That's a New One!

There was a magnitude 4.7 earthquake northerly of Maui just after midnight. I don't recall seeing one in that region since I started the blog. It was about 25 miles deep & did not generate a tsunami.

The Roomba was having problems this morning. Initially I found it sideways, half on & half off the base; it had already been running for about 10 or 15 minutes with no problems. Then a few minutes later I got a message from The Potential Most Favorite Roommate; the Roomba sends messages to his phone when there is a problem. I found it stuck close to the base again; Iʻm not sure why it is not recognizing that the base is there & in its way.

 

On my way to the kitchen I noticed Keala sitting out in the cat run watching birds.

Keala, viewed from the kitchen window.

Luna.

S'mores.

I made a dinosaur kale proothie again; I have enough for 1 more serving.

I got an email from Coursera this morning; this is where I have taken other on-line classes from Johns Hopkins University. The class is COVID Vaccine Ambassador Training: How to Talk to Parents. I signed up for it; even though it is specific to parents, I think it will also help with talking to adults in general when I am assisting with vaccine outreach & education with the Public Health Nurses. It is a self-paced course so I can do a little each day.

They have waived fees for all COVID-related courses that I have seen.

Here is a partial overview of the 1st week.

For dinner tonight I heated up the plant-based "chicken" tenders. I have them along with the rest of the roasted vegetables form Kokua Market. I am going to miss being able to easily pick up organic deli items for dinner. The closest comparable place is 45 minutes away in Waimea.

My book finally arrived! This is a copy of the one I had purchased in 2016 when I 1st got back; a cousin borrowed it in 2017 & forgot it in the rental car. I found it on line about a month ago, I ordered it thinking via Amazon Prime it would arrive before Janice; NOT. I think it is the best book for finding your way around the island with the abundantly described driving tours; it also provides a ton of photos, including historical photos that the author's father & mother took going back to the '40's & '50's. Breanna & I will be using it this Sunday to do a similar tour to the one I did with Janice when she was here.

The Hawaiʻi State Legislature is considering raising the minimum wage. The plan is to incrementally raise it from the current $10.10 per hour to $18 per hour by 2026. The proposed 1st step is to go $12 by October 1st this year, then $15 on January 1, 2024, & finally to $18 on January 1, 2026. I think it's about time since we have nearly the highest cost of living in the nation.

The Volcano Awareness Month video for this week discusses Deformation at Hawaiʻi's Volcanoes During 2021. Geophysicist Ingrid Johanson discusses the inflation & deflation of Kīlauea over 2021 and the instruments used to record the changes. The eruption at Kīlauea is still going on; apparently the lava lake today overflowed the earlier limits for a short period of time today. There is still residual snow on Mauna Kea.

At 8:11 a.m.

At 4:32 p.m.

At 8:11 a.m.

At 4:32 p.m.

At 8:11 a.m.

At 4:32 p.m.

The Aix weather app forecast drizzle in the morning in Honolulu, becoming partly cloudy, then returning to drizzle in the evening. For Kapaʻau, Aix forecast rain all day; Big Island Now forecast mostly sunny with isolated showers & a 20% chance of rain. The Honomū weather station did not record any precipitation today. For Marysville, Aix forecast cloudy skies all day but no precipitation; the traffic cams supported that.

Waikīkī looking easterly at 8:03 a.m.

Kaimukī looking westerly at 8:07 a.m.

Honomū looking northerly at 8:09 a.m.

Marysville looking northerly at 8:09 a.m HST.

Kaimukī looking northerly at 12:34 p.m.

Waikīkī looking easterly at 4:33 p.m.

Kaimukī looking westerly at 4:33 p.m.

Honomū looking northerly at 4:37 p.m.

Marysville looking northerly at 4:47 p.m. HST.

The surf was decreasing all over today. The best conditions appeared to be on the north facing & west facing shorelines. South facing shorelines were essentially flat.

Laniākea (N) at 8:04 a.m.

Hilo Bay (E) at 8:02 a.m.

Waikīkī (S) at 8:04 a.m.

Banyans (W) at 8:06 a.m.

Laniākea (N) at 4:30 p.m.

Hilo Bay (E) cam AWOL at 4:30 p.m.

Waikīkī (S) at 4:31 p.m.

Banyans (W) at 4:31 p.m.

The water contamination at Red Hill continues to be a problem; data has just been released on samples taken between May 12th last year & January 3rd this year. It shows that there were petroleum hydrocarbons present in both soil vapor & groundwater around the Red Hill fuel tanks. Since the detections were intermittent it is unclear what is happening but the Department of Health is still adamant that the fuel tanks must be emptied & decommissioned.

The UH Cancer Center has received a grant to study how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected mental health & substance use in young adults. Pre-pandemic, the Center had collective mental health & substance use information on over 2000 young adults. With this new funding they will follow-up with the same participants to study effects of the pandemic on mental health & substance use.

Oh, no! One of the ships on its way to Tonga with relief aid has a whole bunch of COVID-19 outbreaks onboard; like 23 people so far. Since Tonga has only had 1 known case of COVID-19 since the pandemic started, they have been wary of incoming aid. A COVID-19 outbreak could be more disastrous than the impacts of the eruption of Hunga Tonga about 10 days ago. 

There were 1904 new cases of COVID-19 reported today, bringing the total known cases up to 206,837; don't get too excited that the new case number is dropping, this is from Sunday testing which is always considerably lower than the rest of the week. We will have to see whether the decreasing new case number continues through the rest of the week. There were no new deaths reported so the death toll remains at 1146; even if we have reached the peak in new cases, we will continue to see increasing deaths since there is about a 7 to 10 day lag in the peak deaths following the peak in new cases. Currently there are 54,619 cases considered active. As of today, there have been 2,691,120 doses of vaccine administered, providing 74.5% of the State population with full vaccination & 81.6% with at least one dose; 33.4% have received a 3rd dose. Currently there are 390 cases that are hospitalized with 49 in the ICU & 41 on ventilators. The 7-day new case average for the State is 3537; for Oʻahu it is 2446.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Donna!