Monday, April 10, 2023

Monday, April 10, 2023

   I needed to get up early this morning because I had an eight am dental appointment. When I pulled into the parking lot, there were Nina and Dean, walking buddies of mine. They had also been to see the same dentist. Despite being scheduled for an hour, I was in the dental chair for only fifteen minutes on my last visit. This one was the second try. He would remove the temporary implants and bridge, fill several cavities, and put in the permanent implants and bridge. This should be fun. 

  When I got there, he said it would again only be a short visit. His wife, his dental assistant, was at home sequestered in a dark room dealing with a killer migraine. She had them more frequently before she had her three children. She hadn't had one in months. Again, we had to reschedule. While I was there, he checked the color he chose for the permanent implants. It looked good. 

  Since there was time, we talked. Today, I mistakenly asked him if the new buildings going up in a nearby lot were for housing or business. Business. The island is in desperate need of housing. People are leaving in droves. Only the wealthy will be left.  

   The dentist told me what bad shape the local hospital was in. Two people he knew almost died there. He said we are in danger of not having a hospital in Kona. There are two other hospitals on the island, one in Waimea and one in Hilo. They were still functional. The trip to the Kona hospital is half an hour from my house. The trip to Waimea is forty-five minutes. Waimea is further away, but it is fifty-five miles an hour the whole way, and it's easier for cars to pull over. However, this would be a problem for the people living further south of me.

   Another serious problem would be the loss of all working-class people. We already have a shortage of mechanics. People aren't applying for jobs because they aren't here anymore. No one can afford the housing costs. Landlords are squeezing people for more money left and right. No one is looking at the long-term impact of their behavior. Eventually, there will be no one to rent their expensive homes.

  When I talked to Damon the other day, I told him how well the tea tree oil worked on Elsa's lesions. He knew about tea tree oil. He had a skin condition; tea tree oil was the only thing that worked. It keeps Elsa's problem under control better than the vet-prescribed meds. I signed up for a subscription to Australian tea tree oil from Amazon. It's inexpensive. I will stick with the one I get at the local health food store. I looked up the cost of tea tree oil on doTerra. OMG! $75 for less than an ounce.

  I use a fair amount of tea tree oil daily on Elsa's lesions every morning. Concerned I wouldn't have enough before the Amazon order arrived, I drove to the health food store to pick up a bottle. Then I went to Target to buy an iPhone charging cord and check out their supply of Hersey's milk chocolate nuggets with almonds. I needed a new charging cord because the non-Apple one I bought wasn't charging my phone at night. I was also in luck with the Hersey's; they were well stocked. I grabbed a bunch.

  I planned to stay in town after the visit to the dentist and stop off at Costco. Even with the trip to the health food store and Target, I got to Costco half an hour before they opened. I used the time to meditate. I have been down because I miss Mike and the poor response to my work. That I miss Mike should surprise no one. I would feel okay about my work if I put it out there more, even if no one responded, but I don't even do that. I have been stunningly successful with students. You would think people would be anxious to work with me. That's not how it works. I put an ad on Craig's list last month. In the past, I always got some responses. Not now. During Covid, many tutoring sites sprung up. I understand people prefer to use the McDonald's of the business rather than some loose cannon. Dealing with an agency doesn't guarantee good service, but you know what you're getting. I can understand why it's more comfortable for parents.

  First-grade Steven's mom asked me to work with him because she knew me. She texted me today saying they would be available any time after twelve noon. When we connected, he first said, "I don't want to talk to Betty." I told him he didn't have to; I would do all the talking. Okay. I started with his name. He told me there were seven letters in his name. I had to connect the reading to numbers more. "Yes, there are six letters and two bounces. Ste is the first bounce, and ven is the second. The first sound in Ste is /s/, the second is /t/, etc." Then, I blended the sounds together, starting with the vowel in both cases. Next, I had him give me words, challenge me, and see if I could do it. After four or five words, he disappeared. I ended the Zoom session when he didn't respond when I called him. A few minutes a day is the best approach. We'll see. I hope he'll take off on his own once I get him involved in the game.

  At two pm, I had an appointment with adolescent D. As I signed in, his mom asked me if we could do it later. We settled on four-thirty. I signed in late to the session because I wanted confirmation D was home and available. I finally figured out that he was waiting. I sent him a link, and he responded. I started asking him if he had emailed his teacher the list of topics. Yes. Had she responded? No. Did he ask his parents if any of their friends might know something about one of the topics? No. 

  Then, I asked him if he got angry with himself for his procrastination. Yes. Does he put himself down, or does he ask what he can do to fix the situation? Getting angry at ourselves for our failures is easier than asking what we can do to improve the situation. We get immediate satisfaction with our self-hatred. Figuring out how to fix something is a long-term commitment. In the meantime, we have to hold the question in our minds. It can be agony, but so are self-recrimination and self-hatred. The former can lead to beneficial change; the latter is a miserable dead end.

  We worked on handwriting. I used a broad-stroke pen on Zoom's draw and slowly wrote, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog," while D wrote them with his finger on a hard surface. It's a standard sentence used to test a person's typing skills. It contains every letter in the English language.  

   Then, D and I worked on word recognition. D chose Phase II of the Phonics Discovery System. I dictated the letters in words to him. He repeated what I said, wrote them, and then read the letters he wrote to me. Because D has severe problems with short-term memory, I dictated only four letters at a time. This is a significant improvement over two. Also, he doesn't repeat them orally as he writes them. He hears them in his head. This is also a great improvement. The last four letters I dictated were ment. He had a terrible problem keeping those straight. I wondered why. Then I realized why. N and T have the same articulation, and M and N are nasalized. This is a good opportunity to enhance his phonemic awareness. We will work on it on Wednesday.

  I started on my evening walk with Elsa around 5:30. I only had two thousand five hundred more steps to go before I reached my goal of ten thousand two hundred steps. I met up with Lutz. While I often enjoy my conversations with him, he talked about how stupid most people are. I was already down from the earful the dentist dumped on me today. I told Lutz I couldn't bear his negativity today. I couldn't walk with him. 

   I fell as I walked up the hill and approached the intersection of Hiolani and Nehiwa. This time, I just tripped over my own feet. I was hunched over because of my bad mood and was walking up a steep hill. I was already too close to the ground to catch my balance. I went flying. I was hurt. As I lay there, I saw a car had pulled over. Mei came running toward me. "Betty, are you okay?" I asked her to grab Elsa. I had dropped the leash and feared she would take on a passing car. That would be the greatest loss from the fall.

   I was hurt and in shock. I was first aware of my skinned right knee. Then my glasses were lying on the ground above my head. Another woman stood over me, "Betty, can I drive you home?" I didn't recognize her. It was Valerie. I used to run into her all the time. Next, Peter arrived on foot. Mei must have called him. I was finally ready to get up. While Valerie held Elsa, Mei and Peter grabbed my arms, hauled me to my feet, walked me to Valerie's car, and lowered me into the front seat. Elsa jumped in my lap. I called Scott to tell him I had a bad fall and would be right home. I knew he'd be ready to help me into the house. He was.

  First, he took Elsa while everyone else helped me out of the car and into the house. The worst problem had manifested. It was my right little toe. I had broken it or sprained it. It was painful to walk.

  We set up a chair in the kitchen, and the cleanup began. I had some hydrogen peroxide. I got it from the forever closet, a well-stocked large space, and got gauze pads from the bathroom. Yvette had come up, and she took over applying it. She daubed it most gently. I needed to make sure the wound was cleaned out. Staph is a big problem around here. Scratches have to be watched carefully for infection. I grabbed the bottle and poured the liquid over my knee and a deeper cut on my right index finger. I then learned I had scratches on my forehead and nose. The scratch on my head came from the pavement. The scratch on my nose came from my glasses. Once my wounds were cleaned and bandaged, I went to my old-lady chair, and Mei and Peter went home.

  Yvette and Scott set me up with an ice pack. Yvette called from the kitchen, "Put your arms over your head." I did that and stuck my tongue out. This is a standard test for a stroke. I was good. I wasn't worried; the wound on my head was a slight abrasion. The impact couldn't have been great.  

  I texted Sandor to tell him I had fallen and that my glasses were badly scratched when they slid across the pavement. Sandor has a second set in the works for me. Hopefully, he can get them done soon. 

  I wore a shirt to bed in case I needed Scott's help going to the bathroom in the middle of the night.