Happy Birthday Jewel

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

It’s Friday and another beautiful Blue Hawaii day. Yesterday was spent mostly inside as Diane spent another day healing. We went out in the late afternoon seeking a retailer from whom we might purchase a heating pad. She said she wasn’t going another night without one. We wound up at Costco but they didn’t have heating pads so she got Salonpas patches instead.

It’s 0903 at the moment, and we’ve been up for a couple of hours. Diane’s perky and we’re waiting for Jewel to arrive so we can go exploring. It’s good to have a native guide when you explore.

We’re sitting on the lanai, there is barely a breeze, just enough to make the palm trees sway just a little. Birds are chirping and singing, and it’s so peaceful. We’ve seen a few golfers hitting their balls along the fairway on the other side of the lava flow on the makai side of the resort. There is evidence of vog in the distance, hazing out the land as it rises from the ocean up the flanks of Mauna Kea. Very restful. Sitting here, watching it all, I’m gaining confidence in my golfing abilities as some pretty terrible golfers sweep past in their festive garb. The course is very pretty, as are all golf courses on the island, and it’s flat. I’m tempted, but not enough to do it. I’m better off sitting here thinking about how well I could do out there. I’m sure the fantasy is far better than the reality.

We’ve been watching a boony cat walk by every morning, as if on rounds, and this morning we were outside before our lanai was on her schedule. I’m sure they don’t call them boony cats but on Guam they do. Feral is another word. This one was a friendly type of feral and just calmly walked by, stopped to look around, then calmly laid down to do some yoga. I went and got her a little milk on a saucer which she was very eager to sample. After a few token licks, she looked around again, bid us adieu, and walked off on her rounds. On either side of the lanai are planters surrounded by a brick border. The cat walked precisely on the bricks on departure. Very calm, very much a cat that works on Hawaii Time.

Around 0945 Jewel appeared at our front door to guide us on a trip around the north end of the island. Diane already had a couple of stops planned in that area, but we got to see a few more, thanks to Jewel.

First stop was Pukoa Bay just a few miles north of our location. The area along both sides of the road that goes around the bay is filled with homes of all kinds. From very elaborate, to more common beach homes that have been here for ages. We found an access to the beach where we could park, then took a trek on the water’s edge. Not much sand there, but lots of lava. Very picturesque. Right away Jewel spotted a very large sea turtle sunning itself on the lava.

After walking around the point, we returned to the road and started back. This nice lady, Doris, was getting her mail and struck up a conversation, something not likely to happen in most other places. She’s almost 91 years old and spends 6.5 months here and the other 5.5 months in … gee … Albany, Oregon. Small world. She shared that her husband, Bill, was one of the first investors of Bill Bowerman, co-founder of Nike.

Doris was very talkative and a fan of my Ducks T-shirt. She said the money earned from her Nike stock all goes to charity … millions of $$$ a year. Obviously her husband did well. She also said that her kids weren’t getting it. Plus, half of everything else was going to charity when she kicked off. A really nifty lady and fun to talk with. And, she said she was on her normal morning walk when she saw Phil Knight.

From there we took the back road to Hapuna Beach to watch the waves. Jewel knows where all the best waves are …

I had to drag myself away from the beach because the waves are so mesmerizing. Each one is different and it’s hard to catch them when the light is just right. Just fascinating!

We continued a bit north, then east on Highway 19 to Waimea, home of the famous Parker Ranch. Jewel knew of a great place to eat lunch which was perfect because she had a hankering for bacon. So, what could be more appropriate than Hulu Sue’s Barbecue, or Fish And The Hog eatery. The names confused me a bit because Fish And The Hog was on the front window, but Hulu Sue’s was on the large window at the back of the restaurant.

Diane had a roasted vegetable and provolone sandwich while Jewel and I had their BLT 9 sandwich. It was totally awesome. I have to admit that I actually thought the menu choice was BLT 9 until Jewel and Diane pointed out that the number 9 was the price. That explains the odd looks I received from the cute waitress. OK, so I’m not well versed when it comes to fancy menus. That’s why I make sure I’m never alone when I do stuff like this.

Since it was Jewel’s birthday today, we got a piece of chocolate cake and three forks. It was a huge piece so there was plenty left over for Jewel to take home for John.

Diane had a stop at the Waipio Valley overlook, but the advertised one is a long trip around the valley. Jewel, however, led us to a less advertised overlook on our side of the valley. It’s on a dead-end road that was lined with vehicles for about the last 1/4 mile, or so, and there was no place to turn around until the end. So, we mosied down, turned around, and mosied back, never stopping. It was pretty voggy (volcano dust and fog) so pictures wouldn’t have turned out well, so we didn’t feel it was necessary to try. We did, however, get to see it. It’s a long way down, very green and very lush.

Too soon it was time to head back ‘home’. Along the way Jewel saw whales jumping out of the water just off shore, so we stopped to see if we could get a photo. We waited, and waited, but it never jumped again. We did, however, get to see its tale a couple of times.

We’re pretty sure that it started jumping again right after we left, but we didn’t look because we didn’t want to be disappointed. Still, we got to see the tail and that’s pretty cool in itself. We were happy.

We sadly said our goodbyes to Jewel, and watched her drive away … in the wrong direction. Soon she was headed back the correct way and, we trust, made it home OK. In Jewel’s defense, my exit instructions were very specific.

It was an incredible day and we feel blessed that Jewel chose to spend her birthday with us.

n’t and other Contractions

Posted on February 20, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

The title really isn’t a mistake … it’s an apology to Jewel and John.

In yesterday’s post I commented on the Thai food we had at lunch, indicating that “we were disappointed with the food …”, omitting the contractional modifier “n’t” to one critical adverb which totally changed the meaning.

It has been corrected to indicated our real sentiments.

It was great food.

I guess I will have to be a lot more careful with my use of …n’t, …’s, …’ll, …n’t’ve. Perhaps I should omit them from my vocabulary completely. After all, the intent is for contractions to serve as a sort of shorthand, but they really don’t save much time at all. “n’t” means not, of course, but it only adds one extra keystroke, the space.

The danger in eliminating contractions, however, is I fear it will cause my efforts to sound a bit uppity. Grammatically correct maybe, but uppity. It isn’t how I talk, and it slows me down when I must pause to convert a natural contractional situation into a grammatically correct one. Most of the time that is a serious challenge for me because, typically, I am not overly concerned with that aspect of writing.

Grammar has its place, of course … right between “gramma” and “gramme” in someone’s dictionary. I trust that everyone will understand that the apostrophe “s” used in this paragraphs obviously means that the ‘dictionary’ in question belongs to an unnamed someone who uses only one zill, hates Chevys, and is overly fond of the color International Orange. That’s really a color.

I think I’ll leave it right there.

Sorry, Jewel & John, if you took the original version at face value.

Kua Bay, Whales, Jewel, John, & Thai Food

Posted on February 19, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

Today was a good one. The sun was shining when we got up, really early at 0730, and it shined all day long. Diane woke up mostly normal, so we felt OK with a road trip to Kua Bay.

First, however, here’s what it looked like outside our back door before we left …

It’s only about 13.8 miles down the road from us toward Kona/Kailua, so it was a quick trip. Since Diane is feeling pretty good, she drove, of course, and I did my normal magnificent job of navigating. We arrived around 1000-ish and got one of the last 3 valid parking places.

Diane stayed at one of the two picnic tables located at the end of the path from the parking lot, before there’s a need to stumble over a bunch of lava rock to the beach. This is her walking that direction … the one in the very bright green hat …

It’s not a large beach, but it’s pretty pristine …

There weren’t very many people there, either. I had to weave through a few of the sun lovers to the north end of the beach to get this picture looking back toward where we arrived. There were some hardy folks farther out, but most of the adventurous ones were fairly close in, working the waves. This guy was just taking a run at the waves these tossing his little piece of wood on the sand, jump on it and slide into the wave. I think the object was to jump the wave, but I didn’t ever see him do that. Still, it was fun.

Then we settled into some serious whale watching and we weren’t disappointed. We saw a bunch of them playing around a few hundred yards off the bay. Spouts were popping up all over the place …

… then they began to play, swimming along just under the surface …

… showing a tail, here and there …

… they popping up to look around …

If we do nothing else on this trip, today made it all worthwhile. It was just awesome. Then these guys showed up and stood right in the way of everything I wanted to take pictures of, so we left in a huff. How rude, don’t you think?

We left Kua Bay with a sense of awe from seeing these huge animals showing off. The next destination was Safeway in Kailua so we could get some vittles for a meal or two. Or three. On the way I texted Jewel to see if she was anywhere close on the island. From the photos Jewel posts she gets around. Thankfully, she was home and responded right away. Turns out she tried to call us, but had a really old phone number. We cleared that up first thing after meeting in the Safeway parking lot.

It was lunchtime so we headed down to the waterfront to one of their favorite eateries, a Thai restaurant right on the water. We weren’t disappointed with the food, and we had a wonderful visit with Jewel and John. Since this is the first time we’ve met John we had to go through a process to determine whether or not John was the “right guy” for Jewel. It doesn’t matter that they’ve known each other for a really long time, it’s just something that has to be done. Ya know? Well, he passed muster with flying colors. One of the good guys.
The waitress took two photos but in both of them John was hiding out behind Jewel. I think it was his way of putting Jewel first. What a guy.

Back at the Safeway parking lot we went our separate ways after making a date with Jewel to meet at Kua Bay at 0900 tomorrow. Sadly, John has to work so can’t join us.

We found all kinds of things in Safeway that we didn’t know we needed. We should be good for the rest of our stay.

Once back at the room we donned our swimming suits and lounged by the pool, the one with the waterfall, for an hour or so. Nice way to end the day.

News at eleven …

Magic Microwave

Posted on February 18, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

Just a short post to share a tiny bit of magic I discovered in our room here at Kings Land in Waikaloa.

The room is actually a 1 bedroom condo affair, which I may, or may not, have mentioned in previous posts. So, it’s got an entire kitchen with regular size appliances.

The stove is a Sharp Insight Pro which appears to be a drop in unit with a flat, glass burner surface. Nothing new there … but the oven is special.

Actually, its got two ovens below the burner surface. The top one is a microwave drawer that slides in and out. I’ve been living in a cave lately, it appears, and didn’t know anything like that even existed. A drawer! Who knew?

I have to report that I’m a button pusher so figured out how to make it work pretty quickly, but I thought the drawer was a little sticky, and hard to pull out and push in.

Then I found the two buttons I hadn’t pushed. The OPEN and CLOSE ones. After that, the drawer worked just fine, all by itself.

Again, who knew?

My “Golden” Post – # 555

Posted on February 18, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

Greetings and hallucinations to all on this momentous day. Who would have thought that 3 short years ago, or thereabouts, I’d make it this far. I was sure the WordPress moderators would have tired of me by now and just kicked me off for no reason other than they wanted to. Just for fun. But, they haven’t. Yet. So, I will continue until I’ve used up all the nouns, consonants, and adjectives, to name a few, that I can. Even if they don’t always make sense.

I have nothing special planned for this entry so don’t expect much. It will be the normal drivel that pops into my head when I touch my … when I touch my keyboard. Something just takes over. I’m sure all of you have had this same experience at some time or other … no thought involved, just type away and see what happens.

First, Diane is on Day 3 of an IBS attack and finds peace only in resting. I totally understand and let her be. Yesterday we talked about how awful IBS can be and I asked, “well, would you rather be sick at home, or in paradise?” She smiled and said, “paradise, of course.” So here we are. The upside is that we aren’t spending very much on food. At the moment I’m having crackers, Tillamook cheese, and water. I love that stuff, so it’s not tough. She will rally, I know, if neither of us push it.

Then we’ll go see the whales.

While flitting away the time I got on my Facebook account and did something I’ve wanted to do for a while now … go through Facebook’s list of suggested friends. I was amazed at how many there were who had crossed the ‘friend boundary’ by being friends with someone I was friends with. Merrily I clicked along, sending friend request after friend request to those who either had names I actually recognized, or those with whom Diane was already a friend. This took a lot of time and, as I got toward what I thought was the bottom of the list, the names became more and more obscure. You know, like you think you should know them but you aren’t quite sure, and some of the mutual friends aren’t familiar and you couldn’t remember ever friending them? Like that.

Throughout my journey, on that list, I kept seeing suggestions for friends who appeared to not have any friends at all. At least not mutual friends. They just stood sadly alone with no names listed in the adjacent column, and it began to concern me. In order to assuage this empathetic attack on my conscience, I decided to send friend requests to them, too.

At first I sent to them all but the list seemed to be never-ending so I switched to every other one. Still, it went on and on. Then to every third one until, finally, I apparently clicked on the wrong thing, or the Facebook ‘People’ noticed what was going on, and I was summarily dumped out to my home page.

Using that as an indicator that it was time to stop what I was doing, I did that. Now I’m here. But I’m still thinking about all those poor people who don’t appear to have friends. And, I wonder how their names wound up on that list. I suspect I’ll find out.

So, if you are reading this on my Facebook page, and don’t know me, it’s OK. We’re friends. Honest. You can trust me. Ask anyone.

Thinking about getting that ‘prompt’ to quit brings to mind how many events in my life are dictated by similar ‘prompts’. Like, I need a screw, or a bolt, so I go to my huge stash of screws and bolts to look for just the right one. Usually, I’m looking for an even number, like 2 or 4, but sometimes I only need one. It has to match one I already have, though. Normally I can’t find one just like the one I have, so I start digging around looking for matching screws or bolts. The rule is that the first group of 4 I find are the ones I’m supposed to use, and it works out surprisingly well. Sometimes I’ll find 3, the 4th one is illusive, so I’ll start another matching group, taking the first to make the cut.

On the rare occasions that I only need one, I’ll find what I think is the one I need then it magically falls from my hand disappearing either back into the screw/bolt box, or onto the shop floor. I take that as an indicator that I had the wrong one and go back to the box and, usually, quickly find a replacement. It’s pretty amazing.

Getting a parking place works the same way. If someone beats me to the spot I was looking at it means I wasn’t supposed to park there for some reason. I just get another one. Simple. A lot less stressful than jumping up and down in anger because that ‘jerk’ took ‘my’ spot. Karma, in response, usually kicks in and causes at least one of the cars they parked between to be too close, allowing the owner to rightfully slam their door into the parking thief because it’s the only way they can get into theirs. Ya know? It all works out.

I’m kinda looking at Diane’s situation in the same manner. If we were home and she had an attack like this, she’d be up and about feeling that it was necessary for her to be doing ‘something.’ Here, she can rest and get over it. Her concern, of course, is that I’m not having any fun. Well, I’ve done all this before, a couple of times, and I don’t feel cheated in even a small way. My concerns are with her.

I know … it makes me sound like a saint of some kind, right? Saint Jerrie just doesn’t have a ring of truth in it, however, so I’ll just stick with GMM. That’s a Good Married Man, as opposed to a BMM. Some BMMs are rightfully associated with a BBM, or Bad (pick a word) Movement.

I hear Diane navigating so it’s time to terminate this and see how things are going.

Hope you all have a great day.

Every day I wake up is awesome!

Oh ya! I didn’t really randomly send friend requests to all those strangers. I was very selective …

Scrambled Eggs & Sherbet In Paradise

Posted on February 17, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

At this exact point in time it is right at 1520 which is only a two hours difference from home which was erroneously reported as a 3-hour difference just recently. I think I got that from the pilot of the plane we rode in on. That, or I just took a guess. Since I’ve corrected that terrible miscalculation it’s a moot point so you may summarily dismiss any further references to time, in general.

I point out the time because I’m still in the bathrobe provided by the resort. We have been trapped in our room all day by horrendous weather, on the parking lot side, and noisy golf carts whizzing past on the lanai side. That’s a lie, of course. Just didn’t want it to get out that I’m still in my robe because Diane just got up about 30 minutes ago. It was a long night for her … too much beef over the past two days, we think.

She’s currently undergoing therapy, soaking in the tub …

When she’s all softened up, I will take my shower, then we will forage for
food that will be more gentle to our picky innards …

I am compelled to share with you that they have incredible water pressure here. That tub filled in about 1.5 minutes. Seriously. Well, maybe 2.5, but that’s still fast.

Here’s the view from our lanai …

As you can see, we’re pretty close to the volcano. Some of those rocks are still hot, but not too hot for the weasels, or ferrets, that habitat the resort. I suspect they don’t pay dues like everyone else here, but no one seems to mind.

Here’s another view from our lanai, if you zoom out and look up a little …

Just to keep you abreast of what’s going on, it’s now 1555 and I’m going to take my shower while Diane recovers from her bath.

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

It’s much later now, after 1900, actually, and we actually got out of the room for a little while. Diane got up feeling lots better, and she was hungry, a good sign. This time the desire was something more in the “comfort food” area, like eggs. Those are our go-to choice when nothing else appeals. They’re just really good.

To get them, considering it was 1700-ish at the time, we had a couple of choices. We could revisit the Farm Market at the Mauna Whatsit resort next door, or take a short trip to Waikaloa Village, a short jaunt up the hill where the temp is only 73 instead of 76 where we currently ‘live’. We know that’s true because our rental car has a thermometer that told us. OK, it didn’t actually ‘tell’ us, it ‘showed’ us. On the dash, in a place I’m not allowed to look because, although I’m the registered driver of the vehicle, and Diane is secondary, and she’s semi-ill, I’m still not allowed to drive. I think that’s just wrong in a variety of ways, but it’s best, for me, to not attempt to push the boundary of my God-given rights as a man to rule the roost. As the ‘King’ of my abode, I am simply a figurehead, as are almost all good married men (GMM).

It rained at some point during the day, but only lightly because I didn’t see anything coming down any of the six or seven times I looked outside. It also rain on our trip to Waikaloa Village, but barely enough to need the wipers. Diane used them anyway for two reasons: 1) The windshield was dirty, and 2) She just wanted to see how they worked. From my secure spot in the passenger seat, I felt more qualified to investigate how to activate the windshield sprayers to aid in getting the windshield clean and to help allow Diane to keep both hands on the steering wheel and looking at the road. Why take chances, right?

The trip was uneventful and we found the market just fine, did our shopping and made it back to the car for under $65. All we got were 2 yogurts, 6 bananas, frozen lasagna, a dozen eggs, loaf of bread, 1/2 # of butter, salt & pepper, small strawberry jelly, small can of soup, small brick of cheese, and a box of crackers. Oh, and two bottles of mineral water for an ailing tummy. Bread was an absolute bargain at $2.50. At the neighboring resort it’s $5 a loaf.

Tomorrow we’re either going to Safeway, or Costco. First, however, we’re going to Kua Bay and look for whales. Honest. I know, I said we were going to do that today and it didn’t happen so why am I so sure it will happen tomorrow? I just know, OK. And, I told Diane it would be awful if I had to go alone. So, sick or not, she’s bound to go, and she’ll insist of driving. She feels terrible, by the way, for feeling ill, like it’s something she can control. I am not, however, concerned about any inconvenience on my part because I am a GMM. Just ask her.

Tomorrow we will investigate paradise.

We will also make plans to connect with Jewel. By the way, for those who are interested, Friday is Jewel’s birthday. On that day she will officially be a lot older than me.

Diane just texted me from the bedroom, where she’s watching “The Bachelor”, requesting some more mineral water and a small scoop of sherbet. Oh, ya. We bought sherbet. Frozen peas, too. I think that’s all.

I had some sherbet, too.

Waikoloa Hamburgers

Posted on February 16, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

Greetings from the dry, lava-covered west side of Hawaii. It’s pretty incredible here. Any of you who follow Jewel on Facebook are familiar with the scenic beauty because she post her photos of it all the time. It never gets old. I kinda compete with her on photos because Oregon has some pretty nifty scenes, too. But, she totally outclasses my efforts.

Our journey to get her began at 0500 this morning when Diane’s alarm ignited, creating a dramatic start to this trip. Alarms just aren’t part of our daily routine so it’s a little startling when one goes off, even when you’re expecting it. Getting up that early was necessary in order to make it to the airport in time for our 0720 flight.

As soon as we got to the airport I used a kiosk to print out our boarding passes and they came out with TSA pre-approval. That means we got to skip the really long lines going through security. We still had to go through the scanner, but we didn’t have to empty any of our bags, and didn’t have to remove our shoes. I even wore my heart event monitor through the body scanner with no problem. I don’t know how we got to skip the long line, but I’m not complaining

Once at the gate, I checked with the agent to see if there was a possibility of upgrading seats. The plane was full, however, so it was not likely. After sitting for a bit, the agent made an announcement reporting there were four seats available in the exit rows. I jumped, ran over a couple of kids getting to the agent, and managed to score a pair. So, we had lots of leg room which made the six-hour flight much more tolerable. On the way we gained a few hours in the day because of the time difference which means after flying for 6 hours we arrived only 3 hours after we left. Weird.

We got off the plane pretty quickly then made our way to the Alamo bus to get a ride to our rental car. We got a Chrysler 200 which Diane likes because it’s not real big, but has the same size engine as her Buick. So, it’s pretty peppy.

We took a drive out to Kings Land at Waikoloa, arriving around 1230, or so, to see if by some miracle our room was ready. Of course, it wasn’t, so we had to kill some time. Since Diane was starving we went over to the food court at the mall thing they have on the other side of the resort and ate some teriyaki chicken yakisoba. We really like that stuff. Sadly, it wasn’t very teriyaki-ie so I asked for more sauce. The girl who sold us the plate didn’t have any but directed us to the pizza vendor at the other end of the food court where the counter guy was more than happy to get me some. I still haven’t figured out why I could get teriyaki sauce from the pizza guy, but not from the teriyaki chicken place. Odd.

We were both really tired from the flight so we went back to the resort to just wait for the room. Normal check in time is 1600 so we couldn’t really be upset because it wasn’t ready when we got there, again, at 1300. To fill the time we made a trip up the highway to the next resort to check out their market and see if prices were tolerable enough for us to get a few staples to tide us over for the evening. It was a very nice market, and they had lots of nice stuff, including bread for $5 a loaf. So, there won’t be toast tomorrow, for sure. We did get a couple of bananas, a couple of yogurts, and some creamer (for me). Then it was back to our resort where we decided to just wait things out. Walking around wasn’t an option because we didn’t want to do that. Instead, we sat around, reading books on our respective iPads.

At 1600 I went back to reception and got our keys. Then I went back to get Diane and we went to the room. It’s a nice one. A one bedroom condo. Once everything was in the room we walked, yes walked, back to the reception area where they have a grill. By this time the yakisoba was long gone and Diane was hankering for some ground up dead cow meat. The grill had one that fit the bill perfectly so we got two of them to go and took them back to our temporary home.

Back at the room we discovered why the hamburgers we got cost $15 each. They were entirely too big for normal people. Each of the burgers must have been at least 3/4 of a pound, and extended well beyond the limits of the bun. Take a look …

I watched Diane try to pick hers up to take a bite and suggested maybe it would be better if we just put them on plates and use forks. That turned out to be a good idea and one I was proud to have had. I don’t get many of those … good ideas, that is. Like normal, Diane couldn’t eat all of hers so I had to clean up. I suspect I ate a pound of beef, plus the bun, both of our pickles, and most of the fries. I have no doubt I’ll be tipping the scales a lot higher at the end of this trip unless we just start ordering one meal and sharing it. That’s what we did with the yakisoba and it worked out well. Don’t know why that thought didn’t carry over to the giant hamburgers.

After eating we just lazed around for a while then I had to go clean all the crap off the bed so Diane could retire. Here’s how housekeeping left our bed …

What a mess!

Tomorrow we plan to visit Kua Bay and, hopefully, see some whales. Then we’re going to Costco to see if we can get some cheap bread, for toast.

Perhaps we’ll run in to Jewel somewhere along the way. She lives just down the street in Kailua.

PDX Embassy Suites – First Stop

Posted on February 15, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

We finally made it to Portland at 1632 after a pretty grueling start to the day. For Diane the grueling part started out around 0130 when she thought the bit of chili she had for supper last night came back to torture her. She only slept, in the bed, for about two hours but reported that she lost two hours in the bathroom. She either shifted briefly to an alternate universe, or just flat went to sleep in there. She’s not sure. I just know I was up at the normal time for the dogs, then about 0800 she presented herself to me looking pretty rugged, hugging a hot water bottle to her tummy. It was one of those really sad moments where you want to hug them because they look pitiful, but you’re afraid to touch her because you know she might rip your arm off. I left her alone, followed her back to the bedroom, closed all the doors, and left her alone for a few hours. When she emerged the next time, she was fairly presentable and ready to face the day. Since we needed to be in Portland before dark, that was a good thing.

We both had packed our suitcases last night, so that was out of the way. My main challenge was to remember all of the charging cords needed for the electronically gizmos that must travel with us. Everywhere. So we can stay connected, you know?

We stopped by Mom’s house for a short visit on the way, then it was off to the church to participate in the quilt show tear-down. Since I hadn’t eaten all day I took advantage of the left overs and gorged on a very large container of Valerie’s special clam chowder. That and about 15 saltines. I carried it around so when people saw me they couldn’t ask me to do anything because my hands were full. I was really hungry.

Finally, everything was done. We just had to wait a little extra for Nancy to finish vacuuming. If she had been a little faster, we could have left a little earlier.

Jennifer drove us to Embassy Suites and bid us farewell. Upon entering the facility, we quickly discovered that our chosen place to stay was also the favorite place of pretty much every teen age basketball team in the Northwest. Kids with basketballs. Nice. And we have to get up at 0500. That’s just way too early for me, but it has to be done. The plane leaves at 0720 and it’s not going to wait.

First stop after checking in was the restaurant because Diane hadn’t eaten all day. It was time. She ordered a 14 oz rib eye steak. That was good for her but meant I was limited to a cheap pizza because of budgetary constraints. A 14 oz steak, of any kind, was way too big for Diane, but she did some serious damage to it, making me proud. The pizza, for me, was perfect because of all the clam chowder I’d eaten just moments before. It was really great, too. Good pizza. The other half of the rib eye was pretty good, too. I was amazed at how much I was able to eat and still be able to stand up.

I did, however, and waddled up to the room where I am currently sitting on the couch waiting until an appropriate time to go to bed.

Like now. Tomorrow I will be talking from Waikaloa.

Hearts, Haircuts, Quilt Shows & Computers

Posted on February 15, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

As I sit here, on the verge of yet another adventure, I’m compelled to rid my brain of events from the past few days. The adventure, BTW, is a trip to the Big Island.

When I do this “stuff”, I try to do it in chronological order, because that’s how events should be reported. That doesn’t always work out, however, when the one reporting has a faulty memory module. Thankfully, I have a calendar into which I enter all pertinent data that I’m sure all of you are sitting on the edge of your seats, chomping at the bit, to hear about them.

The calendar works great, when I remember to enter the info. When I don’t, then it’s a crapshoot as to what you may see here.

So, I have my calendar up and here’s what I see …

Wednesday, February 12th, was Lincoln’s birthday, and the day Diane normally submits her Avon order. We don’t typically celebrate Lincoln’s birthday, and didn’t this time, either, but Diane orders Avon products every Wednesday. Without fail. She has a room full of it.

This was the day when I also got connected with my new Cardiac Event Monitor (CLEM). I know, there’s no “L” in it, but I wanted it to sound like a name, you know? So, now it’s Clem. It’s a nifty little device that I wear on my belt, like a phone but smaller, and it has three leads that snap on to those little round patches they use for EKGs and such. I put one each just under each clavicle, and the third goes under my left breast. I suppose you are surprised to learn I have a left breast since I am, I think, entirely male. However, since I heard that men can also get breast cancer, I’ve decided that’s what I need to call them. Also, the old I get, the more tempting it is to start wearing a sports bra.

With Clem properly connected, the device periodically flashes a very bright green light. Since I’m forced to wear it 24/7 for the next month, the light revealed a point of contention between my need to wear it and Diane’s need to sleep. After the first night she reported that the blinking “lasered” her eyeballs all night long. Thereafter, I ensured the device was tucked under the covers.

Associated with this device is another device that looks suspiciously like a smart phone. Indeed, it’s connected via AT&T to a monitoring facility somewhere in the world where concerned techs keep an eye on things and ensure users are doing OK. That was my understanding, anyway. To test it, I switch the wires around once in a while to see if anyone’s watching. So far I’ve not received any phone calls to ask me what’s going on so apparently I’m either using a placebo device, or no one really cares. I’ve been assured, however, that they will definitely care if I don’t return all the devices to them in 30 days. To the tune of about $2500. This tells me they are at least keeping track of who the device was issued to. The upshot of all this is that everywhere I go, I blink. It’s especially entertaining at night, walking around in our unlit front yard, when I take the dogs out.

Oh ya! My doctor wanted me to get the monitor to see if they could associate my brief dizzy spells to cardiac events, not because I’m having a heart attack. I am, however, in the zone for things like that because I’m terrible about what I eat, and don’t eat, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility. At the last office visit, where she prescribed the monitor, she also told me she wanted a daily log of my blood pressure at our next visit. I’ll tell you about that a little later down the page.

Wednesday was also a day to visit my new physical therapist for an evaluation. As many of you may remember, Diane and I spent a lot of time on the road visiting the VA Hospital, on Pill Hill, in Portland, for PT but the final determination was that my right shoulder, though it hurts, doesn’t really have a problem. It’s muscular. I left that round of therapy thinking I was just going to have to deal with it the rest of my pitiful life, like I do the other pains I have. It doesn’t hurt unless I move it certain ways, so I just don’t move it “that” way. Simple. But, my doctor asked about it, and I had to tell her, so she referred me to a local PT shop. At least it’s not a 80 mile round trip to get it done.

The evaluation determined that my Long Biceps Tendon, and my Supraspinatuas Tendon are rubbing against the Coracoid process. I could take that to mean I may not have a Bursa in my right shoulder, but that wasn’t mentioned. Since it’s not fatal, I will proceed with the new set of exercises and see how things go. I like the new PT guy a lot because he’s got “Dr.” in front of his name and the exercise picture he gave me is of a real person, not a stick figure. That’s quality in my book. So, there’s hope.

Thursday, February 15th, was my normal day for coffee with the MELCA guys. MELCA, for the uninitiated, is Men of the Evangelical Church of America. It isn’t a real group, except for us, because Larry L felt the need to have something to do when the WELCA ladies do “stuff.” We visit at the Kozy Korner, drinking coffee, harassing the waitresses, and solving pretty much all of the world’s problems. It’s fulfilling. Sadly, no one listens to our solutions, except the table full of catholic nuns who also meet on Thursday mornings. We know they listen because they look sideways at us sometimes.

On this day I was late because I paid a visit to my barber who, you may remember, was absent all last week due to a family emergency. Indeed it was. His 84-year-old Mother passed away due to complications from bone cancer. He’s really good at explaining everything. Turns out that all old people, who do not die outright from an affliction, like a heart attack, usually succumb to pneumonia because of the way the body reacts to everything that’s going on with whatever disease they have. So, his Mom didn’t pass directly because of the bone cancer, but because of the complications it caused with her body chemistry. This is good to know, and a really good reason to keep your breathing apparatus in good working order, like, by not smoking.

When I showed up for coffee, just about the time everyone was ready to leave, they all got refills and stuck around for another round of discussion.

Friday, February 14th, of course, was Valentine’s Day. I heard some guy on the radio station I listen to say that Valentine’s Day is a celebration to point out all of those who do not have a significant other, or words to that effect. Kind of self-centered, and not at all in alignment with all those retailers selling candy to anyone who buys it with the hope of making points with pretty much anyone. I take it this person has never tried that and, instead, chose to view it as a direct insult to the fact that he wasn’t attached somehow. I bet he has a dog, though.

Diane and I don’t celebrate days like this any more because candy tends to rot our remaining teeth. We don’t even get cards for each other. However, since this day was also the first day of the 34th Annual Bethany Quilt Show, and Diane is President of the WELCA group, she spent all day at the church while I just ran willy nilly around town.

Friday was also the two-week follow with my doctor. I printed out my BP chart from the free app I downloaded to my iPad, and presented it to her thinking it was not good. Turns out my BP goal is to keep it below 140/90, which I managed to do almost all the time. It’s always good to visit my doctor because it affords me a chance to say “Hi” to Kristin, my daughter’s, Jennifer’s, sister-in-law. I think that qualifies her as my semi-daughter-in-law. Either way, she’s family and it’s always fun to see her smiley face.

After my appointment, I stopped at Walgreens and purchased some Valentine Peeps for Diane and delivered them to her at church. She loves peeps, especially the little yellow chicken ones at Easter. I also got her two Butterfinger candy bars. The big ones. I knew Walgreens had them because Jack got some for Wynette from there. Walgreens is right next to ACE where Jack works most of the time.

I didn’t get anything … but that’s OK. Really, it is.

While I was at church I made an effort to resolve the issue that’s keeping the office computer from connecting to the internet. There were actually two problems – one with the computer, and one with the DSL modem. I talked with the CenturyLink tech for a while and convinced him we needed a new one. It’s going to arrive Monday, but that’s Washington’s, and Shene’s birthday, so it may not show up until Tuesday. Shene will be 21. I don’t know how old Washington will be. Really old, for sure.

That brings us to …

Saturday, February 15th, the day we fly away to Hawaii. It’s almost 1230 now, and about time to get packed. Jennifer is taking us to the airport where we will spend the evening at Embassy Suites. We’ll catch the shuttle from there to the airport in the morning for our 0700, or something, flight to Kona.

I may add more later, I may not, but I will keep every abreast of our activities over the next week. If it interests you, please read. If it’s boring, share it with someone with whom you have a grudge to settle. That’ll teach ’em to mess with you.

It’s raining here, and may be raining in Hawaii, but who cares? Now I have to go finishing packing.

I’ll leave you with some photos of the quilt show and some of the folks who made it work …

This is Nancy …

Barb & Pat …

My lovely Valentine, Diane …

… and the cooks, Valerie & Mary …

Shoe Litter, and Snow Balls

Posted on February 11, 2014 by Jerrie Cate

I just received a comment from a young lady, Miss Lou, who has a very entertaining blog. She also likes shoes. I was going to send her the link for my entry where I gathered up all of the shoes from around the house so I could vacuum, as directed.

Instead, to commemorate this entry, my 550th, I thought I’d just touch on that subject one more time. Besides, I can’t find the entry. It would take too long.

So, here’s the photos I took of that memorable day …

These are my shoes I returned to the bedroom. You might recognize the old brown Nike Airs from yesterday. Though the new shoes are very comfortable, I’ve had these things for so long they just cling to my feet.

And, here’s a week’s worth of Diane’s shoe litter. I took all of these to the bedroom, too, but not in one trip. I thought about stuffing them into her shoe closet to see if she would notice, but a sudden burst of clarity overcame me causing me to simply leave them like this.

Yes, she has a shoe closet. It’s cedar-lined, and accessible quickly from any point in the house in case of a shoe emergency. That’s it, at the end of the hall.

Inside you’ll notice that the top four shelves are pretty neat, then the organization descends into chaos. The reason, I think, is because the top four shelves are for shoes that don’t get worn as often as those on the bottom three shelves, and the floor.

Every once in a while she will dig into the closet to find something appropriate for whatever she’s got on, and toss me a question, like, “have you seen those cute little shoes with the mosaic things on top, that tie in the back? I think they’re brown.”

Though she will deny it, this is code for, “Jerrie, please look around and see if you can find those cute little shoes … and don’t stop until you do.” I promptly get on it because I’m a good married man, and, if I don’t, I’ll likely forget which is not a good idea because that’s like ignoring the code.

Not too long ago I would have simply answered, “No,” and gone about my business. Since learning the code, life is a lot less stressful.

Yesterday, Jennifer and Lydia appeared for a brief visit after which we retired to the snow-covered front yard to conduct a minimal search for the hat Gilligan buried the day before. After discovering that the snow had thawed enough to make outstanding snowballs, the search was called off and the battle was on. Lydia cheated and ran all the way around the house and got into their car in the driveway, but Jennifer stuck it out and took a beating. In retaliation, she buried the pullover that she was bringing to me because her mother didn’t think it was a good idea for me to be running around in the snow in a T-shirt. Had I known she was delivering the pullover to me, I would have delayed my attack. Instead, I paid the price.

Then I went after Lydia in the car. She wasn’t quick enough to lock the door so I was able to flush her out and started lobbing bombs onto her over the car. It wasn’t very successful, but I had her mightily worried for a while.

Oh. Diane went to the doctor today and learned she has bronchitis. She got new meds to ensure she’s healthy enough to fly to Hawaii with me next week. If not, guess I’ll have to leave her home. Hate to do that but, you know, the tickets are paid for.