Thursday, December 1, 2022

 Thursday, December 1, 2022

  My guests who left for Kuai on Monday returned today. I picked them up at the airport. Their luggage had fit into the trunk of my car without difficulty. Christine got in the car, 

greeted Elsa and continued teaching her art history.  Elsa loved Christine. She spent one whole night sleeping with her and never came into the bed she shared with me every night. Elsa was thrilled to have so many people in the house. As far as she was concerned, they were all here to pet her and throw balls for her to chase nonstop.

  Carol commented that Elsa's ears smelled. I always take her to the vet when I see an infection in her ears. I thought that gunk coming out of her ears was a sign of infection. Carol showed me it was earwax. She showed me a way to clean her ears I could handle. She asked for cotton balls. I had none, but I had gauze pads left over from my operation. She wet a pad with an ear-cleaning solution and wiped as much of the ear as possible. This was an incredible find. I can make Elsa more comfortable regularly and save a visit to the vet.

  The question for the day was whether eighth-grade K's mom would connect K for our Zoom session today or not? If she didn't show, I could assume the worst. That made me sad on several counts. I was hoping I could help K. I enjoyed the challenge. Also, he came to me through a recommendation of the private school he attended. I expected to get more referrals through the school. If K's mom fired me and complained, it would probably end any hope of that.

  K's mom texted me in the afternoon to remind me we had a session. She said nothing about missing yesterday's session. I said nothing. No point.

  K's teacher assigned the book Under the Mesquite to her class. The story is told in blank verse. His teacher told me the lessons would focus on symbolic language, metaphors, similes, character, setting, plot, and theme. I went through the book, marking every incident of symbolic language.

  Many kids have problems because they think answers are just supposed to come. They shouldn't have to do anything, like think. When explaining a metaphor, I told K to think of the literal meaning of the compared words. Moods are compared to smoke that can change direction unexpectedly. Picture smoke; picture it changing direction unexpectedly. He actually had more experience with this than I did. How did the change in the direction of the smoke make him feel? What might that have in common with changing moods? The above was a part of an extended metaphor. By the end of the session, he was coming up with appropriate answers. His usual answer was, "I don't know." I told him he couldn't say that anymore. It's not that I think he always knows the answer or how to figure it out. The expression was his invisibility shield so he could escape the work.

   I convinced Carol and Christine to play Rummikub instead of Triple Solitaire tonight. You have to move fast when playing the card game. My eyesight wasn't good enough, and I wasn't as familiar with the game. I like the slower-moving Rummikub, where you have the time and space to think about your next move. I love the image of the two women playing the game as they travel across the country touring, pulling the RV behind them. I thoroughly enjoyed both of them. John is sweet and can be a joy to be around, too. He cooked many delicious meals.

  When friends come to visit, they all know that they will be doing the cooking. No one expects me to. When my godmother, a little Asian Indian woman who lived in a convent in Philadelphia, came to visit, she not only did the cooking, she brought the food.

  I didn't get my 10,000 steps in today. The program forgives breaks as rest days. The count continued the next day.