Wednesday, November 27, 2024

 Wednesday, November 27, 2024

    I woke up with a sore throat. Was this from breathing through my mouth all night,  or was I sick? I know I have difficulty breathing through my left nostril.  My septum is deviated. 

   My nose got crushed when I was born. I got slammed against my mom's hip for three hours.  I came out with my nose flattened.  My dad saw it. He wasn't in the delivery room in 1940. That didn't happen.  He sat in the waiting room with the rest of the dads.  That means it had been a while since I popped out.  In my twenties, I discovered the long bone, the bridge,  was crushed, accordion-like, when my boyfriend at the time pressed on the tip and found my nose collapsed. 

    In my late sixties, I made an effort to have surgery for a deviated septum. I know I was sedated and made it to the operating table, but I doubt the doctor performed an operation. There was no pain or even discomfort after the procedure. I think the good doctor realized the deviation was more than he bargained for.  I needed to buy more Breathe Right Strips.

   I left the house at 7:30 a.m. to make it to Kia by 8 a.m. However, my electric/hybrid wasn't charging regularly—sometimes, it didn't charge at all. Therefore, I had to leave my car there for the day for diagnostic work. 

   When I checked in, Joe asked what kind of charger I had. He wanted the brand name. I didn't have a clue. He had the young man who drove me home take the two chargers I had back with him. When he unplugged the charger, we discovered the outlet on the 10-gauge extension cord had melted. 

   I called an electrician immediately.  I had this problem before with a 12 gauge 50-foot extension cord.  I thought I had solved the problem when I replaced it with a 10 gauge 25-foot cord.  The electrician, someone Darby recommended, was off-island until December. He suggested two other electricians I could call.  He also asked if the house outlet was used for anything other than charging my car.  Bong!  Yes, it had been. 

    When I started having charging problems, Yvette used a cord from that outlet to charge her car battery.  It may have been on at the same time as mine, overburdening the circuit. Boy, I'm in for it.  I've calculated the total expenses: new charging part within the car, new charging gun, new 10 gauge extension cord, and a dedicated line, and oh, yes, a rental car until this problem is resolved.  I have to check. It may be cheaper for me to Uber.  I don't leave the house every day.  I can hitch rides with friends, too. I can probably patch something together.

   I wheeled a trash barrel I loaded with greens down to Darby's. It was fully loaded yesterday, but we had high winds. With all the fronds sticking out of the barrel, I would have had a devil of a time keeping it on the road. Darby didn't respond when I called, so I left the barrel outside their gate and walked home. 

   I spent most of the day on the couch writing or napping.  I felt poorly enough that I was afraid to work on the plumbago. It would have meant working where I couldn't be seen.  If I collapsed, no one would have known where I was. I passed on that activity. In fact, I didn't feel up to doing any gardening.

   I called Kia around  1 pm, asking when they thought they would be through so I could pick up my car.   Joe said he would send someone up to pick me up shortly.  I heard nothing by 2 p.m. I had an appointment at 3 pm.  I called again, asking for his plans. The whole exchange would take roughly an hour and a half. I wouldn't make it home in time. I asked Joe if someone was coming and if I should change my appointment time. I changed fourth grade GV's appointment to 3:30.  The shuttle wasn't at my door by 2:30.  I called Joe.

   This wasn't going to work. Could I leave my car there?  Didn't I need it? I wasn't planning to go anywhere till Sunday, but friends would help me out.  Given the state of my electric outlet, I didn't think I could charge my car here anyway.  I would need a new extension cord and possibly a new charger gun. Oh, boy, was I in for it.  Hopefully, when this is all over, I will be in better shape than I have been.

   I do have good news. The new, improved solar system is rocking. I get 97% from solar, and on an overcast day, I get 79%. We have enough energy to run a small factory.

   Kia will hold my car until the situation is clear.  The shop has to run it through corporate,  some technological procedure that won't be available until Friday or Monday.

   I met with fourth-grade GV at 3:30.  I identified serious problems with phonemic awareness in our last session.  He had the weakest understanding of the relationship between the speech sounds, the phonemes, and the letters that represent them.  I chose a very easy selection, the first story from the Carpenter series about Sassy the Cat.  "There was a cat. The cat was Sassy the cat. Sassy was black and very fat." As you can see, I mean very easy.  The objective was learning about the sound system, not learning the words. He could read them all with ease.

   GV had the same problem LG had had.  He was confused when he saw different letters representing the same sound (ck in black and c as in cat) and one letter representing two different sounds ( the a representing the relaxed u or schwa as in was and the short /a/ as in cat and black.)  Traditional phonics shows students phonics rules they can apply. The problem is they don't apply to vowel sounds in unstressed syllables.  The Orton-Gillingham program is the only phonics program that addresses the issue.  Students who have problems are thrown by the variations.  The program I use introduces the contradictions up front and shows students how to deal with them and how much fun it is to figure out the system.  I've been dealing with those contradictions for thirty years.  I learn something new regularly.  It's thrilling.