Tuesday, January 11, 2022

 Tuesday, January 11, 2022

 

      I was up and dozing by 3:30 again. The underlying discomfort persisted. I dreaded tutoring. I’ve had it, struggling to get people to do things they’re not good at and don’t want to do. It’s so wearing. I meditated and dozed. I always wind up dozing when I meditate. I know; you’re supposed to stay awake. Not my strong suit.

  My ankle was bothering me again. Walking was difficult. I took ibuprofen. It had to be bad for me to do that.

  There was a funny smell I associated with a chemical or electrical fire. I went outside to check and saw nothing. I continued a short walk on the street. When I returned to the house, I still smelled it in the laundry room and the library. This was concerning. I figured better safe than sorry and called the fire department. I went out in the street to wait for the trucks. While there, I called my neighbors across the street to tell them what was happening. Charlie answered. He said Marcia saw a truck putting out a lot of smoke on a neighboring street. That must have been the source of the burning smell. I immediately called the fire department to cancel. While I was on the phone, I could hear the trucks approaching. I told them the situation. 

       One of the firefighters asked if I had a Boston accent. Well! Confusing a Boston accent with my Bronx accent! Have you ever? I gave him a run for his money. It was a fun exchange. They came in to check anyway, even though I told them I found the source of the problem through my neighbor. I think the firemen get bored sitting around all day.

   Half an hour after they left, Darby called to ask what was happening at my house. She saw the fire truck. She told me there had been a truck on the street running perpendicular to ours that had been spinning its wheels. A few minutes later, her house was flooded with the strong smell of diesel fuel.   That must have been what I was smelling. Sorry, I don’t know the difference between a chemical and an electrical burn. 

    Every morning, I check the stats on the blog when I download the day’s post. The Turks had disappeared, but the Indonesians were still going strong. The simultaneous rise and fall of numbers from a region supports the theory most of my visitors are fulfilling a class assignment. They are happy to stop reading the posts once the assignment is completed. 

   I also checked the stats on my Phonics Discovery System videos. The numbers on Phase I are rising daily. Just one or two regularly, but that is huge. I hate to put the new version on and lose momentum. That’s what happened with the 5 stories.  

   My phone brought up an old photo of Mike. It must have been after his kidneys were in failure. He was asleep in bed, napping, and Elsa was lying on my side, keeping him company. I remember saying to Mike, “And the best thing about you is you’re mine.” Boy, do I miss having a person who is mine.  

  We’re keeping the front gate closed because there’s a problem with the chain-link fence, which keeps Yvette’s dogs confined to the lower forty. Yvette and Josh went for a medical appointment, leaving the gate open after confining the dogs in the house. I pulled my car out to the street, knowing I would have to leave later and couldn’t deal with the gate alone. I had an appointment with my PT, Terry. 

   I arrived at the appointment with a swollen ankle. Terry did whatever work she could. I had an appointment immediately afterward for a Cryo treatment. I requested local treatments. I needed two: one for the ankle and the second for my lower leg, the left side of my calf. 

  I usually have an appointment with third-grade A at three on Tuesdays. There have been several sessions when they have been a no-show. When I contacted the mom, she told me she had been busy. No apology. She puts out that I’m supposed to know whatever she has in her head, and how dare I not see it her way. Not a style I do well with. 

    I had sent her a message asking if everyone was okay or ghosting me. She called while I was on the phone with someone else. I had two more phone calls right after that. When I got around to calling her, I saw a text message. She told me I was ridiculous. I was unprofessional and disrespectful. I wasn’t sure what behavior she was referring to. Again, I am supposed to figure everything out without her giving details. Today, I realized A was attending a private school, not a public one. I was never told that. The public schools started on the 3rd. I assumed he would be home by the 6th. She said that was the day they traveled, and, as usual, they were very busy once they got back.   She is always very busy. She said something that sounded like she was firing me. Then I got another text, to which I said, “We’re done.” 

   She was irritated the exchange was happening by text. There were two reasons for this: 1) I sensed she was manipulative, and 2) I didn’t do well in a verbal confrontation. I get snarky. It’s terrible. I wish I had control of it, but I get scared.   It’s all irrelevant. I have wanted to quit this connection for a while: first, for all the missed sessions that weren’t canceled beforehand and for the lack of apology. Second, she was overtly uncooperative with something I recommended. I asked her to play my 5 Stories audiofile for her son. I couldn’t guarantee it would help, but I have had a surprising degree of success. It was worth trying. Given how disabled he was, I resented struggling with the parents’ overt lack of cooperation. I hope A is advanced enough that some other tutor can help him move forward.  

   I had problems with Mike’s tablet, which I use for tutoring sessions because it has a touch screen. I couldn’t get the external or internal keyboards to work. I called Tommy. He was out with his girlfriend and said he would stop by. How’s that for service? The problem was the connection between the screen and the keyboard. All he did was separate them, reattach and bibbity, bobbity, boo. 

    Tommy also explained what he had done with The Phonics Discovery System videos. When he reloaded the 5 Stories video on YouTube, the visitor count went from 195 to zero. I assumed he reentered it when he changed the title page. He made a similar change to the Phase I and Phase II videos, but he must not have reentered them because the visitor number didn’t drop. He told me he could change the title page on I and II without uploading them again. He couldn’t do that with the 5 Stories video. He told me he was impressed with my numbers. I and II are always set to start at the 6-second mark when I see the YouTube videos. Tommy said that’s just for me. If I wanted to forward the link to others, I had to make sure videos were set to zero. This is fantastic information.

   I watched Our Friend last night with another outstanding performance from an Affleck, Casey. These boys are good. Both Our Friend and Tender Bar are memoirs written by journalists. They both are genuine and have quiet moments. Ah, wonderful!