Helping at the Church

When Arlene picked me up from the airport I had asked her if Sensei would be at the church this weekend; I wanted to give him the omiyage in person if I could. She said he would be there on Saturday for their clean-up & on Sunday for a service. I told her I would come & help with the clean-up. Originally the clean-up was scheduled for 10 a.m. but I got a text from Arlene last night; they had finished a bunch of work yesterday, so they were going to start at 2 p.m. today.  When I arrived they had me just sit down & relax; Glenn had shown up early & done everything because he was concerned about the leftover high winds & rain from Linda coming in soon. So I really didn't do much except take flowers to the graves. 

My grandparents' grave.

My great-grandparents' grave.

I was awakened by the nearly full moon again. And like last night, it had been raining earlier in the evening but the clouds cleared up enough when the moon was high in the sky so it came streaming in through my window. 

The Saffron Finch does not bother me as much as it did before; I guess I must be getting used to birdrise! It seems to be about 30 to 45 minutes before sunrise depending on whether it is a cloudy or sunny day.

Birdrise, 28 minutes before sunrise.

Two minutes after sunrise.

The ants have voted with their tiny little feet. There were no ants on the Chicken Crisp this morning. Not a single one & they had about 10 hours to take it away. I know they found it because I saw a couple of them around it last night when the cockroaches were eating the pork rind; which the ants took away as soon as they could get enough of them together to lift it & move it. But they apparently do not like this gluten-free, low-carb snack food made with free-range chicken. I agree with them. It is awful!

Not an ant in sight.

This morning when I went to put senko at the butsudan, I noticed that there was something different about the senko. They were a little fuzzy! It looks like the 2 weeks of rainy weather caused some mold to grow on the senko; I had never heard of that before. But it makes sense since it is a plant material & it has been kinda damp lately. I am glad I am having a cabinet built to support the butsudan & store items related to the butsudan; I will be able to add some desiccant packs to keep things drier including the senko.

I'm glad I changed the translucent material around the edge of the porch roof. The transparent material lets the sunlight in beautifully on mornings like today's.

I ate 1/4 of the dragon fruit this morning. It is about 4&1/2 inches in diameter; about 3/4 inches larger than a softball. The ones growing here are white on the inside & refreshingly sweet; if I had my Nutribullet here I would use it in my proothies. But for now I am just eating it like I would a papaya, scooping out the soft flesh with a spoon; the skin is a little tart so I don't eat it. It's juicier than a papaya & makes a nice refreshing drink like watermelon juice. 

Here's my to Do List for today. When I a have a lot of things to do, I make a list so I can figure out what's happening. Usually my lists have more things than I can accomplish in one day.

Today I did the sheets; there were 5 of them. And 4 pillow cases. Plus a napkin that Glenn had found in the Tahoe when we used it in July; I am thinking Kaia or Sarah brought it in the car to keep Kaia clean, then forgot it. And I did not see it when I did a quick check before I returned the Tahoe.

I also have to put away the juicer & blender that Sarah was using while she was here. I did not have time to put either of them away before I left so I just threw a towel over them to keep them mainly clean.

About mid-morning, Sam & his crew came by to weed eat the edges of the lawn; they did Jessie's place first. Sam has his 4 teen-aged grandchildren helping with the weed eating: Christian, Zenaia, & Prometheus; I did not get the name of the last teen. I asked Sam & his crew if they could knock down the weeds along the back so I could see more clearly whether the pigs were getting under the fence. I'm glad that Sam is training a young crew to take over the business for him; he & Masa share in the mowing of our lawns.

Christian trims the grass along the front end of the driveway.

Before they were done with the weed eating I left to run my errands & drop by to see if Lem was at Rainbow Cafe; he was. So I had breakfast with him. I chose not to sit at the table & just held my plate in my lap so I could sit closer to Lem so I did not have to yell as loud so he could hear me. Because I was not at the table I ended up with a lot of breakfast on my shirt! Auē! I did not get a picture of my breakfast on the plate, but here is on the front of my shirt!

What a mess!

Before I had dropped in for breakfast, I stopped at the post office. I did not have as much junk mail or other people's mail as I usually do; I was only gone for 4 weeks. I did have 3 yellow cards for parcel pick up. I think this is for the bug zapper that was supposed to have been delivered around July 15th; it never showed up while I was here so that is my best guess. Depending on when it did finally show up, it might have gotten returned to the sender already. Or perhaps it is the i3+ Roomba that Sarah was ordering as a gift for me? Dunno. And will probably never know. I will have to come back on Monday since I was about 5 minutes too late to get to the window today.

I took the mosquito zapper in with me to Sunshine True Value Hardware to see if they could figure out how to get the old bulb out. It turns out they do not have the right sized bulb anyway. I will have to go to HPM Building Supply in Waimea to see if they have a replacement bulb.

I also went to the Hawai'i Wildlife Center to drop off the omiyage. Being wildlife people I think they will appreciate the animal-themed omiyage.

When I returned, Sam & crew were gone but Masa had not arrived yet. I walked to the back to see how they had done on clearing out the weeds beyond the edge of the lawn area. They did a great job! Now I just need to get an old beater lawn mower to keep it low enough all the time. I am also going to remove any rocks and branches so that Masa can enlarge the area he can use his riding mower on.

These 3 photos are panorama from north to south showing weed eating along back fence line.

The kids did a great job knocking down the weeds!

As I turned to walk back to the house I saw Jessie disappearing up the ramp to the front door; she was carrying something. I jogged up to catch her. She had brought over a plate of food for me; it was part of what she had made for Masa for his lunch when he arrives. 

By the time I returned from church Masa had finished mowing the lawn. It was looking well cared for again!

Driveway, before.

Driveway, after.

Back yard, before.

Back yard, after.

While at the church I talked to Wayne about getting some help to harvest the bunch of maiʻa; he said he had just harvested a 50 pound bunch from their backyard. He came over and cut the bunch down. There were 5 hands on this bunch, it was no where near 50 pounds. 

Wayne positions the ladder.

I had already given away a hand before I took the photo.

I gave one of the hands to Laurel & Bill who pulled in just as Wayne was leaving. They had come by to drop off a bunch of matchbooks that Uncle Kazu had collected. I am taking them back, a little at a time, to Curtis who also collects matchbooks. Since they were collecting at different times, I think Uncle Kazu's collection will greatly increase the diversity of Curtis' collection.

I also gave Laurel & Bill what was left of the Chicken Crisps. Since they tasted awful & they reminded me of the Chicken Chips that I get for Bear, I decided to give the Chicken Crisps to them for their pack of dogs. Surely one of them would like it!

For dinner I heated up the meal that Jessie had brought over earlier in the day. It was excellent! But too much; I will be having leftovers tomorrow!

When I was cutting some of the anthuriums to take to the cemetery this morning I took a bunch of photos of the different colors & types. 

The 50+ bare root anthuriums all jammed together.

Here's a look at the jaboticaba. If I have time I will be harvesting some to take back with me. The dark purple ones farther up the trunk are ripe.

I saw Mom Cat walking up towards Jessie's house from the far side of her yard. All of a sudden she bolted for a short distance; a mongoose had scampered out of the grass & startled her. As soon as she realized it was just a mongoose she settled down & proceeded to walk to Jessie's back porch. Earlier I had seen Meyer Kitty Lemon in the vacant area beyond Jessie's yard; he was lying in the grass playing with something he had caught.

The Aix weather app forecast Honolulu to have rain until the mid afternoon, then a partly cloudy late afternoon to evening before it started drizzling again. The traffic cam seemed to support that; it looked like there were raindrops on the lens in the morning. For Kapaʻau it forecast rain all day! That was not accurate, though if you only looked at the Honomū image you might think it at least drizzled; the actual rain gauge data shows only a 0.01 inch accumulation. For Marysville, Aix forecast partly cloudy through most of the day; that appeared possible.

Kapaʻau sunrise at 6:25 a.m.

Kapaʻau at 6:57 a.m.

Kapaʻau, looking northerly at 7:04 a.m.

Kaimukī looking westerly at 7:34 a.m.

Honomū looking northeasterly at 7:35 a.m.

Marysville looking southerly at 7:35 a.m. HST.

Kaimukī looking westerly at 6:34 p.m.

Honomū looking northeasterly at 6:35 p.m.

Marysville looking northerly at 6:35 p.m. HST.

There is a high surf advisory for the east-facing shores through Monday morning. they are forecasting 6-10 foot waves impacting the east facing shorelines like Keokea Beach Park. But I have been unable to find any web cams for east facing shores so I can show you what it looks like.

South facing Waikīkī at 7:37 a.m.

South facing Waikīkī at 6:34 p.m.

Apparently the remnants of Tropical Storm Linda will plague us for a few days in the form of heavy rains & flash floods. Which is kind of scuttling my plans for a pie & ice cream night. The only 2 nights that are available are forecast to be during the flash flood warning period. All the people needing to drive here are concerned about that weather coming in; that's 2/3 of the group. So no ice cream & pie night on this trip. I also cancelled my plans to drive to Hilo & visit Aunty Doris & Uncle Tom.

There were 763 new cases of COVID-19 reported today, bringing the total known cases up to 55,206. There was 1 new death reported, increasing the death toll to 563; currently there are 9007 cases considered active. As of yesterday there were 362 patients who have been hospitalized with 65 in the ICU & 53 on ventilators. The 7-day average new case count for Oʻahu is 443 with a positivity rate of 9.1%.