Game Changer

I got here last Thursday. On Friday morning, as I was planning what clothes to designate as my grubby clothes for the duration of my visit, I realized I didn't have to do that any more. With a fully functioning washer I could have clean clothes every day if I wanted! Winner! So instead, I designated Friday during this visit as laundry day. I did a load this morning and washed some things that I would not have done previously. It was a very liberating feeling! I also won't have to be hauling a whole bunch of laundry back & forth with me!

The number is how much longer the washer will be running the cycle.

I put up a temporary clothesline in the garage. I have reconsidered where I will have Chris put up the permanent clothesline. I am going to have him install it at the north end of the garage, running east-west. That way even if the clothesline is full of laundry, 2 cars can still pull in to the garage; the back end might be sticking out a little, but the majority of the car would be in the garage.



Not all the laundry could fit on the 1 line in the garage; I hung the shirts on hangers to maximize space and hung the critical items in the garage where the breeze would hasten the drying. The towels, of which there are a lot in this house, were hung in the sewing room on the temporary line that Grey put up in March. It's okay if they aren't dry until tomorrow since I have a lot of others I can use.


I think the Saffron Finch was a little early today; it seemed really dark when it started singing.

The Saffron Finch started singing thirty-six minutes before sunrise.

I got up 3 minutes after sunrise.

Today was an exciting day; I had 2 goals for clearing out the path to the front door. One was to move the table where I keep the mailing supplies; the other was to move the entertainment center. Not that I have any equipment to put in it; I don't. Kai had salvaged it from his dad's to use for storage, he was going to get rid of it when I moved, so I salvaged it to repurpose it.

Before.

Partially done.

Still working on it.

The mailing supplies are now temporarily in the back bedroom; they will return to the living room after the refrigerator is delivered.


Here is how I repurposed the entertainment center! Now I can easily tell how much toilet paper I have (13 rolls) and won't overbuy because I could not find the rolls I had! I also moved the paper towels that were in the opaque garbage bag with the toilet paper. Those 2 rolls are now in the kitchen where the 3 other rolls are stored. Then I found 4 more rolls behind some things! Those might be ones Grey bought because they are not the brand I usually use; I now have 9 rolls of paper towels in storage. (I have also updated the pantry app on my phone so I don't have to guess how much I have when I am at the store.)

Before.

After.

Before.

After.

There was a photo album on the table along with the mailing supplies; it was of Grandma & Grandpa's trip to the continent from the end of July thru early October 1965 to visit children & grandchildren.

San Diego Zoo with Uncle George & family.

L to R: Uncle George, Myrtle, & Grandma, feeding the pigeons.

Yosemite National Park with Aunty Florence.

Somewhere in Arizona; not sure who they were visiting here.

With Myrtle & baby Yvonne.

L to R: Myrtle, Aunty Michi with baby Yvonne, & Valerie.

And here is what the path to the door looks like now! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel ... and it's not a train! Tomorrow's task will be to organize the project table. Then when the refrigerator delivery guys arrive, they can help me move the table to the side while they move the appliances in & out.


After I put up the temporary line in the garage I decided to take the ladder and see if the source of the odor was something that had died on the garage roof. I had to set up the ladder a bunch of times along the edge of the roof in order to look under the solar panels. I found ... nothing! So I have no idea what is causing that odor; though I did notice it was less intense or frequent today. FYI The panels produced 22.9 kWh today.


While I was checking out the roof I also checked the plants again. The persimmon dropped more blossoms, those might be the male ones; there were still a bunch on the tree. I will have to check just before I leave to see how large the fruits are then. I also got a photo of the Coelogyne blossoms in the sunlight; the color of the markings on the keel are much easier to see.  I also checked out the spray pattern on the irrigation system and made some adjustments.

Dropped persimmon blossoms.

Blossoms still on the tree.

Coelogyne blossoms.

 

I put the cat food out about 11 this morning but did not see who came in to eat it. When I went out at 6 with the dinner feeding, both Mom Cat & Wiley were waiting near the end of the ramp; they bolted when I opened the door. But within a couple minutes they came back. Mom Cat was very wary tonight and only ate for a short while before moving out of sight; Wiley ended up eating most of the food. When the food was gone they stayed near the end of the ramp; I'm not sure how long they stayed but I had to leave and get my dinner out of the oven.

That's about as far as she got the first time.

Mom Cat heard a noise & left.

Wiley hears something.

Mom Cat doesn't trust the thing that's watching her!

All pau!

Got to get all those crumbs.

Maybe if I stick around they'll give me more.

Waiting towards the end of the ramp.

For dinner I used 3 more frozen chicken breasts; although these are not past their Best By date they looked freezer burned already. Aue! Oh well, I used them anyway. I chopped up 1 salted lime per breast, added a couple tablespoons of the brine along with about 1 cup of marinara sauce and a couple tablespoons of olive oil. I also added about a teaspoon of minced dried garlic and about 1/2 teaspoon of Italian seasoning. I baked them at 375 degrees F for 30 minutes and ate it over shirataki noodles with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. I think if I had fresh onions & garlic it would have been better.

This might be the same one that visited at lunch the other day.

A couple days ago the Central Pacific Hurricane Center released its 2020 Outlook for hurricane season which runs from June 1st through November 30th in this region. They are predicting 2 to 6 tropical cyclones with a 75% chance of below or near normal occurrence. Normal is 4 to 6 for the season. As always they advised people to get their hurricane supplies together now; 14 days of food and water per person. This time they said to also add face masks and hand sanitizer to your supplies. They also said if people need to go to shelters, as they enter their temperature will be scanned. If they are suspected of having COVID-19 they will go to an isolation area within the facility where they will be monitored by a nurse.






The Neighborhood Security Watch sent out a couple more drone photos of iconic buildings in the neighborhood.

Old Kaimukī Library. (Photo by Elliott Wong)

St. Louis Drive-In; note the physical distancing & take-out only measures. (Photo by Elliott Wong)

My friend Janice sent me a message on Facebook today. She found a book she though I might be interested in, Crafting with Cat Hair. This is the same book my nephews gave me for Christmas 2017.


There were no new COVID-19 cases today and the total known cases decreased by 5 to 642 due to testing clarification. There were no new deaths but there was 1 new hospitalization.