Saturday, February 12, 2022

Saturday, February 12, 2022 

   I slept well but was anxious when I woke. Feeling anxious and lost is the norm these days. I was having a tough time with grief and fear.

   I used the method Shelly recommended to ease my anxiety. I used EFT tapping as taught by Pat Carrington with the following phrases:  I know your fear; 2. My way is your way; 3. Know the love, know the light; and finally, 4) Join me and be.   None of the phrases do much for me consciously. But they don’t raise complaints from my unconscious, so why not do them and see if they help. They relieved some of the panic; I didn’t have to know why. 

  I spent the day working on updates and putting off working on my Phase III video. However, I have decided to start the video with how-to instructions, modeling the process. Phase III involves using dictation in a structured way to teach auditory memory, reinforce phonemic awareness and have the student identify the relationship of the sounds to the letters. I would love someone to help me sort out what to do. But I don’t.

  We hadn’t had a good rain in days and days. Some of the plants were drooping. Two PCV pipes that are part of the watering system are cracked and leaking. We had to turn them off until they were repaired. I carried water out in a bucket to the plants.  

    I didn’t do much today except listen to my Saturday HPR shows. I do love my Saturday and Sunday shows.

    I checked up on Isaac, who was down with Covid. He was pretty sick at the start of the week. He didn’t reach out. He was on the phone with his parents daily, and someone was checking on him, but no one could bring him food if he needed it except for me. He visited one day, masked, sitting outdoors and at a good distance. While he was still contagious, I didn’t catch it. I checked up on him each day to see if he was okay. He was better but stayed home from church. Besides not feeling 100% yet, he was still considered contagious.   

    He mentioned Wordle to me. I had heard of it but didn’t know how to spell it. He gave me that information and a story of how the game saved one woman’s life. She told her family how many attempts she needed to get the word each day. One day, there was no word from her. Her children called a neighbor, who called the cops. Sure enough, when they went to check, the 80-year-old woman was held hostage by a mentally ill man who locked her in her basement. Wordle saved her life.

   I started playing it. I found it challenging but satisfying when I got the solution. I was also delighted that the program limits how often you can play a game. Only one in every 24 hours. Thank you to the designers of Wordle. I texted my sister about it. I assumed she was playing. She is a word master. But no. She said she couldn’t handle the time limit; it made her anxious. I told her the time limit wasn’t on how long she had to solve the puzzle but on how often she could play. She said she would look into it.

   I received a package from her today. She is my intermediary for mailed purchases not covered by Amazon Prime. With Prime, I don’t have to pay for shipping. It’s costly to ship to Hawaii. Some companies won’t even do it. I mail those packages to her, and then she sends them to me by USPS. I wasn’t expecting anything. It was a gift, a portable Bidet. Perfect. Everyone is going that route now. A friend had one installed but without the heating unit. My electrical supply isn’t anywhere near my toilet. Not for me. This version is perfect. I can get warm water from the tap. What a joy!