Sunday, December 18, 2022

 Sunday, December 18, 2022 

    I woke up before dark but didn't do my in-bed exercises until it started getting light. Since I wanted to shower and make the 9 am mass, I had to go through them quickly. Then, I leashed Elsa and headed out for our morning walk. I walked as quickly as I could and completed 2,500 steps in less than half an hour.

  I left the house precisely at 8:30 after editing and posting last year's update entry on the blog site and checking my numbers. The blog visitors keep plugging along. 

     I no longer had the numbers I had when a teacher made my blog required reading, but I rarely have zero visitors. I also rarely have more than ten in a twenty-four-hour period.

   I had several viewers of my The Phonics Discovery System videos. I posted the videos on Facebook yesterday. That regularly wins one or two viewers, not more.

   I felt weird as I drove to church. Was this a good change after my bout with vertigo or a bad one? I felt somewhat off while at church. I was concerned that the vertigo returned. That would not be good. I did some work on my neck. That relieved the problem. We were in the Advent Season. The homily was about the coming of Christ. I don't consider myself a true believer in any metaphysical doctrine. But I respect the story's impact and welcome it if it can be positive. The stories in religious teaching last because of their impact. I don't need to take them literally. However, I don't eliminate the possibility that they are true.

   I planned to stop at Long's and pick up some Hersey's milk chocolate nuggets with whole almonds, but I had forgotten to pull out a new mask. I didn't want to go into a store without one. I went home.

  The radio reminded me that Covid and RSV were both spreading. China was in an impressive bit of trouble with Covid. All the isolation has reduced the body's capacity to resist the virus. Damned if you do; damned if you don't. I am so happy that none of the decision-making fell to me.

  The radio also warned of an impending storm with 60 mph winds hitting the islands. We have solar panels and two Tesla solar batteries, but that won't last us through the night. The system had already gone on emergency status and sent all the power to the batteries. They were at 100%. I told all the residents on the property to conserve electricity after the sun goes down. We never make it through the night on the two batteries. If the grid is down, we'll be in trouble if the sun doesn't come up. Even if it does, more is needed to power high-demand activities.

   I was supposed to work with the M & W sisters at four. Their dad called and asked if we could do it later. I had just arranged with Mama K to work with her kids at five. Dad pointed out that the girls were off all week. We canceled for today, and I would see them tomorrow and another day during the week.

    I moved Mama K's crew up to 4 pm. I started with Twin A. She said she had trouble understanding what she read. I started with an early pre-primer selection from QRI-3 testing materials by Leslie and Caldwell. She did just fine understanding the passage. It was so good that I wondered if she needed clarification about recognizing the words and understanding the passage. I knew she had problems with speech. Both twins were seeing a speech specialist.

   Next, I had fourth-grade K. I discovered last week that he didn't understand before and after. I had two sessions with him already. I found his problem when I taught him rounding. I started by drawing three people in a line facing to the right and asking before and after questions. He did alright with that. Then I had the same people face left and asked before and after questions. Oh, dear. His mother said he had problems understanding which events came before other events.

   Today, I started drawing the three figures again to represent the before/now/after concept by representing time in a spatial image. I checked on the Internet and followed the suggestion that I start making sure he understood which character was first, second, and third. Then, I asked which character is in front and which is behind. He got both of those. Then, I explained a complication with the before and after concept. There are two contexts: which goes first and which comes first.

   When you are looking at a line of people or animals in a line, you ask which one goes first. When it comes to people, you can also ask which one comes first. If you are talking about a line of people sitting in cars at the Taco Bell take-out line. You can talk about which car comes to the window first. While the concept of coming or going can be applied to lines of people, even people in cars and animals, it cannot be applied to abstract symbols.

   When we talk about which word comes before and which comes after, we can only apply the concept of coming. Words don't go first or second. They come first or second. We speak about the order of words by which one we read first or wrote first. One word can only come before another word or after. The same applies to numbers and time. One number comes before another or after. It never goes before or after another.  

   I listened to several interviews with Stephen Batchelor. I am very comfortable with his point of view on just about every theory he brings up. 

YouTube started playing a video on a debate between two physicists on the multi-universe and string theory. I don't know much about either topic. I doubt I understood much, but I loved the tone of the discussions; they were really arguments. It was a debate. Loved it! I found it so comforting. Mike would have loved it, too. I wish this was available while he lay in the hospital. It would have made him so happy.