Tuesday, July 26, 2022

 Tuesday, July 26, 2022

 

  I jumped up and left when my alarm went off at 9 am. I was off to Kawaihae to the port to pick up the engraved gravestones for Mike and me. It would take forty-five minutes to an hour to get there. Last time, I ran out of electric bars driving there. This time I was careful. I used the HEV motor on all downslopes and the EV motor on all uphill ones. All roads here go up and down because our lava flows like ice cream; it doesn't explode and rush down to the sea as it does in other locations. Our eruptions come from a hot spot, a weak spot in the ocean floor crust. I made it to the port with plenty of electric bars left. I was comfortable that I would make it home without difficulty.

   When I arrived at Kawaihae, I needed to find the entrance. I figured I could always turn around and circle back. Better to move on and look for something familiar. I saw the Young Bros sign.  

   My first stop was the bathroom when I entered the compound. Next, I went through the military-style security check. They directed me to the trailer that dealt with incoming shipments. There was no line. There were long lines when I dropped the slabs off to be shipped to Honolulu. I waited over an hour. Today it went rapidly.

    It took a minute for someone to come to one of the three windows. I had the picture of the bill of lading open on my phone. The clerk asked for my driver's license. That was all she needed. She returned with my receipt and asked me to pay the $80, the minimum shipping cost. Another woman approached me as I left the cashier window and told me to pull over to the other side of a fence with my trunk open. 

   When I popped the trunk, I discovered stuff I had bought from Costco: a twenty-five-pound bag of salt, three cases of almond milk, a gallon of distilled water, and two gallons of vinegar. I had to put down the seats and shift everything as close to the front of the car as I could. I left my trunk door open and pulled to the location. I was on the other side of the fence from \where I had been before. Someone pointed me in another direction. The woman was standing in the middle of the road behind me. I pulled over. She said, "Stop right here." Someone pulled up behind me with a forklift and put the load in the back of my car. Done! I didn't have time to write a text or read my Kindle. I had been ready for a wait of several hours.  

   I asked the woman why it was so empty when it had been so crowded when I did the drop-off. She said it varies. It had been crowded that morning. I hit it at a perfect time. I also asked the woman about their schedule. She told me shipments that come in on Friday are ready for pick up on Monday or Tuesday. Shipments that come in on Monday are ready for pickup by Wednesday or Thursday. I could have come on Wednesday to pick up the gravestone slabs. It was just as well. I completed the task with a small accommodation on the part of the M &W sisters. 

  The trip home was smooth. I applied the same strategy I had driving there. I used the HEV motor on down slopes and the EV up the slopes.

  My right foot started to hurt yesterday. Damn! I had hoped my toe deformity wouldn't be a problem; I developed a hammer toe; my second toe was climbing over the first. Now I faced another challenge to my mobility in my old age, my older age. I applied ice and massaged the foot. I also started stretching exercises.

    After getting home, I headed over to Paulette's to get water. Elsa always goes with me. She runs for the door when she sees me pick up the bottles where I store the water. She knows what is going to happen next. She is one smart dog. 

   I donned my mask and went inside. I don't usually do that. I insist that Paulette come outside to visit. I was careless today. Paulette was hemming a dress Judy bought at Target. I liked it longer, but Judy said it felt like she was wearing a sack and found the shorter hem cooler. We shared funny family stories. When it started to rain, I ducked out before I got stuck there.

    Judy and Paulette's family have contagious diseases running through it like water. A stomach virus ran through the family. The last victim was Judy's granddaughter visiting from Lanai. Her mother and brother went home when scheduled. Her dad stayed at Judy's on the Big Island to give her another day to recover. They faced a six-hour trip home. Someone could paddle from the Big Island to Lanai in that time. It's only thirty-five miles away, but there are no direct flights that don't cost a small fortune too much for a family of four on a teacher's salary. They take two flights: one to Honolulu and then one to Maui. They catch a bus to the ferry site to get to Lanai. Then, of course, they have to get home from there. They left the other day. I learned today that the poor kid felt lousy the whole way, even though she was no longer throwing up. Today, Judy and Paulette told me that Adam had a sore throat. I wore a mask but went inside, which I don't usually do. 

   I asked Adolescent D how much he wanted to learn to read, giving me a number between 1 and 10. He said 6. I asked him how much he wished he was in charge of his life. He gave an 8 for that. He floated through his life, drifting toward what was easiest. While he was cooperative, his effort level was close to zero. He finally agreed to read the transcript of the audio file of the 5 Stories. I sent it to him. I'm not counting on him doing it. He finished reading all the words on the word list provided by the other tutor with all the rhyming words or words that followed the same pattern. We went back to using the driver's manual. The good news was he could still read the words in the first item without difficulty. I had him identify which letters comprised a pattern worth remembering. He still needed to understand that these patterns are all based on the vowels in the syllables. The boy doesn't see patterns. 

   We came across the word must twice. When D saw it the second time, he had no idea what to do with it. I told him we had marked the pattern on the word in the line above. All he had to do was find the word must there. He couldn't do it. I asked him if he looked at every word or just glanced and expected the word to pop out at him. The latter. That's great. I can do that, but I've read at least a thousand words a day for the last seventy-five years. Rapid recognition depends on familiarity.  

   When I was in grad school, I had a roommate who was a geneticist. I went to her lab. She showed me two containers of fruit flies. "How do you know the difference." She said, "These have a red spot on their back, and those don't" Right! I couldn't see a red spot. She could not only see them but be able to separate them at lightning speed. Familiarity. 

`think of with the same spelling, he chimed in with some I hadn't included because they were spelled differently. Still, this was a significant improvement. Also, he could identify the words' individual sounds (phonemes) with greater ease. I pointed this out to him. "Yes, I suppose so." I told him this was great news because phonemic awareness is the biggest predictor of a good reader. It could be a result of listening to the audio file nightly. Was he doing it regularly? D doesn't do anything regularly. It drives me nuts. I proposed he read the transcript of the audio file. I sent it to him. Let's see what he does with it. At least he didn't say he wouldn't read it. He often does that. I don't know if he was describing what he knew his behavior would be because he had no control over himself or he was refusing to do the work. 

   Adolescent E stopped by to say goodbye. He stayed with his grandfather for three weeks. His mother never allowed him to spend that much time here. I handed him Mike's old tablet to give to his mother so she could use it with her younger children.

   Yvette came home. She was supposed to be away until August 1. She contracted Covid, which prevented her from attending her grandfather's 100th birthday bash and led her to cancel the rest of her trip.