Wednesday, August 31, 2022

 

 Wednesday, August 31, 2022

  

   When I ran into Yvette on the first walk of the day, I asked her where she got her biodegradable green bags. I chose to buy the bright pink ones because they were easy to see when I dropped them along the way to pick them up later. Seeing Yvette’s green bags where she dropped them, it was clear they were just as easy to see as my pink, nonbiodegradable ones. Josh had ordered them on Amazon. I checked to discover they come in two sizes. The standard is 13 inches long; there is a shorter version. Elsa weighs all of thirteen pounds; she doesn’t produce much poop. The smaller bags sound like they will be perfect for the job and the environment.

   I was still feeling anger toward myself and the woman who led the bereavement group poorly. This would do me no good.

  My right foot with the hammer toe has been hurting for the last two days. I was scared I would lose my ability to walk. My foot hurt even when I was sitting down with my leg elevated. It wasn’t the toe that hurt; it was the foot itself. I looked up remedies on the Internet: surgery. I emailed the podiatrist, asking to be considered for surgery. Then I iced the foot. That helped. Maybe there was no cause for panic.

  While I napped, I composed a letter to the education support person at the prep school who recommended me. I planned to thank him for recommending me and ignore my gaff. That calmed me down. Maybe this error I made when I responded to the mother’s email without reading it thoroughly, revealing I’m not qualified to teach anyone comprehension skills since I can’t read details, would be a near miss the way the car accident was. 

   Adolescent D’s mother sent me a grammar worksheet, asking me to help him. I am happy to help students with homework to the extent that I can use the work to fulfill my objectives. He read the sentences like a whiz. Even if he had read these already with his mom, this was incredible. He only missed the word chance. He had trouble identifying the ch sound and the ce sound at the end of the word. 

    He had no trouble with the assignment except for one item. He had to fill in the periods to make the sentences complete. He read the sentences perfectly. He could find the periods for just listening to himself. He ran into trouble because the last item contained three sentences, whereas the first four had only two. This is amazing progress for this boy who couldn’t recognize her versus here a year ago. He had no decoding skills when we started. Even he had to acknowledge the difference. He admitted he couldn’t have done what he just did a year ago. Hallelujah!!