Visited with the doctor this morning about my progress with pneumonia. He said things were going well, that I should expect a six-week recovery period, and that I was only one week into the process. He said my lungs were moving air nicely, so I guess that’s a good sign! No more antibiotics which is a Really Good Thing!

Today was our preparation day but was also a day where our water was turned off from 8:30am until 2:30pm so the city could do some maintenance. My doctor appointment was at 11:30, so after that we drove the hour over to the cleaners to pick up my suit, had lunch at McDonalds followed by an ice cream cone, and drove back home. I finished ironing my shirts and appreciated the fact that the water was back on!

Then came the phone call … one of the sisters up the street had left the faucet in the bathroom sink turned on. When the water came back on, no one was home. The sink overflowed, the hallway, kitchen, and laundry room were flooded along with water making its way into both bedrooms. Lots of towels later, we’ve got fans running to try and dry things out. The humidity is quite high (although the temperatures are very reasonable), so the drying process is going to take quite a bit of time … well into tomorrow for sure. Nina and the sisters had a great laugh as they cleaned things up. For a few sisters, an important lesson was learned!

Just as I was finishing up this post, the UPS driver showed up at our door with a rather large box. I couldn’t remember that I had anything on order other than a Christmas Tree Light Tester, which should come in a small envelope and it’s coming through the Post Office. Turns out the box contains a blood pressure monitor kit from the Veterans Administration. I knew that was coming but didn’t expect it for a couple more weeks (the VA is seldom very fast and never this fast!). So, now I get the opportunity to check my blood pressure every day, 7×365. The machine automatically connects to the VA computer system and uploads the info. They’ve only got me on a blood pressure monitoring program, but the machine has the ability to plug in glucose, oxygen, temperature, and weight measurement devices. Recently my blood pressure has been very low, probably due to the antibiotic for pneumonia. Prior to that it has been pretty erratic and I’m taking far too many meds to try and keep it under control. Maybe aggressive monitoring will sort things out.

Life is good, health is slowly returning, and ta ta for now!

The recovery from pneumonia continues, slowly. I expect I’m about 60% right now. The antibiotic I’ve been taking has been pretty wicked and I’m glad to be done with it (I hope). I’ll see the doctor tomorrow to determine what the next course of action is. It almost feels like I’ve gotten to the point that the antibiotic has been making sicker that the pneumonia has been. We’ll see.

Last Saturday was the big parade in Laie celebrating the 150th anniversary of the founding of the town. The parade included an Army marching band from Schofield Barracks, the local Kohoku High School marching band, the BYU-Hawaii brass ensemble, and a community marching band. Plenty of great parade music! All of the sister missionaries on shift at the Center came out to watch the parade all dressed in their colorful muu muus. They should have been in the parade as well! I suspect this’ll be the first and last parade we’ll see while we’re here in Laie. I would have liked to have felt better, but it was still quite enjoyable.

There aren’t many businesses in Laie or along the north shore at all, including no dry cleaners. There are a couple of options … we can go west about an hour or we can go south for about an hour. Both my suits needed cleaning, so I elected to go west. On the way back we stopped for a few minutes at Sunset Beach to grab a few rays and do some people watching. This Asian trio definitely fell into the “interesting” category! I’ve never seen a bonnet like the blue one and it had to have been hot inside. On the other hand, the light skirt offered plenty of opportunity for bugs to strike, and that’s where most of them bite over here in this little piece of paradise.

Yesterday we had our weekly assignment at the Polynesian Cultural Center guarding the exit to the Ohana Aloha Luau. Steve Cheny plays the steel guitar for this luau and is one of the premier steel guitarists in Hawaii (his son Dan also plays the steel guitar at the Ohana Luau). Steve’s wife had a severe stroke a few years ago and has serious muscle control issues. But, she is just absolutely delightful! Steve plays the steel guitar six nights a week from about 4:45pm to about 6:30pm and brings his wife along. She sits at the exit in her wheel chair and when we’re assigned to that spot, we enjoy visiting with her. If we’re not there, other senior missionaries are assigned to this spot, giving Steve the comfort of knowing his wife is being watched over while he performs on stage.

Of course, we all go over to Prime Dining for a meal afterwards. That’s our “compensation”, as it were. We both like being at the Aloha exit as we can see the entire show from where we are sitting. This is the only venue were we can see the show as well as do our job. It’s the same show every day, with the same music, in the same order. We practically have it memorized! One of the performances is the search for the pig to be roasted for tomorrow’s luau. I recorded one of these performances and put it up on YouTube:

Life is slowly returning to normal. Ta ta for now!

The pneumonia diagnosis was on last Wednesday afternoon and that’s when the antibiotics started. While I’m feeling better, I’d put me at 50% at best. I’ve two more days of antibiotics and then go back to the doctor for a checkup. Hopefully we can do that on Thursday or Friday. I’ll be right ready to get off the antibiotic: Levofloxacin. A side effect is a nasty taste in my mouth, kind of like burnt ashes. While I’m sure I’ll feel much better this time next week, I’d be pleased if it happened sooner!

We are back on our normal schedule at the Center after the other senior missionaries took parts or all of our shifts when I was feeling pretty punk. No need to infect anyone else! That normal schedule included the Senior Missionary Family Home Evening this evening. This is the transfer where we have Monday evenings available to attend FHE. Tonight’s presentation was just delightful, made by Elder and Sister Christensen who are on their fifth mission, including a three-year term as a Mission President in Canada, eighteen months in Athens, Greece, and a two-year term as the Director of the Washington D.C. Visitors’ Center. He was a Seminary and Institute teacher and later director of the Institute program at Utah State University. It was a delightful evening.

Coming up tomorrow is the Investiture of President John S. Tanner as the President of Brigham Young University – Hawaii. President Eyring will be conducting that event with several other General Authorities participating. I’ll bring my computer into the Center and play the live video feed in our big theater. We’ll be on duty, but should be able to catch parts of the Inauguration / Devotional.

Life is improving … slowly but surely! Ta ta for now!

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.

A saying attributed to Kermit the Frog: “Time’s fun when you’re having flies!” The past seven days seem to have just flown by. We’re still waiting for summer to give way to fall here in Laie. The evenings are starting to be reasonably cool. It’s time for the daytime to follow suit! (or is that “follow suite?”) It’s too late in the evening for that part of the grammar brain to function.

So, what have we been doing? Nina has been working hard to get the kitchen things, like cutlery, plates, glasses, bowls, and cooking utensils all squared away at the sister missionary apartments. She’s getting really close. One thing they all need is new frying and sauce pans. Costco was running a special on 3-pack saute pans, so yesterday we picked up eight sets. While checking out the cashier wanted to know if we were opening up a cooking school….

I’ve been doing maintenance both on apartments as well as bicycles. For some reason several bikes have decided to shed their chains this past week. My past work to get puncture resistant inner tubes into the heavily-used bikes is paying off. I haven’t had to fix a flat for a while (and have now probably jinxed myself just by talking about it). I’ve also had a doctor’s appointment to have some moles checked.

The air conditioning at the Center hasn’t been working correctly which certainly has been frustrating for the Temple Engineers! Most mornings when we get to the Center at 9am the AC is not working. We call the engineer and he makes the trek down from the Temple to manually start the system. Sometimes it’ll run for the rest of the day, sometimes not. A maintenance man has been there, but the problem isn’t solved. Maybe we need to add the air conditioning unit and the maintenance man to our prayers??

As mentioned several times previously, once a week we volunteer at the Polynesian Cultural Center and are assigned to one of the dinner venues to take tickets, or to count, or to guard the exits. At the entrance, one or two of the cast members from the evening show pose with the guests for the PCC photographer to take a picture. The guest then gets a card with a QR code so they can go online, look at the picture, and buy it if they wish. There are also photo kiosks set up at the PCC where guests can find their pictures. This is quite the business … and it has changed recently.

The previous photo contractor took the pictures, printed them out, and then sold them to the guests as they came out from dinner. Those that weren’t sold were probably trashed. A new vendor took over the operation a few weeks ago. Now they take pictures of guests all around the PCC as well as when they go in for dinner. At each of these, the guest gets a card with a QR code. They can then look later at the pictures and buy the ones the want. Meanwhile, no unwanted pictures get printed and the guests have potentially four or five pictures of them at different places at the PCC to look at and purchase. I’m quite impressed with the new operation. All of the people who worked for the previous vendor are now working for the new vendor and they like this process a whole lot better as well, particularly since they don’t have to “sell” the pictures to the guests when they come out from dinner. I’m sure that was often quite awkward for these young folks to do this sales job.

And, as you might expect, the cast members, both male and female, are quite good looking and most guests want their picture taken with them. Meanwhile, the cast members are being paid by the hour to be there for pictures. It’s a pretty nice gig, in my (humble) opinion.

Life is quite picturesque! Ta ta for now!

I’ve talked about the trams before and I’ve been asked for a picture of the tram. Last Monday morning for our training meeting we boarded a tram and did a model tour as a brush-up and refresher for the sister missionaries. The trams operate each afternoon that the Polynesian Cultural Center is open (usually Monday through Saturday, never on Sunday) every twenty minutes starting at 3 pm with the last tram at 6:40 pm. The 35-minute tour goes through BYU-Hawaii campus, through the town of Laie, and then stops at the Visitors’ Center where the passengers disembark for fifteen minutes. The tram picks up the passengers from the last tour and takes them back to the PCC. Twenty minutes later another tram arrives to drop off visitors and pick up returning visitors. The trams are open-sided busses with plastic siding that can be lowered in case of rain. A maximum of 35 people can ride the tram.

We’ve had quite a bit of rain lately with mostly overcast skies. When the trams arrive, the sun (if its shining) is over and behind the Temple making it difficult to get guest pictures where the guest and the Temple are both correctly lighted. Cloudy days make that much less of a problem but too many cloudy days in a row seems to make people a bit grumpy. We had just taken the flags down when the sun came out at sunset from behind the clouds and the Temple when I took this picture on the right.

This lady came in on the tram that arrives at 6:50 pm. By that time at this time of the year it’s pretty dark outside and a flash is needed to get a reasonable picture. She fervently wanted a picture of her in front of the sign with the Temple in the background. Unfortunately, the only camera she had was an iPad (!!) which doesn’t have a flash. “I’m black,” she said, “so it’s a difficult picture to get even with a flash!” Very true. So, I told her I’d take a picture of her with my iPhone with its (puny) flash and we could email her the picture. She was ecstatic! Beyond words, ecstatic. I asked her if I could also put her picture up on my blog. “Sure!” she replied. “That’d be great. Give me the address so I can show my friends!”

So, here’s your picture. As promised, no names!

Life is very picturesque! Ta ta for now!

When I got up this morning a little after 4 am for a quick bathroom stop I noticed it was raining HARD outside. When I got up and showered at 6:30 am it was still raining HARD. The rain continued to pour all morning until around 11:30 when it started tapering off. As part of our Visitors’ Center Training Meeting we rode the tram over to the Polynesian Cultural Center and back as the sister missionaries rehearsed the dialog given during the tram tour and discussed various sections of the tour. I took this picture as we went past the BYU-Hawaii rugby field at about 8 am.

When we got back to the Center, the sewer system was alarming, an indication that the inflow was more than the lift pump station could handle and the holding tank was nearing full. If that were to continue, the system would back up into the restrooms. In addition to all that, the large pool with the three fountains in the courtyard was full and overflowing.

The sewer system in Laie is a combined sewer system set up for both waste material as well as rain water. That means that all of the rainwater coming off the roof of the Center goes into the sewer system along with the toilets, sinks, and drinking fountains. The treatment facility is to the northwest of the Center at a higher elevation, so the system requires a lift station to pump the water up to the treatment facility. A large holding tank is in the ground beside the Center as a buffer for the lift pump. Well, the deluge was definitely more than the lift pump could handle! The city pumped the holding tank three times and it was still pouring rain.

The solution? Close our bathrooms. That way they could leave the cover off the holding tank and if it overflowed, it would go out into the parking lot and down into the storm drain system. Because the tank had been completely emptied and if we didn’t use the toilets, the overflow would be just rain water with no effluent.

Of course, within the hour the rain abated and by 1 pm had completely stopped. The clouds started thinning out. The sun came out. And the humidity went up to 96% for the rest of the day. The Polynesian Cultural Center had a number of issues with the rain and the canal through the PCC filled to overflowing, so the PCC closed their doors for the day, probably disappointing a lot of people who won’t have another chance to go there. They’ll get their money back and probably get a huge discount on another ticket, but for many people, their trip to Hawaii is a once-in-a-lifetime event. Because the PCC was closed, there were no trams in the afternoon to bring PCC visitors over to the Visitors’ Center. All in all, this was a very unusual day.

After the sun came out we took a drive over to the west side of the island to watch the sunset at Sunset Beach. It was a very pretty sunset and a nice bookend to a very unusual day. Tomorrow we’re at the Center from 2:30 pm until 8 pm. The PCC should be open and the trams running. Many people who weren’t able to go to the PCC yesterday will be there today. I think our afternoon at the Center will be very busy!

Ta ta for now! Life is just ducky….

There are some Big Happenings planned for November here in Laie since this is the 150th anniversary of the Church’s purchase of all the property where Laie, BYU-Hawaii, and the Polynesian Cultural Center are located plus several thousand more acres. In preparation of that, many things are being changed, upgraded, removed, or refurbished. One significant area of upgrade and refurbishment are the flower beds around the Visitors’ Center. And, as if on key, a whole bunch of Bird of Paradise flowers have bloomed from new plants put in place about a month or six weeks ago. These are beautiful flowers and stay in bloom for a very long time (I’m sure that’s one of the reasons they’re planted on the grounds).

We’ve been flying the flags at half mast the past few days in memory of the students assassinated at the college in Oregon last week (a very sad situation). Putting the flags up takes a minimum of three people and better is four people. The proper etiquette for putting a flag at half mast is to first raise it briskly to it’s full height then slowly lower it to half mast. On this flag pole that’s a lot of cranking. So far the sister missionaries, even the foreign sisters, have been very willing to help out with posting the flags each morning and retiring them each evening. I suspect someday it’ll get old…. Before we were allowed to put flags on the pole, it looked quite out of place and people would position themselves for pictures to exclude the flagpole. Now they have no problem including it in their pictures.

This past weekend was General Conference weekend. We show the conference proceedings live in the big theater. The first session on Saturday and Sunday starts at 10am Salt Lake Time, which is 6am Hawaii time and the second session on both of those days starts at 10am Hawaiian time. In between sessions we have a nice breakfast for all of the missionaries. The three senior missionary wives bake a breakfast casserole which is served on Saturday along with lots of other goodies. On Sunday we have a continental breakfast. All of the missionaries in the zone come, which includes several young Elders. Two of our sister missionaries have matching outfits gifted to them from the Samoan Ward. They definitely look quite spiffy!

On the four corners of the courtyard are four tall pillars with wires sticking out the top. These used to have tall light towers on them. The towers were shipped back to the mainland where a company rebuilt them. The pillars have been barren for more than a year. Finally this week the new light towers arrived and on October 1st they were put into place.

The process seemed to be quite straight forward. The crane would lift the towers and place them on the pillars. After each of the light towers was put next to the pillar and uncrated, it was then lifted into place while the manufacturer’s people guided each of them into the correct position. I thought it was a lot of fun to watch them carefully place these light towers into position. In the picture to the left can also be seen some of the new flowers put in place for the 150th anniversary celebration. These are called “raspberry ice” flowers. I’ve never seen or heard of them before, but they sure are pretty. With these flowers we now have lots of color in the courtyard.

The yellow hibiscus flowers, the blue bushes, the raspberry-ice flowers, the Bird of Paradise flowers, along with the trees, shrubs, and bushes make for a very peaceful and beautiful place and the visitors remark about that very often.

I took a YouTube video of getting the first light tower up and in place.

The lights went up on a nice, partly cloudy day and it took all day to get the four lights into position, the LED light installed, and the glass enclosure put in place. After that, they were all polished. We no longer have these four pillars with wires sticking out of the top. The new LED lights take 13 watts of electricity and provide an equivalent of 120 watts of light.

We walked back down to the Center after dark to see what the new lights looked like. The are quite nice. They don’t really add much illumination on the ground, but do provide a nice feature to complete the look around the fountain.

According to one of the grounds keepers, all of this work is to be completed by the end of October. He said there weren’t any more major projects but lots of small things and cleanup to get completed. Then President Eyring of the First Presidency, Elder Christopherson of the Quorum of the Twelve, and about another dozen dignitaries will come and make all of this work very worthwhile.

Ta ta for now from our beautiful corner of Paradise!