I was wide awake by 4:30. I was well-rested and didn't need more time in bed. I was out for my walk and on the phone with Dorothy when my alarm went off. By 7:30, I was on the phone with the Sears Benefits Department. Four hours and fifteen minutes later, I got to speak to someone. Being on the phone forever reminded me of my experiences with the scammers. I had decided I would give up after six hours.
When I spoke to the Sears Benefits department, I asked if the money to replace Mike's unrepairable six-burner stovetop only applied if I purchased the stovetop from Sears or could I apply the money to buy it from another store. No, it only applied to my Sears' purchase. Sears does not carry a six-burner stovetop of any brand.
Mike loved his six-burner Kitchen Aide stovetop. I loved giving him what he wanted. I am smiling now, remembering his delight with his dream kitchen. Since I have the money, I am prepared to purchase one like it from Home Depot and pass on Sear's monetary offer. We more than made our money back when we got our refrigerator replaced through Sears Protection Plan. Now, I have to arrange for a repairman to fix the dial the last serviceman left slightly damaged. I'd like to be able to sell this stovetop for a couple of hundred dollars. Of course, I will tell the buyer about the stovetop problem. When any one of the three back burners is on, three other ignitors click away endlessly. It's annoying. Do I ever use the back burners? Good God, no. If I use one burner a night, that's good. I want to leave the house in good shape for the kids for when I die so they can rent it immediately without problems.
Thinking of Mike's delight with his kitchen reminds me of what I miss most about him, our shared joy over our relationship. He was someone who lit up when he saw me, and I lit up when I saw him. We were decent to each other, but what made our relationship special was that we both enjoyed expressing love and receiving it from each other.
We would say that we had the advantage of coming from difficult homes. This meant that we deeply appreciated kindness. Yes, I miss this more than anything else. Giving up Mike's kitchen design is too painful. I know, it's ridiculous. Fortunately, I can afford this piece of ridiculousness. I will have to pay for this out of pocket. Okay. I can give that to myself.
I got lots done during those four hours I was on the phone waiting to speak to a customer service agent at Sears: I did a deep cleaning of the shower glass door leading to the outside. I packed up three boxes of books. I did lots of little things. I can't remember them all. One of the great things about writing down details of life while journaling is that it reminds me that I don't do nothing all day.
When I checked my email this morning, two of the men who advertised themselves as editors on Craigslist had responded to my outreach. One of them proposed editing the document in real-time with me, reading the document out loud. I was concerned about how he edited the organization of the document if he didn't read it first. His proposal is doing line editing first and then document editing. If we are compatible, I like his approach. I use cowriting when I compose stories with students. I model good writing, good speech for them as I do this. I have had surprising success with kids improving their verbal expression skills, both oral and written.
I had arranged to meet Mrs. B, one of my third-grade teachers from the local elementary school, to get second-grade materials. I will be working with H., M's 2nd-grade brother, this weekend on inferencing. His mother left it to me to find materials. Mrs. B. helped me out.
After stopping at the school, I went to the Post office to mail the three boxes of books I had packed up. Then to the bank to cash a check. Then to Target to pick up apples and another spray can of Pam, which I use to clean the soap build-up in the shower. I tried to drop off my ink cartridge at Target. They don't take the large laser ones. I went to Office Depot to drop it off. Then to Home Depot to pick up the skylight I had ordered.
I got a call from Home Depot the other day, saying it was in. Unfortunately, I didn't have an order number. I don't know what I did with the receipt. Ow! The associate was great. She found a way to find information on the order. It had been a tricky one; they did a 'backdoor order.". Even though they had a brochure advertising the skylights available, they couldn't order it directly because they didn't ship it to Hawaii. They had to have it delivered to a California branch of Home Depot. Then they sent it to Hawaii. It cost me more, but it was what I wanted.
That's what it means to live in Hawaii. Without Amazon Prime, we'd all be screwed. When I can't get an item through Amazon Prime order, I have it sent to Dorothy in New Jersey, who then repacks it into a prime mailing box and sends it to me. To give you an idea of the difference, when I order something shipped to Dorothy for five dollars, it costs fifty dollars to have it shipped to me directly. Sending things to Hawaii is up there with shipping things to Europe or Africa.
I was going to contact D.'s mother to tell her I was available when I got home, but it was already almost three, and I had another appointment at four. I needed some rest. Besides, D.'s mother is having email problems. I see several people are. I changed my password; I hope it is not because the scammers have gotten hold of my email list.
I worked with Et. He's a five-year-old who is having speech problems. I actually do more work with his parents than with him. I helped them with their fear for him and gave suggestions for exercises they could use with him. First, I asked for an update. He continues to speak more, not only to his parents but to others. His father says his speech was becoming clearer. I'm glad he can hear it; I can't.
I made a list of word family units (a-n, a-ne) with most of the vowels and most consonants. I had originally thought we should start with the unvoiced sounds versus the voiced. Et. participated enough so I could hear that he was adding a sound to the end of the stopped consonants. I switched my instructions, so the emphasis is all on the continuants, and dropped the stops.
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