Temperature Screening

While I was waiting for my lunch order today, cousin Laurel called. The hospital called to tell her Uncle Kazu had not eaten for a couple of days. They told her she & I could come and visit but they wanted us to come together since they would be getting Uncle Kazu into a geri chair so he could be wheeled out to the lanai. We would have to have our temperatures taken to insure we had no fever; we also had to wear masks & gowns to minimize transmission of anything. And we could bring anything we thought he might like to eat. We were to show up around 2 pm.

Laurel goes to the intercom to let them know we are here.

Before I started my lunch, I reserved one of the pieces of mahimahi for Uncle Kazu; when we would go to Minnie's, he always ordered their Catch of the Day. After lunch I started working on one of the small indoor repair jobs; getting the lights on timers back on. It turns out the one in the living room had a burnt out 15w CFL bulb. I changed it to a 10w LED which is equivalent to a 60w incandescent bulb. We'll see how long this one lasts.


I picked Laurel up as planned and we went to see Uncle Kazu. They did take our temperatures and give us masks and gowns. We also had to sanitize our hands; though they had us do it after we put everything on. I think they really should have had us sanitizing our hands before we touched any of the gear they gave us. RN Moryka, whom I talked with last week and who told me about the Zoom app they are setting up to talk with residents, came out to talk with us. I also took a piece of smoked salmon to give to Barbara for her father!

I asked some questions but not as many as I would have liked. Although Uncle Kazu is not eating, he has been drinking the nutritional supplements they have been giving him. He is also able to swallow his pain medications, one is a liquid and the others are pills. He was out of it but would wake occasionally, they think it is more due to the pain medication since they are still trying to find the right dose to keep the pain under control but allow him to be lucid. His foot looked bad; I think he has dry gangrene, which can be a problem for diabetics. The prognosis is not good. I told Laurel I will change my reservation and stay for another week.

While we were waiting for them to bring Uncle Kazu out we saw a gecko eating something on one of the benches out on the lanai. There were 2 of them that approached it but the larger one intimidated the smaller one and had it to himself.

I kinda think it might be bird poop!

It looked really good this morning when I woke up! It looked like it was going to be a clear, sunny day. As I was heating the water for the tea, I could see Maui out the kitchen window! Basically I can see the southeast slope of Haleakala.

Sunrise!

Looking at Maui 82 minutes after sunrise.

This is what you're looking for in the previous photo.

The goal for today was to install a temporary irrigation system on the north side of the garage so that I can start some plants and have them watered while I am not here. I failed. Miserably. It started out good, but then planning always does. I took measurements and reference photos for what I needed to get done. Then I started weeding out plants that had sprouted since last year when Aunty Florence helped me lay down the weed barrier cloth.

Before.

The right edge of the line of objects marks the edge of the path to be built.

About 4 feet of mondo grass needs to be removed to build the path.

While starting to lay out things I realized I did not have a 2-way splitter that would allow water to be drawn from the spigot while the irrigation system was hooked up to it also. So I finished the weeding, got the measurements for how many pavers I needed, and checked out what I needed to do to straighten out one edge of the anthurium bed. Then I put things away again.

Need a 2-way splitter for this spigot.

Here's the edge of Bed #1 that needs to be straightened out.

While I was out pulling weeds I was glad to see that the persimmon was starting to leaf out again! Before I came in to get ready to do my errand run for today, I checked out the mountain apple tree. I was pleasantly surprise to find more fruits were turning red! Grey & his shipmates will have a bunch to harvest next week!

The persimmon is starting to leaf out again!

Grey needs to come back and pick these!

While I was checking out the mountain apple tree, a pick-up truck drove up the pasture and stopped near the tree line on the other side. I went to the fence to talk to them; the kupuna came over. Toto said he has been leasing the pasture and has about 40 head of cattle between this and another pasture further up the road. He also raises pigs. He slaughters and sells both and I could get just a half or quarter; though he suggested a half since I would get a little of everything. He knew Mom and my grandparents; he also knows Uncle Kazu & his daughter Barbara works at the hospital. He was fine with our fence even though it is over the property line; his only concern was the coconut fronds falling on his hotwire and shorting it out so the cows can get out. I told him it was okay if he wanted to cut things that were coming over the fence; he said it was okay to plant a garden in the area that is really part of what he is leasing.

I picked up the 2-way splitter at Sunshine True Value; I also got a longer section of chain for the gate, 5 feet. And I also picked up a weeder; using my trowel as a weeder will end up ruining it.


I made a stop at Takata; I am out of peanut butter. Can't be holed up without peanut butter! I also got more Parm Crisps (to go with the peanut butter, of course). I also got bay leaves to put in the cat food bag and container to keep weevils at bay. 🙄

Since I was out, and Minnie's was open, I headed there to pick up lunch. They still had mahimahi, so I ordered the Catch of the Day Plate again.

After our visit with Uncle Kazu, I dropped Laurel off. Then I went to Arakaki Store, which is about a half block from Laurel's house, to pick up a couple more rolls of toilet paper; I got 4 rolls again. There are now 8 rolls at the house; which is what I thought was there before I got here. They had a lot more toilet paper than last time; almost a full shelf! I think I will stop by when I come to pick up the carriers from Hawaiʻi Wildlife Center on second to last day here.

This is the most toilet paper I have seen in a while!

I had also not seen these test kits at the large stores either.

Before I left to pick Laurel up, I put a new battery in to the wall clock in the kitchen and reset the time. And guess what time it was? Time to get a new clock! I checked the battery and it was fine. That clock was just over 5 years old. It would need a new battery about every 1&1/2 years.

It will be correct twice a day!

While I was cleaning up today I found a very old sumi-e ink stone. I'm not sure exactly whom it belonged to, whether it was one of my grandparents or if it was from a great-grandparent. But it is an old stone. For those of you who are wondering if I brought any art supplies to work on during my 2 week stay-at-home time, I did! Just haven't had a chance to do much since I have been busy with food preparation and landscaping work.


I am ambivalent about this push to make and use homemade masks. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has a great video that talks about the efficacy of a home made mask in the heirarchy of controls for COVID-19 as well as what particle sizes might be filtered out by a mask and the best practices if you are going to use a mask. They, and several others, are concerned that using a home made mask will give people a false sense of security and cause them to go out more and also be more lax about methods that are more effective at stopping the spread of COVID-19. Personally, I saw more people out today with home made masks who were not observing the 6 feet social distancing which the experts say is more effective at stopping COVID-19 than a home made mask. I also saw several people violating best practices protocol #3 several times in the short period I saw them! If you are using a home made mask and not doing these best practices, you have negated any protection the mask might have offered you. If you are going to use a home made mask, please watch the video and follow the best practices!




There are now 387 cases of COVID-19; with 23 on Hawai'i Island. All total 26 people have required hospitalization; I was reading that incorrectly earlier, I thought it was the number currently in the hospital. Of all the known cases, 89 have been released from isolation. New cases reported have not increased significantly and the epidemiological curve also does not show a continued increase in cases, though it is really too early to tell if the good hand hygiene and social distancing is really going to have an effect. Over 14,000 test have now been conducted and the new occurrences of COVID-19 has remained stable at 2.7%. Interestingly, 0 to 19 year age bracket had the highest percent daily increase in cases reported at 15% but that's probably because the initial number is so low even an increase of 1 person is a big gain for the group. The 40-59 year age bracket had the second largest increase with 9.8%, 60+ year old kūpuna had an 8% increase, and the 20 to 39 year age bracket had the smallest increase with 6.2%.