Monday, June 6, 2022

 Monday, June 6, 2022   

  

   I slept well. I woke up to take my meds. So far, so good. I mostly felt wasted. My mind felt like I was sick with the flu, but my body didn't. It was an odd feeling. It made me feel old and inadequate. I felt hungover- not one of my favorite feelings.    

     There was a flower delivery. A masked woman I didn't recognize appeared at my door with a vase of flowers. I wondered if she was the woman who comes by periodically to ask if she could pick some of my mangoes. No, it was just a delivery lady. She brought the flowers inside and set them on the table. I wouldn't have made it there safely. I had to hold on to the walker at all times. 

     This was Alexandra's last day doing childcare for Sidney while Shivani worked. Shivani had planned a vacation visit here in late May. When she read I planned hip replacement surgery, she offered to extend her stay to care for me. However, she was going to have to work. Would I be willing to pay for childcare? Well, that was an adventure into a whole new world. Childcare expenses are $35-40 an hour. It is hard for a trained teacher to get that money for tutoring. I put everyone I knew on the case.                    

    Fortunately, an adolescent down the street was interested. Alexandra was a rip-roaring success with Sidney. He fell madly in love with her. When she came over to meet him, she brought a candy-filled lei. That was a good start. The first full day she was with him, she sat on the floor and played with him the whole time. Shivani could work without a qualm. Then Alexandra broke her wrist roller skating. She had to take some time off to see a specialist, and her operation was scheduled on her supposed last day of work. Sidney wanted her to move to CA to be there for him. She was a complete success.   

      Four people signed up for my Reading &Writing Office Hours, but only three showed up. One woman hadn't met with her student yet. She left the meeting as I surveyed the participants to determine their needs. There were two left. One was a middle-aged Asian Indian woman who didn't speak correct English. Both her pronunciations and her grammar were still heavily affected by her native language. The other woman was of Asian descent but had been raised here. She spoke perfect English and had a degree in linguistics.  

    Both women had met with their students, and both students were girls in 4th grade who had trouble decoding longer words. I showed them the six-step decoding process for multi-syllable words from Phase II. I recommended they watch the Phase I and Phase II of The Phonics Discovery System videos. I also covered the sentence analysis process I developed. I think of it as a form of sentence diagramming. No one I worked with in the Reading & Writing Office Hours is old enough to know about sentence diagramming. The young woman with a linguistic background had heard the expression "the algebraics of syntax" as it applied to the in the 'In The Book' section of the process. Both women were quiet as I explained the decoding and comprehension sections of the work. The young woman with a linguistics background immediately understood my teaching methods. She said, "This shows them how to discover it on their own rather than memorizing everything." She made one other comment to that effect. It was so rewarding to hear someone 'get' what my work is about without me having to say it.

   In the evening, while Shivani, Sidney, and I were eating dinner, we heard a male voice at the door. I called, "Come in!" the doors are unlocked; I don't live in fear. Shivani finally got up to answer the door. She came back to the table with a Safeway paper shopping bag. There were three packages of Hersey's milk chocolate nuggets with whole almonds and a receipt with only my name. Who had sent this?    

     My first guess was Sandor. I texted him. No. He didn't even know that Safeway sent gifts. Of course, it was just a grocery delivery. I text Damon, Cylin, Isaac, Judy, Paulette, and my friend Jean in Arizona. She had once mailed me several packages of those kisses for my birthday. Everyone I texted said, "No, not me." I planned to post something in the next update. I hoped my benefactor would own up. 

    B showed up with the freshly caught tuna he promised. I told him to put it in the frig. Shivani was planning to make it for dinner tonight. She brought the package to me, saying, "This is a huge chunk of fish. We could never eat this tonight." I had been hungry earlier and finished off some left-over General Tao's chicken from a week ago that Shivani was about to throw out. It smelled good. It hit the spot. Shivani made some pasta with broccoli and the fish. I called B. "Hey, B. You gave us a huge piece of fish. Can you freeze the rest? In fact, can you make the rest for me? Richard Brian W, have you ever met me? There's no way I can cook this fish and do it justice." I had a small piece for dinner. I had thought of having a piece of the cake Shivani and Sidney made, but I didn't have the appetite. My taste for food is way off because of the drugs. The PT warned that I had to eat to keep up my strength and help the healing process.  

     I watched the end of Northern Border. It was about a dysfunctional man who "was the meanest man in the country," but it was still uplifting. I suppose it was about how everyone made the best of a bad deal.

   The home care physical therapist called to schedule an appointment. They had to make one within 24 hours of receiving notice. They called while I was in the Zoom meeting for my Reading and Writing Office hours. When I got back to her, she said she had someone available in my neighborhood. The assigned therapist would call later to make an appointment. I consulted with Shivani because we were without Alexandra tomorrow. I had to help out with childcare while she was on the phone for work. While Sidney could play alone for hours on his own, he can get hyper and be quite annoying, as only a young child can.    

   Lutz called to ask what time we usually ate dinner. Shivani said about 7. He said great. As per his mom's recipe, he had made a chicken fricassee with capers. He would do his walk at five and then drop off the food. He was good to his word. He warned us the capers might make the food too salty—Shivani and I both like salty food. We told him we would be good.

  Shivani slept and slept. I called to her to say I would make my own dinner. Did Sidney need anything? He hadn't eaten. I warmed up a slice of pizza and served it to him in bed. I made myself some of Lutz's chicken fricassee. I was a bit salty, but good. The rest would be too salty the next day.