I got up at 5:30 am and called the State Farm agent in Ohio to see if they received my fax with my voided check. I spoke to Damon about the slide show. We really don’t know what we’re doing yet.
I walked Elsa, did the dishes, drank my two cups of water, and went to Bikram. After Bikram, I went to Safeway to pick up the items Damon requested. I thought I had misplaced the list and was frantically calling Damon and Cylin’s numbers. It finally dawned on me that I had the information in an email from them, which I could access on my phone. Damon wanted organic creamy Skippy peanut butter. I looked over the shelves over and over and over; I couldn’t find it. In desperation, I bought Skippy creamy and Adam ‘s all-natural creamy peanut butter. He also wanted whole wheat English muffins. I looked for Thomas’s English muffins. Safeway didn’t have that in whole wheat, but it did have another brand. Then off to find eggs. I usually buy from our local egg lady but didn’t have the time to stop off there today.
While I was at Safeway, I took the occasion to return a large unopened bottle of salsa. When I find things I will never use that Mike must have bought, I try to return them.
I called Judy; I finally remember to ask her about those missing plants. Yes, she said. She saw them out in the front yard under the blue silver palm. (An absolutely stunning tree.) She didn’t know what they were doing there. I hadn’t seen them probably because Yvette’s car blocked my view, and I was afraid to look and find them not there. I was expecting them to be closer to the house if they had been moved outside. Whatever at least they were okay. I want to keep them because Mike bought them.
When I got home, John and Ace were busy working away, scanning books. This is a lot of work, and they are only doing the books that have bar codes on them – for now.
I showered, put up a laundry, and started on a thorough cleaning of lanai. A thorough cleaning involves cleaning the 4 x8 screens. I vacuum them first. I find the small upholstery attachment does the best job – on just about everything. Then I ‘wash’ them. I lay down towels and those blue micro clothes sold at Home Depot, 25 in a package, at the base of the screens to soak up dripping water. I fill one bucket with clean water and have a second into which I can wring out the dirty water. I dunk a dedicated cloth into the clean water. Then without wringing it out, I wipe down the screen. Water runs down. I wring out the micro cloths on the screens. Repeat until the water runs a light brown instead of black. I have done this recently enough that the water was not too dark. Today, it ran clear pretty quickly.
Periodically I walked down to the library to talk to both John and Ace. Jean called to tell me that she had a treatment that made her back feel much better. Meaning she is optimistic about being able to travel out here to visit. I love it when she and John visit. I am also anticipating that it will make me feel sad. One of the delights of their visits is the way Mike and John hung out and did chores together. Now John will be here without Mike. I think we will all be sad.
Again, no student. This is good in as much as I have tons to do and don’t mind, but I am uncomfortable when someone doesn’t let me know that there has been a change of plans. Rather than do anything productive, I took a nap.
When I got up, it was time to do Elsa’s dinner time walk. When I got home, I washed the floor and went to Costco to pick up two pizzas, one cheese, and one pepperoni, to feed the multitude tonight. I had to wait, which I expected, and used the time to return a giant economy size jar of capers. I did a little reading, too. Then I picked up the hot pizzas and drove home.
I was sitting down working on the blog when Brian, we call him B, Elijah and Sariah arrived. Brian lives on our property in a space that is basically a 1,000 square foot shed with an enclosed full bathroom and a second enclosed room that served as the office of the man who lived here before and is now Brian’s bedroom. Elijah, 14 years old. is Brian’s grandson, and Sariah, 11 years-old, is Elijah’s sister and Brian’s hanai granddaughter. Mike and I always considered them part of our ohana, a very Hawaiian thing to assume someone is your acquired family. Elijah and Sariah played with Elsa first. I suggested they play monkey-in-the-middle with Elsa. I wanted to know what Elsa would do. It morphed into a game between just the two of them. It was wonderful to watch them play a made-up catching game with each other. These two obviously care about and enjoy each other.
Yvette arrived with her brother Mowgli, who came in from Portland, Oregon, for the funeral. He got the pizzas out of my car, and dove in. He was starving. I was too. We stood around the kitchen, eating pizza. Given that two of us were scarfing down the cheese, I think I should have made the order one whole cheese and the other one-half cheese and half pepperoni.
Elsa climbed into my arms for comfort. For some reason, she finds Mowg scary. Possibly because he is taller than any human being, she has ever seen before. I see a change. She usually would have gone to Mike for comfort. It looks like she is accepting me as her go-to human.
Yvette went out again to pick up Damon, Cylin, and August. When they got home, they stayed outside to admire the stars. The night sky here is fantastic. We have one of the clearest views of the night sky in the world. The street lights on the Big Island are all yellow to prevent light pollution for the observatories on top of Mauna Kea.
Cylin showed me the dress she brought for the funeral. Now, I had asked everyone to wear bright colors. Someone said I wouldn’t have much choice about that since it was Hawaii. Cylin’s dress was multicolored with primary colors. Very bright. She had brought another dress that was more subdued to be on the safe side. Since Yvette and I were both wearing lime green dresses, Cylin’s would have been off the charts. I thought she’d been more comfortable wearing the subdued dress.
Now everyone was standing in the kitchen eating and talking, I asked Damon if he would be okay with having Brian and the kids sitting with the family at the funeral. I know Mike considered him part of our ohana. Damon said, of course, as I expected, but he interpreted my asking him as an accusation of his assuming control. He said the funeral was all about me. No, not really. It as minimally all about him and me, and then there was Yvette. I wanted to make sure it was okay with him.
It was already late when Damon and his family arrived. I went for a walk with Elsa. Mowg had offered to take her on his own, but I thought it would be nice to make it a threesome. As I walked out, I panicked and thought, “I never called Adam to say he could have the car!”
Adam is Judy’s son. On February 19, he was parked in his brand-new car with the engine off when someone backed up into him and totaled his car. He had been using it to Uber and now had lost that gig. This all happened when I was on Oahu. When Judy told me what happened, I thought, ”Mike isn’t going to be using his car for a while. Why not let Adam drive it?” To get the car registered with Uber, Adam had to be listed on my insurance. Judy and I busted our rumps, getting that done. We took turns talking to the insurance agents. We both have pronounced east coast accents and figured they wouldn’t know the difference. They didn’t.
The day I spoke to the agent, she asked me if Adam had any accidents. I had been told that three years ago, he was ticketed for driving while on a cell phone. She said, “He is listed as having an accident that is his fault on the 19th.” “What?!?! I said. “He was parked when this accident happened.” The insurance hit was tremendous as a result. I immediately told Adam and Judy, and a new round of excitement ensued. Adam went to the police department. They had it recorded as the other driver’s fault. Adam went to the DMV. They had it registered as the other driver’s fault. He went back to the insurance company. They responded that they had checked once and would not check again. Adam’s father is a personal injury lawyer. The reacted appropriately to the word “Lawsuit.” They finally did what Adam had suggested in the first place. They contacted the insurance adjuster, and he confirmed that it was the other driver’s fault, and they adjusted the premiums accordingly.
Now what had gone wrong? Where had the breakdown happened? Don’t we all learn something new every day? There’s this organization called something like Nexus Lexus, which is a clearinghouse for information on accidents and fault which the insurance companies use. As it winds up, they get information on the accident before they get information on whose fault it is. Both parties were listed as being in fault until follow up information came through. It was coincidental that we asked for a change in the insurance policy so soon after the accident. But this is something for you all to be on the alert for.
Adam has registered Mike’s car with Uber and was driving it several nights a week. I wanted the car during the day while Damon was here. He is used to having access to it when visiting. Adam said, fine. I told him that I would let him know right after Damon, Cylin and August were picked up from the airport so he could have the car for the rest of the night. I forgot. I was so flustered, I didn’t even realize that the car was already gone from the driveway, which meant he had picked it up. Yvette must have called him. I ran back into the house, letting Mowg walk Elsa on his own. It was only when I got inside that it registered that the car was not in the driveway, meaning he had already picked it up. I took advantage of the free time and did MELT for my feet. Why don’t I do this regularly is beyond me? It always makes my legs feel better. If I do it regularly, it will make a huge difference. I also rehearsed that difficult passage of my hula dance. I still was not getting it right.
When Mowg got back with Elsa, I went to bed. Good night, Elsa. Good night, Mike.
