Thursday, June 23, 2022

Thursday, June 23, 2022

      I slept well for the first part of the night. Then sciatica hit. I was in pain, shifting position every fifteen minutes or so. I didn't take ibuprofen or Tylenol because my stomach was empty. I turned the light on to find Salon Pas to discover Elsa was not on the bed. Huh? That never happened unless she went to sleep with Shivani and Sidney or Yvette when they were sleeping in the library. Where was she? I went into the living room. There she was on the couch. I went back to bed. Then, I started worrying. I got up and checked if she was okay. I touched her; she moved. But was that movement a reflex of a dead body? I picked her up. She was stiff. When I put her down, and she walked away, it was the first moment I was confident she was okay. She followed me to bed and spent the rest of the night there. I covered my leg with Salon Pas and joined her. They didn't work. I used my under-the-pillow tennis ball on my back. That finally relieved the pain, and I slept.

   In the morning, Scott walked Elsa. She was used to the routine now.

   Rodney, the gardener, called to me. Could he use my bathroom? I ducked in first, making sure the door to Scott's room was closed. When Rodney came out, I showed him the backpack sprayer and where the vinegar was. Josh and Yvette were against any use of Round-Up. Weeding by hand took all the gardener's time. They couldn't get the rest of the gardening done. It was the first day we would try having the gardeners spray with vinegar. I had been using the 5% vinegar I bought from Costco to kill some weeds, but I couldn't get enough done. Lutz alerted me about using 30% vinegar in the mix. Rodney said you could see the leaves curl up as he sprayed. While Lutz had warned me the vinegar smell would be so bad, I should warn the neighbors when I applied it. Rodney said it only smelled for a moment as he sprayed. I noticed two empty 30% vinegar bottles. I had given him one 30% one and two 5% ones to mix, a two-to-one ratio. He said he added another gallon. He used a second 30% one. That was one potent mix. It must have killed anything it touched.

   After setting up Rodney with the sprayer, I had my sessions with the M &W sisters at 9 am. We were scheduled for three sessions a week. I do a max of half-hour sessions. I don't know about the students, but half an hour is enough for me. I would rather do more sessions than longer ones. However, these girls are both doing well. I think three sessions a week is overkill.   

     I asked both girls how they felt about our sessions, hoping they would say they were a drag; they would much rather do something else. First-grade M, who was going into second, gave our sessions an 8 out of 10. Damn! Fifth grade W, going into 6th, gave it a 7.2 out of 10. Double damn. I don't have much of an argument to present to the parents.

      With first grade M, I gave her a choice of writing a new story, continuing with the comprehension exercise, asking detailed questions about each sentence, or playing a game. She chose the game. I introduced the Gating Game. I used a story she wrote many months ago. The title was a good hint. She enjoyed the game. I wasn't as comfortable. When I started with M, she would get up and walk around whenever faced with frustration or uncertainty. Today she told me she didn't want help and dealt with not getting things right on the first try without batting an eye. I call this our most significant accomplishment. If she could do that, she had become a learner, someone open to the new and confusing.

    With fifth grade W, I started the comprehension exercise, asking as many questions as possible about each sentence. She said our sessions are good "As long as I learn something new." Today, I learned how much information you can get from a single sentence." Wow!

   Jean, my friend, called. I told her I had a second dream in which Mike wanted nothing more to do with me this morning. I dreamt he entered a room where I was and ignored me. Some part of my mind was still having difficulty understanding why he hadn't been in touch, why he didn't hug and kiss me anymore. Jean reminded me of how much he loved me. She saw us kiss goodbye when I dropped Mike off at the airport. Jean said she had never seen people kiss like that in real life. She could see a glow of loving energy surrounding us. It was hard to remember what we had. Did I imagine he loved me as much as I loved him? Our relationship is reduced to brief images, snapshots. Was any of it real? Jean reminds me that it was.

   Dash worked on sets of sight words he confused his other tutor sent me. The objective is to strengthen his memory skills. As a side benefit, he will remember the words. I emphasize cognitive and metacognitive skills. He demonstrated good visualization of words. This was new. He worked with me again today instead of letting me work on him, remaining passive as I led him through exercises.

  After this session, I napped again. I get two to three-hour naps several times a day. I did some work on the updates. I emailed the June 21 edition. I was just two days behind.

  I tried to watch episode two of season eight of Endeavor only to discover it wasn't available. I watched some trivial coming-of-age story. Weak but not scary. Boy, there's a lot of crap out there.