Meeting with Vaughn

I met with Vaughn today; he was Mom's financial advisor. Then he became Dad's financial advisor; now he is my financial advisor for the portion of Mom & Dad's accounts that I inherited. I met with him today to take care of the final things I need to do to close out Dad's accounts & disburse the funds to the beneficiaries. Vaughn did not give me a date certain, but it should be done soon; I'll be able to cross that one off the list of Things To Do. Vaughn also set me up so I could check things out online.

I also showed Vaughn, & his assistant BJ, Dad's photo & story in The Go For Broke Spirit: Portraits of Legacy photo book by Shane Sato & the Honolulu Magazine article 17 Nisei Veterans Share Stories of the Lives They Built in Hawaiʻi After World War II by Jayna Omaye. Vaughn had asked about it during our previous meeting. 

The Go For Broke Spirit: Portraits of Legacy. (Photo by Wakana, November 2019)

 

I started my day with a plain proothie; I forgot to wash any greens yesterday for my proothie. I did that this afternoon; I will have fresh mizuna for my proothie tomorrow. 

Once again, Dave wanted me to come in on short notice to do contact tracing. There are apparently only 2 people working today. But because I had the meeting with Vaughn, I declined. I prefer to keep my days with estate activities clear of work, especially since it sounds like the work will now be closer to a full day due to increased case loads & decreased people to do the calls.

This morning, as I was preparing for my meeting with Vaughn, Aunty Doris called. She had some questions about who also was on the group text that I sent out about Sarah. But also wanted to talk more about what Sarah is experiencing. Like many of us, Aunty Doris is concerned about how Kaia is faring in all of this; I told her we were trying to keep Kaia shielded from what is happening.

In hindsight, some of the things Sarah said & did during her May visit, & shortly after she returned home, were probably also due to mania; there was a noticeable change in her at the end of her retreat that was elevated. Like her inability to sleep & channeling it in to searching for a place to live on Hawaiʻi Island or the excitement over wanting to buy the 140 acre cacao farm and turn it in to a co-housing project. Or nonchalantly ordering a $65,000 Tesla to be delivered to Honolulu for use on Hawaiʻi Island. Or buying & sending me things I did not need or want. 

Kai's personal experience with being bipolar helped me understand a lot more about what is happening with Sarah. Kai was diagnosed with bipolar II about 15 years ago & has been in therapy & on medication for it. Because he was still young when his bipolar disorder started & his manic episodes have never gone beyond hypomania, he has been able to get control over his depressive episodes through the use of cognitive behavioral therapy. Therapists also believe it is possible to "outgrow" it as the brain is still developing until people are about in their mid-twenties. Kai has been successful enough that they have taken him off of one of the medications he was on previously. Kai's most serious incidents while being in a hypomanic state is washing dishes, a rare activity for him under usual circumstances. 

As I was driving to my meeting with Vaughn I passed under one of the trees near the health department building that has a Manu-o-Ku nest. As luck would have it, the traffic light made me stop under a pair of birds in the tree. I think it was an adult with a full-grown chick.

On the way back from meeting with Vaugh, I stopped at Kokua Market. Just before I left the house there was an all hands email sent out to members, highlighting difficulties the co-op has been having with lagging sales during the pandemic. So I went in & bought a couple of things I need right now, but a whole lot of other stuff that I didn't necessarily need right now. I also picked up Red Thai Chicken Curry with Eggplant, Turkey Stuffed Cabbage Rolls with Marinara, and Almond & Coriander Crusted Cauliflower.

I also saw a sign at Kokua that indicated that pakalana lei are sometimes available.

Just before dinner Keala caught a brown anole (Anolis sagrei) that had ventured into the cat run. She played with it for a while in the cat run before coming inside with it. Then she went out again. And in. Then out. She did that several times before dropping it indoors for the other cats to play with it. Luna got in to the act, but the anole was still pretty feisty. It bit Luna's paw at one point. Brown anoles are invasive & the most aggressive lizard that we have around here; they will eat any other lizard that can fit in their mouth, including other brown anoles! After the cats almost lost the anole, The Potential Most Favorite Roommate caught it and took it outside, releasing it on the opposite side of the house from the cat run.

For dinner I had some of the Red Thai Chicken Curry with Eggplant, followed by chili that The Potential Most Favorite Roommate had made.

Clockwise from top: Almond & Coriander Crusted Cauliflower, Turkey Stuffed Cabbage Rolls with Marinara, & Red Thai Chicken Curry with Eggplant.

Although the Aix weather app had forecast rain throughout the day here, it was actually mainly sunny today. I did not check the webcams to see how the weather was in the other places.

Early this morning there was an earthquake near Sulawesi. It did not generate a tsunami.

There were 163 new cases of COVID-19 reported today, bringing the total known cases to 40,822. There were no new deaths reported today so the death toll remains at 529; currently there are 2048 cases considered active. There have been 1,644,704 vaccines administered, bringing the state's fully vaccinated population up to 59.8% with 66.% having received at least 1 dose. 

Back to My Routine

Now that all the visitors are gone, I can slip back in to my routine. Sort of; more on that later. My usual Sunday is quite low key since it is the day that I fast. I started out by reading more of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. I washed Kai's shorts; he leaves them here since this is the only place where he wears shorts. 

I had responded to Dave's email about when I could start working late last night. This was a part of my routine late last year but it changed when I began working with the vaccine clinics; I was hoping to put myself out of the contact tracing job. I told Dave for this week I could do Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, & Sunday; this morning he said to come in on all those days. Then a short while later he sent another email, which I missed; they must be really desperate since he wanted me to come in today also! 

I backed up my hard drive; I really should have done that on Tuesday night when we returned from Moku o Keawe. Kai has set up my computer to prompt me every 10 days to back up my hard drive. Usually I am really good about that except when I am traveling; I back it up the day before I leave, then try to back it up again on the day I return.

I also did a little more ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi in order to keep my place in the rankings on the leader board. I finished in 2nd place and earned 1000 gems! Where I finish on the leader board tends to depend on the study habits of the 29 other people on the particular leader board I end up on when I start my 1st study session after the end of the previous leader board.

CJ called this evening. We talked for almost 3 hours! We were having so much fun it sure did not seem like it was that long at all. 

I found an article about a place I need to check out for omiyage, it's called Tasty Kona. It would be about a 20 minute drive from the airport.

Those cats! They were chasing each other around the house late tonight and someone skidded going around the corner to get to the cat door and slid in to the recycling container, knocking it over & scattering cans all over the place. Auē!

The Aix weather app forecast some precipitation here from the morning through early afternoon; I really didn't see that but I was asleep until about 11 a.m. today. It forecast Kapaʻau to have rain all day, with it getting heavier later in the late afternoon & evening. From the webcams it seems like it might not have been raining.

Kaimukī at 12:23 p.m.

Waikoloa at 12:24 p.m.

Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope at 12:24 p.m.

Honomu 12:25 p.m.

Hilo Bay at 12:26 p.m.

Marysville at 12:26 p.m. HST.

A low pressure about 1100 miles southeast of Hilo is moving westward at about 15 mph. It is expected to cross in to the Central Pacific area tomorrow. Over the next 48 hours it is forecast to have about a 60% chance of developing in to a tropical depression.

There were 276 new cases of COVID-19 reported today, bringing the total known cases up to 40,659. There were also 2 new deaths reported, increasing the death toll to 529; currently 1953 cases are considered to be active. 

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Jesus, Darrin, & Margie!