Wednesday, 25 May 2005

I think today is Wednesday. Is today Wednesday? Gosh, one loses track of time and days when one travels across continents, time zones, plops into a new, yet slightly familiar home, right into a new life of routines, without even having a job yet! I can see how caretaking is more than a full-time job. There's not even time to have a day job and actually work for a paycheck....and no catching up on my blog postings and picture postings unless I stay up until 3 am again tonight! (Which I'm sure you are all just sitting at the edge of your seats, twiddling your thumbs, staring at the computer and clicking my website out of your favorites, just waiting to see where those darn pictures are...) But, I'm not complaining or anything....and I'm enjoying spending time with my dad.

Got to my dad's house at 10:30 am, and my brother was already there chatting up with the masseuse as my dad was getting his weekly Tuesday massage. This guy massages another ALS patient as well, so he knows how to be gentle enough for their bodies. During the massage, a couple of guys came over from Diamond Head Plumbing Company to take a look at the bathroom. We're trying to get an estimate as to how much it might cost to remodel the bathroom to make it more accessible for my dad, the wheelchair, and three women in the house. Right now, it involves knocking down walls, adding some cultured marble to make the stand up shower longer and wider, possibly taking out some counter space, and figuring out how to make it so there isn't water flooding all over the floor. We're dealing with an old wooden house here, so there's a lot of money involved, and so Jay and I took notes, and we'll go check out the showroom to look at shower models this week. We got into a conversation about an ALS patient here who is a professor at the University of Hawai'i. His friend's tech company made it big years ago and gave him a whole heck of a lot of money when he found out he had ALS, and they used the money to revamp the house with tracks that run on the ceiling and harnesses that carry him around, toilets that take care of all of your business for you (except for the deed itself of course), and even an elevator inside the house! Yeah......Da Mau's ain't got money to do that, so just tell us how much knocking down a door and making a bigger bath would cost.

Uncle Gary came over during his lunch hour from work, and we all went to eat dim sum at a local neighborhood Chinese restaurant. Both Uncle Gary and I are still getting used to how to push the wheelchair up curbs (It's amazing to notice how many sidewalks and things are not wheelchair accessible! Yeah, there's no way my dad would've been able to travel to Southeast Asia!) and how to lead my dad in the walker from the van to the house. (Likewise, my dad is still learning how not to be a front-seat driver, and to communicate better when he needs help or doesn't need help because he can't lift his foot up, we're pulling the walker too fast, or he's slipping off of the wheelchair.)

I took a nap for a few hours, watched Oprah, which featured a local 12 year old Hawai'i boy singing so beautifully it almost made me cry (Hey, I'm emotionally fragile right now, and Oprah's shows just have a way to do that to you sometimes.) Bernie came home and wanted to take Dad for a walk in Palolo Valley, so I let them have that time together, and I went to Sprint to figure out my cell phone situation. An hour and forty bucks later, I had a new flip phone, new phone service, and a local Hawai'i number....I am now connected back with the modern world. Scary! I opted to get a bigger plan with more daytime minutes, since I don't have a job now, and I know I'll be tempted to be calling some Seattleites.

On my way back to my dad's, I stopped at the grocery store, Foodland. Not that I never went to a grocery store in Thailand, but this was a new grocery store for me. Not my usual Seattle ones where I know the layout of the store. I walked around aimlessly with the cart, thinking, "Where are the mushrooms?", "Wow, the big jug of orange juice is almost double what I pay in Seattle, but at least the bananas are like half!", and "Gee, do I have to get one of those 'Maika'i' cards so I can get my discounts because, in that case, I'm only buying things on sale!" Even when I was putting my items on the conveyer belt, I almost forgot how to do it I guess! And, when the girl helped take my groceries to the car, and asked me where I was parked, I said "I think I'm across from that Korean restaurant over there... if that restaurant is still there?"

Well, even shopping at grocery stores can be a cultural adjustment I guess. But, at least I have food in the house now (because you know younger 27 year old bachelor brothers do not have edible food in the house when they're out gallavanting), and I left some at my dad's as well (in part so that I'd have food to eat when I'm there during the day, and also because it was one less bag I'd have to carry down the 85 stairs to get to my house!).

All in all, another successful day. Oh, and I have scheduled to go to a mass interview for recruiting teachers in the public schools here on June 18th. I may try and apply for jobs at private schools as well. We'll see.