Monday, November 21, 2022

Monday, November 21, 2022

Today was my final day before my guests arrived at 4:30. Carol sent me the flight information, and I looked it up. She had told me earlier it was around 5 pm. That was half an hour less than I thought I had. I had a lot left to do.

  I texted Mei as I worked. Was she still on to help me pick them up from the airport? They rented a car from her through Turo. No. She couldn’t. She would have Judy and Paulette pick them up. I wanted to make sure they had a break. They worked hard driving the Turo cars back and forth from the airport. Oh, well.

  I started washing the bathroom floor. Scott had stopped by yesterday to clean the rest of the room. Yvette had vacuumed the guest room floor the day before because Scott thought he might be sick. He said he made a point of staying away from me in the days before he left, concerned about passing it on to me.

      I had more vacuuming to do. I also had to wipe down the counters in the kitchen and both bathrooms. Scott came over midday to see if he could fix the air conditioner. I have a freestanding console with an expandable tube stuck into a window. When we first got the appliance, B made this possible. I bought a plexiglass panel to fit over the screen of the casement window. He cut the bottom of the screen, leaving room for the mouth of the venting tube. The duct tape he attached held for a while, but it didn’t. The glue residue from the old tape made applying new tape a problem. I bought Flex Tape, as the good people at Ace Hardware recommended- and they are good people. Everyone there is either knowledgeable or will refer me to another associate. The wonder tape didn’t hold. The plexiglass pulled away from the frame.  

  When Scott looked at it, he said the problem was with the design of the tube; it needed to be longer. It puts too much pull on the tape. Tube 1; tape 0. He pushed the appliance close to the window and pressed on the existing tape. Bingo. He didn’t need the tape I bought. I will get my thirty dollars back.

 I went to Goodwill in the new industrial center near Costco, only to discover they had moved to a new downtown location. I started to head that way and realized I didn’t have the time, mainly since I wasn’t sure where the new site was. I turned back into the industrial center and headed for Costco. I had to get lox. I had all those bagels and cream cheese, but that was nothing without the lox.

 I had asked for an early appointment with the M & W sisters, so I could pick up my guests from the airport. Second-grade M could make it earlier, but sixth-grade W wouldn’t get home until later. M was hesitant but could name the numbers 211, 432, and 786 when I wrote them. That didn’t take long. Why did she miss it in class? When I spoke to the mother, I told her I noticed she couldn’t do that and started teaching her math. The mom said she had seen this problem, too. Her report card said she was reading well but was having math difficulties. The mother sighed in relief and said thank you.  

  I had M sign on shortly after three-thirty figuring. I would be through at four and have plenty of time to finish cleaning and pick up my friends from the airport. The mom texted me to say she was having problems signing on. It was about twenty of when she did. I was on for no more than five minutes when I got a text from Carol saying they had landed. I knew they had checked luggage, and it would take time.  

  I called Paulette to tell her they were in.  No answer. I texted Paulette. No response. I did a quick sweep of the hallway and my bedroom and bathroom. It wasn’t that filthy in either location, but a sweeping makes a huge difference. I wasn’t going to get the bay window washed before they came.  

  I grabbed Elsa and headed out. When I got to the car, I realized I hadn’t emptied it of miscellaneous junk. Since it looked like it would be just me picking them up, I needed every inch of room.

 Paulette was right behind me as we entered the airport. I tried to call her several times without success. She finally called me. Why didn’t I go to the cell phone lot? They were in. I would pull up first. I knew who they were, and they would recognize me. Paulette pulled up behind me. We needed her. There was not enough room in my trunk to fit all the suitcases. Christine greeted me with a big hug and said, “I want to thank you now for letting me join John and Carol.” 

  I knew a lot about Christine because Mike, John, Carol, and I played family catchup every time we saw each other. However, I hadn’t seen her more than three times over the last forty years. I knew this would work out just fine.  

  I made sure there was some food in the house for dinner. I bought a large case of eggs, 24, from Costco and a large package of lox. I also stopped at Safeway to buy cream cheese. As far as I was concerned, we were set. Carol chuckled at the idea and proposed we order take-out Thai food. I recommended Original Thai, but they weren’t open. Instead, we ordered from Krua Thai. I went with Carol and John to pick it up. It’s hard to get at because you can’t cross Kuakini to enter their parking lot. I knew the back way.