Tuesday, April 13, 2021
Today was the first anniversary of the driveway yoga classes. Yvette was in a great mood. She explained how they got started and how people started adding on. The core group of regulars is seven people. Often there are only three or four in the class. She had a gift for each of us- head nets. No, not to keep our hair in place, to keep the bugs off our faces. They're just house flies. They don't bite, but they are annoying. Joe said many people wore them in Maine in the spring- black fly season. Those babies bite and how.
Judy was supposed to meet with me at 9 am to do more work on my reading method's video presentation. She needed to change her appointment. She hadn't been to the beach in 8 months and was starved. On Thursday and Friday, she wouldn't have the car. Could we change it for one of those days? I had seven scheduled appointments for Thursday, but Friday was open. We're on for 10 am on Friday. While I was at it, I asked my adolescent E if he could switch to Friday instead of Thursday, our standing time. Sure. That made for a better distribution of the time.
Since Judy canceled, I made a trip to town. I had some packages to mail; I wanted to go to the bank and stop off at Safeway before I had to be home for my noon Zoom appointment. The post office line snaked to the back of the building. Okay. I would mail the packages and do everything else tomorrow. The line didn't take that long. I could have made it to Safeway if I didn't have a noon appointment. I called the boy's mother to make sure we were still on. I had a funny feeling. She didn't answer the phone. I figured she was busy helping one of her five children with their schoolwork.
When I got home, I sat down to launch the Zoom session with K. I called his mom again to ask her to make sure he had some of the schoolwork available for our session. She said, "Sorry, I'm in Honolulu." Oh, boy. I had sensed that she wasn't available. I couldn't believe that she would make other plans without telling me. I was furious. I told her how rude I thought it was for her to make other plans and not even tell me. She started to say Sorry. I cut her off. No, not sorry. Say, I'll never do it again. I told her if she did, I would be done with her; I found that behavior very disrespectful.
She texted me and told me to call her 12-year-old daughter. She would hook up K on the zoom. I called the daughter. No, she was not at home. Then I thought, maybe the mom had a medical emergency. That would be a reason to not remember her appointment with me; she had to fly over to Honolulu on short notice. Had I jumped the gun? Was there an emergency? My phone rang.
It was her oldest son. His mother had called him and told him to get K on a zoom meeting with me. He explained she hadn't realized that I was planning to meet with K weekly. The mother sent me a text saying the same thing. Ha! Ha! I wrote her, "I'm good, but I'm not that good that I could fix all of K's problems in two half-hour sessions."
K sat through the session if you don't count the 10-minute bathroom break. I did other work while he was away and then extended the session when he returned, so we had the whole time. I tried the "follow the line" exercise again, and I tried slowed phonemic production. The objective of both is to give his brain something to focus on. He was more comfortable with the slow production of the phonemes than watching me draw the line slowly. He would be familiar with the sounds because his brother played the phonemic awareness audio file for him every night as he slept for about a month. On a range of 1 -10, he gave the phonemic awareness a 4. Pretty good! We ended the session with the context exercises from a beginning 2nd-grade level. He does reasonably well with this. I think he will catch on quickly.
When I had started that session with K, my eye spied a large pile of poop- for Elsa on the lanai. Poor girl. I hadn't gone for a walk after yoga. Instead, I went out and sprayed the front yard with vinegar as well as the strip along the front of the house. Elsa came to the door and barked, but I didn't get the signal. It wasn't her fault that she was stuck with a craw full of poop. Of course, she had a wee-wee pad spread out for her in the bathroom. Guess not. I will clean it up with my Rainbow vacuum cleaner.
When I go for one of my short walks, I call, "Elsa, you want to go?" I walk to the library and get her leash. If she comes, she wants to go. If she doesn't, she doesn't. It's brilliant. When she doesn't want to come, she doesn't bark at the door the whole time I'm gone. Whadaya know? This time, it wasn't anxiety that made her bark; she needed to go to the bathroom.
I went for a walk after I finished my session with K. I did some work on the updates and lay down and read some of All the Devils are Here, the latest Gamache book. Jean, my hanai sister, and I are great fans of Louise Penny.
There was massive confusion about J's appointment time today. When I checked what I had written down, I saw 2:30, but I thought we discussed an earlier time. I wrote him back that we would only have half an hour together today. When I sat down to sign in at 2:30, I saw his text changing the time to 5pm his time and 2 pm mine. Too late. Other confusion ensued. I took it as a sign that it just wasn't meant to be for today.
I had A at 4 pm. He is doing better, but it did feel like I was slogging through molasses with him. He did remember to focus on the vowel when he ran into trouble. I think he has some serious disability. I'd say autism, but he is not cognitively impaired. Usually, children autistic children with 'retardation' are hyperlexic. It's almost a way of diagnosing the problem.
Damon called yesterday when I was in a session. When I called him back, he was on to other things like dinner. He said he would call today. He didn't. I know he's a busy boy.
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