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| Twenty-nine minutes before sunrise. |
I also worked on compiling lists of things to do while in quarantine. For the quarantine tasks I tried to chose things that I can do without leaving the house or yard; I also added things that I might not do except for the fact that I can't do something that was more fun.
This morning I also decided to slice up the 3 remaining mountain apples in the refrigerator and start an experiment. I put them in a plastic bag & threw them into the freezer; when I come back I will see what their quality is like.
I was also going to put the cheese block and bacon in the freezer. The Large Family Table lady from yesterday said cheese should be grated before freezing because the block becomes very crumbly and the Cooking for Two cookbook suggests rolling the individual slices of bacon before freezing because its easier to just thaw as few slices as you need; but both those take time. So I looked at the Best By dates and found the bacon was good until mid-June and the cheese until September so I just left them in the refrigerator.
I took a photo of the cat food bag; I'm running low. If I am going to be here another 3 weeks in May I will need to have Laurel & Bill pick up more food for the cats. I put food out for them every day I am here to encourage them to stick around to keep the rats on their toes!
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| I want them to have good food if I am feeding them. |
While weather started out relatively dry this morning, it began to rain quite early. Which meant I could not go out and block off the pig paths with the white fence pieces without getting soaked; I left that task for later and worked on the many other things I needed to do to close up the house.
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| Yes, cleaning the windows is on the Quarantine Task list. |
While closing up I found another task for when I return and am in quarantine; the plastic sheeting for my bed has gotten so old it shredded as I was covering up my bed. I should check on all the other plastic sheets that are not handled as much as the one on my bed or in the kitchen.
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| Here is what the kitchen looks like when no one is here. |
About an hour before my estimated departure time from the house my friend Leslie texted me; she's been stuck at home in Washington recuperating from COVID-19. She had read yesterday's blog and said about the pigs, "...the part about shooting the pigs in the butt with a BB made me laugh out loud. I can just picture you chasing them around. Do you even have a BB gun? ... Just a thought but would cement or cinder blocks block the hole where the pigs come through? You could line them up along the fence (at) the bottom. You could even put them so the holes in the blocks face up fill them with dirt and plant flowers in them." And I did have a couple of concrete blocks that I found under the house! My very last chore before I left was hauling the blocks out from under the house and using them to (hopefully) block off the pig trails.
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| One of the places where the littlest pigs are crawling under the fence like Peter Rabbit! |
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| I hope this keeps them out. |
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| I wasn't able to turn this block; I hope it still keeps them out. |
After I dropped off the last bag of trash at the transfer station, I headed back up the road towards Kohala Mountain Road; I used to go down hill before, to get to the hospital. Visiting Uncle Kazu was always my last stop when I was leaving. It felt really different today, not going down the hill, but going up hill instead; I got teary-eyed. Which is not a good thing when you have contact lenses & are driving on a curvy mountain road since it changes the focal length and everything becomes a blur! I quickly stopped that and noticed that it was drizzling; like in many Hawaiian legends, the ʻāina was shedding tears for Uncle Kazu.
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| This was my usual last view of Uncle Kazu. |
The airport was pretty deserted, there was absolutely no one at the airline check-in kiosks. When I took my suitcase to the bag drop, the attendant there noted it was 3 pounds overweight but said she would let me go this time; I'm guessing my extra 3 pounds was not going to be a problem for the ability of the plane to take-off today. As I approached the TSA security point at the entrance to the line I was greeted by a woman with a clipboard and questionnaire for the 14-day quarantine. I had filled it out online but apparently because I did not have a paper copy (no printer set up at the house yet) and I did not have a copy sent to my phone (I did not see that option), I had to fill it out again.
About half way down the line was another new check point, a National Guard guy took my temperature (normal). Then I finally made it to the TSA security check point there was a plastic screen in front of the TSA officer and she was wearing gloves, though she had no mask. But even with the added stops there was no line. In fact, I saw only 2 other passengers while going through security. When I stepped out, there was almost no one in the waiting area.
At the little restaurant at the airport there was no seating area due to the social distancing mandate. There were also very limited food selections; they were not making much to go food so they would not have as much to throw out at the end of the day. I had a chicken Caesar salad and coconut water for lunch.
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| My lunch on my lap in the waiting area at the gate. |
There were more people on this flight than on my flight over; about a dozen people were sitting in the waiting area. At least 3 of the people were medical personnel in their scrubs. When we got on the plane they were giving out hand wipes so you could sanitize your seating area; this was new, they had not done it on the flight over 3 weeks ago. Another change I noticed was that there was also no in-flight magazine.
I had to use the bathroom after I got off the flight; I had not used it since I left the house. Usually as a flight is deplaning there are a lot of people in the bathroom, not today.
The Flight Information board was also different than it was 3 weeks ago; instead of a lot of cancelled flights listed it was streamlined to just those flights that were valid. And included a PSA about social distancing. The Hawaiian Airlines Premier Club room was also closed. The walk to Baggage Claim was like being in a Twilight Zone episode.
Since I had stopped to use the bathroom I was the last one at baggage claim; someone had taken my suitcase off the carousel and it was waiting for me. As I walked up to it I noticed the electronic reader board had a huge PSA about handwashing; I waited to see what they said about social distancing & the 14-day quarantine. In the meanwhile I was watching ads for things to do while here! Most of which are difficult to do and maintain a minimum 6 foot separation. It turns out there were no PSAs for social distancing or the 14-day quarantine; just the hand washing.
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| It's not open, why are they showing this? |
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| This is for a luau, where it would be difficult to keep everyone at least 6 feet apart! |
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| For what? You just gave them information about going to do things that don't comply! |
The Potential Most Favorite Roommate picked me up from the airport and during the drive back filled me in on all that had happened while I was gone. The biggest news was that he accepted a job offer this morning! He will be working at a call center for a local credit union but they don't exactly know when he will actually start working. Or where. The Roommates had also finished reorganizing the middle bedroom which they had started a couple months ago but never had enough time to complete, until now. There is an exercise bike there and room for a desk for working from home.
While I was sitting in the Kona Airport reading my e-mail I saw I had gotten one from Arielle from RevoluSun while I was driving. It said, "I just checked your SolarEdge Monitoring and it appears the inverter has not been turned on yet. Please see the attached instructions on how to do so, the light sequence you should see on the inverter should be a solid green and/or blue." I let them know I was not at the house but would be there shortly! The Potential Most Favorite Roommate and I checked it when we got there. Although the big round switch was in the "On" position, the flashing light was yellow which is not an option. I called Arielle's number on the e-mail but she wasn't in, so I called John; he answered. It turns out the inverter switch is a little red thing that is located at the bottom of the inverter panel which is just above another metal box which blocked my view of the switch which was at least a foot above my eye level! Fortunately The Potential Most Favorite Roommate is taller than me; he could see the switch which was in the "Off" position. After turning it on the light went to solid green(ish yellow). WE HAVE SOLAR! But since it went connected so late in the day the battery wasn't able to charge fully, so we will still be using electricity from the grid tonight. Tomorrow will be our first fully solar day. FYI I found out from John that the sales and administration people are all working from home to complete the projects that were in the pipeline, so Arielle was not at the office number automatically shown on her e-mails; its a good thing I have John's cell number!
The Potential Most Favorite Roommate has been cooking for everyone since he is home. While the others are also home, they are not as motivated to cook as much. Dinner tonight was rice, scrambled eggs, Spam, and Portuguese sausage; essentially breakfast for dinner. There were also leftover barbecue ribs from last night. It was tasty and keto-friendly!
There were 11 new cases today, bringing the total of known COVID-19 cases up to 541. The death toll has remained at 9 and hospitalizations is also steady at 45 with 374 people (69%) released from isolation. About 1.6% of the population has now been tested.
Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Maire, Pat, Eric, Roxanne, & Marissa!
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