Monday, August 22, 2022

 Monday, August 22, 2022

    I got out of bed once the light came over the mountain instead of when my alarm went off. I had no reason to be up earlier. Elsa was still limping. I took her out long enough to do her business, brought her home, and fed her. Then I went out to complete three thousand steps toward the nine thousand two hundred, my goal for the day.

  Scott met me in the cemetery today. We checked on the cement pillows. I wanted to paint the cement so it doesn't get that bleak look. I thought of painting them in the graveyard, but that seemed too complicated. Scott will get a friend to help him carry them to his van. I will do the chemical cleaning in the driveway. Then we can bring them into the house where Judy, Paulette, and I can do the work.

   Elsa accompanied me to the cemetery. She was there last when we interred Mike's remains. I didn't bring a leash with me. I wasn't concerned about her running away or after cars. The parking lot would be empty. She followed me as I entered the cemetery. Then she settled in one spot in the shade. The graveyard is lava rock; the sun was bright. It was too hot for her feet. Scott carried her back to my car.

 On Friday, Dr. Hiranaka's office called to offer me an appointment on Monday, asking if I wanted to come to have my tooth extracted. I turned down the offer because it conflicted with my scheduled office hours. It was something I couldn't easily change; three people signed up. After I turned it down, I wondered if I would regret my decision. This morning, the penny dropped. I couldn't have dental work done till September anyway. I had to wait for three months after my total hip replacement. The hip is vulnerable to infection. The mouth is a source of bacteria that can impact the whole body. I also had forgotten that I would have to take a heavy dose of antibiotics when I did have a dental treatment- any dental treatment, including a cleaning, no less three extractions.

  I called the doctor's office on my way home from the cemetery. How much would three extractions cost? I had to arrange to have the money available. It would be $361 a tooth. I was afraid it would be a lot more. For those from countries where you can live half a year on that amount, know that a homeless person couldn't live on that little in the USA. Why do I think of such a thing? I had a scammer try to get $800 out of me. He went a little off the rails. He screamed at me that he could live on that amount for a year. No, I didn't go through with the scam. But it was an interesting experience.

        Three people signed up for my Reading &Writing Office hour. They might be starting tutors fulfilling the requirement to sign up for something. I have no idea why Step Up requires this of volunteer tutors. It's amazing how many comply. Only two of the three attended the Zoom session. Both had yet to meet with their student. They were starting on Monday. I asked if they had Julia's toolbox for initial sessions. They both said yes. I told them I would give Julia their names.

  I had two questions for Adolescent D today. I started with the usual. Did you do any reading? Yes. How did it go? Good. I heard those answers more frequently. We are making progress. He was in his first year of high school. I have been working with him for over a year. When we started, he was reading at a first-grade level with a huge ego problem. Now, He was doing much better.

 However, a session or two ago, he said that the work we were currently doing was 'easy.' Easy meant he could do it. I was drilling him on syllable structures. There is no way I could have done this a year ago. The impact on his ego would have been devastating. But now, I felt I could push it. He won't do it on his own. I have to drill him. His parents never pushed him to do anything. I was the first tutor they hired, even though their son struggled. They are educated people. It wasn't indifference. Paralysis? I didn't know. I couldn't get the mother to get him to do any exercises I asked him to do. She knew her son was very stubborn. Pushing him could only have negative results for everyone in the family. I couldn't say she was wrong. I often wanted to wring his neck. Frustrating! Oh, boy.

  He would tell me he had made no progress. He always read this way. In the meantime, his father heard him reading the subtitles of a movie and burst into tears. He did very poorly on the work he considered easy. I told him I wouldn't give him a grade higher than C+ or, more likely, a D. He could never have done it without my assistance. If he had tried it on his own, he would have probably gotten an F. Sometimes, I worried he had more serious problems than just reading. His idea of his skill level was disturbing.   I mentioned my concern with Katie, my PT, the other day. She said her clients say the same thing. Most people don't have a very accurate idea of their progress.  

       I talked to D's mom today. She was thrilled he could find a product on a grocery shelf because he read the label. She is still pleased with behavior appropriate for an emergent reader. His high school was online three days a week and in person for two. Online schools put more responsibility on the student to get the work done. According to his mom, D is making every effort to do so. While he told me his reading has been going well, she told me that he downloads the reading assignments into Google text-to-speech. He hadn't told me. I suspect he thought I would object.

On the contrary, I thought it was great. When it comes to his class assignments, his primary objective is getting the work done. The reader is a great solution, given his difficulty with reading. I love it. She thinks he reads along and perhaps even rereads it on his own. The reader reads the words without inflection. It sounds like a list of words, making it difficult to make sense. It is fantastic if he follows along in the text as the words are read. It constitutes practice, probably more than he knows.

  Ethan Kross discussed the value of using our names when we talk to ourselves. His theory is it creates distance from the circumstances and our emotional involvement with the problem. I used it once with adolescent D. I instructed him to say, "D, remember the list of syllable patterns." I planned to use this mental trick with more people. Let's see if it works.

  I spent time brushing Elsa today. Sometimes, she objects. Today, she stretched as I brushed her. Lovely. I could do that every night while I watch some TV.

   I continued watching Indian Matchmaking tonight despite my objections. The show is like a dating tutorial. It is fascinating to see how different people deal with these situations. They know they are checking each other out as potential life partners. Sometimes, they ask each other direct questions. Fascinating.