My Summer Vacation: NSW Walk

During this morning's Neighborhood Security Watch walk I found out some interesting things about our neighborhood. For example, the house used as the current Magnum P.I.'s Detective Katsumoto's house is on 10th Avenue & 2 doors down is a house that was used for one episode of the new Hawaiʻi Five-O. We also walked past ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro's house on Sunset Avenue. And we saw a fence made of old surfboards & a tangerine tree that is apparently the target of fruit thieves.

Our route today was a little longer & hillier than usual; we went up to Sunset Avenue near Leahi Hospital which is at the crest of the hill. It also took us a little longer since we stopped to talk to a couple of people including Ken's neighbor whose parked car was hit yesterday by a hit & run driver.

There was a pretty good elevation gain during our walk today.

We also walked by Fort Ruger Market. They used to have a really cool tako mural; it has been replaced by a not so cool mural. But there were too many cars for me to get a good photo; I will drive by there later & see if I can get one.

I forgot to weigh myself last Friday. And Saturday. And Sunday. I finally remembered this morning. And found my weight had not changed.

I made a plain proothie for lunch today. I didn't really feel like eating something solid & heavy for lunch.

I got an email from Marjorie this morning; she is using a volunteer sign-up app to help Melvin schedule the volunteers that will be going out with the Safe Drinking Water Branch staff to collect water quality samples. From the training last Friday it looks like they will be responding to requests from people who are concerned about their water as well as others that are supposedly in the affected. I've signed up to help on 8 days.

For dinner tonight I had leftovers from last night's Nawele Neighbors Holiday Dinner.

Ember is missing. NSW coordinator Sue emailed a photo of Ember & an appeal from Ember's human. Later Danielle (Ember's human) sent out another request for help. We did not see Ember on our walk this morning but will be looking out for her.

Ember. (Photo by Danielle)

A team of researchers finished a nearly 3-week expedition at Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument and found abundant deep sea coral & sponge communities. The scientists conducted 13 remotely operated vehicle dives which were recorded in high definition & broadcast live to viewers & scientists around the world.

Although Kīlauea is still erupting, things have slowed down again. Scientists are not sure if it is another pause like the other week or if the eruptive phase is winding down. The thermal images show less hot areas than has been its usual lately. Stay tuned.

At 7:12 a.m.

At 3:55 p.m.

At 7:12 a.m.

At 3:55 p.m.

The snow on Mauna Kea was still there this morning. There are some areas where the snow has melted. There was no new snow overnight; but on the news tonight they forecast more snow coming in tonight or early tomorrow morning.

At 7:06 a.m.

At 7:54 a.m., the 1st shift has arrived.

At 2:42 p.m., lot of vehicles there today.

At 6:26 p.m., evening shift.

At 9:02 p.m., no snow yet.

Apparently the month of November was drier than normal for Hawaiʻi Island in general. Most gauges on the island reported less than 50% of the average previously seen. Both the Upolu Airport & Kahua Ranch gauges had their lowest totals for November since 2002; in spite of this the totals for the year through the end of November were near normal.

The Aix weather app showed rain all day for Honolulu; that was not accurate, it was a fairly nice day. It only began to drizzle well after dark. For Kapaʻau, Aix forecast rain all day, getting heavier after dark; Big Island Now forecast mostly sunny in the morning becoming partly sunny with a 50% chance of rain. The Honomū weather station recorded 0.01 inches at 7:22 a.m.; by 3: 51 p.m. that had increased to 0.06 inches. For Marysville, Aix forecast rain all day with thunderstorms in the early afternoon. It looked like it was fairly dry all day.

Kaimukī looking westerly at 7:22 a.m.

Honomū looking northerly at 7:22 a.m.

Marysville looking southerly at 7:23 a.m. HST.

Kaimukī looking northerly at 8:44 a.m.

Kaimukī looking westerly at 1:16 p.m.

Waikīkī looking easterly at 3:19 p.m.

Honomū looking northerly at 3:51 p.m.

Marysville looking southerly at 3:52 p.m. HST.

The north racing shores had the best surf conditions today.

Laniakea (N) at 7:14 a.m.

Hilo Bay (E) at 7:14 a.m.

Waikīkī (S) at 7:16 a.m.

Banyans (W) at 7:18 a.m.

Laniakea (N) at 3:17 p.m.

Hilo Bay (E) at 3:18 p.m.

Waikīkī (S) at 3:21 p.m.

Banyans (W) at 3:19 p.m.

There were 150 new cases of COVID-19 reported today, bringing the total known cases up to 89,379; this is about 30% lower than yesterday. But this is from tests conducted on Saturday when there is less testing done; I would be more concerned if it did not go down. I also expect tomorrow's new case numbers to decrease over today's since those would be Sunday tests & there is even less testing on Sunday. There were no new deaths reported today so the death toll remains at 1058; currently there are 1583 cases that are considered active. As of today there have been 2,849,378 doses of vaccine administered providing 72.9% of the State population with full vaccination & 78.2% with at least one dose. The 7-day new case average for the State is 129 with a positivity rate of 2.0%. The 7-day new case average for Oʻahu is 98 with a positivity rate of 2.8%.

This is an important chart to watch as case counts increase; it is the number of Intensive Care Unit beds that are in use. Currently that number is 196 out of the 325 that are available statewide. This is the limiting factor that will determine how effectively we can treat people with severe COVID-19 as well as other patients needing this typevof care. The number of beds is not evenly distributed; if I remember correctly, there are 23 on Hawaiʻi Island, 26 on Maui, 9 on Kauaʻi, & the remainder on Oʻahu. There are no ICU beds on Molokaʻi, Lanaʻi, or Niʻihau. This is why there were different restrictions in place in different counties pre-vaccine. And even some slight diffferences post-vaccine. Because of the limited ICU beds & the inability to easily send people to a hospital with capacity in the next state the Department of Health says we can maintain our ability to provide people with the best ICU care possible if we keep our 7-day average of new cases below 100. Hopefully, the new treatments will prove to be effective enough to keep people out of the hospital.