My Summer Vacation: Sensei Visits Uncle Kazu

When I checked in with Laurel this morning she said she would like Wansa Sensei to come sooner rather than later, even though they have not quite gotten Uncle Kazu's pain medication adjusted so he can be more lucid. I called Sensei and he said he could come this afternoon about 1 pm. I met Sensei at the hospital, Laurel stayed home since the hospital said only 2 visitors at a time even now. Sensei prayed with and for Uncle Kazu, then spent some time talking to him.

This one disinfects quickly! Most wipes take 4 minutes. But SARS-CoV-2 is not listed as one it works on.

I wiped up the mountain apple bags & left them here.

The hand sanitizer station.

Towards the end of Wansa Sensei's visit, Pastor Steve and a couple of his parishioners came by; they usually come on Fridays and sing for the residents. Today was a special visit since the hospital has temporarily canceled all volunteer activities. It was specifically for Uncle Kazu; Pastor Steve brought a plumeria lei for Uncle Kazu & laid it on his chest before they began singing.

After Pastor Steve and his group were done I called the nurses station to let them know we were done; CNA Basilia came to get Uncle Kazu. I asked her if she could ask if I could push him around the new walking path tomorrow. She said do it today, so we did! She pushed while I guided the geri chair along the meandering path. She was the one who took him on the last walk when he was in the wheelchair, he was so weak she had to push him most of the way. That was only a couple weeks ago.

There was an overzealous Saffron Finch singing outside my bedroom window this morning. Around 5:30! It was about a half hour before sunrise! When the sun was finally rising a House Sparrow had taken its place. By the way, yesterday I cleaned the inside and outside of one of the window panes. I also did only the inside of another pane. Can you tell which ones they are? Answer in tomorrow's blog!

Thirty-four minutes before sunrise; really? Can you wait a little longer before you start singing?

Two minutes after sunrise.

About 8:15, Greg from Aikane texted to let me know that, "The guys will be by today for some cleanup and light tree work." I texted back, "About what time?" Then I heard a noise and looked out the window, they were here already! I talked to Montana & Matt a short while later; they did not know if this was supposed to be the work for April or what; they just knew that they were supposed to remove suckers from the puakenikeni and jaboticaba and trim the shoots on the macadamia tree. But they did not remove the suckers from the avocado or anything from the lychee. I asked them to ask if there was something more that needed to be done about the mango since it looks like the feral pigs have girdled the tree. And I also asked them to remove the lowest coconut frond that was hanging over the fence so that Toto would not have to do it.

Oh, look! They're already here.

They trimmed the suckers off the jaboticaba.

They trimmed lots of shoots on left side of macadamia tree; I think they will be choosing strong one to form new branch

They trimmed the frond hanging over the fence so Toto won't have to do it.

They're going to ask what can be done to make sure this tree can grow well.

They didn't do anything to the lychee which I thought was going to be a priority.

They did not remove the suckers from the avocado tree.

They trimmed a few branches near the garage but didn't remove the dead leader.

They trimmed the suckers off the puakenikeni.

Then I went to pick mountain apples and got a lot again; I gave some to Montana & Matt. I also bagged some up for Wansa Sensei and the hospital staff. I picked up all the fallen mountain apples and chucked them over the fence for the cattle; I put the fallen tangerines in to the compost bin and covered them with leaves. The 3 tangerines I had thrown over the fence looked like the birds got them and not the cattle so I'll be putting them in the compost from now on. Then I raked up the leaves under the mountain apple tree so I can find the fallen ones more easily; I used some leaves to cover the tangerines so the birds couldn't drag them out of the bin and piled the rest close to the bins so I could use them to cover each layer of kitchen waste or tangerines I throw in there.

I put together a care package for Kai and his housemates; most of the things were from my trip to Waimea yesterday where Longs had a great sale! I also sent them a package of microwave pork rinds. And although he said they didn't need any toilet paper or hand wipes I sent him one of each anyway. I also put together the package for my tax guy Mike for being so helpful and working with me via email to finish my taxes. Kai's package should arrive next Wednesday, Mike should get his on Monday.

The care package for Kai & his housemates; except Bear. Sorry, Bear, no treats this time.

The thank you gift for tax man Mike.

While I was working on the packages, RN Kaylee from Maunalani called. They wanted to know if it was okay to switch Dad to cranberry pills instead of giving him the cranberry juice which is full of sugar. I said okay, then thanked them for the great work they are doing caring for Dad but also making Maunalani a safe place for kūpuna. They are so vigilant about people bringing the annual flu in to the facility every year I did not have a concern that they might end up like the nursing home in Washington state or Maui Memorial Medical Center. Since COVID-19 starts out looking like the flu, I was sure they were already doing a lot to keep it from coming in to the facility.

Before I left the post office parking lot I called Sunshine True Value to see if the red lava rock had come in on the last shipment. Apparently Jake had ordered it but it was not included in this last shipment. So I will just have to come by on my next trip and pick up whatever they have there.

Before he left the hospital, Wansa Sensei said he had some sushi for me. Yes, I know its not on my diet; but when the Sensei gives you something you say, "Thank you, Sensei!", even if it is high carb! That's what I ended up having for lunch.

There were 2 pieces but I ate one before I remembered to take a picture!

After a late lunch I washed up the mountain apples I harvested this morning and began slicing them for the dehydrator. I picked more than 13 mountain apples this morning; I had given some to Montana & Matt and Sensei. I used the largest of the ones left over from yesterday; I prepared 5 trays for drying tonight.

What's left of this morning's harvest after I gave a bunch away.

This morning's harvest & yesterday's left overs.

The smaller mountain apples and the fallen ones I had picked up earlier in the week became cattle food! As I walked past the mountain apple tree I saw about a dozen more that had fallen since I cleaned up this morning. And around the tangerine tree there were about 2 dozen fallen tangerines! It looks like there's hardly any fruit left on the tangerine tree but it keeps dropping fruit! I really need to get an orchard ladder so I can get higher in the trees to get the fruit that is out of reach even with the 6-foot ladder.

I think I will have to pick them up twice a day to keep things cleaned up.

Aue! Where are they all coming from?

Dinner was a mix of the gift from Sensei and cleaning up things in the refrigerator and freezer. Since I did not have casserole made I ate some of the fish sticks that Grey left. I am also trying to use up the half a head of cabbage that he left.

Even after doing more reading, I am still unconvinced about the use of home made masks. Examine.com reviewed 102 scientific papers regarding the efficacy of the use of masks, disinfection, storage, etc. The references cited included surgical masks and N95 respirators as well as home made masks, though not all references covered all 3 types of masks. On the question of, Can masks protect you?, they say, "There is preliminary evidence that N95 respirators and surgical masks help protect the wearer from COVID-19, but no evidence (yet) for non-medical masks. ... There is much more evidence on colds and the flu than on COVID-19. Non-medical cloth masks don't seem to perform well, whereas surgical masks and especially N95 respirators do. Leave the N95 respirators to health care workers..."

On the question, Can masks protect other people from you?, they say, "There's preliminary evidence that, if you have COVID-19, you can protect other people by wearing a mask. But one tiny study suggests that masks may not be that effective for that purpose as previously thought, at least not if you're coughing."

On reusing masks, they say, "You can wash and reuse homemade cloth based masks. ... For any mask, the longer and more often you reuse it, the less effective it is. But perhaps the bigger problem is that improper mask usage could increase infection risk." They also say, "... efficiency dropped by 20% after the 4th washing and drying cycle." Since you need to wash and dry your home made mask after every use, you should have multiple masks. And storage is important, too; don't just throw it in to your purse like Mom did!

On using hot air to decontaminate masks, they say, "There is no general guidance to using hot air, such as with an oven, for the general populace. Mistakes are easy to make and can result in accidents, insufficient decontamination, or other unforeseen circumstances." On using a microwave, they say, "DEFINITELY NO, if its a surgical mask or n95 mask, or has any metal or plastic in it. It's probably not a good idea for any other mask either." They add, "... microwaves work by heating water molecules, and dry mask material doesn't fit the bill. If the mask is damp enough to provide an overall level of moisture, then that's not a great sign for the mask being viable at all, as it may be damaged or contaminated too much for reuse."

And freezing?, "Probably not. Previous coronavirus strains appear to be stable at low temperatures. Direct evidence on the novel coronavirus is lacking."

Then what about using Lysol/Clorox/Purell/bleach to disinfect it? They say, "The short answer is no." They go on to describe how the compounds work to disinfect and how those actions also affect the integrity of the mask. They also note, "Bleach gases remained even after multiple strategies to remove them, making skin and respiratory irritation likely."

How about steaming? They say, "While steaming and drying could technically help with disinfecting, this method could also degrade filtration efficiency and requires precise procedures to ensure masks aren't damaged."

Plus there are the possible side effects such as headaches, breathing issues, and a false sense of security causing people to pay less attention to the more effective social distancing and hand hygiene measures.

And also home made masks do nothing to stop a virus-laden droplet from entering through the wet surface of your eye. Yes, it can do that, which is why you see the medical staff at drive-through test events wearing full face shields while they are collecting samples.

I think I'll continue practicing social distancing and good hand hygiene which are more effective than wearing a home made mask.

Today 23 new cases were reported bringing the total of known COVID-19 cases here to 465. There are now 8 deaths reported but also 284 people (61%) who are now released from isolation. We're still keeping the daily new cases number on the epidemiological curve below 30 so that's good. And a visitor was sent back to where she came from; she had no lodging plans. The visitors bureau rep said, “She said she was coming here because during COVID-19 flights were cheap and so were hotels.” ... “It's irresponsible for visitors to come to Hawaii now. If they haven't made any plans to follow the quarantine, we're sending them back. It's our job to keep Hawaii safe.”