Friday, September 23, 2022

 Friday, September 23, 2022

  

I didn't like the way my scale was going. I was gaining weight. I eat a ton of Hersey's milk chocolate nuggets with whole almonds. It's a staple of my diet. While It couldn't be the best for me, it hadn't affected my weight so far. Despite the weight gain, my measurements stayed the same. Could the weight difference come from increased muscle mass? That would be nice.

    I ran into Dean on my morning walk. I asked him if he remembered to ask his wife about their electricity use. He pulled a bill out of his pocket. He had told me they only use six KWHs a day; no, they used twelve. We use between fifty and sixty a day. Of course, we are three households with three good-sized refrigerators, two free-standing freezers, three dryers, two attic fans, two water tanks, two air conditioners, various computers, and an electric car. Dean's house has only two small refrigerators and two TV sets. His in-laws share the house with him and his wife.

  A large callus has developed on top of the first knuckle of my wandering second toe on my right foot. Because it is climbing over the first toe, it is raised and comes into contact with the top of the shoe, despite the Croc's rather large toe box. I had to pass on the Crocs and wear Oofos instead. That created its own problem. The space between my two first toes is numb. It's not the most comfortable either.

     Elsa's skin looked better today except for one wound. I applied the medications. One's a salve she doesn't mind. The other is a foam she hates. She runs around like mad after I apply it. I assumed it burns on her raw skin.

     I had homeschooled second-grade L at eleven. Last week, I told her mother I would start her on Starfall. Her mother said she refused to work on computer programs like Hooked on Phonics. L balked when she had to work at the Kindergarten level to learn the letter names. She is another student with severe memory problems. She can't remember something from one minute to the next. Sometimes, she will name the letter t correctly five times and then be blank when she sees it the sixth time. Mom described her as uncooperative. I suspect mom said, "Here, do this program," and assumed she would understand what to do. Starfall, designed for young children, even preschoolers, is challenging to navigate. L was pretty cooperative. She didn't get up and run away. A good sign. However, she was not ready to navigate it on her own.