Great things about being blind. Moving my stuff.

We are in a room together.
I have placed my bag, coat, etc on a chair or table.  Say we are in a meeting or workshop.
Maybe you have to rearrange the room.  Put tables up or take them down.  You move my bag.  Place it somewhere else.
Perhaps we all go for lunch.  I am alone in the room looking for my jacket and bag.
A blind person needs to remember where they put their things in a room.
My coat is on the chair nearest the door.  My bag is on a chair with arms in front of a round table.
And so, if you move them, I may search over every square inch of the room.  Literally,  for you, you can do this easily.  Scan the room with your eyes.
For me, I need to touch everything.
Now, my guide dogs have been and are pretty good at finding our stuff.  There are often kibbles in my bag or a water bowl which helps.
But please, if you need to move my stuff, can you tell me where you moved it to?  Thank you.

Great things about being blind. The hand shake.

Now, when you meet a blind person, do you shake hands?  And how?  This is often a comical situation.  I meet someone, I put out my hand.  They see it.  They put out their hand.  In the mean time, I don't feel their hand so I withdraw mine.  They withdraw theirs.  Maybe I hear something that indicates this.  A rattle of some jewelry.  The hand hitting the leg.  So, I put my hand out again. Etc.
So, you can take my outstretched hand, or say that you are giving me your hand.  Or we can have fun wiwth this hand shake game.  As always, talk naturally but verbalize as much as is necessary so that we understand each other.

Great things about being blind, Entering and leaving a room.

So, you enter a room where I am.  Unless it is very quiet and I heard you open the door or walk in, I might not know that you came in, who you are, where you are in the room.  So, when you enter a room and if you know I am there and am blind, say something.  You could just say something natural like hello.  If I know your voice, you don't need to say who you are.  I'll ask if I don't remember.  If we've never met, it would be helpful if you say who you are and if anyone is with you.  And, if you  have to leave our conversation to go somewhere else within a crowded room, could you tell me first?  I've had many conversations with walls, posts, or other objects when I thought someone was still standing there talking to me.

Great things about being blind. Guiding a blind person and their guide dog.

Now, you ask me if I need help, I say yes.  I have a guide dog with me.  What do you do?  Well, you don't call the dog and give her directions.  You don't grab the dog's leash.  You ask me how you can help.  Perhaps, I will say that we can follow you.  You will walk ahead and keep talking to me.  You will give me and not the dog directions.  Perhaps, especially if we are carrying on a conversation, I might say that I will take your arm and have you guide me.  At this point, I drop the dog's harness handle and she is no longer working.  You are the guide.  Tomorrow more etiquette tips.  HOpe they are helpful.

great things about being blind. Irresistably sweet blog award.

My friend Lisa writes a blog called fifty good deeds.
It is a wonderful blog at
50gooddeeds.wordpress.com
She passed along to me the irresistably sweet blog award.
We don't mean sicky sweet or soppy sweet or cute cute cute sweet.
We mean, nice, fun, that kind of sweet.
I need to pass it along to others and will pull those blogs together soon.
But, for now, I will just say thanks to Lisa for reading and reccommending my blog to others.
Thanks to guide dogs for the blind.
http://www.guidedogs.com/
for connecting my blog to theirs.
Thanks to all readers new friends and old for their support and their omments.
You all inspire me.

I thought it might be tough to keep writing every day but it isn't.
It's fun.
And gives me great story material too.
For the blog award, I must tell you seven things about myself.
So, here goes.
1.  I love to read and write and tell stories.
2.  I am a former paralympic athlete.
3.  I love being with people but also love time to myself.
4.  I love dark chocolate.
5.  I love delivering workshops and disability awareness presentations.
6.  I love being physically active and outside.
7.  I am a lover of learning new things.
Kind of boring I know but hey best I could do.
One great thing about being blind is writing this blog.
Thank you all.

Great things about being blind. Are you reading?

Yesterday, June 10, would have been the birthday of my grandfather on my mom's side.  He was a wonderful man who was full of life and energy.
He liked to build things.
He tried to teach me to hammer nails and I wasn't too good at it at first.
He loved fishing.  He took me out fishing a few times.
The first time, he told me I had to be quiet in the boat so as not to scare the fish.
Anyone who knows me, knows that not talking is not at all easy!
I found that fishing trip quite boring.
He loved to garden and to talk with people.
He managed a grocery store all of his life.
I miss him still.
In honour of him, I tell this story.
I've said before that a great thing about being blind is being able to read in bed an night with the lights off.
When I babysat kids, I could read to them with their lights off.
Made me a popular babysitter.
they would tell other babysitters to turn the lights off and read them a book.
One time, I was staying with my grandparents at their cottage.
At night, I went and climbed into bed.
My grandfather came and knocked.
The conversation went like this.
"Are you okay Kim?"
"Yes thanks papa."
"What are you doing?"
"Oh just reading."
"Do you want me to come in and turn the light on?"
"No thanks."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes I don't need the light."
Then a big laugh.
He had forgotten I was blind.
I always like it when people forget that.
It means that they think of me as a person who is blind and not just a blind woman.

Great things about being blind. Sounds of chilhood

I spent a little time this week at the cottage we have had since I was not even born.  For several years recently, my mom had been renting it out but a couple of years ago she took it back and now we have it again.  Going there is so wonderful and peaceful.  The sounds are so familiar.  The snap of the closing screen door.  The squirrels chattering.  The crows.  The other birds.  Cardinals and jays and some I don't know.  The smell is the same.  The feel of the floor boards under foot in the morning cool and solid.  Walking through the grass.  The slope of the hill underfoot.  The gravel driveway.  It all comes back to me.  It's still a little cool for swimming so I didn't go in even though it was extremely hot here.  Growing up there, we had a pet black lab mix.  And this week, another little black lab was there with me.  The sounds are so rich there.  So familiar.  So full of variety and nature.  A great place to write and recharge my batteries.

Great things about being blind. Which dog is best?

Over the past couple of days, two people, both total strangers, talked about my guide dogs.  They have both seen my last two guides in action.  Tulia (my current guide who is a tiny black lab) and Gia (my retired golden retriever guide who lived with us after her retirement last fall until  she died of cancer this past winter).
One woman came up to us on the street.  There was a lot of construction.  It was hot.  Tulia was having some difficulty figuring out the way.  So was I.
Tulia does not always like strange surfaces under foot and was hesitant to cross this surface of bricks and go past the machines.
I had stopped to listen and figure things out.
This woman came up and said, "Your new dog isn't very good.  Not as good as your old one is it?"
I was incensed.
I hate when people ask me to compare guides.
All of my guides have been different and similar in some ways.
It is like people comparing kids.
Besides, it was a complex siutation and I was trying to figure it out too.
I said very nastily to her that all of my guides have been wonderful.  They've all had quirks and personalities and which of us people also hasn't made a mistake or had a rough day?
She thought about it and said, "I never thought of that.  I just thought they were perfect all of the time."
I said, "They're dogs.  They're not robots.  NOne of us is perfect."
"That's true," she said, and then she said,  "I like goldens better than labs.  YOur other dog was so beautiful but I guess this one is good too."
Okay!  Now we get to the bottom of it.  She prefers long golden fur.
The next day, Tulia was guiding me through a crowded local building.  She slowed down, was very careful, and found the door outside without hesitation.
A man came up and said, "That dog is so much smarter than you're other one isn't she?"
"No." I said and then asked if he had a lab preference.
Turns out he did.
I gave him the same speech I gave her.
He seemed happy to converse about it.
He too thoughts guides were always perfect.
I smiled as we left the building.
I'm so glad to have met and worked with these four wonderful doggy souls who each give me so much and teach me a lot.
Each one has been different and unique with strengths and weaknesses and it has been and continues to be a pleasure getting to figure these out and work together.

Great things about being blind. More ice cream adventures.

Writing about ice cream adventures with my guides, reminded me of my first dog Shana.  shana was a family pet that we got when I was about 5.  she was a lab mix.  she was black and felt mostly like a lab.  she was a wonderful dog.  she gave me my love of dogs and help me move towards getting a dog in many ways.  We didn't take her to obedience.  I guess they had it then.  We also let her have some of our food.  She ran loose at our cottage.  One thing we used to do was to give her the empty ice cream cartons to clean out.  I would not do this now with my guides.  She loved to do this.  One of my most favourite sounds as a kid was hearing Shana clean out the cartons.  She would get so excited and walk around the kitchen pushing the carton ahead of her, licking furiously at it.  Her whole head would be inside the carton and so she would bump into the cupboards or other furniture.  She wagged furiously all the time too.  Her tail banging against the stove which made a hollow sound.  Her tail was a wildly wagging thing and always whacked into everything loudly and with gusto.  What a great sound memory that is.

Great things about being blind. Steps towards accessible voting.

this is a federal election day in Canada.  I have voted in every election (federal, provincial, and municipal) since I was 18 and of legal voting age.  I feel voting is a responsibility and a privilege.  Voting has not always been easy for me.  The first tool I used to assist me was a template.  This is a cardboard which is placed around the ballot and has holes in it to mark where you should mark your x.  The early templates were not labeled with braille or raised numbers and they were worrying in that ballots could slide around in them.  Newer models like the one I used in the advanced poll the other day are much better but still not perfect.  Last fall, when I voted in the municipal election, they had a talking voting machine.  this was amazing.  For the first time, I could vote completely independently.  The ballot was slid into the machine, I put headphones on, blacked out the screen, and the machine talked to me and as I arrowed through my options, read the names and confirmed my selections before printing the ballot.  The other day when I voted federally, the official had to come in and read the list of names.  I have been asking for years for a brailled list of names at least to go along with the template, but this has not happened yet.  I've heard that the provincial election in the fall will include talking voting terminals as well.  Hopefully, the time will come soon when I can vote completely independently in all elections all of the time.  I am optimistic.  Things are moving forward.  We just need to keep educating and advocating.