Alanah is coming to Hawaii for the weekend. I will need to pick her up at the airport in Kona around 3:30 PM this afternoon.
So, I cleaned out the car.
I even took my little hand broom and swept the sand and dirt out of the back and raised the back seats into the sitting position.
Then I took all the bedding off the bed and changed the sheets and pilowcases.
Around noon, I took four 2-litre bottles from my solar water heater, along with a kettle of boiling water to my bucket shower and I took a hot shower and washed my hair!
Then I left for Kona. I arrived at about 2:30 PM and went to the lumber store for some bags of cement. Then off to the big box store for groceries. It started raining as I was leaving the store, and I got a text from Alanah saying that she had landed.
Off to the airport.
From the airport, we went to a different lumber store for rebar. The last time I was in Kona, cement was less expensive at the first store, than this one. This time, it is just the opposite. “So it goes!”
Overcast and a fine misting rain along with a steady wind.
This trip has been that way so far!
For a week, I have had almost steady rain, and when the rain dies out, the wind picks up. I have had a steady wind for the past week. Not strong enough to knock you down, not even strong enough to move anything, just an annoying steady wind. Today, I get both.
Yesterday, I had a short break in the morning where it looked like the weather was changing to sunny, so I did my laundry. Now that my clothes are hanging out on the clothesline to dry, it is raining! As my grand daughter would say, “So it goes!”
The wind has made it difficult to keep the burners lit on the stove in the kitchen gazebo. I have taken a large tarp and tied it up across the end of the gazebo where the wind and rain most often comes from.
The neighbors at Ahi have some large cardboard boxes folded and laid flat at the entrance to their large tent.
The other day, the wind blew them over to my lot. I gathered them up and returned them, putting a large rock on them to keep them in place.
This morning, I find that the wind has blown them over again. So, I stacked them all at the bottom of my driveway and stacked cut grass. and small branches on them. then I ran over it all with my car to pack it down.
In the afternoon, I installed the last two beams for the Ahi gazebo. I do not have enough 4 x 4 posts, so I nailed two 2 x 4’s together to serve as a temporary post.
I used the last of the propane last night fixing dinner and had none this morning for breakfast.
I was also down to one pair of clean socks, so I decided to do laundry this morning first.
As I was washing some shirts, something caught my eye up in the branches just above my head. I glanced up and right behind me, less than two feet away was Bert! Ernie was on another branch off to the side. My red headed cardinals! They were both intently looking at me as if to say, “Hey! Did you forget something?!”
After feeding the birds, I went in to town and got my propane tank filled.
Then I unbolted the 4 x 4 metal brackets from the tops of the columns. I washed them with muriatic acid to clean the concrete residue off them. When they dried, I spray painted them. This is the best chance to paint them one last time before I bolted them in place.
I measured the heights of my four corner columns in relation to each other and figured the heights to cut the 4 x 4 posts so that I would have some slope on the roof. . . not a lot, just a little to assist it to drain. Once the four corner posts were in place, I lifted the beams up and set them in place, I ran a string from one beam to the other, directly over the center columns and measured for the height of the center 4 x 4 posts.
I have removed the forms from the last two column caps, installed the 4 x 4 post bases, and acid washed all 6 columns to remove the excess mortar and stains.
I also hauled some pallets from the Holowai lot and painted the 4 x 4 posts and 4 x 10 beams.
This last week has been much the same as last Monday – each day, my aches and pains have gotten lesser and I have become more agile. I still cannot bend at the hips. In order to pick something up from the ground, I have had to do it kind of stiff legged.
Even with my discomfort, I have been able to install a form at the top of the columns and pour a 3″ thick concrete cap on each one.
I have put in anchor bolts as I poured the caps so that I can bolt the 4 x 4 post bases in place that I made in Arizona.
Well, I certainly am sore this morning, but I am still mobile. I slept a bit last night – probably due to the combination of advil and acetaminophin
It was difficult sliding over to the edge of the bed to take off my sweat pants (the only thing close to me last night that was dry), and to put on some pants. Lowering my legs to the floor is extremely painful, but I was able to do it. Raising my right leg high enough to put on my pants is impossible. I lay back on the bed and bring my leg up, bent at the knee and hip. Then I roll/scoot to the edge of the bed sliding my legs into my pants and straightening my legs as I slide my feet to the floor. Shoes and socks are not even an option – slip-on flip flops are the mode for the day!
Once again, going down the 5 steps to get off the porch is a challenge. I am regretting trimming away all the branches from around the steps on my last trip to Hawaii. By repeating my process of reaching out and down with my left leg to the step below and hoping that when I put weight on it, that it will not clooapse, I bend the right leg at the knee and shift my weight to the left. It works. Rinse and repeat!
I shuffle over to the garden steps and carefully, I climb these. . . one at a time. This time, I do not feel like passing out on the way up and I make it to the gazebo.
Once again, I found it precarious to sit down. In order to do so, I stood in front of the chair, reaching back to the armrest on each side. Shifting most of my weight to my arms by leaning back, I lowered myself into the chair. Once I was in this position, most of the pain in my leg was gone – unless I moved my leg.
I would have stayed here longer if not for Bert and Ernie. Seeing me in the gazebo, they came flying in and landed on the pile of logs on the edge of the lanai. They looked around and seeing no cracker crumbs, they looked at me in an acusatory manor and flew off up into the branches of the trees. A few minutes later, they returned. More dirty looks.
“C’mon, dude! Where’s our breakfast?”
Then they flew back into the branches to wait.
Using the arm rests, I can lift myself up out of the chair. I got a cracker and crumbled it up in my hand before dropping the crumbs in a pile on the concrete. Then I retreat to my chair and carefully lower myself to sit in the chair. Bert and Ernie fly down almost immediatly and start pecking at the pile of crumbs.
There seems to be some kind of disagrement between the two of them as to just who gets to eat first, so I decide that in the future, I will make two piles. Watching the antics of these two little birds takes my mind off my aches and pains for a little while.
Eventually, I had to get up and go do some work. Once I was up on my feet I was able to shuffle off to the car. Using the steering wheel much like I used the arms of the chair, I was able to, lower myself to the driver’s seat. Driving was no problem, and by a reverse process of how I got in, I was able to get out once I arrived at Ahi.
I found that the more I moved around, the more limber I became and I mixed up a small batch of concrete in my wheelbarrow. By moving slowly I was able to finish grouting another column.
Overcast but with spots where the sun peeks through. Rain for a few minutes, then it stops, the sun comes out, then it rains, then it stops, then rains again, then the clouds cover the sun, – all this on a rotating basis throughout the morning.
I took the rebar I purchased yesterday over to the Ahi lot. I cut it into lengths for the remaining columns. I did this in the morning, in the rain.
I picked up two old used tires from the pile of junk vehicles on Ahi road at the “dead end”. I rolled them around and tipped them left and right, and sideways trying to get the stagnant water out of them. When I picked them up to put them on the luggage rack on top of the Ford Escape, I was covered in slime and gunk. As my grand daughter would say, “So it goes!” I used a few other choice words.
I put these tires in the clearing for the septic leach field at the Holowai lot and filled them with mulch, leaves, dirt, red cinders (whatever I could gather up). Then I planted some cantaloupe seeds, carrots, squash into them. Time will tell. I also planted some papaya seeds and some bell pepper seeds into a couple of one gallon pots.
It quit raining in the afternoon (or so I thought) So I went to the Ahi lot and continued grouting the columns. I finished one ans it was barely misting, on and off, so I started on another one. I was almost finished when it started raining quite a bit. so, i finished withn the concrete I had in the wheel barrow and headed up to the car. I grabbed two more tires to use as garden planters and saw an old gutter laying in the branches next to the old cars. I loaded it on top of the car – it is about 16 feet long, and it is all bent up, but I think I can straighten it enough for a temporary fix above the entery door to the shed.
Back at the Holowai lot, I took the gutter off the car and using a concrete block stacked on the deck outside the shed door, I was able to tack the gutter in place with some small nails. It sags a bit in the middle but maybe it will spill out of either end before it overflows. I took the tires off the car and rolled them down next to the other two. It started to sprinkle. Then I went back to the shed and set up the ladder on the porch under the gutter to try to raise the center so it would drain out the ends. Using the cordless drill, I was able to secure both ends with screws. As I was trying to raise the center lf the gutter and screw in a screw to hold it in place, the leg of the ladder slipped off the edge of the porch. The ladder went flying off the porch sideways and I came down onto the porch with a thud! I landed on my hip, banging and scraping my knee in the process.
My hip is really, really sore! It is difficult to move, or raise my right leg, and it hurts. It hurts when I am still, it hurts when I move, it hurts even when I just think! I crawled into the shed and tried to pull myself up onto the bed. That hurt even more! Maybe if I could sit up in a chair instead of laying down in a bed! I rolled over to my side and found my bottle of advil.
Carefully I slithered off the bed and somehow get myself standing in the doorway. Taking little tiny shuffling steps, I was able to get to the top of the block steps going down from the porch. There is no handrail. There are no trees nearby to hang on to. I cannot bend my leg at the knee, or at the hip. There is no way I am going to be able to step down 8″, and if I could, then my leg will simply crumble when I put my weight on it to step to the next one. I have been having stinging pains in my left hip every once in a while, and now my right hip is throbbing! I was worried that either leg would simply collapse if I put all my weight on only one of them, but I had no other choice.
After standing for what seemed to be an eternity (probably only thirty seconds), I was able to shift my weight to my right leg and swing my left one down to the first step. Bending my right knee was a risk of total collapse, but that was my only option! Success! Bending my right knee shifted my weight to my left leg which was on the next step down. It held. Rinse and repeat! Somehow, I was able to slowly maneuver down these stairs to the ground. Once on the ground, I shuffled up the path to the concrete garden steps. These are only 5 1/2″ tall, so I was able to use my left leg to support me on each step going up as I brought my right one up to the same step the left leg was on. One step at a time. Ten times! I felt like I was going to pass out at any moment. Near the top of the steps, is a large branch about 5 1/2 feet off the ground. I almost need to duck to go under it when using the stairs. I have resisted cutting this branch because I think it gives “character” to the pathway and stairs. When I got to it, I grabbed on to it and hung on instead of feinting and collapsing on to the ground in a heap!
After resting while leaning against the branch, my head cleared and I no longer felt like fein ting. I made my way carefully and slowly in much the same way as I had gotten to where I was, up to the gazebo. My chairs have arms. I was able to stand in front of the chair, place my hands on the arms of the chair behind me and slowly lower myself to the seat while stretching my leg out to the front and side.
Sitting like this was a great relief.
Most of the pain was gone.
I sat there for almost an hour, not moving.
It was almost dusk when I got up from the chair using the arms of the chair to support myself and get up. All the while, I was in soaking wet clothes from the rain. Sitting there under the gazebo, my clothes had not gotten any wetter, but they had not gotten dry either. I heated a bowl of chicken soup
It took me almost an hour to make my way back to the shed, partially in the dark, but using the light from the solar lights on the pathway. Clinging to the door frame, I was able to get out of my wet clothes and find something dry. Then I took four acetaminophin and lay down on the bed. Sitting up in the chair, the advil, or simply time had made it tolerable to lay in bed. Maybe it was the chicken soup. We will see if I can even move in the morning!
In the morning, there was a thick fog that I could not see further than 100 feet away. By 10 am the morning for has cleared (as if Richard Harris has made a royal decree). Light drizzle all day long.
Went to OceanView to the UCart Concrete place and picked up 3 pieces of #4 rebar (1/2″) 20 feet long – cost $58.00 – OUCH!
My friends, Bert and Ernie, two red headed cardinals about the size of a sparrow, have me well trained. They see me sit down in the gazebo and then they fly in from who knows where, and sit on the flower pot or the logs I plan to use as the uprights in my railing around the lanai.
They look down at the concrete, then look up at me as if to say, “Well, where is our food?” So, I get up out of my chair and get them a cracker – not just any cracker, but a butter cracker like a Club Cracker. I crumble it up into crumbs and dump them on the concrete. Meanwhile, Bert and Ernie have retreated to the branches of the tree above to wait. After I return to my chair, they fly down to the logs or to the flower pot.
They look at each other, . . . then they look sideways, looking all around, then at me, then back up into the trees, then they look at each other as if to say,”Well, is it clear?”
“I don’t know. What do you think?”
“Well, I think it is alright.”
“OK then, go ahead.”
“No, you go first.”
“Not me! You go first!”
“Do you really think it is safe?”
“Yeah! So far, so good.”
“OK then. Here I go”
Then they fly down, jump down, hop down, the last foot from on top of the logs to the concrete by the crumbs. All the time, glancing at me, and back into the trees, and all around, checking that it is safe. One at a time, they arrive at the pile of crumbs.
They peck at the pile, picking up small crumbs, chewing them, them pecking again to get more. If they grab a larger piece, they will fly off to a branch above and place the crumb on the branch. Then they will peck at it, pick it up and bang it on the branch to break it up. If one flys off, the other quickly follows.
I have noticed that they are on the lookout for the full sized red cardinal. He is a bully and tries to take the crumbs away from them after they have picked them up and flown up to a nearby branch. He doesn’t come down and get his own, but tries to steal it from them. Because he is a red Cardinal, I call him Larry Fitzgerald!
They are quite comical to watch, as they come in between rain showers.
Filled another column at Ahi with concrete. That makes three done, three more to go. Built forms on the top of one column for a concrete cap to be 23″ square by 2 3/4″ thick. I cut a piece of the wire fencing I had bought and used for my screen as reinforcing inside this cap. Also added 3/8″ rebar crisscrossing from corner to corner.
TropicalCastaway 