Thursday, March 25, 2021
We had eight students for yoga today, but still not one of the women from our street. Scott was back after a break, and Casey, Jared, and Jared's sister Tara came. Deb offered a bribe with freshly baked blueberry muffins.
Elsa's belly was still covered with lesions despite the medicinal bath of yesterday. I tried Willard Water. I learned about it while still living in Princeton. I haven't used it in years. It was a product offered by some little-known website when I first got it. Now, I could buy it at Walmart. Wow! Someone got rich.
Elsa hates baths and hates having her ears treated. I thought a cold Willard Water compress would be of the same order, but no. She completely relaxed on my lap as I applied the compresses to her lesions. I took a video of her stretched out, completely relaxed. I told her she was making her daddy (Mike) happy twice over. One because she was happy with what I had to offer her, and second because she made me happy. I had to throw her off my lap. This is great. If the Willard Water helps with her lesions, this will be an easy fix for both of us.
I found the original order receipt from Home Depot for the window. Scott said the window is not double-hung. I was sure I made it plain to the Home Depot Associate who placed the order that it had to open both at the bottom and the top. Having a window that just opens at the bottom is useless in this case. One that opened just at the top would work. The rain comes pouring into the room if the bottom window is open. I was going to go to Home Depot myself. It occurred to me it would be better on any number of counts if Scott did it. He could take the window with him. He would know what people were talking about when he explained how the window works or what was wrong with the order. A refund is dubious since it was ordered 8 months ago and delivered 6 months ago. We can try and then go from there.
Scott told me that he found the diesel gas cans, poured 2 gallons out of a full can (5 gallons) in another can, and placed it in my shed. I can't possibly manage to lift a 5-gallon can. I will use the diesel gas to kill the haole koa trees.
I drove to town for the second time in two days. I stopped at Ace Hardware to pick up gloves for handling chemicals. Scott said to wear them when I applied the diesel to the haole koa trees. Then I went to the bank to cash several checks. There was no line. There was only one teller serving people. A second was at a window but unavailable. The one providing service walked away. Besides cashing several checks, I had a question about the debt card the government had sent me. I had no idea what my password was. How could I find it out? She told me that she could cash it without a password. OMG!
I thought sending debit cards through the mail was a stupid idea. People must have been breaking into mailboxes to get them. Now I come to find out you don't even need a password. Anyone can grab the card and cash it at the bank.
I worked with J at 2:30. He continued working on reading comprehension. He often misreads small, high-frequency words, but not enough to interfere with his comprehension, which is quite good. The passages are long, 12 to 15 paragraphs. He generally remembers what he read. There was one story today where I had to ask him to go back to the first paragraphs because I wasn't sure of the answer.
As I do every day, I asked him today if he is getting more answers right on his own. This is the first time he said, "A lot!" Yay! However, I noticed a letter and number on the top of the last story. N.2. What does that mean? In the F & P reading levels, N is the beginning of third grade. Is that really what his reading level is? Maybe. I think the reading material is pretty complex. I would be surprised if it's considered beginning third grade. I will have to ask his teacher.
E, my adolescent, wasn't free. His family was dealing with a bee infestation. I went for a short walk. I had A at 4:30. We did more of the Context Clues exercises. He moved through five of them with relative ease- a significant improvement. Not only did he do that, but he could also use context clues to figure out what a word might be when he wasn't able to get the correct pronunciation through decoding. He completed all the passages I had typed. I was amazed we got through so quickly. I texted his mom and asked her to call me.
She got back to me within the hour. A's father was on the line too. I told them about our work on context clues and why. I recommended they create a book with all the transcribed reading selections from the Carpenter materials and a separate book with his stories, so he can read them on his own. They said they were seeing a big difference in just two months. He was reading words when he came across them on signs or TV. I asked if they were seeing a difference in him. They said yes. Where before, he had no life ambition, he now declared he wanted to become president of the US. Who knows? Anything is possible. Maybe he would make a good president someday. More importantly. He sees himself as capable of aiming for whatever he wants. I'm seeing increased confidence in his ability to learn.
I made a list of chores I wanted to accomplish this morning. It helped motivate me to get things done. Treating Elsa's belly was on the list, as was going to the bank. I got those things done. Washing the kitchen floor was on that list too. I got that done. I am sure it was easy to get to it because of the list. Must do that more often. I didn't get around to spraying the backyard with vinegar. Still, I did move four of the 1-1/2-gallon jugs of vinegar from the driveway to the backyard. At least, they're ready to be used, and I felt I did something. I did close to nothing on Sam's birthday card. But I did get an idea of what I wanted to do. I was not good enough to be sure I could pull it off because I pictured it.
Dorothy told me she started telling Sam a fairy tale. The only one she could think of was Goldilocks. Sam actually requests the story, "oliocks!" He particularly likes the line about the Papa's porridge, "Too hot!" I'm thinking of ways to use my golden wrappers from my Hershey's Milk Chocolate with whole almonds for her hair. I see three chairs of different sizes. Goldilocks will be sitting on the just-right chair eating Papa's porridge, crying, "It's too hot!" This is an ambitious project.
For Sidney's birthday card, I made a giraffe out of yellow card stock with his neck bent over, tucked into the card, hiding a sticker with cupcakes saying, "Enjoy these!" Then under his tail, I placed some brown stickers and wrote, "Don't enjoy these!" He's three.
I didn't do any work on writing for work. While I wrote the kids that they could decide about the septic tanks, I hadn't heard back from them. I made the decision myself. No- too many complications. And the kids are definitely not interested in something that requires maintenance.
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Musings:
I'm reading the Biggest Bluff by Maria Konnikova. She's a journalist covering psychological and social issues with a Ph.D. in Psychology from Columbia University. She learned to play poker to better understand the difference between skill and luck. She did research on how people dealt with luck. She experimented with subjects, I'm sure grad students, playing the stock market. She found that those who thought it was all a matter of skill didn't change course when they lost; they didn't adjust to life circumstances. They hung on to the belief that they were in control. The biggest bluff is playing life well. That can only happen if we discern the difference between our ability to control the circumstances and how out of control we are.
We don't even control ourselves on a minute-by-minute basis. What we control is limited, very limited, but very significant. If every move we made was 'controlled' by us, we wouldn't make it from our chairs to the bathroom. It would require enormous effort. We do most of what we do on automatic. We observe ourselves going through our paces. What we do have is veto rights. We can say no to an action we disapprove of. We can also say yes to something new. That yes isn't an absolute yes. We have to run it past the committee, all the 'brains' in our body, each with their own voice. I am sure my vision of the human condition is a nightmare to others- self by committee. But I'm quite content with this. I've made my peace with it. All the parts have found a way to negotiate peacefully.
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