Thursday, May 25, 2023

 Thursday, May 25, 2023

  I got up early today. My first alarm is always at five-thirty. On Thursday, I set a second for six am to make sure I get my walk in before we have driveway yoga. I was out of the house before six. Walking down the mountain as I returned home, I caught the most amazing rainbow I had ever seen. I captured it in a photo before the rising sun erased it from the sky. The colors were brilliant. The shape was one I had never seen before. It was almost entirely vertical. It came out of a dark cloud and pierced the water below.   

   I saw David, a neighbor from a parallel street, coming up the hill. I yelled for him to turn around. He did, casually looking over his shoulder. I yelled to him to turn further. He finally caught the rainbow. It would have been too late if I had waited until we were abreast. The sun was rising rapidly, fading the rainbow.  

    In anticipation of my July 13 THR surgery, I picked up a raised toilet seat today. You can no longer rent medical equipment that makes contact with water-forget someone’s body. I called the church last year to ask if anyone knew someone who provided this service. They gave me the name of a woman who offered medical equipment for free. Even though I called close to the surgery date, she still had what I needed available. I got the message; I was lucky. I should have contacted her much sooner. That’s why I called her now, to get my name on her calendar for July. She told me she was selling her house and had already gotten rid of all her equipment but had a raised toilet seat without handles. Was that good enough for me? Yep. After the last surgery, I had no trouble getting on and off the seat. She said she wouldn’t be home and would leave it in her carport.  

     I stopped at the bank before I went home. I had a check from first-grade M’s parents for April. There was no line to speak of, and I was in and out quickly. I stopped at the transfer station to drop off a container of glass bottles. I love the transfer station. Mike made it a must-see site for our visitors to Kona.

  Judy found an article in the newspaper about a tutoring agency specifically for Hawaiian students, Hawaiikidscan, Air Tutors. I found it online and started the application process. I’m not sure if they do it for free or charge. I’m not interested in working for an agency that charges for several reasons. It’s not that I don’t like to make money; I do. I don’t care to work for an agency that charges poor people, rips off the tutors who work through the online service, and then calls themselves a non-profit.  

    The tutoring agency advertises highly qualified tutors. For their preliminary scan, they ask if you have a high school diploma. How highly qualified can someone be if all they have is that? We’ll see.  

      It took me a while to figure out how to apply. The article and the Hawaiikidscan site didn’t make it clear. As far as I can figure out, I must apply through Air Tutors. I started the preliminary application. They wanted a resume. I had to find an old one on the computer. I found one I wrote in 2014 when I first moved here. No one was impressed enough to allow me to volunteer.  

  It was my last night with the Firefly Lane girls. Their relationship had a quality I loved; it felt real to me. I missed them.