Day 7 - Oh the Places We'll Go!
Today was our church trip. All in all, it was a great experience. Another student who also has Angie’s sister Agnus came as well. It was nice to have company, especially since we are both dog users. Angie was excited, but kept it in control as we entered the building and got to our seats. Once the worship started, she wanted to see EVERYTHING that was happening. While I think this is cute, I want her to learn that I need her to lay still. She kept doing the Labrador crawl, slowly making her way to the end of the row to get a better view. She was a little fussy towards the end, but nothing unexpected. This experience was like I think it would be for new mothers taking their toddlers to church. In this case, I’m not trying to keep her entertained, but I do want to lay the foundation for good behavior in church and other similar situations.
A friend came to visit which was really nice. The Seeing Eye’s amenities are great, but it can also be fairly lonely. While you’re idle, it’s hard not to think of home. I feel a sense of anticipation of going home and walking and exploring new places I stopped going to after Denver retired. My life sort of changed after he retired. While I graduated with my masters the same time he retired, I didn’t really use the freedom to go to new places. I have thoroughly enjoyed going on outings with new friends I found through church. But at some level, the effort to go somewhere new outweighed the benefits of it. I knew I had the mobility skills to go anywhere I pleased, but I just didn’t. My thoughts wanted more structure for where things were like knowing the routes I would take, the number and type of street crossings I would make, etc. I didn’t strike out as much just to explore. With Denver, I did, at some level it was because I didn’t feel as alone when exploring. If we got lost, that was ok because we could figure it out together.
So that leads to the part of class that I don’t really enjoy. Everyone is also feeling homesick and patience does wear thin as class goes along. Since I haven’t been here as long as the others, I can more objectively observe the change in tone of voice which now holds an added layer of frustration, irritation, and annoyance. There are 22 individuals in class, including myself, which can easily make up a cross section of society. And within that society, there’s going to be individuals who are easy to interact with and others which take a bit more effort and patience. It’s quite fascinating to step back and look at it. There are a wide range of reasons people are here; some congenitally blind like myself, others lost their vision gradually as adults, and some who still have fairly clear vision but only in a small portion in their field of vision. Some are gainfully employed with fascinating careers, others are unemployed. And some individuals have blindisms that tend to only exist in the blind community such as rocking, eye poking, hand waving, and other things. Oh and by the way, the instructors go through painstaking efforts to assign seating. So you don’t choose where you sit. It’s a good social challenge to share multiple meals in a day with people you wouldn’t necessarily pick to eat with. But it is teaching me a great deal since I have become even more aware of this being the kind of life God calls me to; to be more loving, more patient, more accepting, more Christ like.
This evening’s lecture was given by the great Lukas Franck, possibly one of the godfather’s of the guide dog kingdom. The topic was clicker training and how it can be used to mark and shape behaviors we want with our dogs such as helping us identify objects like pedestrian crossing signals, stairs, trashcans, etc. Each of the lectures lasts from 1 – 2 hours with questions throughout. Lukas emphasized the power of this technique, for good and also for bad as well, so use wisely!
Tomorrow is a new day; probably a trip to the grocery store, a local hotel with a revolving door, or some other adventure for us.
A friend came to visit which was really nice. The Seeing Eye’s amenities are great, but it can also be fairly lonely. While you’re idle, it’s hard not to think of home. I feel a sense of anticipation of going home and walking and exploring new places I stopped going to after Denver retired. My life sort of changed after he retired. While I graduated with my masters the same time he retired, I didn’t really use the freedom to go to new places. I have thoroughly enjoyed going on outings with new friends I found through church. But at some level, the effort to go somewhere new outweighed the benefits of it. I knew I had the mobility skills to go anywhere I pleased, but I just didn’t. My thoughts wanted more structure for where things were like knowing the routes I would take, the number and type of street crossings I would make, etc. I didn’t strike out as much just to explore. With Denver, I did, at some level it was because I didn’t feel as alone when exploring. If we got lost, that was ok because we could figure it out together.
So that leads to the part of class that I don’t really enjoy. Everyone is also feeling homesick and patience does wear thin as class goes along. Since I haven’t been here as long as the others, I can more objectively observe the change in tone of voice which now holds an added layer of frustration, irritation, and annoyance. There are 22 individuals in class, including myself, which can easily make up a cross section of society. And within that society, there’s going to be individuals who are easy to interact with and others which take a bit more effort and patience. It’s quite fascinating to step back and look at it. There are a wide range of reasons people are here; some congenitally blind like myself, others lost their vision gradually as adults, and some who still have fairly clear vision but only in a small portion in their field of vision. Some are gainfully employed with fascinating careers, others are unemployed. And some individuals have blindisms that tend to only exist in the blind community such as rocking, eye poking, hand waving, and other things. Oh and by the way, the instructors go through painstaking efforts to assign seating. So you don’t choose where you sit. It’s a good social challenge to share multiple meals in a day with people you wouldn’t necessarily pick to eat with. But it is teaching me a great deal since I have become even more aware of this being the kind of life God calls me to; to be more loving, more patient, more accepting, more Christ like.
This evening’s lecture was given by the great Lukas Franck, possibly one of the godfather’s of the guide dog kingdom. The topic was clicker training and how it can be used to mark and shape behaviors we want with our dogs such as helping us identify objects like pedestrian crossing signals, stairs, trashcans, etc. Each of the lectures lasts from 1 – 2 hours with questions throughout. Lukas emphasized the power of this technique, for good and also for bad as well, so use wisely!
Tomorrow is a new day; probably a trip to the grocery store, a local hotel with a revolving door, or some other adventure for us.
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