Saturday, January 27, 2024

 Saturday, January 27, 2024

    It was a wonderfully peaceful day. I did garden work, continuing the weeding and trimming one of the shrubs with my handy four-inch chain saw. Love this gadget.

  I called to work with Mama K's crew. I had forgotten it was the twins' birthday. Mama K had it on speakerphone. I sang Mike's and my version of Happy Birthday to them. They giggled.

  Dash has a fantastic visual recall. He recalled all the letters in the word essential without effort. His problem is auditory recall: remembering the sound of the word. I reviewed the memorization procedure I developed.

   I was very excited by the realization that D's visual recall was that good. It is a strength we could use. I saw improvement in his word recognition when he said the letters before reading the word. I saw a significant improvement when we reviewed 'seeing' the letters. He applied that strategy when he read. I felt long ago that he didn't embed the words visually in his mind when he read. He left the letters on the page. Why would you expect it to be remembered if you don't give your mind the information it needs to trigger a memory? Later in the day, my excitement dimmed when I remembered he would not do this alone. He won't make any effort to practice it to make it habitual. I thought for a moment I could get him up to grade level, 10th grade.

   Last spring, he took an online reading test to evaluate his progress. He tested at the tenth-grade level. His teachers were ecstatic. He jumped five grade levels in a year. Only one problem: he had the computer read the text for him. He didn't even read along. D could do that because his comprehension is just fine. If he takes the test correctly, reading the material independently, he will be outed as a cheat.

   Today starts the sixth week I have been without my car and driving the loaner. Tyler told me they would have my car for me last week. Last week was over yesterday. I brought the car into the shop on December 22. It was scheduled for service on that day. I was supposed to get it back that afternoon. They called me to say the one mechanic they had to work on electric cars would be off-island for two weeks, taking a professional development course at Kia headquarters.

   When I didn't hear from them the week he was supposed to have returned, I called several times, leaving messages. I was never called back. I called the sales department and spoke to the woman who got me a loaner when the service manager refused me one. She said she would get back to me later that day. She didn't call then. I never heard from her.

   In week four, Tyler called to tell me they had fired the service manager. They had tried to repair my car, but it didn't work. They would have the car for me in the next week. Well, that's past now, and still no word. I have the loaner; I'm not inconvenienced. I want to trade in my car for the loaner. It's a used car with five thousand miles and a dent in the driver's side back door. Let's see what happens next week.