My leg bothered me this morning as I was lying in bed with nerve pain running down its length. I did a lot of massage with my tennis ball in the hour before the alarm went off. When I finally got up to walk the Elsa dog, I could feel discomfort in the hip joint. Now, my appointment for hip surgery is currently in September when I am planning to do a tour of the west coast relatives: Seattle (Karin, David, and baby Sam), San Francisco (Shivani and Sidney), and LA (Damon, Cylin, and August). When the nurse calls me to change the date, I'm thinking I'd better change my ever-changing appointment for October instead of three months out. We'll see.
I followed my usual routine, plus one kettle for the weeds, and made my Juice Plus smoothie for two days. I set out extra almond milk and Juice Plus powder to be sure that there was some in easy reach for Shivani. When she woke up, she complained of a sore throat and asked if I had any Vitamin C. I had nothing in the house, so I called Yvette and Josh. Yvette came up like a shot with elixirs in hand. I took care of Sidney to let her sleep longer. I handed him back over to his mom when I left for Bikram. I didn't find out if Yvette's remedies had an effect until I came back home.
When I checked my email this morning, I saw Mike Berstene got back to me on the
Paulist Press's response to his submission of Mike's book. The publishing house accepted the manuscript for review. This doesn't mean that they will publish it, but it's a start. Yeah! He also called Orbis press but hadn't heard back yet. We'll see. I'm still prepared to self-publish through Amazon if necessary.
It was JJ's last class until September. He off to the mainland to teach workshops and classes, compete in yoga contests (yes, there are yoga competitions), and visit family.
I had a very long savasana at the end of class before I went to rinse off in the 'rinse only' shower. I didn't get on the road until 9:30, usually when I get home from the weekday classes. I went to school to work with a 3rd-grade student who has made a significant jump from nothing to the level considered the transition between 1st and 2nd grade. When I worked with him yesterday, I noticed he had problems holding sounds and blending them. However, I also noticed he had some good decoding skills, while there is still information missing, like the vowel rules. But the bigger problem is that he wants to read like everyone else, without conscious thought and quickly. He doesn't appreciate that the learning phase of anything requires that someone move more slowly and consciously. The only book available was a third-grade book she was using with the whole class because the teacher had already packed up the books in anticipation of summer vacation. He complained that it was such a hard book. He was able to do a pretty good job, better than expected when I pushed him to slow down and use the skills he had. He's just very immature.
I headed home, thinking I would have to take care of Sidney for Shivani because she was not feeling well. I planned to modify some cleaning chores to make them play for a two-year-old. I have tons to do. This will be fun for me, too. I do silly and messy pretty well myself.
I have been talking to Mike more, mostly as I drive. I can feel him there with me, worrying about my safety and my wellbeing in general. I have lost such sweetness from my life. For others, Mike was a great intellect and a great administrator, a fantastic teacher, a counselor who touched them deeply. For me, he was the sweetness in my life. He was so kind so eager to see me happy, so delighted with what I was, the way I looked, my sense of humor, my decency, my friendliness, my pan-intellectual interests, the way my mind worked, making connections between random things, (as far as he was concerned.), my affectionate nature, my ability to challenge him on domestic issues when I disagreed strongly and my ability to co-create a unique solution to a problem that neither of us could have come up with independent of the other. So sweet. So sweet.
I finished washing the dishes from this morning. Some pans had to soak more before I could get them clean. I sat down and worked on the blog.
We got packed up to head to the beach. It took a while for us to get organized, but Shivani, Sidney, and I made it there. We went to the harbor beach, the one beach I thought would be appropriate for Sidney that we hadn't visited yesterday. The harbor beach is where the small boats are harbored. When the large cruise boats come in, they have to anchor away from the shore. Our shoreline is altogether too rocky and shallow for ships to dock. Although, I understand there is a large boat harbor in Havi, further north.
The swimming area used to be a fishing pond that the native Hawaiians set up. It is a lagoon. It's man-made; they actually put down the rocks to create the lagoon. Judy told me they suspended slats from the rocks so the little fish could swim into the sheltered area, but they couldn't get out as they got bigger. Clever, eh? Nowadays, it is a national park area, and it is just used for pleasure. The water is shallow all the way out, calm, and warm. Perfect for us folks who are not interested in taking on the large waves and dangerous shorelines of the other beaches here on the Big Island.
As we headed out to the beach from the parking lot, we started to walk out without the stroller. When Shivani saw how far we would have to walk, she went back to get it. Good move; it's a good ¼ mile walk. What was I thinking? There was no way Sidney was going to make it on his own that whole way, and our arms were loaded with beach equipment. She was able to push the stroller over the rocks.
Shivani, Sidney, and I went to this beach to meet up with Judy and Paulette. Auntie P was her usual winning self with Sidney. This woman has a gift with young children. Adam's kids are so lucky to have her around along with Judy and Howard. It was Sidney's first time swimming in the ocean. We stayed there until 4:30. I went in too. Problem: because I have no ballast in my bottom anymore, I have trouble getting my feet down below my head even in calm water. My hips literally float up and force my head down.
When we got home, Shivani cooked dinner. I was sitting in the living room and heard the stovetop fan go on high, but didn't think too much of it. When I looked up, I saw the kitchen was filled with smoke. She wasn't used to Mike's super-duper stovetop; high means different things on different stovetops. When I became aware of what was going on, I turned on every ceiling fan in the house. The smoke cleared out quickly. Despite the rough start of the steak, it still tasted good, and she made an alfredo light with broccoli that was absolutely delicious.
Sidney and Shivani went to bed shortly after dinner. I went to watch tv. I was watching May Day, this bizarre story of the murder of a May Day queen in a small English town. Too weird. I went to the last episode to see who done it and went back to watching Silent Witness. The main character has switched jobs, and the tone of the show maybe a little better. I do like the show, just not the monotony of the leading charter. There are like 17 years' worth of shows. This should keep me entertained for a while
I cataloged another 20 books. I am over 1500 now, and I think I'm through about half of the total number of books. I walked Elsa before going to bed, washed my face, brushed my teeth, and went to bed. Good night, Elsa, Goodnight, Mike.
