Travel Day

I flew to Kona today; I am meeting up with Sarah & Kaia later in the week. The flight was pretty full & Hawaiian is no longer leaving the middle seats in the row vacant. People were pretty good about staying apart in the waiting area ... until boarding began, then people began to crowd together again. I kept distance between me & the couple in front of me; I kept distance behind me be letting my rolling carry on stay a step behind me!

This triptych was painted a while ago; the road between Kawaihae & Mahukona is not shown.

I weighed myself first thing this morning; I am a glut for punishment! I like to see how being in Kohala affects my weight since I don't have access to my usual exercise methods or nutrition. At this time, anyway. Things will change once I move here.

I started out my morning with a periodontal check up with Dr. Ching at 7:50 am! I think that is the earliest time I have had someone poking around in my mouth! They have changed their procedures a bit; they only do hand scaling for now, no machine scaling.

The COVID-19 protocols; they check your temperature inside.

After that I went to DOH to drop off my ID badge & my last parking hang tag. I also had a present for Alicia & the other folks at VSDS. Alicia surprised me by having a gift for me as well! I was too busy to open it when I got home so I stuck it in my suitcase; I will open it in Kohala. I am going to miss the people at DOH as well as the team at LCC.

Before I left the house I noticed that all the buds on the orchid are now open. There are 3 orchid plants that will be going to Hawaiʻi Island with me, this one that was a present from The Roommates when I completed the community contact tracing training, the thank you present from Calvin, and the last orchid Mom was given as a gift. I already have a start of the last orchid that Mom grew.

Keala was looking like an angel while she was napping. I'm not sure whether I am imagining it but I think she tends to pee on the wicker chair I sit in when I am gone on a trip. And it appears that she does it when I return rather than when I am away; I will have to pay attention when I return. 

While I was waiting to board the plane to Kona, Sarah & Kaia arrived in Honolulu. I had left each of them an orchid lei and an omiyage bag with Curtis, who picked them up after he dropped me off. Sarah sent me photos of Kaia on the plane and with her little honu themed omiyage bag.

On the plane. (Photo by Sarah)

In the back of Uncle Curtis' car with her omiyage bag. (Photo by Sarah)

The flight was uneventful, though it was fuller than any other flight I have been on since March 2020. At the Kona end they are still working on the structure that I think will be for the Safe Travels screening; right now it occurs in the lobby area where people are waiting to board their flights.

Departing from HNL.

Arriving at KOA.

Getting through the Safe Travels check point in Kona was a breeze; they sorted people out depending on whether they had their Safe Travels QR code or not. It took me less than 5 minutes to walk through the line, get to the station, get my documents checked via the QR code, say "Thank You!", and leave!

When I went to pick up the rental car I didn't see Cory this time, she is the shuttle bus driver that was supposed to have bariatric surgery last November; I'm not sure if that happened since COVID-19 postponed a lot of surgery. 

While waiting to check in and get my rental, a guy at the counter said he didn't need the green check marks on his Safe Travels form because he was fully vaccinated. He claimed they let him through at the airport just by showing his vaccination card; I think he just walked past them. I think the rental agent should have asked to see his Safe Travels info anyway since it does say whether someone is exempt from quarantine and if so, the reason for the exemptions. If that guy was telling the truth, his Safe Travels info would have said something along the lines of "fully vaccinated". I think he really should be in quarantine. I wonder if the rental companies send that info along to the police department if people do not show them the Safe Travels info that says they are exempt from quarantine? 

I think I got the same rental car I got when I was here in March 2020. They are being more obvious about what they are doing to sanitize cars between rentals. And it is obvious they donʻt have enough cars for the demand; the cost for my 3 week rental was more than it would cost me to ship the car, roundtrip! Auē! But I would have needed a little time at the beginning to get the car to Young Brothers; since I was working that wasn't an option. They also gave the car to me dripping wet!

Shipping my car would cost about 1/3 what the rental is costing.

I had to make a quick stop in Kona before I headed up to the house so it was a little later when I arrived. I pulled up to the ramp and began to unload. As I was unloading I noticed Wiley sitting at the end of the driveway! It looks like he remembers that vehicles and people mean food on the porch. I loudly poured some food in to the food dish on the front porch and noticed that he had moved closer to the car. Once I unloaded everything, I quietly waited just inside the front door; he came up for the food in just a couple of minutes. Wiley continued eating even after I moved so that he could see me watching him.

Later, when I went out to check for pig damage, I saw Mom Cat and another cat on the rock wall supporting the chain link fence. They didn't stick around long. 

Mom Cat (L) & unknown cat.

It was quite evident that the feral pigs have uprooted the heliconia that was growing under my bedroom window; it's right off the side of the ramp. Unfortunately, they also uprooted all of the mondo grass that was there, too. If they did a good enough of a job at eating all the heliconia tubers I will be able to more easily replace them with red ginger and torch ginger which are better cut flowers for the Ohaka; I shall have to check it out more thoroughly tomorrow.

Later I checked for where the feral pigs are getting in to the yard; I found one area. I blocked up where I could see that they got in. A short while after I finished doing that I could hear a pig on the other side of the fence, eating a fallen tangerine in Jessie's yard. I quietly waited & got a peak at it through the brush; it was a half grown juvenile. Then I made a bunch of noise & scared it off!

Once in the house I heard one of the smoke alarms chirping. I thought they were all hard-wired in and not battery operated. I will have to check on it tomorrow. Fortunately the one that is chirping is in another room and with my bedroom door closed as well as the other door closed, it is almost unnoticeable.

Finally in the house.

I also noticed an interesting thing, there was a nice pile of termite frass in the kitchen sink. What was interesting about it was that it was underneath the plastic that I cover the sink counter with.

I completed my tour of the house by adding Dad's ihai to the butsudan. 

Ihai for (L to R) Susan, Mom, Grandma, Grandpa, & Dad.

The Aix weather app forecast rain before 8 a.m. in Honolulu then light precipitation that would not accumulate through the rest of the day; it was wrong, there was no light precipitation. For Kapaʻau it forecast rain throughout the day; that did not appear to be the case for the earlier parts of the day & it did not rain on me as I was going from the airport to the house.

Honolulu, 7:41 a.m.

Canada-France-Hawaiʻi Telescope, 1:55 p.m.

Going to Kona, 4:40 p.m.; Hualalai on the left.

Going to Kohala, 5:28 p.m.; Hualalai on the right.

The eruption at Kīlauea is still active. Hopefully I will be able to take Sarah & Kaia to see it.

I noticed that I had a text from Barbara; she sent me some photos of plants she saw on her walk at the Evergreen Arboretum this morning. Tomorrow she will be heading to Chicago & Wisconsin.

I think this is a cotoneaster in bloom. (Photo by Barbara)

Sword fern, Polystichum munitum. (Photo by Barbara)

Fringe cup, Tellima grandiflora. (Photo by Barbara)

Camas, Camassia quamash. (Photo by Barbara)

Unknown Iris sp. (Photo by Barbara)

I think this is a Lewisia sp. (Photo by Barbara)

Unknown to me. (Photo by Barbara)

Unknown to me. (Photo by Barbara)

There were 74 new cases of COVID-19 reported today, bringing the total know cases up to 32,654. There was also 1 new death reported, making the death toll 484; currently 1170 cases are considered active. The Mayor's office said they will no longer be posting the daily 7-day new case average & positivity rate for Oʻahu, they will instead be providing a weekly update.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e ʻAnakē Judy, Mary Ellen, & Mary D.!