November 15 thru November 20, 2015

Current:
Mom called me this afternoon. To make sure my number was working. Apparently she was adding a "1" to the number when she used her cell phone. She said she forgot what she was calling about since she kept getting a "number is not in service" recording. But she did ask about Aunty Daisy's number again (3rd time is the charm!). Her plan is to call Aunty Daisy today and ask her to move to Seattle to make it easier for Mom to visit her. Originally, she was proposing to have Aunty Daisy move in with her. I talked her in to having Aunty Daisy come for a visit to give cousins Scott and Mark more time to find a place for her in Seattle. While this all sounds good, to get to this point took 25 minutes; decision-making is not speedy in a person with dementia. (In the short run, I'm pretty sure I can handle 2 people with their level of dementia and 1 person with less mobility. But not for the long-term; especially since dementia only gets worse.)

The NAACP-SCB held its 7th Annual Freedom Fund Gala this evening. I am going to miss the many people I have met through NAACP-SCB, some of whom have become hanai relations.

Janice, Beth, & Monet

Dessert, Yum!

While at the Gala, Mom called again. She was wondering if it was too late to call Aunty Daisy. (Yes.) I had her add the following note to the page she wrote the phone number of the rehab center that Aunty Daisy is at: "Do Not Call after 3 pm Hawaii time." It is simpler than trying to explain what the time difference was and she would forget that anyway. I have found concrete instructions to be easier for Mom to understand and follow. She apparently forgot to call earlier when we talked, or if she did, she forgot that she did.

The bleeding hearts and Solomon's seal are starting to come up. They will grow in so thickly that most of the old plow blade will be hidden. The Solomon's seal will get to be about 3 feet tall and arch over the plow blade. While the bleeding heart's fern-like foliage will camouflage it.

Pacific bleeding heart (Dicentra formosa) & Solomon's seal (Polygonatum multiflorum)

Happy Birthday to Mel, George, Suzi, and Zach!

Previous:
11/15/2015 Day 1 The Boys, On the Road Again ... and Again ... and Again
Sunday was the start of my vacation in Hawai’i. But for The Boys, as Shiro and his brother Momo (short for Momotaro) are affectionately known as, it was the first day of the rest of their lives. It started out with a car ride, well, actually, it was 4 car rides in 30 hours! Saturday morning, started with a trip to the Animal Hospital of Lynnwood to get their health certificates so that they could fly; Momo did his usual whining about going to the vet.

Momo and Shiro on Saturday morning

Once we got there, however, the receptionist met me at the car before I could get The Boys out. The doctor had been called away for a family emergency and they had been trying to get a hold of me. She gave me the phone numbers of a bunch of other vets open on Saturday. After 20 minutes and 3 phone calls I found one that could get them in, but not until 4:20 pm. So we headed home; Momo sat quietly in the carrier, content in the knowledge that his protests were successful.

In the meanwhile, I ran other errands, including a trip to Snohomish to pick up a compounded prescription at Kusler’s Pharmacy. (They have a unique drive-up “window” for prescriptions. You drive up, run over the sensor that rings a bell inside, and a tech runs out the door and asks for your name and prescription.) On the way back I took the Lowell-Snohmish River Road so that I could check the flooding on one of our mitigation sites. There really is a big yellow gate out here at this access road that goes out to the old dike.

Yellow gate at Marshland mitigation site on Lowell-Snohomish River Road

Later in the evening, on car trip #2 to VCA Alderwood Companion Animal Hospital to get the health certificate,The Boys were so confused they didn’t make a sound. In the exam room they went in to their I’m-not-here-and-you-can’t-make-me-come-out-of-the-carrier mode.

Momo on top of Shiro

Many thanks to the folks at VCA and especially receptionist Lillianna and Dr. Kate Janczak for squeezing us in and being so concerned about getting The Boys their paperwork!


Needless to say, the delayed vet trip delayed packing since the carrier went in my suitcase and needed to be the first thing in. Just after midnight I finally got around to unloading my fanny pack of non-Hawai’i-essential items. I discovered I did not have my license which I would need as official photo ID to get through TSA. :( Fortunately I remembered that you can get a renewal on-line and found you could do the same for a replacement. :) (Kai had to do the renewal one year in order to drive to the airport to pick me up.) Unfortunately it does not have a photo and can’t be used as photo ID. :( But fortunately I tend to keep things beyond their required retention period and still had my old license and old temporary license from 4 months earlier. :) I clipped all three documents together and stuffed them in my fanny pack. My current license is most likely at the eye doctor’s office that I went to on Friday. :( TSA did not ask about it, which allows me to send this to you from Hawai’i. :) (Following the advice given to me long ago by a pre-law student, I did not offer an explanation as I went up to the TSA guy in the pre-check line.)

Trip #3 was in the Shuttle Express van from Everett to the airport very early Sunday morning. The Boys were confused, they had never gone to the vet at 6 in the morning and not so many times in such a short period! Momo meowed a couple of times to let us know he was annoyed at what was going on. Fortunately the 2 other folks on the shuttle were cat-friendly.

During the plane ride about once an hour Momo would let us know he was annoyed with the situation. But he was so quiet even the guy in our row did not hear him. (I wonder what he thought we were doing throwing cat treats into our carry-on luggage?) During most of the flight The Boys, including Kai, took a nap. Inspection at animal quarantine went quickly and by 2:30 pm Hawai’i time they were on their 4th car ride.

My first task upon arrival: Balance Mom’s checkbook. Status: Are you kidding? In all my life Mom has never had a balanced checkbook, I just went through the motions. I knew my brother had been writing the checks over the last few months and Mom always carries a balance of several thousand dollars so she knows she won’t bounce any checks even though she is not exactly sure how much she has in her account. Once I move here I will be using software to track their bank account.

11/16/2015 Day 2 Momo the Escape Artist
The Boys spent Sunday evening in the laundry room quietly resting. The next morning I put them in to the cat run and fed everyone out there.

Xander, Momo, & Shiro

Shortly before our breakfast I noticed that Momo was missing and assumed he snuck into the house while I was putting the food out. We searched the house but could not find him. The only other option was that he squeezed through the opening of the decorative concrete brick wall and escaped. Kai searched and found a tuft of hair on the edge of an opening. We talked to neighbors and searched around the house next door but could not find him. He is microchipped so he would have assistance getting back. As it turned out the neighbor spotted him a couple hours later in their back yard. Fortunately their yard is fully fenced to keep the grandkids in so Momo was contained and we were able to catch him. Now we have another chore: Momo-proof the cat run!

I made a couple of phone calls for Mom. One was to have her removed from the mailing and phone list of the American Institute for Cancer Research. She was sent a packet by them to collect donations from her neighbors; she was worried because she had not done it and the deadline to turn in donations had passed. She was going to send in the $35 they had listed as a minimum amount they wanted her to collect from the neighbors. Although they were accommodating, I will be on the lookout for more mailings from them and will report them to the Better Business Bureau if they continue to contact Mom and Dad. (I later found out it is best to avoid these type of fund raisers and donate directly to the organization. See this article.)

The other call was to the agent for their home insurance policy. Mom could not remember if she had paid for 2015 and had a note written on the billing statement for June 2014-June 2015 saying she had called in October but it was followed by a question mark. The agent’s assistant Teri was very helpful. She remembered talking to Mom in October, it turns out she did pay for 2015 so all is well. By the time the next statement arrives I should be living here and able to keep things on track.

While reading the Sunday paper I saw a weekly feature where the votes of the US Congressional members are listed. The column gave a synopsis of the bill and showed how the member voted. That was it, no political commentary included. I think all media should have something like this.

Lawmakers' votes

11/17/2015 Day 3 Pacific Aviation Museum
Today was a tourist day. Kai is a big World War II aviation geek so we went to the Pacific Aviation Museum. It is part of the collection of historic venues at Pearl Harbor which also includes the Arizona, the Missouri, and the Bowfin. They have a Passport to Pearl Harbor one-day deal that gets you in to all 4 venues at a much reduced price than paying separately. We opted for just one because we take a long time at places like this.

Pearl Harbor Visitors Center

We signed up for the Aviator’s Tour which is a docent-lead tour of two hangars and the restoration area. (That would be plane restoration, not wetland restoration…) Our docent was Mona who was very knowledgable (and also a cat-lover - hers flew in from Japan). We were the only ones that showed up for the 11 am tour so, like the aquarium tour in March, it was like having a private tour. We spent 2 hours with Mona and another 3 by ourselves. When you enter the museum look down, the floor is a large aerial of Pearl Harbor and the surrounding areas. Here’s a part of Ford Island, the green laser dot shows the spot where the first bomb was dropped at Pearl Harbor. They also have a model of tiny airplanes suspended over the map in the lobby that simulates how small the attacking planes would be as seen from the ground; they were about the size of a mosquito.

Ford Island

Here’s Kai in the flight simulator shooting down Zeros. He said he stopped counting after 5 kills, which is apparently when you earn the title of Ace. He was also able to land on the sand strip runway, the others who were on the sims while he was there crashed and burned.

Kai in flight sim

If you decide to tour any of the sites that are accessed through the Pearl Harbor Visitor’s Center DO NOT bring any bags, including large handbags or even a fanny pack. If you do, you will have to check your bag in before entering, they will give you a transparent plastic bag for anything you want to take in with you, there is a $3 fee but they only take cash. We had no cash, so we had to go back to the car to drop off my fanny pack. If you are planning on going to the venues on Ford Island give yourself additional time, the shuttle comes every 15 minutes, but also takes about 10 minutes to get you there. (They give you an audio tour while you drive along.) And when you are leaving the visitor center if you have to drive back through Honolulu during rush hour (like we did) give yourself plenty of time.

The Boys are adjusting nicely. In fact, they have been the most sociable of all the cats, coming up and greeting Mom and Dad on the first day. And already claiming their indoor daytime sleeping places after breakfast. Here’s Momo on top of the dryer and Shiro enjoying the morning paper.

Momo

Shiro

Mom & Dad let all the cats have free run of the house at night; which we never did, they were confined to the utility room or the bathroom. So they will be even more spoiled than ever!

11/18/2015 Day 4 Harajuku
The day started out with chores and ended with an art opening. On Monday Momo escaped through a hole in the decorative concrete block wall that forms one side of the cat run. Here’s the hole. How a 9.2 pound cat managed to get through 4-3/8 inch hole is amazing but I’m glad he didn’t hurt himself while doing it.

The hole Momo escaped through

Here is the new Momo-resistant wall. The mesh on the right is what the cat run is made of, the 2 other sections are covered with chicken wire.

New Momo-resistant wall!

As members of the Honolulu Museum of Art we got an invitation to attend the opening of Harajuku: Tokyo Street Fashion. I was not familiar with Harajuku but Kai was and wanted to attend. It was interesting to say the least. Here’s the introduction to the show.

Harajuku

And here’s some of the fashion, I think the second from the right is the Steampunk Kei, but I can’t tell you what the rest of the styles are. Besides the exhibit there was a live demonstration by a shironuri style designer; they use white makeup reminiscent of geisha as the background for designs on the face. Generally all art openings have refreshments and food; for Harajuku it included green tea punch, crepes, and candy ... lots of candy.

Harajuku fashions

The weirdest juxtaposition of the evening was the exhibit that was immediately adjacent to Harajuku, sculptures by Auguste Rodin; I learned a lot about bronze sculptures. I think Rodin’s most well-known piece is The Thinker, which was originally a part of a larger piece called The Gates of Hell. When funding fell through for The Gates of Hell Rodin took it apart and used portions individually or in smaller groupings. Here is The Thinker in a more modern setting.

Modern day Thinker

11/19/2015 Day 5 Ohai ali'i
Kai left this morning, returning to Seattle about 4 in the afternoon. He will be having Thanksgiving with his dad’s family. (I will be returning on December 6th. This is not the final move for me.)

I spent the morning getting the ohai ali’i trimmed back. There is a pink one by the northeast property corner that must be hindering the view when they back out of the driveway. I know the yellow and red ones by our driveway keeps me from having a clear view. So I cut down most of the offending plants; I thinned the pink one to train it to a tree form. The current way its being trimmed causes a lot of thick, bushy growth right at traffic-viewing level. Here are the before and after photos.

Before

"After" today's trimming

Later in the afternoon the rain began and its still raining. Sometimes it has slowed to a drizzle but the forecast is that it will be this way until Monday. Good thing I worked on the ohai ali'i when I did! Here’s Shiro out in the rain; the wide eaves keep him from getting wet.

Shiro in the rain

11/20/2015 Day 6 Rainy Day
No walking this morning due to the rain; Mom is afraid she will slip and fall and it was very wet. This photo just doesn’t convey the amount of water that is coming down. The entire state is under a flood warning; Hilo got 5-6” last night. It is forecast to last through Monday. This will hinder the mosquito control efforts going on to stop the spread of dengue fever on the Big Island. (More on that later.)

Very wet!

No working outdoors today so I watched cats instead. Here’s Chibi - she’s gained a little weight since she arrived in July and has gotten lighter in color, she looks like the lilac point Siamese that we thought she was when we first adopted her.

Chibi

I also played with the shark.

Shark

I vacuumed most of the house, did the family room carpet twice, until the battery died. Got enough hair to make another cat… Will be running the shark again tomorrow to finish off the rest of the house; as long as my back holds out, that is. I can’t handle a regular vacuum cleaner because of the weight, so far my back is a little tight but I’m doing OK. I need to do it because I can tell Mom has not vacuumed in a while.

There's enough to make another cat!

Was very disappointed that we did not have Holy’s Bakery pie for dessert tonight. Found out the oven will not work now that the clock is mainly dead. Since at least last November the clock built in to the stove control panel has been making a loud ticking noise, which it still does. However, now there is no display showing. Tried to get the oven to preheat this afternoon with no luck. Which means one of the chores tomorrow is buying a new stove. It was a good thing we wanted pie for dessert tonight, because for Thanksgiving I was going to bring a Holy’s Bakery pie and make a bread pudding Mom found a recipe for that is made with sweetbread and dried cranberries. At least discovering it is not working today means we might be able to have a working oven before Thanksgiving. If not, I’ll have to figure out something I can do on the stovetop to contribute to the meal.

Between downpours (aka, in the drizzle) I was able to get the Manoa lettuce transplants out; this rainy weather should ease the shock. But I could not find the packet of Manoa lettuce seeds that I have been using the past few trips. By adding water-absorbing gel to the soil the lettuce has been able to survive on the late evening/early morning drizzles that occur almost every day in the fall and winter. So far lettuce and the volunteer tomato plant have been the only things that have been able to survive Mom’s lack of watering due to forgetfulness.

Manoa lettuce

Also found out tonight that the sliding glass door for Mom's shower (the one by the laundry room) needs to be fixed. It won’t slide and the handle has broken off. I’m afraid if she keeps trying to force it she will break if and injure herself. (I use a different shower, which has its own uniqueness, but nothing potentially dangerous.)

Regarding the dengue fever, it is not endemic to Hawai’i. It is brought in by someone visiting a part of the world where it is endemic. A local mosquito bites that person, it becomes infected and spreads it to the next people it bites, who infect other mosquitos, and so on. As of today there are 88 confirmed cases, 75 locals and 13 visitors. The outbreak began on September 11th; the incubation period is 7 days. Chris - If you or Ernie had flu-like symptoms within 7 days of returning from Hawa'i you might want to get tested; Kona is one of the hotspots, though Waikoloa is a low concern area (along with Kohala and Waimea). Irene - You’re fine, the outbreak is limited to the Big Island. Therese - Besides being in the official languages of the State (English and Hawaiian) the info brochures are also in Spanish, Samoan, Marshallese, Japanese, Ilokano, Chuukese, Tongan, and Tagalog.