Monday, Sept. 24

Up at 6:30 to get ready to go to water aerobics. The morning began a bit stormy, so I wondered if I'd have to opt out of swimming, like I did last Friday. But by the time I was ready to go, it was only drizzling a little. There was a nip in the air, though, so my fleece outfit and hoodie felt good.

At the dressing room, some ladies arrived who said eleven members showed up Friday, but were asked to vacate the pool shortly after they got in, due to lightning. One of the ladies commented that a few of the others took showers despite the thunderstorm. We agreed that during lightning storms, showers are no safer than swimming pools.

During swim time, before water aerobics started, one of the ladies talked about how destructive the army worms are, which prompted one of the other ladies to relate a story about her son, who works for the highway department.

Seems he and his crew were working on a highway about a mile south of us, and during their work, they needed to stop traffic while they completed a task. It happened that at the same time, a mass of army worms were marching across the road, just beyond the work site. Folks who were being stopped asked if the reason they were being held up was to allow the worms to cross the road safely, as if army worms are a protected species.

We all laughed, and then the first lady commented that if we see a mass of worms crossing a road, we should treat them like black ice and not slow down, since squishing a large mass of worms can cause a car to slide just as ice can.

The water in the pool this morning was heavenly warm. Twenty-one of us enjoyed the session.

As soon as I returned home, Hubbie hopped in the van to run errands, including picking up last-minute groceries for the trip. As soon as I had a couple of cups of coffee to warm up, and got ready for the day, I accompanied Mother to our house.

By now, it was 11:30, and time for Mother's lunch, so I made a batch of Ramen Noodle soup for her. She was very ready to eat, since she'd had breakfast around 6 a.m.

Hubbie and I ate as soon as he returned with a container of chicken salad, which we sampled in sandwiches.

Following lunch, I reviewed the lesson plan for today's tutoring session. Met my student at 2:30, as usual.

During the past week, the student had worked on organizing the clothing she bought to send to Venezuela to sell in her shop. One thing she did was compare her purchases with her sales receipts. In doing so, she discovered that several items were not listed on the receipts.

She feels strongly about paying the correct amount at stores, so she took all the items she bought back to the store, and asked a clerk to check the total again. It turned out that she owed for some of the items, just as she thought, and she was relieved to pay for them. Her conscious wouldn't have allowed her to do anything else, and I know how she feels, because I feel the same way. I don't want to be overcharged or undercharged. I just want to pay what I owe.

She commented that when she lived in Costa Rica, the clerk had failed to charge her for fourteen items she bought. When she took the massive number of items she'd purchased back to the store, it took four clerks to add them all up again. They told her that it was the first time anyone had ever returned items in order to pay the store more!

Today's lesson involved action verbs: loads/lifts/drops/pushes/pulls, as well as questions with "which." Which dress did you buy? The blue one. Which road are you going to take? The shore road.

She then had to convert statements to questions, using which. She did fine with sentences like: Ann is reading the English book. Which book is Ann reading? or, Sam is wearing his black coat. Which coat is Sam wearing?

But she stumbled on sentences like: They went to Green Lake State Park...which required her to change "went" to "go:" Which park did they go to? And, "I bought the blue dress," which changed to, "Which coat did you buy?"

Using a "would you mind" phrase with an "ing" verb was easier for her: "would you mind closing the door?" "would you mind opening the window?" She also had no problem with answers to "would you mind" questions: "Would you mind closing the window?" "Not at all." "Would you mind helping me?" "I'd be glad to."

She also had no problem with structure focus on "spend plus time expressions plus verb-ing: "Joan and her mother spent the day fishing." "I spent two hours studying."

We ended the session with listening comprehension, and a lesson in her workbook.

Back home, Hubbie had heated leftover lasagna, along with a dish of whole kernel corn, in the oven. Served that with cottage cheese, and slices of buttered bread.

Accompanied Mother home afterward, and then Hubbie and I spent the evening watching TV, including an episode of the British detective show, "Wallander," and the season premiere of "Dancing With the Stars."