Monday, April 22, 2024

 Monday, April 22, 2024

  I skipped seated yoga because of the 8 am Chi Qigong on the beach at Old A. I would be exhausted if I did both. It was not as windy as last week, but the sun was stronger. I wanted to move out of the circle into the shade because the sun was cooking my calves. I stayed put because I didn't want to be disruptive. The leader's wife made the move out of the sun. She stood behind the leader in the shade. I moved immediately to stand beside her. Next week, I would check out the sun situation, ensuring everyone who wanted to be out of the sun was. 

  I get something out of the Chi Qigong, but the real treat is standing on the bluff overlooking the ocean. The beach is not suitable for swimming. The shore is lined with large, large table-sized lava boulders worn smooth by the waves. They look like large turtles enjoying the sun and surf.  After the session, I sat at a nearby picnic bench, soaking in the view. I had to leave because I had things to do. I didn't have to be home by ten. Twenty-six-year-old S's mother had sent me a text saying she had a dental appointment.

  My first stop was at Ace Hardware. Last night, I discovered the charging cord for my Surface Pro was damaged and not working. The wire just above the plug was exposed and torn. I switched off the multiple plug outlets before pulling out the plug. I watched a video on how to replace a plug. It didn't look that hard. I found what I needed at the hardware store.

 Then, I went to the bank to cash the check. I asked to have the whole amount in five-dollar bills. I'm ready with small bills in case everything goes to hell. We will have some options, even though the money won't last long.

  I went to KTA next. I just found out where it was when Judy and Paulette took me there after church one day. I had always heard it was in the shopping strip across from the bank but never saw a sign. I was looking for something prominent above the door. No, the sign was undistinguished on the side of the building, shaded by the overhang. Because of its convenience, I went there and picked up some kiwis. I had a craving for a fruit pastry. They had some small apple thingies. I got a box of those.

  Since I didn't have an appointment at 10, I stayed in town for my 11 am appointment with Lex Brodie for my car inspection. I went to the church to sit on the south lanai and work on my updates. I saw Vicki there manning the church gift shop. Tourists wander in and buy stuff. I asked her if she had a key to the bathroom. It's kept locked because of the homeless.  Sadly, they aren't welcome because they leave the bathroom a mess.

  Fr. Lio walked by and greeted me. Last week, I saw him working on the grounds. The man is amazing. I thanked him for his dedication to the church. He is an inspiration for the whole community.  He throws himself into anything to do with the church with both feet and every hand he has available. He personally dug Mike's grave with another man.  Now, the other man's intended grave for himself and his wife was right next to ours. They dug one hole large enough for two graves. No, the finished product does not make it look like we're all buried together. They are two separate graves. Mike's safely in the ground; my grave marker is there, ready when the time arrives.

 When I returned from the bathroom, Vicki and I chatted. She had just lost her job as a chaplain at the hospital. She was let go because of expenses. She was working on training volunteers to take her place. She was planning to retire in October. The firing happened just a few months earlier. It still stung, especially since she was told on Good Friday.

  I don't know how the subject of Mike came up. Vicki knew him quite well. Mike was much loved and people still talk about him with great affection. I talked about our relationship which reduced me to tears. I didn't feel comfortable or sufficiently overcome to outright ball. It gets pretty intense when I do. I've been told it sounds like I'm laughing, deep belly laughs. I chose to weep quietly. Vicki came and knelt by my side.

  I wrote before my alarm went off and it was time to go to Lex Brodie's. When I looked for my registration and insurance card in the glove compartment before entering, I found the registration. I discovered I had no current insurance card. They could only check me in once they had both documents in hand. I went through the same procedure I had last year. I called Geico and got them to email one to the clerk. While Lex Brodie only makes appointments on the hour, the inspection was done in less than half an hour.

  When I checked my phone for text messages, I saw one from twenty-six-year-old S's mom. Was I okay? I missed our appointment this morning.  That message about the dental appointment was an old one. When I got home, I went down for a nap.

 I had the Twins at 3:30. In our last meeting, Twin A revealed her sadness about her reading problem. She said it had been aware of the sadness since she was five. It showed an order of self-awareness I hadn't suspected she was capable of. I acknowledged her sadness. I knew ir would be triggered by her attempts to read. It's an irony. Those feelings interfere with the learning, preventing her from overcoming the problem that causes the pain. Her main problem is reading accuracy. The school Spec teacher said she needed more work on phonics. But that's not the case. The problem is just using the words on the page.

   Poor readers habitually guess a word based on the first letter and perhaps one more somewhere in the word. Whenever I told Twn A she had misread a word, she could slow down and figure it out. She didn't need additional lessons on phonics. 

  Today, she did a remarkable job. She read every word accurately. I could feel her focus shift.  You can feel poor readers skim the surface of the page instead of digging up all the letters. The difference in focus reminds me of the difference between a boat that skims the surface and one with a keel.  It is impossible to convince poor readers they will read faster if they slow down and force themselves to see all the letters in every word. 

  I also teach the importance of checking out the vowel before reading the first letter. If students start with the first letter and the following vowel, they always end up at a dead end. If they read sat and start blending the /s/ with the /a/ first instead of the /a/ with the /t/, they always wind up misreading the word. Suppose you say your students don't have that problem. In that case, I say the only way that is possible is because they immediately recognized the -at before they blended the s. In one case, they blended /s/ with /at/; in the other /s/ with the /a/ alone. It's the latter that doesn't work.

 In our last session, Twin A said she still had problems singing the alphabet song. When I went over it with her, she was only missing the lmn sequence, omitting the n- a common problem. However, when I asked her what letter came after lmnop she had no trouble saying qrst. Remembering a group with the only cue of the preceding group of letters is a difficult skill. Again, she shows signs of cognitive function, which I hadn't seen before.  I taught her the lmnop sequence with backward build-up. She remembered it flawlessly today. I don't just teach facts; I teach how to learn and memorize.

  Twin A was so tired that she fell asleep while in the Zoom meeting. Despite her exhaustion, she read well and remembered the alphabet sequence. She is doing very well. When she left the session to get her sister, she closed the Zoom session. I called her mom. She set it up again and made sure Twin E came to the session.

 Twin E chose to read a story rather than work on memorization skills with the sight word list. I gave Reading Roots 23, on a first grade level. She read evey word accurately. Both girls did amazing jobs today.

  I had Adolescent D immediately afterward. I used a few paragraphs from Readin Roots 37. While it is considered first-grade material, it contains all the syllable patterns V, vc, VCe, VV, Vr. Vw, vh,vy, except the Final Stable Syllalbes, like -ble, tion,cion, ious, etc. He coded the syllables on his own. I only corrected him if something was clearly wrong. He coded the final e in a VCe word as an open syllable. Oh, boy. We've encountered that over and over, and he still misses it.

 It was Yvette's night to join me and Elsa on our evening walk.  Little wanted to turn around the moment she left the driveway. Yvette lingered to hear about my skincare adventure from Friday. She said she could see the difference in my eye after using the Truffoire treatment. I said now that my wrinkles were less, you could see the dark circles under my eyes. I think the irony is a hoot.