Meeting with Ken

Ken was referred to me by Ben, who has taken over from Chris as the main carpentry guy. Ken is a cabinet maker. I originally wanted him to change the doors on the seasonings cabinets to something translucent, fix the screen on the safe, & build me a set of doors for the built in shelves in my bedroom. But in the meanwhile I have found some other things; I also decided to see if he could fix the kitchen drawers, fix the door of the mini-safe, repair the old dresser that I have in my bedroom, build a cabinet under the butsudan, & fix the mirror for the bathroom cabinet & install it. It looks like he can do most of the things I want; though he said he would have to think about the doors on the seasonings cabinet.

Solid wood doors to be replaced with translucent panes.

Guides to be added so drawers donʻt tip or fall out.

Partitions to be repaired.

Broken corner of door to be repaired.

Torn screens to be repaired.

Cabinet to be built to store items & support butsudan.

Broken mirror to be replaced & cabinet mounted over sink.

Doors to be built for shelves.

Doors & drawers to be repaired.

Ultimately, I would like Ken to build a bookshelf wall for the new room and display cabinets for a variety of things related to the history of this house & the ʻohana. I showed him the sewing room & we briefly talked about the bookshelves there. When the time comes, he will coordinate with Ben on the bookshelves.

Late last night the nearly full moon was shining into my bedroom; the clouds that had been pouring rain for most of the earlier part of the evening had cleared enough. Because of the clouds obscuring my full view of the moon I could not tell that it was not quite full. It will be full on Sunday morning at 2:02 a.m.

Moon at 11:33 p.m.

I need to get used to birdrise again; I think the Saffron Finch has established a territory here even if all the heliconia has been removed. Which means it's not the heliconia that it is here for.

Birdrise 28 minutes before sunrise.

I knew I was mainly out of teas here & that there was a lot of tea on Oʻahu. I brought 2 with me; they are Passion Fruit Na Pali black tea & Organic Green Tea. But this morning I started with Dragon Oolong which was already here.

 

While I was getting things out from storage in the mini-safe & out on to the kitchen table this morning I found a bottle of nin jiom pei pa koa! When I had my sore throat the other week I had a memory of seeing a bottle recently but was unsure where I saw it or if I was remembering something current or from a few years ago. I guess it was a recent memory, like 6 weeks ago. Although, even if I did remember I had seen it here, it would not have done me any good since I needed it on Oʻahu! I will take the bottle back with me. Just in case I need it again.

Generally my 1st outdoor activity in the morning is lighting a mosquito punk & placing it in the downstairs bathroom. The smoke then drifts throughout the garage & up the stairs towards the kitchen door. By the time I am done with my morning tea, there is sufficient smoke to keep the mosquitos from attacking me while I load the washer or hang the laundry or work on something on the lanai. I did that this morning before I started the 2 loads of towels; half the load was from towels I did not get a chance to wash the last time because we spent so much time at the airport & the other half was towels that I had covered things with to keep them from getting covered with dust, termite frass, & gecko poop.

Sorted & waiting to be washed.

Today's laundry task.

Since mosquitos are just one of the every day things here, I have a bunch of mosquito punks; nearly all of them are from Curtis. He found them when he was cleaning out their garage; they used to use them for lighting fireworks. Now I have them for their intended use. When you come to visit, if you are wondering what I would like, a box of mosquito punk would be much appreciated!

About a 3-month supply when used daily.

I opened my brand new pair of Soundcore LQ30 noise-cancelling headphones to get myself ready to pull out the retractable clothesline & hook it up. When Kai rolled it up when we left in July he said it made an ear-splitting racket! I tested the headphones out on the washer, they did a decent job. 

I started to unroll the clothesline. And found it was stuck. After poking around, I found a little white knob on the left side & twisted it. The clothesline turned smoothly. And quietly! So either it was the cause of the ear-splitting racket or the headphones were really good! I IMed Kai to see if he had loosened the white knob. He had not. 🙄 

I think I need to move the Tahoe also.

Hmmm? What is that white knob for?

A side effect of Sarah's manic episode is that she buys a lot of stuff, including food. We kept telling her not to buy food but she kept coming back with food. Lots of food. When we left in July we gave away a brown paper grocery bag full of food to Jessie & a similarly filled one to Arlene. I decided to just exist on food I found in the house or that grew in the yard during this trip. So for breakfast today I pulled out one of the frozen pastry rolls; I had not noticed that its flavor was "Coffee" until after I had opened it. Auē! Well, it's a good thing it was for breakfast so that I would be down off the caffeine high so I could sleep tonight!

While looking for things in the refrigerator I found the kingyo treats that I had gotten for Kaia in July. In all the chaos as they were leaving I forgot to pack them up for her. And, in fact, totally forgot that I forgot until I saw them in the refrigerator. I wonder how long they will keep in the refrigerator?  

As I opened the gate in preparation for the meeting with Ken, I heard Delphine calling. I went over to talk with him. Now that he is retired he comes in to Kapaʻau with Dena who drops him off at the house on her way to work, than after work she picks him up; sometimes they have lunch together. He keeps his car here, so if he needs to run in to town for anything he can. He has cleaned up the inside of the house & mows the lawn everyday! I let him know that Ken would be coming by to work on repairs to the house while I was gone.

After Ken left I went to talk to Jessie & let her know about Ken doing some work for me. She had seen his silver pick-up truck but thought it was Lem, though she was wondering why he drove past my driveway & had to back up to turn in; now it all made sense! Jessie was also concerned about how Sarah was doing; she had noticed a big difference in Sarah's behavior in May versus how she was in July.

In the afternoon I went to check on the dragon fruit; there were 3 that I had seen yesterday that were bright pink. They were all ripe; I harvested one for breakfast tomorrow morning. There are 4 more green ones that are about 3/4 grown.

For dinner I had half a peanut butter & Tahitian lime & ginger jam sandwich with some Chicken Crisps. 

When I first saw the Chicken Crisps name I thought it was the Chicken Chips dog treats that Bear likes in a different package. Upon closer inspection I realized it was actually a people food item. I had them with my sandwich like any other chip you would have with a sandwich. NOT! I am glad I did not waste my money on these, I will not buy them even under duress! They crunched like they were Bear's Chicken Chips (very tough) and I can't even begin to describe the taste. Even peanut butter would not improve them! One package is one serving but I think I was only able to choke down about 1/3 of a serving; I actually put back some of the chips I had taken out of the bag!

Not the brand I get but essentially the same thing.

Looks just like the Chicken Crisps for humans.

There was a small bit of microwave pork rind that had fallen on the floor; so I decided to do an experiment. I put a Chicken Crisp down near it. In the name of science I am willing to allow the ants some food. I will check on them in the morning to see if the ants like it.  

I asked Jessie if she had seen any of the cats lately. Based on her descriptions it sounds like Meyer Kitty Lemon & Mom Cat are still around. And she also said there was a black & white cat but she couldn't get more specific so I don't know if it was Wiley or Wiley's tuxedo kitten. I will have to keep watching for them.

The Aix weather app forecast rain through mid-afternoon here in Kapaʻau with a short break, then returning to rain in the evening. It drizzles or rains most evening here & it did not disappoint last night; I woke up to a light drizzle. The Honomū weather site recorded 0.01 inches of precipitation through about 3:15 this afternoon. For Honolulu, the Aix app forecast was similar but the amount of precipitation was less; the traffic cam showed partly sunny skies with no precipitation. And in Marysville, Aix forecast light precipitation with no accumulation; that looked like it was possible.

Drizzling in Kapaʻau; looking southerly at 6:06 a.m.

Now sun is out in Kapaʻau; looking southerly at 9:31 a.m.

Kaimukī looking westerly at 9:34 a.m.

Honomū looking northerly at 9:34 a.m.

Marysville looking southerly at 9:35 a.m. HST.

Kaimukī looking westerly at 3:14 p.m.

Honomū looking northerly at 3:15 p.m.

Marysville looking southerly at 3:15 p.m. HST.

The surf on the south shore was up in the morning but died down later in the day.

Waikīkī at 9:40 a.m.

Waikīkī at 3:15 p.m.

At 5 this morning Linda was shown about 720 miles east of Hilo on the Central Pacific Hurricane map as a post-tropical cyclone; at 8 a.m. it was just a post-tropical remnant. By 2 p.m. Linda was no longer shown on the map; it was now just a remnant low. Which means lots of rain. Which also means the threat of flash floods. The house is safe; I just need to be cognizant of whether my travel routes are through areas that are usually dry but that are in a flash flood prone area. The flash flood watch is currently projected through Monday night.

At 5 a.m.

At 8 a.m.

At 2 p.m. This is what it usually looks like.

NEWS FLASH! Before I went to bed I saw a cockroach eating the bit of pork rind. It was using the Chicken Crisp as a table for the pork rind. (I did not disturb the cockroach so as not to introduce a variable into the experiment.) Oh well, not even the scavengers want to eat the Chicken Crisp. We'll see what the ants think of it tomorrow.  

Before.

During.

Sharing?

NEWS FLASH #2! The ants took the pork rind away from the cockroaches! They slowly moved it towards the back door, doubling back part of the way as they appeared to be planning their route by committee even as they moved it. They did finally get it out through the gap beneath the door. There were still no ants on the Chicken Crisp. 

They were so fast once they got it on the threshold that I missed the photo.

There were 845 new cases of COVID-19 reported today, bringing the total known cases up to 54,443; this is not the direction we need to be going in! There were also 4 new deaths reported, increasing the death toll to 562; currently there are 8842 cases considered active. As of yesterday, there were 1,820,538 vaccine doses administered making 61.7% of the state population fully vaccinated; 69.9% have received at least 1 dose. Currently there are 362 COVID-19 patients that are hospitalized with 65 in the ICU & 53 on ventilators. The 7-day new case average for Oʻahu is 454 with a positivity rate of 9%. 

Hauʻoli la Hānau e Judy & Mick! A me ka Hauʻoli lā Hoʻomanaʻo makahiki ʻeiwa e Andreas & Amy! My Galaxy S7 has now been in my possession for 2 years, can't really say how old it is though; they told me it was "new" when I got it from Verizon. It was a free replacement for my second S5 that was dying.