Saturday, July 16, 2022

 Saturday, July 16, 2022  

       I had the first of my Saturday 7 am Office hours Reading & Writing for the Step Up Tutoring Program in LA. Two people attended. Kelly had yet to meet with her student; she was fulfilling a SUT requirement to meet with someone from the program. She chose me. Pat had met with her student and needed help. I told Kelly if she stayed in the meeting for half an hour, I would report her as having attended to Julia. She signed off early but thanked me, saying she had learned a lot.

    Pat's student was a piece of work. He couldn't read, and he couldn't sit still. Oh, boy! Pat was right. He was beyond her skill level. This child was probably beyond the skill level of trained teachers. He had serious problems. I threw everything I had at her: information on how to deal with phonemic awareness, attention deficit, and processing problems. I was sure it was too much to absorb, no less apply.

   After that session, I took a two-hour nap. My phone rang as I woke up. It was Canopy Care, a tree trimming company I hired to deal with my trees. Tree trimming is a huge business here in Hawaii. If we didn't trim our trees, the only people who would have a view of the ocean would be those living on the shoreline. I sometimes see situations where people don't trim the trees on their property because they don't block their view; however, they completely obscure their neighbors' view. Not very aloha.

       Canopy Care is a family business with a father and two sons from different women. I dealt with the company once before through Tad's son, Trent. Irving had been here last time to do the work. They were an absolute delight to work with.

       I brought Tad and Irving into the house to survey the view from that angle. Then we walked to the bottom of the property to look at what had to be done from that angle. It was risky for me. My PT, Katie, had only tried me on a gentle slope. Would I make it down there and back again? I did and was proud of it.

   My biggest concern was my Tahitian lime tree, which had been brutally butchered by a tree trimmer four years ago or so. He cut down that two-story tree to my height. They did that with several other trees. I was in shock - So were B, and our next-door neighbor, Ronan. The trees were in shock too. It took two years before I got fruit from my lime again. Before he butchered it, I would collect 30 to 50 limes at a time. Even now, I'm lucky if I get ten at a time. The tree will never be the same.

 I felt comfortable discussing what was needed for most of it with Tad and Irving. However, B was very involved with the mangoes. A crop was ripening on the trees. I wanted him to participate. I called B and told him to come out and join the men and me. Tad and Irving were more than willing to respect B and his mangoes. They agreed to take a little off the top to secure my view and prune some of the inner branches for the tree's sake. B also voiced his complaints about the trimmer who had butchered our trees. It will always hurt.

  I took another two-hour nap after they left. When I got up, my leg was killing me. I had overdone it. The walk to the bottom of the property involved a steep decline. One short stretch of about ten steps must be at a 30-degree angle. A set of stairs wouldn't be inappropriate, except that it's part of the driveway. I was naïve about what I could do. With Katie's praise of my progress and excellent healing, I went from overly pessimistic to overly optimistic. I wasn't too worried about the long-term consequences; just bummed because I couldn't maintain the numbers on my pedometer. Damn!

  It was mainly a do-nothing day—moments of high activity and nothing. When I was younger, I was busy, busy, busy. I was not too fond of the pace. I wouldn't say I liked this one, either.  

   Because I got a kick out of watching the German language movie Frantz for the language challenge, I looked up German movies. I found an app that offered movies in several languages. The site is designed to teach language through exposure. I thought it would just provide movies, but no, it offers much more. It provides subtitles in English and German. It includes vocabulary practice sessions. If I miss hearing a word, I can stop the film and click on it, and it will repeat. Wonderful! I may continue this practice daily because it's fun.

  Before bed, I checked on the bruising around the surgery site. I was surprised. There were horizontal stripes of purple crossing the incision. I also found bruising in the groin area. It had been over six weeks already. I guess I wasn't completely healed.  

  I started watching Bessie on Amazon, a biopic about Bessie Smith starring Queen Latifa. I heard someone talking about biopics on NPR. Most are poor and overdone. One of the commentators said Bessie was a good one. I love to watch Queen Latifa in whatever she's in. It is a good movie. I may be biased.