Monday, July 25, 2022

 Monday, July 25, 2022 

   

    I slept well, and my leg did well. Those hamstring stretches did the trick. I planned to call Young Brothers in the morning. The gravestone etchers on Oahu sent me the bill of lading for the shipment of the engraved stones back to the Big Island. 

     A while ago, I called the engraving company to ask about the progress on the etching of my gravestone. They already did Mike’s. I remembered giving the go-ahead to Veronica to do mine on the phone. She said I hadn’t. I think she needed it in writing. She sent a proposal via email again. I okayed it. Veronica said they would rush the job. I gave the okay before the surgery on June 2. I called around July 20 to ask what was going on. Veronica said she planned to call me that day because they had dropped the crated stones at the dock the day before. She texted me the bill of lading and told me to expect to hear from them. I should call them if I didn’t hear by the following Wednesday.

   I sat down to meditate after I pulled up all the documents I might use in my work with the M & W sisters and the daily Wordle puzzle. I went into my bedroom so Scott would feel comfortable moving around the kitchen. The phone rang- caller unknown. I figured it was Young Brothers. It was a good thing I didn’t answer. There was a lot of information on when I could do the pick up: Mondays between 7:30 and 11:30 am, Tuesdays between 7:30 and 3:30 with a lunch break between 11:30-12:30pm. I doubt I have remembered all that. I find my auditory recall ain’t what it used to be.  

    In my session with going-into-second-grade M, I worked on spelling. I meant to use the last story she wrote. By accident, I pulled up one she wrote last year. She said she didn’t write it. It did seem so simple that I also wondered if she had written it, but I couldn’t imagine saving it under someone else’s name. 

      When working on a similar activity with going-into-sixth-grade W, I read a sentence from a story we had worked on; she had to remember the sentence and spell the words. The objective was writing skills more than spelling. I just dictated one word at a time and focused on spelling skills with M. Doing this helped me clarify my Phase III of The Phonics Discovery System. Jana noted that I didn’t focus on how to teach spelling skills in the video I put together. I see the problem now. I briefly mentioned spelling in the middle of the PowerPoint video. I will have to start with the spelling rather than see it as a small subcategory of the PowerPoint.

   I had my Monday Reading & Writing office hours for Step Up-Tutoring today. One tutor had signed up. However, she was a no-show. I stayed on the Zoom site for the hour; someone else might have come on. No one did. I worked on the updates and NY Times puzzles. 

   Today my right foot felt like it was too big for my Croc. The top of the second toe was rubbing against the top of the shoe. My foot didn’t look swollen. I was uncomfortable walking. Now what? It’s like I’m constantly taking on the next physical challenge. The second toe on the right foot crossed over the first before the surgery. I tried slings to hold the toe in place. They didn’t stay put, and it felt like they were strangling my toe-think tourniquet. If I did nothing, it didn’t bother me. When I went to Kaiser for my follow-up visit with Dr. Salassa after the surgery, I saw a local woman sitting on a bench outside the clinic. She was wearing the shoes of choice in Hawaii, slippers known as flip-flops in New Jersey. She had the same problem I did. Her foot looked peaceful and pain-free. I decided not to worry about the deformity. My foot couldn’t possibly get as bad as my grandmother’s. I took her to the podiatrist while he scraped off calluses from the bottom of her feet. She wore form-fitted orthopedic shoes and hobbled. I swore off wearing women’s shoes, heels that thrust feet forward, or any woman’s shoe with its narrow, pointy toe box. I wore men’s shoes whenever I could. It drove my mother nuts to see me dressed so. She said, “For beauty, you must suffer comfort.”  I said, “That’s a no-brainer.” She had no comeback for that. It seems I inherited every family problem related to bones and teeth. I may need another operation on my foot to get that toe straightened out. I was pretty sure my metatarsal problems caused it. My first metatarsal is shorter than my second. It throws everything off.