A couple of funnies

During the snowstorm we went traveling with a substitute travel teacher. Her name is Tai, (it rhymes with sky), because my regular travel teacher was out for a personal day. As a fellow student and I were walking during travel class we noticed Tai had fallen back some distance from us. Tai is completely blind but is an excellent traveler, so it was unusual for her to drop back. Melissa and I turned around and shouted back to her. We couldn't hear her reply so we walked toward her. "My eye fell out!" she shouted. One of Tai's prosthetic eyes had fallen out. She was terribly concerned as the eyes cost a few thousand bucks. We lifted up our shades to look for the blue eye but had no success in locating the eye. Suddenly Tai yelled, "Here it is!". The eye had landed in the sleeve of her coat. We all had a big laugh after she finally put the eye back in.

Another funny thing happened to me in cooking class. I was making a three course lunch and was preparing to frost my lemon cake with lemon frosting. I had two different courses on the counter, and each were in identical pans. Along with the cake I also had a green bean casserole. Sitting side by side I started frosting what I thought was the lemon cake. As I was putting the frosting on, it seemed like the cake was crumbling off every time I tried to frost it. Well, if you've ever tried to frost a green bean casserole the fried onions on top will adhere quite nicely to the frosting. Ugh!

All through the meal I was asked what the lemon taste was in the green bean casserole. I finally told them my mishap with the frosting. It didn't seem to bother my guests as there was little of the casserole left after the lunch.
More later.

My shop project is going to be a big surprise for my wife. I think I’ve told almost all my friends what the finished project will be so, if you know, please keep it from my Presh.

I have learned a lot about woodworking, the power tools, (and their names), and terms that I never heard before. Considering the environment, my shop teacher, Ric, has been extremely patient and helpful.

One thing I found out while doing this project with my sleep shades on is that I have become quite intimate or attached to my work. I have become quite the sander. Without ever seeing my work I must touch and feel the wood to see if it is in the condition I want it to be. While sanding I keep feeling with my fingers to see if it is smooth enough. Without vision I can’t say, “ That looks fine”, or “That’s good enough”. Touch seems to be a much more intimate sense than vision, especially when the only sense you are using to assess your work is touch.

I have used tools such as a table saw, miter saw, mortiser, planer and jointer.

Again, thanks Ric for being a good guy.

Alumni Banquet

The center has just celebrated its 50th anniversary. Fifth years ago, on November 1, 1959, the Adult Orientation Center took up residence in the YMCA building at the corner of 4th and Keo in Des Moines. To celebrate this historic anniversary we held a fabulous banquet and dance.

About 200 alumni, staff, and friends of the center gathered in the assembly room to rehash old times, eat a delicious meal, and listen to an array of speakers.

The people began to arrive an hour before the 5:00 starting time of the banquet. Everyone had a smile on their face or were listening intently to stories about the center that usually ended up with a hardy laugh.

The alumni came from all over the state and a several others from as far away as San Diego and Hawaii.

As we entered the Assembly Hall we were greeted with the fine music of pianist Curtis Chong. Our table contained a basket full of rolls. We quickly devoured them. After a few minutes our server brought us a bowl of dirty shrimp soup. This was one of my favorite courses of the meal. The soup was followed by a plate of pork tenderloin stuffed with a sausage and seasoning mix. We also had some mixed vegetables and a wild rice dish with mushrooms and celery. For dessert we had a slice of cheesecake with a berry compote drizzled on top. All of the food was prepared by the current students at the center. I was proud of our culinary skills! After dinner we settled in for some tributes, awards, and a student graduation.

Jim Witte, a former manager of the center, talked about the early days of the center. It was very interesting to hear about Jim’s time with Ken Jernigan, the founder of the orientation center.

After Jim Witte was finished speaking Karen Keninger, the director of the Department For The Blind, spoke about the experiences she had growing up blind. I enjoyed hearing Karen’s take on the half full, half empty glass metaphor. She explained that you may have a glass half full or half empty but the important thing is whether you are pouring into the glass or taking from the glass.

A good buddy of mine graduated from the Orientation Center at the banquet. Terry was given his certificate in the frame he had made in shop class. I will truly miss Terry.

After the banquet we walked about one block to the Convention Center for a dance in honor of the anniversary. There we had beverages to drink and watched the center’s instructors let their hair down. Boy, do they know how to party! It was a night full of memories and fun that I will never forget. More later.

Observations

Here are some observations I’ve made at the center in the last four months.

When I’m out with the gang and there is a sign for a restaurant or some other business I can’t ask the students who are with me, “Hey, what’s that sign say?” That’s the same with t-shirts with logos on as well. If the logo is big enough I sometime can read them, but usually I can’t unless I get real close and then the person thinks what the hell are you doing?

Once there were four of us watching TV and a funny scene flashed on the screen. I looked at the person on my right and asked what was the scene about and he looked to the person on his right, and that person was clueless. Then I asked the person on my left and she just shrugged. No one picked it up. I think we all laughed at the scene even though we didn’t know what it was all about.

Sometimes you can tell who a person is by the way they are tapping with their cane. Some tap, tap and others brush the floor more than tap. Whatever their method it should be in the shape of an arc. The cane should go out three or four inches wider than your shoulders and about an inch off the ground.

Voices are pretty individualized. Most people have a unique voice, probably like fingerprints, although some sound pretty similar to each other.
More later.

Ledges part II

After my third dismissal of offered help I stretched to the second to the last block. I started to lean toward the road, over compensated too much to the right and toward the runoff pool and s*@*, I was falling into the water! My left leg stayed on the edge of the road but the rest of me fell to the pool of water. I landed on my rear, with the left leg following in about 3 feet of water. Water was up to my neck. It took my breath away. After I had regained my footing and stood up I reached for a couple of helping hands. No way could they pull my sodden body and clothes, which included blue jeans and a hooded sweatshirt, out from the pool. I finally climbed out on the road after two or three unsuccessful attempts to free myself from the freezing water.

I was a bit embarrassed, but mostly angry at myself for not accepting the help from my teacher. We still had about a mile of walking ahead of us until we reached the shelter we were going to eat lunch at. When we finally got there my knee started to swell and hurt. I did not have to go to the doctor for my knee, and it is doing much better.

Nest time a teacher offers me some help, I'm sure I will take it.

Trip to Ledges State Park

On Tuesday the school went to Ledges State Park near Boone, Iowa. It was supposed to be a walk in the park but ended in a soggy mess.

Once a month the school plans a group activity for the students and staff. For the month of September a field trip was scheduled for Ledges State Park. We were to walk some trails, eat a picnic lunch and play some group games.

It all started out fine with a beautiful walk on a couple of trails. We were all sleep-shaded (wearing our blindfolds) as we navigated along rocky trails that traversed up and down and around the park. Our canes came in very handy on the stone steps. The steps had varying degrees of width and steepness.

After walking about one hour we came across a rocky ledge called table rock. At that time our trail leader (who was totally blind) told us we could take off our shades. It was a beautiful view with breath taking descent to the road down below us.

I had heard a few cars on the park road and also heard the cars splashing through some unseen water.

After trekking down to the road I could hear running water across the road. When our group encountered the water we had two options: walk through the two inch water flowing across the road or try to walk along the edge, half skipping and half jumping from one cement block to another block. These blocks were about 18 to 24 inches long and about 8 inches wide. The distance between each cement block was approximately two feet from each other.

While being sleep-shaded the step from one block to the other block was anything but easy. If you slipped off one of the blocks you had two directions you could fall. One way was back on the road and step into the two inch water. The other direction was to plop into three feet of water that flowed to the river. You can probably guess which direction I took.

I had already crossed over one set of blocks without too much trouble. It was very exhilarating stretching from one block to the other. After successfully finishing the challenge, I gave a war cry and thought the water crossings were over. Not so. Up came the second water crossing.

It seemed to be a little deeper on the road as the cars made bigger splashes. Well, I knew if I chose the walk on the road I’d have wet feet for the rest of the day and I had just completed my first trek over the water.

I started over the water with a seemingly longer stretch than my first block bridge I conquered. Mark, my travel instructor, was there and asked me if I needed a hand. Three times he asked and three times I declined his offer. Sort of like Peter did in the Bible.

To be continued…

Funnel and Sieve

A couple of weeks ago two other students, our supervisor Dave, and I traveled to Kansas City to visit Missouri's version of our orientation center. It's called Alphapointe. It is much different than ours. It's different physically and philosophically.

The building itself is only seven years old, and still smells new, where ours is ... well, a hell of a lot older. Alphapointe is all on one floor, where our orientation center has six floors, seven if you count the basement and we do use the basement. Alphapointe is located out in what seemed to me to be an office park-like area. Away from the city. In Des Moines we're located smack dab in the middle of the city.

In my opinion the most important difference is between the philosophies of each orientation center. While Alphapointe has an environment of a sheltered workshop where workers assemble writing pens for the federal government and manufacture plastic bottles for VA hospitals, it seems like they funnel their clients in that direction. It seems to me that they teach their clients specific skills to reach their goal of employing them.

The goal at the Iowa center, in contrast to Alphapointe, is to give the students tools they need to be competitive and independent in their daily living. Don't get me wrong, we work hard at the center and we earn the tools we have when we leave the school. Since we have the tools to cope in the day to day activities it takes to secure a job and hold onto any career that we choose, I believe we have a stronger center than other states do.

As I've noted in this writing the Kansas City center tries to funnel their students toward a certain type of employment. The Iowa center is like a sieve, students venturing out to do whatever career they are interested in. Now, everyone isn't successful, but everyone has the green light to try out what they are interested in. I think we are pretty capable of doing anything, except drive a cab, or fly a plane, although with the computers on board, piloting a plane may be more realistic than driving a car.

In short, we are given the tools to achieve whatever we want to achieve. It's like teaching a person to fish, not just feeding him the fish.