Blood Draw

First thing this morning I went to Kaiser to complete my failed blood draw from last Friday. They were open today; it's not a holiday. Phlebotomist Juls did a good job, however, my vein was apparently not cooperating; it was trying to collapse. This is the 1st time this has happened to me; I think it was because I went almost immediately after I woke up so did not have much time to rehydrate. I will have to talk to Dr. Pham about that on Friday since I would like to donate blood.

I checked the Blood Bank of Hawaiʻi website and found that I now meet all the qualifications to donate blood. I have never donated blood before; I was never heavy enough. But I am now, thanks to COVID! 

Speaking of how much I weigh; I weighed myself this morning. I went up a little. In order to donate blood you now have to be at least 110 pounds; so I am well beyond that amount. 

I stopped at Kokua Market on the way back; I picked up another $2 half gallon glass bottle. Having an extra bottle will allow me to experiment with other kinds of nut milks; specifically macadamia milk. I could probably also make my own coconut milk since I will have the raw ingredients; though I till have to learn how to open a coconut without injuring myself.

While at Kokua I also picked up some things from their deli. I got Shakshuka and Kabocha Curry (they called it Butternut Curry on the board but the deli person said they used kabocha). I had some of the Shakshuka for lunch along with a spouted grain English muffin. 

Shakshuka pre-English muffin.

By the way, I really like the Wikipedia description of shakshuka. It includes information highlighting the fact that some of the main ingredients (tomatoes & peppers) of what is now known as shaksuka are New World plants that were not known in Europe & the rest of the Old World prior to Columbus' "discovery" of the Americas. Known as the Columbian Exchange, at lot of food, organisms, and culture was shared; some good, some bad, some really bad! Thank the Columbian Exchange the next time you eat pizza, German potato salad, Swiss  chocolate, or a turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce.

FYI Before I got back from my errands, the results of the CBC (Complete Blood Count) with Differential were waiting for me in my email. My results were all within the normal range. Before dinner, the results for the tests for alanine aminotransferase, non-fasting lipid panel, creatinine, and electrolytes came back. There is one last test I am now waiting for.

Ben sent me the photos of the last 2 carpentry items I had asked him to repair. I am still waiting for the cabinet guy to contact me.

Bathroom window unstuck. (Photo by Ben)

New top on cart for dehydrator. (Photo by Ben)

 

One of the things I am supposed to be doing is teaching The Roommates how to run a household and take care of themselves. I am failing. Tonight The Roommate Who Likes to Wash Dishes set the smoke alarm off with his cooking. He used waxed paper instead of parchment paper to line a baking sheet so he would have an easier clean up baking chicken breasts. This is the 2nd time he has done this; in his defense the 1st time was about a year ago. I rearranged the boxes of various papers & wraps so the parchment is more likely to be the 1st thing he finds.

The parchment paper box now sticks out farther than the waxed paper box.

The Aix weather app showed precip here but with no accumulation in the 1st half of the day, then partly cloudy for the remainder. I guess it was right, there was a very light sprinkle that was only a couple minutes long in the morning, then mainly sunny the rest of the daylight hours.

Around 11:15 a.m.

Duolingo is celebrating its 9th birthday!

Carlos has straightened out even more, but has also lost some strength and is now a tropical depression. If Carlos remains organized & maintains its current speed of 10 mph and direction through Friday it may make it in to the Central Pacific region. However, the hurricane center forecasts that it will degenerate on Tuesday night to a remnant low (which means it is no longer any type of tropical cyclone, just wind).

On last night's late news there was a live report of an active shooter situation that sounded like it was a couple blocks from Aunty Doris & Uncle Tom's house. Today more information was available; it turns out the house where the shooter was at is on a lane about 4 blocks from them and about 1 block off the main road. The information on the news last night was to keep traffic off the main road where the lane intersected. Sadly, the shooter as well as an elderly occupant of the house died. (The kupuna apparently went in to cardiac arrest when the shooting started & emergency personnel were not able to get to him.)

Last Thursday I talked about the DOH report on COVID-19 variants that have been in the State so far. The Delta variant that is considered one of the most transmissable had not been found. Yet. In today's news it has now been found here. It came in with a fully vaccinated resident who traveled to Nevada; after returning he began to show mild symptoms & subsequently tested positive. His family had also been fully vaccinated & none have tested positive; the vaccine worked to reduce the severity of the resident's illness as well as protected his family from contracting COVID-19. Which also prevented them from spreading it. Just another reason to get vaccinated.

There were 56 new cases of COVID-19 reported today, bringing the total known cases up to 37,067. There were no new deaths reported so the fatalities remain at 506; currently there are 711 cases considered active. The 7-day average of new cases on Oʻahu is 23 with a 1.0% positivity rate.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Brian!