Monday, November 17, 2025
I'm up from 2AM. My watch and phone are in the hallway. I work for a few hours but before I know it, it's time to walk. There's only one meeting. The other two are postponed. W's in a study but I crash and fall asleep for an hour. I catch a call from K who's made it to Doha. We're out over noon to do some grocery shopping.
One of our stops is Papaya, a fruit and packaged food grocer. I look up when I see movement: a rat is bounding along the top of the produce section. Ugh.
At lunch, we sit in the Saka Bistro courtyard. We're surrounded by interesting plants.
At the Project, we hang another set of sheets, these floral ones. Mice have chewed big holes in the bottoms of them so I use an iron-on glue to patch them with a leftover piece of floral fabric.
Someone asks, "How are you setting up that as a closet?" I send the sketch from a collection of "we could," and "maybe this," and "how about that if it fits?" Each room has a page or two of possibilities so that I don't have to sort through random piles when we move.
This is an economy project, that's for sure. These old library tables will become the kitchen island. There are 4 shallow drawers on each side and we'll put baskets across the base.
The dogs are happy to take another walk to the Project. In the serving area, there's lots to do. W drills holes for cabinet knobs in the reworked cabinet doors. The electrician has lowered the shop lights that we painted with motorcycle spray paint. When they're level, they'll look good.
I scrub them with Bar Keeper's Friend (as per Google instruction). I tucked a bottle of BKF into our luggage from the USA. You never know what stuff comes in handy.
More scrubbing lies in the future - but it's already much improved! We stopped in at Daiso earlier, where I grabbed a cereal bowl organizer. It looks like a little pail with slots and holes in the sides. With the base ridge cut off, it fits the 6" wide, 7" deep sink drain. Daiso sells little nets to catch food scraps, too. I pull one over the pail's sides - perfect size.
We picked up baking supplies, bleach, and chicken livers at the big grocery store. W pours five litres of bleach into the pool, hoping to kill the frogs and their foamy clumps of floating eggs. "It wouldn't hurt also to kill some algae," notes W.
I cook the chicken livers with a clove of garlic and cut them up for dog training treats. Tomorrow will be a baking day for the helpers. Christmas cookies are coming! This year we need 2000 instead of 5000 like last year.
Tuesday
Up again at 2:30AM and I feel rested. No watch, no phone by the bed; I check the time on the kitchen clock. When my body is ready, I guess I wake up. Hmmm. I get some work done in the wee hours and have a one-hour nap before getting up to walk.
And after the art and art shelves come off the walls. That feels like we're saying goodbye. The same shelves will be mounted in the Project.
All kinds of art hang on the walls and are stored in the attic. We've been given paintings and portraits. We've lucked out in finding $1.50-$30 originals. We've repurposed canvases that were being thrown out by painting over them. It adds up to a variety of styles, mediums, colours, and sizes.
A friend drops by to ask if he can host an event in the Project. Why not? We're happy if it blesses others. By the time they get around to the date in the next year, the yard should have filled in with creeping grass (Axonopus compresses) and look less scruffy.
Everyone's working today. Between dog walking and sweeping, PakG transfers a few dozen potted plants to the new yard. Veronica sends 6!!! hands of bananas, which will make their way into banana breads on Thursday.
Today the women bake cookies toward Christmas giving.
We run the robot vacuum for 3 hours in the new pantry. We change to the wet cycle and run it for another 2 hours. The floor gets soapy with Dawn detergent in the water tank = oops, too much soap. I have to push a clean wet rag around the room with my feet a few times, mopping up the foam.
I walk back and forth between properties so many times that I have to change shoes to ease my soles. We have no trouble reaching 8-10,000 steps every day, even when only half that is from our morning loops. They've been promising a strong downpour for the past 3 days. The wind kicks up, the banana leaves and bamboo fronds rustle, the chimes clang ... but so far, no tropical deluge.
Kirsten has a few good things happen on her three flights from Malaysia to Austin, including a premium seat for the longest flight. However. she also encounters flight delays and 2 unexpectedly rude Qatar attendants, one in Doha and the other in Dallas. (Cmon Qatar, you can do better than that. They're rated in the top 5 airlines in the world? Not this trip!)
"Go up the ramp and walk to see if you can find a wheelchair," says the Dallas Qatar employee to K, pointing to a passenger slope, not once but thrice. She's watching dozens of passengers being pushed through immigration and then walking away miraculously healed. K has fused ankles among other joint challenges. Slopes are difficult. She reminds the attendant that she's booked a wheelchair. The attendant shrugs and after the third brush-off, K gets up and tries to limp toward the ramp.
The attendant sees how painful it is and says, "Never mind. Sit down again." That's only one of the strange and unhelpful things K encounters in the Dallas airport. We're relieved when she makes it home, safe and sound. Her house-and-pet sitters welcome her to a clean home and a happy Mika (toy poodle).
W and I notice many fake disabilities on Asian flights. People demand a wheelchair to get on the plane first, then are apparently healed mid-flight ... unless they have to go through immigration. Then the healing miracle only happens after their passports are stamped. Sigh. Such abuse prevents care for those who truly need help.
After everyone has gone home and the kitchen is cleaned, we have an online team meeting. Our help lives nearby but for travellers, we're trying to avoid the rainstorm that arrives about 3PM. When it pours, the danger of flash floods and overflowing gutters is great. The lightning flashes and thunder rolls but it's over quickly today.
Wednesday
Middle of the night, I'm up for a few hours thinking about the goodness of God. Finally I get up to I write Sunday's talk and finish other tasks. Then it's back to sleep.
"God in his mercy doesn't show us the future," says my 90-year-old mother. I look at college photos from the 1970s and 80s. Now these students are 50-70 years old.
Those young hopefuls had no idea of how wonderful and how difficult their lives would be. They looked like today's students - maybe a little more optimistic without social media and lawsuits warping their prospects. But they were just as energetic and dressed the same. After graduation, they spread across the planet, raising families, working, and traveling to serve or for pleasure. We still know many of them.
When daylight comes, we read through Sunday's talk, order a few things online for the Project, and walk with the dogs. We stop in to measure open cabinets for doors (from IKEA's As-Is, the next time we go.)
We return the dogs to our house, then go for our date breakfast at #NaraPark. We live in a beautiful part of the world. We talk to K while we wait for out food. She catches us up on her travels and arrival.
I have an hour-long appointment. The topic is transitions. We're in more than a few right now. W and PakG head off to pick up some furniture while I work from home. They're delayed by a flat time and eat out - so when they come back, the prepared food gets packed up for another meal.
I sort my closet in preparation for moving. I pull out things I have worn and begin passing them on. Four people sort through them separately, choosing what they'd like.
Thursday
We're off to the mountains for the first time in a month. First, a breakfast of spicy sauce along with leftover spaghetti and eggs.
We are committed to this group - it's wellness for us all. Between one thing and another, we have missed the past 3 times. I miss the opportunity to support another friend but can't skip more with these friends. We start down the hill we usually end on. Tea roots stretch downward on either side of the broken paving.
We do the trail in reverse, turning around to the starting place from where the trail is under water. We squeeze by on the sides elsewhere. But where the path is completely submerged, none of us wants to get any dirtier or wetter than we are (= the dogs running by give us mud showers.)
Anton is funning full steam, playing with the other big labradoodle. He slams into me and knocks me off my feet halfway through the hike, twisting my ankle. Luckily my ankle is bruised but not sprained. It's not a long hike today: +7 km (4.5 miles) of paving, rocky trails, and overgrown grasses. The view over the volcanos and tea fields is spectacular.
The sides of the mountains are stacked with tea bushes in this area. They flourish in the volcanic soil and cool air. I take a picture as we head down from the mountains.
We choose Mike Pizza for lunch, with its attentive servers, good food, and ambiance.
As usual, we start with bruschetta - fresh tomatoes on hot bread.
Today we even meet Mike of Mike Pizza, which is the best Italian-style restaurant in the city.
Even construction debris is beautiful. I've picked up circles at the Project for the past months. Maybe they're meant for this painted backdrop. What do you think?
The helpers bake 8 more loaves of banana bread and 4 boxes of ginger cookies, which are taken to the hall in the afternoon.
Read more:
* Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Psalm 90:14
* The aim of such instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith. 1 Timothy 1:5
Moravian Prayer: God Almighty, we trust that the sun will rise in the morning and set in the evening, but we do not always trust in the things we cannot see or feel. Help us to trust in you—the rock on which our faith depends. Amen.
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