Saturday, January 22, 2022
I tried a different stretch for the hammertoe on my right foot. While standing, I put my weight on my curled toes so the top of them was in contact with the floor. I remember seeing dancers do that stretch. I could feel the stretch up through the top of my foot into my shin. It’s more powerful than the stretch the PT recommended.
I was awash in loneliness. I didn’t turn the radio on. The silence was more comforting than human voices. Instead of running from the aloneness, I moved into it more deeply. I meditated and felt better. I was reading Batchelor’s book on solitude, embracing it. I’m fine alone; I rather enjoy it. It’s just when it gets to be too much of a good thing. I feel I don’t have the option of fulling embracing companionship. There’s a good chance I will never again experience the kind of companionship combined with the love and affection I had with Mike. To quote August when he was four, “I don’t like it.” This is annunciated with a tone of voice only a four-year-old could pull off.
I called my hanai sister Jean for her birthday. She wasn’t doing well. She was in terrible pain. She had a back operation scheduled for the 21st. It was canceled because of the burden of Covid on the facility. She has been rescheduled for February 7. We’ll see. I hope the operation remedies the problem.
I had the M & W sisters this morning at 9. First-grade M read her story about getting her horse. She struggled but hung on. She freaks out when she can’t do something and runs away, in some cases, refuses to do anything. Her memory problems came to the forefront today. We encountered the word because repeatedly in the story. She didn’t recognize the word from one minute to the next. She also had trouble remembering the spelling kn in know and knew, even though we went over it repeatedly. At least she didn’t say, “I don’t want to do this anymore.” On the other hand, the number of words she does recognize has increased.
I couldn’t find the story fifth-grade W wrote last week for love or money. I apologized and told her to dictate it again. It was a good exercise in its own right. I noticed she’s reluctant to use pronouns where appropriate. I asked whether I could change it to “He didn’t see them” instead of repeating the noun form. Nope. I called mom after class to get details on what she was referring to when she said W had problems with editing. It was simpler than I thought. It’s just using capitals and periods. Mom didn’t even mention commas.
I did some house cleaning. Because of the pain in my ankle, I have been putting off those chores.
Judy stopped by to drop something off. She said I looked better, not quite as sad. This is partially from meditating and embracing solitude versus running from it. Also, three people have asked for more information about my reading method, and there may be one new client. Sometimes, I imagine walking down a street, and all the doors are shut to me.
I ran into Lutz on my evening walk. He wondered if Isaac could drive him to the airport next Tuesday. He would still be at school. And, oh yes,Isaac gives piano lessons to someone that day. He wouldn’t be home anyway. I offered to drive him. He said he wanted to offer it to Isaac first because he was prepared to pay. I told him he could pay me. We laughed. Lutz is leaving for a vacation in Colombia for three months. He’s traveling the world searching for a place to retire that’s friendly and cheap. I don’t know if there’s a safer place in the world than Hawaii, at least here on one of the outer islands. Oahu is the central island; it was that before the white man arrived. All the other islands are referred to as the outer islands.
I had an appointment with someone from Step-Up Tutoring who had watched my video and wanted specific advice for the student she was teaching. From her description, her third-grade student was way behind the eight ball. She had no consistent strategies for discerning what was on the page. She either got it (it was in her memory), or she made something up without regard for what was on the page. I don’t know if I gave a coherent set of suggestions. Since it did seem she wasn’t anchored in her sensory perception of the basic sound units of English. I suggested she start there.
We also discussed her inability to retell a story. She could give details of the story, character, and setting, but she could not follow the plot. I told her to use the WbyW procedure: take a simple sentence and ask every conceivable question. I chose a simple sentence from a second-grade book. The woman was appalled. “That’s so Dick and Jane!” This from a woman who read from Dickens to her middle school children. She has no idea that the rest of the world doesn’t understand language as she does and as she trained her children to by speaking to them as she did. I hope she understood how complex language comprehension is by the end of the session. It was a shock to me, too, when I saw that children often don’t know how to answer the simplest question using the material in the text. Some of this is because that skill is assumed. It shouldn’t be. Many problems would be solved if we dealt with them directly.
I was going to make chicken with cilantro wontons and broccoli. Both required stovetop cooking. I turned it on and -nothing. That meant the tank was out of gas. I checked both food packages. There were microwave instructions for both items. I discovered that broccoli was much better when cooked this way. I could be sure it wouldn’t be overcooked. I could apply the butter to the frozen broccoli and soak it into the vegetable while it cooked. I called Adam first to ask him to come over tomorrow to switch out the tank. Then I decided to call Scott. He texted he couldn’t do it tonight because he was on his way to work. I assured him tomorrow would be fine.
I continued watching Midsomer Murders. The only fully satisfying bit of it is the character of the forensic pathologist, played by Annette Badland. She’s the only interesting character, the writing is good, and the actress portrays it brilliantly.
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