It Sounded Like a Good Idea

Yesterday I flew to Hawaiʻi Island hence the delay in posting this. Filling out the forms online before you go to the airport seemed like it would be a time saver. But it probably took me as much time as if I had filled out the paperwork at the airport; they had trouble reading my QR code. The first couple of tablets that they scanned it with only came up with my name, the rest of the form was blank. The person I was working with finally got the 4th tablet to read the QR code properly. And it wasn't just me; the woman next to me also had the same issue; but the person she was working with wasn't as tenacious. She got sent to fill it out all over again.


There were definitely more people flying on this trip than on any of the other flights I have been on since March. And more families. Though not as much as normal.

At the gate about 45 minutes before boarding.

On the plane about halfway through boarding.

There was no one across the aisle, but there were people in front & back of me.

I put my carry-on under the other seat because it was easier.

It started to rain as we were boarding.

I got up at the right time yesterday to do a sunrise birding walk! I was sore all over but not enough to stop me, not sure why; hopefully it does not develop in to more. As I was getting ready it started to rain; I ended up just moving the car so The Potential Most Favorite Roommate could go to work. Since I did not have unlimited time I decided to forego the walk instead of sitting around waiting for it to stop raining.

Forty-seven minutes before sunrise.

Raining; 24 minutes before sunrise.

I remembered to weigh myself. I lost a small bit of weight since last week. The big test will be to see how well I can control my eating and see what I'm at when I return in 2 weeks.


There was a Microsoft Meeting for the MRC Introduction to Support Services; there were about 25 of us on the meeting call. Marjorie was leading the call; she said in the last 2 weeks they have been providing support for 26 households. Because of the increase in the number of cases they are moving to the "Delivery & Dispatch Model". There will be a couple of specific lead people who will make contact with the cases to get the lists, then forward the list to a volunteer to do the shopping & delivery. The leads will have a dedicated cell phone that will show up on caller ID as Department of Health so people will answer it; unlike when they get a call from my out-of-state area code & think itʻs a scam! Most of the rest remains the same as what I have been doing so far.






After the meeting was over, I started packing. Since about half the stuff in my suitcase sort of remains there, I was able to complete my packing in about 30 minutes. While I was getting one of the orchids that Mom grew, I saw that the Hearts & Flowers blossom was even larger than yesterday!

I wonder how large they are when they have consistent watering?

On the way to the airport we were following a bus for a short distance. I like that it constantly reminds people to wear a mask.  

Because of the training and everything else, I ended up eating "lunch" while waiting at the gate. I had a meal bar and water; good thing I did, that was my meal for the day. The flight itself was a little smoother than the earlier flights since there was more weight on the plane; it was cloudy most of the way. It is the weather front that has been  bringing us intermittent showers the past couple of days.

My lunch. And dinner.

Hawaiian Airlines names their planes after native birds; I was on ʻIo.

Waikīkī under the clouds.

Haleakala poking up through the clouds.

Kohala coastline in the distance.

North Kona coastline under the clouds.

Hualalai in the clouds in the distance; Kekaha Kai on the shoreline.

These were the only other commercial planes there when we landed.

Corey was the car rental shuttle driver again; we talked about the bariatric surgery that she is preparing for. Last month she was tracking her food; this month she is watching her diet to lower her A1C and lose some weight. In November she goes back to the doctor to see if she has done enough to be eligible for the surgery. As we were heading to the rental office, she stopped to talk to two 20-somethings that were walking along the road with their luggage. Earlier she had dropped them off at the rental office but warned them that since they had just come off a trans-Pacific flight they would not be able to get a car until their 14-day quarantine was done. Hilary at the office said she keeps a copy of the legislation at her work station so when people start yelling at her she can show them what she is required to do by law; she had one particularly irate guy this morning. She said prior to the emergency amendment they knew people were renting cars and breaking quarantine but there was nothing they could do about it. She said now the visitors have to call a ride share or friend to take them to their accommodations; or attempt to walk like the 2 women Corey & I saw. I'm not sure what the car rental agencies are going to do to be able to tell if people are in quarantine when they start the new pre-travel test procedure.

Because of the restriction on renting to people freshly off of trans-Pacific flights, there was still not much traffic on the Queen Kaʻahumanu Highway as I was leaving the airport and heading north.

Just starting out from the airport.

About halfway to the junction to Waimea.

I stopped in Waimea to pick up some supplies; I headed to Healthways first since I knew they closed earlier. And just missed it by 15 minutes! Then I went to KTA since I knew Takata would be closed by the time I got to Kapaʻau.

Darn! Missed it by 15 minutes!

PRC now has nice signs; last time it was hand written signs.

Some items at KTA are in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi!

I decided to take the mountain road so I could watch the sunset. Maybe not such a good idea; on a couple of turns I had the sun in my eyes. There were 4 cars at the scenic overlook but there was still room for me to park to watch the sun set; I skipped it because of the cloud layer which made it impossible to clearly see the sun at the horizon.

Just starting up the mountain road by Hawaii Preparatory Academy.

The setting sun was blinding in the curve up ahead.

The sun has just set; glad I did not stop to watch it.

Home at last!

I did a little clean up; mainly taking plastic sheeting off of things in the kitchen so I could eat dinner. But in the end skipped dinner and just took a shower and went to sleep; I found that Leslie had installed the new shower head in the inside shower. Hulō!

Wow! A showerhead I can easily adjust! The other one was at the very top.

Tropical Storm Cristina is slowly making its way westward at about 13 mph. The forecasters say it will begin to lose strength on Friday evening. If it does, it is unlikely to make it to the Central Pacific region where we are.


There were 36 new COVID-19 cases today, bringing the total known cases up to 1130. There were no new deaths but there were some new hospitalizations; according to the Lt. Governor additional deaths usually come about 2 weeks after a spike in new cases. People removed from isolation remains at a little over 74%.

Watch as number of tests drops because suppliers are cutting back how many kits they send us.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Jim & Adrian!