Trees for Kaimukī

I took part in the Trees for Kaimukī meeting this afternoon; Sharon, the chair of EnVision Kaimukī, invited me to the meeting. It was a small but interesting group of people; I will be volunteering with them until I leave at the end of 2021. They gave a history of the group and an update on their projects; I think I can help with a couple of these projects.

Right is existing trees in ROW; left is places where trees could be added in ROW.

Dad's house is in Area 3.

I've driven by but never really noticed it; I will have to stop & check it out.

They watered trees that were stressed & dying.

They also cleaned up some areas.

I pass by here to go to Maunalani; it will be nice to have a rain garden here.

Here is the video Secrets of Kaimukī's Parks that was mentioned in the Trees for Kaimukī meeting.

I gave DT a ride to school this morning. Since he had his parking pass this time I was able to drive him all the way up to the building where he holds classes. I dropped him off around 6:15 which gave me enough time to complete a sunrise birding walk.

On my way up, I saw Ona & Rio on their way up; I later saw them just as I was starting my walk. As I came around the bottom of the park I saw The Runner and LaVie goin up the section of Wilhelmina by the park. A short while later Yuen drove by and I also saw the3 Fox Terrier Lady with her dogs. As I was nearing the top of Lurline, Steph & Kathy were on their way down; I had enough time so turned around & joined them. They went up Matsonia and when they turned to go down Sierra we split up & I went uphill; I saw The Runner now coming down Sierra. As I was leaving, I saw The Runner one more time headed down Sierra; I also saw Steph & Kathy on Wilhelmina near Steph's house.

Twenty-three minutes before sunrise on Maunalani.

Five minutes before sunrise on Sierra.

Christmas lights are starting to appear.

During my walk I stopped by to check the hapuʻu. When I was walking regularly multiple times a day, I would only stop if something didn't look quite right. But now that I am not coming by frequently, I stop every time I walk by. The hapuʻu looked great today! I am really pleased with how well it seems to be doing. I am going to miss coming by to see it.

I also saw that the Bus Stop Orchid is blooming again! Leslie said it just showed up last year up by the bus stop and seemed to like it there so she has not moved it.

The metal pole on the left is for the bus stop, hence the name.

 

The new case paperwork doesn't arrive until 10 or later; usually Dave has 3 people start with follow-ups while the rest are doing the call backs. Today Dave had all except 1 person start with follow-up calls. I was working on the file of people we had made successful first calls to on 12/02. Because of the date of onset of their symptoms, there were a handful who were a few days away from completing their isolation; they were looking forward to that last day!

Since Curtis & I had to meet to sign papers during lunch I asked him to pick something up for me; he brought me a Grilled Chicken Salad from Jack in the Box. Dave walked by after picking up the new cases for today so I introduced the 2 of them. Yoshi came down a little later & sat with us at lunch; she tried to recruit him to come & work with us! Dave had announced earlier in the week that they were looking for more recruits; if someone you referred ended up being hired, you would get a $25 bonus!

This is what it looked like after lunch; I forgot a before picture.

Yesterday they were working on installing this wall downstairs where the tables are for lunch. I am glad they finished the noisiest part of the installation yesterday.

After lunch I found out that we get all the new cases except for the military and prison cases; we also get files for residents who contracted COVID-19 while out of state. I have made calls to 3 residents who were isolated in the states where they tested positive. Today we received 57 new first calls; I am under the impression that these are the people who tested positive yesterday. Due to the new way the State is reporting numbers of new cases I won't know until tomorrow night what the corresponding total new case number was for Oʻahu. 

Yoshi also came over to talk with me after lunch. She showed me the 3 kanji that make up the kinu part of my name, which means "silk". She explained how they come from very old kanji with one part meaning "thread", another meaning "cocoon", and I can't remember what that last part meant. Usually it means "moon" but she said this time it meant something else. I will have to ask her again what that last kanji means.

(From 4ch.tokyo)

When I left work I went to the UH credit union to pick up my PIN. Since the 1st card never arrived, they issued a new one and had me pick it up at the credit union. I had to do the same for the  PIN. Moani was sitting at the reception desk, giving the receptionist a break when I got there. Moani is also doing the Papa 'Õlelo Hawai'i online.

When I got home I made a batch of soymilk. This time I did not let the beans sit around too long and ferment a little. I just let them soak overnight, as usual. And it turned out much better!

I seem to get about a cup more milk out of the okara.

Looking good!

Yay! It's not separating!

Looking normal.

For dinner I added greens with more nutritional value to the remaining iceberg lettuce from my lunch. I also added some chicken & beef fajita meat, the last of the vegan cheese, a hard boiled egg, and bacon bits. I seasoned it with a white balsamic vinaigrette.

I forgot to get a screen shot of the Aix weather app this morning. But I did get the shot of the Tesla app this afternoon. Looks like it was sunnier in the middle of the day than at the start and end of the day.

Love those cats!

 

I want to spend more time and learn the constellations and their Hawaiian names.

Did you have to think about these to get the humor? Or was it pretty obvious to you what it was?

 

It's not only the posts that are spelled wrong! It's tweets, emails, so much! I can't believe the way people think some words should be spelled!

A sign of the times.

Time for some COVID humor

COVID carols!

Amazing cake idea! Now I just have to learn how to make rolled fondant ...

Yesterday the Department of Health said it was going to cut back on contact tracing beginning in January. But they did not say how they plan to cover the contact tracing; I think this is their way of preparing people for not having the National Guard around to help with the contact tracing. According to the article currently "DOH has 103 permanent staff, 194 contract staff, 62 National Guardsmen and 32 volunteers currently doing tracing work." Our group is part of the contract staff. Because of loss of CARES Act funds I think they are probably not going to replace the National Guard and are going to cut out the contract staff; relying on their permanent staff and volunteers to do the work.

There were 106 new COVID-19 cases reported today for a total of 18,290 known cases; the new case number is still over 100, but thankfully not more than yesterday. There were also 10 new deaths reported for a death toll of 256; this included 7 deaths that occurred in October but were not confirmed as being COVID-related until recently. There are currently 1300 active cases. The 7-day average of new cases for Oʻahu is 63 with a 2.1% positivity rate.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Jen!