Watched a very interesting video today, "Dementia Village". It is about Hogeway, an assisted living housing experiment in The Netherlands. Hogeway is set up like a small village where all the residents have severe dementia and all the people they come in contact with, such as the grocery store clerk and the hairdresser, have been trained to deal with dementia patients. (The grocery store also has no prices and no money changes hands.) The patients are free to go where ever they want to, except out the front door which is the only locked door. The housing units are set up so that people of similar interests are housed together and activities revolve around the interest. Normal activities, such as music and walking around, are encouraged. They have found the patients to be happier and to live longer than the average patient. There are 150 or so residents, the only way a space becomes available is if a person dies. The video is a little over 23 minutes long but worth the time.
Ann came by today to pick up the card racks. The Port Gardner Bay Watercolor Society used to do a lot of arts and crafts fairs, the racks were used to display cards and prints by each of the artists. I could fit them in my Subaru wagon so they lived in my garage. They are not going with me so they needed a new home in Ann's garage! A helicopter was landing at the hospital just as she arrived.
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| Helicopter landing at hospital |
The Asian pear was in full bloom this morning. It is the first of the fruit trees to bloom. Still waiting for the apple trees and sweet cherries to bloom.
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| Nashi (Pyrus pyrifolia) |
Happy Birthday to Walt, Jed, Dennis, Uncle Pat, Kerrie, Joani, Sally, and Ashton! St. Patrick's Day was a popular day to be born on!
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07/10/2015 Days 8 & 9 E-mail Silence
On Day 7 I forgot to mention that Mom & I were going to the Big Island on Thursday morning (Day 8). There is no Internet connection at the house there so e-mails were going to be sporadic until 07/15 as there are no real Internet cafes at the north end of the island. I tried to go to Nanbu Courtyard on Saturday but discovered they are no longer open on Saturday. I found another place (CSC Cafe) that had wi-fi but had trouble hooking up to the Internet. (The Kai help desk fixed that today.) Then I had a brainstorm, the Waimea Hospital had wi-fi for patients’ visitors, perhaps the Kohala Hospital has the same. Winner! We are now at the Kohala Hospital visiting Uncle Kazu who is in the assisted living portion of the hospital. Since we stop in almost every day e-mails will become more regular; in the meanwhile this one will be a little longer.
Here is the original flight info from Day 8, we got all the way to the end of the ramp and found there was an issue that they could not fix quickly so we were switched to another plane. We ended up being delayed about half an hour. They load/unload luggage by hand, the workers inside must be great at Tetris!
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| HA 168 |
We had lunch in Waimea with Shirley & Greg, friends of Suzanne, an old family friend who now lives in the other Washington (DC, that is). Here’s a photo Greg took of us after lunch. We all went next door to Leilani Bakery; it’s named after Mom’s cousin and operated by her & her husband, Kevin. If you’re passing through Waimea and want to try it out, go early in the day for the best selection. Since its a 2-person operation they don’t keep baking things, once its out there’s no more for that day. Hours are Tuesday through Friday 5:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., and closed every day between noon and 1 p.m.
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| Me, Mom, & Shirley (photo by Greg) |
At the house the first nice surprise for Mom was the new kitchen faucet; last year we need 2 vise grips to turn the water on and off. The second nice surprise for her was the new tankless water heater. Last year we had no hot water for showers; which was OK for me because they were lukewarm showers but it was too cold for Mom. (Sharp-eyed people will notice the heater is not plugged in and the gas valve is in the off position. This is the photo I sent to the plumber asking if it was OK to plug it in & turn the gas on.) The third nice surprise for her was the new stove; last year only one burner worked & the rest looked pretty scary so we learned to be creative with the antique toaster oven. (Kai found out that one in good condition could be bought on E-bay for $80!) To see more photos of the house over the years, go to my cousin Tomiko’s website and view photos from her exhibition, “Passage”.
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| New faucet |
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| Tankless water heater |
Later in the day I went to the general meeting for the new community radio station, KNKR 96.1fm. It’s a low power FM station that is being started to be available in emergencies; during the 2006 earthquake phones were knocked out & residents had no way to find out what was happening since the only radio signals that reach North Kohala are from Maui & O’ahu. They are in the testing phase right now; they go live on 07/27. On that date they will begin broadcasting from 7 am to 12 noon every day; when they’re broadcasting they will also be streaming live at www.KNKR.org. I have been invited to sit in on a couple shows but I don’t think I’ll have time to do so during this trip but I will be meeting with one of the hosts on Monday to discuss some ideas. (The green gecko adds a nice touch to the photo!)
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| KNKR and an tiny listener! |
We ended the day with a trip to visit Uncle Kazu. Some of you may remember my stories from last year about him escaping from the assisted living facility by figuring out that the motors for the doors were not shielded so the interference kept his wristband from triggering the alarm. He now has 2 wristbands attached to his wheelchair; he’s annoyed about being the only one with 2 wristbands but seems to be taking it as another challenge to overcome! He exercises every day, has been putting on weight, has a nice tan & thick hair; he’s still pretty sharp. The visiting daughter of a neighboring patient thought he was 75; he celebrated his 90th birthday in June.
We started Day 9, like many of my other days in Kohala, with a trip to the hardware store. We also made a grocery run, visited with neighbor Jessie, & our cousin Lem. I also spent about an hour talking to Chris, the contractor who will be doing more repairs on the house. Mom & Jessie also got to meet him. Besides finishing the floors, he will be adding a wheelchair ramp at the front, widening all doors for wheelchair access, replacing the tub with a shower, rebuilding the towel cabinet that needs to be removed to widen the bathroom door, and painting all the interior walls. The electrician he is working with will be replacing all wiring with new wiring including a ground and upgrading the breaker box.
07/12/2015 Days 10 & 11 Obon
Day 10 was Obon, which is the reason we are on the Big Island. We decorated my grandparents' grave with lanterns and flowers (I forgot the fruits so they came later) and offered incense and prayers. We did the same at my great-grandparents’ grave. As you can see by the schedule in the newsletter, there is a lot that goes into putting on an Obon. (You will also see my grandmother’s 27th year nenki was this year. I thought it was next year so I will be checking on exactly how it is counted since we were hoping to celebrate the significant death anniversaries - nenki - for both my grandparents plus my uncle’s hatsu bon - 1st Obon - next year.)
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| Gravesite with chochin |
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| Obon preparation schedule |
This church also has lantern banners that people can use to send prayers to the departed. I made one for Uncle Orv from all of us; I chose that banner because of how much he enjoyed his trip to Hawai’i last November. After some independent thought on both sides of the Pacific (and googling) we determined that, although he died a couple days before Obon, this was not his hatsu bon. The line of reasoning is that Obon is when the soul of the departed person returns to celebrate with the family. However, if the soul has not completed the journey (which takes 49 days), there is nothing to return from. The sensei confirmed that the 49 day period must have passed before the start of the Obon period for there to be a hatsu bon. So we will have a big celebration next year! (Traditionally, there is a small celebration every 7 days as the soul travels through the 7 realms, with a very large celebration on the 49th day when the journey is completed. In modern times, because many people live so far away, generally only the 49th day is celebrated along with the hatsu bon and the nenki. At least, that’s the way we do it in Hawai’i.)
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| Banner for Uncle Orv |
The bon odori (aka bon dance) started around dusk. A tower and taiko drums are in the center with dancers in one or two concentric circles. In the background is the concession where you can buy all kinds of good food. There were also a couple of four-legged “dancers”; I think they live close by and have learned that the drums mean food, I have seen them every year for the 3 years that I have been bringing Mom to Obon. (This is the best picture I could get of them, they were almost constantly in motion, just like the dancers!) The bon odori ends with a big meal of donated food as well as food provided by the church; dancing burns up a lot of calories! (The Native American elder that I go to powwows with has noticed a lot of similarities between powwows and bon odori. For several years we would go to the Seafair Powwow in the morning and the Seattle Buddhist Bon Odori in the evening; they always seemed to be on the same weekend.)
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| Bon odori |
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| Four-legged "dancers" |
We had picked up eggs at the Hawi farmers market the previous morning. So on Day 11 we decided to have eggs for breakfast at home, but could not find any oil so decided we could boil them. While searching for a pot (and finding none) I discovered this funky little hen-shaped appliance; it makes either “boiled” or poached eggs. It still works and made pretty good poached eggs; when you are camping indoors you have to be flexible. Not sure who gave this to Grandma but it came in handy. (All eggs in the regular markets are flown in from “the mainland” and we want to “buy local” as much as possible. It’s kind of sad to see that local farmers can’t compete with eggs that are transported from so far away. My grandmother used to sell eggs to the local market. I remember gathering eggs every morning and helping her weigh the cartons.)
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| Egg cooker |
Checked out the outside toilet (in the garage). Mom had used it the day before and said it was not flushing. I like “repairs" like this one, it turns out the water had been turned off just in case the flap began leaking while no one was around. It took more time to clear out the spider webs from around the tank lid than it did to figure out the problem and fix it!
While on our way out the door to go to the hardware store, I saw a huge mud dauber queen! Then I started noticing mud nests all around the garage; another chore. A couple years ago it was the paper wasps that had made a nest right over the back stairs. I think the daubers came in and drove them out since they are quite a bit larger. Good thing Mom didn’t see it, she screamed the night before when she found a small roach in the bathtub. Its also a good thing I was the one who ran in to the 6 inch long centipede that came crawling out of the faucet when I was testing the hot water. No photos of that one, it was too fast. (Stephanie, rest easy, I will not be bringing any of them back with me. Terri you will be so proud of me, I also left the roadkilled common mynah on the side of the road.)
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| Mud dauber |
We had to test the new stove to make sure the oven was working so we got a Holy’s Bakery peach pie (frozen) and some Lalamilo Farms Tropical Dreams ice cream (Tahitian vanilla) and invited neighbor Jessie over for dessert. She used to work at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel (30 years); she said the Tropical Dreams ice cream is what they serve there. It was a local dessert - Holy’s Bakery is in Hawi and Lalamilo Farms is in Waimea. We have been able to find bread made in Waimea, lots of fruits and vegetables grown in Kohala, and beef grown on the Big Island; now we just need to find a reliable source of local eggs.
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| Tropical Dreams Tahitian Vanilla Ice Cream |
The day could have ended with dessert and we would have been happy. But as Jessie was leaving, she found a weak, termite-eaten board by the front door and broke through. Auwe! Luckily, she was not hurt, only shaken up. (Mom was in more distress than Jessie. She kept yelling at me to call someone, glad she did not remember about 911, because I’m sure she would have called it herself if she did.) We got Jessie out of the hole and checked her out (no broken bones or breaks in the skin even, the ground level is close to the floor so it kept her leg from going in farther than her calf). I walked her home then covered the hole with a piece of plywood (ironically, from the pile of leftovers from the kitchen floor repair); I checked on her today and she said everything was fine. Earlier in the day Mom was telling me she didn’t think I needed to have the contractor cover all of the floor with plywood; I think she has reconsidered. (At least for the moment, she’ll forget about it until she sees the hole again.)
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| Hole in living room floor |
07/13/2015 Day 12 Uncle Kazu
A couple days ago I noticed the saffron finches nesting in the downspout on Jessie's house, on Monday morning I saw a pair of Java sparrows in the other downspout. Fortunately for them, there are no gutters; especially since it rained heavily yesterday afternoon and all night.
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| Java sparrows (Lonchura oryzivora) and saffron finches (Sicalis flaveola) |
When we went to see Uncle Kazu, Mom decided she wanted to take him out to lunch, if he wanted to go and if the nurses would let him. As it turned out, he had no restrictions and he was eager to go. (Lem said they were probably glad someone was taking him out to give them a break!) When we arrived he was out in the driveway, just starting his exercise for the day - 5 reps of going up the driveway and back.
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| Uncle Kazu |
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| KNKR air room |
We then went for ice cream cones at Kingsview Cafe; its right across the street from the original King Kamehameha statue (and the police station). We quickly discovered 2 scoops is not a good idea in hot weather unless you want to end up wearing a lot of it! We sat in the car with the air conditioning on full blast to slow down the melting. Kingsview is actually quite close to the hospital and Uncle Kazu could easily make it there with the amount of exercise he does; he said they would catch him and take him back, but if he got his ice cream it would be worth it.
Henry, the electrician, stopped by after lunch and we went over the things I would like to have done. He will be coordinating with Chris, the contractor. There are a couple of really funky things that he will be fixing, plus installing GFCIs in the kitchen, bathroom, and laundry area, larger code-compliant breaker box, hard-wired smoke detectors with battery back-up, and fixing the frayed wires at the incoming power meter box. I introduced him to Jessie, turns out he used to work for one of her relatives; this is what rural island living is like.
Here’s some of the things we can “buy local”.
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| Local salad greens and bread |
The last photo is the bathtub. Bathing is comprised of kneeling in the tub while soaping up as well as rinsing off. If you are skilled you can stand up and rinse off without spraying water outside the tub. (The flyswatter is for the roaches that run by while you are bathing.)
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| Bathtub |
07/14/2015 Day 13 Hilo
Day 13 was unlucky for photos, somehow I lost some of them. Today’s adventure was a trip to Hilo to visit Aunty Doris and Uncle Tom, with additional stops in Waimea, Honokaa, and the Alae Cemetery. (Doris is one of Jane’s sister; there are 10 sisters and 1 brother.) We started with “breakfast" at Nanbu Courtyard, which was a disappointment. They used to have real good breakfasts but now they only have coffee/tea/hot chocolate/juice and a couple types of pastries. Their Internet also does not get along with my laptop so I was unable to connect in the morning and send yesterday’s e-mail. (I also started checking out accessibility since it is so easy to take Uncle Kazu out for the day. Technically, it was accessible but it was not convenient. It is a historic building so there are some limitations; however since the food has gone downhill we probably won’t take him there anyway.)
After gassing up we headed to Waimea along the coast road. When you are on Akoni Pule Highway it is faster and easier to take the coast road to Waimea. Pretty much after you pass Hawi you are on the leeward side of the island so everything is much drier. In fact, from the top of the road where the house is to the bottom is about 1 mile and weather can be different, some plants even fruit earlier at the bottom of the hill than at the top. There seems to also be more precipitation at the top end.
We visited Leilani again to pick up omiyage for Aunty Doris and Uncle Tom - we got one of each of the pastries that was left when we were passing through. We also paid for 2 loaves of cinnamon bread and 6 blueberry scones for pick-up on Wednesday as we are passing through on our way to the airport. She will pack it for us as a carry-on item. Mom also got a blueberry scone to go.
Last year Mom was determined to find Tex Drive-In because she wanted malasadas. She knew it was in Honokaa and had me drive through town; we never found it. It is actually not in town, so when we went through town we left the main highway and missed it! Thanks to info from my high school friend Michael, we were able to find it this time. They are different than the ones from Leonard’s, they’re square and about twice as large. Mom says they're also different than home-made ones, which she says are doughier. Leilani also makes malasadas but only on Thursdays thru Saturdays, we have never been there early enough to get any.
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| Tex Drive-In malasada room |
We had a great visit with Aunty Doris and Uncle Tom. They took us to lunch at their favorite lunch place, Sunlight Cafe in the Hilo Shopping Center. They made an agreement with Mom that she pays for the lunch when she comes next year. (She vacillates several times an hour between this being her last trip to Kohala and being here for Uncle Orv’s hatsu bon next year.)
On our return we visited Uncle Kazu and found the front door locked at 5:30 pm, we have been able to visit him as late as 8 pm and found the doors unlocked. Apparently there was a “situation” nearby; during a domestic dispute a man shot at his girlfriend then barricaded himself in a nearby residence late the previous evening. He also fired a couple shots at police. He had surrendered about an hour before we arrived, after winging a police officer and his girlfriend. It was big excitement at the hospital. Lem was on his way home from Kona when it was still going on and heard about it on the radio. Fortunately for him it was farther down the road so he was able to get to his house.
We leave Wednesday afternoon and return to Honolulu so e-mails will be more timely and less sporadic. And hopefully photos will be working again so the e-mails will be less boring.
07/15/2015 Day 14 Return to Honolulu
Note to self: Give Mom more time to get things done. I have noticed a big difference between Mom’s ability to do things this year as opposed to two years ago. This year she was much more distractable and unreliable at doing even single tasks. (I have learned not to ask her to do a series of tasks, I ask one thing at a time now.) In 2013 I had her doing the last load of laundry before we left Kohala and although it took her a longer time than usual to do it, she stuck with it and finished it. This year I did the washing and hanging, then later asked her to bring it in. She started to do that but became distracted by something and put the towels in the back seat of the car (and left the door open). I did not find out about this until about a half hour later because I thought she was taking care of it albeit slowly like in 2013. She also repacked her suitcase about 3 times. Then when we landed in Honolulu she thought we were arriving in Kona.
I ended up not being able to do quite as much as I wanted to do to get things ready for the contractors. A big one was consolidating all the stuff in the sewing room and packing it in the sewing room closet, then moving a bunch of other things in that closet as well; the sewing room will be used as the temporary storage area while they are doing the flooring and painting so I wanted to get as much as possible in to the closet. I was able to get almost all of it in the closet as well as some other things from other parts of the house (sorry no photo) but not able to pack up all the knickknacks so the contractors have an easier time moving things around. (Mom was helping with this but was highly distracted, thinking about who and what the occasion was for each knickknack, so I let her be and did something else.) Here’s a photo of one of the shelves, these are items from my grandmother’s grandkids or her travels; Mom wants it to be put back exactly the way it was. (Though I am not sure why I decided I needed a photo so I could get it almost exactly as it was since she won’t remember how it was. Perhaps as a CYA so if she says that’s not the way it was I can show her what it looked like before it was packed away.)
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| Baban's zodiac animals for each grandchild and her traavels |
We stopped at Leilani Bakery on the way to the airport to pick-up our order of cinnamon bread and scones to go. Dad likes french toast made with her cinnamon bread; we got a second loaf for my brother and his family. Leilani had it packed for hand carrying on the plane; apparently a lot of her customers do that. During the short period we were there she had a constant stream of customers. We also met a visitor at the facility Uncle Kazu is at that is a loyal customer; she lives in Waimea and is part of the Anna Lindsey family. (Anna Lindsey is a big name in Waimea; she ran the Anna Ranch, a large ranch in the area. She is known for introducing several breeds of cattle to the area. Whenever I see the the white cattle along the Kohala Mountain Road I think of her, these are descendants of the Charolais cattle she brought in.)
Here are photos from the plane:
Natural Energy Lab - near the Ke’ahole (Kona) Airport, one of the things they are exploring is use of thermal difference between deep ocean water to run turbines to generate electricity.
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| Natural Energy Lab |
Haleakala summit in the clouds (on a clear day we can see it from the Kohala house)
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| Haleakala |
Kaho'olawe - a sacred Hawai’ian place and former Navy bombing target, now a preserve area.
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| Kaho'olawe |
Lana'i - a former Dole pineapple plantation, still nearly all privately owned but now a divers & boaters haven.
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| Lana'i |
Honolulu International Airport reef runway - there is a plane on the approach coming from the left, just imagine the environmental documents & mitigation that would have to be done to build it today!
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| Reef runway |
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