Dad's CT Scan

We went to Dad's CT scan early this morning; we left the house about 7:30 in order to get to Kaiser Moanalua by 8:30. After Dad was done we went to breakfast at Dad's favorite Zippy's; our waitress Jenny was one of the waitresses that used to serve him and Mom, she was very glad to see him. Dad had the Belgian Waffle Combo with an egg & bacon; Curtis had the Chili Burrito with egg; and I had the Pancake Combo with an egg and homemade corned beef hash. Dad did not eat much, we took most of it home for his breakfast tomorrow.

Belgian Waffle with egg & bacon.

Chili Burrito.

Pancake Combo with egg & corned beef hash; I ordered this in case Dad found the waffle too hard to chew.

Zippy's is having a kids' Drug-Free Drawing Contest; today is the last day of the contest. We saw some of the entries; here's the one we liked the best. Obviously their household was watching the Olympics!


It was a good thing Curtis was with us on the trip to Kaiser this morning. Dad needed to go to the bathroom about 10 minutes before we got there; I was able to pull up to the patient drop off area and let them out. Curtis wheeled Dad to the bathroom while I parked the car; he was able to help Dad in the bathroom also. This was similar to the division of labor we practiced with Mom.  

On the way to Kaiser this morning, we passed the treehouse. Since we were driving and there is a lag when the photo is taken, another tree covered part of the house. I'll have to get a better photo later.

(Photo by Curtis)

This evening I was catching up with my newspaper reading. I picked up one of the papers that I saw Dad reading; it looked a little weathered. Then I noticed the lead article and the date. On the plus side, at least he is still reading.


Earlier today I got a call from Dad's social worker, Maria; I had talked with her about 2 weeks ago. At that time I spent about 30 minutes answering all her questions but she wanted to talk to Dad also and wasn't able to since he was asleep. Since then I tried calling her twice while Dad was awake during business hours, but she wasn't in and her voice mail was full. I finally was able to leave her a message on Monday to let her know Dad would be at an appointment on Tuesday. When she called today Dad was awake, so I put him on the phone. It was a confusing conversation; and it wasn't from Dad's side!

I'm not sure how she managed to find my number, it appeared she had the wrong file in front of her. She asked Dad if he was 89; he corrected her and told her he was 93. She asked where he worked; he said he was retired a long time but couldn't remember what year. She asked if he had worked at the bar; he said no, he worked for the Air Force at Hickam. That's when I stepped in and gave her Dad's member number so she could find the right file. While I found it annoying that she was so ill-prepared to talk to a client that she was calling, I found it encouraging that Dad did not agree with her and corrected her when she was giving him wrong information. She is going to try to meet up with us after Dad's next appointment.

PA Toilolo called. Dad's CT scan came back totally normal! She said if Dad continues to have pain at the back of his head to give him Tylenol. If he has other symptoms, she wants me to call their nurse help line.

I forgot to mention on Sunday that it was the 2nd anniversary of the start of this blog!
 
Happy Birthday to nephew David! Happy Birthday also to Peggy, Roger, Winnie, & Shaun!

Kaimuki Superette

We went to Kaimuki Superette for breakfast this morning; Mom's financial advisor Adelia recommended it to us. If you decide to check it out and can't find parking on the street out front, turn on 9th Avenue and park behind the building. Curtis had the Akamai Bowl, it had the least carbs. I had the Soft Scramble Sammie. It was so ono! We need to go back again.

It doesn't look like much but the food is good!

This is their breakfast board. There are other boards for lunch & other items.

Akamai Bowl; I'll have to try this next time. (Photo by Curtis)

Soft Scramble Sammie with bacon & avocado; I would order this again.

I also bought a bag of 9th Avenue Blend coffee for Kai. It's a special blend made exclusively for Kaimuki Superette. They also have their own hot sauce; I will bring Kai here for breakfast on his next visit so he can pick the sauce he wants.

Kaimuki Superette's special blend coffee.

Kaimuki Superette's special hot sauces.

Later in the afternoon I took Dad to Kaiser to see Physician's Assistant Toilolo about Dad's complaint about the pain in the back of his head. PA Toilolo couldn't find any external signs of trauma (neither could I); she is having a CT scan done tomorrow to see if there is anything internal. Curtis will be going with us, then we'll take Dad out to breakfast; they don't want him eating or drinking anything before the scan.

The one-eyed brush-tailed rock-wallaby has a name now! They're calling him Halawa after the area he was found in. The Honolulu Zoo veterinarian thinks his eye was injured in a fight with another wallaby, not a car. Halawa will be at the zoo until he is fully recuperated, in about 2 weeks.

(Screen shot from HNN.com)

Happy Birthday to Jane! Happy 8th Anniversary to Brianna & Key!

Liquid Sunshine

I took a chance today on doing laundry. When I hung it out it was overcast and cool but dry. About an hour later I noticed a light mist coming down, by the time I got to the back door to check on the laundry the sun was out, so I decided to leave the clothes out. About another hour later it was lightly drizzling, so I went to the back door to bring the laundry in. And found liquid sunshine again! So I let the laundry stay out again. My gamble paid off; the sun came out for a couple of hours. By the time the clouds moved back in the clothes were dry.

It really is drizzling in this photo!

Yesterday my phone died while I was on the Pu'uhonua o' Wai'anae tour. On the way to Waianae I was following a car that turned in to the boat harbor & parked nearby. It turns out Celia & her daughter were also there for the open house. I asked Celia for her photos of the camp.

The entrance sign. (Photo by Celia)

Our tour group with tour leader Chris (R). (Photo by Celia)

The times are for people wanting to pick up things; you can drop off donations at any time. (Photo by Celia)

My salad usually looks like the photo below. When Dad was eating salads he would have about 1/4 of the bowl. About a month ago he said it was too difficult to eat salads anymore; and he doesn't want to use his dentures. I realized tonight I no longer need to shred the carrots; since Dad isn't eating salad anymore I can just cut the carrots into chunks. Duh!

I like avocados.

Wildlife have really been in the news lately. Tonight there was a piece about a mute swan that had to be rescued from the surf! Apparently it got loose from the Hyatt Regency flew out to the water, which happened to be the ocean rather than a flat lake. The lifeguards at Honolua Bay had to rescue it.

(Screen shot from KHON)

The rescued wallaby had eye surgery today; the zoo vet removed its injured right eye. Once it is healed up it will go to a zoo rather than be returned to Halawa Valley.

(Screen shot from KHON)

Happy Birthday to Glenda & Leah!

Pu'uhonua o Waianae

The weather earlier in the day was not raining so I decided to go to the Pu'uhonua o Waianae open house. During the hour drive out to the encampment it clouded over, but it never rained. This homeless encampment is on State-owned property next to the Pokai Bay boat ramp where I spent one summer during college, part of a group diving on an artificial reef collecting data for future reef enrichment projects. I haven't been back here for over 40 years; a lot has changed! The residents at Pu'uhonua o Waianae wanted to show the general public how the camp was run to dispel myths that many people have about homeless people. Based on the people in my tour group I think they were mainly preaching to the choir today. The State has recently proposed to possibly move the nearly 200 residents from this 19 acre site to a nearby 2 acre site which means going from about 4100 sf per person to about 430 sf; which will force the loss of a lot of amenities. Among other things, the current site has walking/biking paths throughout that are wide enough to allow emergency vehicle access, a recreation tent that kids can only go to after their homework is done, a garden area & chicken coop to provide some fresh food for residents, & a donation tent where anyone can drop off items. They also have rules and block captains to help enforce the rules & keep peace, order, and safety in the camp, which has been in existence at least since 2006. This is not the first pu'uhonua that has been created here.

Kalo patch n foreground and chicken coop in background.

Apparently the State is also saying that the residents are also negatively impacting the habitat for the 'opae'ula, an endemic shrimp. It lives in anchialine pools, some of which are on the encampment property. Rocks walls have been built around some of the known pool areas to keep people & dogs out, with additional rocks marking the locations of the holes to keep them from being impacted. Some areas are off limits to camping because the limestone karst layer above some underground caverns is too thin and will collapse. The residents have asked the State to teach them what else they need to do to keep the pools healthy but have not been successful in getting any training.

Some of the anchialine pools on the site.

When I got back I checked out Mom's orchid and found another flower has bloomed! Earlier in the week I saw that the orange has flowers again; we'll see if its just as productive as it was last year. The papayas are bigger but still totally green; it's been about 10 months since I put the seedlings in to the ground, looks like it might be a full year of in-ground growing to produce a ripe papaya.

I didn't notice the bug on the flower when I was taking the photo.

The first of the new crop of orange blossoms.

Fruits on the tallest of the 3 trees.

The rain has finally arrived; it's raining while I write this. The island is under a flash flood warning until early tomorrow morning; the windward side of the island is getting the heaviest rain. I wonder how much rain they are getting at Pu'uhonua o Waianae?

Happy Birthday to cousin Justine! Happy Birthday also to Paul & Greg!

No Rain Today Either

Since Wednesday night they have been predicting lots of rain statewide. But it's been at either end of the state, none here. This is a photo of this morning, which was the heaviest rain we have had here for the 3-day period they have been saying there will be big rains. Since I had been expecting rain I held off on doing laundry since I like to hang the laundry outside to dry. I'll have to see what it looks like tomorrow morning.

It's drizzling.

Last night on the news they said the wallaby that has been hanging around Halawa Correctional Facility got hit by a car earlier in the afternoon. They caught it and it is now at the Honolulu Zoo getting examined by the vets. Since the brush-tailed rock-wallaby is a non-native species, if it's okay it won't be returned to the valley; it will either stay at the zoo or go to another zoo.

Petrogale penicillata. (Screen shot from KGMB)

Another story they had last night was about a stolen backhoe. A few years ago we found a stolen backhoe that someone had dumped in one of our mitigation wetlands; it looked like someone took it for a joy ride and got it stuck. I wonder where they will find this one?

(Screen shot from KGMB)

Happy Belated Birthday to Mickey!

Dinner at Zippy's with Dad

Curtis came over this evening to give Dad a shave and change his clothes. After that we went out to dinner at Dad's favorite place, Zippy's! Dad had his favorite Hamburger Steak Plate with vanilla ice cream for dessert, Curtis had the Chili Moco, and I had the Pork Adobo special. We try to take Dad out every so often; I told him there was nothing to eat in the house so we needed to go out for dinner. I actually had not made anything but could easily get something out of the freezer if he was adamant about not going out. Zippy's is great because they are very kupuna-friendly. There are disabled parking stalls on both parking levels, a very well-marked pedestrian walkway, and a good elevator from the parking level to the restaurant level. 

Curtis cuts up Dad's Hamburger Steak; (clockwise) roll, Pork Adobo, and Chili Moco.

Chili Moco. (Photo by Curtis)

Pork Adobo Mini-plate.

There is a storm front that has been sitting south of the state all day. Kaua'i started to get rain this afternoon; they're under a flash flood warning until later tonight. The rest of the State is under a flash flood watch. Last Sunday we also had heavy rains which caused damage in several areas; the ground is still saturated so more damage is anticipated if the predicted rainfalls of 5" to 12" materialize.

There's a big cloud hanging over the state this evening. (Screen shot from KGMB)

This was flooding from last Sunday on Maui. (Screen shot from KGMB)

I received an envelope in the mail today; one of the things in the envelope was poking out of it. They were gifts from Janice! I sent her this photo; she said that everything that she sent arrived. She was dealing with new snow beginning to come down.

Gifts from Janice (clockwise from top left): Stargazing pocket notebook, Seattle Chocolate Company Bali Sea Salt Toffee jcoco chocolate bar, and Epic 100% Natural Bison protein bar.

Fresh snow in Seattle. (Photo by Janice)

Happy Birthday to Shannon!

Another Flower Blooms!

I checked Mom's orchid today. And found another flower had bloomed! It will be a couple more days before the next bud opens up.

Xander had another blood glucose test today. He still needs to be on the insulin but the amount has stayed the same, 2 units twice a day. Along with the 1/2 tablet every other day. He has to go back in 2 months for another check up on his blood glucose level. Hopefully his pancreas will be working better then; it would be great to get him off of the insulin shots.

The weather forecast is saying we'll be having heavy rains again beginning tomorrow. There is a flood watch that will start tomorrow morning and currently planned to go through Friday evening. Stay tuned for more rain photos!

Happy Birthday to Vickie, Barb, Jackson, Darwin, & Amelia!

My Cafe

This morning we went to My Cafe for breakfast. They have a long skinny dining area that runs parallel to the kitchen area. The walls have a bunch of murals along them. Curtis had the Corned Beef Brisket Hash Plate; I had the Chocolate Taro Haupia Pancakes. We'll have to go back again to try more things.

If you're staying for breakfast, park on the opposite side of the parking lot or you'll get towed if you're there for more than 30 minutes..

There's a menu board as well as a paper menu.

Corned Beef Brisket Hash Plate. (Photo by Curtis)

Chocolate Taro Haupia Pancakes.

Back at Curtis' house I checked out his remodel. The sheetrock has been taped, mudded, and painted. The contractors haven't started removing the sliding glass door yet.

Looking out the master bedroom windows.

Curtis going in to the very large closet in the master bedroom.

Master bathroom with wheelchair accessible shower.

Looking out the windows of the other new bedroom.

This sliding glass door and wall will be removed to provide access to the new rooms.

Looking towards the kitchen which will also be remodeled.

On the outer edge of the new lanai, looking towards one of the new bedrooms.

Looking towards the new sliding glass door. The bay window on the right will be removed.

Happy Birthday to Chris, Gus, & Rebecca!