Another Wet Day

It started out promising; no rain or drizzle when I first got up. But before I could get outside to pick the limes it started to drizzle. So I worked on unpacking Box #263 today while the weather decided to alternately rain then get sunny. Aue!

An hour past sunrise.

It's looking like a good day!

Oh, wait a minute, I spoke too soon.

I will spare you the endless photos of the weather and the cat food bowl, except for this one. The House Sparrows have again discovered that I am leaving food out in the morning for Mom Cat & Wiley. I think I will start putting it out later in the morning since it seems the cats have been coming around about mid-day.

Darned House Sparrows! Scattering the food again!

Box #263 originally held the microwave on its journey here. When I needed to pack up all of Grandma's remaining kitchen items so that Chris could renovate the cabinets, I packed those things in Box #263. I apparently also moved some of my other things that had been shipped here in to Box #263.



First, I had to see what was in the tin labeled, "tea cups & sake cups". Once I got through the newspaper I found 10 bamboo design tea cups, 8 ship design sake cups, 2 Mt. Fuji design sake cups (there is 1 that is already out), and 1 western looking small glass (maybe a fancy shot glass?). All the decorated items were individually hand-painted like the tea cups and chawan I found yesterday. Because these say, "Made in Japan", I am guessing these are newer than the ones I found yesterday which had no imprint on them at all.




The metal can they were stored in was interesting; the little label in the upper left said, "Jacob's Ireland" and "Fancy Biscuits" but on the sides the motif was leaning towards an Asian theme. I turned it over and it looked like perhaps the Jabob's Irish Biscuits company had manufactured product to be sold in Asia. Information online indicated there was a portion of the original Jacob's Ireland biscuit line that was produced in Malaysia. it appears to now exist as part of the Mondelēz International brand which is headquartered in Malaysia, by way of the Kraft Foods company that started in Chicago, IL! The economy is certainly global!



Sometimes it is like Christmas! Like this box; I could not stop myself from shaking it lightly to see if  could figure out what it contained. It turns out to be 2 bowls, one lacquer and 1 ceramic. Then I found the brown one just wrapped in newspaper; I think it is just decorative since the design is incised and would be very difficult to clean if food got stuck in it.





These glass storage canisters came with me. I like them because they are square and make use of more cabinet space. They come in various sizes and I collected them over the years so I did not want to leave them behind. I have already unpacked 8 others; these were in a box where one had broken in transit so I transferred things from that box to this box. They should have been emptied before they were packed; they're empty now! (I was too busy when I found the broken canister to empty & clean them out at that time. All the rest of my boxes were being delivered at that time & it was chaotic.)


This daypack seems a little mildewy; I hope it is salvagable. It's a nice well-made, little daypack.  

The little serving plates turned out to be 3 nice bowls. I suppose you could call them serving plates, but I think of plates as being much flatter than these.



This was an interesting box, it was not heavy enough to contain a Dutch oven; I suspected that was an old note from a previous use. This actually turned out to be the Teflon aluminum cookware printed on the top of the box. Brand new, never used, still with the original packing materials. I did not unpack it; they will be donated since I have a nice set of cookware (with glass lids so I can see what's happening without allowing the heat to escape). Some where, in a box. In the meanwhile, there are enough various pots and pans to prepare meals in so using these will not be necessary.




I have no steak knives. And since I am planning on getting half a steer from Toto, I will be hanging on to these knives. Though they will not be unpacked right now; no freezer, no 1/2 steer, no need for sharp instruments. The electric knife will also be useful. I think these are here because Grandpa used to raise steers like Toto and slaughter one each year for the family; Grandma & Grandpa had a large freezer able to hold an entire steer. Grandpa also used to raise hogs to provide pork for the family. And, of course, there were also lots of chickens from Grandma's egg business.





This one is also going to go to the 'donate' pile. Although I don't have all these different pieces, I do have enough of these type of pieces, plus Grandma has a bunch of others already out. I think that's why these never made it out of the box. The canister set will also be donated; I prefer my square glass canisters even though they are breakable because I am leery of things leaching out of plastics. Especially old plastic. I am wondering if these new, unopened items were housewarming gifts when Grandma & Grandpa first moved in to this house?



This will be held on to until I can test my Oster blender which says it is capable of producing shave ice. It looks like this has been used before, but I don't remember using this. It might have arrived here long after I was making my annual summer visits.


Here's what the path to the front door looked like at the end of the unpacking of Box #263. Stay tuned for more tomorrow!


By the way, I found the teapot that goes with the ume design tea cups that I unpacked yesterday. It was in the safe along with the 2 other teapots in this house. I have now put it in the cabinet near the matching tea cups.


When I went to put the mosquito punk in the outside bathroom, I was inhaling deeply to see if I could find whatever is providing that dead odor that I am sometimes smelling. I could find nothing in the garage or under the house or just on the other side of the fence at Jessie's. I did not smell it very much today, but when I did it was during the warmer parts of the day. I am wondering if something died on top of the garage roof and I can only smell it when the wind blows just right for it to seep in past the awning and get in through the window over the sink?

I got a text around lunch time about the air filter I ordered from Smart Air; it is being transported by DHL Express. Delivery is estimated for next Friday, 05/29. It says it was picked up on 05/22, tomorrow; it's on Hong Kong time. I did have to correct the street address; they had combined the p.o. box address with the street address. As the delivery time gets closer, I'll have to see if the delivery date changes when they cross the International Date Line. If not, I may have to ask them deliver it to Jessie because the 29th is the day I get out of quarantine and I am supposed to go to Kona to get a rental car.


This afternoon I got an email from Jayna, the reporter from Honolulu Magazine who wrote the article, 17 Nisei Veterans Share Stories of the Lives They Built in Hawaiʻi After World War II. She interviewed both Dad and Lori's father for the article. She was writing to say that the article had won this year's national City & Regional Magazine Association's Award for Multiplatform Storytelling.

Late in the evening, I heard Wiley meowing. I put out a little more food and called and poured loudly. In few minutes Wiley cautiously came up to the food bowl and started eating. Mom Cat never showed up; I hope she is all right.
 



I got a return email regarding the Contact Tracing Training Program; it directed me to a survey to fill out to register for the training. I have now filled out that survey and am waiting to see what happens next. You would apparently be deployed via the Medical Reserve Corps and you must sign up with them; I belonged to the MRC in Washington.

The Safe Travels online check-in still does not allow me to get in and enter my quarantine information; and no one has called. I emailed Tricia from Safe Travels to get a link for the essential worker/essential travel exemption request and she provided me with an email. I sent an email requesting the exemption and attached the documents I showed to the screeners last week who said I was exempt. Another wait to see what happens.

I listened to a live interview by Yunji de Nies & Ryan Tsuji from the Star-Advertiser with Dr. Sarah Park from the Department of Health. Most questions revolved around how to stay safe as the state begins to open up. Dr. Park says that currently the testing labs still have enough capacity to run 50% more tests. She also said so far the state has been able to follow up with contact tracing in a timely manner and that the additional tracers being trained should be able to keep up with demand as things are opened up.

Dr. Sarah Park (R) talks with Yunji de Nies (L).

During the live stream, they also mentioned Food-A-Go-Go. It's a free community resource on restaurants that are open for take out, delivery, or curbside pick up and where to find local produce and food products. I will have to check it out.


Last night I got another email from Hawaiian Airlines, saying, "There has been a change to your itinerary." It was the same flight info they had told me about earlier in the day and the seating chart appears to be unchanged. I had clicked the "Accept Changes" button on the 1st email yesterday, so I don't know why they sent the 2nd email to me, they did the same thing last time; it's more confusing than helpful.



There were 4 new COVID-19 cases reported today; 3 of them on the Big Island. The total number of known cases is now 647. There were no new deaths but there was one new hospitalization today. The testing graph does not show an increase in the number of tests being done; that is likely due to the Health Department following the CDC guidelines for only testing people who are showing symptoms or have been in close contact with a known positive case. I think they should widen the net to be able to get a better idea of how prevalent COVID-19 is in the community before they remove the quarantines and have people come flooding in from other areas where it is not under control as much as it is here.
 




Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Clancy!