Thursday, June 10, 2021
During morning driveway yoga today, I deeply relaxed the muscles in my upper back. My muscles just let go as I lay on my back with my arms above my head. I remained in that position, giving my muscles a chance to get used to that state. Then, I couldn't get out of the position. I couldn't activate my muscles. They didn't know who they were anymore. I asked Yvette to come over and help me. She moved the chair that was above my head. I sit in a chair where others in the class sit on the ground or on yoga blocks. The chair is at my head at the top of my mat when I lie down. When I stretch my arms above my head, they go under the chair. That's where I was when Yvette moved it.
I still couldn't move my arms. There was no neurological connection. I needed Yvette's help. She came over and very, very gently moved each arm individually so they were resting at the side of my body. Should there be any question in anyone's mind, she is a spectacular yoga teacher, and massage therapist, her sensitivity to the body is impressive.
When I checked my email after class, I had one from Tom Bender, the librarian for the Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. I had donated books to his library. When that was through, I started on the next list for the St. Patrick's seminary in Menlo Park, CA. Despite sending many boxes of books to both seminaries, I still had about 2,000 books left. The librarian at St. Patrick's said he thought he ordered every book related to religion or philosophy that remained on the list. I guess not. Was it possible I had missed giving books to Notre Dame? I asked Tom to provide me with a list of all the books he received. He kept putting me off because he was too busy. I emailed him again. It would be most helpful to know which books I had already sent to him. I got his list today. I checked off his list of books received against the list he requested. OMG! Not even close. I suspected there was a problem at his end. There were books on there I have no memory of ever seeing. I got very familiar with authors' names as I combed the shelves. I think I am going to have to catalog the books from scratch at some point. John Coughlin, or the diocese, is paying for the subscription for the catalog app. I should cancel the old one that John Coughlin set up and take it over myself.
I received a letter in the mail thanking me for my stories. They helped with this man's grief. It freaked me out. How did he get my name and address from the public blog, Mike's Death; Betty's Life? I was thinking of writing him to find out. Ah! Then it occurred to me. He was part of the grief group I worked with through Yoga Farms Ithaca. That's how he got my name. That group has been over for two weeks. I was glad to participate. Aside from getting me to use the Ho'oponopono differently, I didn't get much out of it, but I was glad for the company.
K's mother has a set of twin girls with learning problems. She asked me to work with them once a week. I worked with them separately. I thought I could work with them together, but I see that will be impossible. They are going into second grade. One cannot remember the name of a single letter in the alphabet, even the names of the letters in her name. As she said, she has memory problems. Oh, boy, does she ever! I know this little one fell out of a second-story window when she was two. She landed on her tush. There were only scratches in that area of her body. However, if she landed on her tailbone, that impact would have traveled right up to her brain. Whatever, she's young enough. We should be able to help her rewire.
The twins' names are almost identical. There is only one letter difference between them. They were named that way deliberately. Someone said that's what you're supposed to do with twins. I can't remember which cultural tradition this comes from. So, the one with the memory problems is A; the other one is E. E knows most of the letters in the alphabet. I had her name all the letters in continuous text in sequence. In just a short time, I could hear a difference in the speed of her letter recognition and rate of word recall. I will have her reading by the end of the summer.
Beth from Hawaiian Solar called to say that workmen would be over in the early afternoon. She called a week ago, realizing that my monitoring system hadn't been functioning since December. Someone came over immediately to reconnect the monitoring app to the Internet. Uploading all the missed months would take a week. The week was up; the defective panels were identified.
I received a faulty batch of solar panels for the installation. They're guaranteed. The company has been good about replacing them, even covering the labor costs. When the men were through, they said they had moved nine panels. The company insists that they be moved around to check their low performance wasn't due to shading. The monitoring system showed that they were functioning the same as before.
While the men were here today, I trimmed some shrubs along the driveway. I have been looking at them day after day. It took all of fifteen minutes to make a sizeable dent. It feels so much better seeing it done. I am a master procrastinator. However, it gives me so much pleasure to complete a chore, to even make a dent. Every time I see the result of my handiwork, I smile in satisfaction.
I am working with adolescent D four days a week over the summer. In today's session, he read the paragraph we've been working on with greater speed. He made some small errors. They will have to be cleaned up at some point, but not now. I had him work with the -ain word family today. He did a better job holding on to the sound and blending an initial sound with the chunk.
I am using more traditional teaching methods with adolescent D, but still not traditional Orton-Gillingham. That approach presents each letter/sound relationship one at a time and only uses prepared material. There is no way they would do -ap one day and -ain the next. I'm banking on the idea of teaching adolescent D that there are patterns, patterns he has to search out himself. So far, I'm showing him patterns. After a few more sessions like this, I will ask him to identify the word family pattern in a word. The idea is to teach him to search out patterns on his own and apply that knowledge.
Today I asked him if I emailed him the paragraph we've been working on would he read it on his own. He said, "No," without hesitancy. I don't think he thought of himself as being lazy or uncooperative. I don't think he gave what he said any thought; he just reacted. I have been slowly introducing the idea of his agency in the learning process. We have a way to go. I'm not sure why he is so passive. Is it his personality, or is this learned helplessness?
When I asked him to evaluate our session yesterday on a one to ten scale, he said, "A four, I guess." Well, that was an amazing change. He started at a 1, then moved up to a 1.5. I told his mom. She said, "That's interesting. Whenever I remind him to sign into the Zoom session, he sends me a sad emoji." I spoke to him about it today. I told him, "No mother is ever happier than her most unhappy child." I said stop sending her a said emoji. Send her an okay sign. I will have to tell him this does not mean he can't sit down with her and vent his frustration with his situation. He just can't dump it on her casually.
I got a call from Kaiser to schedule my Botox treatment. Yep. I have a dropping left brow which is interfering with my vision. I saw a plastic surgeon to consider a brow lift. But then I realized that would give me a shorter forehead. I have a world-class little one; I'm close to Neanderthal. The plastic surgeon said I could go with Botox. He was going to check if Kaiser would cover it for medical purposes. I hadn't heard from him in over a month, so I sent him a message. Today, his nurse called me to set up an appointment. Let's see if the treatment helps. Let's see how weird I'll look. Whatever! The effect of the treatment fades between one to six months.
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