HFD Testing Event

I helped with the Honolulu Fire Department's COVID-19 testing event today as an MRC volunteer. It was held at Aloha Stadium like the previous testing event I helped with; but this time it was a drive-through test event. People stayed in their cars & did the swabbing themselves. It turned out to be much smaller than before; I think that is because there are more testing venues plus preregistration was requested. They still took people if they had not preregistered; they signed them up on-site. They were also set up for walk-ups since they did not want cars backed up on to the surface streets; there was no problem with that today.

HFD staff parking area.

Directions for self-administering test.

There were 3 regular lanes, 1 over-height lane to left of Lane 1 with no canopy, plus walk-up to right.

I did about a mile of walking today.

The Liaison Officer today was Damian, he was also at the LCC Vax POD in various positions. When he was the LCC Liaison Officer he would always tell us what national or international celebration was held on that day; today he started out talking in "pirate" because it is International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Koa, the Acuity & Data Analysis lead at the LCC Vax POD, was used as an example client to walk us through the registration process but was not here today.

Today is a Fast Day so I did not have my proothie this morning & usually I do not eat lunch either. But since I was working outdoors I decided I should eat lunch. It was an awful way to break my fast; the lunch was barely edible! Initially it looked okay; there were no vegetarian options. The only "vegetables" in this meal were the takuan & the beni shoga. The fish was dry & tasteless. The chicken was hard & dry. The beef patty was the highlight of the meat offerings, it was somewhat moist & tender with a hint of flavor. The hotdog was a slender version of a hotdog. There was no label on the container so I don't know which restaurant to stay away from.

L to R: takuan, beef patty, chicken, fish, & hotdog; all on top of rice.

Perhaps the best thing about lunch was finding out there was a portable toilet nearby. And it was a deluxe, flushable portable toilet! It was under a canopy so it would not overheat & it was out of sight of people coming to get tested; which meant it was also out of sight when we were working. The previous time I was helping at the Aloha Stadium test site, there were a few portable toilets for staff; they were roped off near the data entry tent. Since the lines of people coming for tests were long & there was a lot of waiting, there were many who wanted to use the staff toilets; but we could not allow them to otherwise the toilets would be overloaded since the number delivered was based on the number of staff only.

It's sort of like an airplane toilet.

Today was the last day of the weekly Duolingo leader board. I had checked where I was at during a lull in testing & felt I was high enough I would not drop down in to the demotion zone. I was right; I checked when I got home & I was still 5 slots away from demotion. 

For dinner tonight I ate some of the Turkey Loaf with Mushroom Sauce & Broccoli Kale Salt Sauté I had picked up on Friday at Kokua Market. I should have waited until dinner to break my fast; this was so much better than lunch! My only complaint is that it wasn't really a mushroom sauce though it might have been a sauce with mushrooms in it

When I got home Keala came in from the cat run & came up to be pet, then she jumped up on the couch to take a nap. I think it was her way of apologizing for peeing on my chair yesterday. She doesn't usually come to say hello when I come home.

The Aix weather app forecast rain in Honolulu until midafternoon then partly cloudy skies through most of the evening, ending with drizzles late at night. I did see rain in the very early morning but it cleared up to only light mist as I was on my way to the test site. Before the event started it drizzled on and off for about an hour, then cleared up before we opened at 10 a.m. & stayed sunny until we left in the midafternoon. For Kapaʻau, Aix forecast rain all day; but the CFH Telescope showed no clouds over Kohala Mountain in the morning. Honomū mirrored that starting out fairly sunny and only recording 0.01 inches of precipitation by 6:15 p.m. For Marysville, Aix forecast lots of rain tapering off in the early evening; that was very incorrect.

Kaimukī looking northerly at 2:33 a.m.; the rain woke me up again.

Kaimukī looking westerly at 6:54 a.m.; roads are still a little damp.

Honomū looking northerly at 6:54 a.m.; looking fairly sunny.

Marysville looking southerly at 6:54 a.m. HST; roads look a little damp but definitely not soaked.

Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope looking northwesterly at cloud-free Kohala Mountain.

Kaimukī looking northerly at 7:31 a.m.

Light mist on windshield, looking at Nā Koʻolau at 7:34 a.m.

Kaimukī looking westerly at 6:15 p.m.

Honomū looking northerly at 6:15 p.m.

Marysville looming northerly at 6:17 p.m. HST; roads still look relatively dry.

 

I'm not sure why I missed grabbing a screen shot of the swell summary today but the surf looked similar to what it has been for the past couple of days.

Laniakea (N) at 6:58 a.m.

Hilo Bay (E) at 6:57 p.m.

Waikīkī (S) at 6:59 a.m.

Waikoloa (W) at 7:00 a.m.

There were 474 new cases of COVID-19 reported today, bringing the total known cases up to 75,480. There were also 12 new deaths reported increasing the number of fatalities to 714; currently there are 7725 cases that are considered active. On Friday there were 324 patients that had been hospitalized with 79 in the ICU and 67 on ventilators. The 7-day new case average on Oʻahu is 367 with a positivity rate of 7.1%. 

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Hannah!