Friday, December 9, 2022

 Friday, December 9, 2022

I called Kia headquarters, hoping to get more information on the car. The woman who answered the phone had no technical knowledge. She told me to call the dealership. I had, but the people who worked there have poor communication skills. The clerk who initially took my information didn't report what I said correctly. I discovered this only after I called to find out what they had learned about the unexpected acceleration of the car.

  On that first phone call, they told me it was normal to happen on an incline. If you drive on flat land, it doesn't happen. There is no flat land on the Big Island in Hawaii.

  I had a session with adolescent D. He had done nothing with letters. He chose to work on the spelling exercise. I dictate from any text, and he tries to figure out how to spell it. He sounds out the words and applies some of the spelling rules he remembers. He gave the wrong letter for the /n/ sound in spelling standing. His error shocked him. I told him to breathe. I talked about a student who had excellent word recognition skills but didn't have verbal skills. Verbal skills are more valuable than word recognition skills. I also gave him the statistics on the illiteracy rates in the country. Fifty-four percent of adults read below the sixth-grade level. Eighty percent of poor children cannot read well. I assured him he was in good company. He was able to calm himself. I was pleased that he was shocked that he made that error. He expected himself to get it right. Sadly, he didn't catch his mistake on his own.

 Today's news announced the lava wouldn't reach Saddle Road, the highway across the island. Road traffic across the island would have been impossible if the lava had crossed the road. People would have to drive the roads around the island's outer edge. The economic impact would have been bad. The island was already under enough stress.

 I watched Wedding Season on Netflix last night. Close to the end, I recognized it; I had seen it before. Getting old is great. I don't remember anything and enjoy movies as I'd never seen them.