Flattened Fauna

Did you know there is a book called Flattened Fauna? We kept a copy of it in our car so when Kai & I went on road trips he could look up things we saw on the side (or the middle) of the road; it was a great way to help a kid pass the time on what could be a boring road trip. The other thing we did along the way was bird, as in "bird watching". Birders call it birding; non-birders call birders "bird watchers" and birding "bird watching". Kai kept a log of what we saw & how many of them there were during which portion of our trip; he got to be very good with hawks, eagles, crows, & ravens. Occasionally we would see some interesting mammals such as bison & pronghorn; we included them in our birding logs, along with any flattened fauna that we saw. He could also identify the main conifers & edible berries in the Pacific Northwest; not sure how much he has retained as an adult.

We played other car travel games, too; we put a spin on some of them to make it more interesting, Kai got bored easily. Like Slug Bug where you had to say the colors in Spanish or Japanese; though not in the same game. Or spotting the alphabet backwards. And he always had books to read; when he was done playing travel games he would say, "Mom, can you please be quiet? I'm going to read now." On the portion of our trip from Helena, MT, to Salt Lake City, we stopped in a nearby small town after visiting Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve so I could take a nap. I found the local park so Kai could play while I was napping; it turned out to be right next to the single-wide trailer that served as the town's library. When I went in to get him he was in a lively conversation with the librarian & her friend who had just brought in some home-made chocolate chip cookies; they knew all about our Aikido trip that we were taking through the western US visiting friends & training at their dojo.

I thought I was going to get rained on again during my morning walk, but the weather settled down & it was a pleasant walk. And I saw some of the regulars that I usually see. I also saw a biker; he passed me going uphill as I was walking back up by the park. He passed me again as I was going up Lurline; he was zipping downhill! I also noticed that there are many more Monstera patches that have flowers and fruiting bodies; in fact, one of them looks like its got several fruits that are close to being ripe. Of the 6 fruiting structures seen below, the green one on the far right is a flower bud, the 2 white ones are mature flowers, the brown one in the center is an old flower, the 2 green ones between the white & brown are developing fruits.

Dad was in his wheelchair having breakfast in the dining room again; he only did the liquid supplements, then he wanted to nap until they got ready to do the massage. I checked and they were doing massage; but before it got started, Popokilani wanted to get in on the action. Dad, however, said he was too tired to get up; so I let him sleep while I did my mid-morning walk.

"Meow! I want a massage, too!"

I was just going to go from the upper lot to the park and back, but I saw LaVie; she was just finishing up her 1st lap around Maunalani Circle. I joined her for her 2nd lap around Maunalani Circle; she now has a brace on her broken arm. I had texted her during Tropical Storm Olivia to see if she needed anything; she said she didn't recognize the long distance number so she just deleted it. Note to Self: include your name when you are texting someone for the 1st time! As LaVie headed off for her 3rd lap around the circle I headed down to the park. On the walk back up I found a small bird's nest that had fallen out of the big hedge along Sierra; I think it might be a mejiro nest.


I met Suzette on the way down to the park. I have said "Hi!" to her before but never exchanged names; I did that today. She was sweeping up the fallen blossoms from the shower tree in front of her house. She said in half an hour you wouldn't know she had swept them up, she was doing it to try to keep the volume manageable. The good thing about them is that they are nice to look at even when they are piling up.

This is from 08/29; Suzette was finishing sweeping them up when I got to where she was.

Lunch today was Chinese style steamed fish, Steamed rice, Sesame garlic eggplant, Tossed salad, Almond float, and Egg drop soup. I ate the soup today; it was pleasantly salty & my body was craving a little salt. Dad ate all of his peanut butter & jelly sandwich again! I think I'll start marking it on the calendar in his room so we have an idea how he's doing.



During my afternoon walk I saw one Kolea at the park; there was a dog running around on the other half of the field so I think the other Kolea flew off. On the way back up I saw an egret that decided to turn the tables and walk around on someone's deck! This house is across the street from the park.


When I left Maunalani I went to City Mill to pick up some Shoe Goo so I could patch up my old Keen boots while I try to figure out if the Hokas are going to work for me. But especially if they don't work out. I ended up getting Krazy Glue instead; the Shoe Goo tube was very large and I didn't want to waste the rest of the tube. The tube of Shoe Goo that I had been carrying in my suitcase had hardened and was unusable. The Krazy Glue seems to be working; the real test will be doing my walks tomorrow.

I wore the Hokas in the house when I got home. About half way through the evening I decided I should track how far I was walking in them to give me an idea of whether I could handle walking in them all day even with the small instability that I found in them. I used the Samsung Health app on my phone that I use for my walks every day. The file showing my "route" has a generic photo; I didn't know I could take a photo to be used as the background for the route, I might try that tomorrow. The file showing the speed & elevation was interesting; there is no elevation change in the house, it is a slab on grade construction on one level. The details section of the chart says there was a 232 foot change in elevation! Not.

Yes, I purposely wandered around the house for the 12 minutes to test out the boots.

Hmmm, not sure why it thinks there is such a large elevation change in the house.

Happy Birthday to Anne, Nina, & Simon!