I woke up around 7 and walked Elsa. I am not doing Bikram on Sundays but going to church instead. I did some work on a blog and sent it out. I'm still six days behind. I lost time when I was dealing with the funeral, the visiting family, and doing my taxes. I can't catch up for love or money.
I walked Elsa, showered, did MELT, and used the Tiger Stick.
Paulette and Judy picked me up later than expected. While driving to church, I asked Judy for more information about what Mike had to say about the four qualities necessary to endure suffering, wanting to know how Mike interpreted them: acceptance, cooperation, humility, and docility. She said they only discussed docility because she was already familiar with the other three. Docility was the ability to learn from the situation.
When we arrived at the parking lot, it was already packed. Paulette had to park on the verge of someone else's driveway. Judy and I had to sit in the front seats of the church; they were the only ones left. Fr. Badding performed the mass. Michele started the service by entering singing a song of worship in Hawaiian. She is a beautiful woman in every sense of the word: physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. At the end of the service, Michele and another woman performed a hula.
I had turned off the phone during the service. When I got home, I turned it back on and found I had no service. I was too tired to deal with the problem and took a nap. There's always time after the nap.
While I was lying down, Judy and Paulette came over to start cooking the turkey for Easter dinner in my oven. Easter dinner was going to be at my house. Judy and Paulette had trouble getting the top rack out of the oven. It's a super-duper rack, with two layers, one fixed and one which slides out, so you don't have to reach deep into the oven to get to something on the back of the rack and get par-baked yourself. I tried to explain what they had to do from the comfort of the sofa. That didn't work. I got up and popped it out.
I tried to read some of the Sunday New York Times before I fell asleep. I hadn't had any downloads since the 16th. I had noticed it before but thought there might have been a problem with the Wifi. I read some of C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity that I found while going through Mike's library. I fell asleep.
I thought Paulette had gone home. Maybe she had, but when I got up, there was a fresh batch of limes sitting on my kitchen counter. She and Leon had gone down and picked them. She needed some to garnish her key lime pie, and there was a whole batch left for me.
When I got up, I did some more writing on the blog. Once everyone arrived to finish the cooking and set the table, I took Elsa for a walk. I stopped by Olga and Alexandra's house to drop off the bus pass I found on the street last night. I'm into picking up trash as I go, motivated by John Zimmerman. I saw this bright white rectangular shape last night and knew it was man-made. At first, I thought it was a credit card; it was made of that hard plastic. When I read it, I saw it was a bus pass from the local high school. I didn't recognize the girl's name, but I figured Alexandra, a high school student herself, might know who she was or at least be able to hand it in at the high school office so it could be returned to the girl.
When I got to the door, Olga answered and came out to talk to me. She didn't know the name on the bus pass, but she would give it to Alexandra. Alexandra came out on the driveway shortly. I mentioned the death of the tap-dancing teacher from the dance studio Alexandra went to. They had not heard. They told me that Alexandra's piano teacher had died. I'm telling you, I have never heard of so many people dying in my life. What is going on?
Alexandra told me about the spring dance concert. From her description, I think they will be dancing Coppelius, from The Tales of Hoffman by Offenbach, but I'm not sure. There are a few details in the story she was telling that didn't sound the same. She did a wonderful job dancing out the plot. She had this radiant smile on her face. Unfortunately, she will not be able to dance the performance I will be seeing. Or fortunately. Her STEM project has been selected for competition, and she will be off-island at that time.
I usually just walk up and down the block, but I had time, so I walked all the way around. I was shocked by the garbage I found on one section of the street parallel to mine. There was a whole quilt, unopened newspapers, unclaimed telephone books. It was a mess. I didn't have any way of getting that stuff home. I made a note to do it some other time.
When I got home, Paulette came up to me and asked, "Do you have a wrench?" Huh? The stovetop ran out of gas, and two grown men were trying to fix the problem. Adam and Brian, their tenant, had successfully found the canisters on their own and were trying to switch out the empty one for a full one. They figured out that they didn't need the wrench; all they had to do was flip a switch from the empty one to a full one that was already attached to the pipes. They told me that there were three full ones and one empty one. I can call on Josh to help me out if I ever have to change them out. However, I haven't turned on the stovetop since I came home. I am doubtful that I'll be running out of gas any time soon. Thank God for the microwave. Someone suggested that I could learn to cook. What they don't get is I hate doing it.
I called T-Mobile, my carrier, to see if I could figure out what was wrong with my phone. With all the changes, it is possible that the bill simply didn't get paid. No, my account was fine. I owed nothing. The customer service provider couldn't figure out what was going on. He refreshed my phone, whatever that means, and told me that the problem was that everyone was calling at once, and the cell tower was overloaded.
Almost immediately after my call to T-Mobile, my phone rang. I was my niece, Karin, calling from Seattle. I spoke to her and my sister, who was still there visiting to help Karin and her husband, David, deal with their brand new baby. It was mostly chit-chat. I mentioned that I was thinking of visiting in August or September when it is stinking hot here in Hawaii. Two years ago it was so hot that students in the high schools were passing out from the heat. L told Karin about all the miles I had. I thought it was one physical mile for each credit card mile. Karin set me straight. Apparently, it is one physical mile for 5 to 15 credit card miles. I still should be able to make it Seattle and complete my west coast family visits, to San Fransisco and then Los Angles, before I head home again.
I called Amazon next to find out what was going on with the Kindle. Finding the customer service number was particularly tricky. I don't know why they make it so hard. I had called Amazon and canceled a subscription the other day. I thought it was Mike's. No, it was mine that had been canceled. They transferred the subscription to my email address. We're good now.
If I haven't already mentioned it, Judy, Paulette, Adam, and Jazzy, Adam's wife, put together wonderful, wonderful meals. There was the turkey, stuffed cabbage to die for, kugel, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, asparagus, apple cake, and key lime pie. At the end of the meal, there were plenty of leftovers, and I got my fair share. My guests helped to clear the table. I had to wash the cooking equipment, but Judy insists on using paper plates. Poor Mike, he would die of embarrassment. He set a gorgeous table.
My guests sat around after dinner to talk. I went into the kitchen to start washing dishes. I love doing that. I'm still part of the conversation but somewhat removed at the same time. I can jump in and participate whenever I like, but I don't just have to sit there. After I did as much of the dishes as the dishwasher/ drying rack could hold, I still needed to withdraw from the company. I felt a little bit awkward. In the past, Mike would hold the fort representing the hosts of the house. I managed to slip away and found myself making some blog entries. As they left, someone made a comment about my withdrawal and asked they overstayed their welcome. I said, absolutely not meant it, "As long as I can take care of myself, you're welcome to stay as long as you like." I'm not the kind of hostess who feels I have to take care of my guests. But you may have figured that out already. I could go to bed and sleep peacefully while my guests stayed and talked on the lanai. The only problem I would have is if they stayed that long, they needed to move off the lanai to a living room, deeper into the house, so they didn't bother Yvette and Josh. They can hear everything that goes on on the lanai. They get up before dawn every day and need their sleep.
After they left, I watched some TV and cataloged books. Then I walked Elsa, washed my face, brushed my teeth, went to bed, and then said, "Goodnight, Elsa. Goodnight, Mike."
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