Siri, What Bird Is That?

My morning walk was peaceful, as usual, and uneventful. I didn't see any of the regulars. During my cool down stretches I saw the Dog Pack walk by, then one of the CNAs who catches the bus walked by. A little while later she was walking back out to the bus stop. CNA Siri found out they didn't need her today! (She's a temp agency CNA.) As it turned out she lives near Kaiser Honolulu where I was going for my early morning appointment (more on that later); so I gave her a ride instead of her having to wait a while for the next bus.

Eleven minutes before sunrise on Maunalani.

Seven minutes after sunrise on Sierra.

Since I bird while doing my cool down stretches, I apologized to Siri for being distracted. It turns out she is also interested in birds! Siri has recordings she made of several birds on her phone and she knows which ones they are. She is the only person I have met so far (other than people associated with wildlife groups) that knew about the Manu-o-Kū & of its status as the official bird of Honolulu. She also knew about the Kōlea molting; fun fact she shared with me, the molting period of the Kōlea coincides with the beginning of the migration of the humpback whales leaving the islands. Since I had time, on the way to Kaiser I took her down Kalakaua Avenue to see the marked Manu-o-Kū trees; we saw several Manu-o-Kū sitting on eggs & others flying around. I told her about the Manu-o-Kū Festival in May; she has never been to it.

My appointment at Kaiser was with Dr. Zenker for a dermatology check up; my PCP Dr. Pham wants me to have an annual check up since I spent a lot of time diving, worked outdoors, and am now doing a lot of walking outdoors. I passed with flying colors, although Dr. Zenker would prefer if my mid-morning and afternoon walks were later in the day; she understood my time constraints for those walks.

Flyer in the exam room. I should have asked Dr. Zenker where she thought I was on this scale.

Kaiser Honolulu is close to Puowaina (aka National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific) so I went there to take some flowers to commemorate the 2nd anniversary of Mom's passing. I wanted to put up sunflowers but there were none at Le Flowers, so I got a branch of Heliconia sp. because they last long. (I think it might be Heliconia bihai.) It was drizzling when I left Puowaina.

I left Puowaina and knew I would be getting back just about the time for my mid-morning walk. As I was on the freeway it continued to drizzle. No big deal. But as I headed up the hill the drizzle became a little harder, I ended up having to wait about 10 minutes before the rain seemed to have lessened enough to start my walk. Because I lost time waiting for the rain to stop, I shortened my walk by skipping the circle. I also did not do the sprint up the last part of the hill; but that was because when I did it in the morning I mis-stepped when I dropped my sunglasses and kind of twisted my left knee. I have been applying Biofreeze to help it along.



Lunch today was Baked fish with dill sauce, Wild rice pilaf, Green beans with bacon, Garden salad, Fruit salad with whip [sic] cream and Tomato basil soup. I skipped the wild rice pilaf since its mainly white rice, avoided the whipped cream because its the artificial stuff, and should have passed on the soup  because it was tomato ravioli rather than tomato basil. Once he got up Dad immediately ate his 1/2 peanut butter & jelly sandwich, he also took a couple bites of the fruit salad; he drank all his Breeze supplement. 


I skipped the afternoon walk since I had an appointment with Dr. Ching to check on how well the incision in my gum was healing. Usually they check after a week but Dr. Ching was visiting college campuses in Washington state with his son last week so we scheduled this week for the check up. I had a great check-up, my gums are healing nicely; I don't have to go back for another month.

I had some time so I did some shopping for ingredients to make low carb treats consistent with a ketogenic diet. I picked up almond flour, coconut flour, and erythritol sweetener. The Keto Sweet Treats book that I have uses primarily monk fruit sweetener and some Swerve (which is the type of erythritol that Michael uses). I did find monk fruit sweetener but when I read the ingredients list I found that the first ingredient listed was erythritol, so I just bought a bag of Zero Calorie Erythritol Sweetener for much less!

I also stopped at Kokua Market to see what they had. I bought a couple of interesting items to help them out.

I was watching the new Magnum PI while I finished this post. In this particular episode, called "Blood in the Water",  Magnum & Higgins are boatjacked and left in the water for the sharks to eat. They are swimming across the Kaiwi Channel (which they call the Molokai Channel in the episode) and find an atoll in the middle of the channel! As their friends Rick & TC are trying to catch the bad guys at the harbor they walk past a boat named the Minnow. Earlier in the episode Kupu calls Rick, worried that Magnum & Higgins have not returned from their 3 hour trip to test out the boat. Shades of Gilligan's Island!

Hauʻoli lā Hānau to Mrs. Moody, Glenn, & Jose!
 
WARNING: Possibly gross photo at the end of this paragraph. During my midmorning walk I found a squashed cane toad; it probably thought it was safe to come out when it started raining. Too bad. Not.

It's an invasive species so I don't mind them getting flattened.