She Made It!

Janice finally got here! This morning she sent me a photo of her pre-check bracelet while on the plane. They ended up sitting at the gate for about an hour after they boarded. This is her 3rd attempt to get here for a vacation; the 1st was in May 2020 & we all know what happened with that year!

At Sea-Tac Airport. (Photo by Janice)

I checked the Flight Aware website & watched as her plane made its way here. Flight Aware projected that it would be about an hour late. Several times I saw it actually readjust the ETA & it got a little longer. But she finally made it! 

When I walked out of my bedroom this morning, I could here a high-pitched beeping. It was the stove; someone had forgotten to put the pan over the control panel. One of the cats, most likely Luna, jumped up & pressed a bunch of keys causing an error message. One time she actually pressed a correct sequence & combination to lock the oven!  Auē! So if you come to visit you will likely see some version of the lower photo when you walk in to the kitchen!

The Neighborhood Security Watch walk was cancelled this morning; it was raining. It had been drizzling earlier & started to get wetter just before Ron called to say we weren't walking today.

In spite of the rain, I still had to go see Lori at Dr. Azuma's office. It was painful getting there; people in Hawai'i don't know how to drive on the freeway in the rain. It will be my last visit with Lori, she is moving to another office next week. I already had another appointment set up for May so it will be with Dr. Azuma's new hygienist.

Not much traffic or rain but still moving slowly.

After my dental cleaning I went across the street to Kaiser Permanente for my blood draw. I was supposed to do it in October but kept forgetting. I figured I had better do it before I leave. I got a new phlebotomist today; she insisted on drawing the blood from my right arm which almost all avoid since the veins on the left are much more pronounced. The needle went in OK but started hitting the side of my vein; I ended up with a big bruise there later in the evening.

When I got home I made a proothie for lunch. Once again it was a plain proothie.

After I picked Janice up, we went to Nico's Pier 38 for dinner. We got in at the right time; we just walked right in & were able to get a table in their outdoor seating area without a wait. Janice had the Fish & Chips and I had my usual Furikake Pan-Seared Ahi with extra vegetables & no rice. When Janice mentioned having last been here in 1987, our server Vince said that was before he was born! We still gave him a nice tip.

L to R: Furikake Pan-seared Ahi, Fish & Chips.

Janice & her dinner; I sent this photo to several mutual friends.

Photo by Vince, graphics by Janice.

Our less than 34-year old server Vince.

The Kauakūkalahale column this week was about the importance of being vigilant in upholding the kapu while still enjoying ourselves.

Kīlauea volcano is still erupting but it had another one day pause. Even though the video below was posted this morning (& has a date of 2 days ago) it is talking about the pause last week. FYI the narrator mispronounces almost all the Hawaiian names & even some English words! It also gives a very brief history of the eruptive phase that ended in 2018.

At 9:07 a.m.

At 4:04 p.m.

At 9:08 a.m.

At 4:04 p.m.

At 9:08 a.m.

At 4:04 p.m.

The late evening snow on Mauna Kea last night apparently did not last long; there were still some parts of the access road that were visible this morning. 

At 8:00 a.m.

The snowfall from last night.

Initially plowing to provide early access.

More of it was plowed later in the day.

Is that fog coming in or is it snowing?

I think it might be snowing.

At 4:16 p.m.

There was a great story tonight on Hawai'i News Now. It's about the maintenance people who plow the snow off of the Mauna Kea access road. It sounds like they might spend more time plowing snow than the crews in Seattle! The lead guy they interviewed said there was one year when they were plowing snow every month except July! I think it's worth the 2 minutes to watch the video.

The morning view of the snow in the Marysville area showed that there was no new snow from last night. In fact, it looked like it had been raining rather than snowing overnight. A lot of snow had melted off of the areas adjacent to the freeway but there was still some remaining. 

There was a Flood Advisory issued for a number of areas on Hawaiʻi Island including Kohala District. Hāwī, Kapaʻau, Halaula, & Pololū Valley were specifically named. Even Kawaihae was named, which is saying a lot since it is on the very hot & dry west side of the island!

The Aix weather app forecast rain all day in Honolulu, starting with thunderstorms in the morning; in reality it started out with showers in the morning but by the late afternoon, when Janice arrived, it was only partly cloudy. For Kapaʻau, Aix forecast rain all day with a dry break in the evening; Big Island Now forecast mostly cloudy with slight chance of thunderstorms & isolated showers in the morning becoming scattered showers in the afternoon with a 50% chance of rain. The Honomū weather station recorded 0.63 inches of rain having fallen by 4 p.m.; later in the evening at 10:20 p.m. 1.03 inches of rain had been recorded for the day.

Kaimukī looking easterly at 8:56 a.m.

Kaimukī looking westerly at 8:59 a.m.

Honomū looking northerly at 9:00 a.m.

Waikīkī looking easterly at 9:06 a.m.

Kaimukī looking easterly at 10:43 a.m.

Kaimukī looking northerly at 10:49 a.m.

Kaimukī looking westerlyu at 3:59 p.m.

Honomū looking northerly at 4:00 p.m.

Waikīkī looking easterly at 4:03 p.m.

Tributary to Palolo Stream at 4:11 p.m.

Kaimukī looking northerly at 4:36 p.m. as I leave to pick Janice up.

Nā Koʻolau at 4:39 p.m.

The surf on the north facing & west facing shorelines seemed to be the best ones today. The rain doesn't deter surfers, they're going to be wet anyway! If there were thunderstorms, however, they would be leaving the water.

Laniakea (N) at 9:03 a.m.

Hilo Bay (E) at 9:03 a.m.

Waikīkī (S) at 9:05 a.m.

Banyans (W) at 9:21 a.m.

Laniakea (N) at 4:02 p.m.

A very wet Hilo Bay (E) at 4:02 p.m.

Waikīkī (S) at 4:03 p.m.

Banyans (W) at 4:04 p.m.

A magnitude 4.1 earthquake occurred a little after 2 this afternoon in the southwest rift zone of Kīlauea volcano; it did not generate a tsunami. It was about 5 miles east of Pahala & about 22 miles deep.

There were 3044 new cases of COVID-19 reported today, bringing the total known cases up to 121,864. There were no new deaths reported so the death toll remains at 1094; currently there are 27,314 cases are considered active. As of today there have been 2,549,758 doses of vaccine administered, providing 74.4% of the State population with full vaccination & 79.9% with at least one dose. According to the State data dashboard, 141 cases are in the hospital with 18 in the ICU & 10 on ventilators. According to the LGʻs tweet, there are 192 cases in the hospital & 130 of them are unvaccinated (68%). I think the difference may be that the LG is using current data & the dashboard data is 2 days old. The 7-day new case average for the State is 2489 with a positivity rate of 16.7%. The 7-day new case average for Oʻahu is 1970 with a positivity rate of 19.1%.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Larry, Marilyn, Marilene, & Cristien!