Tuesday, December 29, 2020

 Tuesday, December 29, 2020

 

            The full moon was orange as I walked this morning, an effect of the vog. I continue to feel down. Is it an accumulation of small cuts? Is it the effect of reading Madeline L'Engle's book, A Two-Part Invention, where she describes her last months with her husband? He went through much of what Mike did, a long period of hospitalization while he was kept alive thanks to medical advances. She was in the same position I was; she had to make the decision that led to his death. I finished the book last night. Maybe things will be better now.

            I managed to get a fair amount done today and felt somewhat better by late afternoon. I did my half-hour of gardening, weeding really. I washed the kitchen floor. I did some prep work before calling Sears to see if I could convince them they should do more rather than write off my stovetop as irreparable.  

            After yoga, I spoke to Scott about changing the extension cord I use to charge my electric card. For some reason, Scott and Yvette changed it out a while ago. Before then, I didn't have any problems. The last two times I tried to charge the car, it didn't work. The charger shuts down for some mysterious reason. After I switched out the cord, the charger worked for the rest of the day. I have to try it a few more times to see if this alternative cord will work consistently.

            I met with Eb today. I hadn't worked with her in several months. I asked her to read to me. Aside from poor decoding skills, it seems that she has a poor sense of language. She read a clause to me from a book she was reading for her class. When I asked her if there was something before or after the words she gave me, she had no idea what I was talking about. She didn't register that she hadn't read a complete sentence. Now the language was complex. Maybe if it had been easier, she would have understood what I was talking about.

            I had a scheduled appointment with J, my Step-Up tutoring student. Our last session was grueling. That's weird for me. Something was wrong. The work wasn't exceptionally hard; it was just the effort was weighty. I told him that he should take a break. We have been working three hours a week. The tutoring program only asks for a commitment from the tutors of two hours a week. If I cut a session short, he pushed for a makeup. This is an eleven-year-old boy. What is wrong with this picture? If he was from an Asian family, I might say, "This poor kid, with his pushy parents." But his family is Guatemalan. I convinced him not to do the session today. I proposed we start up again on Monday. He had to learn to relax a little.