I was up early, as usual, did my walk as usual, and felt sluggish as I have over the past few days. Yuck! It’s the worst. Well, maybe not. I’ve seen the worst when I watched Mike go downhill over five weeks before he died. Sluggish is great in comparison.
I have been cutting back the old heliconia plants as per Joe’s instructions. Now that I understand what to do, I’m going gangbusters. The driveway is littered with cut plants waiting for the gardeners to come on their monthly visit and clean up.
I can’t work too long at any one time. Instead, I go out several times during the day, coming in when I think my body needs a rest. I have been working with a short-handled clipper, clipping the plants as close to the ground as I can. Today, it occurred to me I could use my long-handled hedge clipper. I went out with two kneeling pads. My new approach worked like a charm. I could reach stems more efficiently and got a great deal more done with this approach. Then I went to get up-, maybe not. I could stretch my legs out; I couldn’t get my legs under me; I couldn’t haul myself up by gripping the fence. I laughed. Then I called B. He answered his phone, “Do you need anything?” Yes, are you home? “No, I’m in town.” Oh, dear. I need help getting up. “Oh, shit! Are you okay?” Oh, yes. I’m not hurt; I just can’t get up. I’ll call Ronen, our next-door neighbor.
I saw Ronen’s truck sitting in the driveway. I was optimistic that he was home. I heard his phone ringing matching the ringing on my phone. Ah! Would you do me a favor? “Sure!” Could you help me get up? I’ve been doing some gardening, and I’m stuck. “Sure. I’ll be right over.” You will see me against the fence when you come out. His dogs came out with him. The new one ran to the fence to bark at me.
The best way to get me up is to grab my hips and pull me back onto my feet. Ronen followed by directions beautifully. I was up in a shot. Had to wait a few minutes for my legs to come back online. He picked up the kneeling pads and my clipper. Then I was good to go. He waited till I was on cement again, handed me my tools, and left.
When B. got home, he stopped off to check how I was and tell me he would be home for the rest of the day. I hope to go out again sometime today. While the work places me in difficult positions, it is great for my body. I get to move and work muscles that don’t usually get their day in court.
I thought I had canceled my Raymond James MasterCard. Au contraire. I called today to claim the rewards points only to discover that the card had not been canceled. Just as well. I wouldn’t have been able to claim the points if I had. They told me to cancel it in three days, once the reward’s points claim had gone through.
I called Spectrum and Kaiser to make sure they had my new credit card number for my automatic payments. I didn’t call Sears today to make a repair appointment. I need to set aside four hours before I start that.
Dorothy and I worked on my article again today on Zoom. We’re both enjoying this approach to editing. She’s been reading it out loud. I have read it out loud to myself over and over and over. It is good to hear another person mouth the language of my sentences. She has some great insights.
Today was a special day. She saw a need for me to do the phonemic transcription differently. I have been putting intruded sounds in superscript all along as in the word [w-one]. She suggested that I do something different with the silent letters. I saw that I could mark them with subscript [l-ist/e-n]. I don’t like it for my elementary school children. I think even the superscript is somewhat confusing for them. While there aren’t many intruded sounds, there are many silent letters. It would seriously change the way the look of the words. However, what a fantastic way to transcribe the words for adults learning English. It makes it clear which letter is sounded and which is silent.
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