Thursday, September 23, 2021

 Thursday, September 23, 2021

 

    While I walked down Kukuna on my morning walk, one of the Toms passed me. As he walked past me, a cat was winding herself between his legs. He said, "She is called The Tripper." Wow! that was obvious. I didn't remember ever seeing her. I certainly have no recall of her ever approaching me. Tom said she avoided me because of Elsa. Thank you, Elsa. Tom picked up The Tripper to prevent her from getting between his legs. She seemed perfectly happy with that solution.

    During savasana today, Yvette offered to place the chair so I could rest my lower legs on them. She told me to relax my legs. I hadn't realized they weren't relaxed. She tied a strap around my thighs. I relaxed and then pushed against the strap. I had an endorphin release, and the impact on my body was immense. Katie, my PT, directed me to work on turning out my legs. This exercise impacted my turnout.

   After yoga, I  worked on the strip along the driveway before the gardener came the next day. If did the clipping done, they would do the clean-up. I wanted to get some vines off the fence. The targeted area was difficult to step into. There were several aloe plants. They have large succulent leaves with little spikey points. They don't scratch, but they're worth avoiding. Once I stepped over them, I took one more step to get nearer to the fence. There was a dip by the fence. I managed to hold on and get some of the vines down, but I knew I would have difficulty getting out. I tried to grab a branch on a neighboring shrub to haul myself out. It broke off in my hand. Fortunately, Scott was in the driveway. I asked for help. He had to grab both my hands to pull me back onto the driveway.

    Scott had assembled my new weed whacker the other day. I asked him if he would supervise my first attempt to use it. I had visions of it dragging me down the street. I went to find a long pair of pants. The weed whacker throws stones; you need protection. I found a pair of dungarees I bought when I first moved to Ohio. Let's see, that's about 18 years ago. I fit into them. Wow! I also found two pairs of goggles I bought years ago for Mike and me and never used. So outfitted, I made my first attempt to use the weed whacker. I particularly wanted to clear the tall grass around the mailboxes, ours and our neighbor's, for the convenience of the mailman. The weed whacker wasn't that unmanageable, but I did have a small pebble hit me in the cheek. 

      I went in to work on the blog post and update. Then I went for one of my short, frequent walks. Heart Solar arrived to replace the bad solar panels. The driveway was crammed with cars from us, the gardeners, and now the solar panel technicians. I should have served liquor.

       I check my Tesla app twenty times a day. It's fun. I saw it wasn't working. What happened now? When the solar panel guys were here, they shut the system down- better than electrocuting themselves. Rather than call the Provision Solar company, I called Tesla customer service. The customer service person kept telling me to shut up and listen. I did. It was just easier. Eventually, she got to my problem and told me how to reboot the program. 

   My friend Jean called. The last time we spoke, she told me that a two ½-year-old, part of her daughter's social group here in Hawaii, had died. He had a pool incident, and his parents had to take him off life support. Jean got another call about two of her daughter's best friends; both died within the last week. I can't remember why they died. It was all too much. The boy was a tragedy for everyone who heard it. The two forty-year-old women are a tsunami of death for all that knew them.

     I had a session with sixth-grade D. We continued talking about his jumping lines of print when he read. I asked him to describe the jumping. He said they always started jumping up and down. They started jumping from side to side as he worked to control it. From what he said, it was clear that he struggled to limit the range and speed of the back-and-forth swings. I told him to relax and allow the swings to get as large as he wanted. I always tell students to stop the process if it feels scary. It should be interesting and fun. I also tell students that I have had hundreds of students do this exercise. Truth: I don't know how many I have led through these releases. I'm a teacher, not a researcher. I never note what I've done and with whom I've done it. I've been using BrainManagementSkills with students since the early seventies. That's close to fifty years. Even if I only used it with two people a year, that would be 100 right there. I used it with many more than two a year. One reason I include my notes on my students here, I hope someone reads them and can do the necessary research. There is no formula. I listen carefully to each student. Whatever the image is, it has to do with what they're perceiving. I never push it. I wait until it feels right. With some, that means within fifteen minutes of meeting them. With others, I may wait months before they feel ready. Even then, I will wait for several sessions before I have the student do the release. This is what went on with sixth grade D.  

    He said the lines were steady after we did the release. No, this does not mean they will never come back. It does happen that way with some students, but I never tell them that is the case. I tell students what to do if it does come back. Just stop reading, close your eyes, and do another release. With each release, they will come less frequently, and eventually, they will stop.

    At three, I sent the Zoom invite for third grade A. His mom texted me that he wasn't home yet. He wasn't home by 3:30. I had a four pm. His mom said, let's cancel.

     I sent my Zoom invite for my 4 pm with the W and M sisters. They didn't sign. I had given up hope of them signing in. I didn't know what was wrong. However, I sat there without signing out, working on the updates. Suddenly, there they were. The mom apologized. She was working on their test results. What test results? Their Covid test results. Both girls had colds and needed tests before returning to school. I worked with M, the younger of the two girls. Her reading stays at the same level. I had her read Stories #1, 2, and 3 of the Carpenter Series. There are some words she remembers better, but I don't see any real progress.