Monday, February 15, 2021

 Monday, February 15, 2021

 

            Despite going to bed late, I was ready to get up when the alarm went off. Elsa hadn’t been happy about walking with me. She pulled back. Then we came across a cat. When she sees a cat, I’m lucky I can stay erect. Elsa has a thing for cats.

            I called my friend Carol in Ohio today on my morning walk. It went straight to voicemail. That was unusual to start with, but I didn’t hear back from her. This leaves me concerned. Carol is not in the best of health. I don’t have a number for her daughter, but I have a home address. If I don’t hear from Carol soon, I will write.

            Both H and J canceled today. I found out that Presidents’ Day was when I asked Yvette if Josh was okay when I noticed his car was out front.  

            I committed the morning to working on the PowerPoint. When I went to open it, it wasn’t listed under “recent.”  I searched for it and couldn’t find it. My computer had been acting up. It deleted the graphics from the PowerPoint. I restored them because I had an earlier version as an email attachment I had sent to Dorothy. Because of that scare, I made a point of sending the document I worked on yesterday to my email. Thank God I did. 

            I also had my computer shut down on me when I used it. What was going on? I called Apple Support. Russell, currently working from home in NYC, Queens, to be specific, ran a diagnostic and told me that my battery was shot. I need a replacement. He could send me one for $129.50 plus a $19 shipping fee, or I could go to a local shop. He asked me for my zip code. I giggled as he searched. “You live in Hawaii?” Yep. I wondered if he would give me an Apple Store in Honolulu or Maui. They’re not far away; it’s just that there is an ocean between the islands. He found Mac Made Easy here in Kona. I knew where they were and called them immediately.

            If I had some contract with Apple, their diagnostic would be free. If not, it would cost me $95. More concerning, he said it would take three days to do the diagnostic. No, I could just bring it in and get a new battery. Russell from Apple support ran a diagnostic which took all of three minutes.  

I still had the problem with the PowerPoint acting up. Russell didn’t think he could help me but gave me the contact information for Microsoft Support. Rather than pursue the Microsoft issue, I lay down for a nap. What a wonderful nap! I was utterly relaxed and completely discomfort-free. I had started with a meditation releasing some pressure on my heart, causing heartache. 

            I texted Judy. Her son Adam had a tenant who works on computers. He worked for Mac Made Easy and quit because he couldn’t stand the boss and thought he could do the work for less. I needed his number. I texted Judy, asking for it.

            I had a phone call with D’s mother today. We were filling out paperwork to get him evaluated. D. isn’t the fastest thinker I’ve worked with, but I hadn’t thought of him as actually slow. Mr. B, his teacher from last year, and I agreed that his problem was confined to a memory problem. Mom said that she saw problems with comprehension. D. is the youngest of four children. She sees him as much slower than the older three. She also said she felt he responded to multi-sensory methods for memorizing the multiplication facts. It came out she had used those methods with him to memorize the same facts I had worked with him. She said he could remember when she used that method. I told her that he hadn’t held the facts she worked on. “Oh!”  I have no idea.

       I only had one tutoring session today with I. On Friday, after our last session, her mom regaled me with all the medical problems she had with her ears. She had many ear infections when she was younger. I have read ear infections are associated with reading problems. Mom asked me outright whether there was any way to overcome such problems. I said yes, I had helped people, but of course, I couldn’t guarantee it. Each person is different. Remember my struggles with D; I feel I have made very little progress with him. 

            Given the information I’s mom gave me, I started right away with the BrainManagementSkills. Her visual memory was on the right-side auditory center. Getting her to shift over was easy. I had her do the Neurolinguistic programming exercise, visualizing a word in her head, her own name in this case, read the letters forward and then backward. You can tell when someone is “reading the letters” versus reconstructing the word. She read them easily. That’s great.

            When I asked her where her auditory center was, she pointed to behind her left ear. In my experience, that spot doesn’t work very well. It’s the point where two pencils would intersect if you could drive them into the head, one from the left temple and the second from slightly to the left of the soft spot. It was easy for her to switch to that point. She said she had a weird sensation in the area, and my voice sounded louder. Both are good signs this is a meaningful change. I read to her from an above-grade-level book (it was the only one I had on hand), having her listen for the sound of my voice from that spot in her brain. This exercise aims to install the brain connections she needs for good auditory processing. 

            I read several pages to her from the book. I told her to lean back in her chair and be completely relaxed, to make no effort to understand, to just allow whatever understanding came to her to wash over her. I assured her I would not ask her for specific information. I would only ask her if what she heard was clearer than usual. She found my voice clearer, as I hoped.

            I called Brian, the friendly computer expert. He will be able to help me with most of my computer problems. As for the help I need with syncing the audio files with a slide show, he knows someone. I told him the problems I was having with the Microsoft Office Word program. I save documents and then can never find them again. He told me everyone is having this problem. Microsoft has forced people into an annual subscription to make more money. Unfortunately, this includes a weird system for saving documents that’s confusing for everyone. Brian said he could help me sort that out. In the meantime, I have to email documents to myself from my Apple Computer when I need them for my tutoring sessions. I use the tablet because it has a touch screen, and my Apple doesn’t. 

            Yvette came up with her throat chakra singing bowl. She has bought a few and is learning to play them with online instruction. I hope it will help me use my voice better for the PowerPoint Presentation I want to make.

            I made General Tao’s chicken tonight from the frozen package. When I followed the directions, I had a disaster on my hands, burnt sauce. I figured out that my stovetop ran too hot for the directions. When I didn’t turn the heat up, it was perfect. See, I am a good cook.