Sunday, January 15, 2023

 Sunday, January 15, 2023 

   The pain in my right foot shifted to the top of the foot between the metatarsals, far away from the toes. It also was lessening.

  I pulled out of my driveway, heading for church just as Paulette and Judy passed. I was behind them as we drove to church. Would the route I take once we get to town be faster than theirs? I turned off at Kawai while they continued to Henry before turning. When I saw them next, they were several cars ahead of me. They must have made all the lights, two on Queen K and three on Henry Street, the two additional stop lights since Safeway moved down there.

    I turned into the library parking lot, which has a lower chance of a car accident than the church parking lot. I was delayed as I struggled to get a Costco-sized box of diapers out of my car. As I entered the church grounds, I saw their car looking for a parking spot.

     I had planned to drop off the two boxes of diapers at the church today. I carried one into the church today since I knew I would forget or be too tired after church. TJ usually wandered around on the south lanai. I could ask her what to do with them.  

    Going up the stairs of the church was a challenge. I placed the box a few steps ahead and then walked up, holding the rail. I repeated that several times before one of the greeters noticed me and came to help. She grabbed the box. When she reached the top of the stairs, another greeter said, “Give it to me. I’ll put it in the donation box.”  There was no question about why I was carrying a large box of diapers. I’ll do the same thing with the second box next Sunday.

   I was supposed to be in Honolulu next Sunday visiting relatives, but the guest of honor got sick. Apparently, she gets sick a lot. I know she has had two bouts of cancer. I wonder if her immune system has been compromised by the treatments.

   While at church today, I stayed away from Claire. Someone else came up and checked on her. She slept through most of the service.

   I felt tired while at church. That’s not unusual. I often come home and take a lovely nap. However, today, I was exhausted. , I skipped planned stops and lay down for a nap. I slept for three hours. Getting up was a struggle. I was so relaxed.

   Driving home, I couldn’t see the horizon. We were plagued by vog. This is the worst we’ve ever had. When I moved here, there was vog. The island dealt with vog from the 1983 eruption of Kilauea, which lasted till 2018. My first visit here was in 2004. Mike and I moved here in 2015. We had never known the island without vog. What a difference! I wept when I could see the cloud formations clearly. Some find the vog sunsets more beautiful. Huh? The clouds are obscured. The sun looks like a big round orange ball. There is little variation between the daily sunsets. Nothing there to applaud as far as I’m concerned. And yes, Mike and I would applaud sunsets. The shows were often spectacular and surprisingly different each night.

   Darby called while I was on my walk. When Patrick called yesterday, asking if I could help him with a car pickup. Darby got sick while on a piano tuning job. She couldn’t drive; Patrick had to go get her. Their car had been parked at the client’s house for several days.

     I told Patrick I had plans to go to Honolulu the following weekend and didn’t want to be exposed to Darby’s stomach virus through him. I said I couldn’t do it. Darby called to thank me for considering helping pick up the car. She also wondered why I was going to Honolulu. Was it a follow-up for my hip? I told her it was to visit relatives. We talked about how we learn to love Hawaii more each year we live here.

   When Mike and I first moved here, it wasn’t as awed as I am now. It was unfamiliar. I didn’t know one plant from another. I don’t mean I couldn’t name them. I couldn’t see a difference. Darby told me how people would give directions: turn at the Blue Palm or the Ulu tree. Huh? I become more familiar and sensitive to more minor foliage variations each year.

    I hadn’t received the final check from ninth-grade K’s mom. I figured she was going to stiff me. Then I checked my email. While I had written the session in my notebook, I never sent her the information. Okay. I was two weeks late. She paid me immediately.

   I had a session with second-grade M. We reviewed double-digit addition. I started with problems with regrouping. She couldn’t remember anything. I switched to addition without regrouping and used expanded notation to help her. She had no trouble remembering how to do the expanded notation. At some point, I asked her what was going on. I had never seen her so disconnected. She said something about everyone packing to go to Oahu. I told her that wasn’t possible because she had school tomorrow. She backed off, saying, “Oh, I don’t know.” I had no way to get through to her. I was very concerned. I planned to call her father and find out if he had any information on her state of mind. We were back to square one when it came to addition and subtraction. She subtracted in an addition problem and added in a subtraction one.

    I finally watched Leap Year tonight. I thought I would love to watch Amy Adams in anything. This movie was pushing its luck. It was ridiculous. She walked over half of Ireland in a pair of high heels. OHSA should have been called in. The final scene was ridiculous. Would she really have done that in front of everyone? I don’t think so. It was so unlikely it didn’t even make good drama.