Three Years & Counting

Today is the 3rd anniversary of my return. It's also the 3rd anniversary of Momo's disappearance; he got out in the morning, I arrived after dark. A lot has happened in these 3 years. Mom has passed, Dad is in a nursing home, I have 3 roommates, Xander, Shiro, & Chibi have passed, & there are 2 new cats in the house. We have replaced the almost 50 year-old carpet in Dad's house with wood laminate flooring and the exterior has been repainted; next projects are impact-resistant windows and renovating the main bathroom.

The photo of Momo that was used on the "missing" flyers.

My morning walk was breezier than it has been these past few weeks; the trade winds appear to be returning. But I think it is knocking some fruit off of trees; I found a bunch of fallen mangoes (from Sharon's house) and a fallen noni. I saw LaVie as she was walking up to the bus stop; we briefly talked about the White Cockatoo. Later during my cool down stretches Ona jogged by and I saw Lorraine walk by.

Nine minutes before sunrise on Maunalani.

Eight minutes after sunrise on Sierra.

Fallen mangoes.

Fallen noni.

Even though I showed up about 15 minutes earlier than usual, Dad was awake and eating breakfast in bed. Today he finished all of his fried egg sandwich and all of his papaya & banana. He drank 120 ml each of cranberry juice and water.

After breakfast Mr. Pires came shuffling in with his walker; I noticed he did not have a safety belt on & there was no aide with him. I wasn't sure if he was allowed to walk alone since I wasn't here yesterday; but I do know his daughters wanted the aides to have him walking more. I watched as he put his walker on the left side of the bed, then shuffled around to the other side of the bed, steadying himself on the footrest of the bed. He started going through the contents of drawers next to his bed. A couple minutes later 2 aides rushed in; they had been looking for him! Apparently, he is not supposed to go off by himself; I will call staff the next time I see him doing that!

During my mid-morning walk I met Toshi. He lives at the house where one of the potential Manu-o-Kū nest trees is located! He said he was interested in birds and knows what a Manu-o-Kū is; he has seen them in Waikiki. I gave him my card and asked him to contact me if he sees the Manu-o-Kū around his house.


Lunch today was Chicken florentine, Angel hair pasta, Lemon butter broccoli, Tossed salad, Pineapple cheesecake, and Tomato florentine soup. Dad ate all of his 1/2 peanut butter & jelly sandwich and 2 desserts. He also drank 120 ml cranberry juice and 120 ml water.


My afternoon walk was hot but I think I am getting used to these hotter temperatures; we set another record today; topping out at 91 degrees F.


When talking to LaVie this morning, I realized that I  might be able to see Tree #5 during my walk; I just needed to be in exactly the right place when I looked up. Because it is such a small window of opportunity, I missed it on both my mid-morning and afternoon walks. I'll have to try again tomorrow.

I forgot to mention yesterday that before I went to Kokua Market, I went to the Humane Society. I was mainly there to drop off newspaper for use in lining the cat cages but I also made it my last official visit to look for Momo. Since Shiro died, I had not gone back, reasoning that if Shiro had great vet care and died last November it was highly unlikely that Momo would still be alive. When Momo disappeared he had been taking medication for a thyroid condition that made him lose weight; without the medication Dr. Belcher said he would need to eat a lot more which is difficult for a cat without a stable home. So yesterday was my last official search for Momo; if they find him his microchip will be how they will contact me.

Last night, I thought I might use the Aloe Up reef safe sunscreen today so I was checking out the ingredients list to see what they replaced the oxybenzone and octinoxate with. It turns out it still had octinoxate in it at 6%. I went to Longs today to return it and also let management know that there was false advertising on one of their products. What I discovered is that it was the SPF 30 Aloe Up that does not contain the oxybenzone & octinoxate; the SPF  50 does. While looking over things the Longs beauty consultant walked by & asked if I needed help; explained to her about the erroneous reef-labelling. She said the only SPF 50 they had that was reef-safe was the ones using mineral sunblock mechanisms; she suggested a couple. I told her I did not like how chalky & white they were, she said the best one was La Roche-Posay's Anthelios 50, but it was pricey. It turns out to be $33.49 for 1.7 ounces; I was looking at the wrong label on the shelf when I thought it was closer to $20. I've got it now so I'll try it and see if its worth it.


I thought this was fixed. Apparently not.

What day is today? The paper is supposed to only come on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, & Sunday.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau to Sherry & Christina!