Dehydration Success!

The sliced tangerine sections were nice and dehydrated by 10 this morning after only about 15 hours of drying. I tried a slice that had some cinnamon on it as suggested by Grey; it was delicious! I think when I do this later for myself I will also add cinnamon. I also removed the very thick slices that had the rinds on them; they have now had about 36 hours of drying time.

15 hours.

36 hours.

When I woke up today I decided to make today mainly an indoor work day; it was overcast but not drizzly, but I had indoor things I needed to do.

Twelve minutes before sunrise.

One of the first things I do in the morning is to put incense on the butsudan; it is one of the agreements for being steward of the family property. I noticed today that there were only 3 pieces of incense left in the holder. When I went to fill it, I discovered that the last box that my mother had opened was empty. I opened a new box; I am the new keeper of the family traditions.


The Roommate Who Likes to Wash Dishes sent me a photo this morning; it was the contents of a COVID-19 Care Kit that arrived yesterday from my friend Janice. She said it had chocolate in it so it needed to be refrigerated; I asked The Roommates to open it up. Janice was supposed to come and visit in May, but with all the uncertainty of travel at that time she & her friend are cancelling their trip. Some of the things in the package were things she was going to bring as presents for us.


A couple of hours later I got an e-mail from The Bronco Dude, he said, "The other day my wife shared a care basket for ER Nurses, Doctors and First Responders at a local hospital near where we live. On our way back home, she asked if I would light up the front entrance of our house with festive lights. She said that will help lift her spirit during this difficult period. I jumped at the opportunity. What we both discovered was how good it made us feel to see the lights displays around our front entrance of our home. ... Sometime, lights give and bring us hope when things around us seem dark and sad. Thinking about those of us who are sick, shut-in, who have loss someone or just lonely or scared. Someone who spirits are down and need the spirit of lights to pick them up. Light it up in the name of solidarity, support, remembrance, caring and of unity. Light it up for our first responders and for our country. Light it up to bring joy to someone who may need it. ... Our request of you is to start a movement with your family, friends and neighbors. A movement of hope, peace and love. A movement to think of those who are less fortunate than ourselves. Display your festive lights around your windows or doors. Help lift someone's spirits and maybe you will discover the benefits looking at the lights from your window. Light it up! Share your story!"

 
After I removed the dried tangerines from the dehydrator I decided to reposition the cart it was on. I turned it 90 degrees; this allows access to the shelf & lower cabinet. The shelf is where I put the reusable bags for grocery shopping; though in this time of COVID-19 Takata Store is providing new paper bags to minimize transmission from bags of people who may not be as meticulous as they should be about hand hygiene. In the cabinet below, I keep the Food Saver & its supplies for vacuum sealing.

This got bowed from the microwave.

I had a brainstorm last night, I also have a Cuisinart food processor somewhere in a box. Using the food processor to slice sliceable things would make prep work for dehydrating them easier; plus they would dry more evenly since the slices should be more uniform. I will talk to Grey when he returns to see if that would be helpful for them. In the meanwhile, I will look for the food processor, which will also allow me to figure out what is in my boxes again.

FYI About a year ago I was having problems with my phone. The Verizon tech that was "helping" me deleted apps he thought were unnecessary without telling me what he was doing. I found out too late that he deleted my Moving Planner app where I had meticulously entered data on each numbered box as I packed them. Since it was a free app it was not backed up somewhere. Now I am careful to tell the tech right up front that they need to ask permission before they start deleting things from my phone! On the plus side, it's like getting a present every time I open a box!

For lunch today, I finished my leftovers from the Chile Colorado that I started yesterday. And I do know that beans and tortilla chips have carbs. It was my bad for thinking it would be easy to find a low carb alternative to a Mexican restaurant meal! So I blew my carb budget yesterday & today. Aue!


Once again during lunch I listened to videos of officials talking about COVID-19. Today I listened to a press conference that Honolulu City & County Mayor Caldwell presented. He talked about the 14-day inter-island travel quarantine, how testing is the 3rd highest per capita in the nation, and how we all need to practice social distancing.

 

I did not see the pigs today. I did find one tangerine skin that looked like ones I found when the pigs had unfettered access to the back yard. But that was the only one out of 3 that were on the ground. The other fruit that had been partially eaten was gnawed on by a rat.

The one on the right looks like a pig might have eaten it.

Today I also changed all the Damp Rid dehumidifiers; I use the hanging ones in the closets and the tubs in a couple other places. I also have a dehumidifier rod in the sewing room; but someone thought they were helping me conserve electricity and unplugged it and the surge protector. Aue! I plugged it back in and also attached a little sign to the cord for both so people would know to leave them on.


In the early afternoon I got a frantic call from The Roommate Who Likes to Wash Dishes; they were unable to find S'mores and feared she had gotten out of the house and was lost. They tried calling inside the house and shaking the treat bag but she did not come to them. They also tried it outside but no luck there either; so they wanted to know what I did to look for Momo. After a bunch of questions I told him I didn't think she got out of the house; I thought she was either trapped somewhere and couldn't come out on her own or she was getting uncomfortable having them around all day with the stay-at-home order and was doing her own social distancing to get away from them. He texted about 10 minutes later; she had been accidentally trapped in his dresser drawer!

In each of the bedrooms there is the same style of dresser that has 5 drawers. I have designated the top 2 drawers as "Guest" and left them empty; Grey noted that and put some of his stuff in those drawers for the time he is here. The next drawer is labeled, "Towels", "Sheets and Pillowcases", and "Beach Towels". The 4th drawer is not labeled and will be for my things that I keep in the particular bedroom. The bottom drawer will either be for Kai or Tomiko, depending on which bedroom it is; they have their preferred rooms. Today I cleaned out the 3rd drawer in the bedroom Grey is in and put the towels, sheets, pillowcases, and beach towels for that room in the drawer. My goal is to have each room have its own supplies that guests can use; they would also have access to sheets and pillowcases to change the bed linens just before they leave.



I had forgotten what was in that 3rd drawer. I found some of my art supplies; my brushes, tubes of watercolor pigments, tubes of gouache pigments, brush cleaner, art masking tape, a natural sponge, and a travel palette. Also in the drawer were reference photos for artwork, notes from a couple of art classes I had taken, 2 inspirational calendars featuring artwork, and a piece of watercolor paper that I use to test my pigments. There were also a bunch of blank CDs. The nicest surprise was finding the tuxedo cat wind sock that used to hang in our living room.

Five brushes on left and black handled brushes near center are Dad's old brushes.

My old tubes of watercolor pigment; before I started using a limited palette.

The 4 round spots are where I was experimenting with dropping pigment on bubbles on the paper.

An unfinished prairie storm painting.

I also found a pair of gloves I had made for Kai one year for Halloween. He wanted to be one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; there were a lot of them in his class that year. But he was the only one with 3 fingers and a shell! I made the shell by covering his snow saucer with mylarized green wrapping paper and threading the straps of his backpack through the handles so he could wear it on his back.


There was also a sheet of pi wrapping paper; I bought it to wrap the prize for one of the March Against Hunger Pi Day Pie events. March Against Hunger is a fundraiser for the food bank that we did at work that runs during the month of March; it was cancelled this year due to COVID-19.


I talked to RN Maryka from Kohala Hospital on the phone this morning; she said Sadie & Cheryl are in the midst of setting up ways for residents to have Internet contact with their relatives. She said they should know by the end of the week how I can be able to get in touch with Uncle Kazu! She said he still goes out every dry day to exercise on the completed wheelchair path in the front of the hospital.

We are now at 224 confirmed cases with 13 hospitalizations, 1 death, and 58 recovered. The 1st photo is the way the media has been presenting the information; the 2nd is from the Health Department. I will be switching over to the Health Department table since it provides more information. The 3rd photo is an epidemiological graph from the Health Department; it tracks cases by the day symptoms started occurring not when the test results came back, which could be up to a couple of weeks. The graph provides a much more accurate picture of how fast things are happening and also accounts for the lag in testing




Our first death from COVID-19 was reported today. And on Kaua'i they arrested a tourist for ignoring the 14-day mandatory quarantine; he was out sightseeing. I think that's why the City & County of Honolulu Mayor and others are sending a letter to the President asking for the Federal government to step in and halt all flights to the state.



Grey got back well after dark; he said he had a good time and accomplished quite a lot during his trip to Hilo. On the way back he decided to drive around the island. As he unloaded the car he came in saying he had 2 surprises: farm-fresh eggs and pistachios!



Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Peter & Steven!