Last week we had a rare day in this little corner of paradise, Laie, Hawaii. A virtually cloudless sky!

A cloud-free sky is rare enough that this was the first one I’ve seen in the more-than-seven-months we’ve been here in Hawaii. The lack of clouds persisted through the morning and into the early afternoon before the clouds rolled in and the humidity went back up (perhaps I’ve got the order wrong … humidity up bringing in the clouds???). These are the Chamber of Commerce days that are featured on all of the visitor promotional pictures.

Meanwhile, I’m on the recovering end of a bout with pneumonia. I wasn’t feeling well last Friday and a cold was definitely coming on. I spent all of Saturday when not at the Center in bed and wasn’t feeling well enough to go the Church on Sunday. On Monday afternoon I went in to see a local doctor for a cough syrup to alleviate a very hard and unproductive chest cough. Tuesday was just a blur, but did include an afternoon volunteering at the Polynesian Cultural Center. The cough syrup was only effective in making me completely stupid in the brain, unable to make coherent sentences and tie two thoughts together, so I stopped taking it. Wednesday afternoon I had Nina drive me to the Emergency Room. The diagnosis: pneumonia of the walking-around kind. It’s amazing what two days of the right antibiotics is doing for me. I’m actually beginning to rejoin the human race.

I’ve never had pneumonia before (at least that I can remember). I’m not recommending the experience. It’s going to be several more days before I’m over the issue! Yesterday I got a phone call from my favorite brother. He wondered what was the matter over here! How did he know that something was not right? My Fitbit stats for the previous couple of days had been uncommonly low. I wear this little tracker on my waist. It keeps track of how many steps I take each day, how much exertion I put out, how many floors I climb each day, and such. Each day it publishes a summary that I can allow other Fitbit users receive so we can kind of encourage each other. My daily step counts are usually in the 7,000 to 11,000 steps in a day. They had dropped to below 400. It looked from Green River that I was nearly dead or something. We had a great chat and updated each other on our plethora of health issues. Isn’t technology wonderful? Thanks, Perry, for the reminder.

The other day I had another of “those questions” … who did we know to get this assignment. I started explaining how I had retired last September and we put in our paperwork willing to serve anywhere in the world for twenty-three months when I had a sudden realization … I didn’t retire last September, I retired a year ago last September! That was an anniversary that completely slipped through the cracks. That got me thinking about where we were a year ago. We were in Chardon, Ohio visiting with Nina’s sister Pam on our Great American Road Trip.

So, ta ta for now! Life is returning to normal. I’m thankful for having sense enough to finally get to the Emergency Room and for fine, faithful Priesthood holders literally next door to provide a needed Priesthood Blessing.