My Summer Vacation: New Shoes

I had been avoiding walking until this morning; I was not able to find my new Hokas earlier and I had realized the pain I was having in my knees was from worn out shoes. Not from getting old! It was pouring a couple hours before I got out of bed; in fact it was so loud it woke me up, that's how I knew it was raining. But I decided to head up anyway.

On the way up, there was an incident on Sierra, just past Waiʻalae. The road is just wide enough for 2 cars here, so I had a bit of a wait behind the 2 police cars while people came down off the hill on their way to work. As I passed the police cars I was not able to see what was happening since I was focused on the road ahead watching for more traffic come down the hill.

Eighteen minutes before sunrise on Sierra.

On the way up I passed Lorraine just as she was leaving the little side street she lives on and was starting up Sierra. Further up I saw Noe as she was heading up Sierra from the end of Lurline. And up on Lurline I saw Ona & Rio. The weather was actually quite nice when I got to the parking lot. During my walk I saw Kavita on the circle. I also saw Ona & Rio again on the circle; they had just parted company with Stef who had gone down Mana Place. So I went down Mana Place to catch up with Stef; she is still having problems with her heartbeat. The biggest problem is that it's irregular; if it was always too fast or always too slow there would be a lot more they could do about it. But when its wildly fluctuating all over the place there's not much they can do except try to figure out what's causing it to do that. Stef was going to do a couple laps around the circle so I continued down Sierra on my usual route. Along the way I saw Lorraine & Yan as I was comng up Lurline; it turns out Yan's husband Richard knows Roberta from my contact tracing class! Small world! While I was talking to Lorraine & Yan, Lynnette & Noe walked by on their way home. The Surfer also drove by. Further up the hill Wendy drove by. Then I ran in to Tina with Massimo, Chloe Bacon, & Ink. I had not seen them in a while and I also had not seen Tina's car so I thought she had moved; she had actually just bought a new car! At the top of Lurline I saw Ken with Toto & Chico; we walked for a ways until we saw La Vie at the top of Sierra. She & I continued walking the circle while Ken waited for Toto & Chico to check things out. LaVie & I crossed paths with Stef who was now walking with Cathy; I told Cathy I had bought her book that she was reading from 2 weeks ago. We also saw Mike & Dulcie as they were starting their walk. LaVie was going to do another couple of laps around the circle so I went back to the car; I did not want to overdo the walking since I had not walked in a while.

Eight minutes before sunrise on Maunalani.

Two minutes after sunrise, going down Mana Place.

Sixteen minutes after sunrise on Sierra.

A I was leaving I saw Mike & Dulcie walking past the parking lot and LaVie in the distance coming around the other side of the circle. Further down Lurline I saw The Other Wendy on her way up the hill. And at the bottom of Lurline I saw Paul & Bodhi headed back home.

LaVie had her hair down today as she walked. I have never seen it when she did not have it wrapped up. She has the longest hair I have ever seen!

That's Toto on the far right edge.

During my walk a saw a couple of the local cats but I did not see Sherrie or her cats this morning. The Lion Cat looks like he did not get his fur shaved this year like he did last year. I also saw Gizmo today; the last time I saw him was in March. I did not see any of his other buddies today.

The Lion Cat.

Gizmo.

l ran some errands on the way home; as I was on my way to Longs it began to rain. It stopped just before I got to Longs where I found a new spray disinfectant I had not seen before. It says it kills 99.9% of bacteria but says nothing about viruses but I got it anyway. Keeping the counter clean of any bacteria that the cat with no table manners spreads is also a good thing. I also went to Times to pick up some unsweetened almond milk. While there I saw some impatiens for sale; they like to grow in the shade. I bought a pot to add to the planting trough in the cat run under the shady section.

Like many others, surface has to remain wet for 10 minutes.

When I got home I checked the side of my calf which started hurting during my walk and was getting worse with every step. The top edge of my new shoe was rubbing the skin off of my leg! I have never had that happen before in that location. On my heel, yes; sometimes on a toe, yes. But never on the side of my calf. I guess I will have to put a band aid on it and hope the shoe softens up so it doesn't keep rubbing there.

Is this the side of the calf or is the calf only on the back? Or is this part of the shin or is that only the bone? What is this part of the lower leg called?

I found out Duolingo has "events" for the different language groups. And there is one for ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi! It is on Sundays from 11:30 to 1 pm. I signed up for the next one to see what its about and whether I know enough for it to be helpful for me.

The homework for the Unicorn Challenge today was learning about nutrition for women over 40. They start with a breakfast protein smoothie.

For dinner I made a salad with the remaining head of lettuce and topped it with lomi salmon. With a side of puaʻa kalua.

It's Monday! Which means it is Papa ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi and today is Papa ʻEkolu Kau Hāuʻle Lau. Today we started with phrases related to COVID-19, then moved on to cleaning things around the house.

Go here to find this and all past classes.

It looks like ka laiki (rice), but its really one põpoki. (I made up one põpoki, cat sand.)

The Go For Broke National Education Center is presenting an Evening of Aloha Virtual Event with a photo tribute of living veterans; both Dad and Lori's father will be part of the event. It will be on November 14th from 4 to 5 pm PST.

Some people say there will be a lot of confusion for visitors because of the new Reopening Strategy. I say that will only be true for those who come before the state really is reopened. If they come before we are fully reopened, then they had better read up on the rules before they come. It's their responsibility to be informed. If you were going to another country, would you just do the same as you did in your home country? Like drive on the right side of the road in England? No, you would familiarize yourself with the rules before you got there, then follow them while there; same difference. Exercise some personal responsibility folks!

Live theater groups are coming up with novel ways to deal with th novel coronavirus. Some are doing readings in parking lots and asking theater goers to bring their own chairs. Others are doing online shows. And one is doing it from an elevated balcony overlooking their parking lot where patrons sit in their cars and have the sound piped in over the radio; kinda like an old-fashioned drive-in theater!

The locally owned Springboard Hospitality company is making lemonade in this pandemic. The hotel management company decided to redefine what they do and how they do it so they would not have to lay off their employees. They're using technology top better connect with potential and return clients. And with return clients, their intent is to provide a more focused experience for the guest.

As with many natural as well as man-made disasters, women are disproportionatley affected by COVID-19. Gains that women have made around the world are being undermined. They have a higher unemployment rate, a lower re-employment rate, and a higher loan default rate.

All over the world public health officials have been warning about the Third Wave of COVID-19 outbreaks. The biggest fear is that the daily number of new cases has remained higher than at the start of the previous spike in cases so hospitals may become more easily overwhelmed.

The UK has now made it a legal duty to quarantine if you test positive for COVID-19 or are a close contact; if not there are fines up to £10,000. Apparently only 18% of people who tested positive were isolating so they have to take this drastic measure. It is also now illegal to give false information on who your close contacts were. They have also developed a program to provide payments to low income or out of work people who must isolate or quarantine.

There were 90 new COVID-19 cases reported today for a total of 12,203 known cases. There were no new deaths reported so that number remains at 132. The 7-day average for Oʻahu is 90.