ON PINS AND NEEDLES

Today John's cold is better, and my arm is worse.  I literally can't stand it.  It's almost back to the day after my fall.  So I called an acupuncturist.  In a town with at least 100,000 Chinese, I found a Haole acupuncturist who was trained in California.  She was well recommended on Yelp, though, and I figured it couldn't possibly do any harm. 

So I made an appointment. It took two buses to get up there, though I think this place was probably about 2 miles from here as the crow flies -- unfortunately there were no crows willing to drag my heavy butt up there. 

We got there a bit too early, so we took a little walk and found a Goodwill store, where we bought some appropriate glassware for evenings on the terrace.  Then back to the acupuncture place. 

She took a history, then had me lie on the tableand put tiger balm on my arm.  That stuff heated it up, and also cleared out my sinuses.  After that had worked for awhile,  she started inserting the needles.  And since she has a full schedule booked for the next week, she upped the ante by also using a tens unit on my shoulder.
 I had quite a few needles in my arm, two in my neck, almost under my hair, and a couple in the other arm, and both legs and feet.  After that, she left me alone to relax and listen to native american flute music.  It didn't seem very long, and I think the tens unit stopped working fairly fast, and when it was done, I didn't really feel much better.  As I write this, it's about five hours later, and I have much more range of movement and less pain. 

She then sent us down to the drugstore to buy more tiger balm for tonight and while we were there, we stopped at a Vietnamese restaurant and had bahn.  The place looked like someplace that was designed in the 60s but it looked pretty fresh and clean, not like it had been here since the 60s.  After that, we took the bus back to Kahala Mall, where we were going to catch the bus to Waikiki, but decided to go check out the mall first.  Not really a very interesting mall, but then, I don't think malls are all that interesting anyway.

 We went back to the bus stop and caught the 14 bus home, knowing that it didn't really come all the way to Waikiki, but it goes through a really interesting neighborhood, and lets us off on the far side of Kapiolani park.  This was a longer walk back to our hotel, maybe a mile, but I doubt it, but it had the fortuitous opportunity to sit on the beach on a kind of dark day with the sun slanting over the waves, and a guy playing the guitar softly.  Made the whole day worthwhile. 

We also discovered a new to us yogurt place, where the stuff we get at home for 39 cents an ounce is only 49 cents an ounce, which isn't all that bad for Hawaii.  Also managed to get three more game pieces from Seattle's Best.  It would be nice to get a free trip back here. 

And again, I remember why I don't want cable TV.  John just sat here and watched the entire Republican debate on CNN.  GAG!!!

The last picture here is just a gratuitous piece of street art.  

I'm hoping tomorrow we'll actually get to do some vacation stuff.  I'm tired of being either patient or nursemaid.  We've been here six days and only gone swimming once.  And haven't been to Hanauma Bay yet.