Rain, Rain, Go Away!

The rain woke me up early this morning when it was still dark. And then again when I needed to get up and give Xander his insulin. It poured several more times through out the day. I was wondering whether Bick & Ron were going to Punchbowl. We talked, Punchbowl was out, Costco was in.

Raining buckets this afternoon.

Driving in the rain.

I needed a couple things from Costco; Curtis usually does those purchases but because I was there with Bick & Ron I picked them up. I also picked up a couple things that weren't on the list; like the muffins and crackers. I cut the muffins in quarters, freeze them in small batches, then defrost them a few at a time for Dad to eat with his ice cream. I'm trying the crackers to see if they might be a good snack to keep around when David visits.



We went to Liliha Bakery for lunch. Ron had been telling Bick about it since he 1st went there with Mom almost exactly a year ago. Both Bick & Ron had the Chicken Karaage and I had the Saimin with Teriyaki Chicken Sticks. It was pouring when we left Liliha Bakery.

What's left of Bick's Chicken Karaage.

What's left of my Saimin. I also had this last year when we had lunch with Mom.

On the way back from Liliha Bakery we passed by the bus stop at Ala Moana Park that collapsed in October when a tree fell on it.


We passed through many areas where the water along the roadside was deep due to poor drainage or plugged storm drains. We checked out the Ala Wai Canal from the condo. Like many established communities, wetlands have been channelized & drained, streams have been used for storm water runoff, & many have been channelized or put in culverts; it is no different here. In this area, much of the water ends up in the Ala Wai Canal; whenever there is a lot of rain there is a concern that it will overflow its banks. Today was no different.

The Ala Wai Canal with Palolo Stream coming in at the center of the photo.

I had actually started out the day by mailing off a package for David. When he got home he was going to send his dad a couple bottles of beer for his beer bottle collection but realized as he was packing that they only had carry-ons so they couldn't take 4 bottles of beer with them. So I packed them in a medium flat rate Priority mailing box. David went online and paid for the postage & printed the mailing label; I just needed to top it off with some coffee & drop it off at the post office. By the time the rain let up a little, it was late enough that I was able to go to the US post office nearest to me & found out if the box can fit in our mailbox we can just mail it from the house. Winner!

Beers wrapped in bubble wrap with individual candy packets providing cushioning between the bottles.

By the way, here's the information on what I got for Curtis for Christmas. It's the Jetsetter Scratch Your Travels United States map. On the note I attached to his present, I told Curtis it was only part of his gift. He asked if the second part was the coin to scratch the states off with! (It's actually a frame to display it in.) They also have maps for Canada, Europe, and the World. I got a US map for me also.

This is what the map looks like before you start scratching things off.

This is my map; I've scratched off Hawai'i. I should have only scratched off the islands I have been to; I need to scratch off 13 more states for now.

My friend Eleta texted me this photo with, "Habari gani?" I texted her back, "Umoja!" Today is the first day of Kwanzaa. Habari gani is the greeting which means, "What is the news?" The response is the principle of the day, which is Unity for this 1st day of Kwanzaa.

Umoja. (Photo by Eleta)

On the news tonight the weather report showed what's been happening. It's predicted to continue through the early morning.

(Screen shot from Hawaii News Now)