Thursday, May 20, 2021

 Thursday, May 20, 2021

            Mei brought her five-year-old daughter to yoga today. We got a chair out for her, not to 'sit' on but climb on to get away from the dogs. Anna is terrified of dogs and always has been. She did pretty well, both with the dogs and the yoga. She did the best she could for the full hour. At one point, Yvette did an exercise designed for her preschoolers. She had us jumping like a frog. Anna got right into it.

            Anna commented on how the dogs smell. Yes, Elsa was due for a bath. She licks herself a lot because of her skin condition. The dried saliva smells. I'm doing better with bathing her. I discovered I could distract myself while she suffered the fifteen-minute sit with the medicated shampoo. She seems more relaxed since I'm more at peace with the process.          

     Joe, one of the yoga participants, is an excellent gardener. I consulted him on the progress of the orchids we planted in the front yard. Each time someone gives us one, that's where it winds up. One of the plants was doing very well; a new flower came out. A second, he told me to spray it with a mixture of water, a few drops of soap, and a spritz of rubbing alcohol. Something was attacking the plant, and this concoction would fix it. After yoga, II did some gardening. I vinegared the weeds and trimmed some of the bougainvilleas in the back lanai.

    Joe has complained of backache. I have been remarkably free of all aches and pains, suffering only from my left hip and inner thigh limits. Yvette had recommended that we do releves whenever possible. I started pushing it more. I can now climb the stairs with both legs. When I walk, I push through the left toe. My leg is much stronger as a result. I try to pass on my discoveries to Joe; we're both over 80.   Last week, I showed him how to do the releves while holding on to a shelf. He complained it made his calves ache. Today, I asked Yvette if there was any relationship between the calves and the lower back. At first, she said no. She said the calves have a bearing on the knees, affecting the lower back.

      When class was over, I threw my blanket in the washing machine. We've had rain every day, downpours. I wanted to get everything washed and dried before the afternoon storm.

          Talk about not remembering: I forgot to put the vet appointment in my calendar. 

      Fortunately, I remembered I had one and that it was on the 24th. When I called, the receptionist asked me what time the appointment was. Hmm, if I knew that, I wouldn't have had to call. 

  Elsa has to get her ears checked. Every time I washed her, I got water in her ears; we're off and running with another ear infection. I mentioned this to Yvette. She said she just wipes down their faces with a damp cloth; she doesn't do a full wash on their heads precisely to avoid getting water in their ears. I bought a special 'shampoo" which could be applied without water. I used that today. It seems good enough.

     When I got back from one of my short walks, I saw a baby turkey frantically running back and forth on my side of the fence while mama turkey was yelling her head off on the other side. I couldn't catch that baby for love nor money. It would hide in the foliage. My neighbor, Mei, and I tried to force mom out into the street so she could get back together with her baby. I had to give up, but I worried about it. Today, I saw both the baby chicks together in the vicinity of mom. Ahh! So much drama.

     I participated in the Step-Up Tutoring presentation on an education resource, Discovery Education. They provide a stunning number of video and auditory materials to support learning. The LA school district includes their site in what they offer the kids. I have no idea how much of what J has worked on comes from this source. I was only one of four participants and the only one who returned for part two of the presentation. I rather enjoy all the presentations. They're stimulating. I don't expect to learn much, but you never know.

     Damon had modified my PowerPoint video on my reading method. He added some geometric shapes to some of the videos. I was shocked by the change: the creator's reaction to editorial input. I sent it out to Dorothy, Judy, and Melissa for feedback. It played to mixed reviews. Judy liked it; Melissa loved it; Dorothy thought it was too busy. The images were random and had no relationship to the topic. From my follow-up discussions with Judy and Mellissa, I planned to change the slides to be more in line with the topic, reading. Damon asked me to send him notes on what I wanted to be changed. Today I reviewed all the slides and took notes Damon asked me to make to send to him so he could make the changes. As I looked through the presentation, the slide changes looked a lot better than they did on my first viewing. I decided to try to make the changes with Tommy, my Tech. He was coming over on Friday rather than bother the very busy Damon.

       The Sears home serviceman arrived to look at my refrigerator water dispenser. It had been on the fritz for a while.   When I turned it on, it would make a slight clunking sound and only dispense a dribble of water. Then it would be okay an hour later. I had called the service center once before. The tech recognized it as an air bubble in the line caused when I last changed the water filter. Solution: run four gallons of water continuously. However, the tech couldn't tell me how to do this without getting four gallons of water over my kitchen floor. I tried quickly alternating two four-cup measuring cups, but it was never fully continuous. I had called Sears back to tell them I couldn't solve the problem. This tech arranged for a service visit.

      The refrigerator was accommodating when he arrived, but the water dispenser didn't' work. I had just figured out that if I switched the modality to ice and back to the water, I could get it to work. The serviceman took out the water filter and burped it over the sink, getting all the water and air out. Then he asked if I had another filter. Yes, I had a new one. He inserted that one. There was the same problem. He replaced the old one and tried to turn on the water. This time there was a loud clunk and no water. Oh, dear. He said it might be a valve problem. He will be back on June 4 to replace it. In the meantime, I will have to live with unfiltered water. 

      The phone tech had no information on how to drain the water dispenser for four gallons continuous, and I couldn't find any information on YouTube. I considered making such a video myself. One to show how to 'burp' the water filter to get the air bubble out. A second one on how to drain the water continuously. The serviceman said people buy the funnels you can get in the automotive section in Home Depot. You can drain it continuously without getting water on your kitchen floor using that device.

    K. had an appointment at 2 pm. I did more work on his handwriting. Today, I had him tell me the next letter to write in his name before I wrote it. Yes, it was only his name. However, naming the letters one at a time with an interval between each letter is neurologically challenging. It is an entirely different neurological process to observe me writing it and remembering what he saw rather than just writing it on his own. Among other things, he has to retrieve the image of his name every time. He got all the letters correct. He says he hasn't written his name yet. I have heard nothing from his mom either. Then we did some comprehension work on the third-grade reading level with inferencing. I noticed that he misses simple words. I gave his mother sheets for him to work on, naming every letter in the text and underlying the vowels. I doubt he is doing that. I'm going to have to have him do that work in our session.

My last session of the day was with A. I gave him a choice. He wanted to continue working on the Sight words. He can read the words in sequence quickly. He still gets one word wrong per column. He can't quite get it perfectly. We have been doing a quick reading in sequence, and then a slower one when I pick out words on the list randomly. That way, he can't rely on his memory of the order of the words. I think he is reading some of the out-of-sequence words more quickly and with greater accuracy. In our last session, I told him to look at every word and think about which part of the letter, which letter, and which syllable is on the one side (his left) versus the number two side (his right). He got most, but not all, of lower case Bs and Ds right. It sounded better. Then he read HER as HERE, despite the work we did on it last week. I wrote HERE and HER on the side of the page and asked which was which. He understood the one with the extra E was HERE, but he couldn't apply his knowledge. I had to lead him through the logical steps.  

    I have trouble again getting A to follow my directions. He "wants to do things on his own" rather than rely on my tricks. I can't seem to convince him that my "tricks" aren't substitutes for doing it the way everyone else does but a way of training his brain to do what everyone else does. We talked again about why he didn't follow my directions. He said at one point, "I want to be normal." I told him every human being worried about that. However, his 'difference' is more visible than some others.   

For my final session of the day, I had I. We continued working on the co-writing. She requests the writing now rather than avoids it. She brings up topics readily but doesn't yet develop a full storyline. She works on expository writing about an object. It's not quite time to push her into something new.

   I got our appointment time wrong at the beginning of the week. She was ready to sign on, but I hadn't sent a link. She said nothing to her mom. She's run into problems before because she doesn't speak up. I asked her why. Her first response was that she didn't want to bother someone. I asked her if she was scared. She admitted it. I told her she had to find the courage to speak up and take that risk.

     I also found out that her mother had not commented on the stories I sent her. What!!??? Moms have to read these stories and make positive comments; they must do that. Their positive feedback is invaluable.