Thursday, June 18, 2020

    I heard the water running hard when I went to bed last night. It sounded like a good-sized leak. Our water supply pipes run above ground. We don't have to bury those lines; it never freezes. Burying them requires a lot of work; it's all solid rock. Putting anything underground is a major deal.  I texted Yvette and Josh so they could start looking for it when they got up. I also texted B. to let him know. Next thing, my phone rang. It was B., and he was on his way up to deal with the problem. I never meant to wake him up. I figured he would sleep through the texting as I would have. But it woke him. 

    He appeared outside my bedroom door in my backyard with a miner's flashlight attached to his head. There are two levers to turn off the water going down to Yvette, Josh's, and B.'s areas.  He turned them off. We talked about turning the water back on at 5 am when Josh took his morning shower. How do I know? Remember, I can hear the water running when it's in use. I know the way the toilet sounds versus a shower. He takes a twenty-minute shower every work morning. 

    The plan was for B. to come back up around 5 am.  I thought the levers might be difficult for me to reach. I woke up before 5 and decided I had to try. I found they were easy to reach and easy to turn. I texted B., telling him I had taken care of it, and he was to go back to sleep. Later in the day, Yvette texted me to say the 'leak' had been a running toilet and no more. Ah! That was an easy fix. 

    I left Elsa home again as I walked, allowing her to rest her leg. I only did the street I live on, walking up and down several times. My hip and the surrounding muscles were tweaking.  Again, is this discomfort part of the healing process, or is this the end of the road?  I wasn't able to do much in Yvette's driveway yoga class.  I spent most of the time relaxing the muscles in my pelvis and legs while sitting in a chair in the driveway. The rest of the participants followed Yvette's directions.

    After the class, I had a chance to do a healing session with a client, working on body tension. Some of it was straight healing, and much was the bodywork I developed, which I call MicroMoves. This uses very slow movements of the fingers and toes, moving up as far as the wrists and the ankles. It has a surprisingly relaxing effect.  

    Before the Virus shut down, I had a cranial sacral treatment from someone at the Hawaiian Physical Therapy group. I have had such treatment before, but this was completely different. The therapist put one hand on my sacrum and another on the back of my head, sending energy. This practitioner put one hand on my spine and then made small moves on the front of my body. It had a fantastic effect and reminded me of the work I do with MicroMoves. 

    Shortly after that, I had an appointment with D.   He got all three multiplication facts we had been working on wrong on the first try. On the second attempt, he got two correct, 6x7 and 4x9, the two that could not be easily figured out. His brain did produce them. He forgot 3x3=.  I have no idea what happens in this boy's brain. 

    He got most of the before/after answers correct. Then he missed one and didn't know he had gotten it wrong. Repetition is the only solution I can think of to get this information into his brain. Repetition is the most common method for memorization. I work with students who need help with this skill. I have had success with the BrainManagementSkills, finding different pathways through the brain circuitry than they used. I've had only minimal luck with these methods with D. 

    I spoke to him directly about his ability to learn implicitly. I didn't use that word. I called it learning that slips in without thinking about it versus learning that has to be consciously thought about. Does he have an auditory processing problem? I asked him if, when his mother gives him a list of things to do, he can remember them all. He said yes. I have to check with his mom.

    We reread the same paragraph in the book we have been working on. This must be the fifth or sixth time we covered the same words. Good news! He got one of the words he had trouble with correctly, and he decoded the word fascinating, using the procedure I taught him and getting the word much more quickly. Bad news!  He still couldn't remember a conceptual point we had repeated every single time we did this paragraph.  The words are, "Socks was unaware of the hard feeling between brother and sister." Again, he read the words as "brothers and sisters" and said it referred to the other kittens.  Today, I read the preceding paragraph describing the 'bickering' between George and Debbie before he read the target paragraph.   We have been over this six times, and still, he said that the brother(s) and sister(s) are the other kittens.  He cannot remember what we discussed.  

    Then he read a sentence substituting a word that made no sense. I asked him if the sentence made sense to him as he read it. Sometimes, a substitute word will make sense to him even if I don't understand it.  However, what he said made no sense to him either. I slowly, painstakingly led him to substitute a word for his misread word that might make sense. When he did that, he came up with the correct word, combining it with decoding. 

    As we did the work described above, Zoom froze. He left the meeting. This is very interesting. He is resistant to doing anything that requires conscious processing. It's just too hard—it's hard for all of us. It is much more delightful when thoughts and learning flow through us, requiring no effort. I am going with the theory that he has problems because the conscious system is so underused. Another question is why people wind up with different mental patterns.

    In my experience, some of it is just an accident. Some stumble upon a functional path, and others don't. Another possibility is that a child imitates a parental brain pattern. That's sometimes confused with genetic inheritance just because it runs in families. I have found cases where a person becomes overly dependent on one way of using their brain and avoids using it differently. 

    After I finished the tutoring session, I went down for another nap. I am sleeping way more than I usually do.  I feel a little lost, dislocated, purposeless. I wish I had more tutoring students, particularly ones that are not too frustrating. I don't put down frustrating students. It is with them that I learn the most about how the human brain works and doesn't. 

    I have put out more information. Judy says I should advertise on Craig's List. I'll see.

    I felt lost; I couldn't do what I needed to do to find myself again.  I took another nap. As I lay there, I hung my left leg off the sofa.  Some people have told me to do this. It never felt right. I know why now.  The purpose of the position was supposed to be a psoas stretch.  My inner thigh muscle is so tight the stretch never reaches my psoas. I tried releasing my right psoas by hanging my right leg off the side of the bed. When I do that, it's a whole different story.

    When I got up, I treated Elsa's skin with infrared light. Her belly hair was too long. It took her to the yard with a scissor in hand and clipped away. At first, she was tense. Then, as I managed not to nick her with the scissors, she relaxed completely. She lay there, draped over my lap. 

    I fed her and went for a short walk. I'm not even up for that. I don't know what is wrong.  Yvette came up before I ate dinner.  We talked about the political situation since George Floyd's death. It's good that we're all talking about it. There has been a sea change.

    I've been aware of how blacks live in the country forever. But I had the advantage of forgetting about it until the following incident came up; now, it was in my face again. Now, no one can look away. It's the way it should be, but it is unpleasant.  This is the way many people have to live constantly. I do not believe I'm entitled to live blind to the pain of others. 

    Sandor called. I had texted him earlier to say my reduced oxygen count was caused by a problem with the device, not my health. He had a busy day and was exhausted. 

    I texted D.'s mother asking if we could postpone the session until 11 so I could do some shopping before I came home after my 8:30 am dental appointment. She texted me back that she was going to have to cancel anyway. She was going to let me know in the morning. I will have to ask her to let me know sooner. Usually, it doesn't make a difference, but for this upcoming appointment, it did.

    Thursday, June 18,2020

    

    I heard the water running hard when I went to bed last night. It sounded like a good-sized leak. Our water supply pipes run above ground. We don't have to bury those lines; it never freezes. Burying them requires a lot of work; it's all solid rock. Putting anything underground is a major deal.  I texted Yvette and Josh so they could start looking for it when they got up. I also texted B. to let him know. Next thing, my phone rang. It was B., and he was on his way up to deal with the problem. I never meant to wake him up. I figured he would sleep through the texting as I would have. But it woke him. 

    He appeared outside my bedroom door in my backyard with a miner's flashlight attached to his head. There are two levers to turn off the water going down to Yvette, Josh's, and B.'s areas.  He turned them off. We talked about turning the water back on at 5 am when Josh took his morning shower. How do I know? Remember, I can hear the water running when it's in use. I know the way the toilet sounds versus a shower. He takes a twenty-minute shower every work morning. 

    The plan was for B. to come back up around 5 am.  I thought the levers might be difficult for me to reach. I woke up before 5 and decided I had to try. I found they were easy to reach and easy to turn. I texted B., telling him I had taken care of it, and he was to go back to sleep. Later in the day, Yvette texted me to say the 'leak' had been a running toilet and no more. Ah! That was an easy fix. 

    I left Elsa home again as I walked, allowing her to rest her leg. I only did the street I live on, walking up and down several times. My hip and the surrounding muscles were tweaking.  Again, is this discomfort part of the healing process, or is this the end of the road?  I wasn't able to do much in Yvette's driveway yoga class.  I spent most of the time relaxing the muscles in my pelvis and legs while sitting in a chair in the driveway. The rest of the participants followed Yvette's directions.

    After the class, I had a chance to do a healing session with a client, working on body tension. Some of it was straight healing, and much was the bodywork I developed, which I call MicroMoves. This uses very slow movements of the fingers and toes, moving up as far as the wrists and the ankles. It has a surprisingly relaxing effect.  

    Before the Virus shut down, I had a cranial sacral treatment from someone at the Hawaiian Physical Therapy group. I have had such treatment before, but this was completely different. The therapist put one hand on my sacrum and another on the back of my head, sending energy. This practitioner put one hand on my spine and then made small moves on the front of my body. It had a fantastic effect and reminded me of the work I do with MicroMoves. 

    Shortly after that, I had an appointment with D.   He got all three multiplication facts we had been working on wrong on the first try. On the second attempt, he got two correct, 6x7 and 4x9, the two that could not be easily figured out. His brain did produce them. He forgot 3x3=.  I have no idea what happens in this boy's brain. 

    He got most of the before/after answers correct. Then he missed one and didn't know he had gotten it wrong. Repetition is the only solution I can think of to get this information into his brain. Repetition is the most common method for memorization. I work with students who need help with this skill. I have had success with the BrainManagementSkills, finding different pathways through the brain circuitry than they used. I've had only minimal luck with these methods with D. 

    I spoke to him directly about his ability to learn implicitly. I didn't use that word. I called it learning that slips in without thinking about it versus learning that has to be consciously thought about. Does he have an auditory processing problem? I asked him if, when his mother gives him a list of things to do, he can remember them all. He said yes. I have to check with his mom.

    We reread the same paragraph in the book we have been working on. This must be the fifth or sixth time we covered the same words. Good news! He got one of the words he had trouble with correctly, and he decoded the word fascinating, using the procedure I taught him and getting the word much more quickly. Bad news!  He still couldn't remember a conceptual point we had repeated every single time we did this paragraph.  The words are, "Socks was unaware of the hard feeling between brother and sister." Again, he read the words as "brothers and sisters" and said it referred to the other kittens.  Today, I read the preceding paragraph describing the 'bickering' between George and Debbie before he read the target paragraph.   We have been over this six times, and still, he said that the brother(s) and sister(s) are the other kittens.  He cannot remember what we discussed.  

    Then he read a sentence substituting a word that made no sense. I asked him if the sentence made sense to him as he read it. Sometimes, a substitute word will make sense to him even if I don't understand it.  However, what he said made no sense to him either. I slowly, painstakingly led him to substitute a word for his misread word that might make sense. When he did that, he came up with the correct word, combining it with decoding. 

    As we did the work described above, Zoom froze. He left the meeting. This is very interesting. He is resistant to doing anything that requires conscious processing. It's just too hard—it's hard for all of us. It is much more delightful when thoughts and learning flow through us, requiring no effort. I am going with the theory that he has problems because the conscious system is so underused. Another question is why people wind up with different mental patterns.

    In my experience, some of it is just an accident. Some stumble upon a functional path, and others don't. Another possibility is that a child imitates a parental brain pattern. That's sometimes confused with genetic inheritance just because it runs in families. I have found cases where a person becomes overly dependent on one way of using their brain and avoids using it differently. 

    After I finished the tutoring session, I went down for another nap. I am sleeping way more than I usually do.  I feel a little lost, dislocated, purposeless. I wish I had more tutoring students, particularly ones that are not too frustrating. I don't put down frustrating students. It is with them that I learn the most about how the human brain works and doesn't. 

    I have put out more information. Judy says I should advertise on Craig's List. I'll see.

    I felt lost; I couldn't do what I needed to do to find myself again.  I took another nap. As I lay there, I hung my left leg off the sofa.  Some people have told me to do this. It never felt right. I know why now.  The purpose of the position was supposed to be a psoas stretch.  My inner thigh muscle is so tight the stretch never reaches my psoas. I tried releasing my right psoas by hanging my right leg off the side of the bed. When I do that, it's a whole different story.

    When I got up, I treated Elsa's skin with infrared light. Her belly hair was too long. It took her to the yard with a scissor in hand and clipped away. At first, she was tense. Then, as I managed not to nick her with the scissors, she relaxed completely. She lay there, draped over my lap. 

    I fed her and went for a short walk. I'm not even up for that. I don't know what is wrong.  Yvette came up before I ate dinner.  We talked about the political situation since George Floyd's death. It's good that we're all talking about it. There has been a sea change.

    I've been aware of how blacks live in the country forever. But I had the advantage of forgetting about it until the following incident came up; now, it was in my face again. Now, no one can look away. It's the way it should be, but it is unpleasant.  This is the way many people have to live constantly. I do not believe I'm entitled to live blind to the pain of others. 

    Sandor called. I had texted him earlier to say my reduced oxygen count was caused by a problem with the device, not my health. He had a busy day and was exhausted. 

    I texted D.'s mother asking if we could postpone the session until 11 so I could do some shopping before I came home after my 8:30 am dental appointment. She texted me back that she was going to have to cancel anyway. She was going to let me know in the morning. I will have to ask her to let me know sooner. Usually, it doesn't make a difference, but for this upcoming appointment, it did.