Crossing on a red light.

There are some very good things about going for a walk early on a weekend morning. the streets and sidewalks are quiet and peaceful. My guide dog and I do not have as much traffic or pedestrians to go around. We can walk and enjoy it. there is one difficulty. It is harder to read traffic lights. if there is no traffic, you do not know if the light is red or green. the audible signals help with this. The other morning, we were standing at a corner when a man crossed the empty street. He said, "You and your dog are smarter than me. I just crossed on the red light." he then waited to tell me when the light actually did turn green. Thank you !you if you are out there reading this.

Detailed directions

Someone sent me directions to their place the other day.  How wonderful they were.  They told me what bus to catch.  And from which stop.  They described which way to turn after I got off the bus.  How many streets to cross.  How to find their house using landmarks I could follow.  And, this person is sighted.  I was unbelieveably impressed.  They e-mailed them to me and I put them on my ipod and followed along as I traveled.  They were perfect.  How wonderful good, precise directions are.

Finding my way around snow obstacles

After I wrote my blog post yesterday about icy sidewalks, someone asked me about how I found my way around snow obstacles.  How I figured out what they were and got around them.  Well, it is similar to other random obstacles in my path of travel.  The garbage can, the bike, the car parked across the sidewalk, the sandwich board, the shopping cart, etc.  I never know when I am about to come upon one of these things.  If I am using a white cane, I have to touch it, figure out what it is, and think about how to get around it.  With my guide dog, if there is room, she will usually take me around these things.  If not, she has to stop and show them to me.  Then, together we figure out our strategy.  Snow is similar.  It has fallen.  It has been shoveled or not.  It is in our path of travel.  Often there are large banks at corners or at the end of driveways.  Snow is tricky though.  Some snow is soft enough that we can just plough through it.  Some is hard and boulder like so you either have to climb over or get around it.  It can make for some mountaineering adventures for sure.  More winter travel adventures tomorrow.

Hearing the weather.

I heard the weather on the radio this morning.  Extremely cold and windy.  But, I always listen to the weather too.  What do I hear that might tell me something?  People scraping off their cars (snow has fallen or ice has built up on them over night) people having trouble starting cars (it is cold!  Really cold!)  When I open the front door, I can feel cold on my face,  hear rain or snow or wind.  I can hear other things too.  People walking by.  Are they strolling along?  If they are, the weather might be balmy and beautiful.  If they are all hurrying, maybe it is freezing or sizzling or raining, snowing or windy.  If I hear peope's shoes slipping and sliding, it is probably icy.  This is the equivalent I guess to someone taking a look outside before leaving the house.

Are the dog boots really on the dog paws?

One of the most difficult things for me about having dogs wear their boots, is knowing whether or not the boots are staying on the feet.  The story I told a couple of days ago, illustrates that the first time I tried them on my first guide, I had no idea that I had to check.  I thought that once they were on, they stayed on.  This is not always the case.  If someone with full sight puts boots on their dogs, they can glance down periodically at the paws.  Or perhpas they see a boot flying off or see it in the snow.  I can do none of these things.  One way to check on the status of boots is to feel them periodically.  Maybe at each street corner?  But, this is not an easy task.  Usually, when it is cold enough for my dog to need to wear boots, it is also cold enough that I need to wear thick warm gloves or mittens.  Once they are on, I can't feel the dog boots.  So, I need to stop, remove a mitten, hurriedly touch each foot to see if the boot is still on, and then put the glove back on.  And, if the boot is gone, where is it?  Do I wait outside in the freezing cold to ask someone to look for it?  Or do I just carry on?  I can sometimes hear if a boot is missing by the sound of the dog feet.  This is harder when there are many other sounds in the environment but I have caught this by sound a few times.  I did call my co workers on my cell phone one time to ask if they could keep an eye out on the way out to their cars for boots.  Stories of dog boot adventures continue tomorrow.  Two days of dog boot wearing this week and still all four pawz boots are in place.  Yay Tulia!  Yay me!