Pepper Sleeps Over

This evening I took Curtis, Lori, Brent, & Shaun to the airport. They are on their way to Los Angeles & Las Vegas. After I dropped them off I went back and picked up their cat Pepper. She has not been eating much and has been listless. If she doesn't perk up by Monday I am to take her to the vet. During the car ride she was fairly quiet. When I let her out in to the other bathroom she was very curious and checked everything out. Right now she is hiding in her litterbox. According to Jackson Galaxy, that means she is insecure about being here. Hope she gets used to it because she's here for the next week! (This way Jenny can focus on taking care of their parents, both of whom have dementia.)

Pepper checking out her new temporary digs.

I don't think Shiro was helping. He was hanging around outside the bathroom door. I am not sure if he was hanging around because he smelled Pepper or if he smelled her canned food! I made him move away; he's now sleeping in his chair as usual.


This morning I shortened my walk because my knee was still hurting. I basically did the same route that we had Mom doing because it is relatively flat. It goes from the house straight out to the freeway and back, about 0.86 mile round trip. It took me about 23 minutes because I was walking at 2.2 mph, a bit slower than my normal 2.9 mph pre-injury speed. When I got back home I did one round of contrast therapy before I headed out to MasterCuts to have Shaun cut my hair.

Since I try to walk on the side of the street so that I can see the traffic traveling towards me in the lane closest to me, I was on the same side of the street as House #1. I stopped and peeked in through one of the openings. I think it has been going slowly because they ran in to blue rock when they were excavating for the basement.

Nearly the entire lot is covered with chunks of blue rock.

On my return, the big trucks were lining up to work on removing the blue rock from the site. Just like yesterday.


I also walked by House #2. It looks like they may have finished framing all the walls for the 2nd story. When we built our house we attached the plywood sheathing before we popped the walls up into place. You have to do a little more math to make sure the plywood on the 2nd floor butts up against the sheets for the 1st floor. It's easier to attach the plywood when the wall is lying down than having to hold a sheet up vertically and hammer it.


Happy Birthday to Gary!

Ice is My Friend

This morning on my walk a nice driver let me cross a busy street; in an effort to minimize the delay I was causing I jogged across the street. Bad move. I sprained my knee again. I cut my walk short and as soon as I got home I iced it for 10 minutes. But I did not have enough time to do contrast therapy because I had to pick Ron up so that we could go to Curtis' house and help him with moving some large furniture. After I got back from Curtis' I did a round of contrast therapy and it really decreased the pain & improved my mobility. I also did it again after dinner and felt a lot more relief. (In contrast therapy you start with ice, then do heat. You do 3 rounds alternating ice and heat, ending with ice. I do 10 minutes ice. For the "heat" here I do 20 minutes at room temperature which is around 85 degrees. In cooler climates I use a heating pad set on lowest level.)

My new therapeutic ice pack, I liked my old one better. I am using it with the padded side against my skin rather than the net side per the directions. It was too cold that way.

After the furniture was moved we went out to brunch at the original Highway Inn in Waipahu. Curtis had the Corned Beef & Cabbage Plate, Ron had the Hamburger Deluxe, and I had the Kalua Pig Combo with a side of He'e (Squid) Luau.

The menu at the Waipahu location.

Corned Beef & Cabbage Plate with brown rice.

Hamburger Deluxe.

Kalua Pig Combo on a school lunch tray! Clockwise on tray from upper left: lomi salmon, pipikaula, haupia, poi, & kalua pig. He'e luau is in the bowl top left.

This Highway Inn serves a lot of very good Hawaiian food. It also has a poke bar! And they serve kulolo on Thursday!

There is a seating area to the left for the poke and other seafood from the poke bar; the restaurant is to the right.

On the way home, I passed by House #1. They were doing a lot of work there and had a lot of equipment in the road.


Almost forgot to mention that I found another papaya flower that was blooming.

The empty spot at the lowest leaf stem is where the other flower used to be.

Happy Birthday to Decarla & Amy!

Construction Season

On my walk today I saw that they are starting on the second floor of House #2.


I also saw some activity at House #1. Yesterday when I drove by about midafternoon the plywood gates were open and I saw that there were big piles of rock and a backhoe on the site. At 7:30 in the morning no workers are on site, so the gates are closed. When I went by later today they were working on the site again. I probably won't have any photos until they get up to the 2nd floor.

You can see a little bit of the top of the yellow arm of the backhoe over the top of the plywood gates.

There are 2 other houses also being built on our street. One is a brand new house, the other was an old house that was demolished and is now being replaced. I haven't posted any photos since they are behind other houses and only small parts of them are visible from the road.

I  sent the deposit for the garage work off to Chris today. He will start removing the rusted roofing and rotted and termite-eaten walls in about a month; the standing seam roofing material should be delivered sometime around then. The whole job should be done by the end of the year. Sometime before the end of the year the Solar City folks should be out to measure the new roof and start designing the solar PV system they will be installing on the roof.

I had to go to the post office to mail off the packet of papers for one of Mom's insurance claims. I also mailed off a bag of Kona coffee to the folks at Z Sport Automotive. The Z Sport's folks worked on Kai's car (aka my old 1992 Subaru) & let me pay for it over the phone. So I am sending them a bag of coffee as a "Thank You". Everything was going well; until I got to the post office. I forgot that hours got cut back; my local post office is only open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. On the plus side, Annie, the main postal worker there is always very cheerful & pleasant.


Happy Birthday to Dorothy, Sheryl, Hannele, & Isaiah!

Happy Birthday, Brent!

Today is Brent's birthday! I gave him his card (& present) on Sunday when we went over for dinner. I used one of the cards that Mom had picked up last year.



Here's how I changed the card.



I did my PT this morning, starting when I was lying in bed since the first 3 are done lying down. The last one is done standing; it took me about 30 minutes to do all the reps on both sides. Since I had medical appointments starting at 8:30, I cut my walk back to 15 minutes this morning. It looks like things are starting up again at House #2; they have put up some safety rails.  

This morning I went in for my pap test and mammogram. If everything is okay I will get written results back in a month or so. If there are any questions on the results I will get a call within a week. Currently, these types of results are not available on their web-based medical records site.

Information board in the exam room.

In the afternoon, Lawrence and Sean from Abbey Carpet & Floor came over along with Curtis & Lori. Lawrence arrived first, he is the estimator. He measured all the areas where we will be replacing the carpet with a laser tape. Lawrence remembers installing the kind of shag carpet that we are replacing, he has been doing carpet for 41 years.

Lawrence using the laser tape to measure the opening.

Later Sean showed up with the 4 wood laminate samples that Curtis & Lori were thinking about when they were in the showroom. Putting the samples up against one of the walls and comparing the colors really helped them to see how the colors worked with the walls.

Curtis & Lori chose the one on the left; its called Royal Koa.

Happy Birthday also to Angela & Mia! And Happy 42nd Anniversary to Dwight & Colleen!

Boy Am I Sore Today

This morning I had my first physical therapy session. Nicky, the physical therapist, set me up with 4 exercises to help get my left knee back in shape. I will be doing all the exercises on the right side as well to strengthen those muscles, too. I go back next week for another session.

The last exercise is on the 2nd page.

I took care of more items on Mom's estate list; all those legal documents from Rowen were to help get the rest of the items done. I closed her account at Hawaii USA. Then I updated the paperwork for their trust account at First Hawaiian. While there I got the medallion stamp for the paperwork for Mom's Zurich account. There are still a handful of other items that need to be completed, but now there are 48 that have been done.

This morning when I went out for my walk I noticed that the papaya flower that had bloomed had dropped off. I am hoping that this is normal for the first few flowers to drop off. I'll have to keep track of them.

So sad! (Oh no, I'm starting to sound like 45!)

I also saw that someone took the box of books that were left at the Little Free Library. I am thinking that the sponsor of that Little Free Library picked up the box and will be putting them out when there is space for them. I tried a new route this morning and walked for 30 minutes, covering 1.53 miles.

Happy Birthday to Mimi, Yvonne, & Bill!

Breakfast in Waikiki

Curtis had an appointment with Harold, his financial advisor, this morning; he invited me to go along with him. Because he was going to be in town we decided to go to breakfast this morning rather than our usual Tuesday morning. We invited Ron again, he suggested a little place in Waikiki. We checked out Tilia Exquisite Aloha Cafe; it was closed for maintenance today, we'll have to try it some other day.


We went to Plan B; IHOP, it's right across the street. Although its not yet October, IHOP already has there Halloween menu out.

Curtis had the Breakfast Sampler, Ron had the Spinach & Mushroom Omelette, and I had the Red Velvet Pancakes.

Breakfast Sampler. (photo by Curtis)

Spinach & Mushroom Omelette. (photo by Ron)

Red Velvet Pancakes.

The topping on the Red Velvet Pancakes were so sweet I had to eat something else with them to cut the sweetness. I opted for hash browns & ketchup. I think I'll be sticking to my normal IHOP order, Harvest Grain 'n' Nut Pancakes.

L to R: Red Velvet Pancakes, hash browns & ketchup.

On the way to Harold's office, we saw a dual purpose bathroom.


On Saturday night I made whole wheat dinner rolls to take to Curtis & Lori's for dinner on Sunday; I stayed up till about 1 a.m. Dinner was in honor of Ron's visit, but also for Brent & Lori's birthdays; Brent's is on Wednesday and Lori's is next week. We won't be able to celebrate this coming weekend since they will be on a trip so we did it Saturday night.

Clockwise spiral from lower left: broccoli salad, romaine salad, noodles, whole wheat dinner rolls, pasta salad, half filled dinner plate, salad dressing, Mongolian beef, & eggplant dish. Not shown: pot roast.

L to R: stained glass jello, date bars, & cookies from Liliha Bakery.

On my Sunday morning walk I found that someone donated a lot of books to the Little Free Library. Unfortunately the books will likely get ruined by the morning dew and intermittent sprinkles that we have been having.


I also saw that the mock orange "tree" was in bloom! I love the fragrance; I'm trying to train the shrub in front of the house to a "tree" form so that we can enjoy the fragrance right at the house.


Happy Birthday to Lynda, Naomi, Lopaka, & Roxanne! Happy 13th Anniversary to Rachel & Terrence!

Museum Day Live!

The Smithsonian Magazine hosts Museum Day Live! every year in September. Across the country participating museums & cultural institutions provide free entry to people presenting a Museum Day Live! ticket. Ron & I went to Iolani Palace which was one of the participating places. We found that we should have arrived earlier, apparently there were a whole line of people waiting before they even opened! But we got lucky, we were able to snag 2 tickets for the 2:10 pm tour. In the meanwhile, we (& other people who could not get in) were allowed to tour the basement.

Ron with photo of Iolani Palace, c. 1890.

While we waited for our entry time, we went to Liliha Bakery for lunch. Ron remembered having lunch here with Mom back in December but he couldn't remember the name. It was so busy when we got there we spent time looking through the bakery; I think they set it up that way on purpose. I saw a bunch of cool cookies to take to Curtis & Lori's tomorrow night for dessert.

This is the one on Nimitz, not the original one.

I got each of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, plus R2-D2, an Angry Bird, an Emoji, a butterfly, teddy bear, and kokeshi doll cookie.

Ron had a craving for a burger and I had the Grilled Mahimahi Sandwich. My mahi sandwich looked really large when it arrive but my morning walk plus walking around the palace basement made me hungry; I finished all of it!

Deluxe Burger.

Grilled Mahimahi Sandwich; it was a real piece of fish, not a breaded square fish.

We had enough time after lunch to go to Home Depot for Ron to pick up more paint to finish off the touch up on one of the walls for his friend's condo that he is staying at. Phyllis got the original paint from Home Depot, so Ron took the cover from the old paint can back to get a match on the color so he could complete the wall.


While there I noticed their Halloween items that were across the aisle from the paint place. I can understand the T. rex & human skeletons for Halloween but not the horse skeleton. And the skull of the horse is wrong, it shouldn't have a bony nose and the dentition is wrong.

The number of people allowed in to Iolani Palace is controlled so that each visitor can have an iPod for the audio-tour & enough space to move around & see everything. Since the palace is over 100 years old we had to wear booties to protect the flooring and carpets; food & drinks are not allowed in the building either. The tour started in the entry to the palace at the foot of the staircase, at location #2 on the iPod.

Very fashionable!

The iPod platform was much nicer than the old cassette-type audio-tours; it had about 6 language options including Hawaiian!

The electric lights were in the original palace. Hawai'i was a leader in having electricity in the residence of the monarchy; the palace had electric lights before the White House and Buckingham Palace!

Here is a portrait of Queen Liliuokalani, the last reigning Hawaiian monarch. She was overthrown by American businessmen with the help of U. S. Marines.

If you have ever watched the original Hawaii Five-O, you have seen the outside of Iolani Palace; its where Steve McGarrett's office was located. And for a while the palace was used for government offices up until 1968 so its plausible that his office would be there. The only problem is that the location as seen from the outside of the building is actually a small corner room off the main room; its about 10' x 10' and entered through a narrow, diagonal hallway.

Looking in to the room in the corner.

Ron walks for 2 hours in the morning and frequently walks around Diamond Head. This morning he walked over to the house after going around Leahi. Dad got up to eat breakfast and was sitting in the family room when Ron arrived. Yesterday when I told Dad that Ron was coming over, he said he didn't know who he was, but then he remembered that Ron bought his Bronco, although he said he could not remember what he looked like. But as soon as Ron walked in he knew who he was. At this phase of his dementia he can still remember someone when he sees their face but he can't come up with their face if you just give him a name.

On my morning walk I went around the playfield 3 times for a total of 1.38 miles; it took me about 28 minutes. But I don't think I'm going to do that again; the grass and dirt were wet and I ended up with a bunch of the Kaimuki red dirt splattered on my calves & my shoes. Because of the iron oxide it stains. I'll be trying a different route tomorrow so I'm glad I took the photo of Leahi today.

Leahi #35 from Kapaolono.

This morning one of the papaya flowers opened up. I think it might be a hermaphrodite; it has anthers but is attached to the trunk and not on a long stalk.


Happy Birthday to Bennie, Bruce, Mike, Christopher, & Kito!