I practiced shakuhachi last night and although I felt like I'd just been "hacking" at it, on "Golden Chain" the night before, last night it was a lot easier and I was able to play through the whole thing. The first thing to get used to was that the first two lines are actually repeated over, then you go on to the next lines. That's how it's sung by the choir anyway.
Another thing I'm adjusting to is that I need to warm-up for a while before doing serious playing. This is OK, and assuming I can get there with time to spare, I think it's fun to play sitting on the bench in front of the temple to warm up, because I'm sure to the neighbors it sounds kind of cool.
It actually rained overnight, a sort of gentle sprinkle that made everything wet. By this time next week we're supposed to be in warm weather with highs of 85, so it might be time to change to "summer uniform" at least during the day when I'm out doing things.
It's being talked about on Reddit that a lot of people on their state's version of Medicaid might get kicked off. I got a letter about it, but was not sure what they were saying in the letter. Something about my case being evaluated or that I was OK for now or something. Yet another reason to take care of some needed vaccinations fairly soon. I don't mind so much if I have to pay for them as I can afford it but it's going to have an effect as a lot of people will not be able to.
An example of how this hurts society is how I got chicken pox in my early 30s. I was lucky enough to have "socialized" medical care at the time I got it, got Acylovir and wasn't working a job and had a nice landlady who made me chicken soup, but the whole thing could have been avoided with a vaccination. There may have been "herd immunity" which just means that enough people were immune that it couldn't spread, but that didn't keep the random person with no immunity, like myself, from getting sick as a dog.
Chicken pox vaccinations are a thing now, but growing up in Hawaii and being as old as I am, I'd somehow avoided getting one or just getting it from another kid when I was young enough for it to be a mild illness. My parents, being typical American parents, didn't care about vaccinations anyway and we only got the ones that were both mandatory and free through the public school system.
This is also why I want to do the 2-shot shingles series next, then I want to get immunized for Hepatitis B and possibly A also. For all my saving and planning, I may have a rough time of it in Hawaii at first and may even have to get a storage unit to keep my stuff in and sleep "around". That's sure to expose me to some things.
I remember back in the old days in Hawaii they had thing philosophy called "preventive health care" it meant, it was really easy to get tested for things that could lead to a lot of trouble in the future. Things like A1C tests to see if you're diabetic or pre-diabetic. All sorts of other tests too like do you have TB? They had screenings for that. On the mainland here it seems like that's just not done. So a guy I know only found out he had diabetes when "I woke up one morning and couldn't see".
Access to health care is considered good in Hawaii and if nothing else, not having to travel scores of miles to access health care has got to be a big factor. Being able to take a short bus ride or just walk to what you need makes a huge difference. When I'm back I plan to make use of all the preventive tests I can.
Because I can't really do that here on the mainland, besides it being for the purpose of losing some weight, I have to assume I am at least pre-diabetic and eat accordingly. I went a bit wild there for a while on ramen noodles and those cheap day-old croissants from Lee's. But no more, I'm back to keeping sugar and carbs to a minimum.
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