Thursday, July 11, 2024

 Thursday, July 11, 2024

    I ran into Ann Marie this morning; she’s a fifth-grade teacher at a local school. She usually runs with her dog, Tulip. I have her under Tulip’s name in my address book. We stopped and talked for a while. She looked painfully thin. I asked if she was okay. She was getting a divorce; that’s enough to drain anyone. Apparently, her husband was verbally abusive and unresponsive to her needs. He didn’t understand the problem and was incapable of respecting her perspective. She said she’d rather be alone than lonely.

  Rather than stand in one spot, she walked with me to the end of the block before turning around. Elaine passed us going the other way. I introduced her to Ann Marie. Elaine looked familiar to her. “Did you teach in the middle school?” Yes. “What’s your last name?” Elaine had taught one of Ann Marie’s daughters online during Covid. She spoke highly of Ann Marie’s daughter; she was sweet and one of the few students interested in learning. She was a pleasure to work with.

   Ann Marie said her daughter got straight As except in this one course. The problem was that she had handwriting issues and couldn’t take notes fast enough. Her grade improved when the school allowed her to use a tablet to take notes.  Hearing her daughter had handwriting problems, I offered to help. Ann Marie was interested.

  We each headed out in different directions, Elaine and I walking and Ann Marie running. As I approached my driveway, I saw the other two women coming toward me. The three of us were abreast at my driveway. What are the chances of that happening? I sometimes run into Elaine twice on my walk, but I have never run into Ann Marie twice in one day. Weird!

  I see improvement in Twin E every time I see her.

  Adolescent D continues to improve in small ways daily. His decoding accuracy and speed have improved. He had an interesting response to the word change.  When he saw the n and g next to each other, he wanted to code it ng. I was thrilled he remembered the pattern. I knew that wasn’t right, but I had to think for a minute to understand why. The ge combination makes the g a /j/ sound. Coding words as I do leads to these wonderful discoveries about the English language. I have a familiarity with phonics few others have achieved.  I love it.

   No one wanted to work with me when I went to Ulu Wini today. I called going-into-third grade MV and going-iinto-6th-grade CL over. They came and then made an excuse to look for someone. I said yes, and they never came back.  They are doing some work with Shauntel. She told me that going-into-sixth-grade ML is doing much better in math.  I would love to set up a situation where the kids teach each other and come to me when they need help. Shauntel says she’s willing. I don’t know if she’s waiting for me to take the initiative or she’s stonewalling.

     We talk about people boosting their egos as a bad thing. I would say it’s wrong when we do it at someone else’s expense. Of course, there’s a caveat to that too.  Some people feel demeaned by someone else’s success. Yes, these folks are hurt, but is the one who succeeded responsible for that pain. On the other hand, I hear more reports daily about how negative internal ‘chatter’ is normal for human beings. That gratuitous self-degradation can sometimes be best combated with ego boosts.

  As I bathed Elsa this evening, I noticed a lesion on her head. It seemed better after the medicinal bath.

   I walked down to Darby’s to pick up the trash barrel she had unloaded the other day. It takes her a while to distribute all the green waste in her yard.  She calls it green gold.  I walked down with one light five-gallon bucket of green waste. Darby came out to greet me. She said, “That was a very heavy load. You must be very strong. I had to have Patrick help me get the 5-gallon buckets out of the barrel.” I had loaded the barrel with some of the schefflera branches. The wood is dense and heavy. I wheeled the empties home.

   I watched the end of Good Grief, a film written, directed, and produced by Daniel Levy, who wrote Schitt’s Creek.  I love his work. It is soulful.  I wasn’t crazy about all the characters. Sofie was somewhat too emotionally self-indulgent for my taste. She probably reminds me of myself. I’d watch the movie again and again.  The critics weren’t as pleased as I was.