My Summer Vacation: Getting Ready for Douglas

Tropical Storm Douglas is still in the Eastern Pacific region but is headed our way. The news article this morning said Douglas could become a hurricane later today, which is a day earlier than yesterday's forecast. They are now also forecasting that Douglas will remain at hurricane force winds as it crosses over in to the Central Pacific early Friday morning. Yesterday's forecast had Douglas weakening on Thursday before crossing in to our area late Friday. It is strengthening and moving faster than originally predicted.

The predicted track at 5 am.

It looked like a very promising morning when I got up. The view out the kitchen window showed a nearly cloudless sky.

Six minutes after sunrise.

Forty-one minutes after sunrise.

But as I checked my email and discovered the prediction of the increasing strength and speed of Douglas, I switched gears today. I had originally intended to cut and replant 4 anthuriums, repot the popcorn orchid, weed the rest of Bed #1 and around the kalo, before moving indoors to reorganize the boxes in the back bedroom. Instead I decided to only repot the popcorn orchid; I will leave the anthuriums where they are because they are more securely attached right now. The other things can wait. Instead I walked around the property securing things that might become flying hazards. Even if Douglas peters out to tropical storm level that still means winds between 39 to 73 mph. It's a good idea for me to secure things anyway since I might not be able to return before the end of hurricane season and Chris is no longer around to come over and secure things for me; I hope I can find another contractor as trustworthy as Chris.

Both the Governor and Mayor of Honolulu County held press conferences today about Douglas. The Governor held one with the state Emergency Management Administrator Luke Meyers. They talked about adding masks and hand sanitizers to your 14-day emergency supply. They also discussed the changes being done with the community emergency shelters to be able to provide safety checks at the door and physical distancing and isolation rooms in the shelters.

Luke also answered a question I had about why 140 degrees W longitude is the dividing line between the Eastern and Central Pacific hurricane regions. He said based on the usual 10 to 15 mph travel rate of storms, at 140 W a storm will be about 5 days away. Five days ahead of a storm is when emergency management protocols are initiated.

Here is what things looked like when I checked in the afternoon. This information is 6 hours older than what I was seeing when I woke up. Tropical Storm Douglas is about 2000 miles east of us.

Seven-E fell apart later in the day.

The predicted track at 11 am.

I also put the shower caddy up in the outside bathroom. Since I sealed the leak in the inside shower this morning, I took a shower outside so the silicone would have ample time to cure. This is my last shower in the outside shower for this trip; tomorrow I do all the laundry I possibly can so I have less dirty laundry to carry with me.

Martina came to check things out around lunch time when I was checking to see what was happening with Tropical Storm Douglas. She didn't stick around very long since I have been derelict in my duty to put out guava slices for her.

I think she's annoyed that there is no guava.

I was going to start reorganizing boxes in the back bedroom after lunch but suddenly got really tired and sleepy. So I slept most of the afternoon. I may just have to move boxes in to the closet without reboxing the ones that are in boxes so old they are falling apart!

I harvested macadamias this evening. I husked them tonight and will shell them tomorrow and start drying the nuts. Although I will continue harvesting them until I leave, I will process those on my return trip.

Later I posted a request for help in identifying the kalo on the FB Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers group.

Wiley is getting more used to me talking and moving my hands around while s/he is eating. Wiley ahs gotten to the point of ignoring my talking and quick hand motions as long as I am inside the house.

There were 25 new COVID-19 cases reported today, bringing the total up to 1418 known cases. There were no new deaths but there was 1 more hospitalization reported. The number of cases released from isolation is now a little over 76%.