When the Wildlife Come to Visit

As I was making my lunch, I almost stepped on a Gold Dust Day Gecko (Phelsuma laticauda) that was walking across the kitchen floor. I stopped to warn it that a cat might be coming to visit soon so it needed to make itself scarce. Later, as I was eating my peanut butter sandwich, a little head peaked over the edge of the table; I guess it decided it better check things out before the cat arrived! I took too many photos of it (136) over a 20-minute period.























I saw Mom Cat and her kitten in Jessie's back yard this morning so I put more food out for them very loudly. My goal was to get photos of them as they came in for the food. But they are too wily; I only saw them as they were leaving! But now I know for sure they are coming in under the gate.

Mom Cat sitting in the shade.

Mom Cat (R) and her kitten (L) walk across Jessie's back yard on their way to my house.

Mom Cat leaves after finishing the cat food I left for them.

The kitten, now dubbed Wiley, heads up the driveway following Mom Cat up to the gate.

A Zebra Dove (Geopelia striata) also came to visit. It flew in from the window at the top of the back stairs; in order to do that it had to squeeze through the 1&1/2" gap under the edge of the window sash that is propped open by a 2"x4" on its side. It panicked when it saw me and flew towards the clear corrugated plastic along the roof edge; I had changed it from an opaque plastic to clear so that the early morning sun could stream in to the kitchen. (That's the kind of live streaming I like!) I opened the window as wide as it could and turned around to find the bird was not there any more. It had flown down to the windows over the lanai table. Aue! Those don't open, it will have to find its own way out.

Stymied by the clear plastic material.

This is the gap it squeezed through.

I opened the window all the way to let it out.

But it was now at the other end of the building.

That Saffron Finch does not seem to be singing before sunrise near my bedroom window any more. I got up on my own before sunrise today. But I went back to sleep; my back was still a little tight from all the vacuuming yesterday.

Twenty-four minutes before sunrise.

Twenty minutes after sunrise.

Today is Day 1 of my 2nd quarantine. I did not get an email at 10 am but I knew the drill so I went to the Safe Travels website and logged in. It  told me "Thank you for protecting your health and our community. Your mandatory self-quarantine is completed. Enjoy the rest of your stay in Hawaii!" When I tried to update my travel information, it would not let me enter yesterday's flight information. It told me, "You can't leave before you arrive." I sent an email to the only address I could find associated with any COVID-19 quarantine site; the response I got said to send it to another one, so I did. I have not heard back yet on what to do.

Not really; haven't started anything yet.

Why doe it think 05/14/2020 is before 04/16/2020?

For lunch I started cleaning out the freezer in preparation for the new refrigerator that will be delivered on June 2nd. I ate an Annies's Cheese Pizza Pocket; it is a vegetarian meal that I picked up for Sarah when she visited in July 2017. Its Best Before date was 10/2019, so only 7 months past that! It did have more carbs than I am allowed but I need to clean things out of the freezer.

Not really cheesy, not really pizza-flavored.

I also had a slice of brown rice bread that I had picked up for David at the same time; he's gluten-intolerant. It also has more carbs than I should be eating. I don't know what its best by date would have been; all I know is that it was baked on a Tuesday. Did the gecko know it wasn't real bread? Is that why it didn't take a bite of it?



I also need to unpack and or move the stack of boxes along the south wall of the living room so that they have enough room to get to the kitchen from the front door; its easier to use the ramp and wheel it a little farther in the house than haul it up the back stairs. While looking through some things there I found a cow-shaped dinner bell that was originally hanging in the lanai. Since its made out of metal I think it might be something Lem made. I sent a photo to Fran; she will ask him tomorrow. Usually those type of dinner bells are in a triangle shape like the percussion instrument; though you can find ones on line that are shaped like a boot, the state of Texas, a circular one, or with a llama, I could not find a cow-shaped one.


After lunch I started the deep cleaning of the kitchen floor with a product called Bona; I am using the Hardwood Floor Cleaner solution. They have several different products; this is the one I am starting with. So far, I like it.

After vacuuming but before Bona floor cleaner.

Ater Bona floor cleaner; it looked a little better.

After I cleaned the kitchen floor, I had to lie down and rest my back. The bathroom and hallway floors will have to wait until tomorrow!


For dinner, I continued the freezer clean out theme; I found a bag of chicken that needed eating. It's Best By date was January 2018! I made a sauce using marinara sauce, 4 salted limes and some of the salting fluid, olive oil, and minced garlic; I ate it with tofu shirataki noodles. Although there were some parts of the chicken that were a little rubbery, the flavor was pretty good. There is another bag of chicken in the freezer; its best by date is next week; they should be less rubbery.

A pre-COVID-19 bag of chicken parts.

There were 3 pieces in here but I forgot to take a photo before I took one of them out.

My dinner.

It was a nice, peaceful evening. I can look out the window as I stand at the stove. I could see the last rays of the sun streaming in under the clouds and lighting up the trees on the neighbor's place.


There was 1 new COVID -19 case today for a total of 638 known cases here. A local health provider administered antibody tests to almost 3300 of its workers and found less than 1% of the people had antibodies to SARS-CoV-2; which implies that the  “current number of people we’ve identified as having COVID-19 in the community is probably really accurate,” Ashton said. “We probably haven’t missed a big group of people who would’ve been positive if only we had tested them. The state is still having trouble tracking incoming visitors; they say one loophole is short-term vacation rentals, legal ones are not allowed to operate during the stay-at-home order and illegal ones should not be allowed to operate at all.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Janice!