Kai's Travels

While I was doing my Mandarin lessons on Duolingo this morning, I started getting a bunch of texts from Kai as he began his trip here for Obon. The 1st was that he had to pay for his luggage; oops! Forgot to check him in yesterday. The merger  between Alaska & Hawaiian has not gone smoothly, normally I would get a reminder the previous day to check-in; did not get that yesterday.

He also informed me that TSA in Seattle is catching up to Kona!

Then he sent me a photo of his breakfast. And also told me about needing to get cutlery from somewhere else since there was curry sauce on the katsu patty.

I'm pretty sure I will gain weight while Kai is here since we are always trying new places to eat. And also some of his old favorites. My pre-Kai's arrival weight is 129.2 pounds, which is 3 pounds less than when I started on the solstice. Or about 1.2#/week weight loss. We shall see what it is after he leaves. And whether I can get back down to losing anything I might gain before August 1st.

On the way back from the airport, his 1st stop was at Our Founding Farmers for some ice cream! Then we went across the street to K.O. Pizza for the chef's special for dinner. Already more calories than I have been eating!

We watched Good Morning, Breakfast on Lingopie just to watch all the good food. Kai is also thinking of taking advantage of the lifetime subscription so he can learn another language. 

The new series I started watching today is Fights Break Sphere. In this series released in 2018, a 19-year old Leo Wu (aka Wu Lei) plays 16-year old Xiao Yun, an aspiring martial arts practitioner. (He was 21 in Guardians of the Ancient Oath, playing 20-something General Baili Hongshuo aka Water deity. It is really interesting to me how the hairstyle can change the perception of age. But maybe that's a biologist thing since we look for characteristics of animals that can give us a clue as to their age.) Baron Chen plays the Grand Old Master who is training Xiao Yun. It's got a lot of martial arts but also has humor & funky music. No romance yet, but in the 1st episode they are already planning 16-year old Xiao Yun's wedding that will be happening in 5 days! Did they marry them off really young because their life expectancy was short? (SPOILER ALERT - They didn't actually get around to marrying him off in the 1st episode; the marriage agreement that was made at his birth was nullified. It has always seemed like a bad idea to me to make a marriage arrangement when the principal entities are newborns. Actually, even when they are older that also seemed like a bad idea to me. But that is probably my modern female viewpoint being extremely infuriated by the lack of choice.)

I had mentioned earlier how I was able to recognize 水（shuǐ, water) after 3 days learning Mandarin on Duolingo. I have since learned the character for ice (冰, bīng), which I noticed in the word for refrigerator today! (冰相, bīngxiāng)

I am still doing well on the flashcards in Duolingo. I also learned the word for "messy" which really does describe my kitchen right now! And I finally learned how to introduce myself! 

These stats are unreal! There are now 8 countries showing more than 1000 views! And 3 of them have over 2000 views! 

 

The window for the next episode of the eruption at Kīlauea remains between the 11th & the 15th.

 

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Jim & Adrian! 

It's Here!

I picked up the jo & bokken rack today! I'm not sure exactly when it arrived since the USPS Informed Delivery service that I signed up for so I could know exactly when it came in, did not tell me I had a package! Auē! 

I have unboxed it & held it up against the wall it will be mounted on. Since this is an old plantation era house it is single-wall construction with a board running horizontally along the halfway point of the wall. The particular wall I will be hanging the rack on also has battens. (There are no battens on the walls of the other half of the house.) I will have to add spacers to keep the hanging rack evenly on the wall; so that's the task for tomorrow before I can mount the rack on the wall.

I started moving things away from in front of the door to the closet at the top of the stairs. Chris is coming tomorrow to look at it & help me with designing shelves to store the produce I will be canning. I want the closet to be vented with an intake vent located low on the wall on the inside of the garage & a vent high on the outside wall on the north side of the closet. I think I found a reasonable fan to install in the high vent so that room does not get too hot in the summer. Now I need to make calculations to be sure I get the right size fan.

This morning I picked about 7 pounds each of tangerines & navel oranges. The tangerines are for hoa hānau Fran & Billy. I will make juice with the navel oranges; I will mix it with Pedialyte for my electrolyte replacement drink.

I realized today that I may have to do some boiled vegetables in August. Kai is coming in a week; when he is here we usually go out to eat at new places that he wants to try. We also try the desserts! I will try to be mindful of what I eat & look for good proteins with vegetables & fewer carbs. And try to keep my eating limited to around 10 hours. We shall see what happens. 

There was a weird rain this afternoon. It was very sunny but I could hear what sounded like raindrops on the metal roof. I looked out & saw rain! 

The window for the next episode of the eruption at Kilauea shifted. It is now expected to be some time between the 8th & the 15th. 

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e  Becky & Melia! 

Walking to Kona

I met an interesting guy today. His name is Horace. He showed up at Lapakahi State Historical Park today, asking if we had a water fountain. I told him no, but we did have a water dispenser that he could fill his water bottle up at; but Horace did not have a water bottle. I had seen him earlier walking along the road as I was on my way to Lapakahi; I was wondering where he was going since he was in a stretch with no nearby houses. After a short conversation I found out Horace lived in Hāwī & was walking to Kona! He shattered the screen of his phone & was headed to the Verizon store to buy a new one. And he had missed the bus so he was walking. FYI there is only 1 bus in the morning that goes to Kona & 1 in the evening that comes back from Kona; it is a commuter bus for resort workers. 

So Horace was walking. I found out he has only lived in Kohala for a month so I explained to him that it was a really long walk to Kona, but he was undeterred. So I closed up the visitor center & drove him to Kawaihae; which would have taken him 4 hours if he had walked! His wife & the friend that usually drives them around, all work in Kawaihae. I hope he realized he would not make it to Kona by walking & went back home to Hāwī with his wife & friend at the end of the day. But just in case he decided to continue walking to Kona, I gave him the water bottle I use to carry water to Lapakahi for the birds; he really should not be walking along this coast without water.

Horace would arrive well after closing time at Verizon.

I took him to Kawaihae; a 14-minute drive.

He still would not make it to Verizon by closing.

When I arrived at Lapakahi, I noticed the goats have been eating the bark off the kukui tree by the staff parking lot. I think the one branch is going to die since they have removed the bark around the entire girth of the branch for several feet. They also grazed on the pohinahina that Terraformations planted alongside the building without any goat exclusion devices; they said goats did not eat pohinahina. Not. Forgot to get a photo of the munched on pohinahina, will do that on Tuesday.

The window for the next episode of the eruption at Kīlauea has been narrowed down a little. It is now expected to occur between the 24th & the 27th.

 Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Tom & Bruddah Ace!

Floor Is Lava!

SPOILER ALERT - In today's episode of Mirror: A Tale of Twin Cities, Su Mo & Bai Ying enter the Monument of Fallen Tears where the Splitting Sword is housed. And the floor is lava! I am wondering, is that a thing with children in China? Or was it just something that the show runners thought would be cool? In Hawaiʻi, Floor is Lava is a game that children play; or at least we did in my family. So is it a thing in places that have active volcanoes? Or perhaps a US thing because of volcanoes in Hawaiʻi? Wondering how widespread it might be & if it might be multinational? Did you play Floor Is Lava? Let me know in the comments, yes or no, & where. Coincidentally, Episode 49 of the eruption of Kīlauea started this morning about 9:30. So the floor of Halemaʻumaʻu crater really is lava!

Floor is lava!

Episode 49.

I met up with nā hoa hānau Beryl, Galen, & Alisha at Motek Bakery for lunch. The breakfast special was lox & bagels, that's what Beryl & Galen had. Alisha & I opted for the mushroom & Gruyere panini; the sandwich kind, not the cactus kind... After lunch they went to the Pololū Valley viewpoint. Then we met up again at Our Founding Farmers for ice cream! Beryl had My Neighbor's Lemons, Alisha had Surinam Cherry, Galen had Pralines & Cream, & I had Mango. 

(L-R) Beryl, Galen, & Alisha having lunch at Motek Bakery.

Lox & bagels.

Mushroom panini.

Since I figured out how to turn on the microphone, I started the speaking practice. Their attaboys seem to be given out quite freely. I even get them when I am mispronouncing half the words! I'm not sure why they don't tell me to try harder. Or maybe that's just my expectation of what they should be telling me based on growing up in an Asian household? (Duolingo is an American company whose founders have a European background.) At any rate, I have now reached Level 9 in Mandarin!

The blue ones are the correct ones.

Still getting most words right.

It still thinks I'm awesome when I get half wrong?

I still managed to get up to Level 9.

 

The microphone does not seem to do as well on the ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi though. I know I pronounced this sentence correctly, but it sure messed up what it thought I said. Kinda reminds me of how Google Maps mispronounces Hawaiian street names! Perhaps it is listening for Mandarin words & is getting confused when it hears ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi?

Episode 49 of the eruption of Kīlauea started this morning at 9:32; it ended about 5:05 pm after about 7.5 hours. The last dozen or so episodes have generally been lasting for 12 hours or less.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Mary Kay & Brian! 

Another Kona Low

In preparation for the Kona low storm that was predicted to arrive on Hawaiʻi Island early this morning, I closed all the south & west facing windows last night. It is so nice to have windows I can open & close effortlessly! Although it rained early this morning it was not the same intense rain event like they are having on Kauaʻi & Oʻahu. It was overcast but dry this morning, so I took advantage of the calm before the storm. I weed whacked the mālā kalo & lined it with cardboard. I watered the cardboard to get it to mold to the shape of the trench I had Fred dig for me over a year ago when he was putting in the cat fencing. I want the rain from the Kona low storm to soak it even more before I begin to add the mulch & plant the kalo.

Forgot to take photo before I weed whacked.

Hope cardboard keeps the weeds from coming back.

I want cardboard saturated before I add kalo.

I still had more charge left on the 1st battery for the weed whacker, so I cut the grasses around the edges of the planting area for the ʻohiʻa. I then spread out the cardboard to slow the weeds from crowding around the trunk of the ʻohiʻa. I will also let the coming rains soak the cardboard before I add the mulch.

Also forgot the before photo on this one.

I still had some charge left on the 1st battery & a fully charged 2nd battery, so I started on the driveway. There is an area just outside the garage that was covered with bricks; later David poured 2 concrete tracks for the tires from that brick pad out to the road. During the time that no one lived here, the bricks got covered with grass. Since I arrived a little over 4 years ago, my driving in & out has worn down some of the grass but a lot remains. Today I used the weed whacker to start to find the edges of the brick pad so I know how much work I have ahead of me!

Forgot to take a "before" photo for this also.

Seems over the years a lot of dirt has settled on the bricks.

Looking out at the brick pad from garage.

The Kona low storm had not arrived on Hawaiʻi Island by the time I went to bed. Today Kauaʻi got between 2.6" to 7", Oʻahu had between 3.8" to 4.9", & Molokaʻi had 2.15". Hawaiʻi Island had 1". Starting tomorrow evening there will also be a high wind watch on for the state. According to the weather report tonight the next round on Friday will be more intense. 

In the meanwhile, the eruption at Kīlauea has ended; it is not expected to be putting on another show until some time the end of March & into the 1st half of April. 

Hauoli lā Hānau e Ratna!