Uncle Kazu's Hatsubon

Today was the special hatsubon for Uncle Kazu and 2 other church members who passed away during this past year. It was a small, by-invitation-only, celebration so that the church could ensure that people were able to space themselves out. They had already removed every other bench, now they had family groups sitting together but only 3 per bench when its usually shoulder-to-shoulder with about 8 people per bench.

The special Obon altar.

Physical distancing.

The ceremony started with a blessing of the souls at the cemetery. As Sensei walks through the cemetery praying and blessing the grave stones with water, a member follows behind him with chopped vegetables that are scattered among the grave stones to feed the souls. The congregation follows behind them.

This is the upper section of the cemetery where my grandparents & great-grandparents are buried.

I like these old cemeteries; they don't mind if a papaya pops up in the middle of the graves.

The buildings are also very old; rocks from the site were used to keep wood from contacting soil to deter termites.

I had not realized, until today, that as you drive up the road you can actually see the church from quite a distance as you approach.

If I kept on driving straight I would end up on the church steps.

I kind of slept through the Saffron Finch's early serenade; but I did get up earlier than my usual 6 am time. I wanted to leave the house with enough time for the graveside service this morning.

Eleven minutes before sunrise.

After I left the cemetery, I went to Sunshine True Value and picked up all their red lava rock, about 15 bags. I also got one bag of black cinders and a bag of orchid mix; I decided to do a really good job on repotting the popcorn orchid to give it the best chance of reblooming next year. Maybe with better care it will have more flowers as well as more shoots so I can make more starts and spread them around. Right now there is only one on the property. (Well, 2 with the one I just cut off of the clump yesterday.)



On the way back, I stopped at Takata Store and picked up a few more supplies; like some hopefully crispier Parm Crisps! I also got more peanut butter; you can never have too much peanut butter! It is one of my hurricane preparedness supplies. I also got some Aioli Avo Mayo and more sauerkraut. I got Bubbies Sauerkraut, it has no preservatives so there are live probiotics in it; I figure it will help repopulate my gut if it is viral diarrhea that I am dealing with.

I already shook it so it's cloudy.

The directions on the edge of the lid tell you to shake it.

I had the same lunch as yesterday, egg salad on the Parm not-so-Crisps with guacamole and Whisps. And also a glass of almond milk. Since it was almost 24 hours since my bout with the diarrhea I was hoping it was alright.

While I was eating lunch Martina came by; I still had not harvested a guava for her. She kept on walking by and discovered the partially unraveled roll of paper towels on the table. Like a cat she went to explore the tunnel created by folded paper towel. Apparently it was too boring so she left.



I went out to get a guava for Martina. But first I checked out the white ginger; the last bract was now in full flower.


As I was leaving the area I saw a dead centipede being swarmed by a bunch of ants. Now if you have been reading this blog even for a week or so you know that I take photos of dead things; those old biologist habits die hard! As I knelt down to take photos of the centipede, it lifted its head! It was still alive but being restrained by the ants! It made a valiant effort and did manage to start moving. I was getting eaten by mosquitoes so I left before seeing if it really did get away from the ants.







I picked up a handful of macadamia nuts, a coconut that had dropped, and one of the dropped guavas.

This is only about half of the guavas that had dropped.

Today's harvest.

All the bending over to pick up the macadamias, coconut, and guava upset my stomach; similar to yesterday. I had another bout of diarrhea, but much less than yesterday. So perhaps I should have waited for the full 24 hours. I decided I would eat dinner but not the left over prime rib; that would be way too rich and give those viruses in my gut too much food! Instead, I had about a 1/2 cup of the Bubbies Sauerkraut; my plan is to fight microorganisms with microorganisms! Check in tomorrow to see how things come out in the end!

When I got back around lunch time, I put food out for the cats; but no one came. I checked on the cat food when I got back in the house after getting the guava; it was still untouched. But at 6 o'clock in the evening it was gone; so I went to put out more. I always shake the cup I measure the food out in and call the cats even if I don't see any of them; when I did tonight, Wiley came popping out from under the ramp. As soon as I went back in the house Wiley came up to eat. Sorry, no photos of Wiley; my phone was on the charger.

Untouched food at 1:30.

Still there at 4 pm.

Tropical Storm Cristina is still heading towards us but has lost a bunch of wind speed and is close to being downgraded to a tropical depression. It is predicted that will happen later tonight. If so, it won't make it to the Central Pacific region as a storm; it would have to cross 140 W longitude to do that. Right now it is at about 125 W longitude and moving at only about 13 mph.



There were 21 new COVID-19 cases reported today; with the data correction, there are now a total of 1220 known cases here. The death toll and hospitalizations remains the same. The number of people released from isolation has now decreased to just under 73%. If this keeps up, I am sure Casey will be calling me as soon as I get back to help with the COVID-19 support services.





Here's the answer to how many white ginger flower bracts are in yesterday's photo. I have labeled them in the order that they bloomed. Bract #5 is the one seen earlier in this post in full bloom. When this photo was taken yesterday it was just starting to bloom and #4 was in full bloom. The pink flagging tape marks the approximate location for a future fence to enclose the anthurium garden area so it can also serve as a cat run; they can make believe they're in a jungle!


Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Ruqayya & Eric!