Saturday, July 2, 2022

Saturday, July 2,  2022

I’d taken over the walks with Elsa from Scott. My leg was good enough to walk long enough for her to do her business. As I walked, I could see the tent Peter had put up for shelter to do oil changes on the cars had been blown over. We had a windstorm last night.   I ran into Vince, Julie, Dean, and Nina on their morning walk. Scott pointed to them. He told me these folks asked about me every day. Everyone recognized Elsa and knew Scott would be a source of information.

  I walked with Julie. She is two years younger than me and busy working with her embroidery business. She told me about problems she had with shipping. She orders baseball caps from a place in Texas. She contracts with a shipping company to arrange for the shipping. She directed the company to collect the whole order and have it shipped together. They didn’t do that. Not only was the order split, but it was also on two different ships. That doubled the cost. I love learning these new details about how life works.  

   I woke up in an odd mood, sluggish, not much up for anything. Scott asked me my plans for the day, and I said nothing as usual. That’s what it felt like.   It felt like I did nothing if I couldn’t approach an activity with vigor. 

 

   Today was a particularly down day. I didn’t even enjoy telephone conversations with the folks I usually loved to talk to, Damon, Jean M, my friend, and Judy. What in God’s name was going on?

  From Damon, I learned that the new Covid variant is even more contagious than the last one; everyone he knew had it. Judy also reported knowing of a lot of cases. I wore a mask wherever I went except in the house. People came into the house. That was the extent of my exposure. It might be enough. We’d see.

  I did minor chores around the house, putting away this item and straightening up that one. I subscribed to the Brain HQ site yesterday. I wanted to see what the activities are. I had trouble figuring out how the exercises worked but eventually got the hang of them. I don’t know what a good performance entails on these exercises. I was pleased to advance, moving from level one to level three.   I was checking out this program to help Adolescent D with his focusing and memory problems. Merzenich says his program is effective for severe brain injuries. I can’t imagine it is just these simple exercises that they offer online that accomplish those changes. I will have to call them and see what they have to offer. Even if it is not accessible to D now because of distance and money, it will be good to tell him something is out there now. It will become more accessible over time.

  I slept most of the day. I didn’t know how much was because of tiredness versus how much was an escape from having nothing to do. It wasn’t having nothing to do; it was having nothing to do with vigor. When I told someone how much I was sleeping, they reassured me I was still healing. Enough with this healing already! I need to move on. I was caught up on the updates. It was time to get back to work on the third The Phonics Discovery System video and the article.  

   I watched Hotel Portofino last night on Judy’s recommendation. The scenery is gorgeous. Some of these shows are worth watching just for the views. 

   However, the show has several sinister or just plain mean people. They outnumber the nice ones. The show may not be for me despite its positive qualities.