Puzzling into the New Year

One of the things we like to do is finish as many projects as we can before going into a new year. This includes putting away Christmas decorations, cleaning out the fridge/freezer, organizing our office, paying our bills, etc. Granted we still have a number of projects we just haven't been able to finish. I'm still working on our 5 volume photobook of family photos and I think Art might clean the windows later.

BUT one thing Art DID manage to finish was that 3,000 piece Beatles puzzle our son sent in February to insure he stayed safe at home.

Art began the puzzle in March and started out by putting it on a huge cardboard sheet he happened to have.

He soon discovered that cardboard wasn't big enough.

Soooo... He took out another folding buffet table and another cardboard sheet.

And in April and several months after that, he made painstaking progress.

Every time mom went past him she would shake her head sadly and tell him how painful it looked.

Eventually, he forced himself to sit in front of the puzzle and spend a LOT of time on it.

He finally had to get a magnifying glass to see the details on the tiny pieces.

Sometimes, it was difficult for me to see that progress had actually been made.

If there's one thing about Art you have to know, he just doesn't give up. He also did not want to bring this project into the New Year so he sat and sat and sat for about a week while mom continued to shake her head sadly.

On Tuesday that big day came and he let mom put in the final puzzle piece since she had... as Art put it, "faithfully monitored my progress these past nine months."

Art was feeling such relief at finally being done that I didn't want to remind him about what our daughter had sent a couple of months ago.

Happy New Year, everybody!

Brita Won't Take Petroleum Out of the Water

Local residents on the island of Oahu are extremely worried about the leaking petroleum from millions and millions of gallons of petroleum stored by the Navy in the aging 80 year old underground bulk storage facility into our water system. The Navy is in a battle with our Honolulu Board of Water of Supply who is trying to protect our island water aquifer that the island draws its water from.

It's an untenable situation with the Navy having already covered up or downplayed leaks that have been happening for quite some time. Local people no longer trust the Navy. In fact, the food court area at the Navy Exchange is closed right now and military housing residents have been put into hotels. There have been military housing residents who have also been admitted to Tripler for toxic petroleum poisoning. 

Soooooo.....

Friends and I were thinking, maybe it's time for us to get one of those Brita pitcher with the filters. I know my parents used to have one a long time ago, but stopped using them after a while since we thought our Hawaiian waters were excellent. That's what we were told by someone we met who worked for the water department about a decade ago.

But would the Brita filters take out the petroleum?

I wrote first to the Board of Water Supply asking if Brita filters would take out petroleum from our water. They wrote back that they didn't know and couldn't answer that question.

So I wrote to Brita's Customer Care to ask if their product would filter out petroleum. They responded with the above email after a few days. 

Darn! So now what?

POSTSCRIPT:

Deputy Assistant Navy Secretary James Balocki recently got Hawaii leaders and residents furious for saying the tainted water issue at Red Hill was not a crisis. The Navy had to issue an apology for him.

And now a couple of days ago, David Day, who serves as a state deputy attorney general stated: "The weight of the evidence establishes that the Red Hill Facility, as currently situated, is a metaphorical ticking timebomb located 100 feet above the most important aquifer on Hawaii's most populous island.... The Red Hill Facility has already damaged human health and the environment and, as currently situated, inevitably threatens to do so in to the future."

So this is where it stands with the Navy saying not to worry and islanders extremely worried and angry.

Eating Out Safely

We had a day of appointments for Art and other chores so Art and I decided to stop by our local Zippy's Restaurant to grab a quick breakfast between stops. We'd been there a few months ago and thought they took COVID safety seriously so we felt comfortable going there. I wondered if they were still maintaining their safety measures. Hawaii has been relaxing its COVID mandates in recent months, but now our numbers are once again climbing, especially with Omicron in the mix.

Entering the restaurant, friendly servers cheerfully called out greetings. It felt good to be remembered even with our masks on. They checked our vaccination card and state ID, took our temperatures and had us sanitize our hands.

The booths had high plexiglass barriers surrounding three sides and the menus were disposable paper. We placed our order which came with individually wrapped salt, pepper, cream and sugar.

We noticed that once restaurant guests left their table, a cleaning person came, sanitized the entire booth (table and sitting area), and left a little placard to pronounce the area safe for occupancy.

I wonder if all restaurants are following the same sort of procedures. I've heard on the news that political leaders feel COVID is spreading not through restaurants so much as people having holiday parties. Our present COVID spike is probably due to the Thanksgiving get-togethers. I'm wondering what will happen now after the Christmas/New Year celebrations.

I already know some people who have been affected by Omicron.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that our numbers don't reach the 500 a day mark they are projecting by the end of the December.

POSTSCRIPT: 😖

I wrote this post more than a week ago because I knew I'd be up to my ears with this and that around now, which I am.

We had just started taking mom to an Adult Day Care on December 6th for just one morning a week to get some extra socialization and she was absolutely loving it. The COVID case count in Hawaii then was 90. She made a new friend who had taught Japanese for many years. So the 90 infection number on the 6th wasn't perfect, but we figured she'd be safe. I sewed new pants for her as well as some nice new masks that I thought would be comfortable to wear and stay on her face.

When we took mom for her 3rd Monday morning session, the Hawaii COVID cases had jumped to 840. I told the center that we would be stopping the following Monday unless the numbers dropped substantially.

Yesterday's Hawaii COVID infection number was 2,205!!! 😫

We will not be sending mom today. This is CRAZY! I now have several friends whose children and grandchildren have tested positive and true...  most were not vaccinated.

Sigh...

It's scary.

Merry Christmas 2021!

To everyone who celebrates Christmas religiously or in a secular way like we do, I would like to wish you a very happy, healthy and merry Christmas.

I loved it that my aunt (my mother's sister) who is a devout Buddhist sent us a Christmas card recently. The Japanese create such beautiful and original greeting cards.

This is what came flattened in an envelope with one letter for Art and me and one for mom. Mom read our letter to me and I translated it for Art. 

Gosh! I wonder if my aunt and family will be having Kentucky Fried chicken and strawberry shortcake tonight along with other Japanese for which that has become a tradition. 😁

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate this special holiday!

Traveling During Omicron Times

My nephew's Japanese wife flew to be with her family following the passing of her grandmother. She had hoped to see her grandmother before she passed away and was devastated when she learned that she was too late. We were worried about the difficulty of flying alone to Japan with their 5 year old daughter and 18 month old son. It was a relief to hear that the flight went passably well....sort of. Their daughter was an angel, but the young son was a bundle of energy.

During the sudden and recent uptick in COVID cases, Japan had tightened their rules. She had to stay at the airport for two hours to get the NEGATIVE COVID results before leaving in a special COVID taxi to a COVID hotel for 3 days. Wow! Three days with little ones in a hotel room and unable to leave sounded really difficult but the days finally passed. She was able to finally be reunited with her mom who loved being with grandchildren she hadn't seen in a couple of years and being able to spoil them a teeny bit with ice cream and other treats.

And then the awful call came that someone on the flight had tested positive for OMICRON! This meant everyone on the flight would have to stay in another COVID hotel for 10 days where they are called by a doctor or nurse every day and tested every few days. 

The only thing they can see are buildings outside their hotel window. The children are bored and her little son tries to escape when food is delivered. My  nephew's wife is dealing with it all with strength and resolve, but wow! 

Wooow!!! And yet we have people who refuse to be vaccinated, refuse to wear masks, etc. 

Neighborhood Light Show

Good friends of ours encouraged us to come out their way to see the holiday light show in their neighborhood. To be honest, we do have quite a few neighbors that do decorate their homes with lights, BUT not like this!

So here are just a few of the incredible light decorations that neighbors in that community put out for the enjoyment of everyone.

Several cul-de-sacs in the area had all their homes decorated. I was wondering if anybody felt the pressure each year of making sure their home was decorated as beautifully as the others.

See that pretend chimney on the roof of that top photo? The windows are pretend too. The fake chimney was actually putting out some kind of smoke/steam (?). Absolutely amazing!

Where do they get all these incredible light decorations?

Everybody must know that this is the place to be for holiday lights because we saw many families strolling or driving along to enjoy the sights.

Art had to take these photos for our grandsons who are really into Pokemon and Paw Patrol. I wish they could have been here to see this.

Well, I must tell you that we did have a lot of fun and were very lucky that it didn't rain on us. Do you decorate the outside of your home in December?

Happy Holidays, Seasons Greetings and Now...

We often drive on this road which runs along an Elementary School here on Oahu. I'm not sure who does the (plastic) cup signs on the chain link fencing but it's fun to see what they'll come up with next.

You all know how I feel about holiday inclusion. When I taught in Illinois, our December unit was called Holiday of Lights which covered Diwali, Hanukah, Christmas and Kwanzaa. 

Generally speaking, I don't see many synagogues here in Hawaii and Diwali or Kwanzaa isn't much talked about, but look what we saw recently! 

I was so happy to see that this school was trying to teach inclusion and respect to their students that I sent an email to their principal on their website.

I was surprised to get an immediate reply from their principal.

"Thank you so much! We do our best to be inclusive. Thanks for reaching out! I'll let our fence crew know!"

It really lifted my spirits to know here in Hawaii, we are teaching our kids to think globally with kindness, understanding and yes, respect.

EXTREMELY Fancy Auto Paint Job

We were out marketing early one morning when I saw an astonishing sight. 

OK, I've seen some fun or weird paint jobs on cars and trucks but this one astonished me.

It was so striking that I did a double take. When I walked around the car I saw that the other side was equally rather amazing. And yes, I had to take a photo in case I wanted to show it to you.

I just blew up this photo and saw the writing on the girl's chest. Goodsmile Racing? What the heck is that? 

So of course, I looked it up online. You can find anything online. Sure enough. I found a website called Good Smile Racing:

Good Smile Company, also known as GSC or Good Smile, is a Japanese manufacturer of hobby products such as the Nendoroid and figma product lines, as well as scale figures. In addition to production and manufacturing, our business includes design, marketing and distribution. Our products are usually based on anime, manga or games that are popular in Japan, China, and the USA.

OK, now I know.  

A Japanese Christmas

The Star Advertiser had an article about how Christmas is celebrated in different countries. We had to laugh when it stated that it had become a custom for people in Japan to get Kentucky Fried Chicken on Christmas.

Apparently, since the 1980s, life-size statues of Colonel Sanders dressed as Santa Claus were displayed outside the eateries. It somehow caught on.

We know this because we remember talking to a dear friend of ours in Tokyo a decade ago and he told us he was getting Kentucky Fried chicken for Christmas. 

We thought it was hilarious.

But when you think about it, why not? 

What would you want for Christmas (if you celebrate the holiday, that is)? And yes, we do in a secular sort of way. 😁

Art is saying, "Heeey... we should try that."

POSTSCRIPT:

Commenter Craig mentioned that the Japanese also enjoy Strawberry Shortcake along with the Kentucky Fried Chicken. I'd never heard of that so I asked my Japanese relatives and got a reply right away.

“Yes that's true!!!!!! Strawberry shortcake and KFC are Japanese way for Christmas. LOL”

Advent Puzzle?

Never let it be said that our family does not have a sense of humor (or hilarity) (or a spot of craziness).

Our daughter Tiffany and family sent us a flat rate box full of goodies. However, in that box was also another box that was decorated by our granddaughter, KC.

KC spent a lot of time decorating all sides of the box. They also called to warn us not to open the box until December 1st.

We knew something was up from the sound of their giggles.

December 1st came and Art was dying of curiosity.

When he opened the box, we discovered PUZZLE PIECES in 24 little snack bags!

In case you don't remember, our son sent Art a 3,000 piece Beatles puzzle which he is still working on (since March). I will show you eventually when he gets done with that massive puzzle.

Apparently, this is an Advent  Puzzle. We're supposed to open one bag a day.

We've been working on each bag after lunch each day.

Tiffany told us that someone else had done this for their parents which she thought was a FUN idea. It's a 1,000 piece puzzle that Tif bought, put together and then divided into 24 sections, putting one section in each bag for us to open every day until Christmas. We're keeping each section separate and will put them together on Christmas.

Like I said before, never let it be told that we don't have fun children and grandchildren.

Oh... wait...

And do you know what they gave their grandmother?

Yup, Mom is loving it!!!

Sainthood for Brother Dutton

I've written before about mom's father who was a Zen Buddhist priest. He and my grandmother came to the island of Molokai in 1928 to minister to the Buddhist victims of Hansen's Disease (leprosy) at Kalaupapa. That's where my mother and two aunts were born. They were there for about 7 years.

Father Damien tended to Christian victims for 16 years at Kalaupapa and died on April 15, 1889 after contracting the disease himself. He attained sainthood in 2009.

Brother Joseph Dutton came to Molokai in 1886 to assist Father Damien who was already dying and stayed on for 44 years. 

I've also mentioned before how I'd gone to Japan for the first time in 1970 and spent three weeks at my grandfather's temple, getting to know my mother's family for the first time.

I asked my grandfather what he thought the best religion was. His answer... which bears repeating was, "There is no best religion. It's what a person does with his religion that makes it the best." He then went on to tell me about meeting and working with Brother Dutton and how much he admired him. This man, he said was an example of a truly extraordinary Christian.

When Brother Dutton died on March 26, 1931, my grandfather along with some other men went to pay their respects to the great man.

We were thrilled recently to learn on Hawaii News Now that, "In November, the US Conference of Bishops advanced the cause of beatification and canonization of Brother Joseph Dutton."

My grandfather was not catholic, but I'll bet he would have been happy to hear this.

The Navy is Poisoning Our Water

For several years now, the community has voiced strong concerns about the leaking underground fuel storage tanks at Pearl Harbor. The problem is Hawaii gets its water from aquifers under each island.

Aquifer (from Wikipedia): An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock, rock fractures or unconsolidated materials. Groundwater from aquifers can be extracted using a water well. 

I got this photo from an Environmental Science website: 

There is an aquifer underground each of the Hawaiian islands where everybody gets their water.

Those old storage tanks were built during WWII and are leaking. They belong to the Navy who has been downplaying the problem for a long time. In fact, a friend of mine wrote a letter to the Star Advertiser Editor a while ago and a retired Navy officer actually looked her up to scold her.

Well... now it's come out because a lot of people in the military housing units started complaining of the petroleum smell in the water, getting nauseous, breaking out in rashes, having headaches, etc. Several schools in the area also detected the odor and had to be closed.

The Honolulu Water Department checked the water and what do you know? There's petroleum in the water. The Navy finally shut down the well from which it draws its water. They'd initially said they didn't detect any petroleum in the water they tested.

The problem here is that even if they shut down their well, the leak can go down into the ground water and into the island aquifer. By coincidence, Art's Master's thesis was about protecting the ground water/aquifer which is the only reason I know a teeny bit about the concern. It's not just a concern. It is darn scary. This could be catastrophic for the island.

We saw a Hawaii state water official (I forget who he was) on TV news who appeared to be choking back tears in his frustration and anger at the Navy on the news. 

Art just saw an article in the Star Advertiser. That expert I mentioned is Ernest Lau (Honolulu Board of Water Supply manager and chief engineer).

The Star Advertiser Editorial stated:

"What is remarkable about his tour as a manager for several government agencies is that he has been willing to take a stand and go up against the Navy in its foot-dragging acceptance of the danger posed by its fuel storage system."

POSTSCRIPT:

This was in yesterday's paper.

Someone needs to be held accountable for the lying and misinformation passed on to the public by the Navy.

This is bad, this is criminal.

Is it a Camouflage Frog or Toad?

Art was walking in front of the house when he spotted a movement. It was so tiny that he wasn't sure what it was at first.

It's very tiny.

How do you know if it's a frog or a toad? 

Way back in September, 2001 when we were living in Illinois we were shocked to find what we were sure was a teeny frog on our 2nd floor. (We didn't live near a pond or lake.)

Is there a herpetologist out there who can tell us?

Letter to the Editor

As I sift through photos and memories, I came across this Letter to the Editor I wrote that was printed on December 2, 2006 in the Chicago Tribune. They titled it The best greeting.

In response to the many letters concerning stores changing their holiday greetings this year I’d like to add my perspective.  

I am a retired 1^st grade teacher who worked hard at including all holidays in December. I preferred introducing my students to Christmas, Hanukkah, Diwali and Kwanzaa, and most important, to respect each celebration. I was glad when stores switched to Happy Holidays because I felt it was inclusive to everyone.  

A Holiday Committee was formed at our school a long time ago to decide how we should handle the placement of Christmas Trees, Santa Claus and other Christmas decorations. I was surprised when several Christian teachers felt that Christmas Trees and Santa Claus were secular and therefore could be allowed placement in the halls and classrooms for enjoyment by children of all religions.  One teacher was surprised when I asked how Santa Claus could be entirely secular if another name he goes by is St. Nicholas.   

I think that much of the problems with the world today occur when people are so ethnocentric that they are unable to see the point of view of those around them. Lately, I’m feeling that many people in this country are not even trying anymore. 

If you could have seen the bright smiles on the faces of the children whose religious holidays were also acknowledged in the classroom, you would understand why I am saddened by those who are insisting that holiday salutations need to be Merry Christmas.  

In fond remembrance of the December Holidays of Lights unit that I hope is still being taught in our district, I’d like to wish everyone a Happy Holiday!

You know what? I think all this is still relevant today. We need to come together, appreciate and be kind to each other.