Saturday, September 9, 2023
Anaheim trip day 1 of 3. Rode Lyft for an early flight from SFO to SNA. I had read before flying that there would be breakfast on the flight, but in reality there was none. I had a boxed water, a decaf coffee with cream, and snacks: boxed water, Karma toasted coconut roasted cashews, KIND milk chocolate chunk bar, Bavarian meat stick, decaf coffee with cream. Rode Lyft to Mom's house. Lani let me in and revealed that Mom had peacefully passed sometime during the night. She was 82 and 10 days shy of her 83rd birthday. We notified kin and hospice, inviting Mom's brothers, sisters, and other family in the area to visit and say their goodbyes. Jeanne, Joey (whom I first met today), Henry, Ah-bing, Kim, James, Chen-pou, Lilly, Shawn Shi Ru. The day was very hot—in the 90s. The house does not have central air conditioning, but there was a standalone air conditioner unit in the middle bedroom that had recently stopped working, and we also had many oscillating or power-circulating fans. Rob's childhood friend Eric arrived with a different air conditioner unit which he installed and got working. After Shawn Shi Ru arrived, Buddist traditions were followed including a sheath, holy water, and holy powder. Later, after almost everyone had left, Lani, Jeanne, Joey, and I enjoyed the El Pollo Loco food that Henry had brought as a gift. The mortuary people arrived to remove Mom. Later Alex and Carol arrived, then later Jeanne and Joey departed. Later Lani and I drove to Anaheim Packing District, which was busy. After many minutes we failed to find a parking spot in the parking lot and even in the neighboring streets, so we instead easily parked and easily were sat for dinner at Orange Roll & Sushi: California roll, tuna roll, tempura shrimp crunch roll, side of seaweed salad. Sushi and seaweed salad were very good, service was friendly, food was delivered quickly. Afterwards we walked through much of the Packing District, observing live music, many Instagram opportunities, smelling delicious crepes and other foods. We stopped at a gas station convenience store where I wanted a small slushie of Fanta wild cherry and Coca-Cola (since it's rarely warm enough in San Francisco for me to want a slushie), then Lani bought a pint of whole milk at Vons so that I could have milk with oatmeal in the morning. We returned home. Lani and I had a phone call with Dex that lasted several hours mostly to discuss legal documents and next steps. I created a new Asana workspace so that we could track forthcoming tasks for us following Mom's death. There is much to do. To bed late—1 a.m. I slept soundly without the air conditioner and with the oscillating fan, and it was fine.