Thursday, December 5, 2024

Thursday, December 5, 2024

   Today was my 84th birthday.  I felt no need to celebrate birthdays when Mike was alive. I was grateful for Mike every day of the year.  A while ago, my niece asked me if Mike and I were as happy as we looked. Yes, we were, but that doesn't mean everything was perfect. Our relationship was a combination of a good-enough match and dumb luck. I had the image of jigsaw puzzle pieces. Is that a good metaphor for a perfect match? My guess is a good marriage match doesn't fit together as well as two puzzle pieces. We were both crazy in so many ways. We had the good fortune of not encountering stresses that would have pushed us over the edge.

   I watered the shrubs with the handheld hose, which will work while the plants are still small. I have the materials to set up the drip hoses but lack the confidence to do the extensive work. I have to lay three lines, one for each row of plants. Then, I have to insert forty-two drip vents and the connectors.

  Regis Electric responded quickly. They would be here at 10 to install a dedicated line. They called me twice to say they were running late. Wow! I was super impressed. Two young men in their twenties arrived to install my dedicated line. They looked competent. I was very impressed. And did I mention they were cute?

    My breaker box was full. The electricians couldn't use that.   Knowing I had a solar system, they checked out some equipment associated and said something about piggybacking on it. I had complete confidence in their knowledge and a complete lack of confidence in mine. They asked for access to the attic. They complimented the electric work Provision Solar did. It was neat. They criticized the workmanship of the solar water heater: the timing mechanism was mismatched with its case, making it impossible to close. They also discovered the installer had used a 12 gauge wire when he should have used a 10 gauge. They would come back to fix those two issues.  I would love to have them do any work for me. I had such confidence in them.

     One of the objects they had to move was the chifforobe my mother designed, made, and brought with her from Germany when she came to America to marry my dad. My dad loved well-designed objects. He loved my mom's chest. He had a mate made. I grew up with a twin set. She brought them with her when she moved from Great Neck to Princeton to live with Mike and me in 1983.  

    Mike didn't want to take the chifforobes with us when we moved to Columbus, Ohio, in 2003. I agreed.  Then, I started falling asleep at the wheel on my commute to and from New Brunswick. When I meditated on the subject, I got I was distraught because I was going to lose my mom's chest. I told Mike we couldn't get rid of it. My well-being depended on it. It sat in the Columbus house garage until we moved to Hawaii.  Then, we took it with us and parked it in front of the garage, which was converted to Mike's library, covered by the moving blankets that came with it in 2015.

   When my niece Shivani visited, she talked about some of her behavior after her husband died after a few years of marriage. She said she held on to his cell phone, expecting me to think her behavior was weird. I showed her mom's cabinet. Oh!

    Besides the chifforobe, there were several other miscellaneous pieces of gardening equipment. I used the front of the house as a dumping ground for miscellaneous objects I didn't know what to do with. You can imagine the look. 

    When the workmen moved the chest to run a wire and its protective tubing from the side of the house, they removed one of the moving blankets. It disintegrated in my hand, shedding blue flakes.   I stuffed it into the trash barrel without placing it in a plastic bag first. Hopefully, these little blue particles won't wind up all over the neighborhood.  I swept the exposed area and moved some of the miscellaneous objects I had stored there to the shed.

     I did some more work on my neighbor's yard along the outside of my rock wall. Her weed-infested yard threatened everything mine.

   I planned to go to Ulu Wini but was too tired. I was happy for the excuse; going there doesn't make me happy. Few kids want to work with me.  It's probably not personal. I ask only those kids who want to work with me. I don't like to force people. 

     Yvette planned to come up for dinner for my birthday.  She texted to say she was sick.   She had started out feeling well that morning and then took a serious turn for the worse.

     Judy called on her way shopping. Toward the end of the conversation, I reminded her it was my birthday. I didn't want her to realize it later and feel bad.  She stopped by on her way home and dropped off a great birthday card and a two-foot Tuxedo cake from Costco. It's the favorite cake in her family.  

   Damon called. After, he sang a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday in the Ross mode. Damon said he had sent me a gift certificate from Huggo's, our favorite restaurant.  Theoretically, I can use it alone, but I think he's counting on my not using it until he arrives. This way, he's killed two birds with one $100 gift certificate. I'll take it, especially since he's planning a visit in January. Yay! Again.

  For the rest of the call, we argued over whether he could do more to help his mom recover her husband's medicare B health care insurance. She had neglected to pay while she was ill and refused to go on automatic payment. His insurance lapsed. It's been a while since the problem was discovered.  I guess a provider discovered that his insurance policy was no longer active.  Jean insisted she could take care of it on her own.  I'm sure she could have written a brief for a lawsuit. Jean was a lawyer. But, I don't think she had the necessary skills to deal with the Social Security department and insurance company on her own.  She finally agreed to accept help from John's daughter and Damon. Yay! 

   I was nodding off by 8:30 again.  I think I'm responding to the change in sunset.