Wednesday, December 8, 2021

 Wednesday, December 8, 2021 

 

     After my morning walk, I finally treated my failing hibiscus. I resolved my confusion over the directions by calling the company.  The directions were ¼ tps. in a gallon of water over fifteen minutes.  Did that mean pour the solution out slowly over 15 minutes or wait 15 minutes before doing a second treatment? The fifteen minutes referred to how long the roots of a plant should be soaked in the solution before planting. I was dealing with a plant that had been in the ground for a while. I had a friendly exchange with the customer service rep.  I had a gallon container, no problem.  However, I was missing the ¼ tps. measure from my measuring spoon nest.  I tried to fill the ½ tps. measure halfway. So nice to get a chore done that I've been putting off for over a week.  I was afraid I wouldn't do it correctly.

   I had a Cryotherapy appointment at noon.  I made it just in time.  The traffic lights and the traffic made the trip longer than I expected.  I put on knee-high socks to protect my feet while in the tank in the past. Today, I put on ankle socks and pulled up the boxer shorts I wore to bare more skin.   This made a difference; my temperature went down to 510.  I had more exposed skin.  Nikki told me that women's temperatures ran between 47 and 55. Men's ran higher.  The greater the exposed surface area versus the body mass, the greater the drop in temperature. Yvette's went down to 470.  She is tall and lean, with lots of surface area and very little mass. Since I tolerated the cold well and seemed to run a higher temperature, Nikki delayed the first turn signal for a full minute. After that, she had me turn every 30 seconds. That also helped bring down my temperature. Before I left, I bought two packages of full-body treatments for friends that I know love the process as Christmas presents.

    I stopped off at the bank before going home to cash some checks and make a deposit. Scott was here installing my repaired screens on my lanai when I got home.  One had a bent frame caused by a pheasant flying through it.  I heard the noise when it happened but assumed Josh was doing something below.  Then I found the bird frantically running around my lanai. Elsa did nothing, which was just as well.  I managed to corner the poor animal, put a towel over her, and release her out in the front yard.  She must have been chased by a hawk.  I held the broken screen in place with duct tape for years. It looked okay.  I wanted to make sure the house was in order when I died, so there is a minimum amount to get the house ready for sale or rent.  There was also a problem with the sunshade where the broken screen had been. It got knocked down in the bad wind storm. Scott put the valance back in place but left the shade down, giving the sheetrock in that area time to dry.

    I called HLM, the company I'm using to get the gravestones engraved. They're on Oahu. I will have to ship the stones with Young Brothers. Since the two seventy-five granite slabs will cost as much to ship as one, I plan to do both gravestones simultaneously. I had already approached a designer in the shopping center in town to help me design mine. The guy told me I had to find out what computer format they needed him to use.  I had texted the question but received no reply. That's why I called today. Good thing I did.  I found out they have their own designer on site. Now, I don't know if that will be extra money. If so, it will be worth it.  Their graphics person is used to designing gravestones. She also gave me a price: $375 for one, but since I'm doing two, $600 for both. I still have to make the cement pillows, so the plaques will rest on an angle. em

     I called the church to see if I could get a working number for my friend Karen from church. I ran into her coming out from the root canal dentist. I wanted to know what she thought of him and how she dealt with his cold personality.  He had told her he couldn't help her. She had a cracked tooth. A root canal was out; it would have to be removed. However, she had the same take on him I did.  He was not someone who responded to the needs of others.  As I talked with her, I realized that he frightened me.  I felt I couldn't trust him to respond to my needs during the procedure.  The affected tooth was in the back of my mouth; the procedure would take an hour. I could see a situation where I asked for a break, and he would say, No. He wasn't' finished.  No, no, no.  I decided that I didn't want to work with him

  For the first time in a while, I had Mama K's crew.  She told me all three of the kids' teachers said they had problems with language. I asked for details, but there were none. Got to love it! Language is such a broad area, it would help to know what the teacher had in mind. Yes, I can figure out something on my own; my diagnostic skills are good. However, knowing what specifically bothers the teacher would be helpful. I find that my annoyance with a problem indicates not just a problem but the student's readiness to learn that specific skills.  Mama K thought it was because they didn't use correct grammar.  At first, I thought it might be that they speak the local pigeon. Mama K said yes, but then it came out they didn't speak that correctly either.  That suggests ta different problem.

   I started with third grade K.  He was nervous. He said he didn't know what to write about. I told him not to worry. I would help him with everything. He relaxed.  I tried a color prompt first. What's your favorite color?  Think of an object of that color.  Where is the object? What is going on with the object or around it?  That did nothing. He got the color blue but couldn't think of a blue object.  I know Mama K loves to take the family to the beach. I asked him about his last visit to the beach, and a story poured forth. I've been doing co-writing for years. I can pretty much tell how good a student's verbal skills are after one or two sessions. Third grade K did a dynamite job.  I was surprised. I think he was shocked.  As we worked, he started making more contributions.  His story was on he 'catched' a wave.  I told him the correct form was caught. He argued with me.  After I was finished with him, I called Mama K to assure her that his use of 'catched' instead of caught was normal.  Well, K is a little older for this pat.rn..  I think he's nine now and in third grade. The normal age for this phase, known as 'over-regulation, is seven.  Children around the age of seven in second grade, who never made a mistake with the irregular past tenses before adding -ed where it doesn't belong, as in goed, comed, catched, etec. It's a that age children become aware of patterns and rules at a different level.  K is a little stuck.  Mama K was relieved when I told her this was a normal pattern, well, almost normal given his age. Let us remember he wasn't speaking clearly until two years ago.  His speech development was generally delayed.

   Then I worked with 2nd-grade twin A.  She was the one I wasn't sure I could help. Boy, was I wrong! She has taken off and has become an independent learner.  She loves the challenge of figuring out new words. She will be on a third-grade reading level by the end of the year. I did a writing activity with her. She remembered something she learned in school about foxes and started writing it herself; I mean, she wrote on a piece of paper as she told the story. I have never had a student do that before.  I typed as she wrote. She did a damn good job.  This is the kind of learning I hope to instill in a student.  She plays with decoding and spelling words the way other children play video games.  She is nonstop.  Okay, I'll stick my neck out.  She will be at a mid-third grade level by the end of the year. Let's see. I've been wrong before.

   Then 2nd-grade twin E wanted to write a story.  She is behind twin A.  It was she I was expecting to be a reader by the end of the summer.  She does some decoding of words, but nothing like Twin E.  Twin A approaches this activity with enthusiasm usually reserved for video games. I couldn't hope for more.  

    Adolescent D's mother finally got back to me.  I told her how excited I was by D's progress. A) he was willing to work at lower level material, which means his ego isn't as fragile b) he could read the whole paragraph on his own, some of it at a good rate, c) he misread a word and caught it himself and d) he was able to decode the word without any assistance from me.  She wasn't as impressed as I was.  All she heard was that we dropped back down to second-grade material.  

Isaac, Lutz, and I walked together for a while. I had to head home. Lutz continued on his loop while Isaac walked me back to my house. We were in the middle of a conversation when we came to my driveway.  It started to rain. He came in so we could continue the conversation. He and I have trouble ending conversations the way Judy and I do.  His comfort with me is due to his upbringing. He said stimulating conversation is the rule in his family of origin.  Both the children and adults talk about ideas. He has long conversations with his grandmother. I never did.  

 He said he was going to Taco Bell for dinner as he was about to leave. I decided to go with him. I thought we were going to eat there. I was surprised to see the restaurant was empty. He told me to pull up behind the white truck. Huh?  We got on the take-out line.  He never had plans of eating there. It looks like no one does that. I was planning to order one taco. He suggested I buy two. When we got back to my house, I discovered the taco was about 1/3 of the size that I had expected.  I hadn't been to Taco Bell in something like 15 years. The last time I went, the tacos were much larger. We ate on my lanai.  I finally needed some alone time.  He has more energy than I do.

   As I was watching some Netflix documentary, the phone rang. It was Damon. He never calls that late at night. Cylin's was the first voice I heard. Even scarier.  He said do you want to hear the good news or the bad news? I chose the bad. They were not going to England over Christmas.  The good news: the family, Damn, Cylin and August, were coming to Hawaii for Christmas. 

      Originally Damon was planning to come to Hawaii for Christmas. Then work plans changed, and he had to go to England later in December, eliminating plans for a Hawaii trip.  The Omicron variant now interfered with their plans to go to England. They were concerned they could get stuck there.  That would be a disaster.  After I got over the disappointment of his not coming,  I had made a significant effort to adjust to the change of plans. I was going to spend a lot of time alone.  I was planning to work on more videos about my methods for teaching reading and writing.  I asked Damon how August felt about this shift.  He had been looking forward to Hawaii. With the change of plans, he was looking forward to going to England.  Damon said he only had an hour to adjust to the new change of plans. After getting over the disappointment of not going to Hawaii, he got excited about going to England. Now back to square one.  He and I are in the same boat.