I woke up at 6 a.m. without the alarm and took Elsa on our walk. She didn't want to do the whole 5,500 to 6,000 steps, but since I was walking up and down my street, it was easy to go home, feed her, and continue on my way.
I took my shower and went to church for the 9 a.m. mass. I had forgotten to finish charging the car on Saturday, so I only had sixteen 'miles' rather than twenty-four to get me into town and back. By the time I drove three miles down the mountain to Queen K., I added another mile. When I left the church to come home, I had thirteen 'miles' left. Within half a mile of the house, I hit zero, and the motor switched to HEV, which is hybrid-electric.
FYI for everyone. You use less energy on cruise control, whether the car is gas or electric. A gauge on the Kia shows when you're in charging mode, low energy output, or high. So far, I haven't had to hit the last category. I don't gun the car into action from a full stop. I plugged the car in the moment I got home. I had between 10:30 and five pm to use solar alone. I didn't have enough time to fully charge the electric motor. I could finish it tomorrow before I set out to do chores. When my alarm went off at 5 p.m. to remind me to unplug the charger. Lo and behold, the car was fully charged. Who knows.
I am more aware of how alone I am and saddened by it. Someone hugged me sometime in the last two weeks, daring the virus to impact us. We are lucky here. Currently, there are no cases on the Big Island. Still, most people are taking full precautions.
There were fewer people at the 9 a.m. mass than there have been. I have no idea why the decrease. Is it because virus cases are showing up more on the mainland and in Honolulu? I found I was delighted to be in church today. It was the first time I've been in the company of others since Thursday.
Jean Ross, my Hanai sister, called today. She is usually too busy to call. I try to call her on my morning walks. My early morning is mid-day for her. Then she's working on her prison work or just finished and needs to eat or nap. I would love to call her more, but I don't want to interrupt. There are a few people with whom I can have soul-satisfying talks. She is one of them. How lucky am I? She is Mike's first wife and my Hanai sister. I didn't just get Mike; I got an extra sibling.
I just listened to a selection from the 90th birthday celebration for Sondheim. I love his music and his lyrics. This woman sang a song I hadn't heard before. There Won't Be Trumpets. It has to do with when your hero enters your life. It won't be a significant moment; it will only be a little moment. That says it all. I got chills listening to it because I remembered the first moment I saw Mike.
He entered the group therapy session late. It was my first day in this group after being kicked out of another one. I thought, "He's cute." And then he announced he was late because he had been visiting his girlfriend in the hospital, who had just had a hysterectomy. Oh, well, I thought, "Guess he's taken."
As it wound up, he was breaking up with her. That was in July. He asked me out at the end of October or the beginning of November. Our first date was on November 8. We had dinner in a restaurant called The Library on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. There were many moments after that when little coins dropped that made me know this was right. There were no trumpets, at least not for me. For me, it was just a wonderful sense of rightness. We were going to build a house with a good foundation. And that's what happened. Our foundation never cracked. Not that there wasn't a bad dead period in our life together when we both thought of leaving, and both came to the same resolution. We had nowhere else to go and thought the other was a good person. How do I know that he felt that too? We shared our thoughts after that dry spell passed. Then, we were back to being madly in love, but not the love where you yearn for more and more. It was a love where I was almost always satisfied; for me, it was nearly always the wonderful feeling that comes after a great meal when you know that you live with abundance.
Elsa didn't pee on our before-bedtime walk again. When I walked into the bathroom, I saw the wee-wee pad had been used. Some was on the bathroom floor. I am going to have to leave the pad on the shower floor. It's a universal shower, so she has no problems getting to it. I set out a new one after wiping up some of the pee on the floor to mark the pad.
