Tuesday, January 12, 2021

 Tuesday, January 12, 2021

  I was delightfully surprised by the dinner Judy provided. It was breaded chicken and a tomato sauce on the spaghetti. I have been having such a craving for spaghetti with an Italian tomato sauce. Ah, it tasted so good. Her dessert was an apple, something or another. I'm always good for anything with apples- as long as it's not too sweet. Judy's was perfect.

            Last night, I started watching the Wilds on Netflix on my friend Jean's advice. I'm enjoying it. It's a Lord of the Flies theme plus. The plus aspects are more discussion of their lives before their isolation on a deserted island, and there's some government involvement. They embedded an agent in this group of young girls, or some agency embedded an agent among them. Let's see how it develops. Will girls bet more cooperative than a group of boys in Lord of the Flies?

            I went to bed late, being captured by the series. I was so excited because of the availability of stem cell therapy here on the Big Island and a more reasonable price than I expected that I had trouble sleeping. I was prepared to sleep in until 7 am a yoga and then nap during the day. Nonetheless, I was ready to spring out of bed at 5:30. I got in over 4,000 steps before yoga.  

            When Yvette called me to join the yoga class, I saw only one other student today, Deb, making our group only three, including Yvette. I was so excited about the possibility of getting stem cell replacement easily I couldn't keep quiet. I changed the whole tone of the class. Deb and Yvette joyfully went along with the spirit of my joy. Yvette told us just to do what we were inclined to do. Deb spent time under the infrared lamp and needed to stay still anyway. 

            I listen to the video from the stem cell company. It was mostly an advertisement telling you problems with the other methods for dealing with arthritic hips. I didn't learn much new, except that it all would go better if I gave up sugar. Oh, dear. I am well-stocked with Hersey's Milk chocolate with whole almond kisses.  

            I made contact with the stem cell doctor. He looked over my medical information. My left hip was bad. One thing I did learn from the infomercial was that the worse the hip, the less benefit. He asked me if I was considering having my right hip done too. I asked him to talk to me about it. He said it would cost less than having it done some time individually down the road. I would only need one dose of the stem cells in my right hip, whereas my left hip needed two. They were doing a bunch of people on the 30th. That is the day of the ordination. I want to be there to represent Mike. These are the deacons that he helped prepare. I will only be attending the Big Island ordination; only three guys will be ordained here out of the class. I will not be traveling to all the ordinations on all the islands. Too much. Sorry, Mike. 

            I also thought that I might have to skip the ordination all together to have the stem cell transplant. When I spoke to the stem cell office representative, he said he thought he could work around my need to attend the ordination. 

            I got hold of Sandor to get the time of the ordination. He said it would start at 10:30 and probably be over by 12:30. I made my appointment for 1:30. It's right here in Kona in the new industrial center. It couldn't be more convenient. Now, the only problem is will we all be alive on the 30th? Will the doctor giving the implant be able to fly over here from Oahu? Or will we all be shut down with military planes flying overhead? Will it be 9/11 all over again and the end of life as we knew it in the USA? Oh, boy.

            As I listen to the argument today in the House of Representatives over Trump's impeachment, I hear that people are more split than ever. No, I disagree that all Republicans or all people who supported Trump should be shunned. However, I do not believe that we should do anything to appease those who support the invasion of the capital to impose their will. These folks are not up for compromise. Some of them have been gearing up since the end of the Civil War. Some people believe in f a Christian theocracy led by whites only, probably only men. They are itching and ready. 

            I had a session with J. My last session was exhausting. His ignorance of basic information, like a Spanish person comes from Spain. The Spanish language, his native language, comes from Spain. It's not that he needs to know this information except for school. However, teaching him about it was exhausting for me.

            Today, I started by reviewing what we had covered yesterday. J did reasonably well. He didn't remember names, but he remembered the gist. I taught him some study skills, showing him how to organize the information and develop mnemonics to remember the explorers' names. I did some work on having him learn to go back and forth between the brain's left and right sides as they send information back and forth. Also, I hear him read more fluently. 

            I did some work on the updates today. I also called the solar company I had been in touch with to get a battery to be off-grid if it goes down. It's expensive. But the money's going anyway or not. Either way, it's a good stop measure for me. I can hear Michael object to what I'm doing. He held on to positive points of view. Yes, the stock market may continue going up, but I'm not collecting numbers in the market. The money has to have real value for me.