Questions and answers

I received an email from a friend, Kelli, who commented about my blog and had a few questions for me. I'll answer those questions here as I'm sure you will find that they pertain to my blog.

First question, "How do I operate the oven?" Well the controls all have Braille labels next to them and I try to read them, but really have memorized which controls are where. To regulate the temperature the oven always starts at 350 and every time you push the button it beeps and increases or decreases by 5 degrees. You have to pay at least a little attention to the beeps to know what degree your oven is at.

Next question. "Do I plan to have any adaptions in my house?" Yes. I plan on labeling some things in Braille, especially in the kitchen. I already have puffy, brightly colored stickers on the microwave and stove. Chris marked the washer and dryer too, with markings to help me know the controls on those appliances. Having the Braille labels will help me remember the Braille code and reinforce what I have learned at the center.

Last question. "To read emails, is there a computer audio function that reads it aloud or how does that work?" Yes, there is a function, both at home and the center. Those programs are called screen readers. I use a Mac at home and there is a program called VoiceOver that reads the text on the screen. I also use Zoom which magnifies the screen image. At school I use the PC program JAWS which is the only way I can read email or for that matter do anything at all on the computer. Listening to the computer is much quicker than reading magnified text. The larger the text the slower you read.

Both programs, JAWS and VoiceOver are nice. JAWS is more powerful, but not by too much anymore, and one important thing to remember, VoiceOver comes FREE with the Mac. JAWS costs about a thousand bucks.

Thanks Kelli for the email and continue to have fun working in Colorado. Since I was the one usually falling off my bike, it's much safer having one of my friends piloting the tandem than me riding solo.

More later.

Graduation

Hello again from Des Moines. After two days of rain it looks like the rain is finally over. Today will be my last day here for two weeks, as we will be having our summer break/vacation. It's a sad day for me as one of my good buddies has completed his stay here at the center. Jim is graduating today and will return home.

He was my walking buddy and we did a lot of other things together. Along with another buddy, Terry, we would go out to eat breakfast and dinner together. At night we would all sit down and talk about the day's events. They would drink coffee and I would drink a diet pop. I will truly miss my buddy Jim.

Along with Jim there were two other students leaving as well. RJ graduated and John will take off to attend college in Illinois.

More later.

I'm on!

Well, I'm writing this from my monitorless computer at the center. I usually talk to Chris on the phone, dictating my blog to her, or wait until I get home and enter a blog from my own desk top. Hopefully I'll be able to add to my blog at a more regular pace.

The editing process is a bit more difficult for me here than it is at home, so bear with me.

I've had a pretty good week with travel and Braille. Those two classes were giving me fits the past couple of weeks. I was getting more than a little bummed out.

I was getting no where in Braille. I was not feeling the dots very well. The teacher gave me a new workbook which would be similar to reading a large type reading book. The spaces are a bit larger than the normal Braille book. It makes reading the Braille much easier for me. I always could remember the dot placement but couldn't feel the dots.

In travel I was getting lost or walking off the sidewalk. Yesterday I traveled around the court house without an incident. The last time a deputy sherif stopped me twice and asked me if I needed help. I told him that I was in a class and could get back alright. He didn't want me to walk back. I finally had to take off my shades to convince him that I could make it back on my own.
More later.

"Shaft"

My white cane is a very important tool to the blind. After thinking about it, I think a cane is the most important aid that a blind person has. Mine is so tender to my heart that I gave it a name. Shaft goes with me all over Des Moines and while I'm home too. It is there when I wake up and there when I go to bed. My wife thought it would be fun to have a contest to name my cane. So, if anyone has any names that I could give Shaft, let me know. I'm warning you though, I am very fond of Shaft. It will have to be something that strikes a chord with me or I'm keeping the name Shaft.

I have two canes, my white cane and a fold up cane. I use the fold up cane when I take a bike ride. I fold it up, place it on my rear rack bag and use it when I get off the bike. It's really neat how it snaps to attention and very easy to fold up. It's similar to tent poles that utilize shock cords. But it is heavy. About twice as heavy as my white cane. It also gets caught in cracks in the sidewalk very easily. It's like combing your hair that has a few tangles in it and your comb gets hung up in the tangles.

My white cane, on the other hand, is lightweight and goes over cracks as smooth as a Lexus drives over bumps in the road. I must say that Shaft is my favorite. I don't even have a name for old foldy. It's a real clunker. Maybe I should trade the clunker in for one that gets better mileage.
More later.

Alicia

I want to tell you the story of one of the students at the school. Alicia is a pretty young lady whose life changed dramatically in November of 2006. She was riding in a vehicle that went off the road, rolled and ejected Alicia from the vehicle. She was sprawled on the highway, bleeding, in and out of consciousness while the ambulance was speeding to assist her and take her to the hospital.

Because of the accident and the massive internal bleeding which caused irreversible damage to her optic nerve, Alicia will never see again. Only blackness, no light or even shading will she ever experience in her lifetime. It's like having to wear our sleep shades 24/7. Even with the shades on I can see a little light and darkness.

Alicia sometimes seems a bit down, melancholic and sometimes she is happy, laughing and really funny. Alicia is quick witted and makes all around her laugh. I don't think she wants pity or sympathy, she only wants people to understand what she is going through. She is so observant that she knows when I steal french fries off her plate.

Alicia wasn't born blind, she never even wore glasses, so blindness is all very new to her. She knows what she needs to do to become more independent and it bothers her that she isn't as independent as she would like to be.

Recently she has been doing much better in traveling class, even went to a doctor's office solo. Some might not think that is too big a deal, but it was for Alicia and the other students at the school who knew about it.

One regret I have is that I was not attending the center when she had her 7 course dinner. Rosemary turkey, mashed potatoes and homemade gravy, chocolate lust cake and a few other dishes to make it 7 courses.

If I misrepresent Alicia or give any information which is incorrect I'm sure she will let me know, loud and clear.
More later.

Buddies

Let me tell you about a couple of my buddies. I've been doing a lot of things with three of the students here: Jim, Terry, and Ian. They all have different eye conditions. Jim has RP, Terry has macular degeneration, and Ian is an albino which predisposes him to visual problems. Jim and Terry are about my age and we do quite a few things together. We go out to eat, joke around, and do some walking together. Jim was a CAD (Computer Aided Design) operator until three years ago when his vision became too poor to operate the CAD. He hasn't driven for about eleven years but still gets around quite well. He has some of the poorest vision of all the students.

Likewise, Terry doesn't see very well either. He has had macular degeneration most of his life, has never driven a car, and is possibly one of the funniest persons I've ever known. He has a line about everything and is quick on his feet with his wit. Although he's had eye problems most of his life, he was a state champion pole vaulter in 1970. He ran his own business for 25 years and might start the business program that the school has. That program deals with vending machines--filling them and repairing them. That job is something our program can train people to do.

Ian just graduated from high school last spring and has some vision problems associated with his albinism. When you think of a person who is an albino, you think of no pigmentation in his genes. He has white hair and very white skin and usually wears long pants and a long-sleeved shirt along with a hat when he goes out. We go out to eat together quite frequently and we end up usually going to the same place. He ends up ordering the exact same thing from the menu every time! His vision is not as poor as my other two buddies' vision. He is planning on attending college in the future.

Hopefully after everybody's done with the school my buddies and I can still keep in touch. More later.

Business class

Three times a week we meet for a class called the Business of Blindness. The class alternates between three different times during the week. In this class we discuss all sorts of things that affects us and the people around us. We may have a speaker come in to discuss resume writing and interviewing for jobs, a counselor come in and tell the younger students what they will need to do to get ready for college or our director will discuss various items relating to blindness.

On Friday she talked about alternative ways of doing daily chores and other things. She read an article from Kenneth Jernigan telling about how different ways of doing things is fine and dandy. Just because it is different doesn't make it a bad thing to do. For instance, he wrote about how a blind man and his wife differed on brushing their teeth. She applied the paste to her toothbrush and was annoyed once when the paste fell into the sink before she got it into her mouth. He was surprised when he heard that was how she got the paste to her mouth. He simply bit off a small amount and never lost his toothpaste to the sink.

This is just an example of how a blind person can achieve almost anything, only they may have to do it in a different way than a sighted person does it. More later.

Eating Out

I've mentioned eating in the Home Ec room with the 3 course and 7 course meals, but I'd like to tell you a little bit about the times we go out to eat. A lot of the time we just walk out to the Court Ave area and eat at a couple of our favorite restaurants. Often there are just two or three of us going, and occasionally a half dozen of the students go. The two favorite places seem to be The Royal Mile and Fong's Pizza. The Royal Mile is a bar/restaurant with a very good fish and chips meal. The price is right. You can get two big pieces of battered up fish and thick french fries for about six bucks. Another place just about across the street is Fong's Pizza. It used to be a Chinese restaurant for many years, and then it changed with the times to be a pizza place. The pizzas are excellent with a variety of styles and toppings. The atmosphere at Fong's is friendly and they have vintage rock and roll playing in the background.

Occasionally we'll head out of the neighborhood by bus or in cabs to visit a couple of other favorites. One of my favorites is the La Hacienda restaurant, where I went for my first solo travel trip. The Mexican food there is excellent, the service is the best I've ever seen, and the prices there are very, very reasonable. The trips we take in the bus to the different restaurants are always fun because we get to sit and talk and laugh and tell jokes. In the future I hope to write about some new restaurants we visit and the adventures that go with them. More later.

More travel

I'm going to different places in my travel class. Tomorrow I solo to the Fareway grocery store. It's an important location because Fareway will be the grocery store that will be used most often to buy my food for cooking class.

To get there I first must walk a couple of blocks to catch the #3 bus out to Fareway. Once the bus drops me off I must navigate down a nice wide walkway to the front of the mall which houses the grocery store. While I'm walking down that nice wide walkway I cross three drive lanes. There didn't seem to be much traffic on the drive lanes when I visited the store twice last week. Mark, my instructor, accompanied me on those trips. After walking to the front of the mall I must go through two doorways to actually get into the store. Then I will walk to the service area and ask them for a token from Fareway. There will be no doubt that I made to Fareway. Of course I will have my sleep shades on. More later.