Friday, April 26, 2024

 Friday, April 26, 2024

    Paulette and I had 11 o'clock appointments for infrared treatments at the Truffoire shop. The treatments were a free gift with our purchase of the products we bought last week. Paulette was just getting the facial, and I was getting the full body treatment plus the facial. The infrared treatment might help my recovery from my two surgeries on my left shoulder and elbow and the damage I did to my right arm when the heavy lawnmower pinned my arm to the gate as I brought it up for storage. 

   The machine was a sauna and an infrared machine. Instead of wearing a bathing suit, I went in with just my underpants on. The guy who took us through the process opened the machine to make some adjustments. I couldn't have cared less. When I was younger, I had nothing to hide. I had a fantastic figure. I think everyone thought I felt so free because I had a good body. Nay! I feel the same about my eighty-three-year-old body. 

   When the sauna/infrared treatment was finished, I got a facial. Giovani didn't give me the same treatment as Paulette because I wasn't concerned about wrinkles.  He dgave her a natural collagen treatment. On me, he did the golden mask. He literally put a golden mask over my face. When it came off, Paulette was impressed. 

    The salesman offered us two years of supplies for $200 a month. Let's get this straight; I do a minimal amount to maintain my good looks. I bought into the program, which includes a monthly facial and refills on all the products. 

   Besides the six creams and lotions, I got a Jupiter space touch, the science of light, with red and blue light.  The salesman commented the blue light would be good for my eczema.  What??  He said I had an unusual amount of flaking skin. I had noticed it already. My skin used to be smooth. My hands still felt that way, but parts of my face, legs, and arms had rough patches. Once or twice a week, I rubbed my face, arms, and legs with Scotch-Brite non-scratch blue cleaning pads.  

   Giovani said the eczema is inherited. My mom's side of the family had fantastic skin. I have some of her qualities. I don't get those small wrinkles, only the deep ones. While I look good, I only look five to ten years younger than I am. When I was sixty-six, an esthetician told me my skin was dry for my age. I asked her how old she thought I was. She said forty-six. I delighted in telling her she was off by twenty years. The gap has narrowed. It will get smaller as I get older. 

    My paternal grandfather had good skin. My dad and his brother had acne when they were young. I did, too. My uncle had full-blown psoriasis. When my acne was over and done with in my twenties, a different type of skin eruption developed. The doctor told me I had that instead of psoriasis. So this is the second time I have been told I have some genetic skin condition. Giovani told me the problem would get worse as I got older and that blue light treatment would help.

     Paulette and I had lunch afterward, as we had last week.  I liked the looks of a nearby restaurant, the Kona Canoe Club. It had a great view of the water.  We got one order of nachos between us. It was plenty.

   I did not do reading work with Adolescent D today. He has a terrible self-destructive attitude about himself and his relationship to praise. He had problems correctly estimating his skill level. Somewhere around the two-year mark, he insisted he always could read as well as he did then. I asked if he always read that well, why didn't he? He was stumped by that question. He said, "I don't know."

   D's latest issue concerns the big deal everyone is making about his poem. He feels humiliated because he's being praised for something easy to do. It is good enough that I suspected he plagiarized it off the internet.  I checked. There was nothing like it.  Then I concluded he used AI to help him write it.  When I said that today, he took offense. "I didn't cheat!"  Wow!  This is the first challenging written assignment he has handed in.  He is furious that everyone is making a big fuss about it.  "It was easy."  If it was easy, why don't you always hand in your homework?  He said he was forced to complete this assignment because he had to read it out loud to his peers. I reminded him that didn't stop him before. 

    He had an assignment in a video class to interview someone.  He announced he wouldn't do it because he had no ideas.  He told me he didn't want to do it because he didn't want to be weird. How do you think telling the teacher, "No thanks," to an assignment looked?" This is a bright child. I don't think he is psychotic. Although some of the things he does makes me wonder. 

    He is hypersensitive to the expectations of others. His mother bought him a copy of the driver's manual so he could study for the test to get his permit. She walked into the room while he was reading it and expressed pleasure. His dad walked in just behind and also expressed pleasure.  D said, "Now, you've spoiled everything," put down the manual, and never picked it up again.

   Today, I drew a Venn Diagram for him. There's always an overlap in the space between what people want things for you or from you and what you want for yourself.  You have to keep your focus on what you want.  I asked him if he was oppositional.  Some people will say no to anything anyone else suggests.  Do you want to go to the beach?  The answer is no, whether they do or do not. Someone else suggested it; therefore, it's out of the question.

  I heard a remarkable idea on a podcast: when making a decision, choose your regret. You will always sacrifice something with each decision you make, and there will always be a possible regret. Choose your regret. There are things I have left undone. I have some regrets, but they don't haunt me. 

      Dan applied Stump Out to the tree stumps after cutting two trees down.  He said I had to add hot water to the powder to activate it.  After applying it, he said it only needed water and was about to rain.  I went down to double-check. While the holes he drilled were good-sized, the powder wasn't in the holes.  He just sprinkled it in the area of holes.  I added hot water to what was there, but I must redo it.

    Darby told me you must add killing chemicals to trees within seconds of cutting the fibers. They close up that quickly.  I will have to redrill the holes, ensure the powder is in them, and add the water.  To be in a position to do all that work, I will have to clear the area around the Schefflera.  Dan left a lot of the branches.  It is a treacherous climb.