Friends

I expected that things in my life would change when I received my first Guide Dog, but it is different than what I imagined. Parts of my life that I never dreamed would change did, and things I expected to change stayed the same. One example of this is friendship. I actually have lost friends since getting my Guide. I don’t fully understand it all but how I see it is that I started standing up for myself since Racer arrived. Some of my friends didn’t know how to accommodate that change in me. I don’t blame them because when you form a friendship you usually fall into roles and continue to carry out those roles because it is comfortable and when something changes, it can be hard to readjust. Also I retreated a bit from friends when my dog was bitten by another dog in a store shortly after he arrived here. I’m not always the best communicator so I am sure I share the blame. I don’t want to dwell on the lost friendships because I have also gained many fulfilling friendships because of Racer. Many of these great people are affiliated with Guide Dogs for the Blind (GDB). Some are people at work that have reached out to me. Some are people living right in my building but we had never connected until we started chatting about our quirky dogs. I have become friends with a lovely woman at our bus stop. It makes our bus route more interesting and fun when Racer & I exit our first bus and head around the corner to catch the second bus, and as we walk I hear a cheery voice call out, “Hey Jenny! How are you? Guess what happened to me last night?" A smile comes over my face and I know that it was totally worth it to get up at 5:30 for the millionth time and trudge out the door to face my fears and continue the routine. I love my friends!  

Cheesecake

Two of my nieces had a slumber party at my place last weekend. Racer was in heaven. He loved having all the attention from the girls. We were overly stuffed from lunch at Cheesecake Factory so the girls got their cheesecake to go and later they fished it out of the refrigerator for a snack as we watched Confessions of a Shopaholic. Racer was staring longingly at my nieces while they sat on the couch eating the sweet sugarness. He knows that I will never give in to give him a taste but he still was holding out hope for the nieces. The girls decided they had worked on the desserts long enough and were going to return it to the refrigerator when the cheesecake slipped from their hand, and luckily was salvaged, although a large dollop landed on the kitchen tile. It was right in view of Racer but he just calmly sat there watching and didn’t even make a move to sneak a taste. What a good boy! Food isn’t his weakness at all. As I’ve said before, his foibles include sniffing bushes and flowers on our path through the neighborhood. He also loves other dogs and stops to wag his tail and watch them on our route.

The girls slept in the living room with Racer while I retreated to my room. Racer usually wakes me at 6:30 on the weekends but this particular day he didn’t come find me until 7:00 am. Hooray an extra 30 minutes! That has never happened. I can’t wait until the next slumber party!   

Racer's Cigar

Racer has a cylinder blue chew toy that he enjoys positioning so that it protrudes out the side of his mouth. It looks like a cigar and he loves it so every evening at some point I say to Bob “Shall we give Racer his cigar to smoke out on the balcony?” We all three sit out on the balcony with Racer smoking his cigar and watching the neighborhood. Last night Racer saw a cute puppy walking along and he got so happy he dropped his cigar off the balcony onto the concrete below. Bob ran out the front door and down the stairs to retrieve it while Racer and I peered out the balcony railing and when Bob grabbed it he decided to throw it up to us but I didn’t think Racer could catch it. Bob tossed it up and sure enough Racer stuck his face through the bars of the railing and caught it swiftly in his mouth no problem. What a talented boy!   

Bear Lake

My family spent a couple of days at Bear Lake last week. It was fun to take Racer with us this year. The cabin was nice and had a rustic wooden swing on the porch. Racer was excited to go on an adventure and loved running back and forth in the cabin with his bone while we unpacked. In the late afternoons, he enjoyed sitting on the porch and watching passersby while I listened to an audiobook and Bob read the newspaper. Our family doesn’t get together very often so this Bear Lake tradition that my sister started last year has been a good idea. In the evenings we all congregated in front of Carolyn’s cabin around a campfire. Racer didn’t like the smoke very much but I usually sat with him away from it. The day we headed out to the lake it started raining after awhile but we had time for Racer to play in the shallow water before the rain. He had so much fun twirling and prancing and splashing. My family had never seen him act so playful. I’m so protective of Racer that I didn’t feel like I could just leave him with someone in my family while I went into the water. If I don’t have his leash in my hand I’m constantly worrying about how he is doing. He seemed to happily go along with the Bear Lake adventure but when we arrived home he jumped for joy in the living room back with all his toys and comfy bed. The first morning back to work he seemed especially exuberant to head out for the bus. Once on the bus, as we neared our stop he leapt up and ran to the bus door to exit and finish the last leg of our journey. It was so funny to see his enthusiasm for our route and I could see how much he really loves his routine. I’m so happy that he loves his work and loves guiding me. I have heard someone say that there guide dog didn’t like putting on the harness or acted like they didn’t want to do guide work. This week it seemed so clear that Racer loves his role and wants to work.          

     

Introducing Racer

Sorry I haven’t posted anything for awhile. I received my new guide dog in March and his name is Racer. He is a Yellow Labrador Retriever. People tell me he has the most expressive eyes.The kind of eyes that say, “I can get you to do anything for me!” He is my little racecar. It has been a whirlwind. I have been learning so much. We take the bus to work in the morning and he is a great guide. We have our ups and downs and are still learning each others personalities. He is very easy going. Every dog is so different they all have strengths and weaknesses. Although many guide dogs bark when they are not in harness, Racer has never barked EVER. Even when he is playing and off duty. He never tries to chew any of my belongings. He knows the toys that are his and never disrupts my stuff. He never tries to climb on my bed or furniture. He loves to follow his nose though when we are outside and he can get distracted by bushes an flowers growing along our path so I have to give him reminders that we need to catch that bus. Even though he is distracted by flowers I can’t help but think how sweet it is and I tell him he is such a romantic.

My favorite part of the day is in the evening when I know that Racer has been fed, watered, relieved, exercised, and now is just lying on his back with a toy in his mouth making little piggy snorting sounds. Sometimes when he is lying on his back with his paws in the air I take his paws in my hands and play patty cake. I also massage his paws while watching a movie. He loves to be groomed and brushed out on my balcony and it’s a big treat to have his teeth brushed with his poultry flavored toothpaste. He runs in circles around me once he catches a scent of that tube of yumminess.

Bob and I eat out a lot and Racer has perfect restaurant manners. He slides himself right under the table and quietly checks the area for a crumb or two but settles into a comfy position and is very content until it is time to go. Most of the time after the hostess has seated us, the server isn’t even aware that Racer is under the table.          

Determination

, I recently read an article written by Blair Anthony Robertson

about an inspiring guy named Hoby. I loved what Hoby said in his interview about having to work hard despite his disability. His words really resonated with me. Here is an excerpt from the article… Hoby Wedler is a rising star in the world of wine. Blind since birth, he's a phenomenon in the world of sensory science. Hoby now, on the verge of earning his chemistry doctorate, plans to have a career in the wine industry (and possibly beer and olive oil) and use his advanced degrees in his spare time.

Wedler typically has 110-hour work weeks. He operates a nonprofit, Accessible Science, which conducts three-day chemistry camps for blind and visually impaired high school students.

In 2012, he was one of 14 people recognized in a ceremony at the White House as Champions of Change for their work with inspiring people with disabilities in the STEM fields – science, technology, engineering and math.

Yet, he has a humility that resonates.

“I don’t let on that I have bad days – ever,” he said. “I’m a non-complainer because no one has to deal with my day. I have to work two or three times more hours than a sighted person. It means very little sleep, but if I said, ‘Woe is me; I need my sleep,’ I wouldn’t get anywhere.”

Beyond his determination to succeed, Wedler’s ability to taste wine and his skill at talking about it help him engage beginners and wine aficionados alike. With his young palate still identifying benchmarks and calibrating the many complexities of wine, Wedler has already impressed academics, winemakers and serious wine tasters.

Having memorized his routes in Davis as he did in his hometown, Wedler now is creating his own route to success in the Napa Valley. He knows what he wants and, it just so happens, he has been developing the appropriate skill set since childhood.

“Life is a competition. I am by no means winning, but I am competing, for lack of a better word, with sighted people who have more efficiency – blindness is merely a lack of efficiency. If you want to compete, you just have to put in the time and not give up. You have to push yourself as hard as you can, expect nothing and hope for everything.”

 

 

 

Cankle

I haven’t posted any news in awhile. I had one of those moments while staying at Snowbird where I thought, I’m having so much fun and life is so good right now I sure hope nothing bad is about to happen. Three days after arriving back home I tripped and twisted my ankle. I instantly felt faint and lightheaded. Bob had to take me to the hospital. I was so afraid that I had broken something. The huge concern was that if it was broken it would delay the date to meet my Guide Dog. How could this happen? I NEVER hurt myself falling. Sure I stumble from time to time but I always correct myself and carry on. I walk all over the crumbling old sidewalks of my neighborhood daily and never have a problem. I’m like a Billy goat on a mountain top, so sure footed. The X-ray showed that it was just a bad sprain and the prescription was R.I.C.E. (Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate). When I reached down to touch my puffy ankle all I could think of was, that isn’t an ankle it’s a cankle! About three weeks have passed and it is feeling much better. I’m expecting the hospital bill any day now and I’m sure I will feel faint again once I open that piece of mail.