Back to Rain Today

If you looked at yesterday's post, you noticed how nice & sunny a day it was. A fellow walker, who had done almost all the other Great Aloha Runs, commented on how the weather was always nice for the GAR. Today it was raining again; I mean like real rain! I drove up to Maunalani to do my sunrise walk and waited for the rain to slow down, which it usually does. I waited 10 minutes, which is twice as long as I usually wait, but no luck. And I had forgotten to bring my poncho; it was still in the backpack I used for the GAR. Though if I did walk with the poncho this morning, my shoes would have filled up with rainwater. Auwe! I went home and listened to the rain while I unpacked everything from yesterday and tidied up.


The drive home was intense; I guess I had never had to drive in the morning rush off of Maunalani. I sat through 2 traffic cycles at Waialae because the freeway was backed up, which backed up 11th Avenue, which backed up Sierra Drive. Auwe! I decided to go down Waialae instead; that was busy, too, but faster than 11th.


I must have been more tired than I thought I was when I put the post together yesterday. I forgot to add the route map for the Great Aloha Run! So here it is. The dark blue section in the middle is the fastest 1 mile section that we did. It says 8.84 miles because I forgot to turn the app off when we crossed the finish line; I think we were waiting for the shuttle bus when I turned it off. That's also why the time is more than the time I said I did the walk in.


Curtis called last night to let me know Dad sounded like he was coming down with a cold; he was kinda nasal-sounding, complained of a sore throat, and had a low-grade fever of 99.8 degrees F. I went up before mid-morning walk time to check in with Curtis but the electrician showed up at his house unexpectedly so he didn't go to Maunalani. RN Sachie took Dad's vitals again; his temperature was normal and although his heart rate (98 bpm) and blood pressure (130/79 mmHg) were acceptable, they were higher than normal for him (65-70 bpm, usually just below 120/70 mmHg); he was no longer complaining of a sore throat. I called Dr. Azuma's office and asked what they wanted to do. They decided to reschedule Dad's tooth extraction because of the higher than normal vitals, the very wet weather, and the really bad traffic - the Pali Highway was closed due to 2 slides between the tunnels causing traffic to find other routes; later I found out there was an overturned car in the tunnel of one of the alternate routes. Auwe! Dad will now go in mid-March for the extraction and consultation.

Since Dad was not going to go to the dentist, Curtis said he would do his regular afternoon/evening shift. Which meant I would do the morning shift. So I ran back home to get my things and did not have time to do my mid-morning walk. But the weather was not looking promising and in fact it rained on me as I was on my way home.


Lunch today was Korean BBQ chicken, Brown rice, Sesame broccoli salad, Garden salad, Red velvet cake, and New England clam chowder. When Dad woke up for lunch he sounded very froggy & gurgley; I'm glad we rescheduled his tooth extraction! Dad did not eat anything for lunch and only drank enough Breeze to wash down his medication; he slept the rest of the time.


I wore my GAR Finisher t-shirt today. CNA Eena told me I should now do the Pineapple Run 10k which is in May; you run through pineapple fields and get a pineapple at the finish line. I will only do it if I can walk it. I am not a runner, never have been, never will be; it's too much work. I am fine with just walking.

I decided to do the afternoon walk since I was not able to do either of my morning walks. It seemed a little drier in the afternoon so I gave it a try and it was great! No precipitation at all! I saw Caroline walking Olive, Louie, and Chewie on Maunalani Circle. And I saw Ona & Rio taking advantage of the dry spell to get their walk in, too; I said, "Good Morning" to her out of habit! I also saw Leslie & Ipo; she had been doing some gardening out in her back yard and was bringing things out to the green waste bin.


I had just started my afternoon walk when Curtis called, it had taken him 30 minutes and he still wasn't to the Middle Street merge; I think it was the residual backlog from the closure of the Pali Highway due to 2 landslides, as well as the closure of the townbound Harano Tunnel due to an overturned car in the tunnel. I told him he could turn around and go back home, so he did. Since I actually got here just before lunch and I was able to finish all my banking this morning, it wasn't that big a deal for me to stay longer.

Dinner tonight was Beef lasagna, Garlic bread, Italian mix vegetables, Peach shortcake, and Ham & bean soup. Obviously my tray did not come with peach shortcake, I took the banana home to eat with peanut butter. Dad didn't want to eat anything again.


It was good that we canceled Dad's dentist appointment. This evening he was again running a low grade fever, 99.6 degrees F. RN Ramona gave him Tylenol to bring it back down. But it couldn't do anything about his froggy voice and lethargy.

I did the afternoon walk at a slower pace, though I wasn't feeling sore or stiff at all. And that was even with that impromptu little jog at the end! I also did not feel very tired today, so perhaps my body is getting stronger and the fibromyalgia is affecting me less. Or perhaps I have figured out what I need to do in order to be active in spite of the fibromyalgia! Whatever the reason is, I like it! I may consider doing more walks just to keep increasing the amount of activity my body can handle.

I received another Fitbit badge for my efforts yesterday. It is called the Classics badge. Apparently you get it for doing 25,000 steps in one day; due to the Great Aloha Run yesterday I did 27,901 steps!

Hauʻoli lā Hānau to Barb & Rachael!