Saturday, November 23, 2024

 Saturday, November 23, 2024

       I started the day texting friends for help getting places since my car didn’t work. Was anyone going to Costco today? I needed a few things. I anticipated being without a car for the foreseeable future. The car wasn’t charging correctly, and the Kia dealership mechanic had no loaner available. I am so lucky I had five friends I could ask for help.  

   I  caught a glimpse of Dean and Nina passing by my driveway as I was getting ready to take Elsa out for a walk. I rushed out to catch them. they were already out of view.  I planned to cut down a side street to catch them coming around on the street below us when I saw them walking toward me.  Mei passed them while driving back to her house, stopped, and offered them fruit from her garden. Dean and Nina were heading back to collect.  While they went into Mei’s house, I grabbed the doggy bag I had forgotten from my house.

   Nina said she was going to Costco. I was glad I had a chance to speak to her because I could give her details about the products I wanted from the store.  Then I texted her a list, not expecting her to remember.

    She asked if I wanted salted or unsalted cashews.  Salted, of course. I love salt. Dean and Nina said the unsalted cashews were sweeter and had less impact on my blood pressure. When I got home, I checked it. It was 118/72.  Pretty good. I think it’s improving because of the interval walking I’ve been doing. Also, I’ve been making percussive upper arm movements after reading that seniors who play a racket sport have fewer heart attacks and strokes.  In one of the shorts, I also saw that certain hand exercises strengthen the brain. I think all these exercises are designed to get more blood to the brain.

    I continued trimming the plumbago hedge. Eli trimmed down the excessive growth on my neighbor’s fence with the vines climbing ten feet into the air.  It is that side of the hedge that concerns me most. It’s hard to get to and invades my neighbor’s property. I expected to find a walkway between the fence and the shrub, but there was none.  I have no idea what they did.  I trimmed what I could with the hedge trimmer, but I also had to do hand trimming because the vine had roots in that area. I pulled out what I could. The rest I cut back as close to the ground.

    I also spread out the drip hose so it would be relaxed when the shrubs were planted.

   I worked with the Twins today.  I haven’t been working with them as frequently feeling they are doing better on their own.   My goal in my tutoring is to teach people how to learn. They are starting to do that. Today, I saw Twin A ‘think’ for the first time.  Up to this point, it either clicked or it didn’t. She had no conscious means of accessing her memory.  Many of my students have problems with memory.  The twins had it the worst.  I told their mom my goal for them to qualify for honors classes in high school.  My guess is the school thinks of the girls as cognitively impaired.  Neither could name all the letters in the alphabet by the end of first grade. These girls have been a challenge. They’re in fifth grade now. Twin A reads on a third-grade level, and Twin E is on a high second-grade level.  Will they ever become good enough students to qualify for an honors class? Who knows.  While that is my long-term goal. In the present moment, I work for every slight improvement I can.  That’s how you get where you’re going: one step at a time.