Breaking solar deal, Craft Swap signup

Posted on August 31, 2019 by Aunty

Aunty had bought these solar LED accent lights on sale at Costco a few months ago for $20. It came with 4 glass box lights that could be screw mounted to fences, walls, etc. and powered by the sun. Since Aunty LOVES solar powered anything, it was a gotta try thing, and instead of mounting it on a wall, one was put next to the house in an area that only gets some morning sun. Well, lo and behold, it was enough of a “charge” and it helped to light up that dark section of the pathway all night as soon as it got dark!

This was good stuff and sort of expensive so Aunty had to be manju and kept the other 3 in the box to figure out where to put them for maximum use. The body was of metal and glass so sticking it on rock walls or in the garden where it could rust or break from a fall was out, and possibly mounting it on certain walls were options that Aunty procrastinated upon. After all, $20 for the 4 meant that they were $5 each, and these were special!

Until …. yesterday, when Aunty did a Costco Hawaii Kai trek and saw the boxes and a clearance price of $4.97 each! $4.97???? OMG, Aunty grabbed several boxes and told everybody in the store that this was the best deal EVER. Fo real! So now, Aunty is telling you readers (especially you, Jalna) about this super duper deal while it lasts. *note: these solar lights are sold out.

Craft Supply Swap II

This next one is also for Jalna because she is such a craftaholic. Kaimuki Library is having their second Craft Supply Swap session on Sunday, October 20! Aunty signed up for their inaugural one in February and scored great supplies for free.

First thing, though, is to get put on the list by dropping into the library and signing up or calling the reference desk 733-8422 by October 11 (do it sooner). Then, drop off craft supply stuff that you DON’T want or use according to their rules – i.e. new and unused good stuff by the drop off deadline of October 14.

Then you show up on October 20 from 2-3:30 in the basement meeting room and you receive your “tickets” for the stuff you dropped off, and with your precious tickets, you go shopping! *note: you must be registered with the reference desk and in order to get tickets, you need to drop off supplies in good condition at least 6 days prior to the swap day. There weren’t too many sewing supplies but had lots of scrap booking papers and plenty doo hickies and doo dads.

The best part about this Swap session was de-accessing Aunty’s stuff not being used but yet was good stuff. The bonus was going home with more stuff with possibilities – that might end up back at Kaimuki Library, lol.

Another Epiphany

Posted on July 25, 2019 by Aunty

Epiphany definition: a moment when you suddenly feel you understand, or suddenly become conscious of, something that is very important to you.

(another definition is a powerful religious experience but that isn’t the one for Aunty’s epiphany today…. or maybe it is.)

Realizing that Aunty is in her final third phase of life, from Youth, to Working Adult, to Oldster is quite wonderful. Life in these golden years (with good health) equals freedom to choose to do the things I want to do and not do the things I don’t want to do. For example, Aunty does NOT want to babysit grandchildren on a regular basis and DOES want to pursue creating art and weeding. This is a not quite an epiphany but more of a philosophy.

Recently, several small and big changes and events have occurred and Aunty has sailed smoothly through them. Answers and inspiration seemed to show up randomly, or perhaps on purpose. Sometimes a chance conversation leads to a train of thought that helps solve a riddle. Sometimes making a wrong turn becomes the right destination. Sometimes flipping a book open on a page reveals a wisdom at the exact perfect moment of understanding.

This is exactly what happened this morning, as Aunty was clearing her ever cluttered desk of papers, bills, and books. “27 Flavors of Fulfillment, How to Live Life to the Fullest” is a book gifted from author Nathan Cain whom Aunty helped sponsor in his film “Cancer – The Integrative Perspective”. It was flipped and opened up on page 90. This section was written by Shelly Wilson with a paragraph titled, Tools to Discover the Truth of Who You Are. Skimming through, a statement jumped out at Aunty and became today’s epiphany:

I am a spiritual being having a human life experience.

Whoa. It was as if all the jumbled up building blocks suddenly clicked into place. Each of us is a spiritual being having a human life experience. Aunty read and re-read Shelly’s 5 pages and felt as if a great understanding of how life works was revealed.

Okay, so maybe Aunty is a bit off and people like my best and worst friend Cookie will roll her eyes because more evidence of Aunty’s weirdness has just show up. Regardless, Aunty just had to share her most recent epiphany which actually does feel like a powerful religious experience.

Amen and Namaste,

Aunty

Good bed = good sleep = better all around

Posted on May 4, 2019 by Aunty

Aunty and Mary

When Uncle and I first got married we had a cheap full size bed with springs that squeaked and sagged in the middle right away. Of course we were younger and didn’t know better or have money to spare. It costed less than $200, brand new.

As we got older, we become pickier, and one of the most important purchases we made was buying a good bed.

At Slumber World (702 S. Beretania St in Honolulu), beds are everywhere on the entire 2nd floor and the choices seem to be confusing. Not to worry, Mary Racca-Ventura to the rescue. Mary is the bed sales manager of all the stores. Petite, dynamic, and personable, Mary will listen, process what she hears, and then steer you to the best bed for YOU. This means lying down on many beds to test them out.

Back then, it was hard to choose because Uncle liked to lie on his back and have a firm mattress, and Aunty was a stomach sleeper and liked the soft beds. We settled for an in-between compromise of a TempurPedic king bed with a slightly firm mattress that was too hard for stomach sleeping but perfect for side sleeping and better for the back. A better option might have been separate twin mattresses – one firm, and one soft – put together with a bridge like joiner.

Those commercials are true

The bed felt like a cloud. Sleep came easily and bodies felt great in the morning. The bed was rather pricey but came with a 20 year warranty. 8 years is the average life span of regular spring mattress beds – though most people do tend to keep the same bed for ages longer. If your body, especially your shoulders, ache in the morning, it could be because your bed is too old and you need a good new one.

The nice staff at Slumber World

Honorable Warranties

The next ~~good~~ great bed Aunty bought was a smaller bed with a very soft mattress. Such a delight to face plant and sleep stomach down from time to time! Mary suggested a special mattress protector that zipped on and off and had dri-cool technology. This was quite expensive at $130 because Aunty was used to getting cheap ones on sale at Ross. However, Aunty splurged because of the convenience of zipping off the topper to wash, and then zipping it back on after. That was 5 years ago.

This past week, when changing out the sheets, Aunty noticed some flaking from the mattress protector after zipping off the cover. Hmmm. It was just the underlayer and didn’t affect the top at all but Aunty decided to call Slumber World to ask about it. After a few minutes of explaining the issue, the salesperson pulled up Aunty’s purchase history and said that the mattress protector had a 10 year warranty and that she would have a brand new dri-cool mattress protector to replace the old one. What a pleasant surprise!

Satisfaction all around

There is a saying that you get what you pay for. Slumber World is not a place for bargain shopping but it is the place to buy quality beds with great customer service and good warranties. As we get older, we need to spoil ourselves. One of the best ways to do that is having a bed that feels like a cloud.

Just writing this makes me want to go to sleep, and so I will. Make a wish, close your eyes, and good night!

Iron Grill – teppan yaki truck – Yum!

Posted on April 19, 2019 by Aunty

Daughter #1 came home one day with a takeout dinner from a food truck called Iron Grill Hawaii. It had slices of steak with gravy like garlic sauce on a huge bed of rice and a small green salad. It was delicious!!!

The hunt was on to have it again, though we couldn’t find the truck the first few tries. We got it figured out – from 6:00 – 9:00 pm, the truck is parked on Poni Street (by Don Quiote’s 2 story parking lot) and in front of the Pan Am building on Kaheka Street from 11:00 am – 1:00 pm (hours seem to vary).

The prices are great – $9.50 for steak, and a combo portion for $5 more. Aunty usually orders the double steak, cooked medium, with garlic sauce for $14.50 ($9.50 + $5.00). Oh, sooo ono! Medium rare might be better because it keeps cooking even after it comes off the grill. The grill is a teppan yaki grill – a mini version of the Benihana type cook top, so not only do we get great food, we have a show to watch, too!

Other choices include shrimp, calamari, chicken, salmon, veggie, tofu, or combos and add-ons for $1.50 more such as mushroom, tomato, eggplant, etc. Choices for rice are white or brown – and he piles on the rice.

Please keep in mind that he doesn’t use the best cuts of beef, so don’t order it well done unless you do like tough meat. Also, pay attention to how you order the sauce or no sauce option. After several trials, Aunty’s favorite is WITH original sauce, garlic flavor. Ordering salt & pepper & garlic is the NO sauce option and not as juicy, in Aunty’s opinion. Spicy garlic sauce might be Aunty’s next venture, mouth watering and lips puckering in anticipation!

Iron Grill Hawaii can be followed on Instagram, which Aunty doesn’t know how to do. Doesn’t matter though. Aunty will follow him by car and enjoy her teppan yaki steak in styrofoam.

Non Techno Aunty in a Techno World

Posted on April 5, 2019 by Aunty

This has been a very busy week because of yet another marriage. Two of Aunty’s kids got married in December (one big wedding and one very small). Wedding #3 was on Wednesday with dinners for family and a beach house party for friends on Saturday. Whew! Three kids down, and one daughter left to marry off – the one in this video, catching the bouquet:

A great consequence of all this busy-ness (besides gaining 2 great son-in-laws and a wonderful daughter-in-law) is having son Mikey at home to tackle his assigned to-do list of computer fixing. He whizzed through updating the company’s google listing search errors, transferred all the files and apps from Aunty’s old Mac laptop to the new one, and migrated emails and folders over (with some glitches that Spectrum and Apple Support helped figure out). Aunty suspects a conspiracy with internet companies and computer makers that upgrade, morph, and change programs so we are forced to buy a new computer or phone every few years, and it is a pain to keep up, much less understand the new spin on it all.

Do you understand what the iCloud is?

If you do, congrats. All Aunty understood was that it was storing stuff automatically, but where it was and how to access it was a mystery that didn’t need solving. Except for pictures.

Nephew David is a photography hobbyist with a good camera and an eye for great shots. He started sending Aunty bunches of photos with Google pictures. Lots of them. Waaaaah! How to store them when iCloud is full and the desktop is already so crowded and iPhoto had years of old stuff taking up space. “Mom,”, said techie son, “You need to store all your photos on Google photos because it has unlimited storage, for free.”

Oh, no, ANOTHER cloud thing?

Yep, but it had unlimited space and it was free, so….. Aunty said, “Okay, YOU do it, Mikey.” And he did, at photos.google.com. A prerequisite is a gmail account. He also used an application to “pull” the photos from iPhoto into Aunty’s Google photo account. This took a long time because each folder needed to be opened up and dragged into the Google photo page to be downloaded. Once done, it was very nifty to be able to “search your photos” with a subject description (i.e. art or dogs) and create albums from those searches. Really nifty, and that was just the beginning of Google brilliance. Sharing becomes really easy because it is connected to your gmail account. Pictures taken on smart phones also appear instantly on the computer, like magic.

Google also has another free cloud thing for documents called Google Docs – really awesome stuff where you can write, edit, save, etc. – but Aunty was already so full from computer migration and photo library moving, that it was techno overload and will be a lesson for another day.

Like Star Trek

Aunty feels like she has boarded the starship Enterprise, exploring strange, new worlds, to seek out new things and chuck the old. Except Aunty is old and not ready to be chucked. So it becomes a matter of learning new tricks, slowly, and one at a time. It used to be a universal truth that the older you get, the wiser you become. Maybe we still do get wiser, but those young people are smarter, learn faster and have nimbler thumbs.

Post note: Aunty has used Uber twice since coming back from California. Once to pick up her Mazda after servicing and another time to travel from Hawaii Potters Guild to Ala Wai Community Park. It was VERY convenient. The hardest thing about it is signing up for it at Uber.com (using this link will give Aunty some Uber credits!) Google and Uber. Two made up techie words that are changing our world for the better.

Aunty’s take on Airbnb and Uber

Posted on February 25, 2019 by Aunty

Aunty goes to City Council meetings to testify against Airbnb proliferation in Hawaii because of alienating neighbors who want stable places to live with those who want to profit from renting out their rooms to short term visitors. Aunty rarely takes a taxicab, much less Uber, which young people use a lot. This post is about new tricks for an old dog.

On Airbnb

On a recent 2 day trip to California to attend #1 son’s swift and unpredictable courthouse wedding, Aunty decided to find a hotel near his house, but son found a room a few minutes away on Airbnb for $89/night with private bathroom. The pictures looked nice and had high positive reviews, so Aunty opened an account with son’s referral link (guest must have their own account) with a very thorough application process, and booked for 3 nights. Aunty was ready to for her trip!

After taking forever to get off the skinny and long Hawaiian Airlines plane arriving in Oakland late at night, son and fiance met Aunty at curbside and we were off to a house owned by Doris, whom Aunty never met/knew/spoke to. Since Doris was on a trip and returning the next day, the house was empty and cold. Son figured out how to turn on the heater and then Aunty was on her own.

Such a surprise! The bathroom was drop dead wonderful with tiled walls and floor, fantastic soaps, and artistic touches and windows that brought joy to the space. Bathing in cold weather is BRRRR! but do-able with a lot of hot water.

The next morning, Aunty explored the garden, parlor and kitchen, discovering great art with more artsy decor pieces and arrangements. The house was so charming and wonderful, as was Doris when we met her later that evening. We didn’t see each other more than a couple of times after that because she was off to her business and Aunty was mostly with son and new wife and family at dinners, shopping, and such.

Staying at Doris’ place was a great new experience that opened up Aunty’s eyes to the positive aspects of Airbnb from a guest’s standpoint of price, convenience, and location. It fit Aunty’s bill perfectly because there were NO suitable hotels near my son, and the house was comfortable, quiet, and safe.

After this very positive experience, Aunty has a slightly different opinion about Airbnbs. Because of its vetting process for both sides – guests and owners, quality and safety are ensured. However, Aunty still feels that having strangers (even if they are good strangers) in our local residential neighborhoods can be disruptive. Allowing a few to lend out their rooms or houses might open up the doors to more rooms and houses on the short term rental market – and then there goes the neighborhood for the sake of profit in the homeowner’s pocket. Not in Kaimuki, please.

On Uber

Aunty’s return flight to Honolulu was leaving at 9:00 in the morning. Aunty does not like early morning flights because the whole day is shot and getting to the airport 2 hours ahead of time is unpleasantly too early and inconveniences family or friends for rides. Even though #1 (and only) son insisted he didn’t mind driving the 20 miles and back that early in the morning, Aunty was adamant and insisted on trying out Uber.

This took a bit of time to set up and download on Aunty’s iPhone, with more vetting, a selfie picture, and input of credit card info. We tested it out the night before from son’s house to Doris’ house. What a BAM! awakening! It was like a movie picture segment of inputting a destination on a map (it already knows where you are), choosing your type of ride (regular, luxury, shared, etc.) and then confirming. The smart phone screen will show the progress of your ride along with name of driver (Jamell), type of car (Nissan Rogue), and arrival time – which in Aunty’s case was 1 minute. One minute! Sure enough, a grey Nissan Rogue pulled a U turn in front of son’s house, and there was Jamell – who looked like a younger heavier version of Will Smith. Eight blocks later, we rolled to Doris’ house. Aunty thanked Jamell, and he drove off into the evening. NO cash/credit card/or tip was exchanged. SO easy!

The next morning, Aunty opened the Uber app and requested a ride to Oakland Airport ($28.41) in a Subaru Legacy driven by Hakan, a bakery shop owner from Turkey. He helped Aunty with her 2 heavy suitcases (Trader Joes, IKEA, 4th Street in Berkeley) and we were off and arrived safely and in good time for Aunty’s flight home.

Once home, Aunty got to rate each driver (high marks) and give them a tip. SO easy! This is going to definitely put taxi companies out of business because there is hardly any wait time, no phone call, and total transparency on who the driver is and how much it will cost. Uber may be going public soon and that will be a stock that Aunty would want in her portfolio.

Eyes opened

It was a very very good trip with happy events and learnings. Aunty never thought she would stay at an Airbnb and/or use Uber but this proves the adage, “Never say never!” Who knows what is next? Sky diving, bungee jumping? Er, ah, eh. Absolutely NEVER.

Angels All Around You

Posted on October 7, 2017 by Aunty

Do you believe in angels?

Aunty kind of did. Some friends knew they were real, even saw them and heard from them. But Aunty wasn’t sure – until meeting Estelle Small at a recent “Angels, Intuition, and Making Sense of it All” talk, and then a subsequent private consultation ($95) to learn the particulars of the team (!) of Aunty’s own angels that help fulfill Aunty’s purpose in life.

Some people have 1 or 2 angels, some have lots and lots of angels. Aunty has 7 of them – 4 female and 3 male.

7 helpers

How do we know that they are real and good? It is up to you to decide, and then once you do, you are able to clear and cleanse your spirit and then ask them questions.

Aunty being Aunty, the first thing to pop into her head was being able to win in Vegas. Ha! Is that against the rules? Or are there rules? Not sure. Maybe Aunty will try when she next goes there.

Cleanse thyself first

At the consultation, Aunty was taught how to do spiritual cleansing. It took several tries because it involves moving hands across, and down, and shaking, and then across, up, back and down, around, down, and shaking, beginning at our 7th chakra that is located just above our eyebrows. All the while breathing in and then exhaling, and repeating a sort of prayer, “In the name of God (or Universe, Love, Spirit, etc.), I cleanse my body and soul.”

Repeat until we get a warm glow or chills. Aunty got goosebumps.

This sets the stage for our angels to communicate with us. Or be closer to us.

Guardian angels

It isn’t quite like Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan in “City of Angels” (btw, Aunty LOVES that movie), but how wonderful to know that we have our own special angels to help us along our path of life. Even better, to be able to ask and get connected to their wisdoms to situations that we may not be sure about.

Since Aunty is a novice at this, and a bit of a scaredy cat, she will be sticking to simple questions, like, “Is it a good idea to blog about this angel thing?” (answer was Yes) or “Would it be a good idea to go out right now and weed?” (answer was NO).

Later, Aunty will ask about Uncle, but for now, will keep it light.

Light

One practice after cleansing involved imagining a ball of white light in front of us, around us, growing bigger and bigger, enough to fill the room, building, neighborhood, island, world, space. The circle of light was love. This part reminded me of Master Sha’s training. A rather Taoist practice of sending love out to the far reaches of the universe, for our souls are part of the universe.

Who are we, What is our purpose?

Aunty can list her goals and plans for the future but she doesn’t have the answers to those 2 questions – yet.

Goals are easy enough to figure out since they are usually materialistic and measurable. Aunty has a little bulletin board filled with them.

However, if Aunty were asked, by a booming voice, “WHO ARE YOU?” Aunty would stutter and mumble something rather vague and contrite, like “ummm. I sorta blog as Honolulu Aunty and I went to Kaimuki High School.”

If the same voice asked “WHAT IS YOUR PURPOSE IN LIFE?” Aunty would have to say, “I don’t know.”

Perhaps, now, with Aunty’s helper angels, Aunty will figure out those very important answers. At the very least, it is quite wonderful to now be able to “hear” them and have some guidance from wiser souls than ourselves.

Your turn

Estelle Small and Patrick Kilhenny will be having another introductory session ($15 at the door) at Manoa Library this coming Tuesday (October 10, 2017) at 7:00 pm. Aunty will be there to absorb more of this positive energy and possibly sign up for their 5-part series ($225).

More info about registering for consultations or workshops can be found at www.AngelsAndLifePurpose.com or at the Tuesday meeting. See you there? Aunty and her 7 angels will be.

(Actually, there are several more intro meetings, 2 on October 23rd at 1:00 pm and 7:00 pm at the Oahu Veterans Association on 1298 Kukila Street, and 2 on October 24th at 1 pm and 7:00 pm at the Manoa Innovation Center, 2800 Woodlawn Drive.)

A more in-depth 3 1/2 hour training will be available to those of us who want more tools to connect with our angels on Saturday, October 28, from 1:00 pm to 4:30 pm at Manoa Innovation Center. Cost is $55. More info on it can be found at http://www.spiritualgrowthkeys.com/event/technique-workshop/ and pre-registration is required because we will be receiving workbooks with the workshop. Individual consultations (like the one Aunty received and learned about her specific angel team) can be ordered at the same time as registering for this event for a discounted price of $90.

Aunty’s Googling day

Posted on September 11, 2017 by Aunty

bar Firstly, Aunty wants to share her current favorite granola bar – 18 Rabbits. This bar has been in Aunty’s purse for ages – carrying it around in case of hunger attacks while away from home, but never trying it – yet. During the very (very) long car ride to Google’s Mountain View corporate offices, Aunty needed something to eat and opened this stored bar without any expectations. It is rather flat (thus being easy to keep in purses), and “sounded” healthy, which meant that it might be not so delicious.

It is gluten free, certified organic, no refined sugars, and made with coconut, pecans, pumpkin & sesame seeds, cranberries, and whole grain oats. This particular bar was the Cherry, Dark Chocolate & Almond.

Normally, Aunty doesn’t like granola bars with chocolate because the chocolate isn’t very good and makes it more of a sweet snack, but this one was el perfecto. The dark chocolate was sparse and fine, the texture was chewy but didn’t stick to teeth, pleasant to the taste buds, and it made Aunty’s tummy happy, like a welcome guest and not like a bomb of grainy oatmeal. The entire bar was made with finely chopped ingredients all smashed together for easy eating . LOVE!

Aunty is now going to actively search out and buy another one for her purse.

Googling

#1 son (only son), the crown prince of the family, works at Google. He was always a computer nerd even though we didn’t have a computer at home until 1990. In this day and age, young people have a great edge over us old people – computers and such have made them smarter than us. Our advantage is that we are wiser.

google day Google recently sponsored a “Take Your Parents to Work Day”. It was like a huge college campus with a variety of free restaurant quality food in every building and in excellent food trucks. Free quality snacks and drinks in convenient locations. Recycle bins, personal gardening plots, ample parking, easy secured building entry and shuttle buses to the shop, demos and expos.

At the end of the day, we all gathered in a stadium that had a Harry Potterish canopy to hear about Google’s current and next phasing from co-founder Sergei Brin and CEO Sundar Pichal. They were very unassuming and nice! Loon is a Google project that brings balloon powered internet to remote areas. Nest is like having a personal butler. Medical tools for eye disease diagnosis to prevent blindness. Couldn’t remember all the other stuff they talked about but Aunty walked away with a good feeling about this company. It is a company that seems to want to help others and give us a more convenient life with self driving cars and free apps.

It ended with a queue of parents asking questions or making comments. Aunty refrained from joining that queue to avoid embarrassing #1 son. If Aunty had gone up there, she would have suggested gifting each parent with one share of Google stock (that would have gotten a standing ovation), making a “find my car” app so she doesn’t forget where she last parked, and having them hire Aunty to be part of their think tank with her non-techie point of view of what would make life easier and better for “maturing” people.

It was a full and wonderful day, under a cool cloudy sky. Aunty’s absolute favorite part of it was in the bathrooms. Every stall in every Google building had heated toilet seats and electronic bidets. Wow! Aunty was too chicken to try it out in case water squirted all over the place, so next time Aunty will bring a change of clothes and sit in the lap of luxury and enjoy.

And da winnah for Aunty’s SUV is……

Posted on January 22, 2017 by Aunty

This is the first time that Aunty took so much time and effort in finding her perfect next vehicle. Usually, it is a one stop deal for a car that catches Aunty’s fancy, and then surprising Uncle and kids with it in the driveway.

This time Aunty wanted a compact SUV that had a power lift gate, looked good, smelled good, drove well, and was quiet. Also, it had to have a lane change assist feature that would audibly beep if a car was in the blind spot in the right lane. Keyless entry and start, as well as a good backup camera were also on the list. And, the price had to be affordable (see Aunty’s older post on making money work for you).

New blog pal Gigi of gigihawaii.wordpress.com asked why an SUV rather than a compact or sub-compact car. Aunty’s latest few cars were all SUVs, and driving a little higher than other vehicles on the road was something that Aunty was used to.

Each and every compact SUV that Aunty visited or tried out had excellent points, but none of them had everything that Aunty wanted. It came down to three final choices. The awesome foot waving power lift gating Ford Escape, the head turning super cute technology laden Honda HRV, and the super quiet Mazda CX-5 underdog with bells and whistles.

Aunty went back to see cute Leo Kim at Cutter Mazda for her third (!) visit. Earlier, Mazda super salesman Wayne Hurst had given Aunty an earful about CVT transmissions (Honda), had a few choice words about Fords, and then had Aunty check out how easy and smooth the tail gate on the Mazda was. It was indeed very smooth, almost luxuriously smooth, and much easier than her current Subaru Crosstrek.

Leo ran circles around the lot and put Aunty in the drivers seat in 5 different CXs before Aunty finally decided – BAM! – she wanted the red 2016.5 Mazda Touring CX-5 with a cream cloth interior even if it did not have a power lift gate. Aunty would be leasing for 3 years.

It didn’t have a power lift gate, so wasn’t perfect, but maybe in 3 years (when the lease ends) there will be the absolute perfect car for Aunty. Actually, the Mazda CX-3 would have been the one if Aunty were 40 years younger because it had the most luxurious smell good, feel good, look good interior with a very sporty feel and drive. It is lower in price and size from the the CX-5 but has all the bells and whistles and is a real head turner. The only drawback was the very small cargo space with the seats up.

Aunty met up with managers Matt Wong, Chico Ramos, and finance manager Jess Hong to close the deal. It was quite surprising how easy it was to negotiate with the Mazda team – after the first sticker shock price sheet came in, to reaching a number that Aunty felt very comfortable with, and signing page after page with Jess in his warm (the rest of the building was freezing cold) office. Meanwhile, cute salesman Leo is practically jumping up and down with happiness for Aunty’s new toy.

Aunty drove off (actually it was just around the block) to take possession of her good smelling, good looking, quiet, powerful, keyless entry and start safe car with audible lane change assist and fantastic back up camera. An added bonus was an audible cross traffic alert that could sense cars coming while reversing out of driveways and parking spots. And, it was a gorgeous shade of screaming red that makes Aunty flaunt and want to laugh out loud, “Moooohahahahaha!”

Aunty can’t wait to drive it around town, back it out of driveways with confidence, and glide in peace and comfort. If you do see Aunty flashing around town in her bright red Mazda CX-5, give a shaka and a wave.

The quest is over, Aunty is happy, Moooohahahahaha!

Aunty’s update after 6 months:

Ho boy. Aunty is not as happy with this vehicle because of a few things. First off is the rather inconvenient center console “button” that controls the dashboard screen and functions. The junkest part of it is that it takes several steps to put a playing CD in “pause”, and when the car is started up again, the default is to play automatically. This causes problems when Aunty has passengers and has a gory part of a Stephen King CD going on.

Next is that it isn’t a very quiet car on the road. Maybe that is Aunty’s fault for expecting quiet in a non luxury car. Actually, it is Aunty’s fault.

No power lift gate. Old ladies deserve power lift gates. And you know what happened? The next year (2017), power lift gates became available on the higher end options. NObody told that to Aunty – who WOULD have waited a few short months because that is a very desirable feature so Aunty doesn’t have to do gymnastics while balancing a heavy box or bag and opening the back gate.

Aunty’s bad. Sigh. To break a lease could be quite expensive but Aunty is seriously thinking about it. A friend just showed off her BMW X-1, her lease is less than the Mazda’s, maintenance is FREE, and it has a great foot opening power lift gate with a gorgeous interior. Aunty used to be adamant about not getting a BMW so that prevented her from checking the X-1 out. Ah well, life is full of lessons and surprises. Having a quest of finding a just right car will be an ongoing adventure for Aunty.

Compact SUV reviews- part 2

Posted on January 13, 2017 by Aunty

2016 Mazda CX-5 (2017 not available yet)

Mazda of Honolulu is located on Ala Moana Boulevard where the go carts used to be for a short time. A friendly young man waved as Aunty drove in to test drive a CX-5. This was the instantly likeable Leo Kim, who was more than happy to let Aunty check out their vehicles and ask a lot of questions. The first question was, “Does it have a power lift gate?” Answer, “No.” This was a bummer and at that very moment, Aunty decided that Mazda’s CX-5 was not for her.

However, because Leo seemed more than willing to help, Aunty asked if she could drive one, even if not planning to buy one. “Sure!” Leo said, and went off to find the keys to the Grand Touring top of the line model. We drove to the parking lot of Point Panic and even though Aunty just wanted to hop in the car and drive, Leo had to point out the key features of the vehicle. The safety of the body, the 180º backup camera, the oncoming traffic warning, lane change assist, cargo space and hidden storage, engine stuff that only men understand, and about Mazda’s CX-5 being ranked tops in its class by somebody or other. It was quite impressive, actually.

And then, Aunty got behind the wheel and was super impressed with how quiet the ride was, how good it smelled inside, and how well it handled and drove. It was almost like a Lexus inside, though not quite as plush. It was with sadness that Aunty drove back to the lot with Leo, because this vehicle did not have a power lift gate and was a teeny bit too big. While saying our farewells, Aunty spied the zippy looking CX-3, the CX-5’s little brother. Oooooh oooooh ooooooh, SO cute! “Does it have a power lift gate?” “No.” Bummers. Even so, Aunty told Leo that she wanted to return another day to test drive that little one. “Sure!” said Leo. Aunty did return a few weeks later, got to test drive the cute but too small CX-3 with Josh, and then got a little talking to by Wayne (that’s Josh, Aunty, Leo, and Wayne in the picture above).

Wayne insisted that Mazda was just about the best of the best and that the 2016 CX-5 is better looking than the 2017, etc., etc, etc. Anywho, here is a review of it:

2017 Kia Sportage and glimpse at the Hyundai Tucson

The next stop of the day was Aloha Kia at the corner of Lagoon Drive and Nimitz Highway near the airport. Why a Kia? Because when Aunty asked Mazda’s Leo Kim what he thought about the Korean cars such as Kia and Hyundai, Leo said that he thought they were good cars, because he is Korean. LOL, Aunty had to chuckle, so also had to check out at least one Korean made car.

The Sportage is just the right size with some very nice features. The rear passenger seats can recline, lane change assist is available, and it DOES have a power lift gate! There is a lot going on with the exterior design, it does have a very peppy look and the ride was quite alright. The front sides of the car rose a bit like shoulder blades and were a bit of an irritant to Aunty – taking away some of the visibility while driving, but that might just be something to get used to.

Martin Kozlik was totally not pushy and easy to talk to. He even gave Aunty a color brochure of the 2017 Sportage with nice glossy color pictures and specs and such. It has a special braking system in case the car in front stops suddenly as well as rear cross-traffic alert, lane change assist, and rear and front park assist. Quite nice, but it had a strong chemical smell (which will probably go away after a bit) and the head rest was irritating to Aunty because it pushed Aunty’s head forward. Still, it had a power lift gate that automatically opens if standing behind the vehicle with the key in close proximity. Cool!

What about Hyundais? Martin said that they were a level above Kias, and the Tucson was the same size as the Sportage. Hmmmm. The Hyundai Tucson SUV was a nice looking classic compact SUV. In fact, it looked very similiar to the Mazda CX-5, with the same or better features than the Kia Sportage. This may be another one to look at.

2017 Ford Escape Titanium

Aunty used to really like European cars because they are beautiful and they smell good. Like a million dollars. They also cost a lot more and have a certain prestige of flaunting wealth. Japanese cars are for smart practical people, and so are the new Korean cars, except for the high end ones such as Infiniti, Acura, Lexus. And then there are the American cars, which used to be THE best when Aunty was growing up, and then they weren’t. Maybe they deserved a chance, especially after Daniel Morisato over at Infiniti of Honolulu mentioned Ford’s leading technology and improvements.

Aunty decided to stop in at Honolulu Ford on King and Dillingham after a quick lunch at Bob’s Barbeque (yum yum). Somehow it felt patriotic. Buy American brand, support an American industry, give it a test drive and then decide.

Stuart Alsup greeted Aunty and was very easy to work with. After a short stroll looking at the demos on the lot, we got into a 2017 Ford Escape Titanium model that had the ability to park itself in parallel situations as well as backing into perpendicular parking stalls! Pretty cool feature, and very foreign feeling. Its best feature was a power lift gate – activated by waving my foot under the gate! THAT was really nifty and Aunty was almost ready to sign up right then and there.

We took it out for a short test drive. The ride height was nice and high, but not so high that getting in the vehicle was difficult. It did not have a luxurious feel, no million dollar car smell, but it was adequate. The control panel and interior were rather nice, and it felt like a solid safe car with more technological conveniences than I could remember. The Titanium Sports Appearance package gave the vehicle a sort of macho, hip, bully vibe that Aunty liked, with black rims and nice partial leather/trim 2 tone seats that looked really nice.

The color that Aunty loved was called Magnetic, a dark dark grey metallic that looked like it belonged on a luxury car. This color with the Titanium Sports Appearance package was pretty awesome looking, in Aunty’s opinion.

Stuart printed out a sheet with lease option pricing for 2 or 3 years. The price looked pretty good, but the Titanium Sports model in the Magnetic color was away in their storage lot, and Aunty would wait until she could physically see and touch it before deciding.

Meanwhile, here is a review of the 2017 Ford Escape:

To be continued…..

by Aunty

a lot of stuff about almost everything

Category Archives: Reviews