Clean Clothes Again!

I made it to the laundromat today! Yay! And even better, it was the one in Waimea! As I suspected, it was open because it is essential work. When I got there every parking stall was taken; I had to park across the lot at the CarTow parking area. I left as soon as my laundry was in the washers so I could get some lunch.

Kinda fits with the current situation.

Kai would say common sense isn't.

Laundry day, part 1.

I went to Dan-o's Döner which was about half a block away. You choose how you want your meal, what type of meat, what type of toppings, and what type of sides. I got a regular size salad with beef döner and guava vinaigrette sauce and extra Feta cheese. They were pretty busy, it took me about 35 minutes to get my meal. Which was about 20 minutes longer than the amount of time I had left on the washing machines!

Here's Dan-o with Penny behind him; the döner is on the spit at far left.

This is Waldo, the greeter at Dan-o's Döner.

Sitting in the car with my lunch on my lap.

Fortunately, most of the people had left the laundromat by the time I got back; they had been on the dry cycle when I arrived earlier. I sorted my laundry in to the dryers with heavy stuff in one dryer and lighter stuff in the other. Then I went and ate my lunch in the car. It was delicious!

All pau!

It's interesting how much difference a few minutes can make i the early morning light. The 2 photos here are taken 7 minutes apart; but one is much more inviting than the other.

Four minutes before sunrise; still looks a little chilly.

Three minutes after sunrise; makes me want to get out of bed & get going more than the other one.

I checked the mountain apples as soon as I stepped in to the kitchen. They were nicely dried; a little chewy but not really moist. I put the Slice-O-Matic back on the kitchen shelves and no longer in the "Donate" pile; it has redeemed itself.

Two trays of plain dehydrated mountain apples; not much to them now.

Back in the safe zone.

I think I will pick mountain apples with the ladder first thing every morning if I don't have anything else I need to do that early. Here are the fallen mountain apples in the compost bin; I threw about 10 of them over the fence to see if the cows will eat them. I would prefer to feed the fallen ones to the cows rather than just compost them. I easily harvested a bucket of ripe mountain apples just from one section of the tree; I did not need to move the ladder. I think I will just work my way around the tree, picking from a different spot each morning.

I actually got more than a bucketful this morning.

I was in the driveway, on the phone asking Jessie if she wanted me to pick anything up for her in Waimea, when Toto pulled up and blocked me in. He was so happy to see me! He had brought some eggs for me from his chickens and was glad he caught me before I left. He said if I need more call him and when I come back to let him know & I can stop by on my way in and get eggs from him. Apparently, besides cattle and hogs, he also raises chickens! This type of friendly helpfulness is one of the things I like about rural living. We didn't know each other 2 days ago, now we are good friends!

Reminds me of helping my Grandmother gather eggs.

I stopped of at the transfer station on the way out to get rid of one of the boxes I unpacked last night; a bottle had broken in it and there was glass all over the place in it. I threw some other trash materials in it. A worker at the transfer station was giving out notices to everyone there; due to COVID-19 there were some temporary changes in what they were accepting.

My first stop in Waimea was at Longs; I wanted to get a laundry basket, it will help with today's laundry and in the future. While there I decided to walk through some of the aisles and see what else might be helpful since I was out and about. I also got a Swiffer duster, a binder to keep information about the house for visitors, and some Japanese style candy and coffee for the care package I am making for Kai & his housemates. (If I remember, I will take a photo of the contents.) Longs is practicing social distancing both inside and outside the store. And they now have a greeter at the door; I don't know if she is counting the number of customers or if she is just checking to see if anyone is visibly sick.

I think this is for waiting in line on the kūpuna days.

The next stop was the KTA grocery store; my main purpose was to get some unsweetened soy milk which is not available in Kohala stores. I also found that they were the source of the microwave pork rinds. I decided to check whether they had hand sanitizer (no) or disinfecting wipes (yes). I saw that they were all out of antibacterial soap but had lots of regular soap; which does not make sense to me. Antibacterial soap does not instantly kill micro-organism, you still have to wash for 20 seconds with antibacterial soap! So it does get rid of the SARS-CoV-2 virus but its not the chemicals, its the mechanical action that regular soap also does. (This pertains to the normal, over-the-counter soap that regular people have access to. Special medical grade substances have different chemicals. Then there are high-powered disinfectants that are used for disinfecting tools like those used in wildlife rehab; they have to soak for 10 minutes. Nothing you can get will be instantaneous.)

The store guy that showed me where these were also likes them.

People, do your research so you know this is not necessary.

The last stop before checking on the status of the laundromat was HPM Building Supply. They had the "pavers", which I found out are really "cap stones". They go on the top course of a hollow concrete block wall. I turns out I will only need 6 to create the walking path through the mondo grass.

After I left Waimea, I decided to return via the coast road to check if Hamakua Nut Factory was open; they have the best selection of Big Island coffee, though KTA was not bad. I was thinking the part of the factory that the coffee was in might be closed since it is the "visitor" area and I was right. Along the way there was some road work just before the Young Brothers cargo holding area in Kawaihae.


The drive along Akoni Pule Highway was nice and sunny. It also had great views of Maui in the distance. Pretty much all the way from Kawaihae to the outskirts of Hāwī you can see Maui on the relatively clear days.


Since I was out and about, I stopped in at Sunshine to see if the red lava rock had made it out of the shipping container yet. It was not on the shelf, so I asked. It was not shown as being on the shelf or ordered or in the contained; and Jake wasn't around to tell us what was happening with it. But he has my number so he knows how to get a hold of me.

Since I knew was going to be in Waimea most of the day, I told Laurel to have Bill go with her to visit Uncle Kazu. I said I would check in with her tomorrow morning. Bill has been great about having me go visit Uncle Kazu instead of him; the hospital limits it to 2 visitors per resident.

When I got home I checked on the mountain apples and Toto was right, the cows like mountain apples! He said feel free to throw mountain apples as well as papayas over, too.

They ate them all!

These are the ones that dropped while I was in Waimea, plus 3 tangerines.

I have been looking for the cover for the green compost bucket for a couple of days now. I knew I had seen it somewhere. I wanted to cover the compost bucket to keep the flies away. As I was cleaning up around the getabako at the back door I noticed that the frisbee holding the dead light bulbs was the same color as the compost bucket. That's because it wasn't a frisbee; it was the cover!

It sure looked like a frisbee!

When you come to visit me here you won't have to worry about forgetting your bug spray or sunscreen! This collection is on the sill of the window over the kitchen sink.

Three on the left are bug repellent, 2 on the right are sunscreen, and middle one is both!

There were 7 new cases bringing the total up to 442 known COVID-19 cases with 6 deaths. Overall 42 people (10%) have required hospitalization and 251 (57%) have been released from isolation.  There are 28 known cases on Hawaiʻi Island. A disturbing number is the cases on Maui which has a cluster of cases where 15 hospital employees tested positive! It seems like another, "Oh, sh*t!" moment like at the nursing home in Washington state at the start of the outbreak in the US.

Still staying at 30 or less per day.

 

 

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e ʻAnakē Daisy! On this day 6 years ago Xander arrived in Hawaiʻi; he spent the last 4 years of his life basking in the sun! (He never liked the rain and snow.)