Monday, March 1, 2021

 Monday, March 1, 2021

 

My sleep pattern has changed. I go to sleep quickly. When I wake up, I am convinced that it is almost time to get up because I feel fully rested. Last night I went to bed at 10 pm and woke up at 11 thinking the night must be over. I have no complaints about my lovely sleep, but I do find that I need several naps during the day. I believe this weird sleep pattern is a sign of my current grief. This, too, will pass.

            Busy, busy day. It started with our morning walk, and then I edited and sent out the blog for the day, only to discover one I hadn't posted for February 29, 2020. It took me a minute to figure out what was going on. There was no February 29 this year. I edited and posted both entries for the end of March. The number of readers of the blog is slowly increasing-for now. Instead of zero or one reader for a day, the numbers look more like one or two readers for the day. Sometimes, it's 87 for one day but not the next day. 

            I was supposed to go through my PowerPoint presentation with an old school chum from Ohio. Yesterday, I created a revised 'notes' document to go with the PP. The notes remind me of what I want to say with each slide. I no longer have a verbatim script, just keywords. 

            Carol, my Ohio friend, had trouble with the sound system on her computer. Her granddaughter came over to fix it. That was done. However, when I sent her an invitation, it was unusable. Carol called her daughter, who said she couldn't do it on her computer. I texted back that maybe her computer was too old and wouldn't support Zoom. That was right on the money. Her computer was twenty years old. I guess she doesn't use it much, just for the occasional email. We would do it on her phone, but her daughter told her that Zoom was blocked on her phone. I'm not quite sure what that was about. I spent the time rehearsing the presentation and making more revisions. 

            I was exhausted after all the morning's activities and needed a nap. Before I did, I called some charities for which I didn't have donation receipts. There are three charities I donated to twice on the same day. I'm hoping they can send me one compiled receipt. I don't think the IRS will be impressed with two donations for the same amount on the same day.

            Now that the PowerPoint is pretty well done (only pretty well because every time I go through it, I notice something else I want to change), I'm free to attend to some other issues.  

            I had placed an order with Dr. Marty's online. I ordered a standard batch of six and noticed that they had a special sale for a group of twelve. I tried to order the sale amount. I couldn't manage their online order system. I wound up ordering two sets of six, two sets of twelve, and one set of some high-energy powder. The group of six was $172 apiece; the group of twelve was $312, and the special powder was $375. Holy Cow! When I saw that I had ordered the powder, I called immediately to cancel. They said it had already left the warehouse; I would have to return it. I did that and remembered getting the refund for $375. The problem was I had only received eighteen packages of food instead of thirty-six.  

            I finally figured all this out today, working from the credit card bill. When I called, I got this woman with a strange speech pattern. She asked, "Could I ask you some questions?" It's a standard question; it was just her voice was particularly solemn. My first thought was she would ask me if I was a citizen. I told her about my reaction. She was somewhat defensive. I assumed it was just a bad moment on her part or mine, but as our conversation continued, I realized this was just the way she spoke. Every utterance was delivered with some inappropriate solemnity.  

            Our conversation concluded when it was clear I had been reimbursed all the money except for one order for six bags and another for twelve. I wanted the second order for both of these. I'm not sure why they were canceled, but that was preferable to being charged and not getting them. 

            I had H at 2:15. He wanted to play Science Games. When I Googled that, I found the PBS Kids offer something called Science Games. He confirmed that's what he wanted. I think asking any seven-year-old to be specific about the site would be asking a lot.

            Since I was the one who downloaded the site, I was the one who had to manipulate it, and he had to give me directions. Perfect. He had to be patient with me and communicate clearly; that's what we're working on.

            I had J at 3. His sister, Ju, wanted to participate too. She wanted to work on the words, do the Phonics Discovery System. First, we worked on the words he requested. They are laughing and fooling around. They consider the activity play not learning. I demonstrated using Phase Two of the method to decode 'antidisestablishmentarian.' J did great.

            Then we worked on writing a story. Their bird had died earlier in the day. The story was about her illness and death. Ju dictated most of the story. As they worked, I became aware that both had poor verbal expression skills, not just J..This is probably not just because Spanish is spoken at home but because they don't speak a very high caliber Spanish either. I anticipate their language skills are poor in both languages. He still isn't listening to the audio file on his own. I insisted that we play it. I was surprised to find listening to it deeply soothing. J and Ju said they found it that way too. I played all the tracts of the Quiet Queen. When the audio file was over, j and Ju laughed and said they played with some game as they were listening. I said, "Perfect." I don't recommend that people listen in a focused way. I advise parents to play it for their children as they fall asleep. It should be background noise unless someone follows the transcript to improve their reading. I have used it to help with speech deficits and other auditory processing problems. Listening is how phonemic awareness is developed, regardless of one's reading level.

            The tree man came up to check the view. He took out a tree on the corner of the property that helped expand the view. I love this guy. He is a joy, does a great job with the trees, and doesn't charge top prices. Win, win, win + win.

            I finally got hold of Judy today after four attempts over two days. I was sufficiently worried to try her sister Paulette. Although I can't imagine I wouldn't be called if anything went terribly wrong. Judy's been in pain post-surgery. She finally had her conference with the surgeon. He was able to tell her that she would have pain for six weeks at least. The muscles had been detached from her spine so he could get to her spinal cord to remove the tumor. Judy discovered how much her back muscles are involved in every move she makes.

            I signed up for a health site to get more information on combating incontinence. I spent $125 for access to one infomercial after another. Yuck! I did get the information she promised to include. I was valuable, maybe even worth the $125, but the informercial flood is annoying, if not downright disrespectful.  

            Elsa has been developing skin lesions again, which the vet says result from an allergic reaction. I have been treating it with Science Diet prescription food, Dr. Marty's food, vet prescribed medication, and Intrasound powder. There was a point when I got her completely clear of lesions. Yesterday, I applied some Intrasound Gel directly on the new lesions. While they didn't disappear, they got better immediately.