July 16 thru July 19, 2015

Current:
In hindsight, I probably should have split yesterday's post into 2 parts. I'll keep that in mind for the rest of these catch-up posts.

Sometimes it is frustrating to talk to Mom about her meds. I call 3 times a day to remind her to take her pills, I even wait on the phone while she takes them. I even tell her, "It's the pink side for (whatever day of the week it is)." So it seems like it should be a foolproof system to make sure Mom is getting the right amount of medication on a daily basis. But 2 nights ago when I said, "It's the blue side for Wednesday," she said, "Not Thursday? Thursday is empty." She had already taken her pills but Thursday's instead of Wednesday's. No big deal, every day is the same. (She tries to remember on her own. When she does I praise her and verify which day's pills she took.) I then asked, "What about the pink side? What is left on the pink side?" Unfortunately Monday and Tuesday pills were still there in the pink side. According to Curt she sometimes only takes some of the pills for a particular day, so he fills in whatever is missing. It will all be better once I move there. I had her shift the Wednesday blue side pills to Thursday. We'll leave the others in place and just hope its better next week. It does no good to get upset or lecture her, the dementia has taken away the capacity for things to make sense to her.

Today was Vivian's last radiation treatment! Yay! In 3 months they will do a CAT scan to see whether the tumor has shrunk and become just scar tissue. If so, they will check her every 6 months for about 2 years. If not, they'll go over her options at that time.

Aunty Daisy was moved out of the hospital into a rehab and physical therapy place today. Yay! Her doctor has prescribed assistance for her at home as a prerequisite for discharge, he does not want her living alone any longer. Now cousins Scott and Mark have the difficult task of figuring out how to accomplish that. (I gave Mom Aunty Daisy's new phone number twice. She lost it within about 5 minutes of my giving it to her the first time.)

I completed my last piece for Color Commentary today. It is an interview with Kate and Cristien about a book they are writing about organizing against white nationalists. It will air on March 30th.

Here's the tall Oregon grape by the garage; it is very happy in this location. It is next to the orchard mason bee house so that it can provide pollen for the emerging bees. You used to be able to see the house behind the Oregon grape but not anymore. The bees will have more than enough pollen to sustain themselves and fill the holes for the next generation of bees. The mason bees are much better at pollinating the Gravenstein apple because they are more active in cooler weather than the European honeybees.

Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolium)

Happy Birthday to Pat, Chris, Steve, and Kate!

Previous:
07/16/2015 Day 15 Hot Weather Returns
I am doing 2 showers a day again. The part of Honolulu that Mom and Dad live in is called Kaimuki (hence my radio name "Kaimuki Girl”). The translation is “the ti leaf oven”. (“Ti" is the Tahitian name for Cordyline fruticosa (syn C. terminalis); the Hawaiian name is “ki”. Hawaiian has 13 letters - a, e, i, o, u, h, k, l, m, n, p, w, and ‘). Honolulu (especially Kaimuki) is routinely about 5 degrees hotter than Kohala.

The weather is so hot (how hot is it?) that the birds are using the birdbath a lot (drinking mainly). (The birds seen here are a zebra dove and a common myna, which is about to fly away.) The cats are also spending more time outside where there is more air circulation and when inside they head for the concrete areas and spend a lot of time sleeping. 

Zebra dove (Geopelia striata) and common myna (Acridotheres tristis)

Sleeping Xander

Sleeping Chibi

Today we picked up Mom’s prescription and also took care of some banking. She has an account for the Kohala house; the names on the account are hers, Aunty Judy, and Uncle George. She wants to change it to add my name but we need Uncle George’s death certificate (she knew about this last year but has not remembered to get a copy of the certificate. Aunty Judy also needs to be there with us so this will be a task for the next trip. In the meanwhile, I will make arrangements to get a copy of the death certificate.

07/17/2015 Day 16 Myna Problems
For those who were wondering, here is more info about the incident in Kohala. The activity took place about 1/2 mile east of the hospital that Uncle Kazu is at, hence the locked doors when we arrived. (The suspect had surrendered about an hour before we arrived. Since there is no local media, the only way people knew what was happening was word of mouth and delayed news coverage from the larger statewide media. The KNKR radio station does not go on line until 07/27, it would have been a great source of information for the community.)

Started out today doing laundry from the trip to Kohala. Since there is no dryer at the house and the weather was not reliably warm & sunny and the garage roof is full of holes, having clean, dry laundry there was iffy. Also, the nearest laundromat is in Waimea; so I rotated changes of clothes, reserving the grubbiest set for work around the house. Consequently, I returned with a bunch of very dirty laundry! Chibi is checking out the washing machine, which she never experienced while in WA since it is in a separate part of the house that she usually cannot get in to. For her the Cat Genie and its funny sounds are normal, not so for the washing machine; but she’ll be getting used to it soon enough since it is in the same room with the Cat Genie (which can be seen to her right).

Chibi watching washer

Chibi seems to be fascinated with the slice of Hawai’i that she can see from the door to the garage; it also usually has a cool breeze blowing through. She likes looking out the door at whatever is passing by, day or night.  (Right now the door is closed and locked for the evening so she is snoozing on the bed. She will be terribly spoiled when I return, Mom and Dad let the cats have the run of the house even at night.)

Chibi looking out the garage door

Took Mom to the doctor today to get her hand checked out; she was complaining about the pad below her left index finger being sore whenever she bent her finger. While there she also asked about the multiple bruises on her right arm (fragile skin and vessels due to age) and got her pneumonia shot (PCV13). As expected, her blood pressure was high (158/73) since she has not been taking her medication regularly. She has a recheck scheduled for 2 weeks from today. This also happened in March, when I returned to WA I began calling 3 times a day to remind her to take her pills and her blood pressure went down. Since she has now been telling me she is taking them even when she is not, I am not sure how well it will work this time. I have arranged for a phone conference with her doctor after she has her annual check up in September. Photo you will find only in Hawai’i: the slot for charts that are finished. (Pau is pidgin English for finished.)

Slot for completed Hawaiian charts

Before we left for the doctor’s appointment I heard a suspicious sound outside the bathroom window. So I quietly went out and observed the eaves from the garage. I saw a pair of common mynas entering one of the attic vents carrying nesting material; this is the best photo I could get of one of them leaving (the rest of my attempts just show the eaves). The vent screen had fallen off and had not been replaced; a task that definitely needed to be done before I left otherwise there would be a nest of mynas in the attic! Got a vent screen from City Mill on the way back from the doctor’s and finished putting it up just as my brother and his wife pulled up to take us to dinner; I wanted to get it up while there was still a lot of daylight so I would not trap any birds in the attic. (I am doing my part to keep City Mill and Sunshine True Value hardware stores in business!) Common mynas are in the same family as starlings and are one of 3 bird species listed as the world’s 100 worst invasive species. I sure hope they are not as smart as crows or I will be in big trouble with the local mynas since they know exactly who it is that blocked off their ideal nesting place! (They were watching me from the utility lines across the street while I was working and were inspecting the screen as we left for dinner.)

Myna leaving opening in eaves

Screened opening

If you are in Honolulu and want some good Japanese food, try the Tokoname Sushi Bar and Restaurant. We went to the one in Manoa Market Place, which is up the valley from the University of Hawai’i - Manoa campus. If there will be 4 or more of you for dinner, and you have a Costco membership, go to Costco first and get $100 worth of Tokoname gift cards, which will cost you $75. For 5 of us the bill was $100.89 (4 teishoku meals, 4 non-alcoholic beverages, and 1 appetizer, including tax but not tip - Mom and Dad split a meal but still had leftovers). Ala carte is cheaper but teishoku provides Japanese dining ambience.

Tokoname Sushi Bar & Restaurant

07/18/2015 Day 17 Last Visits, Sort Of
Went for a walk this morning with Mom. On our return I noticed that the little orange tree in back was full of blossoms! I think that is the result of the deep watering I gave it the day before we left for the Big Island; I gave it another deep watering later in the morning. Currently there are 8 little green oranges on it; I hope they make it to full-sized fruit. It is supposed to be a very good tasting orange, why else would they have gone through the extra work to keep it alive when they were making the concrete patio?

Orange blossoms

On my last full day, I squeezed in 2 visits, one with nearly all my dive buddies from college and another with my cousin Doreen.  My dive buddies and I met at Nico’s for lunch, it is a great seafood place and I finally remembered to take a picture of my meal before I finished it … though not quite before I started it. I had the daily salad special which was pan-seared opah with a mango mustard sauce served on ‘Nalo greens with a lemon miso dressing; the yellow things are slivers of mango, yummy! (The note on the menu board says the greens are, “100% organic, not 100% pest-free”.) Other entrees that I have been told are good are the fried ahi belly and furikake pan-seared ahi.

Pan-seared opah (Lampris guttatus) with mango mustard sauce

We visited with Doreen in the afternoon; she is Mom’s cousin and Lem’s wife. In July 2013 when we visited she was in the Waimea Hopsital recuperating from an infection which exacerbated her dementia and caused her to be very confused. After they released her she was better but still a little confused. In September 2014 she fell and had to be flown to Honolulu for treatment and rehab. After she was released from rehab Lem and Fran (his daughter/my cousin) found a private home for her in Waipahu. (There is a waiting list at the Kohala Hospital, the next 2 nearest places on the Big Island were also full. Waipahu allows Fran to drop in frequently.) This time Doreen looked so much better! She was also less confused and even recognized me most of the time. (She did confuse me for my sister a couple of times but even people with all their faculties would get us confused; people said we looked alike but we didn’t think so.)

When we returned home I went to check in for my flight tomorrow and found that it had been cancelled! When I finally got in touch with Alaska Airlines they said the plane had been hit by lightning and was being repaired. I was switched to a later flight, way later. Now instead of getting in around 5 on Sunday evening, I will get in around 6 on Monday morning! Depending on how much sleep I get on the flight, I am not sure if I will be able to make it in to work. I’ve already called in and left a message on our absentee call in line.

07/19/2015 Day 18 Last Vacation Day
Forgot to mention that one of my dive buddies was an extra in “Ride the Thunder”, a movie about the Vietnam war that is being released this year. You can see him in the trailer at around 1:15, he is the prisoner closest to the guard. In scenes where they are walking along the trail look for the guy with the limp; he was congratulated on his acting for using the limp but it is actually his normal gait. The outdoor camp scenes he was in were filmed at Kualoa Ranch on O’ahu.

Went to visit Aunty Jean, Dad’s older sister. They are the last 2 left out of 6 children in the family. Aunty Jean is 96, still around and doing better than she was last week, but quite frail. She seemed to recognize us or at least was happy that there were people other than her caregiver there. Last saw her in 2011 when she was at least able to sit in a wheelchair, now she is totally bed-ridden.

Had a Hawai’ian lunch today - poi, poke, laulau, and lomi salmon. Lomi salmon is actually the New England whalers adaptation of poke, which is made using raw fish. FYI - There is no salmon in Hawai’i so don’t let anyone at a luau tell you it is 100% authentic if they are serving lomi salmon! Need to plan my day for Hawai’ian lunch on the next trip better and do it on a Thusday so I can also get some kulolo. Did not try that weird blueberry thing in the photo, not sure if I would.

Poi blueberry granola

This will be the last e-mail for this series. After I send it out we will have dinner then wait for my brother to pick me up and take me to the airport for the overnight flight to WA.