A Little Drizzly This Morning

The morning started out a little wet; I had the wipers going on fast intermittent on my way up to Maunalani. I was able to use the slow intermittent as I was on the last couple blocks of the drive. There was a light drizzle for about the first 5 minutes of my walk then it cleared up. I didn't see any regulars today, but I met Kevin who is LaVie's landlord and the owner of Tazzie & Kila. He was walking Tazzie & Kila, who I recognized, so I introduced myself.

Rain spattered windshield.

Five minutes before sunrise.

On Sierra 11 minutes after sunrise.

Although the total amount of daylight is increasing each day, the sun continues to rise later in the morning; it will be this way for about another 3 weeks. The winter solstice on December 21st marked the day of the year in the northern hemisphere with the least amount of daylight; the sun rose at 7:04 in the morning for us here. Today it rose at 7:09; on January 22nd it will rise at 7:11. After that it will begin rising earlier each day until June 12th when it will rise at 5:48. I haven't decided yet whether I will continue to start my morning walk at around 7 or if I will get up earlier so that I am starting my walk right as the sun rises.

I met Chris this morning at the covered viewpoint; her mother is on the 3rd floor. We had a lively talk; she might join me on one of my walks. I couple months ago I met Ann, her uncle, one of the Mr. Chong's, is on the 3rd floor; he will be leaving tomorrow morning to go back home. I'm glad she told me so when I see his bed empty tomorrow and his name tag missing from the plaque by the door I will know it was for a happy reason!

Dad had breakfast in bed today. It looked like he ate all his eggs and drank half of his Boost Plus before I had gotten there; but it turns out he had no eggs today. Later he ate several bites of banana and bacon; he drank all of the Boost Breeze and half of the Boost Plus. I gave him 25% for his efforts.

Dad feeding himself.

I read an online article the other day; I hope it holds true for me. It basically says the more you sit in your middle ages, the less able you will be to walk well as you age. I am glad I had a job with good amounts of field work; now I will keep up the daily walking even after the Great Aloha Run. And I am hoping the birding & learning Hawaiian will keep my mind sharper longer!

The mid-morning walk was pleasant; scattered clouds but no precipitation and a light breeze. I think I am getting better at telling the call of the Spotted Dove from that of the Zebra Dove; but I still like to see them before I mark down which one it is. Of the birds that I can tell from their calls, like the Kolea, if I hear it but donʻt see it, I count it as just 1 individual. And since not all birds call most of the time, I am always looking around for those quiet birds.


Lunch today was Garlic chicken, Brown, rice, Tuscan mix vegetables, Garden salad, Carrot cake, and Thai chicken curry & rice soup. Once again the soup was unsalted and was palatable once I added the salt packet that comes with the plasticware. Dad fed himself most of his peanut butter & jelly sandwich & ate a couple bites of the carrot cake. He drank about half of the supplements.


I found a pickle on my afternoon walk; well, not a real pickle, just something that looked like a pickle. There was a viney plant above where the pickle thing was; I think this might be the ivy gourd, Coccinia grandis. It was introduced in 1969 as an ornamental plant and has since become a pest, per A Hiker's Guide to Trailside Plants in Hawaiʻi.

The pickle is the young fruit of Coccinia grandis. It is apparently edible at this stage.

The vine growing in vegetation alongside the road.

I went to Petco to pick up more canned cat food for Chibi & a new bowl. I came back with 16 different types of tuna-based cat food. I know from my previous trials with Shiro that tuna is the protein source of choice. I am trying them on her starting with the least expensive one, Weruva Polynesian BBQ with Grilled Red Bigeye; it is on sale for 50 cents a can right now or 0.0909 cents per ounce. She seems to like it so I will go back for more. FYI Bigeye is a type of tuna. One of the things I found out from Andrew at Petco is that if Chibi doesn't like any of the ones I bought, I can bring it back after I have opened the can & get a refund and try a different one. Amazing! I don't know if this is the same for all Petco stores.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau to Ummihan & Brad!