Tuesday, March 16, 2021
I called Fiskars again before yoga. I ordered a manual reel lawn mower; you know, the one reliant on your muscle power. Yvette and I were both concerned if a grass catcher could be attached. They said they had only one style of reel mower that could take a catcher. I had called yesterday. The price they quoted was different from the one I paid; I paid less for ordering on Amazon. When I looked for the lawnmower with the grass catcher on the Fiskars site, I saw three different items next to the basket. All's well that ends well. I had ordered the right model. Moreover, Fiskars is out of that model. Maybe it is very popular.
The gardeners were coming tomorrow morning to clear out the lower forty. I had asked that they pull out all the haole koas as part of that. Those they couldn't pull because the roots were too large after being weed-whacked over and over and over, they would cut back and douse them with gas. I had them do that once before, only I had gotten regular gasoline. It has to be diesel fuel. I couldn't find the red gas can I had left in the garden a while ago, so I stopped at Home Depot to find a new one. I started the search in the automotive section. Nope. It was in a gardening tools section.
I head off to Costco with my two-gallon red gas can to get the gas. The line I got on was bad. Finally, a spot opened. I pulled in at an angle because I didn't dare back up. I would have been traveling at under 5 mph, a dangerous speed for me. The attendant came up and told me to move my car; he even offered to move it for me. I told him I just wanted a few gallons of diesel for the can. "Well," he said, "you can't use that can. You need a yellow can for diesel." Ah. I got back in the car and went back to Home Depot. As I approached the return desk, the attendant walked away and went to the other side of the store. I sighed and worked on breathing deeply. Once he got back, the return was easy. I told him I needed a yellow can. "Where could I get one?" He walked me to the aisle where I got the red can, the gardening tools aisle, and helped me look. Good thing he did. A) the can was tucked away on the bottom shelf, and b) it was huge -a five-gallon job. Okay, I bought it and returned to Costco. I knew I couldn't lift that can into the car. I asked for help from the attendant. I asked for only three gallons figuring that would be more than enough. He filled it for me and lifted the container into the car. I was off, chore done, and I hadn't freaked out. Yeah! For me. I have been stressed. It took effort not to knock someone's block off.
I had a new client through the Step-Up program. It's just temporary. The girl's usual tutor couldn't do two hours for a short period. They wanted me to cover the extra hour. I have been worrying about this. I asked the mother what the girl needed. The mom told me she needed help writing essays, but they told me that her tutor just helps her with her homework. I will use homework to teach a skill, but I don't like making completing homework my only objective. This means I may do a small portion of the homework to teach a skill. If I find a student who needs me to do all the work to complete it, I will refuse. That's a waste of my time, and it doesn't benefit the student.
Today was supposed to be my first session with her. I got the time confused. I set my alarm for Hawaii time rather than LA time. We rescheduled for sometime later in the day. Then we couldn't get the Zoom connection to work. Mom didn't receive the email I sent her. Then I tried to call the mom. Each time I dialed the number, it was dropped – immediately, "Call failed." Da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da! We even tried to have the girl send me a Zoom link. I got the email but couldn't get the meeting to launch. Wild. We gave up for the day and rescheduled for tomorrow.
I had J. later in the day. He was now working on his schoolwork instead of something random. This is the third session we have done this. During the first, I said, "Yes," as he answered each item, telling him it was correct. There was only one I challenged. In the second session, I said a little less. Today as he worked, I created a birthday card for my grandnephew, Sidney. I didn't even read the material. J asked me for help spelling a word; that was it. Much of his problem was self-confidence. I asked him at one point if he was questioning his answers and putting down wrong ones as a result. You know the old, "I'm too stupid to do well. If I think it's right, it must be wrong." He now said that his work is going much faster and is more fun. I am happy to sit with him while he does his work if it helps give him confidence. I reminded him each time that he did only the work on his own. I assume as his confidence builds up enough to drop me like a hot potato with a, "Who needs you anyway?"
I had my third appointment for the day with A. I noticed he had problems figuring out what word might fit into a sentence, a Cloze activity. We all need that when we come across words, we don't recognize. Students whose decoding skills are good need to figure out what the word is using context even when they have the 'incorrect' pronunciation. For example, if a student pronounces the last syllable of practice to rhyme with 'ice,' they can make the necessary adjustment when they read the word in the sentence and figure out what it really is. A cannot do this. He can compose good complete sentences, but he has difficulty with comprehension. I suspect autism with this child. His parents have never had him evaluated. I told them I thought it would be a good idea without telling them what I suspected. Autistic kids need support as early as possible to learn appropriate social behavior. They can follow directions and learn what to do when told explicitly, but they can't figure it out independently.
When I went for my evening walk, I was shocked to see a no trespassing sign on my new
neighbor's fence. The sign announced the presence of a video camera. We have a video camera set up too. We did have one issue when a guy who stayed here as my guest for free took offense when I asked him to leave. We suspect he grabbed some clothes off the clothesline in my backyard, right off my bedroom. Other than that, we have had no incidents. My neighbor's sign seemed to announce this is a dangerous neighborhood. It was quite a mood changer.
On the other hand, this sign was posted on the day some nut case shot up two massage parlors in Georgia with mostly Asian working women. Our new neighbors are Chinese, not Chinese -American; they are immigrants from China. I don't think we have had any incidents here. We have a large Asian community in Hawaii. A recent incident occurred when a police administrator made some mocking comments about Asians. He was fired.
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