I took a long walk with Elsa. I am getting better at walking up the hill. I made it to the second fire hydrant. I ran into one of the people I met on my walk in the past. David has a property on the street below mine. He grows mangos and coffee. When he can, he takes on the hill. He said he loves going up but finds coming down difficult. In my experience, you can't just drop your wait. Your knees will say, "OW!!" as well they should.
When I got home, Damon was in gear. Time to sort through all the things I had laid out, deciding what to keep and what to save. Damon's solution is to just throw everything out. It drives him crazy that I will set aside a small doily that I found to mail to Karin. "Betty, just throw it out!"
Within an hour, much was sorted. However, he wanted to toss things that I declared were worth washing and giving to the homeless. He groans, "Betty!" Once most of the items were moved into my car to be delivered to various locations, Damon and Cylin proceeded to clean my house. Damon vacuumed, and Cylin wiped down surfaces. I had done some on the lanai before they came, but remember they arrived an hour earlier than expected. I didn't have time to finish the job. Damon and Cylin don't do their own housekeeping. Jean, Damon's mother, has been there when a team of three Hispanic women moves through their house, leaving it spotless, and here these two were cleaning my house. I loved it. I found it so loving, so caring. Also, so controlling. When they were finished, every surface was cleared. No, I wouldn't say I liked that. My house looked like a display in a furniture store. I need a degree of mess to feel comfortable. I am now finding a need to be neater than I was when Mike was alive. It was Mike who maintained and enforced the order in our home. I could rely on him. But what these two have done is a little too much for me. Cylin assured me they were leaving tomorrow, and I could create a mess again.
I am sure I've told this story before: After about fifteen years of marriage, Mike said to me, "I am neat. You are messy. It is better to be neat than it is to be messy." I said, "This is a marriage. I have as much right to my neurotic need for disorder, and you do for your neurotic need for order." That ended that conversation. However, both of us made moves toward the other's needs. Mike developed a higher tolerance for my disorder, and I made an effort to confine it to smaller spaces.
After the grand clean-up, we went to Hapuna, a beautiful beach somewhat north of Kua Bay. This is the beach the lifeguard at Kua Bay told us was the safest one. It is the widest sand beach I've seen on the island. Cylin found it shallow and calm enough to enjoy it, and Damon and August could go out and take on the waves. At the far end of the beach, the waves were big enough for surfers as well as boogie boarders.
Dinner was steak, corn, and salad. It was all delicious. Cylin had invited B. to join us. They also suggested that we invite Judy, her husband, Howard, and Paulette. That was too much for me. I knew they would spend all their time getting to know each other. This is a very short visit, mainly to bury Mike. I didn't want to share them.
B. entertained us with his hunting stories. He showed pictures of Elijah with a huge tom turnkey he shot and two pigs, one huge and a rather small one. He said that all the animals he killed were always used for food. If he couldn't use it himself, he gave the butchered animals to someone who needed the meat. August would like to join B. and Elijah on a hunting expedition. Oh, my. I think they will find killing an animal much more traumatic than they think. After a leisurely dinner, it was to bed for all of us after dinner.
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