Wednesday, January 27, 2021

 Wednesday, January 27, 2021

            I slept solidly until 3:30. Then I was up and tossed and turned for the rest of the night. I finally gave up and got up. The alarm went off simultaneously. I have no idea why I am so agitated. Maybe it would make more sense to say I have no idea why I'm not agitated all the time, given what is going on in the world today. I'm tense and nervous and ready to scream.

            I finally emailed the medical alert company yesterday. I wanted to know the procedure for returning their equipment. When I canceled my Master card because of the scammers, it was a good time to terminate my relationship automatic payment with this company.

            The reality is I didn't use the gadget. There were problems with it. It was connected to my Internet landline phone. When the grid was down, so was my medical alert. Because I was uncomfortable wearing the button as a necklace or bracelet, I fixed it to a clip with Velcro. While the button stayed in the clip, the clip would fall off as I gardened. Additionally, the signal didn't reach very far out beyond the house. I have gotten into wearing my phone constantly because it counts my steps. I’ve completed 10,000 + for 108 days now.  Every step counts. If I fall, I can reach for my phone. 

            In fact, that did happen one day. I didn't fall; I just couldn't get up after kneeling while gardening. The button would have done nothing. My phone came in handy. I called my neighbor, Ronen, who came over and hauled me to my feet. 

            I unplugged the transmission unit in anticipation of mailing the gadget back to them. Only one problem, it kept calling out, "Calling for help!!" periodically well into the night. This morning when I came to check on it, it was bleeping. Can you imagine sounds like that coming from a package in the post office? Right. I called the company to figure out how to get it to stop. There were a series of buttons to push and hold, and the machine went silent and dark. 

            I also owed them money. I had figured if I didn't pay, the service would just stop. It didn't. Or at least, that's what they said. I gave the clerk my credit card number. She told me it was rejected. What!!? That morning, I checked with the card company to see if the solar company's charge had been posted yet. It wasn't, and I had no reports of problems on my card. She reran it. Still rejected. I called the credit card company. They said there had been no attempt to put charges on my card.  

            I headed to town. I needed to do some shopping and drop off the medical alert unit at the post office. I called the company back and left a call-back number. They got through to me just as I turned into the Safeway parking lot. Great! I did not plan to yell out my credit card number in the middle of the produce aisle. I gave her my numbers twice while sitting in the car. Again, the card was rejected. I told her I thought the problem was on her end. She went to check; I got out of the car and went into Safeway to the bathroom. It had gone through, no explanation. Good enough. All's well that ends well.

            All I wanted in Safeway was Honeycrisp apples and pill pockets for Elsa. Four Honeycrisps cost me $13.50. I assume they're expensive on the mainland but look at these Hawaii prices. Thank God for Costco. Safeway didn't have pill pockets, but it did have dog training pads. I picked up twenty.

            I don't put one down often, and Elsa doesn't have accidents often. Because of the change in her diet, she had loose stools yesterday. I put a pad down in my shower pan; she goes through the shower to get outside if she wants to go to the bathroom between walks. One wall of my shower is a glass door leading to the backyard. Because she was loose, she needed to do more than she had done on our walk. Lo and behold, she had used the pad. While I know punishing a dog for an accident does nothing, I did try joyful praise upon seeing her gift.

            I stopped at the post office to drop off the medical alert package. There was one person in line ahead of me. You've got to be kidding me. I have never seen the post office that empty. Once I handed the package over, I realized it would probably be cheaper to send it by priority mail. Yeah, about five dollars cheaper. Here's where my nerves came in. I didn't have the patience to unpack the box and repack it. I couldn't stand one more minute of frustration, or I would start screaming. I was already screaming inside. 

            I decided not to go to the bank to cash my economic impact debt card. This debit card idea is the worse. It mimicked what credit card companies do to trick you in to get their card. All those cards go right into the trash. I hate to think of how many people did just that. Also, it is easier to steal a debit card sent through the mail than a check. The envelopes they came in looked cheap too. Nothing you'd expect from a government office. I think some Trump loyalist arranged for this to make Biden look bad. At least, I hope it was a Trump loyalist. I can't imagine the level of incompetence involved if someone thought this was a good idea.

            I skipped the bank. I was going to Costco; I didn't want that much cash on me. They had everything I was looking for except fresh sauerkraut. The sweet kale salad is readily available now. It isn't just popular with me; therefore, it is well stocked.

            After I got home, I took a nap before my 11:30 appointment with D.  I had not had much success with this boy. Yes, his reading is somewhat better. His verbal expression skills are slightly better, but his memory: zilch, zero. I have worked on the same four multiplication facts for a year, and he can't remember the answers when he sees the same problem a second time in the same session. I am burning out. I have never been so stymied in my professional life. He is nine years old and can't remember his address or his mother's telephone number.  

            I need to extract myself from that situation for my sake, but how do I do that to this boy? At the rate this is going, I will be working with him until he graduates high school. 

            I called the school today to get the evaluation process into place. Anyone can fill out the request for evaluation form. I had the school send one to me and D's mom. I also contacted his current teacher and teacher from last year to fill it out.

            I grabbed another lie down before my 2 pm appointment with M. We are working on inferencing. She is insensitive to the relationship between things being discussed in the same paragraph. She overthinks the information. She brings in her background knowledge in counterproductive ways. Hopefully, as we do more of these exercises, she will understand the limits of possibility set by the words in each item. 

            I texted J to say that I was available now. He tested back he was at a party. Could I do 4:30 instead of 3:30? Sure! We don't have to do a session today at all. When we did meet, we went over the math problem again. I also continued with the phonemic transcription and the exercise where he repeated a sentence. He is doing better with both the phonemic transcription and the exercise to repeat a sentence.