Clean-up Day #7

I forgot to mention that while I was marking trees for removal I found a bunch of ants along the top of the rock wall. I am hoping they are not the little fire ants since this is the area where I am planning on building the outdoor cat play area. There have been recent reports that suspect that little fire ants are responsible for blindness that they are finding in dogs and cats. Apparently when the ants attack if they bite the cornea the toxins affect it and it clouds up, causing blindness. I will have to find out for sure what these are. And if they really are responsible for the blindness. (They appear to be redder & smaller than the ones coming in to the house.)

Unknown ants

Here are photos of what it looked like after I moved boxes back in to the bedrooms after Chris left.

Front bedroom, end of Day #6

Middle bedroom, end of Day #6

Living room, end of Day #6

Sewing room, end of Day #6

Kitchen counter, end of Day #6

Today was Day #7, the final day of this trip. I spent it tying up loose ends to make things a little easier for the next trip. I have already started a list of things I need to buy for the next trip and things I need to do to get started. I will need to spend another week getting everything out of the back bedroom, sorting it to its proper place, then begin the unpacking. By the way, here's what the bathroom looks like with the new shower that replaces the tub.

New shower and floor in bathroom

Here are 2 photos of other casualties of the move. Kai wants me to keep the lid of the 15-gallon crock; he thinks it would be cool to have it repaired using the kintsugi method. It is now his task to learn how to do it, then repair it!

Broken lid for 15-gallon crock; the movers packed this one, not sure why they put it in a box which hid the fragile identity of the contents. It's obvious that it was placed on its top at one time during the transit and storage.

Broken vase and ceramic bowl

I hope once I have unpacked all the boxes I do not find much more. Since I was unable to go through everything immediately after the move, I will not be filing any claims. At the time we did not know how serious Mom's medical condition was, so I stayed just long enough to receive the shipment; then headed back to Honolulu. I had already decided if anything broke I would be okay with it because it was only stuff and it was more important to be there to help support Mom.

I stopped in to say, Good Bye, to Uncle Kazu. The event coordinators gave me an invitation to the Kohala Hospital Fall Celebration Luncheon, which will be on November 10th. Each resident can invite 1 or 2 guests; they had already sent an invitation to Laurel (his legal caregiver). I think I might adjust my travel plans to include that day, if I can work transportation to the airport out with Curt.

I had lunch in Kona after I filled up the rental car. I decided to try Patricio's Taqueria in the Matsuyama Shopping Center; the other options there were Subway and Pine Tree Cafe. Since I have never tried Mexican food on the Big Island I decided to take a chance. (I was pleasantly surprised to hear a rapid conversation in fluent Spanish when I walked in. And they also had horchata and flan. And a salsa bar with 5 or 6 types of salsa and also spicy pickled carrots! So this was real Mexican food and not commercialized Mexican-style fast food.) The photo is not too helpful, but I forgot to take one of the food so all you get is the store front, don't let it fool you; the food was good. (This is apparently the 2nd location of a well known restaurant in downtown Kailua-Kona.)


When I got back to Honolulu, I found 2 cats in my bedroom! Shiro was sleeping on the bed, Chibi was sleeping on the floor.

Happy Birthday to David, Olga, & Nashla!