Friday, March 22, 2024

Friday, March 22, 2024 

 

   I was supposed to have the Twins at 9 am. Mama K started work at 4:30, manning a coffee booth in an exercise club before she went to her other job. I sent a link at nine, as requested. Nothing. I tried to call the twin’s older sister, who was home watching them. The call was dropped seconds after I dialed it. I called Mama K. She got hold of her daughter through FaceTime.

      Twin E signed on close to 9:30. I had to be in a shower by 10:30. I had to cut things short. Instead of doing the handwriting exercise to strengthen her ability to focus on the letters in the words, I went over a list she hadn’t seen in a while, Fry Sight Word #101-150. She did well on the first twenty-five. She did better on the second set but not as well. She did some off-the-wall misreadings, reading through as other. I forced her to make the sounds associated with the words, th, r, and give me a sound for the ough. She did well on the first two and gave me an /uh/ for ough. I used her pronunciation of through in a sentence. She was able to infer the meaning! It was a first for this! It is huge progress.

   I told Twin E to call Twin A to the session. She didn’t come and didn’t come. I called Mama K. I don’t know what the problem was. When she did come on, something went wrong with the Zoom connection, but not before I got some valuable information. The Sped team said A had problems reading at an appropriate rate. As she read today, I asked if she consciously decoded every word. There is no way one can become a good reader decoding every word. She said yes. She was being cautious. She must have a functioning memory since she had completed the sight word lists up to grade level. But the sight word list is predictable. When reading text, the words aren’t. I pushed her to use the same memory process when reading text as when reading the sight word lists.

   It was tricky. On occasion, her mind gave her the wrong word. I can see where she’s coming from. How could she rely on such an inconsistent memory? On occasion, she read a word that made no sense and was unperturbed. Does she pay attention to the meaning while she’s reading? Does she have to concentrate too hard on the decoding to pay attention to the meaning of the sentence? There are lots of questions. It’s a good place to be in the teaching process.

    After I finished with her, I loaded another trash bin with palm fronds to take to Darby’s. I planned to take it over tomorrow when I had the time.

   I jumped in the shower to get ready for lunch at Don and Brenda’s. When I arrived, I was surprised we were going out. Their previous invitation, which I had to cancel because of nausea, was for a restaurant. 

I assumed this one would be lunch in their backyard. But no. I followed Brenda on her scooter to the View restaurant at the golf course.

   The View is on the golf course grounds, although it is privately owned. It offers a fantastic view of the Pacific Ocean and a small harbor nestled in the bay below. I ordered a hamburger. I kept hoping to find a restaurant serving a hamburger comparable to Annie’s. I lust for their burgers. Sadly, that restaurant closed during Covid.

   We talked about long-term health care and the changes at the Kona Inn. Sadly, Brenda’s mom has dementia and lives in the Life Care Center. Brenda visits her daily and has nothing but praise for the care there. I was shocked that her mom pays $16,000 monthly for a double room. That’s more than it costs to stay at the Regency, a privately owned graded retirement community. The Life Care Center provides round-the-clock nursing care for all its residents. The Regency does, too. I don’t know how much full-time nursing care costs there. The price is probably comparable.

  However, I was surprised at the cost of the Life Care Center because I know that the residents there are covered by Medicare. That’s where they wanted to send me after my accident in June. I didn’t wind up there because they had no vacancy. Kaiser would have paid for my stay. Because no skilled care nursing facility was available, I had two choices; stay in the hospital or pay for my in-home care. I chose the latter. I think it was the best choice, assuring my quickest recovery.

   Don, Brenda, and I all found the service at the Kona Inn disappointing. The prices were higher and the quality of the food lower.

    This was the first time I met with Don and Brenda without Mike. I had a lovely time. I enjoyed Brenda’s high energy level. It was energizing for me.

   When we parted, it was time for a nap. I headed home. Adolescent D cancelled for the day. I had Mama K’s Twins at 4:30 when she got home from work. That woman put in a 12-hour workday to come home to four kids.

   I had called Lutz earlier in the day to say I was free if he wanted to come over and check out my microwave. When he heard mine was broken, first he asked if he could have it. He wanted to cannibalize it for parts. Then he thought he might be able to fix it. I didn’t hear from him until the end of the day. He apologized. He spent the afternoon with his adult daughter, who was getting her driver’s license for the first time at thirty. She could drive and had been driving for years, just without a license.