Wednesday, September 21, 2022

Wednesday, September 21, 2022 

 

   I lay in bed and did three hip opener exercises before my morning walk. I planned to do it every morning. Wish me luck!

   For the second time, Dean accompanied me on my walk. Yesterday, we discussed solar panels and electricity use. We use between 50 and 60 KWhs a day. He said his household only used 6. I thought that was impossible. When I saw Dean this morning, I asked him if he had checked his numbers with his wife, Nina, who was more knowledgeable. He pulled an electric bill out of his pocket. He was off, but not by that much. His household uses 12 kWh a day versus the 50-60 we use daily. There are five people currently in our household. There are four in Dean's: him, his wife, and her parents. We have three good-sized refrigerators, two freezers, at least one air conditioner, several fans, three washers and dryers, and several computers. Dean's household has two small refrigerators and two TVs.  

  Dean rents his solar system. It guarantees a fixed monthly bill. I don't know how the companies who provide these systems make money, but they must. We bought our system. It's all paid for. It definitely brings down our monthly costs.  

  Nina wasn't with Dean this morning. She has a regular job and a job where she substitutes when the employee is out. He's out with an injury, and Nina is on duty daily. Dean joined me on my path this morning. I did 4,000 steps. My leg was getting stronger.

   I felt a desperate need for sleep. Was I tired because of grief over a lost friend, the five teeth I will have extracted, or tired because of a bad reaction to the vaccine? I had no reaction to the other vaccine shots.

   Judy called. Then she got a call from Mei. She had to take that because her calls are usually about some change in plans related to Turo. A car or a customer came in earlier than expected, and Judy and Paulette had to go immediately. Their schedules are dependent on the airline arrivals and departures. They're in constant flux. The unpredictability makes it a stressful job. They're on constant call. 

  Judy called me back. She wasn't needed immediately. We talked about dentists. She loves hers and says his prices are reasonable. Mine is okay, but I no longer have dental insurance, thanks to Medicare. Medicare is now the insurer. Most dentists don't accept their insurance because they don't pay up. One dentist I know applied and waited and waited and waited for approval. It either never came through, or they just gave up. We're all in much worse shape than we were before. I needed teeth extracted. My regular dentist sent me to an oral surgeon to have them done. Judy's dentist charges half of what he charges for an extraction. 

   While I had been fatigued, my conversation with Judy energized me. I went out for a walk. The path for my short walks during the day is usually up and down my street on relatively flat ground. Today, I decided to include a steep hill. I turned down a street intersecting with my block. I walked halfway down the incline and back up. Both directions build up my leg muscles.  

  Judy and Paulette passed me, returning home from a chore as I headed home. They stopped to chat. I remembered it was Paulette's birthday and regaled her with the Ross rendition of Happy Birthday. It brings a smile to most faces. It's pretty off the wall, and each one is different. In true Hawaiian style, we all stood chatting in the middle of the road. A few cars passed and drove around us without comment. I remembered what Josh said about driving patterns here in Kona. Two cars traveling in opposite directions can stop in the middle of a two-lane road to chat, and no one will honk. I love this place.

  While we were talking, the phone rang; it was Mei. There had been a schedule change; were they available? Judy said, "We can do it. We're right in front of Betty's house. We'll be right there."

    I had an appointment with adolescent D. I reviewed the word shared. He had missed it in our last session and could not decode it. Yes, the e makes a sound. He recalled something about the t and d rule before the final -ed. He just got it backward. He said it did make a sound because there wasn't a t or d. I asked him if he had done mental rehearsal. Nope. He never drills himself. Wait! His mother said if she tells him to do something, he keeps repeating it to himself as he goes to do it. You can't interrupt him. That is rehearsal, but it doesn't work for him. I asked if he refused to drill himself because he thought only stupid people did that. He said no. I realized he doesn't do it because he can't remember what to drill. Does this fall under an auditory processing problem, a memory problem, or both?

   We decoded shared. D successfully blended sh with ar as in the word are. That gave him shard. When he reread the sentence saying /shard/, he immediately saw the correct word was shared. 

   Then, I returned to the text and had him read it from the top. When he came to the word shared, he read it as shattered. That made no sense in the text. How did he get that? We had gone over the word shared a few minutes before. It was the second day we had worked on it. He had remembered shard and thought it had something to do with shattered. The bad news is this kid has terrible processing problems. How do I help this boy? If I get frustrated and annoyed, how can he not? He has to live with this 24/7. I only have to deal with it for two half-hour sessions a week. The good news is he is finally letting me see what is going on instead of just saying 'I don't know," when I ask him what he was thinking. I sat there and prayed out loud for guidance. " How can I help this boy? What should I do?". 

  Other professionals must think that bizarre. I don't mean I do a formal prayer to a godhead. I just sat there and asked, "How can I help him? What do I need to do?" I asked that question with all my heart and soul. It is a genuine question. Kids respond very well to it. I admit I don't know. They don't know anything all the time. It's good to have some company in the land of not-knowing. The other part is I don't blame them. Not to say I haven't occasionally with D. He is so hidden it is hard to know how much of his problem is caused by ego defense and how much was caused by processing problems. Now I know; there is no question in my mind I have never seen a case this bad. I'm sure there are others out there. Come to think of it, I have three kids I'm currently working with who have similar problems. They can't remember something they've heard two bloody seconds before. What is this about? Is this a growing problem due to something in our contemporary lives that is destroying memory, or is it just my dumb luck?

  In my session with Mama K's kids, I started the twins on Starfall, training them to do it independently so they could practice during the week. I only work with them for fifteen minutes a week. That's all the time Mama K can give me. It's not about the money. I do their session for free. Then I met with fourth-grade K. Oh, my. He hit it out of the park. I'd been doing the WbyW comprehension exercise with him for the last few weeks. We met for about 15 minutes once a week. That's all I get. He had been doing better answering the many questions on each sentence, but today, it was of a different order. He was confident. I asked him if he saw a difference in school; did he understand everything better? He said yes. Did he think this exercise helped? Yes. I get amazing results with this exercise.

  I was supposed to have a makeup session with ninth-grade K. He never showed. He never called to explain. I will make sure he has my telephone number so he can contact me directly if he has a problem while at his dad's. So far, we have done everything through his mom.

   I got a text from Lutz telling me not to prepare dinner. He would be dropping off a dish of his homemade spaghetti. He stopped by late to deliver a closed-cover Pyrex dish. He continued on his evening walk. Fifteen minutes later, I headed out on mine. I start out walking in the opposite direction he does. I run into him since he is going around the block for 1.1 miles. When I do, I join him in his walk. Lutz is a walking fund of information and opinions. He is fun to talk to and argue with, 

  B texted his rotator cuff surgery scheduled for Friday was canceled. I wondered why. He called tonight. He had pneumonia. Oh, dear. 

  I put the yoga toes on my left foot before turning the lights for the night. The chiropractor had suggested I use the toe separators used when polishing toenails. Those didn't do anything for me. My wandering toe just pushed it aside and continued doing its thing. The yoga toes worked. That toe didn't have a chance. Let's see if it makes a difference.