Sunday Afternoon 4/30/2017

Looking out to the island of Niihau (the “forbidden island”) from the beach at Barking Sands PMRF. Nothing but blue skies.

I can’t remember the last time I had a cold, but one found me this past week, dug in and just about knocked me out for a couple of days! Because the weather has been so warm, it’s been the equivalent of having a summer cold, which always seem to be nastier than ones that you get in the colder months. I felt fine over last weekend, and into Monday and Tuesday, but on Tuesday evening my throat started to feel a little sore and by 10:00 p.m. it was on, complete with a head that felt like a concrete bowling ball, fever, sore throat, etc. It’s almost done now, thank goodness, and all I can say is “good riddance!”

Brett and I drove down to the far west side of the island last Thursday morning to the Barking Sands PMRF (Pacific Missile Range Facility) so I could get my military dependent ID renewed. It rained the entire way drive there until the last mile or two when suddenly it was gorgeous! After I finished getting my card, we drove to the beach area on the base to look out at Niihau. The base has fully-furnished beach cottages that we are eligible to rent, and there’s a very good restaurant on the base, so Brett and I think that’s where we may try to go next year for our anniversary/birthday getaway, if we can get a reservation. Being back on base is always a very nostalgic experience for both of us – it was our life for so many years.

Looking to the east from the same spot on the beach, and the storm we passed through on the way down and back. It rained all the back until to Lihue.

YaYu got a call on Friday informing her that the essay she had submitted to the island newspaper’s Everyday Heroes contest had been selected as the winning entry! When I asked who she had written about she told me I’d just have to read her essay in the paper – hmmm. She will meet with staff from the paper this week for photos and to pick up a $100 dollar prize!

This afternoon I am:

• Reading: I finished My Year of Meats on Thursday, and I’m now waiting to read Faceless Killers, by Henning Mankell. I was ready for another mystery/procedural, and greatly enjoy the Scandanavian genre, so decided to start in on Mankell’s Wallender series (Faceless Killers is the first in the series). Once again though the library is taking its time releasing the download. In the meantime I’m catching up on some magazine reading.
• Listening to: Loads of songbirds are out and about this morning – they’re actually quite loud. I can also hear lawnmowers, etc. in the distance, and kids are out playing in the street. Surprisingly, I haven’t heard a single chicken or rooster.  Inside it’s quiet – YaYu is studying, and Brett is out on his daily walk/hike/run. The washing machine will be doing its thing though in a few minutes.
• Watching: Brett and I enjoyed the documentary, Five Came Back, but then started right in on Escape to the Country, or as I call it, “English Country Househunters.” It’s a fun show to watch, but other than a couple of them none of the houses have really appealed to me.  I guess English Country style is just not my thing, but I like seeing what interests people and why they choose the house they do, and reject the others. The countryside is gorgeous though, and really the star of the show. Last night we watched Jackie. I had watched some on the plane on the way home from Japan, but fell asleep before I finished so wanted to see the whole thing. Both Brett and I thought it was very good.
• Cooking/baking: As seems to be our habit these days, everyone fixed their own breakfast this morning: oatmeal and berries for Brett, leftover pad thai for YaYu, and yogurt and berries for me. The farmer that sells sprouts at the market did not have any mung bean sprouts this last week so the menu plan got switched around a bit. We had the Chinese three-color salad on Thursday, and after a return to Big Save yesterday for sprouts we are having egg drop soup and egg foo yung for dinner tonight (eggs on Sunday!). We are just about out of all the treats we brought home from Japan for YaYu’s lunches, so I’m going to bake a pan of brownies this afternoon. Just one more month of school lunches to go before we get a break!
• Happy I accomplished last week: I almost cannot believe that I was able to get out and do the food shopping, let alone do anything last week because I felt so miserable, especially on Wednesday and Thursday. But, we needed food, and I had to be up early and out on Thursday to get my ID card renewed (because the old one would have expired today), so we stopped at Costco on the way home from that trip and I did OK. Except for Wednesday and Thursday, I still got in all of my bike rides, drank all my water and studied Portuguese. It’s been a rough week though, and yesterday’s bike rides about did me in as the cold had moved down into my lungs.
• Looking forward to next week: Afterschool sports practices are over! YaYu has segued from one sport right into another from the beginning the year with no breaks, but will be coming home right after school from now until the end of the school year and we can hopefully enjoy a more normal daily schedule. It also means less laundry as there won’t be all the running shorts, t-shirts, swimsuits, towels, etc. that have been added all year. She’s also finished her Chinese tutoring, which means our weekends will be free once more. YaYu’s AP exams begin this week, and she takes the SAT exam on Saturday. I’m not sure she’s looking forward to this, but I’m glad to be getting them out of the way. She’s currently spending most of her time at home in her room studying, only coming out to go to school or eat dinner.
• Reporting gains and losses: I lost four more pounds this month, bringing my total weight loss so far to 18 pounds. When I lose another five or so pounds I plan to replace my afternoon bike ride with a walk with Brett (after getting a good pair of walking shoes). We put $682.63 into our travel savings account this month toward this year’s goal of $7000. The total amount we’ve saved so far is $2484.34 so we’re right where we need to be.
• Thinking of good things that happened: Learning that YaYu won the essay contest was the highlight of the week! Also, I guess it’s a good thing that all I caught was a head cold versus something more serious. Colds are miserable, but they have a regular progression and I’m almost done with this one. We stayed within our food budget, although it was tight this month, even after cutting back – we had run out of a lot of things. We put $19.29 in the change/$1 bill jar.
• Grateful for: I am very thankful that as of tomorrow I am officially on Medicare! Between it and our military health insurance we should see no or very small co-pays from here on out, which is a very good thing, especially since a whole bunch of medical billing finally showed up this past week (like from last year’s physical therapy) – ugh. Brett has been on Medicare for two years now and it’s worked very well – I don’t think we’ve had to pay anything out-of-pocket for him since he enrolled. We really don’t get sick very often, or use our insurance much, but I feel very blessed to have the insurance we do.
• Bonus question: What is something that you currently want that you really don’t need? For me, that would be an iPad. Between my MacBook Air, iPhone and Kindle, I have everything I need right now, technology-wise, but I’ve been thinking a tablet would be nice. I’m honestly not sure though why I need an iPad at this stage of my life (although I can think of several instances in the past where it would have been great to have one). I’m not a gamer, I don’t watch TV shows or movies other than on TV, etc. But, I still would like one. I’d love to hear from those of you who have an iPad or tablet about how you use it and what it does better than other technology you own.

That’s a wrap for this week from Casa Aloha! How was your week? What did you accomplish? What good things happened for you?