Sunday, February 19, 2023

 Sunday, February 19, 2023    

 Boy, was this a bad night's sleep! I could not fall asleep. This happens rarely, thank God. I don't fight a night like this as I did during my last three years of high school after my father died, and I was left to deal with my mother alone. There are two reasons for that. First, I didn't have to worry about getting up in the morning and functioning. I know I have little to do, and I can take a three-hour nap if I have to. Ah, napping. One of the great luxuries of retirement. Of course, it is also the curse of retirement. I don't have enough to do, making me feel sluggish and sometimes downright depressed. The less I have to do, the less I get done. It makes life feel like a waste.

  Everyone is commenting on how fast I'm walking. Darby chased me up the street to talk to me the other day. She said I was zigzagging back and forth across the street while she was going in a straight line, and she still had trouble getting to me.

   I got into the shower by 7:30 and finished my grooming routine by 8:15. How's that for a SPA treatment. I spent fifteen minutes on the blog post for February 19, 2022. I post a year behind. At 8:30, my alarm went off, reminding me it was time to leave for church.

   I park in the library parking lot; the library is closed on Sundays. There is usually space, and I avoid the church parking lot. Today, there wasn't a space available. I pulled into the driveway for the drop-off box. I parked my car right at the exit of the semi-circle. When I went to leave, I checked. Oh, dear. The drop-off box wasn't locked. It was available on Sundays. I guess not this Sunday.

   Right after mass, I checked the gravesite to see how I felt about the wedges. They looked like they had a black sheen to them. I thought it was time to give in and tell Fr. Lio he could attach the grave plaques with our information engraved on them onto the wedges.

  Before I returned to the library parking lot to get my car, I made a detour to a shop on Ali'i Street that sells Oofos. Mine came with a plastic contraption that shopkeepers could use to hang the shoes for display. I wasn't sure the shopkeeper could use them, but I thought it was worth a try. I hate to throw things out when it's not necessary. She was delighted to get them. Fantastic.  

   Then I headed to my car and my next stop, Long's. I needed to pick up a Monistat treatment in case the two rounds of antibiotics caused me a problem. Having a treatment on hand is a good idea, regardless. I also bought five packages of Hersey's milk chocolate kiss with whole almonds. I had a six-dollar coupon. That saved some money. 

 I shop more at Long's now that I can download discounts onto my membership card instead of having to hold on to the receipt. It also works to get me to shop at Long's instead of picking up something at Safeway.

   When I woke up from my late morning nap, first-grade Iz and third-grade J's mom called on Facetime. She introduced me to her neighbor, who teaches fifth grade at one of the local schools. She told her how well her Iz had done with my tutoring, and the teacher wanted to speak with me. First, we played what I call "Jewish geography;" we figured out all the people we both knew. Did she know Ann Marie? Yes, she was one of her colleagues teaching fifth grade. We shared a few other names. Jen was not interested in incorporating my method into her teaching; like so many other teachers, she was overwhelmed by the demands already made on them by the DOE. I understood her dilemma. I shared my frustration with her. She wanted me to tutor kids after school. That's when I have most of my current tutoring clients. Yes, I can help individual students, but my passion is getting the method out to teachers to help kids. Will everyone benefit? I doubt it. Does everyone benefit from anything? Does that have to be the promise -that it will help everyone?

   I had a session with second-grade M in the afternoon. She doesn't need help with addition and subtraction with regrouping anymore. She said she wanted to move ahead to do well when something new came up. I quickly looked up the core standard on the Hawaiian DOE site. Introducing multiplication was on it. The school introduces it differently than I do. I showed her 2 x 3. She tried to figure it out but came up with the wrong answer. I drew two sets of three, and she counted. I gave her other examples. She illustrated the problem. Done,

      Judy shared a dream she had. I had died, and Mike had survived. He got involved with another woman. She was heavy-set and abusive. Adam, Judy's thirty-year-old son, sat down and talked to Mike, telling him he didn't need to tolerate being treated that way. The woman reminded me of his mom. She was contemptuous of him. He was a male; he deserved no compassion. He had all the power as far as she was concerned. He never recovered from her abuse. It was so sad.