Friday, August 19, 2022

 Friday, August 19, 2022

 

  I had a 7:30 a.m. appointment with Katie, my PT. I told her how I applied the heel shift she taught me last year while I walked. She timed my walk. I did three hundred steps in two minutes with the walking stick and the same without it. That was a good pace for my age. My gait was more syncopated when I walked without the stick. That's why I walk with it, to make sure my gait is symmetrical. She timed how long it took me to execute five sit/stands. It took me thirteen seconds. Five sit/stands in fourteen seconds are good for my age. I asked what was good for a forty-year-old. There was no standard for that age. It was eleven seconds for a sixty-year-old. I could reach that goal. 

   I had a dental appointment at 9:10 in the new industrial district. Did I have time to deposit the check from one of my parents? I got there before the bank opened. Fourteen people were already in line. When the bank opened, there were only two bank tellers. I set my alarm for 8:55. If most of the people in line were there for personal transactions, I would make it out in time. If several were people there with business transactions, I would have to leave without completing my business. I made it out with time to spare.

   I had a short wait when I arrived at the dentist's. I suspected my visit would be a waste of time. I wasn't feeling any discomfort. It was probably not my teeth but my sinuses that were bothering me. KC took an X-ray of the area. Dr. Kris confirmed I had a bad cavity under the cap where I was feeling the pressure. He recommended I get that tooth extracted as well as the one that sheared off last week. He said this one was about to break anyway.  

  When I got home, I called the dental office with another question. The doctor answered. That was great. It was him I wanted to talk to. I asked him if he thought I should also have the back tooth with the abscessed root extracted. I was scheduled for a root canal on September 8. Would it be better if I had it removed first? He told me that I wouldn't need a root canal if I had the tooth extracted. If I went the route of the root canal, I would need to have the cavities filled and then a new cap. Given the bad state of my teeth, how long would that last? He said at most five years. He said that given that my teeth are cavity-prone, it would be best to go for the extractions and implants. Implants don't get cavities. I have the money now. Will anyone have money in five years? Best to take care of things now, so they last now. I was going to have three extractions in one day. Wow!

   I was supposed to have a Zoom tutoring appointment with second-grade-homeschooled L at noon. There was no response. I called her mother. "Oh, so sorry we forgot. We're out of the house. Could the session be postponed till two pm?" Sure. A few minutes later, she called back. She hadn't done anything I had asked her to do. Could we just skip this week? Sure. A bit later. She called back. She had done what I asked; could we have a session now? Sure.  

   One of the things I asked the mom to do was compile a list of sight words L could already read. I wanted to use words on that list to develop a list of words with the same ending. I used the word cat again. I had used it in a previous session. As I led her through the exercise, figuring out words that all ended in -at but started with a different letter (bat, cat, fat, hat, mat, pat, rat, sat), L kept saying, "I can spell dog." Boy, she wanted to avoid working with sounds. She did reasonably well with the exercise. She can't stand not getting everything perfectly. Perfectionism is a dead end.  

  I started her on the first Carpenter story. She didn't know the word there. She immediately got up and walked away, saying, "It is such a long word." I must think about approaching her slowly so I don't frighten her. I planned to say, "I want you to try what I give you. If you can't do it, it's my fault, not yours." I hope that eases some of her fears. It is valid to say it is my fault. It is my job to figure out how to help the student. They also have the difficult job of not allowing themselves to be terrified of failure. That's a lot trickier.

   Judy had carpel tunnel surgery yesterday. She was doing well. It was also her 49th wedding anniversary. Howard scattered 49 roses throughout the house. He had some in a small vase on the dining room table, surrounded by a ring of roses at the base. Rose heads were laid in a line on the floor with an arrow pointing to that vase. The remaining roses were a huge bunch placed in another vase. Who would have thought Howard was the romantic type? Although it was already evident that he was crazy about Judy. The two met in eight-grade. They have been friends ever since. They became more than that while in college. Theirs was a slow-grow courtship. 

   Buddhists advocate selflessness. As Batchelor describes it, it is not a state where you think of others instead of yourself; it is a state where you surrender any clear definition of yourself and any sense that you have a core being that lasts through all changes. When you let go of a fixed sense of self, you feel more at one with the rest of the universe, particularly other people. Buddhism does advocate sitting with negative feelings about the events in life. Buddhism does not tell us how not to accept what happens to us blindly. S. N. Goenka, the guru who brought Vipassana back to India from Burma, said, "You're not a vegetable; there to be sliced."