Tuesday, October 26, 2021
A good night's sleep, pain-free, until the penny dropped on a Craig's List offer I got yesterday for my electric double leather recliner. I posted a powered leather double recliner. Mike bought it from Costco. He loved it. I hated it. I couldn't sit up straight. Mike slouched, even sitting in a straight-back chair. Using pillows to create something more comfortable for me didn't work. They just slid. It was time to get rid of it because Damon plans to come with Cylin and August for Christmas. I offered to have August bring a friend along. I needed to get rid of those recliners and put something someone could sleep on in the library.
I got two offers on the first day. One was a guy who wanted to pay less. The second was from someone prepared to pay the full price plus $30 for me to hold it for them. They couldn't come over because of Covid. She was getting married. Her financial someone would cut me a cashier's check. I had to provide my name, address, and telephone number. Well, that's the information I would have to provide to anyone interested in the recliners. It was the extra $30 that alerted me. I had thought at the time, "They didn't have to pay that extra fee." I got up at 2 am to check the Internet or Craig list scams. Sure enough.
The offer of a cashier's check is one of the warning signs. It said these scams use your information to arrange to have your mail sent to them to get your bank and credit card statements. I fell back to sleep when I realized all I had to do was ask Josh, a mail carrier in my local post office, to ask Bruce, my carrier, to be on the lookout and make sure that change of address didn't go through. I got two more emails from this contact. The first was just to tell me to make sure to delete the post from Craig's List. I'm not sure why, but I suspect it's to prevent me from getting 'similar' offers. (I got one more. I didn't respond to that one.) The second email was to tell me her financial agent had made a mistake. Instead of writing the check for the recliner alone, it included the cost for the mover. Oh, dear. But she was confident that I would pay the mover with the additional money. I called the post office investigation office. What should I do? He said, don't open the letter and mark it as "Delivery Refused." I wrote her not to send the check. If she did, I would refuse delivery or give in to the Post Office to help them in their scam investigations.
Yvette canceled yoga today. I put on long pants and eye and face protection and went out to weed whack the stripe in front of the house. I mowed it the other day with the manual mower. The mower cut down the short blades of grass. However, we have these long strands of grass that just got flattened as I ran the mower over them. I thought I would weed whack them and then mow the strip again. Ha! Those long strands aren't even easy to cut with the whacker. They were just knocked flat.
While I was working, Mei came up behind me, tapped me lightly not to scare me. She had a bakery box in her hand. She bought a box of pastries for me and one for Judy from a Japanese bakery in Waimea. Japanese pastries!! I looked forward to tasting them. Ha! This Japanese bakery made French pastries. What a surprise! Judy said they are all over Oahu. Usually, these pastries look fantastic but don't taste good. These were fantastic. I gave the one that looked like a ladybug to Yvette. I ate the piece white slice of cake. Wow! It was a strawberry something or another. It had strawberries juice and whole strawberries throughout the piece. There was also a yellow pastry, lemon-flavored. Also, delicious.
Watching me wrestle with the weedwhacker, Mei said she would have her fourteen-year-old, David, mow the strip. Was that okay with me? You bet. Later this month, Phil and Carol will be returning from the mainland. I am hoping that he will drive his bright red tractor down here to mow it. He does the strip on both sides of the street in his section.
I spoke to Shawna, who does the stone inlay I'm considering for our gravestones. I sent her a picture of the design I wanted. 'I want Mike's name to be the way Sandor had it done for the wooden box that held his ashes.
Deacon Michael David Ross, Ph.D2
The superscript is vital. Mike's students called him Doc Squared because of his two Ph.Ds. The man was an academic and loved it. Shawna said that her process couldn't do something too small. The process involves creating the spaces with water' drilling' and filling the space with stone cut to fit. She said if the inlay is too small, it will just fall through. Since I ordered a brown granite slab already, I'm now wondering if that material is too dark to be suitable for an inlay process.
I got an email from some else saying he was interested in the recliner. He was at Costco and wanted to stop by. Great! Someone local. This gorgeous man comes. Yes, he's interested in the recliner. Could he take $50 off? Sure. Then how were we going to get it out of the house? As young and as gorgeous as he was, he couldn't do it alone. I called Adam. No answer. He never answers his phone. Abraham and I walked down to his house. Of course, he would come help. Adam, with his seven-year-old son in tow, walked barefoot from his house to mine. The two men had to figure out how t get it out. I didn't see it delivered, so I couldn't help other than offering them the use of a handcart. They figured out they could get it out the front door. All the other entrances required sharp turns, too narrow for such a large object.
As they got it out of the house and into Abraham's truck, I swept the library. Lots of dead 'worms,' totally harmless local style. Leon held the dustpan as I swept it up.
After Adam and Leon left, Abraham and I sat in the living room while he figured out how to transfer money to me via Venmo. I asked him how old he was. I would have guessed early forties. He was thirty-nine. He was a professional surfer with sponsors all over the world, including Niki. His wife was also a professional surfer.
He said they met when they were both visiting Hawaii 12 years ago. He just started surfing; she was a devoted surfer from Oregon who had been doing her thing in those cold waters. She was riding the waves that day because she had missed her flight home. They were preparing to ride the same wave. He noticed this good-looking woman and signaled her to go first. Their eyes met, and that was that. I looked them up on the Internet. There are pictures of them; they have both been covered in sports magazines. Since Covid started and many gigs were canceled, they have invested their time and money in a hydrofoil surfboard that anyone can ride, even me.
He asked, Did I know the Damasio's? No. Vince and Julie? Of course. Abraham used to rent from one of their sons. If someone doesn't know someone I know here, you have to be suspicious.
I approached my afternoon tutoring session with third grade A in a relaxed way. I was my usual patient self. I have been having more trouble being that person. In the past, I could watch what the student did with the patience of a fisherman watching the water for signs of activity; now, I find myself feeling restless if the student is not showing progress.
Third grade A has been a source of frustration, his mother even more. I realized my interaction with Abraham was renewing. He hung around and took pleasure in my company. Mike gave that to me. He saw me as a safe, nourishing part of his environment. I saw him the same way. At the end of the day, a good hug dissolved the accumulated tension from dealing. Mike told me he loved me, and I was beautiful every day. Yes, literally. I can't remember a day when he didn't. What a gift! It's amazing what that can do for your well-being.
When we first met, he would tell me that I was objectively the most beautiful woman in the world. That did nothing for me. It was totally out of touch with reality. Saying that was ridiculous. I convinced him his thinking I was beautiful had meaning. And boy, did it ever.
It's not that no one in my life enjoys me. It's just no one expresses their pleasure in my company quite the same way. Abraham did. I didn't take it personally. He is just that kind of a guy. He allows himself to fully enjoy, whether it's surfing, his wife, or some random old woman he ran into. I was a beneficiary of his ability to enjoy. It was delightful.
I enjoy watching Netflix's Offspring more with each episode. The characters change. Circumstances bring out different aspects of them. Instead of packing it in for the night at 9:30, I watched till 10:00. I went to sleep when I got into bed instead of reading more of the Seven Story Mountain. I knew I had to get up early because we had yoga in the morning.
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