Saturday, March 4, 2023

 Saturday, March 4, 2023

 Elsa didn’t go out the doggie door when I told her to again. She often comes when I call her and pops out. Sometimes, she doesn’t. I hope it means she already went out on her own.

      I walked a somewhat different route today. I walked up Kukuna for one hundred eighty steps, up from one hundred twenty as usual. Then I walked down Kukuna almost to the dead end, but not to the end of the dead end. The road drops precipitously at that point. I didn’t think I had the energy to work my way back up such a steep incline when I had a long walk ahead of me. I love walking up Kukuna. The view of the mountain with the sun coming over the top is breathtaking. I usually turn off on Holoholo, a relatively flat road. Instead, I committed to walking up Kukuna. I would have hit a steep incline on ‘Ilau if I had gone the other way. However, my walk is all up and down a hill this way. Kukuna goes up for another half a mile from where I stop on the first leg of the walk. My street is at about one thousand feet. The top of Kukuna must be three to five hundred feet higher. It’s an impressive incline.

   Damon called early this morning. I hadn’t heard from him in about two weeks, at least. The last time I remember him calling was Valentine’s Day, and that was only a voicemail. After talking for a while, my alarm went off, warning me to prepare for my nine am appointment with Mama K’s crew. I didn’t want to get off the phone with Damon. He would have to get off in fifteen minutes anyway. I texted Mama K to say I would be late today. I didn’t want to miss working with the kids, but I neither did want to stop talking with Damon.

   We had one brief interruption as it was. As Damon was walking, he saw a hose with running water. Californians are trained to have an allergic response to running water, as they should with their perpetual drought conditions. He took a picture and sent it to his wife. She would track down the proper authorities to check on the situation. My best bet was they were draining their pool. Everyone in that neighborhood has a pool.

   When I got off the phone with Damon, I checked my texts. Mama K had texted me to apologize. She was not home. She had to take her older daughter to volleyball. I had the day free to do some gardening and, of course, work on the updates.