel the wind buffeting the house and I worried the shingles on the roof would blow off.

Art? Slept like a baby even though our bedroom is next to the mountainside where the wind hits hardest. 

I moved to my office and fell asleep around 10:00. And then was rudely awakened at 10:30 when the lights suddenly came back on.

The next morning I was happy we had power. But at 6:00 AM or so the power went OUT AGAIN! 

Our compact power generator for our refrigerator started to lose power around 3:30 PM so Art brought it to my brother's house a distance away to charge it again for our fridge. Dennis (who never lost power) loaned us a power bank for our phones. 

And then suddenly... the power was back around 4:30 PM! What a surprise! 

It's been quite a few eventful days. 

Uh oh... my poor cousin just texted that he still doesn't have power at his house. If it doesn't come back by tomorrow morning, I've told him to bring it over to our house.

And I'm hoping we will still have power....😬

Mite Bite or What?

When I was watering our lemon tree a few weeks ago, I was stunned to see all the flowers and young leaves covered with little bugs.

I just stared at them for several days hoping they would magically disappear.

I also noticed that every time I watered under the lemon tree I ended up with bites on some part of me.

Then one evening Art did some watering and came in with bites also. He found a teeny tiny black bug on him and looked online to figure out what it was. It said the bug was a mite.

Well...

I went onto ChatGPT and uploaded one of these photos and this is what it said:

From your photo, these are black citrus aphids (likely Toxoptera aurantii), which are common pests on lemon, lime, and other citrus trees.

You can tell because:

• They are small, soft-bodied, black insects clustered tightly on the flower buds and new growth.
• Many have the characteristic pair of short "tailpipes" (cornicles) sticking out from the back of their abdomen.
• They gather on tender shoots where they suck plant sap.

Your Meyer lemon is flowering, and aphids are especially attracted to this fresh growth.

What they do

• Curl and distort new leaves and flower buds.
• Weaken young shoots by sucking sap.
• Produce a sticky substance called honeydew, which can lead to black sooty mold.
• Attract ants, which protect the aphids from their natural predators.

How to get rid of them

1. Blast them off with water.
   • Use a strong stream from a hose in the morning.
   • Pay special attention to flower buds and the undersides of leaves.
   • Repeat every few days.
2. Spray with insecticidal soap if the infestation is heavy.
   • Thoroughly wet the aphids.
   • Spray in the early morning or evening, not during the heat of the day.
   • Avoid spraying open flowers as much as possible to protect bees.
3. Neem oil can also work, but avoid spraying open blossoms when pollinators are active.
4. Control ants.
   • If you see ants climbing the tree, they are often protecting the aphids.
   • Reducing ants helps ladybugs and lacewings naturally control the aphids.

Should you worry?

Your infestation looks fairly heavy, especially around the flower clusters. I'd treat it soon to prevent damage to the new growth and reduce flower loss. Fortunately, aphids are usually one of the easier citrus pests to control if you start early.

If you'd like, I can also explain how to get rid of them without harming the bees that are pollinating your Meyer lemon.

What are the tinier brown bugs?

Looking closely at your photo, I think there are actually two different stages of the same infestation rather than two different kinds of pests.

The tiny brown bugs are most likely:

• Immature aphids (nymphs) that are brown to reddish-brown before becoming darker, or
• Aphid shed skins (empty, papery exoskeletons) left behind after the aphids molt.

The larger black aphids are the adults. Aphids molt several times as they grow, leaving behind many pale tan or brown "ghost" skins that often stick to flowers and stems.

One way to tell:

• Live brown nymphs will have legs and antennae and will move if disturbed.
• Shed skins are dry, hollow, and remain attached where the aphid molted.

I don't think they're ants or another insect because they're mixed directly into the aphid colonies on the flower buds, which is typical of a thriving aphid infestation.

If you can take an even closer photo (using your phone's macro mode or by zooming in on one of the brown bugs), I can tell you with much greater confidence whether they're living nymphs or just shed skins.

So OK. I blasted it with a strong spray of water and it did remove a lot of them.

Not all, but most of them.

But then I looked further to see if aphids bite humans and it said they don't.

Hmmm....

So what the heck is biting me and where did Art get his mite bites? And is that what is biting me too?  

Arrrghhh!!! 😫

Tooth and Ear

A couple weeks ago, poor Art ended up with problems that just grew as the day... days wore on.

Since we discovered that mom's ears were completely impacted with ear wax which made it very difficult to hear what we were saying, we thought we'd better get our ears cleaned too. We learned that not being able to hear clearly can make dementia even worse. And we really want to slow the progression of her memory loss as much as we can... not to mention my forgetfulness.

I've always known I have wet ear wax and Art has dry. I've never had my ears looked at for wax build up so we both went to Tripler to get our ears checked.

The technician looked at my ears first and yup. They were completely clear.

But Art? Yup. He had some ear wax that she carefully removed. I thought she was going to do the water wash treatment that Art had gotten a long time ago. But she said that method can cause vertigo so they don't do it that way anymore.

And yes, she very carefully cleared his ears as much as she could. She suggested his coming back in 6 months and using Debrox 4 days before coming.

She also let me take these photos to show on my blog which was very kind of her.

On the way home, we went to pick up some misoyaki butterfish bentos (lunch plates) for a treat. 

Well... I saw this yummy looking plate of squid karaage that I just couldn't pass up since I haven't had it for such a long time.

Art took a bite and started chewing on it. It was a bit chewier than expected.... and oh my gosh! 

His lower bicuspid tooth broke in half. Yikes! I couldn't believe it! 

Luckily, our dental office was willing to squeeze him in even though they had 4 other emergency patients. 

Art actually sent me a photo of his broken tooth as he sat on the dental chair waiting for the dentist to return. He said that was his exposed nerve! I didn't know you could see a nerve in a tooth. Wow! But that's why it hurt.

The dentist patched it up and said he needed to see another dentist to decide whether to get an implant or a bridge.

Sigh...

Fingers crossed all goes well before our trips this fall.

Broken TV?!? Arrrghhhh!

We always watch the news in the morning on our TV that we have mounted on the wall while having our breakfast.

One morning, there was no sound. Art changed the channels and none of the stations had sound. 

Doggone it! This isn't that old a TV. We just replaced it 2 years ago!

Aggravation!!! 😧 But before getting tooooo upset about it, I thought I'd look online to see what you should do if the TV should suddenly lose its sound. 

And this is what it said: 

Reset and Power Check

Unplug the TV: Disconnect the power cord from the wall outlet.
Drain residual power: Press and hold the physical power button on the TV itself (not the remote) for 30 to 60 seconds.

Wait: Leave the TV unplugged for 30 minutes, then plug it directly into a working wall outlet without a surge protector. 

And voila! Oh my gosh! There was sound again! I could hardly believe it!

And needless to say, we were happy the rest of the day.😄

Birthday Tradition

Art and I both have summer birthdays. We go to Starbucks once a week when we go to the mall with friends for our weekly walk and refresher drink. I therefore have enough stars (200) in my account to get a free drink.

So we did it again. We've been doing it since 2017 when the barista told me about it in Washington, D.C. He told me I could have any flavor, any size. I actually wrote a blog post about how I got the Midnight Mint Mocha Frappuccino. I loved it... but I haven't seen that flavor offered since.

Ah well... I ordered my usual birthday Mocha Frappuccino and got Art a free Matcha Frappuccino. And yes, I got the ventis. 

And then we went to our favorite spot under beautiful shower trees and savored the treat.

I happened to look out the window and saw this bird pecking away at the fallen shower tree flower petals.

I've seen them a lot and figured they must be in the cardinal family just from the head shape with the red feathers. But there was a cardinal with a brown head too. I told Art it was probably a female. He felt it must be a juvenile.

Soooo... I asked ChatGPT what kind of birds they were and if the brown headed bird was a female.

This is what I got:

These are Red-crested Cardinals (Paroaria coronata), a species native to South America that has become well established in Hawaii, especially on Oahu and the Big Island.

The difference in head color is most likely due to age, not sex.

• The bird on the left has a vivid, bright scarlet-red head and crest. This is an adult, whose red feathers have fully developed.
• The bird on the right has a duller, brownish-red head. This is most likely a juvenile (young bird) that hasn’t yet molted into its bright adult plumage.

Male and female Red-crested Cardinals look very similar, so the intensity of the red isn’t a reliable way to tell males from females. Instead:

• Adults of both sexes have brilliant red heads, white cheeks and throat, gray backs, and pale underparts.
• Juveniles have browner or orangish-red heads and generally look less sharply colored until they mature.

From your photo, the left bird appears to be carrying a small flower petal or leaf in its beak, which they sometimes pick up while foraging. They mainly eat seeds, fruits, and insects.

It’s a nice capture showing what is probably an adult and a young Red-crested Cardinal together, which is common during the breeding season.

It was nice of ChatGPT to give me a compliment about taking a nice photo. 

And sitting next to me in the car, I looked up at Art who was looking quite proud of himself. 😎

Is Alexa Always Listening?

With the upgrades we've had with the Alexa or Echo speakers, I've noticed some pretty big changes.

For one thing, her voice is not as mechanical. She seems to have more emotion when she responds.

In the past, she would only respond if you prefaced it with "Alexa." Several weeks ago I asked about something and automatically said, "Thank you" to the machine. Yup. I did.

I was startled when she said, "You're very welcome."  I hadn't said, "Alexa, thank you." 

I've found that she now keeps listening for a few seconds after a response. Once when I asked her to add something to a certain shopping list, she said, "You've already added that to the list." And when I said, "Thank you", she responded with "You're very welcome, happy shopping."

We have Alexas in several rooms. I have one in mom's room to wake her in the morning. Alexa tells mom, "Time to wake up, Hiroko. Time to get ready for Senior Club."

We have them in the bedrooms and kitchen. I can tell her to remind me to put something on my shopping list. I tell her to remind me to do things at a certain time. I tell her to time me in the kitchen.

And sometimes, for fun... I ask her to tell me a joke or to play me a song. I've also changed her name to Echo and turned her into a man in one of the rooms. I like Echo too. 

But is this something to be nervous about? 

I got this on AI Overview:

 Yes, Alexa is passively listening to pick up its wake word, but it is not constantly recording or sending your conversations to the cloud. [1]

It uses short, localized audio loops to detect the trigger word. It only begins recording and sending your audio to Amazon's servers after it hears the wake word or detects a sound like a smoke alarm. [1, 2]

You can control and manage your voice history anytime: [1, 2, 3]

Review recordings: Listen to what Alexa has saved in the Alexa App under Settings > Alexa Privacy > Review Voice History.
Manage deletion: You can set your account to automatically delete voice recordings after 3 or 18 months via Amazon Alexa Privacy Setting.

And here's more information from Wirecutter's website: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/amazons-alexa-never-stops-listening-to-you/

OK... I guess I'm alright with this for now.

And then cameras. Yes we have cameras inside and outside the house. The cameras are to keep watch over mom. No, it's not in the bathroom, but anywhere else she might be, we have cameras hidden. Since her rooms are downstairs and we're upstairs, it helps us keep track of what she's doing or if she needs help.

With the scary acceleration of her dementia we need to keep closer watch on her condition. 

So I guess although we worry sometimes about the intrusiveness of technology, it sure does make life easier for seniors.

Really Eccentric Lemon

We've had a high producing lemon tree for a couple of decades. My brother actually planted it and it's been very bountiful which is great because he loves to make lemonade and now I've been making it too.

The tree seems to be getting tired now but at one time it was producing a ton of lemons. 

This photo is from about 10 years ago.

Now that it's older, it's not producing as much and ants are bringing colonies of aphids onto the poor old exhausted tree.

And then...

I saw this really weird lemon. I've seen it sitting there for over a couple of weeks now and it's starting to ripen.

Lemons always grew in bunches at the ends of thinner but strong branches. This lemon was close to the trunk of the tree. And there was just this one lemon. Weird as heck!

Before posting this, I wondered if someone was playing a trick on me and poked a lemon onto a branch, but no. It really was growing there. I sent the photo to my more agricultural minded brother and he was stymied also. 

I guess even fruit trees get a little eccentric as they get older. 😄

Toilet Trouble and the Many Uses of Vinegar

We have two toilets downstairs. One is attached to mom's bedroom. The other is part of a non-functional teeny guest bedroom which is now just a room to house a dresser and refrigerator. It's a weird house. 

Anyway, that guest bathroom toilet is not used very often except when we have family/friends get-togethers.

The other day, I was noticing a hard water ring along the waterline. The awful problem is that you are NOT supposed to use anything abrasive or chemically damaging on a Toto toilet and bidet which is what we installed.

I forgot to take a photo of the BEFORE (of the guest toilet) so I just took one of mom's toilet which I'd better work on too.

I was warned by several people that those Hawaii hard water rings are terrible and pretty much impossible to get rid of. Sigh...

But I looked online and saw this suggestion.

OK... I can give it a try.

I cut up a very old Trader Joe's kitchen cloth, dunked it in vinegar and laid it on the hard water ring. It said you should leave it on for an hour or two or overnight. I left it on overnight.

Well... it's not absolutely perfect, but unless someone sticks their head super close to the bowl, it might be difficult to see.

Maybe.

And then...

My daughter said that my son-in-law had cooked a very delicious Korean dish that unfortunately ended up smelling up the kitchen. 

She tried this method but said that she found online that it should be 1 part water to 1 part vinegar which is what she did. And she said it worked perfectly.

I need to go buy more vinegar.

Luncheon With Friends

We have long time friends we met at our tai chi class many years ago. We've traveled together to Europe and had a wonderful time. Our next trip together will be to China in April if all goes well.

We had a luncheon at our house last week which made it even more comfortable than a restaurant since we wouldn't have to worry about a time crunch and we could move around easily.

Cal and Myra picked up all the bento lunches for the group. Kay (yup, another Kay) and Calvin brought over a fruit plate and even shared dragon fruit ice cream that Kay made for all of us. Terry and Craig brought a huge box of fun Samanco fish shaped ice cream sandwiches. 

Myra and Cal also brought a huge watermelon for us and a pack of mochi for mom. 

And oh yes! Mom loved having those desserts for several days after dinner. She was in absolute dessert heaven.

And that watermelon?  (I know I mentioned this on Monday’s post.)

Art noticed that it didn't have a yellow patch at the bottom and wondered if it would be good.

But when Art cut the watermelon a couple of days later, he discovered it was VERY good indeed. It was fresh and very sweet! 

So I guess the guidelines I wrote about earlier is nice, but it doesn't mean you won't get a good watermelon if you don't follow those rules.

It was a wonderful get-together of good friends and needless to say mom will love our hosting another friends luncheon as well.

Picking a Good Watermelon

Art has always preferred getting a watermelon for his birthday instead of a cake. His parents owned a mom and pop restaurant when he was a kid and he feels he had enough sweets then to last a lifetime.

However, he has always loved watermelon. 

It was therefore rather ironic that his favorite daughter (OK, only daughter) Tiffany is allergic to it. 

This photo was from 2014 when Tif was visiting us with her family.

It's now watermelon season and Art has started seeing watermelon in huge bins at Sam's Club.

Art and his sister who also loves watermelon learned all the tricks to choosing the perfect watermelon.

This year, my brother's wife texted this chart for us to look at. And yes, we've always followed those guidelines except #2 and #4. We didn't consider the dullness coloring or the webbing. We'll have to try to remember that too next time.

Whatever the case, the watermelon we chose was perfectly sweet and wonderful.

I wonder if they make watermelon cake.

Just kidding... 😂

POSTSCRIPT:

Our friends brought over a watermelon that didn't have any of the requirements and it was fabulous!