Green Thumb Day

After breakfast this morning I decided to start the lettuce, plant the ginger from Aunty Doris, and plant the purple sweet potato slips that I rooted. I put the ginger in the old toilet tank that has been used as a planter for Chinese chives (nira) and green onions (negi). The lettuce seeds went in to the long planters that we had put them in last year. And the sweet potato slips went in to the large planters that I originally got for Mom a couple years ago for her eggplant and tomatoes. Since I will be doing the watering, we should be able to have more success with getting things to survive long enough so that we can harvest them.

Ginger (Zingiber officinale) on the left (little white bits showing through dirt) and Chinese chives (Allium tuberosum) on right.

I examined the orange tree to see whether there were more oranges on their way. Right now there are about a dozen oranges ripening on the tree. I found some flowers and a bunch of mini-oranges! There are 11 tiny oranges in the clump below; in a few weeks most of them will drop off, leaving 2 or 3 to get nice and big. Since I arrived, I have been trying to water the tree daily so that the oranges can develop properly; I think its helping. These are the most oranges I have ever seen on this tree.

Top to bottom: flowers, mini-oranges.

I forgot to mention yesterday that the reason it was a slow day was that I had a serious case of cramps in my calves, a side effect of the 5 mile walk the day before when I was distributing fliers of Momo. Since I arrived last June I have not done much exercise because Mom can't walk much anymore (and even if she did, the pace is not very challenging). And she and Dad can't be left alone long enough for me to really do much. I really need to get that WiiFit fixed. My calves are better today but still tight.

Speaking of Momo, I got another call today about him. A woman living on 8th Avenue called to let me know that she and her neighbors have organized a little group to watch for him. She says one of them works at City Mill & is taking a different route to work to check other areas; I wonder if I have run in to that person in one of my many trips to City Mill? BJ & Carrie brought the cat they thought was Momo to the house tonight; but it wasn't him.

I hope we find Momo soon; there has been disturbing news about cats recently. Last night a cat was shot on O'ahu about 25 miles from where we live. A week ago a cat was shot with an arrow at Nanakuli, about 30 miles from us. And a month ago a cat in Kona on the Big Island was shot with an arrow. Only the Nanakuli cat has survived.

Curt & Lori dropped by with the Costco groceries and lunch. And poi donuts! Mom & Dad both really like them so she got a whole box for us. She also bought a box for their house. I will freeze a few to eat at a later date.


During lunch I noticed Mom talking while she was eating; like when a young child does this, food was falling out of her mouth. I don't know if she realized she was doing this or if she forgot that she spilled food so she did not pick it up when she was done. Mom has a thing about roaches scurrying around the house, I think she would be horrified to know how much food she dropped.

Roach-eye view of the food Mom dropped during lunch, char siu in the background.

During Mom's modified Epley maneuvers today she had no dizziness! Yay! We can stop the exercises! NOT. About half an hour after we finished her exercises, she came shuffling into the the kitchen looking for something sweet to eat and got dizzy while looking around. She was so dizzy she needed help back to the bedroom. We will continue the exercises because it has helped a lot to decrease the frequency and severity of her dizziness.

Happy Birthday to Karena!