My Summer Vacation: Another COVID-19 Test

I started out the morning getting a naso-pharyngeal swab for a COVID-19 test; I need one to be allowed to take Dad to his dentist appointment on Friday. Since I am a Kaiser Permanente member it's free; I just had to make an appointment and drive-up to the testing center across from their Mapunapuna Clinic. It looks like they set it up in one of the smaller employee parking lots. What's nice is that it's right across the street from the clinic so the sample will be delivered after lunch & I should get a result back within 24 hours after that. Since I have an online account, I can get my results electronically; they'll send me an email to let me know the results are ready for me to review.

I made my proothie this morning with the stems of the kale & Italian parsley that I sauteed up for dinner last night; I did not add any beet greens or stems so the color remained green.

On the way back I dropped by Don Quijote to see if I could find the treats I bought for Kai that he liked; I could not. He was supposed to send me a photo of the box including the UPC so I could have someone at Don Quijote scan it to see if that's where I really got it from; I can't remember. But he has not sent it and I could not find it by wandering around, so he's out of luck for now.

I also dropped off Dad's cookies at Maunalani. They have a new system; you set the marked item on a table under the protection of the eaves at the main entrance. A staff person then comes out, retrieves the item, and takes it to the resident.

While I was up there I went to check on the hapuʻu; its looking great! A lot better than last year when we it was in the low to mid-90's almost everyday from mid-May through October; a lot of new heat records were set. Looks like Kelly removed the dying frond that I was coming by to trim; he also reset the mister that was on the old frond.

As I pulled up to the intersection near the house, I saw a Koleʻa on the neighbor's lawn diagonally across the intersection from us. It is the 1st Koleʻa I have seen in the neighborhood since they returned in August.

The final thing I did while I was out this morning was mail a package to Kai; next week is his & Brianna's birthdays. Since I could not find the choco mochi treat he did not get any.

Today is Day 24 of the Unicorn Challenge (Week 4 Day 3); a Low Carb, HIIT Workout day. Today was a different workout; a level up from the previous weeks. Here's the follow along video that I started using today. My neck muscles were sore after I finished the HIIT workout.

Two days ago I broke the tab on the charging door of the Lifeproof Fré case for my Galaxy S7 phone. Since I have had 8 Lifeproof cases since 2015, I knew the drill. I checked the website but did not see a case available for the S7. So I called and found they are still not providing phone support. And when I was online the Chat line was closed because of the time zone difference. So I sent an email saying I needed a replacement for my S7 Fré case.

For lunch I had misoyaki butterfish that I picked up from Don Quijote. I also had a salad with bacon bits and beet vinagrette spiral

After lunch I made another batch of soy milk; I should have made it yesterday but I forgot to soak the soybeans. I got a little less than I have had before because I wasn't paying attention and one batch of soymilk boiled over a little; if I don't stir it to break the foam that form on top it holds the steam in.

There seemed to be a lot of foam on top of the soaked soybeans today.

I found a place to hang the nut milk bag.

I lost some of the soymilk when it boiled over.

I decided to dry the okara to make a powder. It can keep longer as a powder, I can add it to a lot of other things including my proothies. And my chances of burning my fingers is a lot less! I might even add some to my proothies to boost the protein content.

For dinner I did the same thing I did last night; smoked chicken & apple sausage sauteed with kale & American parsley. Along with a salad with bacon bits & vinaigrette beet spirals.

It looks like it was cloudy, and possibly rainy, in Kapa'au today. The Tesla app showed less power generated today.

There is a storm system in the Eastern Pacific region headed in our direction. Currently Tropical Storm Odalys is about 800 miles off the southern tip of Baja California & moving westerly at about 17 mph. It is expected to lose strength over the next few days.

There was also an earthquake in Alaska this morning. It did not generate a tsunami.

When I went to bed around 11:15 it was Biden 253, Trump 214. And 45 has now filed lawsuits against Georgia, Michigan, & Wisconsin to stop the counting of any legally cast ballot that was not counted by midnight on November 3rd; he is leading in these states. He says anything not counted on Election Day is not legal even though that's not what election law says. However, he is wanting counting to continue in Arizona where he is behind & he thinks continued counting will help him! So hypocritical! Or perhaps I should say, The most hypocritical the World has ever seen!

And now time for some humor.

The story about The Goose Who Wore Nikes starts out humorous. But turns sad when Andy the Goose dies.

And now for a little COVID humor.

Yesterday was the first I have heard publicly on the news about the National Guard pulling out of the contact tracing at the end of December. We had heard it on October 15th during a talk story with the 3 Cohorts that the UH program has trained. One of the Cohort 2 people who is working with the State as a contact tracer told us about the impending change. When the Governor spoke about it yesterday, he had no details on what was going to happen after the National Guard left. There are about 700 National Guard that have been helping with all sorts of COVID-19 response activities like testing, food distribution, traffic control, and contact tracing. The 75% match from the Federal government ends on December 31st for this $8 million per month program.

Yikes! There were 156 new COVID-19 cases today for a total of 15,473 known cases. There were no deaths reported today so the death toll re4mains at 219. The 7-day average of new cases on Oʻahu was 71 with a 2.7% positivity rate. Hopefully this is an anomaly and not the start of a spike of post-Halloween new cases. Although symptoms can occur between 2 and 14 days after exposure it would be a little early if it was; the average is 5 days & this would be Day 4 for a Halloween exposure.