Forgive me for this what I’m sure will be a downer post, but I feel the need to put out some of my feelings, as much to help myself as anything. With the turn of New Year is supposed to be hope for a brighter future and all that. The turning of this New Year was with me quietly festive and nothing out of the ordinary. Small group of friends, fireworks to chase out the bad, some drinking. Morning was yummy traditional Japanese as prepared by my mother. All was well until today. My mother, who was still quite active and in good health, suffered from a sudden hemmoragic stroke. No prior signs. Just as she was talking on phone it hit her. The outlook is not positive. My dad is taking it pretty hard. This was very sudden and unexpected, she’s only 66. She’s currently in the ICU and is getting good care. I have nothing but good to say for all the staff of Queen’s and the EMS technitians. Honestly, I hold these healthcare professionals in the highest regard. I can’t say the same for the fool on Kalanianaole Hwy. ambling along in the middle lane yacking on his cell phone. Didn’t he wonder why there were no cars around him all of a sudden as the ambulance passed?
I know there’s the whole life & death thing, the end of your life is inevitable. But when you come face to face with it with your immediate family, it’s still harsh. I’m feeling it’s too early here! She’s stable in ICU right now, but after her second scan she was worse than first came in. The prognosis for recovery is not good and there isn’t a whole lot they said they can do. Surgery was not advised and is likely to not make much of a difference. Basically we came to decision with the doctor that they will do things to keep her comfortable, but if things turn for the worse, they will not undertake extreme measure to prolong life. There’s a part of me that wants to scream, no, damnit, she can’t die! She still has much to enjoy, much to contribute. But the doctors compassionate, but realistic assessment of if they went through extreme measures to keep her alive, in all probability she would be severely disabled requiring nursing home care and would not be able to communicate, made me realize that she wouldn’t want that. I wouldn’t. I don’t think there are many people who would. In a somewhat ironic touch, my dad said he & mom were talking the other day that she said when she dies, she wants to go with a stroke. No prolonged illness battling cancer or anything like that.
Thanks to all my good buddies who were quick to lend a hand and ear (and texts, in this day and age of instant communication technology. I’ve discovered that texting also allows me to maintain composure and communicate better. I’m sure I’ll have more bouts of choking up, sorry bout that Chuck). I’m not a deeply religious person, although I do hold some feelings toward Shintoistic beliefs that there is spirituality around beyond what we can see. Perhaps it is only a human device used to seek solace in moments when there are things beyond your control, but it is a valid device none the less. So I will not deny any of your prayers to whatever belief you hold. I welcome it and am thankful for it. Perhaps the spirits will decide it is not her time and will give her and us the strength to pull through and recover. Otherwise, I hope they can grant her quiet and peace to go without suffering.
Anyway, it is getting late, I need to try and rest to see what the dawn of a another day will bring. Once again, thanks everyone for your thoughts and feelings.
Packed in my senbei I had for lunch. Oh my, that sounds very dangerous! I better go find some dessicant to pack this in!
Finally replaced my M Frame Rx’s. I’ve always had problems finding sport glasses to fit my face. Low nosebridge the most annoying problem so that glasses nosepieces were superflous and the bottom edge would sit on cheeks, and a gap over the top of frame I could look out over. At the time the M Frames were one of the few (or only) high coverage sport glasses with a single layer prescription lens. I learned to live with the nose bridge. The optics were stellar. But the prescription insert eventually would cause the outer polycarbonate lens to crack. I actually had one of the first generation models, and went through three iterations. Each successive one Oakley improved on the problem, but eventually those stress cracks would still appear. Continue reading ‘Oakley Flak Jacket, XLJ G30, Rx, Asian Fit’
Wow! This is the first time I’ve had a pear that made me go, wow! My mom received a box of “Royal Riveriera Pears” as a gift. Just had a quarter of one, eaten with a spoon, kind of like eating a wedge of melon with a spoon. Creamy texture, juicy, and wonderfully sweet. I’m used to grainy, bland, watery. This had to be the best pear I’ve ever had, simply amazing!
Right next to one of our work clients is a takoyaki shop. It’s located on corner of Kuhio and Nohonani St, Waikiki Marketplace. Finally got a chance to try it. Small shop set up with a bunch of tables and folding chairs to hang out in while munching on your tasty snack. You’ll commonly see takoyaki translated as octopus balls, although I think octopus dumplings is a more appetizing western description. Spheres of glutunous batter with chunk(s) of tako cooked on a special shaped grill. No, it’s NOT deep fried! It’ll have a lightly browned outside, inside soft and mouth burning lava hot. Best eaten while said lava hot, they definitely lose much appeal if allowed to cool and deflate. All takoyaki places I’ve been feature the grill in open view so you can watch the cook deftly spin the takoyaki into spheres, and Takoyaki Samurai is no exception. I believe it’s part of the experience, it wouldn’t quite be takoyaki if you don’t get to watch them being made. Continue reading ‘Takoyaki Samurai’
Well now, it’s 14:05 and I’m still at home. Yes, my flight was orignally slated to depart at 14:20. Calling Alaska Air and checking on line, the time repeatedly has been delayed. Now scheduled as 18:40. Upside is the soggy weather has lifted and the marathon street closures should be almost clear by then. I’ll also have a better timed chance to grab dinner. Downside is I’ll arrive after 02:00 in Seattle, so my plan to catch the bus is out and will end up forking out for taxi. The whole purpose of this trip was for me to go and stand by while the restaurant went through its first days, but it’s a little moot now as they threw a monkey wrench into things by opening early on Friday. My boss was frantically working on programming their menu to the last second. They gave him the bar menu that day. Anyway, I’m being sent up as planned. So by the time I get there, I’d expect a lot of the opening day problems will have already been fixed.
In any case, this should be intersting. Weather outlook for Seattle seems to be fairly mild precipitation wise, but cold, for the upcomming week. Sounds like they had a good weekend on the slopes, lots of freshies from the Friday night storm that tapered into Saturday, then sunshine on Sunday. Hope it’s not all tracked out by the time I get there!
Being sent up to Seattle for the opening of Genki Sushi this comming Mon and Tues. The thought of hitting some of the snow there popped up, but then I looked into it and the late winter was delaying all the resorts. Only one area, Mission Ridge, was open with manmade snow. So it was a wait and see deal. When I decided to stay a couple extra days anyway, it was kind of a pain dealing with the travel arrangements. Trying to change the flight was simply not worth it, would have cost something like $700. So ended up forking out for a new one way ticket, not cheap, but not $700! The Washington ski resorts breathed a sigh of relief when a storm system they were eyeing blew in Friday and hapily stayed on a good track and deposited enough snow for Crystal Moutain and Mount Baker to open this weekend, just in time for my trip! Now I’m going to have to frantically pack and tune the board today before my departure on Sunday. It’s going to be a bit of a haul getting to Baker, 3+ hours from Seattle, but it is the resort that first allowed snowboarding, and all their lifts are going to be running so hopefully it’ll be worth it. Stay tuned for reports on how it is!
For a while back, the Prius had been giving us sporadic error lights. Usually would go away and run fairly normally after a few restarts. Finally it stopped and was towed to Toyota. After being taken back twice, Toyota finally replaced the main battery pack. A sizeable cost if not under warranty. Since then it seems to have been running ok. Until last weekend when my mom picked me up from airport. I got in to drive it home, when cranking it gave the array of check engine and warning lamp. I tried power of and on cycles three times. Still had warning, and drove it home ok on surface streets. Next day it seemed normal. But my parents were worried of more problems cropping up, so there was talk of replacing it. I suggested they look at the 3 door Yaris. Continue reading ‘Bye Bye Hybrid’
Sorry, wanted to write a longer post on this past Sunday where Derek and I had a snowboard waxing session. I stopped at the India Market on Beretania St. and grabbed a jar of tamarind chutney and some papads straight from the enpowered Indian women. These commercial versions are paper thin, spicier, and saltier than our previous from scratch experiment. Oh, and they have a demented creepy bunny on the package, had to get it! And what does this have to do with waxing? They go hand in hand as we discovered cooking the papadums with a heat gun leads to more even results than trying to cook them over a propane burner.
Anyway, gotta leave for the airport! Will try to add more later!
I’m really getting mixed feelings about my iPhone. It’s a nifty device and has proven to be pretty useful in additional to the entertainment options. The 3G network seems to have improved some since my first post, but it still shows problems. So what’s my complaint now? I guess with the complexity and the loadability of software, it’s not as stable as an appliance. I had one instance a couple weeks ago of losing phone service entirely. Thought it was network problem, but doing the reset on phone fixed it. Now today I’ve lost phone service, and it seems wifi. Put a call in to tech support. Ran through the reset I already did, then a reset through the phone setting. Finally am doing a larger scale reset that is still running on my phone and will erase everything. Hopefully that will get the phone back running, we’ll see. So maybe it’s not such a great idea to have one device try to do so many ’smart’ things if you rely on your phone as a phone. To their credit, there was no wait to get a binder reading tech on the line, but is this a case of product getting a high satisfaction rating because even though the product gives problems, the customer support is good?
Ugh, so that reset seems to have zapped the phone and the only thing you can do with it is call 911. I have to restore it from my iTunes, which is on my machine at home. So I’m without a phone today. Needless to say, I’m quite annoyed. The monkeys are getting angry that they have no cake and the forehead veins are begining to swell.
Ooops, I’ve just been informed that AT&T in Hawaii just went down, so it seems it’s not a fault of the iPhone. I wish tech support was aware of that before we erased my phone. I suppose I should have checked AT&T. Veins have subsided, but the monkeys still want their cake!
