Monday, November 7, 2022

 Monday, November 7, 2022

 

  I woke at 4:30 and fell back to sleep. I started the in-bed exercise routine at 5:30 when my alarm went off. I finished the exercises and got up at 7. Did it take an hour and a half to complete the exercises? Yes and no. I do savasana between each pose. Yoga teachers say that’s when the learning takes place. I fall asleep during those relaxing poses. I fall asleep so easily. It’s a lovely problem. 

   I fed Elsa before our walk because I got up so late. As I turned on to Holoholo, a loose dog approached us. Elsa went wild. The dog was wearing a collar; it wasn’t a stray. When I saw the dog was a female, I was concerned. Elsa is not friendly to female dogs. I tried to keep her back. The other dog ran when Elsa ran toward her barking but came back. I cautiously allowed Elsa to have contact with the dog. Then, both of them calmed down. Once they sniffed each other, the other dog lost all interest in Elsa and moved on. As I turned around, another loose dog barked her fool head off. I suspect someone left their gate open.

   A yellow lab barks at us over the rock wall as we walk down the street. The other day, she whined as we passed her after barking for a while. Today, the gate to her house creaked open as we passed. I was concerned the dog would come running out. She came out but on a leash with her owners. I asked the dog’s gender, Female; better not take the risk. Then, a man walking two pale labs said, “Hello, Betty.” Oh, dear. Who was he? He looked like John, but his dogs were a darker color. I ran into the man again, walking a little dog as I walked up Ilau. Now, that was magic. I asked him his name. It was John. I explained why I was confused. He had to put down those two darker labs; I didn’t ask why. He walked the cockapoo separately because she couldn’t keep up with the two white ones. Not only were they larger, but they were also much younger. The smaller dog was sixteen now,

  I also had an interesting contact with another person. He and his partner bought and cleaned up a neglected house and property. The difference was fantastic. The house and yard look meticulously kept except for one corner, awash in haole koas. I told him about the boiling water trick I used to kill them, which was nontoxic and effective. He had an ad for a law practice on the side of his car. I asked what kind of law he did. He explained his partner was a lawyer; he awarded scholarships to locals at the nearby branch of the University of Hawaii. I told him I did tutoring. I was on a tear to get more people to work with. I told him I had an amazing way of teaching reading. If he knows anyone who needs help, please get in touch with me. I called him, so he had my number. I was willing to work with people at way below my usual rate, even free. 

  The Step Up Tutoring program changes have brought me to a peaceful state of resignation. No school is going to accept my approach to teaching. The schools, and now a volunteer tutoring program, adopted scripted programs that teachers had to follow verbatim. Good teachers are leaving the profession in droves. There is no way to make adaptations to the needs of the students.

  I prepared for three tutoring sessions before going to my 2 p.m. doctor’s appointment to get my Botox injections. I checked in and waited and waited. The last time I had an appointment with specialty services, the doctor wasn’t informed that I had checked in. Was this a similar situation? I got a nurse to say she would check for me, but she never returned to tell me what was happening. Around 2:30, a nurse finally called my name. I was pissed. I never had to wait that long at Kaiser. It would have been better if I had known the doctor was running late. Although not quite okay since I had a tutoring session at 3. The doctor apologized. Since he had returned from a month-long trip, this was his first day at the Kona office. I asked where he went- to Indonesia. 

   His flight back to the States was canceled at the last minute. They could catch another flight in a few days. No, no, no!! He couldn’t wait that long. He bought another ticket on another airline and took a much longer route home. 

  The doctor is a plastic surgeon. I get Botox injections once every six months to lift my brows. They droop so far that they create problems with my vision. The treatment is covered by insurance. I don’t know how much of a difference they make to my appearance. 

  I worked on spelling with adolescent D. His reading had improved enough that it was time to make this shift. I didn’t abandon his reading. Working on spelling will reinforce all he learned about decoding words. He must use the knowledge he gained in our reading sessions to do the spelling. I have him sound out the words and tell him to use the most likely spelling if he doesn’t know what it is supposed to be. For example, K is a likely spelling for cat. The k is guaranteed to represent the /k/ sound. Spell check might catch the error. If not, the reader can figure out the word anyway. D did surprisingly well. 

  I called Apple support to find out how to change my password on my Key Chain. I received notification that some of my passwords were comprised; the key chain was one of them. When I tried to change it, I couldn’t. The Apple support lady was wonderful. She asked if I had Opera on my computer. Yeah??? She said it was whatever they call it when referring to fake sites used to phish. She kept saying never to respond to a pop-up. I thought I didn’t, but I realized afterward I didn’t think of that warning as a pop-up. I learned something new. The lady helped me delete Opera from my computer and cleared my history. It sounded good. I was grateful for her help and told her so. I think she thought the order of my gratitude was weird. I felt so helpless; the lady treated me with gentleness and respect. I appreciated the way she spoke to me.