GDB Alumni Reunion 2017

Here are a couple of memories from when I attended the GDB Alumni reunion in Nov 2017. This was the first reunion I have attended and it was fabulous. SO MANY LABS AND GOLDENS. One evening everyone was mingling in the lobby and I was on a couch and I said that I never get to be around goldens so I wanted to cuddle one and Marianne said that I should ask a puppy raiser named  Mary if I could say “hello” to her golden in training Theodore. They were standing nearby so I asked Mary and she said, “Sure.” She is telling me about Theo’s progress and how well behaved he is turning out to be and I started talking to him and having a great time. I stopped petting and leaned back into my seat and started talking to Marianne about goldens and then I leaned forward and continued petting Theo, I leaned in really close to his fluffy face and said to him that I thought he was going to make a great guide dog someday. I started feeling all nostalgic about this pup’s future ahead of him. Suddenly Marianne says, “Did you know you are talking to Racer right now? Theo left a while ago.” We both busted up laughing because Racer was just sitting there all cute probably wanting to say, what do you mean I’m going to make a great guide someday?? Aren’t I already?!!

Racer loved getting to spend time with his puppy raisers. Marianne came with me to the reunion and we shared a room. Racer usually sits at my feet. Basically where his human is, there Racer is. One morning Marianne was at the mirror doing her hair and I was sitting on the edge of the bed putting on shoes and Racer couldn’t decide which of his humans he wanted to be near so he picked a spot on the hotel room floor that was exactly half way between us. It was approximated 6 feet one direction to Marianne and 6 feet the other direction to where I was on the bed. He just sprawled out right there and he probably assumed he would be able to keep tabs on both of us that way.

Shannon also helped raise Racer. Often a puppy will spend time at two different homes and that way they get to experience a lot of different scenarios and home environments. When puppy raisers team up like that then they can share the time and responsibilities needed to teach the pup and it works out well. For example one of the raisers might have young children so the pup gets to experience that and the other raiser might have cats and birds. One of the families might live in an apartment and the other family might live in a home with a pool in the back. One raiser might work in an office so the pup will go with them to work and the other co-raiser will be a stay at home mom and will be taking the pup to soccer practice and piano recitals. The idea is that these pups will grow up being all the more flexible if they experience a few different environments. After the reunion we got to go to breakfast with Shannon and visit with her at her home. Racer was so excited to see her and her familiar home and he remembered everything. It was great to see how excited he gets when he is reunited with one of his raisers. Shannon hadn’t seen Racer and me (besides photos) since the graduation in 2015. It was a great reunion. Racer got to pal around with Kahuna a nine month old yellow lab that Shannon is raising. Racer even tried to crawl in Kahuna’s crate, formerly known as Racer’s crate.

One last funny thing that happened was that Marianne had brought a fleece mat/bed for Racer to use at the hotel. The last night we had checked out of the hotel and were staying at Marianne’s new house. It was early evening and we were all visiting and relaxing with her family and Marianne looks over and she sees Racer who had gotten tired and didn’t know where he should go to sleep in this place   so he had found the mat that he slept on at the hotel but it was folded in half and leaning in a corner by the door. Racer had tried his best to climb up onto it and was trying to sleep. It was quite hilarious and from what I understand he was all off balance and teetering trying to stay on it, but what a good boy for finding a bed. We all started using the line, “nobody puts baby in a corner!”

I am really grateful for all the fun people I have met through GDB. Marianne and Shannon and other puppy raisers around the country, and all the trainers and instructors, and of course all the guide dog handlers and the pups themselves. It is a really great community.

The Racer

On the way to the bus stop a house on the corner in my neighborhood must have gotten new sprinklers because out of the blue they are on every morning now and shooting 6 feet in the air. Well ok, more like 5 feet 5 inches because I’m getting drenched from head to toe when I walk by in the morning. I could handle this ok if it weren’t for my dog running to get past them. Instead of Racer the marathoner he becomes Racer the 50 yard dasher! Racer does not like sprinklers. Oh and did I mention that these sprinklers are also on the corner so it’s right at a curb that we should be stopping at and while we are stopped I am supposed to then leisurely tell my dog that it is ok to proceed forward. Well my dog bolts past the downpour and never stops for the curb because how can he think about an insignificant thing such as a curb when he is trying to save us from a sprinkler attack. It is a residential street so there aren’t any cars around but seriously. It puts me in a precarious situation. I don’t really want to be sprinting towards a curb that I might twist my ankle on. So I guess from now on I will cross to the other side of the street before we even get to this street. It’s annoying to think that there is only 3 minutes during the day when these sprinklers are being a problem to a blind person and it is those 3 minutes that they are on. If the home owner picked any of the other 23 hours and 57 minutes to run his sprinklers it would be no problem.

 

 

“It’s what we’re all trying to do, right? Remember a time that was better. Re-create a moment of that memory as we let the crisp Coke bubble down our throats. Riding bikes on a summer day. Sitting on the curb and watching the streetlights come on. Playing in the sprinklers with a group of neighbor kids. We’re all trying to salvage a time when we dreamed beyond our reality and thought monsters were under our beds instead of peppering our family trees. We’re trying to harness those fleeting moments that turned our ordinary lives into something extraordinary. In the sepia haze of those memories, we are beautiful.” ~ Liza Palmer

 

Pet Smart

We recently went to the Pet Store to get a name tag for Racer’s Collar. The print on his old one was wearing off because we had forgotten to place the protective plastic covering on it. We stood at the machine as it was made and then we leaned over my dog to clip it onto his collar. Racer was standing very still as we hovered over him. Meanwhile a fluffy dog sneaks up and sniffs my dogs butt! Racer turns his head quickly to see who the visitor is. I imagined my dog saying, “excusez-Moi! Do you mind?” Nothing like a cold wet nose in your butt to get your attention. Before any of us could respond the dog and his human darted down an aisle. Racer I guess it was a drive by sniffing!

 

“You can never tell about a person by guessing...that's why language was invented. Otherwise, we'd all be like dogs, sniffing each other to find out where we stood.” ~Alice Hoffman   

Freudian slips or are you just blind?

When I was in my twenties and had some pretty good vision but had to start using a cane, I became friends with Kyle who had lost his sight from diabetes. He was the first person who I connected with who was totally blind and had a guide dog, well the dog was from the Seeing Eye to be exact. I would talk to Kyle about losing all of his sight and He said that when his vision was going there was a period of time when he had a tiny bit left but it just made him confused and he was relieved to just lose the sight completely. I couldn’t imagine wanting to lose whatever vision I had remaining. Honestly I feel at ease now that I am a total. I was constantly trying to figure out if I would be able to see something with this amount of light or that amount of magnification. I used to leave for work and freak out if I couldn’t find a magnifier that I needed to function. I was constantly trying to tell people what I could or couldn’t see. I had a software program that magnified my computer screen called zoom text and I would sit with my nose up to the computer. I was using Facebook then and when old status updates come up from years past I cringe because almost every post has a typo. Reading the “on this day” section of Facebook is supposed to be nostalgic but I just cringe. Today one popped up from 2009 and I had written that the weather put me in a bed mood. I am pretty sure I was trying to say bad mood. Then there was the time that I posted that I was attending a gluten free sexpo when really it was an expo. I am sure this was because of my eyesight and not Freudian slips although I have heard a joke that once you make one Freudian slip it’s just one after a mother. I was getting my under grad during this time of visual impairment so I bet I had some big typos in my assignments because spell check doesn’t get everything. I am not claiming that I never make typos now but since I use speech software on my computer I can catch misspellings better because it will read the misspelled word really strangely and my ear catches it. It’s unique to be on both sides of blindness. The times where I was clinging to a little bit of sight and now when I am totally blind. I can really see what Kyle meant and it’s ok. Even though I am saying all of this now I don’t think my earlier self would believe me on this issue. We only know our experience and I hadn’t gone totally blind then so I would never believe that I would feel this way. Also I am always thinking about the psychology of things, is this a way of coping with blindness? Here I am writing a post about how ok I am with blindness. I am open to that idea. Sure it is painful to not see photos anymore or not be able to enjoy an art show like I used to. I also can’t enjoy interior decorating shows. Is my brain telling myself that it’s not that bad to be blind so that I can handle it? Hmmm. Something to ponder.   

RIP Kyle. You went too soon. I miss hanging out with you and your sweet guide Toledo. Your kidneys and pancreas failed you and I don’t know why some people aren’t allowed to live a long life. When you receive a guide dog you are always thinking about the day when you might have to retire the dog but I don’t think people really think that it might be their dog that outlives them and their dog will be sitting so stoic, at their funeral, greeting their friends and family.         

A Walk With Racer

We went for our usual early morning walk and chose a route we haven’t done in a few weeks. We were walking along and Racer stopped which usually means there is an obstacle in our path, i.e. overgrown bush or someone’s lawn tools or anything people leave on a sidewalk. Sometimes he stops me though and it is just because he thinks it is time for a treat because he is such a good dog. It is up to me to figure out why he stopped.  I reach a hand in front of us but I couldn’t tell anything was in our way so I said, “Let’s go” and Racer immediately placed a paw on my foot. It was so super cute. I then reached up high and there was a leafy twig sticking out about to hit me in the eyes. He is such a good guide dog. He has improved so much. I don’t know if it is him that has improved or if I have improved my handling skills or if it is just that we are better in tune to each other. I love it though and these are definitely the good years right now so I want to document these great experiences so I don’t forget them.

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

Racer has a nice bed under my desk at work and another one at home in the living room. In the corner of my bedroom though we only have a huge dog pillow for a bed and it started wearing out and got a hole in it so we went to the pet store to see what we could find. We decided on a fluffy bed and the price seemed too good to pass up. When we got to the cashier though he told us it was double the price of what we had expected because it had been put on the wrong shelf. I had already fallen in love with it and just decided to buy it anyway. The cashier told us if Racer didn’t like it we could bring it back. We got home and put it in place and it seemed way too over stuffed and puffy. Racer stepped onto it and wagged his tail and settled in. Good sign! I walked into the kitchen and started the microwave. I walked back to the bed and reached down to pat Racer but he was outside the bed lying down. I placed my hand on the new bed and said, “Racer, do you like your new bed?” and he stood up and got back into it. The microwave beeped and I went back to the kitchen to check on the food. I came back into the bedroom and once again Racer was outside the bed lying on the carpet. Hmmm, I sighed. My phone rings and my boyfriend says that he thinks the bed was too expensive and we should take it back and I agreed. Racer just wasn’t taking to it. Back in the car we go, and we find a bed that is more the same style of our other beds and it is 15 dollars cheaper so we get home and try again. Racer steps onto it and wags his tail, lies down and stays there. I go into my computer room and get online. Racer usually follows me into the office but he stayed in his bed. Good sign. After about twenty minutes he walks into the computer room to check on me and I finish typing and we both walk into the bedroom. I start folding clothes and he looks at his new bed and runs toward it wagging his tail and jumps on it greeting it as if it is a long lost friend that he hasn’t seen in ages. YAY! Usually in the middle of the night Racer gets out of his bed and walks over to where I’m sleeping and rubs his nose with mine and then runs back to his bed and falls asleep. I think it is super cute but it wakes me up and sometimes I can’t fall back asleep. The first night with his new bed, he stays there all night and never wakes me up with his nose. I do however wake up once during the night because I can hear him snoring loudly. He usually isn’t a loud snorer but I laugh to myself because I think he really is taking to his new bed. Success Finally!   

Purple Booties

We went to the Utah Arts Festival last night. We put on Racer’s cute purple disposable booties to protect his paws from the hot pavement. The temps were in the 90’s. We stayed in the shade the entire time and listened to music. We bought some food and I put a bowl of water down for Racer and after he drank from it he proceeded to lie down on the water. He didn’t exactly lay his face in the bowl but he positioned himself so that his neck was in the water. When we stood up, I felt his cold dripping neck and said, “What a good idea Racer.” He had stopped panting. Last year at the Arts Festival I remember hearing lots of people walk by us and say things like, “what a cute dog.” This year it was all about the booties. “Look at his cute purple mitts” “Ahh did you see those paws!” I think about twelve people stopped and asked if they could pet him and we told them no. We got the chance to educate people about why it is best not to pet service dogs. Bob said it was just funny to see people walking by and they would be frowning and then they would suddenly see Racer and his cute purple booties and a big smile would emerge. A couple of people asked if they could take his picture. Racer definitely steals the show wherever we go. He is our little celebrity.  

Time Races By

I was thinking back to the first few days home with Racer . The morning we flew home he knew something was up because I skipped his breakfast so that he wouldn’t be needing bathroom breaks during the flight. I shouldn’t say skipped because he did get his breakfast that day only it was a little later after we were in SLC. Bob had arrived in CA in time to attend the graduation and we were now flying home all together. We landed in UT and Bob told me to wait by the baggage claim with Racer while he stepped outside to find out which shuttle to take. He starts walking away and Racer looks up at me, once he realized I wasn’t budging, he took matters into his own hands and I think he was thinking, We need to follow that man because I have no idea where we are and this girl is blind! He takes off trotting after Bob as if to say, WAIT! Don’t leave me alone with this chick! I was gripping the harness and calling out to Bob, “I guess we are following you! “Racer had only known me for 2 weeks and only known Bob for 36 hours. It only took him that long to realize who knew what was what. The next morning I was at my office bright and early ready to show Racer around the area. All the cubicles look alike of course (rat maze), and Racer took a while to learn exactly where to turn for my cubicle. He kept turning into the cubicle next to mine instead. Ron, one of my co-workers, in an effort to help Racer remember my cubicle, drew a picture of a dog and splashed some coconut oil on the drawing (he said his dog loves coconut oil). He placed the scented drawing right outside my cubicle right at Racers level. It was a cute idea! The GDB instructor and I had a good laugh.     

Tails and Tractors

Racer and I arrive at our first bus stop and he taps his nose on the pole to tell me we are there. I praise him and stand facing the street while he sits beside me. I hear the manager of the store behind us unlocking the door. The manager often says hello to us in the mornings and I hear him call out to us. I turn around to wave and he says, “I should tell you that there is a large tractor parked right in front of you where the bus usually pulls up.” He walks over to us and walks me around to the side of it and we decide that I should stand off the curb next to the tractor so that the bus will see me and stop for us. The manager says I should be safe standing under the bucket of the tractor. I thank him and he walks back to his store. I laugh to myself picturing what Racer must have been thinking when he saw the tractor sitting there and here we were just standing two feet from it just staring straight ahead and I had no idea. He was probably thinking this should be interesting…  

Adventures with Racer

Visited the City Creek Mall on Friday night with my niece and boyfriend. Waiting for the elevator, the doors open and a girl about five years old exclaims, “Oh, how cute, please come in this elevator, please, please!” The elevator is going down and we need to go up, so we say Sorry as the doors close. We continue to wait and then the elevator appears again, this time going up. The door opens and it is the same family with the pleading little girl, only this time she is cheering, YAY! We step in laughing as the cute girl makes room for Racer to sit right beside her. I love encountering polite children and she just calmly stands near my dog saying sweet little things like, what a good boy, what a sweet dog!

There is a creek running down the center of this mall, and we decide to stop and see if Racer notices the large koi fish that are swimming in the creek. My boyfriend tells me that Racer starts to curiously watch the fish; his ears perk up and the tail starts wagging.  Passersby stop to watch my dog watch the fish.

This morning we went to the park for a walk. Racer decides he needs to relieve and my boyfriend says he will do the honors. He takes the leash and steps onto the grass while I hold the harness and stay on the sidewalk. After a few minutes, I hear my boyfriend’s footsteps and my dog sidles up to me and leans into the back of my legs. I say hello, and am about to reach down to buckle the harness on when I hear a guy say, “C’mon, lets go buddy.” I suddenly realize it isn’t my boyfriend or my dog! The owner gently pulls on his leash and they walk away. Then my boyfriend walks up. Having seen the whole thing, he says, “It was a black lab.” At least I had the breed right!” Smiles ensue.  

It Makes Sense

I am in awe of my experience with blindness. I’m not saying I wouldn’t jump at the chance to get my vision back, but honestly it is interesting to me to think about the way I experienced the world when I had sight verses now when I am blind. Just thinking about the human body and how it compensates, I remember going to a lecture where the speaker said that the visual cortex is a very large part of the brain. But when a person goes blind the brain switches gears and sends more signals to the other parts of the brain which control the other senses, so they get more nutrients and blood flow and they grow larger and larger while the visual cortex actually shrinks.

It’s springtime now, and today I was on my early morning walk around the Avenues. My guide dog leads me and takes the stress out of navigating through the neighborhood so I am able to daydream and notice what my other senses are picking up. We set out at 6:30 am, and at that time there are so many birds singing. It is so loud and beautiful that it makes me imagine that I am in a rain forest. I even hear a wood pecker nearby. I start to smell fragrant flowers that are so sweet and the scent is so potent I think I must be walking through a flower shop. I want to bottle it and use it for perfume. This particular morning a very unexpected scent hits my nose, and I could tell my dog was keen to it too. The most sensational aroma of fried chicken permeated this section of the block. How strange! At this hour of the morning? Really! I don’t know who was drooling more, me or my dog!

I used to go on many walks when I was sighted, but I don’t remember experiencing any of the things that caught my interest this morning on our fabulous walk through the Avenues!

Street Corner Religion

This originally appeared on the Vision Through Words blog on Feb 10, 2016.

https://visionthroughwords.wordpress.com/2016/02/10/street-corner-religion/

 

 I was walking from the bus to my office one cold morning. I was standing at the corner of an intersection waiting for the light to change and cupping my one free hand over my nose and mouth to stay warm. A man walked up and said, “Hi doggie, what’s your name?” I said, “Please don’t talk to him because he is working.” The man then starts talking to me and says he used to be on oxygen, but then God healed him. “Oh that’s nice,” I said. My ears perk up and I realize that the light has changed, and we are so close to getting to my warm office. I give Racer the hand gesture for forward, and don’t have to say anything; he just starts leading me across. The man stays put, but I hear him calling after us, “I prayed, and prayed, and prayed.” His words just hung in the chilly air echoing on and on. It’s weird but I felt like my dog was in agreement with me that this guy was a quack. Maybe what he had to share with me was meaningful but his delivery was lacking. I couldn’t help but wonder why he had decided to share that bit of information with me. Was he indicating that his illness was similar to my blindness and he wanted to offer praying as a solution? Would he have shared this information with just anyone at the corner? I can’t help but feel that it had something to do with my disability. Multiple times I’ve been approached by other strangers who try to tell me that there are doctors who can fix my blindness. They are certain that they have read somewhere about a procedure that will help me. I assure them that I visit a specialist every year who would inform me of any cutting edge remedies. I’ve come to terms with my blindness, but apparently people I sometimes encounter have not. If I were to tell that man my true feelings about praying to be healed, I would say that it would feel too arrogant to ask God to heal me. I would rather God spend his energy on more pressing issues, like granting food to the starving children around the world. Blindness, I can deal with. Going without food, now that’s a problem.

Old Yeller

We stepped onto the elevator at the ski lodge and a young boy exclaimed, “Your dog looks just like Old Yeller!” My boyfriend says, “How do you know about Old Yeller?” The boy explains that he read it in school and saw the movie. We arrived at the 6^th floor and the doors opened. I decided I better download Old Yeller so that I could participate in future literary discussions with ten year olds. The next day is Sunday and boyfriend stops by my place and notices I’ve been crying and asks me about it. “Old Yeller,” I said. He can’t believe I’ve finished it in one afternoon. I remind him it’s only a three hour audio book. Aren’t Mormon Church services that long? Hey, and it is a Sunday after all.

 

“A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest.”
― C.S. Lewis

 

Merry Christmas, Baby

I have mixed emotions today. I am excited for the holidays to begin and today is Winter Solstice. Tonight we will visit a really old and beautiful church to hear a Jazz Winter Solstice concert. A woman just introduced me to Merry Christmas, Baby by Charles Brown. On the other hand I got word that my dear cousin Lisa is dying of brain cancer. I just hugged her a few weeks ago at her mother’s funeral. She had been taking care of her mother for quite a while and was very drained by it. Then a few days after the funeral, she started acting confused and in a matter of weeks she is diagnosed and told that it has spread to the lymph nodes. Last night I was trying to digest all of this information. I was told she was in the hospital and so I planned to order some flowers to be delivered this morning but before I could make the call to the flower shop my mom texted me and said she is going home and she only has 2 weeks to live. Lisa has such a kind heart and always thinks of others. Whenever I would post pics of my dog on facebook she was always commenting and saying such sweet things to me. There is kind of a big age difference between us so we haven’t spent a lot of time together but through all of my encounters with her it has always been clear to me that she has a caring heart and has a lot of compassion. I don’t think I’m going to be able to say goodbye to her and tell her how much I love her. The brain cancer has made her very confused and she isn’t recognizing any of her loved ones now.

Happy Friday

It seems like I have been writing about mishaps on the bus lately so I wanted to write about our bus ride today because it is an example of a great bus day. I take two different buses in the morning to get to work. I had both of my favorite bus drivers today and both buses were on time. Hardly anyone was on the bus and nobody talked to me. I leaned back against the seat and Racer gently rested his head on my foot. It was tranquil and warm. I love mornings like this on public transit. It is Friday and I’m always in a good mood on Friday. A co-worker and I went to lunch and she pointed out that a man was walking across the street holding a phone up to his ear along with a cigar and a beer—all in one hand!

 

“It's 4:58 on Friday afternoon. Do you know where your margarita is?” ~ Amy Neftzger

   

Yeah Whatever

I’m still so in love with my Racer boy. He brings me so much joy. He is my mini oxytocin factory. Sometimes our adventures on the bus are daunting but I tell myself that it is better to deal with all the action that comes with using public transit than to sit home and shrivel up on the couch. Sure it is 20 degrees outside but we get to run down the street together, yes my guide dog decided it is more fun to run ever since winter showed up.  I feel invigorated and there is that rush of relief and excitement when we arrive at work and we both know that once again we did it as a team. Whew!

This morning we boarded the bus and it was mostly empty. The bus driver that I really like greeted us and said the seat at the front was available. I got Racer tucked in under me and a few stops later a woman got on and instead of walking further to the back of the bus she sat right by me. She started talking to my dog and asked if she could pet him. I said he was working and started to explain that if I let everyone pet him he will start to seek out attention from others and that would affect his concentration with guiding me. The bus driver then chimed in and said to the woman that she should leave the seats at the front of the bus for persons with disabilities. She complied and moved away. I was so thankful to the bus driver for having my back. He has witnessed over the past few months over and over again people trying to interact with my dog. It really gets old explaining the rules every morning to a new person. I’m not a social person and especially in the morning, I’m just not in the mood. People are just curious and excited to see a nice looking dog and I know they mean well. I don’t mind  if someone makes a comment to me about my dog or asks me questions but my dog isn’t just a play thing that I take around to show off. I’m totally blind and trying to navigate through the city and I usually have butterflies in my stomach until I get to work safely.

Yesterday we had a different bus driver so I told him which stop I needed and took a seat. The bus was pretty crowded and a group of guys got on and sat across from me. One of the men started petting Racer without asking and I could tell because he was petting so vigorously that Racer’s head was bouncing all over. I told the man to please not pet him and he actually continued doing it so I reached down and placed my hand on top of his hand and said a second time to please not pet him; he is working. The man’s response was, “Yeah, whatever.”

 

“I walked to work. I paced up and down the bus looking for a seat. Next time I walk to work I’m getting on my treadmill.”
― Jarod Kintz

Racer, the Bus, and Martial Arts

We had a nice time on our road trip to St George for Thanksgiving. It is so cold though in SLC. I don’t like it. It was 20 degrees out and this morning our first bus was 18 minutes late!!! Standing there not able to make any forward progress for 18 minutes is so annoying!!! Racer’s butt even started shivering. Here I was all happy and in a good mood this morning looking forward to getting back to the routine and then the bus puts me in a bad mood.

I might be considering taking some martial arts lessons. LOL it sounds hilarious to me but I’m totally going to look into it because guess what? I’ve actually had some weird guys make me feel nervous in the morning on our bus routes. A couple of weeks ago when we got off the second bus on the way to work and were approaching State street to cross I heard a man screaming swear words coming towards us. He was alone and was just screaming to himself. I stopped and told Racer to sit and I turned my back to the man as he passed and just gripped my phone. He passed us and didn’t acknowledge us thank goodness, but he started kicking objects after he passed us and I could hear him making a racket all the way down the block. This was right before I was supposed to do my street crossing on busy State street and so we stood on the curb and I waited a couple of cycles of light changes before I could clear my head and pay attention. It’s weird because I thought SLC was pretty tame and safe but it seems like in the last ten years it has changed and downtown has some creepy people. I and going to an acupuncture appointment tomorrow and I’m going to ask them about martial arts and I think some of them are high up in it. Martial arts isn’t something I ever thought I would take an interest in, but why not? Maybe it will just give me some confidence.

It seems like I’m only talking about negative things. Honestly things are going well. Racer makes me laugh every day. One funny Racer story, there is a couple in my building that got a new puppy. Racer loves him and always gets super excited if they pass each other and he does a dance whenever he sees the puppy. We hadn’t seen the puppy for about a month but the other day outside after relieving Racer, I had the harness over my shoulder while Bob had Racer’s leash and the owner walks by with the puppy wearing a cone. He got fixed. Well Bob and I are commenting about the cone and saying that the dog looked embarrassed to be wearing it. We waved and the owner walked away and I noticed Racer was being super calm and watching the puppy walk away and I thought Racer is getting more mature. Then as soon as the puppy went around the corner and was out of sight Racer leaps into the air and does a jig and prances around jumping and leaping and licking my face. It was as if he was so happy to realize that other dogs have to wear that cone too! And it was like he was laughing at the dog behind his back. It was like he waited for the dog to leave to show his amusement. Bob and I about fell down because he ran around us squeezing our legs in the leash! Too funny!

I swear Racer has a sense of humor!

“Life is worth living as long as there's a laugh in it.”
― L.M. Montgomery

 

Autumn

Autumn is here. I recently flipped the switch from A/C over to heat on the thermostat. I purchased my first pair of fingerless gloves last night. I’m going to get out the blankets and find my packets of apple cinnamon tea that have been pushed to the back of the cupboard. It’s audio book time. There are more than a few books that have recently been released that I am looking forward to reading. I got an email saying that Kate Morton, Cheryl Strayed, Robert Galbraith, and Stephen King all have new books out. Plus I happened onto a facebook post that talked about a book by Marie Kondo discussing how to tidy up and organize, translated from Japanese. First I need to finish reading Unbroken. My boyfriend is reading that with me and we can’t put it down. Now where is my pumpkin pie scented candle?

“Autumn...the year's last, loveliest smile." ~William Cullen Bryant

     

Got It Maid

It’s probably been over two years since I decided to hire Myrna. It felt so frivolous to hire someone to clean my place but I figured it was important to me, and if I managed my money carefully, I could handle the expense. Besides I don’t have a car payment. My condo was so beautiful and new when I bought it, I didn’t want it to lose its shine. I know there are plenty of blind people who do a great job cleaning, but it just is too much for me when I work full time. I just don’t have the energy to stay on top of the dust. Sometimes when you have a disability it makes sense to spend extra money to make your life easier and more enjoyable. I know a guy who is blind and he likes to splurge on pedicures once a month. I decided to try a house cleaner and hired Myrna.  If it started to feel like a waste of money, I could just tell her I changed my mind. She cleaned the first time and I never looked back. I was delighted with how the place was transformed. My toes would sink into the plush carpet, which had felt thread bare the day before. It seemed like I was in a hotel. She even washes my windows.  Every time she does her magic I am once again singing her praises. In books and articles I’ve read there is sometimes a story of an elderly person who dies and leaves a chunk of money to the maid. It never made any sense to me until I met Myrna! My quality of life has been enriched. Now with Racer in the house it can get pretty hairy. I bought a Dyson and when I first vacuumed after my dog had been with me a few weeks, I couldn’t believe the amount of furriness that was emptied from the vacuum. It was like a mini Racer was compacted inside the Dyson. In between Myrna’s visits I venture to take out the vacuum. Racer watches me like he doesn’t trust me with the contraption. I expect him to run when he sees me with the noisy machine but instead he acts like he needs to supervise or protect me from myself. He stares as I push several levers and buttons and pull out all the extensions. Once I’m finished, I scratch my head about how to put it all back together. Accomplishment washes over me when the endeavor is over. Racer and I, feeling very relieved and worn out from our duties, trot to our respective spots in the living room and take a nap.

“I was frustrated as a child when I had to use a vacuum. It had a screaming noise and the smell of stale dog and a lack of performance.” James Dyson

 

Random Interactions

My Guide Dog and I step off the bus and walk to the corner, and line up at the bump dots that have taken the place of the curb. I hear the roar of the parallel traffic and tell my dog to cross the street. We glide along straight as an arrow and step back onto the sidewalk. Racer tells me he needs to take a leak. I slip off his harness and we step onto some grass. Right in midstream, a guy from out of nowhere says, “Can I pet your dog?” I explain that it isn’t a good time. We then continue up the block and Racer stops at the next curb and I tell him to take a right. We make the turn and a woman asks, “Do you need to cross that street?” I am a little out of patience and reply a firm, “No!” She is wondering why my dog took me right to the curb but then turned instead of crossing. She doesn’t realize that it is the way he is supposed to make his turns. I don’t have time to give this lady a lesson on guide dog training today. I’ve got to get to the office. The woman continues to follow me and she comes up along my side and says, “That building you are passing is the Immigration Building.” I guess she has taken it upon herself to become my tour guide for SLC. I take this route every day and I’m a block from my office. I tell her that I’m aware of that and I keep walking briskly, hoping she doesn’t follow me to the next intersection because I really don’t want to have to have a talkative shadow all the way to work. Apparently she disappears into thin air because I never hear of her again. Finally we cross the last street in our route and we are 35 seconds from my office when a lady approaches with a barking dog. I stop Racer and tell the woman that we will wait while she passes. I’ve decided from previous experience that it’s better to not walk through the distraction because my dog will not be focused until the other dog is gone. The woman walks by all the while yelling at her dog, “No, no, no!” Racer seemed interested but calm.

Before going blind, before getting a Guide Dog, before taking the bus and becoming more of a pedestrian I never had so many interactions before 8 AM. Sometimes these interactions are amusing, interesting, or scary. Today it was just a little annoying.