Monday, January 18, 2021

 Monday, January 18, 2021

            My meal last night wound up doable. I had seasoned and broiled a hunk of meat I thought was chicken that wound up being tuna. I was concerned I had overcooked it. It wasn't succulent, but the seasoning saved it.

            I went to bed around 9:30 and read for a few minutes before going to sleep. When I woke up, I felt well-rested. I thought it was around four-thirty. The clock disabused me of that idea. It was 12:30, and here I was, wide awake. I did some relaxation exercises that involved tightening muscles, allowing muscles to tighten until they became too painful or frightening to hold. I became aware of all the tension in my eyes. I used the healing protocol. "I release anything negative about the tension in my eyes and keep anything positive, or I still need." Then I just observed the tension and watched as it changed. I couldn't get my eyes to relax completely, but they were much better. The remarkable part was that my nasal passages opened up. I suspect the relaxation had some impact on my sinuses.

            I have been having more trouble with my eyes. They get tired easily. Of course, it's after I've been working on the computer for one reason or another, including FreeCell.

            I spoke to an old friend of mine from Hawaii. We talk about politics and family history. We are on the same page politically. I have friends on the other team, and she has family members of the same persuasion. 

            I did some work on the updates and then on the PowerPoint presentation on my reading method I am preparing for the Step-Up Program tutors. It makes me feel good to do that work. Then why don't I make it my top priority? Hmm??

            I heard someone who helped develop an online game, which breaks out into a real-time treasure hunt, talk about QAnon being such a program. He said this isn't just one person. It takes a great deal of time to continue putting it out. I can imagine that a foreign country is behind it, like Russia or China, interested in bringing down our democracy. Looks like they know what they're doing. 

            I went out to do some shopping today. My first stop was Safeway. The parking lot was empty. Huh? Maybe it's closed because it's MLK Day. No, that doesn't make sense. Safeway is open 24/7. I had Yvette on the phone to ask her what she knew what was going on when it dawned on me that they had opened their new store down the hill across the highway. It was just a hop, skip and jump to get there.  

            All I wanted from Safeway was a few jars of my Better than Bullion vegetarian broth and some sauerkraut. I have been craving sauerkraut. Maybe I'm pregnant. I finally found my bullion, but no such luck with the sauerkraut. An employee told me that I would find it in the cold section on aisle 13. I couldn't find it. I stopped one employee in the aisle. She turned around and spoke to me with only about a foot between us. We were both masked, but I was shocked. She pointed in the general direction down the aisle. I asked a second one. She has never heard of sauerkraut. She pointed to the sour cream, thinking it was the same thing. It didn't occur to me that I could have looked for a jar of unrefrigerated sauerkraut until I was pulling out of the parking lot.

            I went off to Home Depot. I returned a large bag of Sevin and bought a trash barrel. The gardeners must have taken the one I had, thinking it was theirs. I will have to defend my new one.

            When I got home, I napped. I only had half an hour before my 2:15 appointment with H. Judy called. She had just discovered that my neighbor had put his home on the market. Why did he do that? How much does he want? What does the house look like inside? She said she had some friends on Oahu who wanted to move to the Big Island who might be interested. They had an open house the other day.   

            I sent the Zoom invitation to H. There was no response. I finally called his mom. She said she had forgotten. Today is a holiday, and she was off schedule. She was about to leave the house. No worries. We'll start up again next week.

            A few minutes later, I called her back. I got her voicemail and left the following message about what her seven-year-old autistic son had done in our last session. He didn't want it to end. While he usually insists on doing what he wants to do, he proposed activities that I have suggested. This is amazing for an autistic person. Their big problem is that they lack a theory of mind, which means they cannot understand that someone is thinking something different from them. To have made those suggestions, he had to anticipate what I might want to do and use that knowledge to manipulate me. Wow! Wow! and Wow!

            I had put off my appointment with J from 2:30 to 3:30 because of my appointment with H. I decided to wait until 3:30 anyway. He said he wanted to work on writing. Before he did that, I tried to get him to find the phonemic awareness audiofile on Bandcamp. He couldn't bring it up again. I don't know what the problem is. I will have to try. If I can't figure it out, maybe my grandson can. 

            Right before my session with J started, there was a thunderstorm. It's unusual for there to be thunder and lightning here. Usually, it's just rain. It can be very, very, very heavy rain, but no thunder and lightning. Today's was impressive. Elsa was impressed. She jumped up on my lap as she does when she gets scared. 

            Today I didn't have to prompt J to find something to write about. He found it on his own. He wanted to write about when his sister caught her first fish. Before he started, he asked me what he should begin with, their preparations to go fishing, their trip there, their arrival? He was asking for advice about the story structure. I said I would only include the information directly related to his sister's experience that day and not just any old fishing outing. He is writing more and more of the story himself. I am taking more and more straight dictation. This process is a truly amazing way to teach both oral and written verbal expression skills. I've had good results with everyone I have tried it with.

            Some people declare that the method could never work. I appreciate that it seems counter-intuitive. I first used it with a seven-year-old boy that wasn't reading. I thought if we put together some stories he generated, that might make it more interesting for him. It was my plan to make sure the stories flowed well.  

            The first story was straightforward. They became more complex rapidly. I didn't know what I was looking at. Then his mother called me to say that his writing was amazing. I said, "Really, I'm the one doing the writing." She said, "You don't understand; his speaking has improved." Oh! Ever since then, whenever I have used the process, parents have called to tell me of the improvement in their child's speech or writing. They tell me this, expecting me to be surprised since I had done most of the writing when I worked with them. I have to tell them, no, I am not surprised. That is always the result of this work. 

             I have been dialoguing with John Coughlin about the books in Mike's library. I asked him to find another seminary librarian to send the catalog to. He said he wanted to wait until I checked books off in the catalog and maybe even created another one. 

            I told him I hoped the books were checked off as the librarians requested them. If not, we were in a whole different ballpark. So far, I have sent out less than a thousand books out of 3700. Reentering all these books into a new catalog would be a mammoth job. He had forgotten how the system worked. He said he would look for other seminary librarians.

            I also heard from the librarian from St. Patrick's, to whom I have sent 400 books. He said he thought most of the books on religion must be gone by now. Oh, boy! Not even close. This is truly a mammoth job Mike has left me with. His plan was for ALL the books to go to the library at the seminary where he had worked. Oh, yeah. I'm sure they would have been more than happy to take all the books if I had sprung for the library's Ross Wing to house them. They didn't want one of them, not one.

            I texted Ronen to find out the status of his house. It was sold within 48 hours of being listed. Judy tells me the Big Island housing market is hot. The prices are more reasonable here than on the other islands, and the population is less dense. Since people can work remotely, they flee the other islands to come here.