The Occasional Nomads

Wednesday, between storms

Monday

It was usually raining at sunset, but we still caught a couple of good ones this past week.

Good morning!

It’s been another wacky weather week on the south shore of Kaua’i – every morning we’ve awoken up to clouds, and it’s rained off and on most of the week making it a crapshoot every day whether we would get to walk or not (we did). Even if things looked good, as we headed to the park we knew there was often a strong chance of getting rained out once we were there. This morning is more of the same. This is so not the summer I imagined, but on the plus side the temperatures have stayed lower than usual and the humidity hasn’t been bad at all. Our apartment stays nice and cool from the breezes that blow through all day, and sleeping weather at night has been ideal. I’m just to a point that I’d rather it would just rain if it’s going to rain rather than this off-and-on, will-it-won’t-it? we’ve been experiencing. I’d also love to get back to the beach one of these days as well.

We continue to self-isolate as much as possible, but there have been triple-digit increases in the number of cases the past few weeks over on Oahu, and the governor has hinted that he may order another state-wide shutdown to get things under control again. Oahu parks and beaches will close again this coming week, and the inter-island 14-day quarantine will also be reinstated. We have sadly seen up close this past week the effects of the shutdowns and the quarantine as our upstairs neighbors have gone back to the mainland in order to find work, and the couple that lives on the other side of the building is hurting as well. They ran a big garage sale this past weekend, and when I asked them how they did the answer was “pretty good, but not enough to buy groceries.” I’m not sure what’s going to happen with them, but they have lived on Kaua’i for many years and have many friends and connections so know they will stay on the island. The husband also frequently goes fishing so that will help as well. Even our landlord has said he’s worried about losing his position, although he continues to generates income for the resort and hopes that keeps him safe.

The moving company still hasn’t located our missing box, and we pretty much think at this point they won’t. We’re going to give it another two to three weeks and will file a claim after that if the box doesn’t show up. It won’t come close to replacing what was lost, but it’s all we can do. 

This morning I am:

• Reading: I am almost finished with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix; it’s been another fun book to reread, and I have only two more to go in the series to complete my goal. I gave up on The Vapors – it got less and less interesting as I went along and I began to dread picking it up which is when it’s time to let a book go in my opinion. I postponed getting They Were Her Property from the library, so I’m going to read Kevin Kwan’s Sex and Vanity next.
• Listening to: The weather is nice enough this morning that we can open the French doors, and I can listen to the breeze and the birds while I write and drink my coffee. Last night though the wind was howling as a big storm blew through – we have a big tree near our bedroom and it got noisy as the wind blew through the yard. It’s all quiet inside this morning though – YaYu is still sleeping, and Brett is reading
• Watching: Brett and I are still watching and enjoying Silent Witness – each episode has two parts – but we finished up A Confession, which was excellent, with an outstanding cast. We’ve now started watching a British comedy call Mum, about a widow and her ditzy family. It’s very gentle though (like the mum) and enjoyable. The newest season of Endeavour starts tonight on PBS, but since we don’t have cable we’ll have to wait and watch it online tomorrow.
• Cooking/baking: We’ll be putting more meals together from the freezer and pantry this week – the only shopping will be our weekly trip to the farmers’ market. We still have leftovers to deal with as well this week. Tonight I’m going to fix a zucchini frittata to go with grilled Italian sausages, and other meals this week will be Mississippi Pot Roast along with roasted vegetables; French dip sandwiches using leftover roast; mabo nasu; Japanese-style chicken and vegetable curry; and leftovers on a couple of nights. This week’s cake (to be baked on Wednesday probably) will be a plain yellow cake with vanilla buttercream – simple and delicious.
  

  Starting point: Kealia Beach Park

  

  Heading south into the Dead Zone (breeze is blocked)

  

  Looking north toward Kealia

  

  Lots of big waves and rough surf

  

  Looking to Lihue in the south

  

  The turn-around point

  

  The sky was fairly clear to the east

  

  Winds from the north east caused heavy waves.

An eastside beach path walk never disappoints. Heavy clouds to the south and the west created lots of humidity, but thankfully it didn’t rain while we walked. There was a strong breeze from the northeast for most of the walk.

• Happy I accomplished this past week: Brett and I walked all seven days this past week, over 17 miles, although we got rained out at two-thirds of the way on Tuesday. We saw rainbows almost every day when we were at the park too thanks to the rain and clouds. We developed a long-term walking plan for the next two years, to increase our distance and endurance, and started that this week. I finally got my hair trimmed up yesterday  – two weeks ago it was still too short and I had the appointment postponed to this past weekend. Otherwise nothing major was accomplished, just the usual daily chores.
• Looking forward to next week: Once again, better weather? The missing box? Possibly a beach day or two?

  

• Thinking of good things that happened: Litchis finally showed up at the farmers’ market! Yesterday we were up in Kapaa for my haircut so we walked the beach path again for a change of pace. Kapaa was very hot and humid compared to our area, but as long as we could catch the breeze we did OK. I love that my hair is short-short again – so comfortable and easy to take care of. My daughter-in-law sent a boatload of photos from their recent vacation in Nagano, which is located in the mountains on the west side, and was home to the 1998 Winter Olympics.
  

  Can’t believe how big he’s getting

  

  She’s getting big too!
• Thinking of frugal things we did: The only spending we did this past week was at the farmers’ market. We put $2 into the change/$1 bill jar. I earned 977 Swagbucks this past week as I’ve added an additional 30 minutes of searching or doing a survey in the mornings. I discovered I can earn Delta Airlines gift cards as well as Southwest ones at Swagbucks, so after I finish with my Southwest cards goal I’ll move over to earning Delta cards. We did a pretty good job of eating leftovers this past week, but there were an awful lot of them and we still have plenty to get through. Thankfully we didn’t have to throw out any food. I always remind myself that the most expensive food we buy is the food we throw away, and that keeps me motivated to find ways to finish things up.
• Grateful for: We’re feeling especially thankful now that we have a steady, dependable retirement income. It isn’t a huge amount, and our budget is pushed to the limit right now because of YaYu’s college expenses, but at least we know we will get paid and when, and that it won’t be reduced.
• Bonus question: Are you having issues with slow mail delivery? Oh my goodness, yes. And, it’s getting worse. I used to get my prescription-by-mail orders in five days; they now take nearly three weeks to arrive (all of our prescriptions are by mail only too). Thank goodness both Brett and I have enough back-up that we can get through another couple of months – hopefully we’ll get our refills before then. My primary ballot has never arrived, and we’re all waiting on a bunch of other stuff as well. Our address is at a small local post office, but this has been going on all over the country, it’s getting worse by the week, and most upsetting of all is that this is being done deliberately, to mess with the election and mail-in and absentee ballots. Rural residents are especially having a rough time of it, as are veterans waiting on their by-mail-only prescriptions, but I heard today from someone who lives in a big city, and she hasn’t received any mail for a week, so the problems are everywhere.

The walking plan Brett and I have developed to increase our distance and endurance over the next two years is very simple. Since we have almost two years to get ready, we want to take it slowly and build ourselves up gradually (and avoid aggravating my bursitis). Basically, we will add 10-15 minutes to our daily walk (currently around 45-50 minutes, averaging around 2.5 miles) starting with one day a week. The following week we will walk two days with the additional time, the third week three days, and so forth until we are walking the new time and distance every day. We’ll do that for two or three weeks or so and then start the process over again, adding 10-15 minutes to our new route. We think we can work up to around five miles per day walking at the park, but after that we’ll have to branch out to other trails around the island. Anyway, we’re hoping that by taking it slowly and patiently we can get ourselves conditioned for long distances by the time we head over to England without adding any trauma to our bodies. I’ve also been investigating long walks we can do when we’re in Tokyo when we’re there next. We generally walk about four miles per day when we’re there, but want to increase that and do at least one long walk per week while we’re there to stay in shape.

Pale yellow

Ruffly pink

Sunrise colors

A house located next to the beach path in Kapaa had some beautiful hibiscus.

YaYu’s laptop died on Friday afternoon. Because she just finished paying her tuition bill she has very little left in her account for anything new, but she’s hoping it’s only a dead battery. We have nothing left for her either as we had just given her what we had to help with the tuition and for her flights. The little we do have left will go toward her flight back to Pennsylvania in January and spring tuition. She is currently communicating with her dean to see if she can borrow a laptop from the school until she can (hopefully) replace the battery in hers. She hates to spend her money on anything though so this is like a major trauma for her. 2020: It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

Anyway, that’s a wrap for this week! Some ups, some downs, but overall it was another good one and we’re looking forward to the week coming up. It’s almost hard to believe but YaYu only has two and a half weeks left here before heading back to college – really, where has the time gone? I hope it was a good week for everyone, and that you’re looking forward to the week coming up.

Sunday, before Douglas arrived

Monday

Friday

Saturday

In spite of some not-so-good weather, we still got a few pretty sunsets this past week.

Good morning!

August has arrived, but we’re still wondering if summer will ever get here. Temperatures are still cooler than expected, it’s still plenty windy, humidity is low (yeah!), and on and on. We thought it might be warmer down here on the south side, but it’s actually been cooler and breezier than it ever was when we lived up in Kapaa. It’s to the point that visitors comment on how windy/breezy it is at our place – it’s that noticeable. To be honest though, I’m mostly enjoying the weather (so far) and know it could be a LOT worse. August, September, and October are typically the hottest and most humid months of year, especially as the trade winds die down or disappear, but I’m kind of hoping things will continue as they are (with a few beach days thrown in). It’s just been . . . different.

Speaking of August, I realized this past week that we’ve passed the four month anniversary of our return to Hawaii. It sure has seemed like we’ve been here much longer, but I think that’s because of all that we’ve accomplished in the past few months, from finding a place to live, getting it furnished, and getting ourselves resettled. Things on the island have loosened up some since we arrived and are very slowly returning to some semblance of normal, but masks are still de rigeur everywhere, many businesses and restaurants remain closed or have gone out of business, and visitors are still few and far between due to the quarantine. Things are still on edge though as cases rise, especially on Oahu (Kaua’i currently has just two active cases). We read this past week that Japan may open back up to visitors from Hawaii only, and vice versa, but cases in Tokyo are rising again as well so probably not.

YaYu received her updated financial aid information this past week, and it turned out to be much better than all of us expected. All of her aid comes from the college this year – the only federal aid she was offered were loans, both subsidized and unsubsidized, but she turned them down. Her fall term has now been paid for, and a round-trip plane ticket to and from Philadelphia has been purchased. She will leave here and fly to Honolulu, then on to Seattle where she will meet her friend and roommate from last year to fly together on to Philadelphia. She’s nervous about the flight, but otherwise excited to be going back. Only a few seats have been sold on each of the flights though, and Alaska Airlines is keeping the middle row empty on all their flights, so maintaining a good distance from others should not be a problem. We picked up extra disinfecting wipes for her to take back, and she has masks as well so hopefully will be OK on her trip back and in her room at the college. We also got her extra hand sanitizer as well, but discovered it’s not allowed on planes because of the alcohol content (it’s very flammable), so that’s the one thing she’ll have to find back there and that they hopefully will offer on the planes. YaYu is excited and happy about going back to school, even with all the restrictions put in place. She and her friends got their room assignments this week, and they will all be in the same dorm on the same floor (in single rooms). She’s very happy about that, but we’re not sure that’s such a good thing. YaYu has also been hired for two on-campus jobs this year, but thinks one may be eliminated. Her other job will be at the campus library.

This morning I am:

• Reading: I’m back to reading two books, one during the day and one at night, because another book I’ve been waiting for just came off of hold (They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South, by Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers). So, The Vapors is my evening book, and I just started Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix during the day. I didn’t think the first three books in the Harry Potter series were as good as remembered, but the Goblet of Fire was excellent and The Order of the Phoenix is as well so far.
• Listening to: There’s some blue sky showing through the clouds this morning, but still a fairly stiff breeze can be heard blowing through the trees outside, and it’s comfortable cool. Brett’s rustling around in the kitchen making his breakfast, and YaYu is still trying to sleep out here in the living room. Otherwise it’s quiet, although that will change I a short while as our downstairs neighbors are holding a garage sale today, beginning in around an hour.
• Watching: We finished watching Father Brown and Taste the Nation last Thursday, and are now watching A Confession (starring Martin Freeman) on Britbox. YaYu sadly does not share Brett’s and my love of British crime drama and/or mysteries.

  

   
• Cooking/baking: We are beginning a two-and-a-half week break between food shopping trips which required me to make a list of all the dinners we could have based on what was already in the pantry and freezer and what we could pick up at the farmers’ market each week. It took some effort, but I think we now have everything needed to get through until the middle of the month. Tonight we’re having Chinese stir-fried tomatoes with eggs over rice, a long-time favorite. The rest of the week’s menus include subuta (Japanese-style sweet and sour pork); InstantPot carnitas for burritos and tacos; grilled fish tacos with fresh peach salsa; InstantPot chicken risotto; and hamburgers from the grill. I was planning to buy pre-made burgers patties at Costco last week until I saw both the price and the calories – yikes! – and ended up buying ground beef instead to make them myself. This week’s baking will be a fresh orange cake with orange buttercream frosting.

  

• Happy I accomplished this past week: We got in some good walks again this week once Douglas had passed, although each day we wondered if we would be able to go because the weather was that dicey. We’re getting ready to add a bit more to our walks this week. Finding flights to get YaYu back to Pennsylvania was not an easy task, but we were finally able to find a schedule that works for her and allows her to fly the Seattle to Philadelphia leg of the trip with her good friend.
• Looking forward to next week: Better weather? Royal Hawaiian locating our missing box? I can dream.
  

  Our first lilikoi!

  

  The guava tree is LOADED with fruit.

  

  The orange tree is also producing lots of fruit.
• Thinking of good things that happened: Besides YaYu’s financial aid award arriving it’s been a rather low key week with not a lot happening, but almost everything was good. We were excited to discover a lilikoi (passionfruit) vine in our back yard, hidden among some other plants on the wall. One fruit has already set and other blossoms are starting to open, so hopefully we’ll be getting a few more. The guava tree on the side of the yard is loaded with fruit. Guava is not a favorite, but Brett and I do like guava jam so we’re already planning to make some of that once things start ripening. And, the orange tree is also already loaded with little green, golf ball-size fruits – there’ll be lots of sweet oranges probably around December and into early next year.

  

• Thinking of frugal things we did: The Living Foods Market in the Kukui’ula Marketplace sadly permanently closed this past week. We never really shopped there as their prices were always kind of outrageous – they seemed to primarily cater to rich tourists staying in Poipu – but on Wednesday, their last day, everything in the store was 50% off and we picked up three bags of our favorite Anahola Granola (best granola ever). It typically sells for $8-$9 for a 12-ounce bag, so at half off it was a steal at $4.68/bag (tax included), and will last us for over three months as we only have a tablespoon or two at a time. The Alaska Airlines credits we took back in March covered almost the entire cost of YaYu’s round-trip flight to school and back. We had a very frugal week at the farmers’ market, and spent only $17 for a lot of produce, and put $3 into the change/$1 bill jar (our budget every week is $20). We did a good job eating up the leftovers, but had to toss half of a head of cauliflower as it froze and turned to mush when it defrosted. Our travel savings is now up to $809.11, so we’re making good progress! I earned 543 Swagbucks last week.

  

• Grateful for: We’re all feeling very, very grateful this week for the generosity of YaYu’s college as we had been very worried about whether or not we had saved enough to help her get through another year. We’re already a bit worried about next year as our experience with senior year levels of aid is that they drop, as colleges know they have a “captive audience” and less is awarded. However, the amount she received this year will give all of us a breather and allow Brett and I to hopefully add enough to our savings to get YaYu through her final year.
• Bonus question: Do you buy/eat mostly organic food? While we are not fanatics about it, we do try to buy organic as much as possible, but it’s probably only about a quarter or less of what we eat. Costco offers many organic options, and given the choice between organic and non-organic, we’ll always choose the former even if it does cost slightly more. I don’t think there’s any taste or nutritional difference between organic and non-organic, but believe that organic provides an extra layer of protection so to speak, even though organic farming does rely on chemicals and such (made from things like beetles and other natural sources however). Current organic items in our home are eggs, ground beef, milk, butter, peanut butter, pasta, summer squash, frozen strawberries and blueberries, oats, pizza crusts and sauce, spices, and olive oil. None of the farmers at the weekly market sell organic produce, but none of them spray their crops either. We only buy fresh, wild caught local fish and try to buy other locally-produced or raised food as much as possible if we can’t get organic.

I’m going to call Royal Hawaiian tomorrow morning for an update on our missing box. Every day it seems I recall or need something that was in that box: the cake stand the girls found at Goodwill and gave me for my birthday one year and the glass cover I found for it, my citrus juicer, the cake pans and pie plates, the salad spinner, the bathroom scale, and Brett’s blood pressure monitor all have been missed and mourned this past week. I thought I’d only feel badly about the wall hanging and cookbooks, but it turns out we both miss all that other stuff too – there was a reason it was kept. We know if the box went into someone else’s crate we’ll never see any of it again, but we continue to hope it was left somewhere in the storage facility and can be found. That hope diminishes day by day though. The only upside, if there is one to be found, is that right now we have no idea where we would put all that stuff as storage is already pretty full-up.

And that’s the week that was! It wasn’t the best week ever, but not the worst either by a long shot. Overall I’d say it was pretty good. I hope it was a good week for you all as well, and that you had lots of good things happen for you, good food to eat, good books to read, and that you’re staying healthy and busy during all the current madness. Here’s to the week coming up!

Good morning!

Douglas is now a Category 1 hurricane and is still on a direct path to Hawaii. From the way things look outside this morning though you’d never guess there was a hurricane coming. However, as of 11:00 p.m. HST last night we’ve been under a hurricane warning. Kaua’i is not expected to get hit until late this evening but for now it’s sunny, cool, and breezy. This morning’s sunshine was quite a surprise as yesterday was miserable with lots of wind and rain all day, and last week we endured more clouds, rain, and wind, with temperatures moving between cool and very hot and very humid. We were able to get out and walk most days, although we barely made it out of the park last Wednesday without getting soaked. Anyway, we’re prepared for Douglas’s arrival: we have lots of bottled water, extra toilet paper, fuel for our butane camping stove, and a full gas tank in the car. All batteries on our phones and computers are fully charged, and our portable chargers are full as well. If we need to, we’ll fill our giant bathtub with water later today.

This past week started off with quite a few unknowns and a feeling of dread. I woke up in the middle of the night on Sunday feeling a bit scared because so many things seemed to be off and I didn’t know if they could or would be resolved. A box had indeed gone missing out of our shipment, one that contained among other things my recipe books, our two Japanese breadboards, all the bakeware, and an antique hand-painted Japanese banner that we used as a wall hanging (it was when the banner never appeared out of all the other boxes that we knew one hadn’t made it because we had definitely included the it in our shipment). Apple had had plenty of time to receive my old computer, but there had been no word from them, and no way to track whether they had received it or not. The chair pads I ordered back at the beginning of June were still missing and the last tracking update had been July 8. And on and on it went. However, I woke up on Monday determined to turn things around so I called the moving company first thing – they started the process to find the box (somewhere back on the mainland). On Tuesday I got an email from Apple saying that they had finished inspecting my old computer and I would be receiving the full credit I had been quoted, a miracle considering its condition. Although USPS tracking had said the chair cushions were still lost on Tuesday evening, they arrived out of the blue on Wednesday morning, right as I was getting ready to write the shop owner! Brett had all our pictures hung on by the end of the week. The only unknown now is the update on YaYu’s financial aid; hopefully that will show up this week (especially since the mistake was theirs, not ours).

In the meantime, our apartment is finally put together, and with the pictures hung and everything put away it feels like home. After living in a somewhat empty space for so long it almost seems like there’s a bit too much stuff again, but it’s also wonderful to have our things as we kept just the items that were truly important to us when we left Kaua’i two years ago. The only things we have left to do is to hang some sheer linen curtains in the living room and patiently wait to see if our lost box comes back to us – the antique Japanese banner is definitely missed, and will go on the wall behind the television if and when it shows up.

Living room

Living room

The dining corner

The kitchen is finally fully equipped

The utility hall with tons of storage in the back

Still need to find a couple more throw pillows . . .

My antique tetsubin now serves to protect the hibachi from the door

YaYu thought our wool rug wouldn’t fit behind the sofa

I have once again given up commenting on Blogger, for the time being anyway. I’ve tried again and again and everything I write disappears into the Internet ether, including choosing Anonymous and signing my name. I am not willing to install Chrome on this computer as it caused several problems on my old computer, and I don’t use my Google account as it links to all my personal email, etc. I’m going to keep trying to see if I can find a workaround, but it’s been very frustrating not being able to comment.

This morning I am:

• Reading: I finished The Blossom and the Firefly last Wednesday. It turned out to be a work of young adult fiction, so was a quick read, but very enjoyable as it had been very well researched. The story was about young “special-attack” (kamikaze) pilots toward the end of WWII; the young girls that supported them by doing their cooking, cleaning, and waving them off on an attack day; and the relationship that formed between two of them. I am now reading The Vapors: A Southern Family, the New York Mob, and the Rise and Fall of Hot Springs, America’s Forgotten Capital of Vice, by David Hill. So far, so good – it’s very interesting, and all about a place I’ve heard of but never thought about much. I had no idea there was so much sin and iniquity going on there for so long.
• Listening to: A couple of roosters are out this morning and doing their thing, but otherwise the only sound is the breeze blowing through the palm trees. Brett is puttering around in the kitchen fixing his breakfast, and YaYu is trying to sleep. As I said, it’s hard to know there’s a big storm bearing down.
• Watching: Well, Ozark finished with a bang (literally), and we can’t wait for next season! Brett and I are now watching the most recent season of Father Brown and YaYu and I are watching Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi. That show is every bit as wonderful as we heard it would be. In the very first episode of Father Brown, in the very first few minutes, we spotted a clear shot of our Blockley cottage which of course flooded us with lots of happy memories, and we’ve seen it a time or two since. The filming for this season had taken place just a month before we arrived.
• Cooking/baking: There will be lots of grilling going on this week once the storm passes. Tonight though we’re having fried rice, as it can be cooked on our butane stove if we lose power. Later this week we’ll have California roll salad; grilled lemon chicken and vegetable kabobs; barbecued ribs with three-bean salad; pasta with pesto, grilled Italian sausages, and roasted squash; and beef Polish sausages with coleslaw and macaroni and cheese for the sides. I’m making the carrot cake later this morning.

  

• Happy I accomplished this past week: For a week that seemed to start off on the wrong foot, we got a lot done. Besides calling the moving company and beginning the hunt for our missing box, I also contacted my doctor and got a referral for a mammogram and got that appointment scheduled, as well as an appointment with the dermatologist for a skin check. The earliest available dates for both of those appointments was in October! We found a place everything, got the last of the boxes and paper out of the apartment, and Brett got all the pictures hung. We walked five days this week in spite of some not-so-good weather, and got our food shopping done for the week.
• Looking forward to next week: I’m hoping for a somewhat relaxing week after Douglas finally passes, especially since we have no special chores this week, and the apartment finally pulled together. All I want to do is get out in the afternoon and walk, go to the farmers’ market on Wednesday, hit the beach if possible, and read, read, read.
• Thinking of good things that happened: The chair pads finally arriving was a highlight this week as their arrival was w-a-y overdue. According to the post office website, on Tuesday evening they were still lost somewhere, and I was planning to write the Etsy shop owner on Wednesday to let her know they had never arrived, but lo and behold, they showed up Wednesday morning! They are just what I hoped for and they look great. The much-desired blue dress that had been sold out last week was shortly back in stock in a couple of sizes, one of them mine, so that got ordered and is on its way. Our landlord came and installed a new screen door in front – the old one was on its last legs and sometimes refused to open or shut (plus it had a lot of holes). 
• Thinking of frugal things we did: The credit from Apple for my old computer along with the refund from Aeromexico meant that I ended up paying less than half of the retail price for my new computer, a very nice bit of savings. I put $60 into our travel savings account from change and $1 bills I had been putting away, and we started a new bundle by putting $11.17 into the jar. All leftovers were eaten this past week, and no food was thrown away either. The only two days we spent anything were Tuesday and Wednesday (food shopping, the blue dress at 30% off, and the farmers’ market). I earned 484 Swagbucks this past week – I hope to have enough for my first $100 Southwest Airlines gift card by the end of August, or early September at the latest.
• Grateful for: I’m thankful for all the things that showed up or were taken care of this week, even if some of them were late. I know the post office has currently been dealing with issues like having their hours cut back (no overtime allowed any more for example), but they get eventually get the job done and I’m grateful for all they do, under some pretty miserable conditions sometimes. We depend on them so much for so many things, and try and do our part to keep them from going under.
• Bonus question: Have you ever experienced a hurricane before? We went through two BIG typhoons (Category 3 & 4) during our two tours in Japan, and one Category 1 hurricane (Floyd) when we were stationed in Key West. The two in Japan were very powerful, and very scary as they hit the Tokyo area directly. The second one was in early autumn, and stripped the leaves off of the trees, which caused the cherry trees to blossom a second time that year! Floyd was scary as well – we were especially worried about flooding – but we never lost power and the sound of the howling wind for so many hours about drove me mad, especially from the back side after the eye had passed over. We’ve also been through a few tropical storms as well, that while not as bad as a hurricane are still nothing to sneeze at. We’re glad Douglas’s strength had diminished by the time it got to Kaua’i, and hopefully it will quickly move on without too much damage.

While I’m enjoying being finally settled in the apartment, I am mourning the loss of that one box. We’ll give the moving company a month and if nothing turns up we’ll file a claim. While nothing in the box is especially valuable, some of the things that are missing are not replaceable and carry considerable memories of place and time. With all of our moves, we have only once had a mover lose something once before: when Brett retired from the navy in 1992 our express shipment (small shipment with basic items to get started with before the main shipment arrives) showed up but instead of our boxes there was a small (ugly) cast iron pot-belly stove on the truck! It was very weird, and we never learned what happened to our things. I read once that every couple of moves was the equivalent of a small house fire in terms of damage and loss, but for as many moves as we made then and since, we’ve done pretty well. We’ll probably move once more here, but that will be the last one for us.

I sincerely hope your week started off better than ours did, and that it continued upward and ended on a high note (versus the arrival of a hurricane/tropical storm!). Here’s to more good things happening this week, good books to read, good health to celebrate, and a great week overall coming up!

Saturday

last Sunday

Tuesday

Only a couple of mildly interesting sunsets this past week . . . until yesterday’s. That was a stunner.

Good morning!

The week started out poorly, weather-wise, but eventually turned nicer on Thursday. We enjoyed sunshine and blue skies again for a few days but this morning it’s back to strong winds and rain again. We woke up last Monday morning to absolutely pouring rain, with the same on Tuesday and again Wednesday morning, all accompanied by howling winds. By early afternoon each day the rain would stop and a tiny bit of blue sky would break out, and we would dash over to Kukuiolono and get our walk in. Then the clouds would eventually roll back in and by evening the rain would be back. One of our fellow walkers warned us though that when these storms stop that’s when the trade winds will stop as well and things will heat up, and we’re not looking forward to that again. Although there aren’t may visitors to the island these days, my thoughts when we have this kind of stormy weather are always that I’m glad we didn’t spend thousands to come vacation on Kaua’i. By the way, the quarantine in Hawaii has been extended until the first of September. Masks are still required on the island in all public locations except for when exercising outdoors or at the beach.

Friday was the first really hot and humid day we’ve had this summer. The movers arrived early in morning (like two hours earlier than expected – we were still in our pajamas when they called to say they were on their way!) and everything was off the truck was in our apartment in less than an hour. One box at first appeared to be missing but we eventually found it. We unpacked all day Friday, and surprisingly got almost everything put away. Saturday was spent finding places for the last few items, and getting all the boxes and paper out of the apartment so that the moving company can come pick them up for recycling. We didn’t think this move (including the pack-out from when we left in 2014) was as good as our earlier one with Royal Hawaiian – there were a few broken things this time (thankfully all repairable), including the pottery bowl made by my aunt and given to us as a wedding present, and the reproduction primitive clay horse I bought during our first tour in Japan. One of my jubako (porcelain stacking boxes) was also damaged, but again, all can be repaired.

Where do we start?

Progress looked more like chaos for a while

Broken things

Almost done on Saturday

YaYu has been rethinking her return to college this fall this past week. She got her bill last Thursday and NO financial aid had been applied, but the issue has been corrected and she should get an adjusted bill tomorrow. We about fainted though when we saw the amount without financial aid – yikes! YaYu’s main concern about going back is that she will catch the virus and bring it back with her when she comes home for Thanksgiving. Returning to school is still her first choice, but we have told her that she is welcome to stay here if she ultimately decides against going back – it’s her decision. We’ve told her that if she does stay we will have to reduce what we’re putting away for her as the cost of feeding her has been more than we expected (the girl can eat!), and we will also probably have to pay more rent for the time she’s with us. The landlord has been accommodating so far, but we don’t want to push our luck.

This morning I am:

• Reading: I am almost done with the fourth Harry Potter book in the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It’s still a very good read and I’m enjoying it. The Blossom and the Firefly, by Sherri L. Smith, just came off of hold from the library – I’ve been waiting a long time for it so am excited to get started. I ordered the new Kevin Kwan book from Amazon, Sex and Vanity, as it looks like it may be a while for other holds to be released. I’ve enjoyed all of his other books (Crazy Rich Asians, etc.), and supposedly this is his best one yet.
• Listening to: The wind is howling again outside, and rain is coming down (sideways) at intervals. It’s very cool though, almost like we have air-conditioning – such strange weather for summer. Brett is reading and YaYu is still sleeping, so it’s very quiet inside.
• Watching: We will finish up Ozark this week and haven’t come up with anything to watch next. Suggestions are welcome!
• Cooking/baking: I am thrilled to have my full contingent of cookware once again! Since we’ve lived here all we had is one 3-quart saucepan, a 10-inch skillet, a sauté pan, and five cooking utensils – it’s been a challenge at times to figure out how to get everything made and on the table. Brett is especially happy to have a can opener once again – he’s been opening things all this time with the tool on his pocket knife. Tonight we’re going to have curried chickpeas over rice and some grilled chicken (if the weather improves). Other main courses this week will be chicken adobo with bok choy (it didn’t get made last week), Cuban bowls (black beans, roasted sweet potato, fried banana or plantain if I can find it, and pico de Gallo, all over rice); pork, bean, and rice burritos; grilled monchong, one of our favorite local fish; and roast chicken with mashed potatoes, a request from YaYu. We’ll do leftovers for one meal. I’m planning to bake a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting this week for our dessert cake.
• Happy we accomplished this past week: I am glad we were able to walk as much as we did this past week considering both the weather and getting all our stuff unpacked and put away. It was touch and go almost every day, quite hot on a couple of days, but there is thankfully always a breeze up at Kukuiolono and we were always able to get ahead of the late afternoon rain. We took Friday off from walking to unpack and still managed to get in as many steps right in our small apartment. YaYu and I finally finished Level 2 of our daily Japanese lesson on Memrise and have moved on to Level 3, which actually feels easier for some reason. Brett got his hair cut (and looks like he is back in the navy again).
• Looking forward to next week: Our pictures are the last thing remaining to be unpacked, and that will be finished tomorrow and everything hung by the end of the week. We’re hoping for some beach weather this week so we can get out of the apartment for at least a couple of days. And, maybe this will be the week the chair pads finally arrive, although I’ve pretty much given up on expecting them – they’ll get here when they get here. I actually think they’re in Honolulu, where packages seem to have to hang out for a (possibly long) while before finally being shipped over to Kaua’i. I’m also looking forward to getting my hair trimmed again this coming Saturday.

  

• Thinking of good things that happen: The arrival of our stored items was like Christmas in July, and I’ve been enjoying using our things again. We had a wonderful, long phone call with our grandkids on Friday evening – always a lot of fun, and balm for my soul. We liked the bench-style coffee table we had, but it was not a good fit with our sofa so we ordered a new table (same style as our sofa table) and it arrived early this past week. The new coffee table is big and fits much better in the space (as well as giving us more room on top), and the old table is now serving as a bench at the end of our bed. We didn’t have any place to set things, or sit down, other than the bed so that’s now taken care of. But, we really are done buying furniture now.

  

• Thinking of frugal things we did: We went over budget some on our food shopping last week, but other than that and our weekly trip to the farmers’ market and a haircut for Brett it was a no-spend week. The leftovers continue to get eaten up, but this past week I had to throw away a small piece of cabbage that had gotten mushy, some kale that had turned, a couple of onions that had gone moldy, and a small amount of green-is Parmesan cheese that had gotten hidden in the back. I hate throwing away food, so this was a wakeup to make more of an effort to keep track of things in our small fridge, and make sure they get used. We put $4 and some coins into the change/$1 bill jar, and I earned 524 Swagbucks.

  

• Grateful for: I felt like I could finally exhale when I saw that our big antique hibachi had arrived in one piece (the moving company had actually built a special wooden crate to ship it), as did its stand and the antique plate that sits in the middle. The plate had only been lightly packed inside the hibachi and we consider it something of a miracle that it made it in one piece. We bought the hibachi and plate during our first tour in Japan, in 1982, and they have now moved back and forth across the Pacific Ocean five times, and across the mainland a few times as well. Brett had the wooden stand custom made in the Philippines during our second tour in Japan, and we had the legs added not long before we left Portland in 2014, as well as having a new piece of glass cut for the top so the hibachi could function as a side table (it had served as our coffee table before that for many years). Both Brett and I are extremely grateful for its safe arrival one last time as it’s the piece of furniture that grounds us and lets us know we’re home.

  

• Bonus question: What was your favorite food when you were a child? Your least favorite? My mother was not an inspired cook – it was always a chore for her – but she did make a couple of dishes that I absolutely loved when I was a kid: baked macaroni and cheese, and Noodles Romanoff (this recipe is closest to Mom’s, although she didn’t add the cream cheese or heavy cream, but increased the amount of sour cream). Both had pasta, lots of cheese, and were rich and creamy. Mom always made big pans of them, so there were always leftovers that were for me just as good or better when eaten cold the next day. Her macaroni and cheese was the dish I always asked for whenever I came home from college. I also loved her tapioca pudding – it was very fluffy and creamy with a wonderful vanilla flavor. My maternal grandmother was not a good cook, but she occasionally made dates stuffed with walnuts and peanut butter that I absolutely loved, and also the most amazing stewed apples. The recipe for the apples died along with her though – no one has been able to duplicate them. My paternal grandmother was a very good cook, and her yeast biscuits were from heaven. I have her recipe for them (written in her own hand), but they’ve never turned out as light and fluffy as hers were. My least favorite food growing up was salad (and still is). I have a fairly serious intolerance to most forms of lettuce (especially romaine) – it makes me very sick – but my parents always served me salad (mostly made with romaine) and expected me to eat it even though I told them over and over how it made me feel. I became an expert at hiding salad under the table and getting rid of it after a meal was over. Several years ago my mom was visiting and said when I explained why I wasn’t having salad, “You know, you never really liked salad when you were young.” Thanks, Mom. One of the great injustices of my childhood (in my mind) was watching my brother not have to eat tomatoes or squash because “he doesn’t like them” while I was expected to eat the salad on my plate no matter what.

We have just a few more things to do to finish up here and finally feel settled. What’s been most surprising has been discovering the extent of what we let go before we left Kaua’i in 2018. For example, I was sure we had kept our bathroom scale, but no. I also apparently didn’t keep any baking supplies other than my stand mixer, not even a measuring cup! It was fun to finally see the dishes we bought at Kappabashi during our first stay in Japan, in 2019. They had been wrapped at the store when we bought them so until they were unwrapped on Friday we had no idea what we would find – we had completely forgotten what we had chosen. We were able to put quite a bit away for YaYu to have for whenever she sets up her own place someday, things we had too many of or realized we just don’t need any more. Anyway, it’s so good to have our things back with us again, and know that what’s missing or broken can be replaced or fixed. We have more than enough.

That’s all for this week! All in all it was another good one here, even with the crazy weather, and I hope it was good for you as well, with lots of good things happening. Here’s to another good week coming up!