Kohala Hospital Fall Festival

I took a slightly later flight than when I came over for Mrs. Ohta's memorial; I think it was the next later one. From my past experience we knew that TSA opened at 4:45 am so there was no sense in being at the airport earlier than that; we arrived at 4:50 am. Getting through  TSA was quick, I was at my gate by 5 am for a 6:22 flight. As they were getting ready to leave the gate a maintenance warning light came on, we were delayed about 20 minutes while they checked & decided it was the sensor malfunctioning & not the actual part.

Getting ready to do some file clean-up while I wait.

There were a lot of clouds on this flight but it was not a solid mass. There was also a lot of high haze. As we approached the Big Island, I could see the highest parts of the Kohala Mountains poking above the clouds.

The highest parts of the Kohala Mountains peaking through the clouds.

When I landed I saw that Janice had texted me her flight information for Sunday and asked how the weather was. I told her it was hazy with high overcast. However, by the time I reached Waimea, the haze had burned off, so I sent her this photo. She was pleased!

The weather in Waimea as I leave the Kaiser clinic.

I had stopped in Waimea at the Kaiser clinic because when I was getting ready this morning I had a slight cloudiness in my right eye. I thought it was some mucus, but when I wiped it away with a piece of tissue it was tinged with blood! It didn't hurt at all but I find it disconcerting when there's blood coming from somewhere where it shouldn't be! I made an appointment to see Dr. Greg in the afternoon. Then I headed to spend time with Uncle Kazu at the Fall Festival!

The Fall Festival at the Kohala Hospital started out with music by the Ukulele Ladies, plus some of their friends. One of the Ukulele Ladies is Ellen, a friend of Mom's from the church. One of their friends is Mamerto the guitar player. He's a friend of Lem's that hangs out at the CSC Cafe watching TV under the outside canopy.

The Ukulele Ladies & their friends. Uncle Kazu is to the left in the wheelchair with the flag. His roommate Dave is to his left. Mamerto is seated to the right of the standing maraca player.

The staff does a great job with meals for the residents. (And staff can apparently sign up to eat there, too, which makes it convenient since there's not much choice in town.) Here's today's food offering; I tried a little bit of everything. It was all good! My favorite was the sweet potato salad; they used purple sweet potatoes. 

Maha in the background is the head cook. I haven't met these other staff yet; they're preparing plates for the residents.

When I returned to the table cousin Laurel & her husband Bill were there also. We found Saturday will be Dave's last day at Kohala Hospital. He is moving to a more independent living facility in Kona since he has recuperated enough that he can be more on his own now. Uncle Kazu will have to "train" another roommate; apparently Dave is about the 4th or 5th one he has had since he arrived 3 & 1/2 years ago. Uncle Kazu especially likes feeding the guinea pig. And the guinea pig recognizes him as a source of food; it came running over to his side of the cage when Sadie pushed the cart up to Uncle Kazu.


After lunch I noticed that I had a call from the Hawai'i Community Federal Credit Union. I figured it was Tim the loan officer trying to reach me. My e-mail has been uncooperative since about the 28th; it says I don't have enough storage so I can't receive or send e-mails until I delete things. Or buy more storage; I'm sure they prefer the latter! But I don't, so I have been deleting things but it seems to make no difference. At any rate, my phone was also at 5% so I decide to drop in because it was on the way back to the house. And it was Tim trying to reach me. I now have a 12 noon appointment tomorrow; hopefully I can find the 2 documents I need by then. I'm pretty sure I stuffed them in to one of the 2 filing cabinets I brought with me; I don't think they went in to one of the overflow boxes. Tim said I could call and make it later if I needed to.

When I arrived in the morning to drop off my things before going to the Fall Festival, I saw that Chris had started the work on the garage. He has taken down the east wall and old roof rafters. He has rebuilt the support pieces for the east wall and started installing the new roof rafters.

The view that greeted me as I looked down the driveway.

An open air shower!

When I went to the kitchen I found he had also done a bunch of work there. My plan with tying these 2 jobs together was to give Chris indoor work if the weather was too wet or windy for the garage work. I think that worked out nicely for the other week when there was so much rain there were flash flood advisories throughout the state. Chris has removed all the doors which were very termite-eaten. If you look at the "before" photos you will notice the duct tape along the lower edge of the doors. Aunty Florence & Tomiko added that one year to minimize the rain of termite droppings every time you opened a door. (You can see some duct tape in these photos also.)  

 


I have asked Chris to replace the opaque white material that was fronting the gap between the porch roof and the garage roof. I want to be able to look out at the trees when I wash dishes. With the roof gone, it gives me an idea of what type of view I will have. I like it!

The view will be through the area where the opaque white material is in this photo.

The Meyer lemons are still producing but there are a lot less of them; I think October was the peak month for them. I picked 3 that were ripe; I will take them back for Lori. Nothing else has any fruits. But that's to be expected since I had them severely trimmed this year. And the avocado & mango are too young to bear fruit; though they are looking very healthy.

Murashige avocado with lots of healthy new growth.

In the afternoon I went back to the Kaiser clinic in Waimea to see Dr. Greg about my eye. It's a very quaint looking place. I found out that if I need urgent care services in North Kohala I should first call the appropriate Kaiser number on the back of my card. I would then be advised to go to the Kohala Hospital ER or elsewhere. The Kaiser clinic in Kona is larger & has more services than Waimea, but not as much as the North Hawai'i Community Hospital in Waimea. I would get sent to wherever I would be able to get the most appropriate treatment. Which could include Honolulu. But for the most part, what is available on-island should be able to handle it. (One of my cousins is an administrator at North Hawai'i.)

Here's some of the decor in the exam room.

I especially liked this piece of artwork; very appropriate for a clinic!

Since I had the last appointment of the day, I decided to see if cousin Leilani was free for dinner so I texted her. She was on O'ahu, returning on a late flight. So I texted Shirley to see if she & Greg were free. She was getting ready for her hula practice. Auwe! I will have to plan better next time.

So I decided to check out the natural foods store across the parking lot in the Parker Ranch Center. It's called Healthways II & is a market rather than a cooperative. It's open 7 days a week from 9 am to 7 pm (5 pm on Sundays). I talked to Corinne in the supplements section of the store and found on Thursdays any non-sale item in that section was discounted 15%; in the grocery section it is discounted 10%.


And guess what, I found the Earth Science deodorant that I was unable to find in Honolulu!


I also found the Kiss My Face Triple Action toothpaste that I like and have also been having difficulty finding in Honolulu.


And remember when I was complaining about the Milkadamia non-dairy milk alternative with the very large carbon footprint? I found a macadamia nut based beverage made from macadamia nuts grown & processed on the Big Island!

There's even a map on the carton showing

This Big Island Organics one looked very promising but turned out not to be. It's made in California, like the Santa Cruz brand right next to it. At least Santa Cruz is in the same state as the place where it is processed.

Big Island Organics is bottled in California!

This one, however, is a local value-added product by Ka'iulani Spices.


I brought Mom's and Sue's name tablets on this trip and put them in the butsudan. It feels more appropriate to me than to have them on a bookshelf with a bunch of other stuff like Mom had it. But for her it was where she needed Sue's tablet to be so she could share things every day.

L to R: Name tablets for Sue, Grandma, Grandpa, & Mom.

And in case you're wondering, yes, TSA did check my suitcase. Again. I think it might have been the mosquito punks (since they are coiled), but it could have been the portable drill, or perhaps the Solar Puff solar lanterns (due to their PV cells) or maybe it was the 1/2 quart of Ripple peamilk (I just opened it & doubted it would still be good after 10 days). Not sure since I am not there to find out what they are thinking. I am thinking that getting TSA pre-check is not at all related to how suspicious your luggage appeared on previous flights since I have had pre-check on each of my last 3 trips!

Happy Birthday to Thi!