Wednesday, October 27, 2021

 Wednesday, October 27, 2021

 

  I slept straight through till 4:30. Sleeping straight through that means I didn't drink enough water yesterday.  I woke up to say Happy Birthday to Mike; he would have been 81 today. 

   On my morning walk, I ran into Kelly and her golden, Bailey.  After they went on their way, I saw a new configuration of a human and a dog in the distance through the early morning light. The human looked like Colin, Kelly's husband, but it wasn't one of their dogs, and why was he walking separately from Kelly? Yes, it was him. He had a new dog with him, Angus, a chocolate lab.  Where did they get him?  A lab breeder on the island died, leaving a bunch of dogs.  Kelly and Colin took one.  Angus is about 6 years old.  Why aren't you and Kelly walking together?  Angus walks slower than Baily.  How is Angus adjusting? He's still quite nervous; the breeder kept all her dogs together in outdoor cages. Now, this dog is without his usual pack.  Colin and Kelly not only have Bailey a golden lab; they also have Peanut, a Maltese.  Still, it's all unfamiliar.  I made some comment about Angus not sleeping in their bed. Oh, yes. Angus discovered the bed. It's his safe place. Gotta love it!

    I had a 7 am session with Shelly, who was leaving on a three-week vacation to Egypt. Shelly made an interesting observation. People who feel that no one likes them tend to be hyperactive. Interesting. I was undoubtedly hyperactive as a child and can still lapse into that state despite my efforts to overcome it.  I don't believe I was simply an overactive child; I was in a constant state of terror and either in fight or flight mode.  My mother always told me that no one liked me. I didn't feel that when I was young. I was more concerned about liking people than being liked.  People found me interesting, if nothing else. It's as I got older and calmer that I found I had more of a problem.  I can see where hyperactivity is a turn-off. Every once in a while, I run into someone like that. It can make me uncomfortable. However, I am OK if I can tell the person when I need them to slow down or I need a break. If I have agency, I can be just fine with someone like that.  I have trouble with rigid people who believe their way is the right way, and therefore, something's wrong with me.  I remember feeling that way when I was in my early twenties. It finally occurred to me that my life wasn't going better than everyone else's. I clearly didn't have all the answers. 

    One of the reasons I was terrified is I felt my father was grooming me to be a savior.  He wanted a solution to the cause of WW I and Nazi Germany.  I would come up with possible solutions. He would sigh in disappointment and say, "Ah, Christ thought of that." or "Buddha thought of that." I had failed again.  In my early twenties, I understood what was going on with me, whether I had misinterpreted him or not.  I called myself a 'drop out' Messiah.  My father was from a Jewish background. Jews are still looking forward to the coming of the Messiah. If I had been right, my thought, "My daughter the Messiah." What a relief to put that burden down.  If Christ and Buddha failed at bringing peace to the world, how the hell was I going to succeed.   I used to refer to myself as a drop-out messiah.

     It took a while for S, Mama K's older daughter, to sign-in on the Zoom meeting. Third-grade K. used the time to write 'the sentence' (The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. And his first and last names) independently. He had that done by the time Zoom was up and running. Wow!  I pulled out a second-grade text and started dictating. Multiple goals: holding the whole sentence in his working memory as he writes it, retrieving the 'next' word as he wrote, applying what he learned so far about handwriting to this new activity, and practicing spelling, both recalling words and sounding them out.  He did a dynamite job.  Except I caught the lower case a formed incorrectly. He said he didn't know how to write it. This is a problem when I don't get to see his writing with my own eyes.  I have to ask Mama K to send me a picture of his work every week.

   Then I had Twin A. I didn't see her last week. She read most of the words in Carpenter A#1, Sassy the Cat.  At one point, I asked her if she wanted to continue or stop. She plowed ahead, reading the next word. Wow! Momma K told me that Twin A picked up a book on her own and spent time figuring out the words using the strategies I taught her.

   Twin E did better this week than the week before last when she wildly guessed words based on- I have no idea what. She also was prepared to stick with the work.  These girls will be OK.

 My friend Jean from Arizona texted while I was in session. I called her the moment I was through. Jean had knee surgery. She has had a medical sleigh ride these past few years. It has been one thing after the other.  Hopefully, this will be it.  She had such good news about her daughter and her grandkids. She speaks with her daughter almost daily, and it's a joy.  Her grandkids are doing well at school. Wonderful!

    Damon called to share Mike's birthday with me and update me on his son, August. August is doing well in college. His midterm grades were good, and he has lots of friends. The only problem is he shares a room with another student. August is an only child who loved spending time alone in his room, even when he was young.  Not having alone time is hard for him. Damon talked about how difficult his freshman year was when he had to share a room with another student. Me, I was the kid they sent to camp; I loved having roommates. My freshman year, I had five roommates in a room designed to hold eight.  It was camp all over again. 

   Jean, my hanai sister, called.  She has been suffering from sciatica. Her solution: injections, and when they stopped working, surgery.  She had a consultation with a surgeon and is now getting a pre-surgical evaluation.  Both Damon and I and the surgeon have encouraged her to work with a physical therapist.  She won't hear of it. She hung up on me.

    B called. He calls once a week to speak to me for my sake.  I put him off because I had the other callers that were hard to get hold of.  He finally called me again. This time he had news. His dad was in the hospital with pneumonia and urinary infection. Poor Paul!

   Tommy, my tech, came over.  The Phase Ii slides for the Phonics Discovery System video were ready to be compiled. He needed all the material sent to him so he could work on it at home.   We talked briefly about Facebook's algorithm and why my video isn't included when searching under the Phonics label. We're going to have to think about it.

     Yvette and I went to Huggo's for dinner. It was a restaurant Mike, and I loved. We had a half-hour wait. The maître de offered up a high table with barstools.  Yvette asked if that would be OK with me.  Probably not. The server took us to another table for six.  Yvette and I got to sit right by the rail.  We had a great view of the exposed rocks beneath and the water surging back and forth in low tide.  They only offered their bar menu, not the full dinner menu.  We both ordered the poke tower. I also ordered roasted Brussel sprouts.  I thought they were great. Yvette, not so much.  I got a slice of Key Lime pie to take home.

   Yvette told me that her friend Becca asked her to go roller-skating with her.  These are two women in their late forties or early fifties.  Yvette was up for it. She bought a pair of roller skates.  The two do it on the 'middle road,' halfway between the two main highways running parallel to the ocean.  Becca doesn't have much going on in her life right now.  She is the sole caretaker of her father, who is suffering from dementia.  Oh, boy.