Friday, August 16, 2004

Friday, August 16, 2004

 

  I had several chores to do before I had Hula at 10 a.m.  I left at 8:30 to finish them before the class at 10 a.m. My first stop was at Farm and Garden. I noticed discoloration on one of my hibiscuses, and all the leaves and flowers had disappeared on my pink-flowered jade plant overnight.  The wonderfully made-up lady who seems entirely out of place in a store that sells to farmers and commercial gardeners diagnosed the problem was slugs in both cases. She sold me a container of Captain Jack's Slug and Bug Killer. 

   Then I headed for Office Depot to fax my dispute claim against Lucasie, the skin care company in town that scammed me, to Elan, the agency that handles credit card theft and scam charges.  I intended to send copies of all the articles Cylin sent me about this company. When I discovered the fax fee was $2 a page, I decided against two of the articles since they didn't mention this company by name. I faxed 11 pages as it was. Cylin wrote a letter to Elan supporting my claim. When I got home, I called to confirm they received the fax. They had.

   I drove to the church parking lot to park for the Hula class across the street at the community center. Odd. The community center parking lot was empty. Ah, yes. There was no class today. It was Hawaii Statehood Day; everything was closed. I was relieved because I was already exhausted.  I only had to make a quick stop at Costco to pick up Lox before I headed home. I took that desired nap.

   I only had Adolescent D today. We worked on the decoding exercise. He identifies the vowel letters quickly these days and remembers to determine which vowel letters represent vowel sounds, even though he persists in referring to the sounds as noise. He finished decoding the passage we had been working on and read the annotated words. He is still slow in processing them, although faster than he used to be. Realistically, he has only started to learn to read three years ago. Unlike children in school, he hasn't put in 10 to 20 minutes of reading a night. This puts him way behind where other children would be.  Some kids take off in kindergarten. D would never have been like that. He needs to work hard to become fluent.

   I opened Zoom for my appointment with fourth-grade L. I hadn't met with him all week because the laptop had to go to school with his older sister.  His mother promised he would be available today. When I contacted her to tell her I had sent the link, she texted they went to town and wouldn't be available. She said L was actually looking forward to the session. She offered to pay. That won't be necessary. 

   Darby was available for a walk tonight. She hadn't been because she had injured her upper arm while working in the garden.  It was a serious injury. It did more than inhibit her work in the garden; she was in so much pain she couldn't lie down comfortably. She'd been slowly improving.  Tonight was the first night she was up for walking Elsa. We joined up with Lutz. We had a scary moment.  

    As I walk Elsa, I listen carefully for oncoming cars and pull in her retractable leash when I hear one coming. Darby waited a bit too long. A car came by, and Elsa lunged after it. I screamed, "No! No! No!" Darby said she had it. Elsa was unharmed, but it was a bit closer than I liked.