Monday, June 17, 2024
It was just me and Clyde on the bluff at Old A for Chi Qigong. It was another beautiful day; the mornings are always clear. The rains come in the afternoon or evening. While we usually do the repeated action 66 times, Clyde proposed only doing them 33 times because he had difficulty holding the count. I didn't argue with him because I had gotten a phone call from my friend Jean in Arizona. "Was I still planning to go to the bank for her?" Oh, dear. I had forgotten about it. I thought I had written it into my calendar. I hadn't. I was a bit disoriented by her reminder. I was anxious to get back to her.
When Clyde finished the sequence, I called Jean back. Of course, I could do it today. Today would be a perfect time to do it. Twenty-six-year-old SL had canceled for today because she was still recovering from surgery, so I had the whole morning free.
The bank would open at 9 a.m. I went to Target to pick up Dave's whole grain bread, raspberry jam, a pastry I craved, and a few cans of lentil soup. While I was there, I checked out the frozen sections for meals that were on sale. Amy's had a two-for-$10 sale. I couldn't take them with me now. They would defrost in the hot car while I was in the bank.
By the time I was through at Target, it was close to 9 a.m. I drove over to the bank. I got a parking space right in front, a good sign that others wouldn't be waiting to speak to a bank official. When I entered, I noticed the bank opened at 8:30, not 9. Oh, dear.
The layout of this bank was very different from mine. I walked up to one of the loan officer windows. "You have to sign in," without making it clear where I had to sign in. I noticed a good-sized screen. I signed in under my friend Jean's name. Now, I just had to remember when they called to respond.
I didn't see any place to sit, so I stood at the front of the bank. There were only two people available to see people. One was talking to a client; the other was busy with paperwork. I noticed there were seats at the back of the bank. I asked the loan officer doing the paperwork if I was supposed to wait there.
There were three people already sitting in the area waiting for service. I found a seat and observed them. The man to my left was busy reading something. An older woman across from me looked like she was playing games on her phone. The third person was a young woman with two young children, a boy of about seven and a girl of three. She was wonderful with them. Being in lonely mode 24/7 these days, I immediately thought of how devastated they would be if they lost her. The three of us waited and waited. No one came for us.
I turned to the man to my right. He said it was the third time he was there. They were understaffed, and the bank had been in chaos for at least a week. That didn't sound good. I thought maybe I should leave and come back. It didn't sound good like I was going to see someone today when a young woman came from a back office and asked us why we were there. I had Jean on the phone at that moment and handed the phone to the bank official. The young woman told me she had to check on something and she would be right back.
When she returned, she asked me to follow her to her office, a room to the side of the bank behind the booth I hadn't seen when I arrived. Janette continued her conversation with Jean over my phone. There was some confusion, and there were problems understanding each other. Janette stayed calm and helpful. She proposed calling Jean on her business phone. There were problems getting through. When she made the connection, I was free to leave.
I had to go to the bank for Jean because she had already spent several hours on the phone on hold. Then, when she did get someone, they couldn't help her unlock her debit card. Janette said she had the same experience when she called in as a bank client. Phone calls to the bank were handed over to a third party. They were unhelpful. She advised Jean to hang up and call back when she was switched over. Eventually, someone from the local branch would answer. I left, not knowing if this would work out successfully.
I went to PetCo to make an appointment for Elsa's grooming. Then I went to Target in the shopping center across the street and picked up nine of Amy's frozen foods I had seen on sale when I was there earlier. I went home and unpacked my groceries. I fit most of the frozen food into the freezer with ease. The ninth one was a problem. I made it for lunch, ate half of it, and saved the other half for dinner.
I didn't work with Mama K's girls this morning. Every Monday, they help at a food bank through their paddling club. Mama K gets the children involved in wonderful activities. Anything to keep them from playing games on the iPad.
I did more weeding of the large area where the Schefflera trees had been removed and the mulch was laid. I can only do so much of that at a time before my back starts complaining and it needs a rest. I finally looked at the Schefflera that Dan had just cut back lower down the property. It was happily putting out new shoots. The Stump Out either wasn't working at all or not working yet. I planned to come down and do some more damage.
I packed a bucket with my cordless drill, drill bits, squeeze bottles filled with Round Up, copper nails, and a ball-peen hammer. It was treacherous clambering over all the refuse Dan left when he cut the tree down was treacherous. I thought better of doing it without support. I got my cane before I took on the chore. I managed to drill holes in two or three of the trunks. The tree must have been cut back before. It put out shoots, which became trunks like a hydra. I have many more trunks to go. Before I do, I need to clear the area of debris so I can safely work there. Also, one trunk grew on Mei and Peter's side of the fence. I will have to ask them to take care of it.
I drilled holes in the wood exposed by the cut. I noticed that some came out grey while some came out cream-colored. The cream color was live wood, whereas the grey was dead. No point in putting Round Up in something already dead. I drilled diagonal holes on the side of the trunk, put the nozzle of the squeeze bottle, and squeezed. I stopped the moment the Round-Up overflowed the hole. This is the method Lutz recommended to kill unwanted trees. It's fairly quick, acting faster than just about anything else. This is important because a small portion of the poison is required and confined to the tree; its damage may be limited to the tree. I would do the copper nail trick some other day.
Lutz says copper nails are ineffective for killing trees. I used two on a twenty-foot haolo koa I cut down. Of course, I poured boiling water on all new shoots. It would be hard to know which worked. If both did, could one have worked without the other?
It was a Ulu Wini day. Every weekday during the summer break is a Ulu Wini day except Tuesday. The community center did not plan any activities on Tuesday, and no tables were set up outside the center where I could work.
I saw going-into-fifth-grade CL. The math stuck. She was able to do multi-digit addition and subtraction without regrouping. We started addition with regrouping today. She got it pretty quickly. This is not all my teaching. Teachers have struggled to teach her math for the last year since she arrived here in Hawaii. Now that she has developed number sense, she can use everything they've taught her.
I had an upsetting experience today while teaching CL. I considered teaching place value. When I started, I realized I had trouble remembering how it worked. I have taught place value a lot. I passed on teaching it to CL not only because it would be too confusing for CL but also because I was confused at the moment. My mind went 1, 10, 100, 101, 110. When I hit 100-100, I knew I was in trouble.
This is the first sign of a mental deficit I've experienced. It was a little scary. I assume I will have more. There's still so much I want to do with my life. My teaching methods are effective and easy to learn, and there are no method-specific materials to buy. You can use whatever you have at hand. For some teachers, the openness of the methods isn't a positive but a negative. It allows too much variation. They have to learn on the job. They don't understand; they can grab any printed material and use it as is. If they're intimidated by a word, skip it.
I learned today that CL is not Marshallese; she is Chuuk. The Chuuk Islands are a different group from the Marshall Islands. The two groups are in conflict at the housing center. Too bad.
I checked out the Chuuk Islands. Most of them have a population of under five hundred. Life there must be very simple; it is usually called primitive. The residents are unfamiliar with other cultures, and their people live close to nature. As I said yesterday, if CL's parents were to walk down a NY city street, everyone would stare at them. Country bumpkin doesn't begin to cover it. I feel so sad for these people and what they've lost having to move from their lovely Pacific Island.
The Chuuks are also known as the Truks. I read about them in the 1960s. Edward T. Hall wrote a book called The Silent Language, where he compared different cultural understandings of time and space. Boy, that book stuck with me. He compared American, German, and Spanish concepts of time. What a scream! Americans consider being five minutes late for a meeting being on time; at fifteen minutes, an apology is required; at half an hour, you'd better have a good excuse. For Germans, one minute late is on time; five minutes requires an apology; after half an hour, there'd better have been an emergency. For the Spanish, fifteen minutes late is one time; half an hour requires an apology, etc.
The Truk's were mentioned in this book. Someone came running up screaming about a fire as if it were occurring at that moment. They were referring to a fire that happened ten years earlier. I thought, and still think, that's a highly dysfunctional concept of time. I wonder if the Truks continue to see time that way. I'll check with Shauntel tomorrow.
I had going-into-second-grade KS. I had to call him over to me. I drew four parallel lines and asked him to write his name. Wow! That was quite a difference from where he started. I just showed him that the head of the g is the same size as the n, and the g's tail goes below the line.
No other children wanted to work with me. Besides that alarming experience when I couldn't remember how place value worked, I was tired and glad to go home. I tried to rest. It wasn't a satisfying one. There was clearly something wrong. Maybe I had a minor stroke. I remember when Mike had a brain scan while working in Columbus. There was evidence of a minor stroke. Neither of us remembered a time when he seemed to be having one. Small strokes must be common occurrences at my age.
I had an appointment with Adolescent D at 4. Then he changed it for 4:30 and then 5, when we finally met. I asked him how his job at Costco was going. He worked at the check-out counter as the cashier's assistant. Our work, analyzing the sound/letter relationship of each word, felt grueling. I wondered if I was losing my love of teaching or if there was some other reason. I usually take endless pleasure in this activity. I had to think it out.
When walking this evening, Elsa slipped out of her harness. Darby called in alarm when she saw it. Darby always walks Elsa in the evening; some think Elsa is hers. No, She walks her because she is still working on recovering from her stroke five years ago.
The UPS truck coming down the street stopped dead when it saw Elsa was loose. Everyone who drives in this neighborhood knows Elsa and knows she will 'attack' their car. I called Elsa and picked her up. Darby put the leash back on. It had been properly closed. We couldn't imagine what had gone wrong with how the leash was put on to make it possible for Elsa to slip out of it. Darby thinks it was put on too loosely. I think one of her legs must have been loose. All's well that ends well.
I didn't do any writing today. I was too brain-dead. I happily fell down the Bridgerton rabbit hole.
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