Wednesday, April 6, 2022

 Wednesday, April 6, 2022

 

  I had a wonderful night's sleep, deep and long, with no agitating thoughts. How can any mind wander in so many directions?

   The area just above my left knee on the inside hurt whenever I put weight on it. While it didn't hurt while lying or sitting, it was worse afterward.  

   I took Elsa to Petco for grooming. I had a chance to pick up a session with Terry this morning but would have had to drop off Elsa at 8:30 for her 10 am appointment. I tried to call Petco to find out if that was okay. When I asked this morning. There was no answer. I learned I couldn't have. This session would take between two and two and a half hours.

  I headed to the bank to cash two checks and then to Kaiser to pick up several medications. I had ordered my blood pressure meds too late to get them by mail on time. I switched the order to an in-person pickup. I wanted more estrogen cream but didn't have the prescription number. It was on the box I threw out. I emailed the doctor. She said just go a pick it up. I concluded it was an over-the-counter product; that's why it was so expensive. But no. It was a prescription. When I showed the clerk the tube, she found the prescription number under my name. There was also a prescription for an antibiotic I knew nothing about. I had a urine test for a UTI, but the doctor hadn't told me the results. When I got home, I found the email from her. The results weren't conclusive; she prescribed it in case. I decided not to take it unless I had additional symptoms. After the age of sixty, women no longer have the typical, clear symptoms of a UTI. This can have serious consequences. The infection can progress and affect the kidneys. Sepsis is also a possibility. 

   Rather than go home after picking up my meds from Kaiser, I read and slept in the car in their parking lot until I got a call to pick up the lovely Elsa. It had been over three months since she was last groomed. I had scheduled an appointment only to discover she hadn't had one of her vaccines. Petco wouldn't serve us unless we could produce a certificate that she was fully vaccinated. I had to cancel the one I made, and they didn't have another opening for a month. 

   When Elsa and I got home, I took a nap. I realized I forgot to drop off the boxes to Hope Services for the homeless as I lay down. I planned to do t on Friday after my PT appointment.   

    I needed more Kangen water from Paulette. I planned to go up and get some, but the skies opened and dumped a startling amount of rain. I would have been soaked getting to my car a few feet from my side door. 

   Matthew, the cement guy, called. The wedges for Mike's gravesite were done. He sent me a picture. They come to a sharp point on top instead of a rounded top. Oh, well. Too late to make changes now. I want to cover the cement with epoxy because I don't like how plain cement looks, especially over time. I have to decide if I want a color or just clear. Matthew says the clear gives the cement a marbleized finish. That might work. I asked if he could hold on to the wedges. He said he didn't have the room. I suggested putting them on the gravesite or bringing them to my house. I arranged for Susan, the administrator at St. Michael's, to show Matthew where the gravesite is. 

   I had Mama K's crew at 2 pm. I sent out the Zoom invitation. There was no response. I called. No one answered. I signed out, figuring something had come up, when I got a call from Mama K. She had left her phone in the car. Could we meet now? I signed into Zoom again. Twin A's eyes looked swollen. She cried because her brother wouldn't let her play with his Legos. She rubbed them fiercely. When I told her not to, she stopped, but her eyes burned, and she couldn't keep them open. Told her to wash them with cold water. She went out, and Twin E came to work. When I worked on reading before, I worked on word families -at and occasionally -ap. Mama k had an IEP meeting about the girls. They had made tremendous improvements in their reading but were still at a kindergarten level. It was time to start them on the Carpenter #1 story. E recognized most of the -at words: cat, pat, and rat. She also recognized black, the, a, and, and not. But she did not recognize he or was, or the other words in the story. I worked on decoding and memorizing he and was. It will be interesting to see if she remembers them next week.

   While she decoded all the other -at words correctly, she decoded mat as tam. I asked her if she knew the first letter was always on the one on the left. (I didn't use those words. I drew arrows to show direction.) She said no. She really didn't realize this was a requirement. She thought she could read them from right to left.

   She could identify letter names in he. She had the sound of h but said the short /e/ for the letter e. I told her the right sound without articulating the open syllable rule. She was able to name the letters in was. She sounded the a /w/, short /a/, and /s/. This is good decoding, just not the correct pronunciation. Using her decoding, I pronounced was as she had decoded it and used it in sentences. "My sister was crying. I was in school today. Etc." She had to infer the correct pronunciation for was from the sentence. She wanted to substitute went for was rather than figure out the correct pronunciation for the word.  

   I had third-grade K next. Mama K had a report card for him. He was on grade level or slightly below, except for informational reading and math. I started with Barnell Loft Drawing Conclusion C on a third-grade level. His word recognition was excellent, accurate, and fluent. Everything went well at first. We completed a few items, and he answered correctly. Then we came to one item about night blindness. It said people who suffer cannot see at night but can improve by eating the right foods. The choices were:

    People's sight at night is:

a) Never good, b) can improve, and c) cannot be improved. 

K chose (a) as his answer. My first reaction was to say he wasn't right. But when I thought about it, I realized it wasn't wrong either. While eating the right foods might improve their vision, it wouldn't make it 'good.' Comprehending others involves figuring out what they really mean. I knew what the author wanted because of the information included. It wasn't just that people with night blindness have trouble seeing; it included improvement through nutrition. If the author included that information, it was important.

   Twin A said she didn't want to work. I let it go. It was the first time I allowed one of them to choose. I hope I don't regret it.

   I watched Striking Out, an Irish legal drama. I enjoyed it.