Tuesday, January 26, 2021

 Tuesday, January 26, 2021

            I slept beautifully and got up when the alarm went off. It was drizzling when Elsa and I started out, but we could do our steps, or, more accurately, my steps with me dragging Elsa along. Driveway yoga was on. About 10 minutes in, it started to drizzle. We were doing yoga in the rain-lovely. Then it started coming down a bit harder. It was threatening. We decided discretion was the better part of valor and called it quits. It never poured; we could have continued.

            I had an appointment with the Department of Education tech guys at 9:30. Mark called right on the dot. He was the same young lad who helped me set up the DOE email on my Mac. I had thought it would be easy to set it up on the Surface Pro tablet. Not. 

            I opened the tablet and went through the steps to open the CNTR email in Gmail. Again, that pop-up screen asked for the password for Mike’s email account. I told Mark that Mike died without passing on his passwords, and this email account was closed by the school he worked for. Mark had the answer. He had me go to the Chrome icon, right-click, and sign in as incognito. When I signed in through this window, I got someone@k12.hi.us. I had to reenter the CNTR address, and I was good. I texted D’s mother and told her it was worth getting into Google Meet on his chrome for our Wednesday session. 

            I needed a nap. How did I ever hold a full-time job and get everything done? I am overwhelmed by all the small things I have to do. I do notice that I get energy from social contact. After that breakfast at Zola’s, I felt great.  

            When I sent the Zoom invitation to J for our 2:30 tutoring session, he texted me to ask if we could do it on Wednesday. I don’t question him because he has proven himself a diligent student. He chases me down if I’m a few minutes late.

            I texted H’s mom, saying I wanted to talk to her for 5 minutes without extra charges. Yesterday, H wrote a story with me. He got lots of basic information wrong and misused a word. I made no comments or corrections. I didn’t want to send the story to the parents before making it clear that they should not correct his errors. I was perfectly capable of doing that. I chose not to because I was concerned that he would withdraw if I did. I have to handle him carefully. His mom’s response was, “Brilliant.”

            I got a bunch of updates out. Yay! I was behind. 

            I set my timer to go off around once an hour. I make sure that I get up and walk every hour, getting in a few hour steps. I heard Daniel Liberman on Fresh Air talking about how our contemporary hunter-gathering relatives live their lives. They don’t ‘exercise.’ They move when they have to. They spend most of their time sitting, but they get up frequently to attend to a fire or a child. They have no heart disease or diabetes. Everything went wrong for our species when we developed agriculture. That was our original error. We weren’t designed for the life of property ownership and ‘advancement.’  It’s not good for us. - and it makes us not good for others. Whatever- I have been making an effort to get up to tend to something. Sometimes, it’s just walking. Today, I finally got some more of the floor washed, I did some weeding in the backyard, and I started pulling out these plants in the front yard that were unattractively overgrown. 

            In the late afternoon, I printed out several things. While I was in Mike’s office, I remembered having problems with the Amazon Fire Stick. I changed the batteries and still couldn’t get it to do its job. I called tech support. What do you know? This is not an uncommon problem—the tech led me through all the steps. I had to get an app on my phone to help me reprogram the stick. We tried everything. She finally said that it looked like it was broken. She guided me as I ordered another one. However, I’m not sure I need it. Now, I have the Amazon remote fire stick app on my phone. It works just fine and dandy.

            I did a little bit of work on the PowerPoint. I made changes to the PP and the notes, just a word here and there. Would I ever be able to say “Enough!”?

            I tried to read a little of The Cloud of Unknowing every day. Not too much. It is so hard to understand. However, when I read some to Dorothy out loud the other day, it did make more sense. You have to get a load of this language. Omg! 

            “In the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Ghost! I charge thee and beseech thee, with as much power as the bond of charity is sufficient to suffer, whatsoever thou be that this book has in possession, either by property, either by keeping, by bearing as messenger, or else by borrowing, that in as much as in thee is by will or advertisement, neither thou read it ,  nor write it,  nor speak it, nor yet suffer it be read, written or spoken, of any or to any but if it be of such one, or to such one, that hath by thy supposing in a true will and by an whole intent purposed him to be a perfect follower of Christ not only inactive living in which is possible by grace for to become to in this present life of a perfect soul yet abiding in this deadly body; and thereto  doth that in him is, and that by they supposing hath done long time before, to able him to contemplate living by virtuous means of active living.” 

 I can hear you wonder, “Why bother?”  I think taking on a sentence or two is fun. This is dense language. A little at a time is all I’m up for, and maybe then not every day. It’s a verbal jigsaw puzzle that is language.